A program for cultural transformation is being developed by ordinary Cypriots after the islandÂ’²õ politicians have proved unable to resolve the Cyprus problem, which has figured in international politics for over half a century.
731
On November 7, the Israeli High Court of Justice gave Israeli PM Ehud OlmertÂ’²õ government one week to present data to back up its assertion that its newest economic sanctions against the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip — planned electricity supply cuts in particular — will not cause “unreasonable harm” to its 1.5 million residents.
“Taliban insurgents have captured a third district in western Afghanistan, local officials said on Monday [November 5], defying Western assertions the rebels are unable to mount large military offensives”, Reuters reported that same day.
On November 4, Mikhail Saakashvili, the pro-US president of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, accused Russia of fomenting mass protests against him. SaakashviliÂ’²õ remarks were his first response to three days of protests in the capital Tbilisi in which some 100,000 people — a tenth of the cityÂ’²õ population — demanded his resignation.
On November 3, Pakistani military dictator General Pervez Musharraf initiated an intensified crackdown against all opposition to his increasingly unstable regime, with the decleration of a state of emergency. While the militaryÂ’²õ spin doctors have attempted to make a distinction between this state of emergency and martial law, it has seen thousands of people put into “preventative detention”, mobile phones jammed, all non-government broadcasting stations taken off air and the abandonment of what pretence of rule of law still remained under Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999.
Hugo! — The Hugo Chavez Story From Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution
By Bart Jones
Steerforth Press, 2007
570pags, $US30 (hb)
By Bart Jones
Steerforth Press, 2007
570pags, $US30 (hb)
Four days after the October 17-21 17th Congress of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), the country’s government body dealing with public petitions and complaints — the State Bureau for Letters and Calls (SBLC) — held a national conference to map out new strategies to step-up its role in managing China’s escalating social conflicts.
VenezuelaÂ’²õ vice-minister of foreign affairs for Asia, the Middle East and Oceania, Vladimir Villegas, lead the Venezuelan delegation to the 38th Pacific Islands Forum (PIF — formerly the South Pacific Forum) meeting in Tonga on October 16-17.
The PIF is the coordinated annual meeting, organised along a concensus model, of the heads of states of the 16 PIF members — Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Nauru, NZ, Tonga, Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Niue, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Palau, PNG, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, with New Caledonia and French Polynesia being associated members, and Tokelau, Wallis, Futuna, the Commonwealth and the Asia Development Bank having official observor status. East Timor has had “special observer” status since 2002. With 33% of the worldÂ’²õ total surface and 46% of its ocean area, the 25000 Pacific Islands comprise 17 independent nations – all of whom have a vote and representation in the United Nations (11 have achieved this status only since 1960). 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ WeeklyÂ’²õ Lara Pullin spoke with Villegas during the forum about VenezuelaÂ’²õ plans to increase cooperation, on the basis of solidarity, with the region.
General Pervez Musharraf would have not expected the political scenario that has emerged after five days of martial law, imposed on November 3. His hopes for achieving normality have been dashed, despite using the most vicious repression against the advocates (lawyers) and political activists. More unpleasant surprises are still to come for the military regime, which was used to relatively stable political control until now.
Venezuela has initiated plans to extend its solidarity-based oil deals to countries in the Asia-Pacific region, as signalled by VenezuelaÂ’²õ deputy foreign minister Vladimir Villegas, at the 38th Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders meeting in Tonga, held October 16-17.
Becoming Julia — An unflinching look at what makes a man and what makes a woman, with all stereotypes turned on their head. SBS, Saturday, November 17, 1.20am.
Message Stick: Kokoda Dreaming — The Wanga Idingii project is an early intervention
With 44.9% of the valid votes cast, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, wife of President Nestor Kirchner, won Argentina’s October 28 presidential election. Fernandez was backed by her husband’s Front for Victory (FPV) party, still formally a faction within the Peronist (nationalist-populist) Justicialist Party (PJ).
- Previous page
- Page 3
- Next page