Her long red nails jabbed and waved in the air like a conductor dramatically tracing an absurdist symphony of propaganda, cajoling, and threats.
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Laura鈥檚* mother was in Dara鈥檃 in southern Syria when the military attacked youths who had graffitied anti-government slogans in mid March.
The Iran Solidarity Network (ISN) and Australia-Asia Worker Links held a meeting on May 7 to commemorate Iranian Kurdish activist Farzad Kamangar, who was executed last year.
ISN member Afshin Nikouseresht told the meeting that Kamangar was a teacher, poet, author, human rights activist and unionist. He had campaigned around environmental issues, women's rights and poverty as well as union rights.
He was arrested in 2006 and executed in 2010, accused of being a member of an armed Kurdish group 鈥 an allegation he denied.
Campaign groups Western Downs Alliance and Six Degrees combined with a number of other activists and organisations to bring us the Rock the Gates Festival at Tara showgrounds from April 29 to May 4
Australian born WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange, who began publishing thousands of leaked US diplomatic cables last year, received the Sydney Peace Foundation鈥檚 Gold Medal at a special ceremony at the Frontline Club in London on May 10.
The award, which differs from the foundation鈥檚 annual Sydney Peace Prize, is for "exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights" and has only been awarded on three previous occasions: to the Dalai Lama in 1998, Nelson Mandela in 2000 and Japanese lay Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda in 2009.
On April 20, 2010, BP鈥檚 Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, triggering a months-long disaster that would end only after at least 4.9 million barrels of oil, and at least 1.9 million gallons of toxic chemical dispersants, had been injected into the Gulf of Mexico.
One year on, the environmental destruction, while huge, is still only in the beginning stages. Experts warn that it will take decades to see the full consequences.
For many Australians, Fairfax Media is a benign alternative to Rupert Murdoch鈥檚 right-wing media empire. Well-meaning people buy Fairfax newspapers such as the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age because they believe they present a fairer picture of the news. But just how fair is Fairfax?
An audience of more than 600 people at a forum debate in Sydney on May 10 voted by a margin of 69% to 23%, that, "All drugs should be legalised."
The forum was sponsored by Intelligence2, a project of the St James Ethics Centre. It heard arguments for and against the proposal and questions and comments from the audience.
Dr Alex Wodak, president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, and a founder of Australia's first needle exchange, argued: "As a starting point, we must recognise that the 鈥榳ar on drugs鈥 has failed. Legalisation is the only answer.
Despite years of anti-labour laws, government attacks on unions, workplace restructuring and labour 鈥渇lexibility鈥, the huge turnout for 2011 May Day celebrations shows that South Korean organised labour is still a force to be reckoned with.
On May 1, huge numbers of workers took to the streets for May Day protests across Seoul. Police estimated the crowd at more than 58,000 鈥 making it the largest 2011 May Day rally in Asia.
The main demands of the rally were for better workplace security and an end to the casualisation of labour.
In the past few decades, Christian and Muslim theologies have been misinterpreted and used tactically against Middle Eastern dictatorships with no success.
For instance, former US president George W Bush justified the 鈥渨ar on terror鈥 as a fight against an 鈥渁xis of evil鈥 and called for a new Crusade to liberate the people of the Middle East.
This use of Christian theological concepts to justify the war in the Middle East requires a lot of spin.
Every once in a while a book comes along that changes a mass audience's view of the world. Naomi Klein鈥檚 2000 book No Logo, which deconstructed consumer culture, was one. Treasure Islands, a revealing expose of tax havens written by financial journalist Nicholas Shaxson, is equally groundbreaking.
In a joint statement with Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on May 7, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced an agreement had been reached to swap 800 future 鈥渋rregular maritime arrivals鈥 from Australia with 4000 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recognised refugees from Malaysia over the next four years.
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