Further reading compiled by staff and subscribers
Australia
‘Striking Colrain workers urgently request support for their dispute after a manager drove through the picket line this morning badly injuring one worker.’ Melbourne Indymedia
SEVEN Perth children whose fathers face deportation are begging Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone to let their fathers stay in Australia. Sunday Times
‘Five people have been arrested at Pine Gap in connection with an attempted inspection of the secret US run site. The inspection was organised by Christians Against All Terrorism to highlight the important role played by the base in the on going war in Iraq.’ Melbourne Indymedia
Pakistan
Still reeling from the devastating earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, miserable survivors huddle in crowded quarters, preparing for the onset of a Himalayan winter. In some Kashmiri villages, a new calamity is unfolding, with nearly half of them suffering skin diseases, respiratory problems or other cold-related illnesses, Quake victims face second wave of death in the snow By Jan McGirkm South-east Asia Correspondent, Independent Online
‘Samina Wali is three months pregnant and desperate for an abortion. One look at her living conditions and it is easy to see why she would consider such a taboo action in an area of Pakistan known as the Jihadi belt. Her home and its contents have been reduced to a pile of rubble.’ Women of the quake by Julia Stuart, Independent Online
Katrina
‘AS WE REACH THE 90-DAY mark since Katrina hit, it’s time we ended our national state of denial. Turns out House Speaker Dennis Hastert had it right all along, though his reasons were flawed. We should call it quits in New Orleans not because the city can’t be made relatively safe from hurricanes. It can be. And not because to do so is more trouble than it’s worth. It’s not. But because the Bush Administration has already given New Orleans a quiet kiss of death now that the story has run its news cycle.’ Goodbye New Orleans by Mike Tidwell, Z Net
Iraq
We are concerned that the Department of Defense has been under-reporting casualties in Iraq by only reporting non-fatal casualties incurred in combat. We write today to request that you provide the American people with a full accounting of the American casualties in Iraq since the March 19, 2003 invasion, including a full accounting of the fatalities, the wounded, those who have contracted illnesses during their time overseas, and those suffering from mental afflictions as a result of their service in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.’ Letter to Bush from seven House Democrats. DemocracyRising.us
The center is not part of a news organization, but a military operation, and those writers and producers are soldiers. The 1,200-strong psychological operations unit based at Fort Bragg turns out what its officers call "truthful messages" to support the United States government’s objectives, though its commander acknowledges that those stories are one-sided and their American sponsorship is hidden.’ Military’s Information War Is Vast and Often Secretive By JEFF GERTH, New York Times
In Iraq, security trumps women’s rights. Ahead of the Dec. 15 vote, some Iraqi women say safety is a bigger issue than political participation. By Howard LaFranchi The Christian Science Monitor
Chile
Chile’s presidential election campaign ended ahead of a vote that could elect the country’s first woman president – the daughter of a general killed during Augusto Pinochet’s brutal regime. Agence France-Presse link through Truthout
US
‘The fate of Stanley Tookie Williams now rests in the hands of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t spare Williams’s life. On the one hand, Schwarzenegger is under pressure from right-wing Republicans to refuse clemency. But there’s also high-profile pressure on him in California to grant clemency and prove his campaign claims that he really is a moderate.’ Marjorie Cohn, Truthout
Global
The potential failure of the WTO meetings in Hong Kong may well spell the end of the corporate-controlled trade agreements. Corporate Globalization in Crisis, By Deborah James, AlterNet
‘The WTO Ministerial at Hong Kong has already failed. For the corporate world it has failed because smaller, poorer developing countries are starting to have a say in outcomes of WTO negotiations. With the backing of peoples power on the streets they walked out of the Seattle and Cancun ministerial, exercising the highest power in democracy, the power to say ‘no’, the power exercised by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, the power of non-cooperation with unjust rule.’ From Doha to Hong Kong, via Cancun Will WTO Shrink or Sink? by Vandana Shiva, ZNet
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