In early February, rains that flooded up to 70% of Jakarta and displaced some 450,000 people began. Across Indonesia, 85 people died, according to a March 12 Agence France-Presse report. Bloomberg聮s wire service reported on March 6 that, according to government estimates, the floods caused a direct economic loss of 聯at least 5.2 trillion rupiah聰 (US$574 million), with indirect losses of 3.6 trillion rupiah.
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The Campaign to Free Women聮s Rights Defenders in Iran reported on March 12 that Shadi Sadr and Mahboubeh Abasgholizadeh were charged on March 11 with being a 聯threat to national security聰. They are the only two women remaining in custody after the arrests of more than 30 women on March 4. Sadr, a lawyer, was arrested while defending the women activists arrested at a demonstration that day. Sadr and Abasgholizadeh have been denied access to their lawyers and have been interrogated without their lawyers being present.
A national survey conducted last year by the University of Melbourne鈥檚 Centre for the Study of Higher Education for the Australia Vice-Chancellors鈥 Committee (AVCC) has revealed that most of Australia鈥檚 700,000 university students have become financially worse off over the past five years.
In 1989, 39 pharmaceutical giants sued the government of AIDS-stricken South Africa, seeking to stop it from implementing a law to improve the poor聮s access to life-saving AIDS drugs. That aggression sparked a public outcry within South Africa and elsewhere, leading to an international campaign that only ended in 2001 when the 39 companies dropped their case.
The AC Neilson poll published in the March 12 Sydney Morning Herald had the federal Labor opposition in a commanding lead over the Coalition, with 61% of the two party-preferred vote. ALP leader Kevin Rudd was the preferred prime minister of 53% of respondents. 麻豆传媒 Weekly asked a number of trade unionists how much of Labor鈥檚 rise in the polls can be attributed to the union movement鈥檚 campaign against Work Choices and how they believe these unjust laws can be defeated.
As US President George Bush was preparing for his recent "We care" trip to Latin America 鈥 during which massive demonstrations of Latin Americans responded by saying "No you fucking don't" and "Get the hell out of here" 鈥 he was briefed by
More than 500 people from 35 countries have been incarcerated in the Guantanamo Bay prison complex since 2002. Since becoming the detention centre for prisoners captured in US President George Bush聮s unending 聯global war on terror聰, it has been the source of numerous allegations of physical and psychological abuse. It is a legal black hole in which detainees have waited for up to half a decade without charges being laid.
A March 7-11 poll by the New York Times and CBS News found that just 15% of respondents believed the US government should engage in 聯regime change聰 operations overseas. The poll asked: 聯Should the United States try to change a dictatorship to a democracy where it can, or should the United States stay out of other countries聮 affairs?聰 Supporters of regime change operations fell 12 points from 27% in 2004 and those who believe the US should 聯stay out聰 increased from 59% in 2004 to 69% in the March poll. The poll also found that a mere 10% of those polled support military action against Iran. Only 14% believed the US government was telling the whole truth when it claimed Iran is supplying Iraqi insurgents with weapons to use against US forces occupying Iraq.
On March 14, 80 international students from Central Queensland University's Melbourne campus protested against the failing of a big majority of students in the final subject of their accounting course. Of the 180 students who did the subject, 56 were
The Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics NV, one of nearly 40 chemical majors sued by Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange for supplying the defoliant to the US military, is now also being sued by its insurers. The US made extensive use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
The arrival in February of 85 refugees from Sri Lanka, most of them members of the island鈥檚 Tamil minority, in Australian waters near Christmas Island highlights the situation of war and racial oppression in Sri Lanka.
They are the children of 鈥渃holos鈥 鈥 the disrespectful name given to urban indigenous people in Bolivia. They refer to themselves in English single-syllable words and the names of their songs speak of indigenous pride; they criticise capitalism and demand a radical social change. This mix, so appropriate for these times, characterises the 鈥渉ip hop鈥 movement of El Alto, which is expanding and channelling youth rebellion in this large city of poor migrants, located at a height of 4000 metres and surrounded by impressive snow covered peaks.
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