World

NOVANEWS Arundhati Roy Rajeesh | September 15, 2010  Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/pglpM-1W4   Hello and welcome to Devil's Advocate. At the end of a week when the Maoists have been on the front pages practically every day, we present a completely different perspective to that of the government's. My guest today is an author, essayist and Booker Prize winner, Arundhati Roy. Karan Thapar: I want to talk to you about how you view the Maoists and how you think the government should respond, but first, how do you view the recent hostage taking in Bihar where four policemen were kidnapped and kept kidnapped for eight days, and one of them - Lukas Tete - murdered? Arundhati Roy: I don't think there is anything revolutionary about killing a person that is in custody. I ...

NOVANEWS Amnesty International - India: Authorities should investigate torture, sexual assault and illegal detention of adivasis in Chhattisgarh Rajeesh | September 15, 2010 at 9:41 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/pglpM-1W2 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT AI Index: ASA 20/026/2010 14 September 2010 India: Authorities should investigate torture, sexual assault and illegal detention of adivasis in Chhattisgarh The Indian authorities should order a prompt, impartial and independent investigation into reports of torture and ill-treatment, including rape and other sexual violence, against adivasis (indigenous people) illegally detained in Chhattisgarh, Amnesty International said today. Adivasis from Pachangi and Aloor villages in Kanker district told Amnes...

NOVANEWS September 13, 2010  by Debbie Menon The current U.S. standoff against Iran, like the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, was instigated by the neoconservatives of the Bush Administration based on their doctrine of “maintaining U.S. pre-eminence, thwarting rival powers and shaping the global security system according to U.S. interests”. By Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMI) via My Catbird Seat Introduction The current U.S. standoff against Iran, like the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, was instigated by the neoconservatives of the Bush Administration based on their doctrine of “maintaining U.S. pre-eminence, thwarting rival powers and shaping the global security system according to U.S. interests”. In the case of Saddam’s regime, it...

NOVANEWS Nick Turse: Afghanistan on Life Support September 12, 2010  by Michael Leon - Would Afghanistan be better losing with the Taliban, tribes and corruption than winning with us? Operation Enduring Freedom echoes Vietnam - By Nick Turse at Tomgram You’ve undoubtedly had the experience of pulling on a tiny, fraying thread and discovering, to your shock, that the larger piece of clothing you’re wearing suddenly begins to unravel.  The equivalent seems to be happening in Afghanistan right before our eyes.  There, “the pride of Afghanistan’s financial system,” Kabul Bank, with more than a million customers, is undergoing a slow-motion collapse.  Part of a fledging banking system proudly mentored by American experts and Treasury Department officials, that sinkhole of a bank now threate...

NOVANEWS 12 September 1977: Steve Biko RIP 33 years ago thug South African police murdered anti-apartheid leader Steve Biko. He died in Pretoria prison at the age of 30.   The South African anti-apartheid struggle is often invoked in comparison to the Palestinian struggle. The trajectories do parallel one another in places. But hopefully, not in others. The South African Gini co-efficient is off the scale. The anti-apartheid struggle triumphed by turning South Africa into a country where blacks, too, could dominate other blacks economically. One reason amongst many to frame Palestinian liberation within broader anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist politics, and not to purposefully cleave the movement from such politics. Technorati Tags: anti-apartheid, apartheid, class war, Israel, Palest...

NOVANEWS The Kill Team in Afghanistan and the Kill Team at Home, No Good Men Left Here September 11, 2010 by Michael Leon   Afghanistan War - Kill Team - If the Kill Team is guilty of what we’re told, then how judge them?  … They are guilty only of bringing the policy to its logical conclusion.  The policy is lunatic. It has no purpose beyond its own justification, which is that it must succeed because it is our policy. - Handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500 By Christopher Ketcham at CounterPunch We already know enough from the Wikileaks Afghan archives to conclude that the news of the so-called “Kill Team” in Afghanistan – twelve US Army soldiers wantonly murdering and mutilating Afghan civilians – is no news at all.  It is the norm of empire.   It is the monstrous quotidian.  Ce...

NOVANEWS  Dear friends, Millions of women and children can be saved from death in pregnancy or childbirth, if world leaders, who are about to meet in New York, meet their promises and step up their aid commitments for maternal health. Let's call on them to act now!   Millions of pregnant women and children die every year because of malnutrition or inadequate health services. It's shocking, but if our governments meet aid promises to women and children at the poverty summit later this month, it is avoidable. Ten years ago world leaders committed to drastically reduce the disgraceful number of maternal deaths by 2015, but in fact aid levels remain shamefully low. Now, some governments could be prepared to boost aid for mothers and babies, but they need massive public support to...

  NOVANEWS   Hesham Tillawi Interviewed on Press TV crescentandcross | September 10, 2010 | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/p2dGk-u6  

NOVANEWS US Soldiers ‘Killed Afghan Civilians for Sport and Collected Fingers as Trophies’ September 9, 2010  by Michael Leon     - Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret “kill team” that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies. - by Chris McGreal in by the Guardian/UK Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians. In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, the killings are alleged to have been ca...

NOVANEWS 9/10/2010 The Iraqi Rebels Didn’t Get The Memo The Iraqi Rebels Didn’t Get The Memo by Ian Mosley Someone seems to have forgotten to tell the Iraqis that the war is over. A recent news article reports “Even as President Barack Obama was announcing the end of combat in Iraq, American soldiers were sealing off a northern village early Wednesday as their Iraqi partners raided houses and arrested dozens of suspected insurgents. While the Obama administration has dramatically reduced the number of troops and rebranded the mission, the operation in Hawija was a reminder that U.S. forces are still engaged in hunting down and killing al-Qaida militants — and could still have to defend themselves against attacks. That reality was front and center at a change-of-command ceremony in one of ...