Happy independence anniversary? French nuclear testing health hazards, dirty war deaths, torture, abuses and Algeria’s yet unresolved post-war issues
(GIN)—Tucked away in the treaty that signaled Algerian independence from France was a “gerboise bleue”—a “blue desert rat” and a code name for the first French nuclear test on Algerian soil. In the independence pact, known as the Evian Accords, France reserved the right to test atmospheric and underground nuclear bombs in Algeria, helping to make France the fourth largest...
Pakistan: 10 million deprived of safe drinking water in flood-affected areas
Six months after catastrophic floods struck Pakistan, more than 10 million people, including children, still lack access to safe drinking water, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on March 21. The crisis has left families in the flood-affected areas with no choice but to use potentially contaminated water. “Safe drinking water is not a privilege, it is a basic human right,” said...
20 years later, Abu Ghraib torture victims get their day in court
by Brett Wilkins, CommonDreams.org Two decades after they were tortured by U.S. military contractors at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, three Iraqi victims are finally getting their day in court as a federal court in Virginia takes up a case they brought during the George W. Bush administration. The case being heard in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria,...
Former Marine gets prison time for smuggling guns to Haiti
RALEIGH, N.C.—A former U.S. Marine found guilty of conspiracy to illegally export and smuggle firearms and controlled equipment from the U.S. to Haiti has been sentenced to more than five years in prison, federal prosecutors have announced. A March 2 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Raleigh said Jacques Yves Sebastien Duroseau, 34, was sentenced by a U.S....
Israel’s new government unveils plan to weaken Supreme Court
JERUSALEM—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s justice minister on Jan. 4 unveiled the new government’s long-promised overhaul of the judicial system that aims to weaken the country’s Supreme Court. Critics accused the government of declaring war against the legal system, saying the plan will upend Israel’s system of checks and balances and undermine its democratic institutions by giving absolute power to...
Secretary General of League of Arab States charges: ‘Israel has become above the law’
CHICAGO (FinalCall.com)–The Secretary General of the League of Arab States told an audience of about 500 people here that the United States must become an "honest broker" in Middle East conflicts, particularly the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the current dispute over allowing UN weapons inspectors into Iraq. "When we talk about freedom, we cannot forget about our brothers...
NGO: 2,390 deaths on migrant routes to Spain in 2022
MADRID—A Spanish nonprofit organization said Jan. 18 that the number of migrants who died or were reported missing while trying to reach Spain was 2,390 last year, a decrease in 2021 but in line with the past five years. Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) said that the figure included 288 women and 101 children. Some 1,784 of the migrants died while trying...
‘Water grab’ by profit-seeking corporations starve African lands of vital resources, report says
(GIN)—In anticipation of Earth Day on April 22, a blistering new study has emerged on the escalating climate crisis in Africa and the threat to water for millions of Africans. Large-scale agricultural plantations have been drying up African lands, according to the California-based Oakland Institute in its newly published report released on the eve of the Forum Alternatif Mondial de...
Zimbabwe’s suffering and lingering land crisis
With the Zimbabwean economy in free fall, the government has agreed to pay $3.5 billion in compensation to White farmers. The land, which was originally attained by the White settler colony under British colonial rule, was expropriated by the Robert Mugabe government to resettle displaced Black families. The agreement signed July 29 at President Emerson Mnangagwa’s State House offices in...
Australian opposition against Indigenous Voice in Parliament
CANBERRA, Australia—Australia’s main opposition party on April 5 decided to oppose the government’s model for constitutional recognition of Indigenous people in a development that appears to doom the prospects of a successful referendum this year. A referendum has not succeeded in changing Australia’s Constitution since 1977, and bipartisan support of the major political parties is widely regarded as a prerequisite...