International

In Libya, forces loyal to Col. Muammar Gaddafi are locked in intense fighting with the opposition forces for control of several cities and towns. The International Committee of the Red Cross says Libya has descended into civil war with increasing numbers of wounded civilians arriving in the hospitals in eastern cities.

On March 3 and 4, a group of teenagers and pre-teens in Springfield underwent what was called a “30-hour famine”. They fasted for 30 consecutive hours, breaking only occasionally for sips of water as nourishment.
They also participated in activities that required physical effort, just as the poor in food insecure countries would, even when enduring the pangs of hunger.

Amnesty International has called on the Saudi Arabian authorities to reverse the ban on peaceful protest, amid fears of a violent crackdown on mass demonstrations planned for Friday’s “Day of Rage”. Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the foreign minister, said that “reform cannot be achieved through protests”, while the protest ban was backed by religious and security bodies.

The United Nations warns that up to one million people are trapped in Libya and are in need of emergency aid as fighting intensifies between supporters of Col. Muammar Gaddafi and anti-government rebels. Earlier today, Gaddafi’s forces launched at least four air strikes against rebel-held areas in the oil town of Ras Lanuf.

In contrast with what is happening in Egypt and Tunisia, Libya occupies the first spot on the Human Development Index for Africa and it has the highest life expectancy on the continent. Education and health receive special attention from the State. The cultural level of its population is without a doubt the highest. Its problems are of a different sort.

International Women’s Day – March 8, 2011 – is a special day meant to remind everyone that women continue to have particular disadvantages even today, despite general emancipation, owing to the unnecessary restrictions in our male-dominated societies. More than that, womens’ rights continue to be severely curtailed in many places.

In several meetings with groups of young people in Cairo, Tomas Hirsch, a spokesperson for Universalist Humanism in Latin America, gained insight into the vision of young women and men who continue going to Tahrir Square every night to ensure that the process of change continues in a real way. The following is a summary of our conversation with Hirsch.

The Libyan opposition fighting to overthrow Moamer Kadhafi announced its first formal meeting Saturday as it counted its dead from fighting for a key oil town and clashes raged in a city near the capital.
Kadhafi loyalists rained tank shells and machine gun fire on Zawiyah, 60 kilometres west of Tripoli, as they sought to wrest the city center back from opposition supporters.

The Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation is a new feather in the cap for Austria, which served as a bridge between East and West under the leadership of Chancellor Bruno Kreisky in the 1970s, and was the venue of some early rounds of the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) between the United States and the now defunct Soviet Union.

The success of popular movements in the Middle East has raised the apprehensions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has been reminded of its own weakness and soft underbelly.
President Hu Jintao has issued orders to party officials to “solve prominent problems which might harm the harmony and stability of the society.”
By Gunjan Singh*