Region

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.

In Libya, fighting between Gaddafi’s forces and rebels has broken out in the eastern oil export port of Ras Lanuf and the town of Zawiyah, west of Tripoli. Mass protests against Gaddafi’s rule were scheduled to begin after noon prayers across the country, but in Tripoli, Gaddafi supporters have set up checkpoints throughout the city to prevent protesters from moving about.

Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq resigned unexpectedly, sparking celebrations from protesters who demand a purge of the remnants of ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s regime.
The country’s military rulers said he would be replaced by Essam Sharaf, a former transport minister who joined the rallies in Cairo’s Tahrir Square that led to Mubarak’s resignation on February 11.

Forces aligned with Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi have launched new assaults to regain control of several towns captured in a popular uprising over the past two weeks. Meanwhile, two U.S. warships have moved through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea toward Libya under orders by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Amy Goodman’s interview to Horace Campbell.

The Libyan regime has launched today a new assault on the opposition amidst growing international pressure. Forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, tried to retake the now rebel-controlled towns of Zawiyah and the eastern city of Misrata overnight, but both attacks appear to have been repelled by now.

Strange as this may sound, there is a mainstream in the unsanctioned confederacy of dictators. Whether of the present times or from the distant past, the mainstream dictator is usually decidedly understated, more often than not a loner, eccentric in private habits, and almost as a trademark, lives in a complex world of paranoia.
By Eskinder Nega

*Mass Protest Rally held 28 February 2011 by the Peoples’ Campaign for Right to Water (PCRW), against anti-people Water Laws and Policies of Karnataka and the US Water Trade Mission. Urban development Minister subsequently reiterates opposition to Water Privatisation and distances Government from US Mission. Another people-power success story, so far…*

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has cracked down on protesters in the state’s Capitol building while issuing a new ultimatum to Democratic lawmakers. On Monday, demonstrators were barred from re-entering the Capitol, the site of 24-hour protests over the past week. Thousands of people have demonstrated and slept inside the building.

Huge crowds poured onto the streets of the Yemeni capital in what the opposition hailed as the biggest protest yet against the President three-decade rule.
The veteran leader, whose supporters staged a large counter-demonstration, dismissed the opposition rally as a copycat action mimicking protests in other Arab countries that he charged had been fanned by Israel and the US.

Over 100,000 people rallied in Madison on Saturday against Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s effort to remove the collective bargaining rights of most public-sector workers. It was the largest demonstration Madison has seen since the Vietnam War. Tens of thousands of people marched in solidarity protests nationwide.