Politics

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said today that if they get UN authorization, his country might launch a military intervention in Syria, the scene of conflict between the government and armed opposition.
According to Panetta, his main responsibility is to guarantee that Washington gets the support needed from the international community to deploy its troops in Syria.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s protracted effort to fight extradition to Sweden suffered a body blow this week. Britain’s Supreme Court upheld the arrest warrant, issued in December 2010. After the court announced its split 5-2 decision, the justices surprised many legal observers by granting Assange’s lawyers an opportunity to challenge their decision.

In April of this year, I wrote that the upheaval in Syria (the Sunni majority revolt against the Alawite-dominated regime) has turned into a battleground between the Sunni axis led by Turkey and Saudi Arabia and the Shiite axis led by Iran. As events continue to unfold in the region, particularly the Sunni Islamists’ monopolization of the political processes in … (read more)

“To which faction would you have given your support? Whether on the side of the pure or the wicked, you would only have increased your folly”.

Silo, “Humanize the Earth” (Collected Works), Latitude Press, US.

We publish this opinion article about the conflict in Syria and more broadly in relation to the regional conflict in the Middle East.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, CLASSE spokesman, pleaded not guilty when he appeared in court, 29 May 2012, in Quebec’s city courtroom. The ongoing drama has made the student leader something of an international hero to his fellows but clearly he’s a stone-in-the-shoe for the authorities, and for those students who want to to along with system as is.

While the entire watching world condemned the heinous Syria massacre of 26 May 2012 in Houla, little substantial could be understood from the killings as to which group was primarily responsible. For the West it was the Assad regime but there was no evidence of any such sole perpetrator, thus China, Russia as major powers took a more cautious view.

Americans do it, Spaniards do it, Mexicans do it, Israelis do it, even liberal Canadians do it, let’s do it, let’s criminalise peaceful protest.
As many countries hurriedly pass new legislation – or simply apply “antiterrorist” laws – to forbid nonviolent action, this can only strengthen the resolve of the protesters to stick to it.

15 months after Mubarak ’s ouster, this week Egyptians headed to the ballot box to choose a new President in the country’s first multi-candidate Presidential election. Unlike previous polls when election results had invariably been foregone conclusions, the outcome of this historic vote is uncertain with analysts and voters unable to speculate who the likely winner may be.

The NATO-Free Future gathering in Chicago coincides with a rising global movement against war, militarism, inequality and poverty. We represent the pro-peace and justice majority, the global 99%. We heed the wisdom of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to challenge the “triple evils” of poverty, racial inequality and militarism.

Bill 78 is an affront to basic freedoms that goes far beyond what is permissible under provincial, national, international human rights laws. What began as protests led by student groups over a proposed hike in tuition fees have expanded in size and focus in recent weeks, with more than 2,000 arrests being made. On 23 May close to 700 protesters were arrested in several cities.