Global Notebook

GLOBAL

Factions fighting over Mexico presidency candidates

MEXICO CITY – Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who left his job as Mexico City‘s mayor in July to run for president, is currently favored to win the nomination of the Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD). But the party, originally formed through the alliance of several small leftist parties and dissidents who split from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), as well as the candidate himself, have been charged with corruption by Subcomandante Marcos, leader of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).  read more

GLOBAL

Memos suggest Gitmo trials are rigged

SYDNEY – Leaked e-mails from two former U.S. prosecutors, obtained by the Australian Broadcast System, claim that the military commissions set up to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been rigged, fraudulent and thin on evidence against the accused. In March 2004, the e-mails were sent to supervisors in the Pentagon’s Office of Military Commissions, echoing previous charges made by international lawyers, U.S. military officers, the American Bar Association, the Australian Law Society, Amnesty International and Britain‘s Attorney General.  read more

GLOBAL

Theroux blames big oil for Ecuador ‘catastrophe’

CAPE CODE, MA – Describing a trip through the oil towns of Ecuador, writer Paul Theroux recently called the area an “ecological and social catastrophe” that includes spilled oil, brothels, gun running, deforestation, poverty and displaced people. In an interview with HalliburtonWatch.org, he placed the blamed on Occidental Petroleum and Halliburton, accusing both of exploiting the region and damaging the ecosystem. read more

GLOBAL

Pope perturbed by Potter’s powers  

BERLIN – Is Harry Potter seducing young people and endangering their souls? According to comments attributed to Pope Benedict XVI by German writer Gabriele Kuby, the popular series of books by J.K. Rowling includes “subtle seductions which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly.”

Kuby, a devout Catholic who has written a critical book called Harry Potter – Good or Evil, sent the Pope a copy of her critique in 2003 and received two letters in response, when Benedict was known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Kuby published passages from one letter in German on her website, according to the London’s Financial Evening News. read more

GLOBAL

Asian leaders organize for “great game”

ALMATY, Kazakhstan – The leaders of Russia, China and four Central Asian states held a two-day anti-terrorism summit in Kazakhstan last week, amidst criticism of growing U.S. influence in the region.  The meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) brought together Russia and China, which jointly issued a "21st century world order" communiqué opposing any one state’s "domination of international affairs," and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia had observer status. read more

NATIONAL 

Guard unit formed to track domestic groups. 

SACRAMENTO – California‘s National Guard has quietly set up a special intelligence unit with “broad authority” to monitor, analyze and distribute information on potential terrorist threats, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Although Guard officials claim the unit won’t focus on U.S. citizens, it already has been involved in tracking at least one recent anti-war rally organized by families of slain soldiers, according to e-mails obtained by the newspaper.  read more