Story Archives - Page 592 of 661

Sudan: The Shadow of a Death

Rene Wadlow August 11, 2005 Rene Wadlow

The death on July 30th of the southern Sudanese leader John Garang de Mabior endangers a fragile and incomplete accord to end the 1983-2005 North-South civil war and complicates further efforts to bring to an end the conflicts in the four provinces of Darfur in western Sudan. Garang, leader of the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement (SPLM) died in the crash of a Ugandan military helicopter on its return from a meeting of Garang with the President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni. Garang's aids and the helicopter's crew also died in the crash. News of Garang's death led to violent demonstrations from his supporters who feared that the crash was no accident, followed by counter-violence against southerners. The situation remains tense.

Garang had enemies both among the northerners he had long fought but also among rivals for leadership among southern groups. It was only a month ago, July 9th, that John Garang was installed as first vice-president of Sudan in a North-South power-sharing agreement, but the practical role of Garang and other southerners in the government, the administration and the army had not been worked out and may now be called into question.

Global Notebook 8-10-05

Super User August 10, 2005 Super User

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

The New American Security State

David Sugar August 10, 2005 David Sugar

Fresh on the heels of the London bombings, the U.S. government has been quick to exploit these incidents to further usher in the new security state, which claims to protect citizens from a threat it wishes the public to imagine requires governmental solutions. Never mind that none of these new measures actually increase anyone's security, except the security of those in power from those they govern.

The IMF and Usury: Crime Without Punishment

Elizabeth Levy Sad / Translation by David Epstein August 9, 2005 Elizabeth Levy Sad / Translation by David Epstein

"Blaming the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the difficulties faced by a country in times of crisis is like blaming the doctor for the patient's disease". This statement and others like "the IMF does not represent the interests of the G8" are part of an outrageous manual that teaches the organization's officers how to reply to the uncomfortable questions asked by the press. Perhaps, the text became effective after a reporter asked Anne Krueger - First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF - if her organization was responsible for the increasing poverty in Argentina, while he attempted to place before her eyes the photograph of a malnourished child, Krueger escaped like someone trying to avoid leprosy.

Fear and the Nuclear Option

Greg Guma August 8, 2005 Greg Guma

Twenty years ago, when people concerned about nuclear weapons warned about a "war without winners," they were accused of spreading fear and negativity. The counter-argument was that the U.S. nuclear arsenal was a shield protecting the west from a Soviet Union bent on world domination.

60 Years Later: A Look at Hiroshima

Bob Feldman August 4, 2005 Bob Feldman

August 6, 2005 marks the 60^th anniversary of Democratic President Truman's use of the atomic bomb against the people of Hiroshima, at a time when the Japanese government was apparently seeking a negotiated end to World War II. Yoshihiro Kimura was a third-grade student in Hiroshima on the morning the U.S. government dropped its A-bomb on the city. In Children Of The A-Bomb, Kimura recalled how it felt: