New South Wales police shot an apparently mentally ill 48-year-old woman multiple times in Sydney on December 21 in what the victim and two witnesses have described as a totally unnecessary action.
In an attempt to distance the Rudd government from the notorious immigration policies of the previous Howard government, Immigration Minister Chris Evans last month announced alterations to Australia’s mandatory detention regime for asylum seekers.
In a desperate bid to end weeks of political turmoil, Bangladesh’s president Iajuddin Ahmed announced last Thursday that he was postponing national elections due on January 22, imposing a state of emergency and stepping aside as head of the interim caretaker government.
Only eight months ago, when the Indian government’s Special Economic Zones (SEZ) legislation commenced, it was touted as a lever to modernise India’s infrastructure and economy for the coming decades. Today, business and political commentators are already branding the SEZ law a failure.
An acrimonious conflict within Australia’s Liberal-National government over refugee law has highlighted the mounting tensions wracking the Coalition government.
Chanting slogans such as “no, no to the occupiers” and “death to Israel, death to America”, more than 100,000 Iraqis marched in Baghdad on August 4 to oppose the US-backed Israeli war in Lebanon. The protest, held in the predominantly Shiite and working class neighbourhood of Sadr City, has revealed deep anger over the criminal onslaught on Lebanon and continuing widespread hostility to the US occupation of Iraq.
Bombings, killings and kidnappings are being carried out almost hourly in US-occupied Iraq. In the midst of the violence, the targeted killing of more than 40 Sunnis by Shiite gunmen in a Baghdad street this month stands out as a particularly brutal sectarian atrocity.
US-led military forces have launched a major operation aimed at crushing growing opposition in four provinces in southern Afghanistan ahead of a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) takeover in the region in August. Around 11,000 troops, including 2,300 from the US, 3,300 from Britain, 2,200 from Canada and 3,500 Afghan soldiers, backed by warplanes, are engaged in the biggest offensive since the US-led invasion in 2001.
The Australian government last month released a far-reaching report that outlines a 15-year blueprint for the economic restructuring of 14 Pacific island countries and East Timor to pave the way for foreign investors, particularly from Australia.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Indian Supreme Court have both refused to halt construction on raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar (Narmada) dam from 110.64 to 121.92 metres, despite clear evidence that the extension flouted resettlement procedures and will leave tens of thousands of families homeless.
More than five days after an earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Java on May 27, killing over 6,200 people, thousands of men, women and children are still without adequate shelter, food or water. The quake levelled whole villages south of the city of Yogyakarta and, according to provincial authorities, displaced an estimated 650,000 people.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched an “urban renewal” program last month designed to attract private investment to 63 of India’s largest and most important cities. His government is proposing to supply more reliable infrastructure and services, remove city regulations that act as impediments to the market, abolish rent caps and provide reliable and enforceable property rights.
At least 54 workers were killed and over 100 seriously injured when a textile factory burned down in the Bangladeshi port city of Chittagong on February 23. Many of those killed or badly injured were prevented from escaping because factory guards had locked the main entrance and other gates to prevent theft and monitor the 600, mainly young women, working the night shift.
In a decision that will have devastating consequences for some of the poorest sections of Indian society, the Indian cabinet last month approved the opening up of the country’s retail and other sectors of the economy to foreign investment.
Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author
The Indian media and business elite never tire of enthusing over India’s growing role as an IT and business-processing outsourcer to the world. Yet a recent study of working conditions in Indian outsourced call centres has pointed to the high levels of labour exploitation in the industry—including constant surveillance, long hours, health problems and burnouts.
Amid intense inner party turmoil, Lal Krishna Advani announced late last month that he would resign his post as president of India’s Hindu chauvinist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in December. Advani will remain the BJP’s parliamentary leader, but media speculation is rife that he will be compelled to exit “gracefully” from this position sometime in 2006.
Accidental house fires have killed more than 20 people in Australia so far this winter—predominately in the most disadvantaged city suburbs and in rural areas. During May, June and July, at least 14 people died in the most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), compared to 20 for the entire year of 2004.
With typical cynicism, the Howard government seized upon the conviction of a man on “people smuggling” charges last month to continue its whitewash of the October 2001 sinking of a refugee boat that cost the lives of 353 men, women and children. The over-loaded vessel sank between Indonesia and Australia in international waters that were under intensive Australian military surveillance.
The trial of an alleged “people smuggler” in the Brisbane Supreme Court has highlighted a number of unanswered questions about the Australian government’s involvement in the sinking of a refugee boat in October 2001, in which 353 people died.
