The Popular Education Project to Free the Cuban 5 is calling on all peoples to support the international campaign to sign on the letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez to demand the FREEDOM OF THE CUBAN 5!! Forward this email throughout your address books and link this link to your websites!!

In his whirlwind visit to the U.S. this past week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez expressed his love for the American people, offered his "deepest condolences," and reiterated his government's offers of assistance for the victims of the Katrina disaster.

In a letter to Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, the ICFTU has condemned the vicious torture and murder of Luciano Enrique Romero Molina, a leader of the foodworkers' union SINALTRAINAL...In conclusion, the ICFTU criticises the President's policy of "democratic security", which in effect legalises paramilitary activity, and has "so far served only to increase the number of murdered trade unionists and labour activists".

The Federal Republic of Germany has had an election that German and international commentators call "frustrating", "inclusive", a "stalemate." I don’t look at it that way at all... A left-center government in Germany, at the center of Europe and one of the world’s great economic powers, would have a tremendously positive influence on both world affairs and the life of the German people.

Nearly 1,500 displaced Iraqi families have returned to the northern city of Talafar after Coalition forces ended an operation to rout insurgents hiding there, but the returnees said dozens of their homes had been totally destroyed...Surkassi Ahmed, a doctor at the local hospital, said there had been civilian casualties. "We have received cases of deaths of women, children and the elderly in our hospital," he noted.

Even though I would not call myself a "conservative," I have a great deal of respect for people who honestly hold well-thought-out conservative opinions... It must be disheartening to many conservatives to see the press give so much attention to self-proclaimed conservative "spokespersons," who once they open their mouths reveal themselves to be complete dunderheads.

CIA Director George Tenet testified before Congress in February 2001 that Iraq posed no immediate threat to the United States or to other countries in the Middle East. But immediately after the terrorist attacks on 9-11, which the Bush administration has said Iraq is partially responsible for, the President and his advisers were already making a case for war.

A decision was made to uphold the conviction that the former Rwandan minister of higher education and scientific research, Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda, aided and abetted the commission of the crimes by leading the attackers at the Gikomero Parish on 12 April 1994; just six days after the mass slaughter began in Rwanda.

The Henry Reeve International Contingent of Disaster and Epidemic Physicians, a team of 1,586 physicians, was officially [introduced] by President Fidel Castro at the graduation ceremony for 1,903 new doctors from the island´s medical schools.“We [organize] professionals to fight death,” said the Cuban President.

The day after Hurricane Katrina hit, exposing much of the public to the tragic conditions of poverty in America, the Census Bureau quietly released its annual report entitled, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United
States. In some respects, it provided a demonstrable backdrop to the pockets of poverty common to New Orleans and other cities.

Economic disaster is looming in Katrina's wake. Key government indicators show that job losses and inflation are spiking while real wages are falling. Economic stagnation was the hallmark of the Bush-Republican economy prior to the hurricane, but the ensuing catastrophe has exposed major underlying weaknesses.

Alex Cohn, Wissam Qablan, Orwa Zidan and Shaul Mograbi-Berger are currently in military prison for their refusal, on grounds of conscientious objection, to serve the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

THE Human Development Report (HDR) 2005, released this week, has placed India on a Human Development Index (HDI) ranking at 127 out of total 177 countries.  This was the same position that India held last year.  During the BJP-led NDA’s rule, India had slipped from a ranking of 121 to 124 and then further to 127.

Finding enough to eat is a problem every lean season in landlocked Niger, ranked last of 177 countries in the UN’s human development index for 2005..Millions of families have lost their livestock, their livelihoods, their every survival mechanism. For these young women, survival can be found in the city streets at night.

[Ricardo Alarcón, Pres. Cuban Parliament] reiterated the eight Millenium Development Goals, which were supposed to be mostly achieved by year 2015 and which he termed modest, including to wipe out extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education and promote gender equality... Very little has been done to achieve them and in some of them there has even been a backward step.

Compelled to tell the truth, Bush’s oration would have captured the reality of the situation in New Orleans, and of life for the poor and working class in an America dominated by a wealthy aristocracy:

The JCP in the general election secured the 9 seats it had previously held. It received 4.92 million votes in the proportional representation section. The number is larger than that in the previous general election although the JCP's share of votes decreased. The results show that the JCP put up a good fight.

WAR criminal Tony Blair joined his fellow destroyers of civilian life George Bush and Vladimir Putin at the United Nations to demand unified international action against terrorism.