Attacks on oil pipelines cost the Iraqi economy an estimated US $6 billion in 2005, severely restricting the funding available for post-war reconstruction, according to the Ministry of Oil.

“In Iraq, the US fights an enemy it hardly knows,” reads an ICG report released on 15 February. “Its descriptions have relied on gross approximations and crude categories…that bear only passing resemblance to reality.”

The arrival of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus strain in Nigeria has sparked concern over the levels of preparedness and capacity to deal with a potential outbreak throughout southern Africa.

It adds insult to very serious injury when we are told that this humiliation, torture and violence is the work of a few "bad apples".

Prices for gasoline and diesel fuel, heating oil and natural gas have soared in the past four years, and rocketed to new highs in the last year, undermining the living standards of working people.

The number of people treated and given medical advice by the Mobile Communist Clinic, over a period of 3 hours, were about 220, mostly elderly and destitute.

Since the regime has completely been marginalized and isolated inside and outside the country, its intolerances have also been increasing against the peaceful activities of the political parties and the general masses.

"So I think of any movement for peace and justice as something that is about stabilizing our inner spirit so that we can go on and bring into the world a vision that is much more humane than the one that we have dominant today."

Resources wasted in the destruction of human life and property, are resources that cannot be used for building houses or feeding the hungry.

After the scandalous attack by Tony Blair last week on the Venezuelan government and Hugo Chavez in particular, an Early Day Motion, number 1644, on "Developments in Venezuela" has been put down and so far signed by 72 MPs.

"We continue to see undeniable evidence that abuse and torture has been widespread and systematic, yet high level government officials have not been held accountable for creating the policies that led to these atrocities,"

During six years of management by Panama (2000 to 2005), for example, that nation received almost two times the amount paid by the United States to Panama during the first 66 years of the existence of that waterway (1913-1979).

The militant group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which claims to fight for local control of oil wealth in the impoverished region, said it was the group trading fire with the Nigerian army.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev(Kyrgyzstan) wants the United States to pay more than 100 times the current fee for use of an air base in the ex-Soviet republic,

CHE Guevara once said that "a true revolutionary is motivated by feelings of deep love" and, by all accounts, he certainly practised what he preached.

"As I pointed out in my remarks, the Hurricane Katrina was indiscriminate in both race and class in who it victimized. But the federal response wasn’t indiscriminate, and that’s the problem."

The report specifically called on the US government "to close immediately the detention center in Guantánamo Bay and bring all detainees before an independent and competent tribunal or release them."

Bush’s staff complained yesterday that his big healthcare announcement at Wendy’s Headquarters in Ohio went largely unnoticed because of Vice President Chaney’s shooting incident. It was probably just as well because he didn’t have much to say.

It remains to be seen whether globalization has left much room for indigenous cultures to negotiate a space for themselves in a world of encroaching global polities and often uncompromising nation-state boundaries.

The South African CP is of the view that while it is essential to build a broad front of women’s organization, such an objective will not be attained unless we build a vibrant, working class-led, progressive women’s movement.