Although the small Pacific Island nations now exercise a nominal independence very few have sufficient resources and practically no industrial development which would enable them to stand up to the pressures that are being imposed on them by Australia, New Zealand and other nations with more highly industrialised economies.

In the recent period there have been attempts to create confusion and spread misinformation regarding the proposed automobile factory of Tata Motors in Singur in West Bengal. The opposition political parties, including Trinamul Congress and Congress also called a bandh (general shutdown or strike in protest) on the issue, which was rejected by the people of the state.

Palestine. New Israeli incursions have killed 21 Palestinians within three days. An inquiry appears to confirm that Tsahal, the Israeli Army, is now using a particularly sinister experimental weapon.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top leaders attended a grand ceremony Sunday in Beijing in memory of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Long March.

The US administration’s double standards in dealing with the intensifying nuclear crisis in North Korea further strengthens the argument that President George W Bush’s colonial designs are either exasperated by the vulnerability of his foes or deterred by their lethal preparedness.

All historians have an agenda. Sometimes the agenda is based on their sympathies towards a particular class; sometimes it is merely sectarian. The latter is the case with A People’s History of Iraq by Ilario Salucci.

The carnage in Iraq is clearly getting much worse. The Iraqi people are being terrorized in their daily lives by assorted guerilla armies, "private" warlord "militias," and of course the U.S. and British "coalition forces."

This book is a great introduction to the origins of Christian thought. Today with so many competing versions of Christianity, ranging from traditional Orthodox and Catholic views to liberal socially conscious Protestantism and right wing evangelical fundamentalists, it is helpful to have a guide such as this which explains how the original Christianity of the ancient world came about.

COLOMBIA, prior to the Anglo-US invasion of Iraq, used to be unique in the world for its combination of comparatively weak central government and regional paramilitaries, whose terrorisation of the populations under their control was, and still is, totally without checks or balances.

If we’re to say that we have a gay movement that has any meaning, that is not just a bunch of self-satisfied bourgeois gays who send checks to organizations promoting gay marriage but instead are really engaged with the global human project of gay liberation, then our national gay groups have to devote some resources to educating and organizing around these issues of gay oppression in other countries.

In Iraq, despite the government working hard to fight poverty in the country, the situation has not changed. Indeed, the opposite is happening. Unemployment is rising and more and more children are leaving school to work and supplement their parents' income.

The JCP proposed the amendment to the draft resolution. Consequently, the resolution included in its conclusion the following phrase: "The international community should conduct concerted diplomacy and work for a peaceful resolution." I am satisfied with this.

FOR 47 years the United States has systematically and uninterruptedly applied a ferocious blockade on Cuba; in fact a real economic war designed to plunge the Cuban people in hunger and desperation and whose objective, since the initial moment, has always been the overthrow of the Cuban Revolution.

The threat of war and conflict is dominating life in the Middle East. The US, the EU and their NATO allies use war and military coercion as their main tools to subjugate their opponents.