For the first time in months, the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden has appeared on video speaking in Moscow. He warned about “dragnet mass surveillance that puts entire populations under sort of an eye that sees everything even when it’s not needed.”
Read MoreWelcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for October 5th to the 11th, 2013. The Palestinian Authority voiced concerns this week due to Israeli reluctance of releasing political prisoners, while Israeli army attacks targeting Palestinians communities leave a number of injured civilians
Read MoreThe effort in the Ecuadorian legislature to decriminalize abortion in the new Criminal Code was aborted itself on Friday after President Rafael Correa threatened to resign if the motion had passed. The biggest losers are women with problem pregnancies that could cost them their lives.
Read MoreThe possibility of decriminalizing abortion in Ecuador, an issue under discussion today in the National Assembly, could result in the resignation of President Rafael Correa. The president stated that the Ecuadorian Constitution proclaims its defense of life from the moment of conception.
Read MoreIn a major new report, the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations details a global crackdown on peaceful protests through excessive police force and the criminalization of dissent in many countries around the globe.
Read MoreUS Defense Secretary , Chuck Hagel , named Paul Lewis today as his special envoy to manage the closure of the prison camp at the Guantanamo Naval Base on occupied Cuban territory.
Read MoreA dying prisoner has been released in Louisiana after serving nearly 42 years in solitary confinement, longer than any other person in the United States. Herman Wallace and two others, known as the Angola Three, were placed in solitary in 1972 following the murder of a prison guard. The court decision that sent him to prison was overturned on Tuesday.
Read MoreThe United States expelled three Venezuelan diplomats in response to the same action taken against three members of the US Embassy in Caracas. Among those expelled is Calixto Ortega, Charge d’Affaires, the highest ranking official at the embassy, as the two countries do not have relations at the ambassadorial level.
Read MoreJesse Jackson completed his four-day visit to Cuba Monday. While he did meet with representatives of the FARC guerrillas in Havana for peace talks with the Colombian government, he was unable to see US agent Alan Gross, who is in his fourth year of a 15-year sentence for endangering Cuban national security.
Read MoreVenezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered the expulsion of three US embassy officials, including the charge d’affaires, whom he accused of conspiring against his government and instigating actions against the national electricity system. The US State Deptarment has denied all charges.
Read More