Senator Manny Villar has a secret alliance with the Ampatuan clan, principal suspects in the brutal massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao province, and he has to explain how he intends to give justice to the Ampatuans’ victims, the Liberal Party demanded today.

Increasingly (private security companies and their operatives) work so closely with law enforcement and Fusion Centers—providing and exchanging information about Americans, they appear to merge with police.

* From Venezuela, a group of social organizations and human rights, students and academic groups as well as different individuals, launch this call for a campaign to defend the right to protest, which today is being systematically violated by the government of Hugo Chávez. This document was originally published in Spanish in El Libertario newspaper, # 57 (www.nodo50.org/ellibertario).

While traveling to Vancouver, Canada to speak at the Vancouver Public Library at a benefit for community radio stations, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and her two colleagues were detained by Canadian authorities. Amy was questioned extensively about the speech she intended to give; their car was gone through by armed border guards, and their papers and laptop computers were scoured. The armed interrogators were particularly interested in whether she would be speaking about the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.[rush transcript, video, audio»»]

November 16, 2009
- John Chuckman

During his trip to Asia, President Obama called for the government of Burma to release Aung San Suu Kyi, a noted dissident who has spent years under house arrest.

It made headlines, a fact which tells us more about the role of media as an outlet for government press releases than in communicating genuine news.

Obama’s was hardly a brave or innovative act when you consider that it is a universally-condemned military junta keeping Aung San Suu Kyi penned up.

Brian Currin, a South African attorney working as a mediator, said the left-wing nationalist movement should not stop putting forward new initiatives despite the arrest of its top members.

Video : http://basquecountry.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/brian-currin-detention-of-...

For those not attending the conferences in the Marie Gérin-Lajoie auditorium of the l'Université du Québec à Montréal, you may view them live...

En français : http://webtv.coop/live/webdiffusion.php

In English : http://webtv.coop/live2/webdiffusion.php

En espagnol : http://webtv.coop/live3/webdiffusion.php

Descriptions of the conferences this Sunday :

Ce dimanche 11 octobre, 9 h 30 : Le développement du militarisme et l’agenda sécuritaire

Ce dimanche 11 octobre, 14 h 30: La survie de l'humanité

PHILIPPINES: A Maoist communist propaganda gambit.

THE “ALLEGED abduction, illegal detention, and torture” of a certain Melissa Roxas, reportedly in May 19, 2009, has indeed startled the very core of human civilities.

The people must be prepared for the expansion of the United States of America's global war .

Montreal, 21 August 2009 – The Federal government has admitted that there is insufficient evidence in Adil Charkaoui’s file to uphold the security certificate against him. The startling admission was filed with the Federal Court on July 31st.

Morocco thinks the status quo is in its favor. While Polisario sits and rots in Tindouf, Morocco is busy looking for oil, plundering the fish, and constantly investing in the Territory.

The following is an official message from a grassroots movement in Israel named New Profile, which is part of a larger coalition of Israeli groups opposed to the occupation and repression of Palestinians and to the militarization of Israeli culture. Currently, the Israeli government is using methods that are becoming more and more repressive, which is why we feel it is important to share this with you. Below their summary of the situation, you will find links to related articles and a call to action.

Excerpts :

We would like to reiterate that police harassment of New Profile and the interrogation of eleven of our members are not isolated events. They are part of a virulent drive of state McCarthyism, a stepped-up systematic persecution of left-wing activists and voices. This drive arguably obviates the remnants of Israel's claim to democracy and parodies its ludicrous boast to representing a single democratic beacon in the Middle East. // Among human rights organizations in Israel, Adalah for instance is still preparing a report on the recent, sharp escalation in combined state and university repression of student activists and [...] will soon be publicizing their comprehensive report on state violence against activists, left-wing groups and individuals, as well as their international supporters.

With all the problems, vices and malpractices existent in the current administration I still consider President Chavez as the very centerpiece for change in Venezuela and Latin America, and all those who are tirelessly working to make it happen, against all odds.

Camaradas, Rosa Luxemburgo sigue diciendo: ¡La paz significa la revolución del proletariado a nivel mundial!

By Franz J. T. Lee

For those whom the bell is already tolling now in America, it is time to be tactfully and diplomatically crystal clear about the formal logical "contradiction": violence and peace. Since the military coup in Honduras and its seemingly diplomatic, 'peaceful' aftermath, we should be fore-warned of things to come under the Barak Obama 'Democratic' administration.

A friend of mine brought my attention to this story a few weeks ago and since it hasn't received much media attention in Montréal so I spent some time today putting together this summary.