contributions

By Joel Brinkley
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia Seventeen months into a shadowy uprising that has killed more than 100 people, numerous Saudis say they are angry not at the insurgents but at the United States for the invasion of Iraq, the signal event that they believe triggered the terror attacks.
In interviews, the Saudis expressed unremitting disdain for the United States that some of them called hatred. They regret the terror attacks, aimed primarily at foreigners, but call them a small (…)

by Matthew Tempest
A near stampede marred the opening ceremony of the 2004 European Social Forum in London last night, as up to a thousand rain-soaked activists were barred entry to the Southwark Cathedral reception.
Up to two thousand delegates queued in the London dusk and repeated cloudbursts for the event which was due to kick off the three-day conference of European global justice activists, only to find around half turned away. A potentially dangerous bottleneck was created as (…)

By Ray Smith
One of the fields where the Bolivarian Revolution has advanced is education. The Chavez government has created the “Mision Robinson” which has virtually eliminated adult illiteracy by bringing this literacy program to up to one million Venezuelans.
However, the efforts of the Revolution to extend culture and education do not stop once the individual can read and write. In order to extend higher education to those layers of the population who have been historically excluded (…)

A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a "suicide mission" to deliver fuel, the troops’ relatives said Thursday.
The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq - north of Baghdad - because their vehicles were considered "deadlined" or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook.
Sgt. McCook, a deputy at the Hinds County Detention Center, and the 16 (…)

by Steven Leser
John Kerry made history last night. He is the only Presidential candidate in history to shut out an incumbent President three to zero in Presidential debates. The faces of the Bush campaign people in the after debate discussion said it all. Once the Gallup poll came out that showed Kerry won 52% to 39% their faces dropped and they started attempting to downplay the effects of the debate on the election. But, their words were inadequate to spin away what their expressions (…)

by Manuel Valenzuela
At once hauntingly real, philosophically placid and fictionally captivating, Echoes in the Wind takes us on a journey both into the deepest regions of humankind’s inner demons as well as our greatest qualities. Through the eyes and introspections of its characters, Echoes in the Wind manifests human realities, dreams, conditions and histories that resonate a warning to us all, an echo in the wind trying to awaken us to our true reality, not the charade we have been (…)

October 14, 2004 12:10 AM
Shortly after the first presidential debate, buzz began to build on the Internet regarding a bulge that appeared under the jacket of George W. Bush and squarely between his shoulder blades. The story which carried over to mainstream news with reports in the New York Times and even segments on CNN.
A story by Salon.com furthered a growing theory that Bush was wired for sound to receive assistance during the debates. While the Bush campaign shrugs off the comments (…)

by Sanjay Suri
LONDON, Oct 12 (IPS) - ’People Power’ had become another of those slogans until the rallies Feb. 15 last year against the imminent invasion of Iraq. Those rallies were not only the biggest Europe has ever seen, but everything since then proves that people were marching on the right path.
The first European Social Forum (ESF) held late 2002 in Florence, Italy, gave birth to those rallies. The success of the rallies, backed by the force of the demonstrations against (…)

Activists plan for a better world at Social Forum
By Jeremy Lovell
LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of activists from across Europe flocked to London on Thursday for three days of speeches and seminars hoping to push politicians to get back in touch with their disaffected electorates.
The European Social Forum (ESF) is an umbrella organisation of groups with a bewildering array of aims and interests ranging from racism and religion to world trade and the war in Iraq. (…)

The Scene Of The Crime: October 8TH, 2004 The Presidential Debates, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
Inside, the two major party candidates were having their pre-scripted, teleprompter-aided, taxpayer-funded hour long press conference. Outside, Michael Badnarik, the nominee of America’s third largest political party, the Libertarians, was being arrested while trying to enter the debates and serve legal papers. With him was David Cobb, from the Green party, another Presidential candidate getting (…)