China Mining Tibet To Death

by Claude Arpi / Niti Central

On March 29, China’s State media reported that 83 miners had presumably died following a major landslide at the site of a gold mine in Gyama Valley, near the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. A few days later, 66 miners were confirmed dead and 17 were declared missing despite massive rescue efforts.

Reports from Tibet further stated that the miners (only two of them were Tibetans) were asleep in their tents when the tragedy occurred. They were buried by a 3-kilometre wide and 30 metres deep mass of rocks and debris.

Riots Over Baroness Thatcher’s Dead Body

An old rally flyer from 1989 calling for protests against Thatcher for her support of the apartheid South African regime, support of ant-gay and anti-abortion policies and for her continued policies of colonialism in Ireland.

Anarchists and Police Warn of Full Scale Street Battles Tomorrow and at Margaret Thatchers Funeral Procession

by Russ McSpadden / Earth First! News

[The text of this work is free to share and distribute under the following Creative Commons License CC-BY-ND 3.0]

Back in March of 1990, during the poll tax riots in London, more than 200,000 people engaged in protest, direct action and  full scale rioting over the hugely unpopular new tax system introduced by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the conservative government. Amidst the wild chaos of the night  an anarchist collective by the name Class War proposed a grand celebration in Trafalgar Square for the first Saturday after the future event of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s death.

It was a farsighted call-to-party over the passing of a right-wing  politician who was a full 23 years from her death bed.

Tomorrow, April 13th happens to be that first Saturday.

Saboteurs Cut Undersea Internet Cable Near Egypt

IDG News Service – Egypt said it has arrested three men suspected of slicing a crucial undersea Internet cable on Wednesday, causing widespread problems from Kenya to Pakistan.

The South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) cable runs 12,500 miles from France to Singapore, with branches connecting telecommunication companies in Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia and Algeria.

Egypt published photos of three men in a boat with their hands tied along with scuba diving tanks. The men were apprehended just offshore where SEA-ME-WE 4 reaches land, according to a Facebook posting purportedly by Egypt’s military.

Egypt’s Facebook account could not be immediately verified with the social networking company, but Telecom Egypt also wrote about the arrests on its Twitter feed.

Senate Approves Keystone Pipeline in Bipartisan Vote

by Juliet Eilperin / the Washington Post

The Senate voted 62 to 37 Friday in favor of constructing the Keystone XL pipeline, the controversial project that would transport heavy crude oil from Hardisty, Alberta, to Gulf Coast’s refineries.

The bipartisan amendment to the Senate budget resolution, authored by Sens. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), has no binding authority. But it shows the significant support the proposal enjoys on Capitol Hill, despite the fact that opponents argue its construction will accelerate global warming and could cause harmful oil spills on ecologically-sensitive habitat.

Quebec Rally Against Police Violence Highlights Assault on Indigenous Women, Ends in Police Violence

from Press TV

Around 500 people took to the streets in the city of Montreal to participate in the 17th annual anti-police brutality march.

Police used horses, pepper-spray and kettling tactics to disperse the protesters. Early reports also said that scores of people were arrested.

“Before the march even began, they just ran to the crowd for no apparent reason and then since there was chaos they took that a reason to just charge into us with their batons and shields,” one of the demonstrators told Press TV.

Meanwhile, many believe that the worst acts of violence during marches in Montreal are committed by the police forces and not the demonstrators.

“They just brutalize us every time for nothing, we’re just walking the streets, they just start pushing us and everything else,” said another protester.

Canadian police is also accused of raping and abusing aboriginal women.

Canada Prevents UN Rapporteur Visit to Probe Natives’ Rights

from Press TV

The Canadian government continues to prevent the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, from making an official visit to the North American country.

Anaya says that the federal government continues to disregard his year-old request to visit Canada in an attempt to investigate the “human rights situation of Indigenous peoples,” according to a February 20 letter sent to the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC).

Riot Police Attack Communities Protesting Oil Exploitation in Colombia

from Upside Down World

After two weeks of peaceful protesting against oil exploitation in Arauca, on February 12 that department’s social organizations began a strike announced a few days earlier as a response to the repeated broken promises by the national government and transnational companies.

The last attempt at dialogue took place on Monday, February 11, between the Commission’s spokespeople (composed of a delegation of indigenous people, peasants, youth, women, workers and community members) and representatives of the Minister of the Interior, as well as oil companies that operate in the region, with the goal of establishing the conditions that would allow the fulfillment of those promises that they’ve been making since May 2012.

Protests Against the Indian-European Free Trade Agreement

from the Asian Human Rights Commission

Several peaceful protests took place in the Northeast states of India over the past month to address concerns over the implications of the EU-FTA with India. Protestors are concerned over the lack of transparency in the Bill, violation of the rights of the indigenous people, and the threat increased imports would make to local businesses and livelihoods. They have also voiced concern over the perceived threat of the agreement favoring large companies and pursuing corporate agendas favorable to multinational EU corporations to the detriment of locals.

Indians Protest Rail Line Through the Sathyamangalam Jungle

from the Times of India

The Moyar River in the Sathyamangalam reserve forest.

COIMBATORE: A day after the Union railway budget revived the controversial proposal to lay a broad-gauge railway line through the jungles of Sathyamangalam, connecting Mettuppalayam with Chamarajnagar, the local community joined hands against the project, as it would spell trouble for the huge elephant population in the area.

Forest Protest, Economic Sabotage

from The Examiner

A forest protest in the Central Highlands is costing contractors about $20,000 a day, according to the state Liberals.

Opposition forestry spokesman Peter Gutwein described the protest, by up to 10 members of environmental group Still Wild, Still Threatened, as a disgraceful act of economic sabotage.