by Ginger Thompson
MEXICO CITY, Oct. 26 – In a televised address, President Fidel Castro of Cuba announced Monday night that United States dollars, which have kept his country’s ailing economy afloat for the past decade, would be banned from all commercial transactions in two weeks.

In his speech, Mr. Castro called the measure a response to the Bush administration’s decisions to strengthen economic sanctions by placing new limits on the amount of money people can send to relatives in Cuba and imposing multimillion-dollar fines against banks that have transferred dollars to Cuba.

His aides said Cuba was “protecting itself from external economic aggression,” and they asked Cubans to tell their relatives to send euros, British pounds or Canadian dollars.

Full Article: nytimes.com

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) – Residents of a Port-au-Prince slum accused Haitian police on Wednesday of executing 13 people believed to be supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Police denied the accusations. Workers at the General Hospital morgue in the capital said they received the bodies of seven people killed by gunshots in the Fort National neighborhood, and a Reuters reporter saw pools of dried blood at the site where neighbors said the killings occurred.

The allegations came as Haitian interim authorities launched an offensive to end a wave of pro- and anti-Aristide violence that has killed at least 70 people since Sept. 30.

Residents of the populous Fort National slum, where Aristide enjoyed strong support, said police stormed a house on Tuesday and executed 13 people they had forced to lie on the ground.

“Heavily armed policemen made a raid here and killed everybody. There was no resistance and nobody had a gun,” a neighbor named Jacqueline told Reuters. “It was massacre. I heard the victims crying, ‘No, no,”’ said the woman, who did not give her full name for fear of reprisals.

“When they (the police) came, they said very loudly, ‘Everybody on the ground!’ One of them said ‘Kill them,”’ said Arnoud Jean-Louis, 36, another neighbor. “Then, I heard a series of gun bursts, the next thing I saw the police were dragging them out to put them in a vehicle.”

Full Article:nytimes.com

by Edward Wong
RAMADI, Iraq, Oct. 21 -The American military and the interim Iraqi government are quickly losing control of this provincial capital, which is larger and strategically more important than its sister city of Falluja, say local officials, clerics, tribal sheiks and officers with the United States Marines.

“The city is chaotic,” said Sheik Ali al-Dulaimi, a leader of the region’s largest tribe. “There’s no presence of the Allawi government,” he added, speaking of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

While Ramadi is not exactly a “no go” zone for the marines, like the insurgent stronghold of Falluja 30 miles to the east, officers say it is fast slipping in that direction. In the last six weeks, guerrillas have stepped up the pace of assassinations of Iraqis working with the Americans, and marine officials say they suspect Iraqi security officers have been helping insurgents to attack their troops. Reconstruction efforts have ground to a halt because no local contractors are willing to work.

Most of the military’s resources are channeled into controlling a bomb-infested, four-and-a-half-mile stretch of road that runs through downtown and connects two bases. Insurgents pop out of alleyways, mosques and a crowded market and fire at marines at will, then disappear when the Americans give chase.

Full Article: nytimes.com

by Ariel Dorfman
Day after day over the past three years, as I watched Americans respond to the terror that unexpectedly descended upon them on September 11th, 2001, the direst memories of Chile and its dictatorship resonated in my mind. There was something dreadfully familiar in the patriotic posturing, the militarization of society, the way in which anyone who dared to be faintly critical was automatically branded as a traitor. Yes, I had seen that before: “You are either with us or against us.” I had seen it far too often — national security trumpeted as a justification for any excess in the pursuit of an elusive enemy.

Who could have imagined that in the United States, with its independent judiciary, thousands of men could be rounded up in the night — many only because of their Muslim religion or foreign nationality — without recourse to a trial, without even an acknowledgment that they had been arrested? Who could have dared to suggest that there would ever be “desaparecidos” in America? And there it was as well, torture being discussed as a legitimate option to protect a community in peril, and then being used in Guantanamo and Afghanistan, and even obscenely photographed in Iraq — yes, there they were again, the depressing echoes of my Chile.

But worse perhaps than all of this was the erosion of the moral compass of America, the seeming indifference of the seeming majority to the suffering of others, the casual acceptance of “collateral damage” as an unquestioned consequence of the war on “terrorism,” the demonization of an ubiquitous foe who had to be destroyed without second thoughts — and often without first ones as well; without, in fact, any thoughtfulness at all. That was far more terrifying than the criminal attacks on New York and Washington: To realize that the Chile of strongman Augusto Pinochet was not that far away, not that difficult to imitate, that it was already hovering in the future and ready to materialize if we were not vigilant.

I would read the news each morning in my home in North Carolina and each morning I would feel the same sudden stab of vertigo. Was history repeating itself yet one more tired time? Could it really be that simple to corrupt American democracy? Could the citizens of the United States be so easily twisted and manipulated by their fear?

The answer was, in fact, no, not that easily.

commondreams.org
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Doctors trying to determine whether he should go to a hospital

Wednesday, October 27, 2004 Posted: 6:44 PM EDT
(CNN) — Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was in critical condition late Wednesday after his health deteriorated through the course of the day, Palestinian officials said.

Doctors were treating him at his Ramallah compound and assessing whether he should be sent to a hospital.

“He is in critical condition, but he’s conscious,” said Hassan Abu-Libdeh, Cabinet secretary to the Palestinian Authority. “During the last six hours, he has relapsed.”

He said a team of Egyptian and Tunisian doctors were examining Arafat and that Jordanian doctors — including his personal physician — were en route to further aid in Arafat’s treatment.

Arafat’s wife, Sufa, was expected to arrive in Ramallah Thursday.

A senior Palestinian official inside the compound said Arafat’s condition was “extremely bad.”

Palestinian officials said Arafat, 75, was too weak to meet with anybody and that he was unable to walk, having to be carried by aides when he needed to move. They also said he has been unable to keep food down.

Full Article:cnn.com

Israel’s parliament last night voted for the first time in 37 years of occupation to remove Jewish settlements from the Palestinian territories in a historic move that Ariel Sharon said paved the way to the end of the conflict.

At the end of two days of at times raucous and bitter parliamentary debate, Mr Sharon was forced to rely on the opposition to carry through his “unilateral disengagement plan” after his Likud party split over the removal of all Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and a small part of the West Bank.

Mr Sharon won, with 67 of the 120 MPs voting for the plan and 45 against. The remainder abstained.

Israel’s deputy prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said: “The state of Israel is moving forward. We are going to change the status quo in the Middle East. We are going to make painful concessions. There is no return from this.”

Four cabinet ministers, including Mr Sharon’s arch-rival Binyamin Netanyahu, who voted in favour, none the less threatened to resign in a fortnight unless the prime minister agreed to a national referendum on the plan.

Full Article: Guardian UK

If George Bush took a break from election campaigning to ponder Africa he might feel aggrieved. After all that effort, all those bold policies to tackle poverty and disease, Africans want him to lose next week.

From the US administration’s point of view that must rankle. Here is a continent which for the past four years basked in Washington’s attention and money, pocketing favours in trade and aid from a generous president.

Before his election in 2000, Bush bluntly stated that Africa was of no strategic interest to the US. But in office he became passionate about boosting economic ties and treating millions of people with HIV/Aids. He visited Senegal, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Nigeria, called leaders by their first names and invited them to the White House.

So for Africa to wish him a speedy farewell from office must strike Bush as ingratitude on a grand scale.

“If Africa was to vote, Kerry would get a landslide,” said Robert Kabushenga, a political analyst in Uganda, told Reuters.

“All public opinion surveys show the publics of the world don’t know Kerry but they don’t like Bush. Someone sitting in Chad doesn’t know who Kerry is, but he sure knows who Bush is,” said John Stremlau, a professor of international relations at Johannesburg’s Witwatersrand University.

Full Article: Guardian UK

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – Election officials are questioning how many of a batch of 58,000 absentee ballots reached Broward County voters who requested them more than two weeks ago. State police investigated but found no criminal violations.

Hundreds of people have called the county elections office to complain that they never got their ballots. The phone system was so overwhelmed some frustrated voters could not get through.

The county election office said the problem involved ballots mailed Oct. 7-8, though the number of those actually missing was uncertain. Some absentee ballots mailed on those dates have already been returned to be counted.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said it investigated and found no criminal violations.

The county blamed the U.S. Postal Service. “That is something beyond our control,” Deputy Supervisor of Elections Gisela Salas said. “We really have no idea what’s going on.”

Postal officials said the post office was not to blame.

“We have employees that we assign to handle the absentee ballots that come in,” said Enola C. Rice, a Postal Service spokeswoman in South Florida. “So all the absentee ballots that are received by the Postal Service are processed and delivered immediately.”

Absentee voters who did not receive a ballot can request another, which officials said would be sent by overnight mail.

In 2000, Broward gave Democrat Al Gore his biggest margin among Florida counties. He received 67 percent of the vote there, while losing the state to George W. Bush by just 537 votes.

Full Article: Guardian UK

Cops: Florida man tried to run down controversial Republican

OCTOBER 27–A Florida man has been charged with attempting to run over controversial Republican congresswoman Katherine Harris with his Cadillac. According to the below Sarasota Police Department report, Barry Seltzer, 46, told cops that he was simply exercising his “political expression” when he drove his car at Harris and several supporters, who were campaigning last night at a Sarasota intersection. Seltzer–pictured at right in a booking photo–allegedly drove up on a sidewalk and headed directly for Harris before swerving “at the last minute.” Harris told officers that “she was afraid for her life and could not move as the vehicle approached her,” according to the report. For his part, Seltzer–who’s a registered Democrat–told cops, “I intimidated them with the car. They were standing in the street.” He added, “I did not run them down, I scared them a little!” That explanation did not stop investigators from arresting Seltzer for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a felony. Harris, Florida’s former secretary of state, is best known for her role in the aftermath of the state’s disastrous 2000 presidential election.

Full Article: thesmokinggun.com

In a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores, scientists have unearthed the bones of a species of human never seen before. About three-feet-tall when fully grown, Homo floresiensis resembles some of our most primitive ancestors — but lived as recently as 13,000 years ago. They made tools and hunted dwarf elephants, but were physically unlike modern pygmies.

Scientists say it’s possible h. florensiensis mingled with modern humans; they were both in the region around Indonesia around the same time. The discovery suggests we shared the planet with other species of humanity until quite recently in evolutionary terms. The findings, published in this week’s issue of the British scientific journal Nature, also suggest that humans may be subject to the same evolutionary pressures as other mammals, shrinking to dwarf size when isolated in a resource-poor area.
More info: npr.org