Water shortages are frequent but the prevailing drought in East Africa has worsened the situation for the island's 981,754 people...Despite donor pressure in early 1990s for Zanzibaris to pay for water, the government still provides it free of charge. However, that is about to change.

A long list of peace organizations put together over 150 town hall forums last Saturday on the topic of getting out of Iraq. Reports, and audio and video, from dozens of these events have been posted at www.afterdowningstreet.org.

The release of government figures on employment recently caused the New York Times to describe the jobs aspect of the "recovery" as "anemic." According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy added a mere 108,000 jobs in the month of December.

Fifteen years after being declared dead and buried, the specter of communism is again haunting the minds of some of Europe's political leaders. On February 24, 2005, the European Ministers of Justice were to discuss a common strategy against racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia.

The noble and outstanding Cuban health care program for Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions -where the dream of giving back sight to millions of poor people all over the world- is evidence of the [advantages] of socialism over capitalism.

The causative agent, the H5N1 virus, has proved to be especially tenacious. Despite the death or destruction of an estimated 150 million birds, the virus is now considered endemic in many parts of Indonesia and Vietnam and in some parts of Cambodia, China and Thailand.

Following current events these days is very much like watching old movies, sitcoms, action adventure shows, and soap operas on television, except that the plots are more fantastic and there are very serious consequences.

THE writing must be on the wall for Tony Blair when such an Establishment figure as General Sir Michael Rose demands his impeachment for taking this country into the war against Iraq under false pretences.

In the 18th  December 2005 Bolivian presidential elections Evo Morales  received  53% of the vote --  1,158,431 out of the 2,185,960 votes cast. His Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) defied  media predictions that he would obtain only 35% of the vote -- which would have left the Bolivian parliament to decide on who the new president would be. 

The illegal migration of Mexicans to United States is rapidly becoming a key topic of this year’s Mexican presidential election: the current administration claims the number of immigrants has considerably dropped in recent years and the opposition argues poverty and unemployment is pushing hundreds per day to the north.

The battle for the House and Senate looms large with the arrival of the new year, as opposition mounts to the Bush administration agenda. While some pundits give only a small chance for Democrats to regain control of Congress in November’s elections, the shifting mood in the country predicts otherwise.

The World Bank action came a week after politicians voted by a 119-13 margin to revise the oil laws. But the global financial watchdog had warned that it considered the legal tinkering a “material breach” of a 1999 agreement for managing Chad’s oil wealth and that loan suspensions might be a consequence.

Right-wing ideologues charge that the federal judiciary is a haven of activist judges that legislate from the bench. They use this smear to attack a corps of judges – most of whom are honest – that upholds constitutional principles and legal precedents that protect civil rights, voting rights, privacy rights, and other traditional core values.

Hu said relations between China and Bolivia have been growing smoothly on the basis of the five principles of peaceful co-existence since the two countries established diplomatic links 21 years ago. The two countries have established political mutual trust and treat each other as equals, Hu said.

US Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), US Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), and US Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), did not preclude the possibility of Bush's impeachment, when asked about the topic in interviews this weekend.

AS 2005 closes and 2006 opens, we find that scientific outlook against Christian fundamentalism has made an important gain with the rejection of intelligent design theory by an US court. At the same time, it also suffered a serious reverse as Hwang Woo-Suk’s research on therapeutic cloning was found to be fabricated.

Canadian sovereignty is under threat from U.S. domination as never before. We need new alternative polices that place the needs and concerns of working people ahead of the selfish interests of big business. This will require a broad plan for economic and social development and an independent foreign policy of peace and disarmament to achieve the following goals.

Last week President Bush took advantage of Congress’ holiday recess to appoint Ellen Sauerbrey as the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM). The Senate had stalled on approving her nomination because Ms. Sauerbrey has no experience.