World

The newly established interim government of Kyrgyzstan called for the former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to turn himself over and face trial for the deaths of at least 82 people during the uprising in Bishkek last Wednesday. By Philip Pilkington.

The government said that if the former President refused to do so they would launch a special operation in order to capture him. The new administration said that Bakiyev may face detention but if he were to turn himself over they may be able to broker a deal that will allow him to leave the country.

A leaked document shows that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has built a media strategy to garner popular support among Europeans for continuing the war in Afghanistan. The strategy was prescribed to soften public opposition to the war ahead of a projected increase in civilian and NATO casualties in Afghanistan this spring and summer.

Women of Concern, a photographic exhibition chronicling the lives of women and children in some of the poorest nations of the developing world is currently showing in the Temple Bar Gallery of Photography. It features the work of three of Ireland's top female photo-journalists, Brenda Fitzsimons, Kim Haughton and Marie McCallan and documents the work of Concern and their partner, the Women's Support Association, in Haiti, Ethiopia and Bangladesh.

(Picture: From the exhibition "Women of Concern" © Kim Haughton 2010)

Leading Israeli, Palestinian and Jewish academics yesterday called for a new approach to solving the decades old Israel-Palestine conflict. The proposed ‘one state’ solution would see Israeli and Palestinian territories organised under a central government, reminiscent of post-apartheid South Africa.

The speakers were attending a talk on the subject organised by the Irish Anti-War Movement in Dublin's Gresham hotel.

The passing of eight months since the fraudulent presidential election in Iran on 12 June 2009, and the coincident thirty-first anniversary of the Islamic revolution of 11 February 1979, is an appropriate time to assess the current political situation in Iran; and especially the record of the “green movement” that acquired an incipient identity during the election campaign and emerged as a force in the series of protests that followed it.

(Picture: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at a rally commemorating the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution last week)

A conference in Dublin this week heard about the dangers of human rights work, and how the lives of human rights defenders around the world are often at risk. By Deirdra O'Regan.

Over 100 human rights defenders from ninety countries gathered in Dublin this week for the 5th Frontline Platform for Human Rights Defenders. Participants from Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia Iran, Burma, Nicaragua and Haiti travelled to Ireland for the three day event.

The Africa Cup of Nations, in Angola, got off to a bloody start earlier this month, when two members of Togo’s national football team were killed in an attach on their bus by rebels in the Angolan enclave province of Cabinda.

With the competition billed as a chance for Angola to demonstrate its stability and potential, just over a year since the first post-war elections, the attack – claimed by separate factions of the Cabindan independent movement, FLEC – seemed a violent refutation of the nation’s supposed progress.

As Haiti lies in ruins it’s business as usual for luxury cruise liners, which continue to arrive at the stricken island.

The US Supreme Court has drawn the ire of US President Barack Obama and a host of opinion writers this week by overturning restrictions on corporate political advertising in the weeks immediately preceding an election. The ruling was carried by five to four in "Citizen United v. Federal Elections Commission".

Yesterday, Barack Obama devoted the entirety of his weekly videocast to the ruling. He described the decision as “a huge victory to the special interests and their lobbyists” and that he “can't think of anything more devastating to the public interest”.

On Saturday, the Permanent People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka convened in Dublin to deliver the findings of their investigation into the actions of the government and armed forces of Sri Lanka during the war in Sri Lanka and its aftermath. The tribunal’s verdict, delivered amidst tight security, is a damning indictment of the actions of the Sri Lankan government, and also of the culpability of the international community. The tribunal’s findings also highlighted the appalling treatment of the press in Sri Lanka.