Auckland University Students' Association (AUSA) tonight retracted its $5000 reward for any student who makes a citizen's arrest of United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. AUSA president David Do said it was withdrawing the reward in the interests of safety, but the association would still support any student who sought to arrest Dr Rice.

By Toni Solo - July, 16 2008

It may well be time to start taking NATO's role as an aspiring global enforcer of Western Bloc economic strategy more seriously. However true it may be to argue that it is still the United States government that makes the running, the US is less and less able to do so without the willing support of its allies. Their joint global military activity can well be interpreted as an effort to compensate for the growing discomfort they feel at the increasing power and influence of other countries like China and Russia, globally, and Iran and Venezuela regionally.

Paul Watson Takes a BulletCaptain Paul Watson Shot in Chest; Cameraman and Crewmember Injured by Flash Grenades

At 1545 hours (0445 GMT), a clash between the crew of the Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin and the Japanese whaling ship Nisshin Maru turned violent when the Japanese Coast Guard began to throw flash grenades at the crew of the Steve Irwin.

I know there are differing opinions out there on whaling but this story caught my attention as one to watch. Two members of Paul Watson's Sea Shepherd crew recently boarded a Japanese whaling ship. The crew of the whaling ship responded by tying them up and taking off, beginning what may now be an international incident. -ron

"Being just out of Australia in 1972...I was elated when receiving the news that [Gough] Whitlam had become the first Labor Party Prime Minister in 23 years. I knew he was opposed to the Vietnam War and assumed that the alliance between Australia and the U.S. on the war would be strained if not broken...Little did I realize how angry he would make the Nixon administration and the CIA."

We still have many causes to be concerned at present. All but one of the current accused has been declined bail...This means there is a strong possibility that many of our young friends, freedom fighters and social and environmental justice change makers could face two years imprisonment without trial...We are dealing with families and communities without financial means...Below are details for ways of sending any support and websites for finding out further information.

On October 12, PM John Howard announced his plan to hold a referendum to alter the preamble to the Australian constitution to include an acknowledgment of the original inhabitants of Australia.

Claims by immigration minister Kevin Andrews that African refugees are less capable of resettling in Australia than other migrant groups have been met with widespread condemnation by welfare, community and human rights organisations.

More than 400 people participated in around 65 workshops and 10 plenary sessions to discuss a myriad of national and international campaigns against imperialism and neoliberalism at the Latin America and Asia Pacific International Solidarity Forum held at Victorian Trades Hall and the RMIT on October 11-14.

When PM John Howard tried, unsuccessfully, to ban the use of the “worm” - the audience’s reaction graph in the only debate Howard’s agreed to have with Labor leader Kevin Rudd in this election campaign - Rudd protested with a scripted joke.

Two-hundred people protested outside the Wellington District Court on October 17 to protest the arrest of four Wellington men appearing in the court following massive police raids on the homes of many social activists two days earlier, according to a NarcoNews.com article by Julie Web-Pullman.

According to an October 8 report from Venezuela’s Presidential Press Office report, a new poll conducted by polling company Seijas has revealed that only 3.4% of Venezuelans think capitalism is the best system of government; 22.6% said it was preferable to socialism and 62.7% said they preferred socialism to capitalism.

A landmark Federal Court hearing for 96 Western Australian construction workers that begins on October 24 is the most dramatic demonstration yet of the impact of the Howard government’s draconian IR laws.

Despite China’s spectacular GDP growth of nearly 10% per year since 1978 - and despite Beijing’s claim that the country remains on a socialist course - in the eight years to 2005, workers’ wages as a proportion of GDP plunged from 53% to 41.4%.

After winning a stunning 82% of the vote in the April 14 referendum for a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution, Ecuador’s left-wing president Rafael Correa scored his third major victory in a year on September 30 with his party, Country Alliance, winning 70% of the votes for the new assembly.