World Socialist Web Site

19 June 2009

Factional struggle deepens within Iranian ruling elite

By Peter Symonds, 19 June 2009

A tense factional struggle within Iran’s clerical regime continued as tens of thousands of supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi took to the streets of Tehran for a sixth day running to demand fresh elections.

North Korean nuclear crisis enters a new stage

By John Chan, 19 June 2009

A UN Security Council resolution last Friday imposing harsher sanctions on North Korea and the subsequent threats by Pyongyang, indicate the prolonged crisis on the Korean Peninsula has entered a more dangerous phase.

Two legal cases challenge Sri Lanka’s mass detention of Tamil civilians

By Nanda Wickremasinghe, 19 June 2009

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court this week postponed two cases challenging the violation of the basic legal rights of Tamil civilians interned in military-controlled camps in the island’s north.

NSA monitors millions of American e-mails

By Tom Eley, 19 June 2009

The National Security Agency has been monitoring millions of domestic e-mail communications, according to media reports. The activity is so egregious that it violates even last year’s congressional relaxation of restrictions against spying on Americans.

France offers the United Arab Emirates nuclear protection

By Peter Schwarz, 19 June 2009

In a region dominated by the US for the past 50 years and where America has conducted two major wars—in Iraq and Afghanistan—France is offering nuclear protection to a country without coordinating its actions with NATO and the US.

Michigan: Autopsy confirms police taser responsible for teenager’s death

By Jack Cody, 19 June 2009

The results of an autopsy performed on the body of 16-year-old Robert Mitchell, who died on April 10 after being shocked with a taser by a Detroit police officer, indicate that a taser shock likely caused the teenager’s death.

Back in the fold: Comic Stephen Colbert in Baghdad

By David Walsh, 19 June 2009

Its unsurprising character does not make comic Stephen Colbert’s trip to Iraq and his solidarizing himself with the US war effort any less disgraceful.

Australia: Construction unions’ Westgate Bridge deal sets dangerous new benchmark

By Chris Sadlier and Terry Cook, 19 June 2009

An article in the Age on June 18 confirms that an agreement signed by two major construction unions last month to settle a protracted industrial dispute at Melbourne’s Westgate Bridge contains an extraordinary no-strike clause, with provisions for thousands of dollars in fines for any breach.

New in German

Obamas Finanzreform: Freie Fahrt für die Wall Street

Von Barry Grey, 19. Juni 2009

Bei der Vorstellung seiner Finanzreform zeichnete Obama das Bild eines korrupten Wirtschaftssystems, das die Menschen ausbeutet und gesellschaftliche Verwüstung hervorbringt. Unmittelbar darauf ging er zum Alltagsgeschäft über: - schließlich mussen das System weiterlaufen, die Profite weiter sprudeln.

New in French

Canada : Les libéraux feignent être en guerre contre le gouvernement conservateur

Par Keith Jones, 19 juin 2009

Le premier ministre canadien Stephen Harper, chef du parti conservateur, a eu hier deux rencontres privées avec le chef de l’opposition officielle libérale, Michael Ignatieff.