An important petition has been launched in defence of Baba Jan and his comrades. It includes a very useful summary of the case. It was initiated by Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, Quanader Bux Memon, Vijay Prashad, Farooq Tariq, atc. Have it signed and use it as a reference for other initiatives. - News from around the world / Pakistan

With the summary execution of Osama bin Laden on the orders of Barack Obama in May 2011, Pakistan returned to the top of the international agenda. Some have said that the disappearance of the leader of al-Qaida did not change much. That may be true for the Arab world. But for Washington and Islamabad, the case is far from incidental. It sharpens the contradictions at work in Pakistani society. It highlights the conflicts of interest that undermine the alliance with the United States. [This article was written in French in May 2011 and has only now been translated into English by International Viewpoint.] - IV445 - February 2012 / Pakistan, War drive, India

On the night of December 16 2011, the northern coast of Mindanao, the Philippines was hit by a violent typhoon and floods whose severity is based on massive deforestation. Our association, Europe for Solidarity Without Borders (ESSF) has supported the Ranaw Disaster Response and Rehabilitation Action Centre, Inc.. (RDRRAC - Action Center Ranaw disaster response and reconstruction) that organizes relief in the province of Iligan [1] ].We present a first assessment of this initiative. - IV444 - January 2012 / Philippines, Ecology and the Environment, Solidarity after disasters

The typhoon floods in Mindanao, in the south of the Philippines, have been very serious and one of the most affected place is Iligan, where our comrades of the RMP-M (Revolutionary Workers' Party – Mindanao) are very active. - News from around the world / Philippines, Solidarity after disasters

This report was presented at an open session of the International Organising Committee (IOC) of the Asia-Europe People's Forum (AEPF) meeting held in Paris October 28 before the alternative summit to the G20 in Nice (south of France). The notes distributed at the time of the meeting have been completed here with some elements raised during the exchanges. The English has been revised by International Viewpoint. - IV442 - November 2011 / Europe, Economy, Global Justice, European Union

A solidarity campaign is underway in defence of Baba Jan, a leader of the LPP - the Labour Party Pakistan - and other people imprisoned in the region of Gilgit-Baltistan, in the north of Pakistan. Baba Jan, according to information from the LPP, was tortured for two days by the secret service. - IV440 - September 2011 / Pakistan

There was much more at stake in the execution of Osama Bin Laden than a presidential re-election in the United States. The most important element in the operation carried out by US commandos US in Abbottabad, on May 2, 2011, was probably not the death of Osama Bin Laden – even if he remained an emblematic figure for Al-Qaeda – but the way in which he was killed. Washington does not want the Pakistani government to fall, nor does it want the latter to break with the USA. But in deciding to intervene thus on foreign territory, Barack Obama played the sorcerer's apprentice. - IV438 - July 2011 / Pakistan

Every day brings new revelations on the gravity of the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daichi and on the mendacious policies which covered the activity of the nucleocrat lobby, on the breadth of the risks imposed on the population by the choice of the atom, on the denial of democracy. The shock wave of scandal spreads across the Japanese archipelago. It could be said that the Japanese crisis has reached a turning point. - IV438 - July 2011 / Ecology and the Environment, Japan, Solidarity after disasters

The Japanese Government has acknowledged that the accident at Fukushima was“Level 7”, but only after the local elections were over. As for the international nuclear authorities, they claim that the Japanese crisis has nothing to do with that of Chernobyl, 25 years ago. Political calculations prevail once again over the rights of citizens to information, protection and democracy. - IV435 - April 2011 / Japan, Nuclear disaster

Writing after the Japanese nuclear disaster, Dr Abraham Behar, President of the Association of French Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (AMFPGN), asked: “Voices are raised to discuss the fate of the 50 technicians who are doing what they can in the highly radioactive plant. But who cares about the some 300 others working alongside the fire-fighters and their derisory water jets? [1]. - IV435 - April 2011 / Japan, Nuclear disaster