Via A-Infos, June 7:

In summer of 2006, during summit of the G8, Russian president Vladimir Putin promised that Russia will join to international program to spread nuclear energy. Russia's role in this project is to be a storage of nuclear waste. Electro-Chemical Industrial Complex of Angarsk (AEHK) was founded 1954, it is located in South-Eastern border of the city of Angarsk, 30 kilometers from Irkutsk and 90 kilometers from lake Baikal. It is a company involved in nuclear fuel cycle, processing concentrate including Uranium to Uranium hexafluoride (UF6), which in turn is enriched to Uranium-235 for the Nuclear Industry. Complex is under administration of Rosatom, Russian Federal Agency on Atom Energy. AEHK is far from uranium mines, nuclear plants and other parts of the nuclear fuel cycle, thus both raw materials and final products of the company will be transferred by the Trans-Siberian railway. Transport of the radioactive materials means additional risks for the people and environment.

Advocates for the families of 173 people murdered in the banana-growing regions of Colombia filed suit today against Chiquita Brands International, in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. The families allege that Chiquita paid millions of dollars, and tried to ship thousands of machine guns to the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or AUC. The AUC is a violent, right-wing paramilitary organization supported by the Colombian army. In 2001, the Bush Administration classified the AUC as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization." Its units are often described as "death squads."

Six human rights groups have issued a list of 39 people purportedly imprisoned by the United States in secret, the whereabouts of whom are unknown, and have called upon the Bush administration to suspend its policy of "disappearances." US officials defend these measures, saying that it is often essential that terrorist networks do not learn of such detentions ahead of planned operations. [NYT, June 7]

Najib Manalai, an adviser to Afghanistan’s minister of culture and youth affairs, has described the Taliban [in an interview] as a composite of different elements, "hijacked by Pakistani intelligence services and by international terrorist groups." While there exists de facto leadership, its interest is with international terrorism, rather than a national agenda. [EurasiaNet, June 6]

The Associated Press reported June 6 that hundreds of Turkish soldiers crossed into northern Iraq in pursuit of PKK guerrillas. The reports were denied by Ankara. The following day, Reuters reported that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said parliament's approval would be needed for such an incursion. "A parliament decision is necessary to launch a cross-border operation and the steps would be taken accordingly," Erdogan was quoted by state-run Anatolian agency. AP reported that Turkey's top commander Gen. Yasar Buyukanit said: "The Turkish soldier is not a bully of the neighborhood. There is need for political directives." However, he did say several areas near the border have been declared "temporary security zones."

From the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC), June 3:

Cindy: Do not say good-bye
The U.S. needs you, not the criminals and thieves

Dear Sister Cindy Sheehan, Greetings...

I have read your article ("Good-bye America... you are not the country that I love anymore"), in which you declared resignation and your plan to stay away from the arena of struggle against war and the occupation of Iraq.

From the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM), June 4:

At 6:30 AM this morning, 4 June 2007, oil workers struck the pipeline company in Basra, Iraq, bringing an immediate stop to the free flow of oil products, including kerosene and gas through pipe number 42.

The Egyptian government has refused to allow human rights groups to observe the military trial of 33 leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood, undercutting the government’s claims that civilians will have a fair trial before military courts, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a joint press release June 4.