The Popular Peoples Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) has officially announced the replacement of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz with an alternative government. The organization said the only government they consider legitimate, after 106 days of political crisis which has paralyzed the state, is APPO.

From the Chiapas daily Estesur, Sept. 3 (our translation):

PRIista marches against "electoral fraud"
Tuxtla Gutierrez - 13 days after the state elections, the candidate of the Alliance for Chiapas, the PRIista Jose Antonio Aguilar Bodegas, led a march and gathering through the principal streets of Tuxtla Gutierrez [the state capital], where thousands of supporters joined him in demanding that the state Electoral Tribunal Electoral del estado, "adhere to legality and independence".

And not a moment too soon. This is sure to bring a smile to followers of the Global Anti-Golf Movement (GAGM). Chris Kraul reports for the Los Angeles Times, Aug. 31:

In Caracas, the Poor Shall Inherit the Golf Course
CARACAS, Venezuela — Perched in a green and forested aerie in the city's southern hills, the exclusive Valle Arriba Golf Club has long offered its members a breathtaking view and a pleasant escape from urban cacophony and congestion.

Now, a staunch ally of President Hugo Chavez wants it.

In its Sept. 6 account based on its reading of a direct translation, Newsday portrays the Pakistani government's new peace pact with tribal insurgents in Waziristan, in the autonomous Federally Administrated Tribal Areas along the Afghan border, as appeasement of Islamist militants. Which maybe it is. But this is further evidence of how Bush has painted both the US and Pakistan into a corner: the rise of the fundamntalists (which Newsday's text sloppily refers to as the "Taliban," meaning that they share the Afghan Taliban's ideology) to power in Waziristan is a result of US-mandated militarization of the region. A real crackdown could result in Gen. Musharraf's overthrow—and a Taliban-type regime coming to power in nuclear-armed Pakistan.

A Canadian soldier was killed and dozens wounded, five seriously, when two US fighter jets mistakenly strafed them Sept. 4 at a battlefront in Kandahar. (CanWest News Service, Sept. 5) If we were to engage in conspiracy theory, we could hypothesize that this wasn't really "friendly fire," but intentional retaliation for perceived Canadian national insubordination to US global leadership.

Well well, it seems Amnesty International's conspiracy theories are decisively vindicated! Straight from the horse's mouth! From the AP, Sept. 6 (Newspeak phrase in bold):

Bush acknowledges secret CIA prisons
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Wednesday acknowledged previously secret CIA prisons around the world and said 14 high-value terrorism suspects — including the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks — have been transferred from the system to Guantanamo Bay for trials.

From the New York Times, Sept. 5:

LEWISTON, Me. — On a hot July night, a few dozen Somali men were kneeling shoulder to shoulder in prayer at a storefront mosque here when the door opened and the frozen head of a pig, an animal considered unclean in Islam, rolled across the floor.

From DPA, Sept. 5:

BERLIN - At 40 Berlin mosques, imams are to lead prayers this Friday for the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.