News
Mexico suspends diplomatic visa exemption for Canadians
Mexico’s foreign secretary has announced the suspension of a visa exemption for Canadian diplomats and officials working in Mexico the country. The decision comes in response to the announcement late Monday by the Canadian government that it was introducing a new visa for Mexican nationals wanting to travel to Canada. Canadian officials and diplomats will now […]
Blogs on the helicopters
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister Gordon Brown quoted Lt Col Nick Richardson in Afghanistan who said he had "sufficient [helicopters] to get on with the task with which he’s been given". Which suggests he was given a very particular task (like painting a helicopter or something), because earlier that morning, the Head of the British […]
Video: Canadian Embassy besieged by Mexicans
The Canadian Embassy in Mexico City’s posh Polanco neighbourhood has been descended upon by thousands of Mexicans since the Canadian government announced on Monday that Mexican nationals now need a visa to travel to Canada. Since Tuesday, Mexicans from Mexico City and states outside of the Federal District (another name for the capital) have been […]
Canada to require visas for Mexicans following surge in refugee claims
Mexican nationals will now need a visa to travel to Canada, that country’s minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, announced Monday. Canada decided to stiffen the requirements due to what officials said has been a surge in claims for refugee status by Mexicans. In a news release, Canadian immigration officials said that for the first […]
Wives left behind in Mexico by migrants suffer ‘poorer mental health’
Mexican women left behind by husbands who migrate to the United States in search of work were one of the focuses of the documentary "Los Que Se Quedan," or "Those Who Remain," by Carlos Hagerman and Juan Carlos Rulfo, which we’ve mentioned a number of times here on La Plaza. In response to those posts, […]
Brazil to inquire UK about ‘exported’ waste
Brazilian police are investigating several national and UK companies after 64 containers with over 1,400 tonnes of hazardous waste were found in three southern ports in Santos and Rio Grande do Sul. The Federal Public Ministry, the Brazilian prosecuting service, demanded the Foreign Ministry to inquire the UK about the waste that was sent to […]
Don’t Send Me Home, says Refugee
Been busy with other things so have missed a few gems over the past few weeks, so I’ll be catching up on a few oldies starting with this in the Sudan Tribune… The chairman of Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur dismissed reports by the African Union – United Nations mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on […]
Two More Foreigners Abducted in Somalia?
In August, two foreign freelance reporters were abducted by gunmen in Mogadishu. The kidnappings of Nigel Brennan and Amanda Lindhout from the Shamo Hotel marked an up-tick in violence against foreigners, and especially reporters, in a country that was already one of the most dangerous in the world for visitors. Of course, it’s no cake-walk […]
French journalists kidnapped in Mogadishu
Two French journalists were kidnapped in the Somali capital Mogadishu this morning. Gunmen snatched the duo from the Sahafi Hotel (pictured above) where most journalists stay when visiting. I’ll add more to this post as and when I get information, Somali gunmen stormed a hotel in the capital Mogadishu and grabbed two French journalists on […]
The Future of Darfur Advocacy
Over at The Promise of Engagement my good friend Bec Hamilton, who is researching a book on Darfur, kicks off a debate on the future of advocacy… Alex de Waal and Nick Kristof come from relatively different ends of the Darfur advocacy spectrum. Yet last week de Waal’s Making Sense of Darfur piece asked “Can […]
From Colombia: an unusual expedition in the Andes
In the beginning of July an unusual expedition took off from the south of Colombia towards Ecuador. The Ruta Inka takes young people from all over the world to traditional Andean communities. On July 4, a group of 35 youths from 11 countries such as Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brasil, UK, Spain and Poland started gathering […]
Shoddy Deals for Darfur
So you may remember that a few weeks ago I wondered what had prompted three NGOs – smeared, criminalised, intimidated – expelled from Darfur to consider returning. With no guarantees that the same thing wouldn’t happen all over again once they had poured millions of dollars more into the region, they decided to return with […]
Prix Pictet highlights changing Earth
The shortlist for the second edition of the Prix Pictet has been announced, showcasing serious and thought-provoking photography about the state of our planet. Conceived as a prize to highlight environmental photography, the Prix Pictet has quickly become one of the world’s most presitigious and lucrative photographic prizes. The Prix Pictet is the world’s first […]
Deja Vu: Youth activists, bloggers targetted in the South Caucasus
Estranged neighbours they may be, but it’s often been said that of all the countries in the South Caucasus and the surrounding region Armenia and Azerbaijan are the most similar. True, one is mainly moslem and the other not, but most outside observers would be hard pressed to find any other differences in terms of […]
Beaten activists sentenced for two months while investigation goes on
On 10 July 2009, a session of Sabail District Court of Baku, chaired by Justice Rauf Ahmedov, has sentenced two civil society activists – Emin Abdullayev (Milli) and Adnan Hajizada to two months of pre-trial investigation detention. Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada are accused of ‘domestic group hooliganism’ according to Article 221.2 of Criminal Code […]
Gambling for Sudan
I’m generally in favour of celebrities getting involved in awareness raising campaigns for Africa’s miserable assortment of wars. And, while destroying children’s toys for Darfur appeared to show a slight misunderstanding of the nature of kids’ playthings in this part of the world, I wasn’t going to get too pedantic about cultural disconnects and so […]
Beaten youth activists to stand trial for hooliganism
As I reported in my previous post, two prominent civil society activists and leading figures of youth movement in Azerbaijan – Emin Milli (Abdullayev) and Adnan Hajizada have been attacked while dining at a downtown restaurant and got severely beaten. Moreover, when they tried to complain to police, they were detained as suspects in ‘hooliganism’ […]
The front line in Afghanistan
The BBC’s Ian Pannell and cameraman Fred Scott are on the front line in Helmand. The British troops they film are taking part in Operation Panther’s Claw, which has cost the lives of seven British soldiers in the last week. I picked this up via Dr Ken Payne on the Kings of War blog, […]
Civil society and youth activists beaten and detained in downtown Baku
Two prominent Azeri civil society and youth activists – Emin Milli, one of the founders of Alumni Network, a grassroots youth movement and Adnan Haji-zadeh, a video-blogger from OL! Youth Movement have been attacked by unidentified persons while dining with a group of fellow activists in a restaurant in downtown Baku. According to witnesses, two suspicious ‘sportsmen’ entered the […]
How can they protect us?
The Red Cross and the UK Foreign Office launched a campaign this week looking at the Geneva Conventions some 60 years on. Of particular interest to Frontline Club members and blog readers is the question of how to protect of journalists, It is important that the media are able to report the true picture of […]
Help Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan
Freelance journalists Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan remain hostages in Somalia almost one year since they were nabbed on the outskirts of Mogadishu in August, 2008. Despite reports of them both being in a very bad health and of Lindhout reportedly being pregnant, it appears the Australian and Canadian governments refuse to cough up the, […]
If you want a different take…
…on the recent deaths of British Army soldiers, Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe and Tpr Joshua Hammond, in Afghanistan then head over to Defence of the Realm. The author, Richard North, believes the BBC missed the point about the weaknesses of the Viking that the soldiers were travelling in when it was hit by an Improvised […]
Cross of honour and debate
Four soldiers have received Germany’s new medal for bravery for their actions in Afghanistan – the first German military decorations awarded for bravery on the battlefield since WWII. It’s known as the Ehrenkreuz der Bundeswehr für Tapferkeit or Cross of Honour for Bravery. Yes it does bear a similar shape to the Iron Cross (Eisernes […]
Looted Britain by Frontline
Public utilities like telecom and gas and essential industries such as British Airways were sold off by the Tories in the closest thing, post-war, to legalised political corruption. What we all owned was taken away from us, flogged off at a cheap price to win votes, and the proceeds used to fund tax cuts. In […]
Pure Kashmir by Muzamil Jaleel
Illustration by Clara Vulliamy While Pakistan has helped the war on terror, it has been reluctant to crack down on militants from the Lashkar-E-Taiba group. Now it is under pressure to do just that – with explosive results. The guard stands lazily at the entrance of a crammed brick bunker. Without saying a word, […]
Former captive warns of reporting risks on return to Beirut
Terry Anderson, former hostage and AP bureau chief in Beirut, returned to Lebanon this week to give a talk on the ‘global hazards of reporting’ at the Issam Fares Centre. Anderson, who was kidnapped in 1985 and held for six years and nine months, spoke eloquently for over an hour about his kidnapping, the dangers […]
Moldy cheese, medieval instruments, and just enough beer…
Walking through his hometown of Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city, 26-year-old Narek Barseghyan still attracts looks from fellow residents for his unruly hair and an earring worn in what still remains a noticeably traditional and conservative society. Gyumri is slightly different from the rest of the country, however, and is not only suffering from a […]
What’s really happening
Ex-SAS man and best selling novelist Andy McNabb had some nice things to say about the Frontline Club website and the bloggers who blog here in the latest edition of New Media Age this week. Thanks to Club member Peter Moore for pointing this out to us on Twitter and uploading the above snap […]
US Army uses wikis to update field manuals
The Small Wars Journal informs us that the US Army is converting the contents of their field manuals into wiki format allowing soldiers to update military doctrine. (It’s wikipedia for the Army.) Lt Gen William Caldwell, a leader in the use of social media in the US military, writes: "By converting manuals into wikis, the […]
The Calais rules
Frontline Club founding member Tira Shubart sees her new BBC TV comedy series, Taking the flak, start next week. The series takes a wry look at the world of foreign correspondents reporting a fictitious African war and was originally entitled "The Calais Rules"… read on if these rules are new to you. In what might […]
