Common Dreams

JERUSALEM - Two boats carrying dozens of international activists sailed into the Gaza Strip Saturday in defiance of an Israeli blockade, receiving a jubilant welcome from thousands of Palestinians.The boats docked in Gaza City’s tiny port after a two-day journey marred by communications troubles and rough seas. As they arrived, children swarmed around and leaped [...]

DERBY LINE, Vt. - The changes started coming slowly to this small town where the U.S. border with Canada runs across sleepy streets, through houses and families, and smack down the middle of the shared local library. First was the white, painted lettering on the pavement on three little side streets - “Canada” on one side, [...]

Forty-five years to the day after Martin Luther King delivered his “I have a dream” speech, Barack Obama will become the first black man picked by a major party to run for president. Having picked Senator Joe Biden as his running mate, he is due to accept the Democratic nomination as their candidate in front [...]

HERAT, Afghanistan  - An investigation has found that more than 90 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in coalition air strikes days ago, an Afghan government minister told AFP Sunday. President Hamid Karzai ordered the investigation into Friday’s operation in the western province of Herat after Afghan officials said high numbers of civilians were killed [...]

ERICE, Sicily - This ancient hilltop town, rife with Roman, Greek, Norman and other influences, is hosting a very modern gathering: a conference on global risks like cyberterrorism, climate change, nuclear weapons and the world’s lagging energy supply. More than 120 scientists, engineers, analysts and economists from 30 countries were hunkered down here for the 40th [...]

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military on Saturday released a cameraman working for Associated Press Television News after nearly three months in detention, saying no evidence was found that he posed a security threat. Ahmed Nouri Raziak, 38, was handed over to representatives of The Associated Press at a U.S. military compound in Baghdad. He was detained [...]

HERAT, Afghanistan  - Afghan villagers staged an angry protest Saturday amid claims that 76 civilians were killed in coalition air strikes against Taliban rebels, as the US military launched an investigation. President Hamid Karzai condemned civilian casualties from Friday’s clashes in the western province of Herat but there were conflicting claims about the death toll, with [...]

Israel warned tonight that an attempt by peace activists to sail two boats to the Gaza Strip was a “provocation” and said it would consider “all options” to prevent them reaching their destination. A group of 46 activists set sail this morning from Cyprus and were hoping to reach Gaza tomorrow to challenge the economic blockade [...]

STOCKHOLM  - A spectre is haunting the cities and villages of most developing nations, warns a senior official of a World Bank-affiliated organisation. “It’s the spectre of a food, fuel and water crisis,” says Lars Thunell, executive vice president of the Washington-based International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group. “I believe we are [...]

CHICAGO - Barack Obama Saturday named veteran Senate colleague Joseph Biden as his vice presidential running mate, adding foreign policy heft — but also a loose tongue — to his ticket for November’s election against Republican John McCain. After hours of media leaks, the 47-year-old Democratic White House hopeful confirmed that he was picking the [...]

WASHINGTON  - Whatever hopes the George W. Bush administration may have had for using its post-9/11 “war on terror” to impose a new Pax Americana on Eurasia, and particularly in the unruly areas between the Caucasus and the Khyber Pass, appear to have gone up in flames — in some cases, literally — over the [...]

DENVER - As they meet for their national convention Monday through Thursday, Democrats are poised to shift their party’s course - and the country’s.They’re turning to the left - deeply against the war in Iraq, ready to use tax policy to take from the rich and give to the poor and middle class, and growing [...]

Rachel Maddow has been sounding off about politics on MSNBC so often she might as well have her own show. And now she does. The liberal commentator and Air America radio host, who has become a breakout star for the cable channel during the presidential campaign, is taking over the 9 p.m. slot following Keith Olbermann, whom [...]

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration will soon be packed and gone, but part of its legacy will live on in cyberspace. A consortium of government and nonprofit agencies plans to capture snapshots of every federal government Web site before Jan. 20, when the next president moves into the White House and starts remaking the federal bureaucracy [...]

KABUL - Afghans believe the United States knows about al Qaeda bases in Pakistan, but does not hit them because it wants an unstable Afghanistan to justify its presence for wider regional goals, a state newspaper said on Wednesday. While many Afghans have vented such thoughts for some time, it was the first time a state [...]

WASHINGTON - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s resignation Monday brings to an end an extraordinarily close relationship between Musharraf and the George W. Bush administration, in which Musharraf was lavished with political and economic benefits from the United States despite policies that were in sharp conflict with U.S. security interests. It is well known that Bush repeatedly [...]

KARACHI - ‘’For you it’s just another story. If you want the truth go to Ghazni where you will get more than I can ever tell you about my sister,” said a distraught Fouzia Siddiqi, speaking with IPS, in a voice breaking with helpless desperation. Fouzia’s younger sister, Aafia Siddiqi, 35, made headlines after the Federal [...]

LOS ANGELES - The trial of a former US Marine accused of killing two Iraqi detainees during fighting in Fallujah four years ago began with jury selection in the landmark case, justice officials said. Lawyers at the US District Court in Riverside, east of Los Angeles, Tuesday began vetting a pool of around 120 jurors who [...]

The city has agreed to pay $2,007,000 to end a lawsuit brought by 52 people who were swept up in a mass arrest along a Midtown sidewalk during a protest against the invasion of Iraq. They were charged with blocking pedestrians, but videotapes show that at their most annoying, they might have slowed a few [...]

WARSAW  - Poland and the United States on Wednesday signed a deal to deploy part of a US missile shield on Polish territory in the face of deep Russian anger. “This will help us to deal with the new threats of the 21st century, of long-range missile threats from countries like Iran or from North Korea,” [...]