[Malalai Joya visits a girls school in Farah province, Afghanistan, November, 2007. Photo: Wikimedia.]
By Malalai Joya
October 24, 2010 -- Malalai Joya, now 32, was the youngest woman elected to the Afghan Parliament in 2005. A feminist activist who has defied the Taliban, Joya is also an outspoken opponent of the US/NATO occupation of Afghanistan. Joya says the war is a crime against her people that is propping up corrupt warlords and fundamentalists no better than the Taliban.
Joya will be speaking at Deakin University in Melbourne as part of the “The World in Crisis — Business as Usual?” conference over November 11-13. Joya will also speak in Sydney on November 16 at UTS. See the Green Left Weekly calendar for full details.

[The Ramu nickel mine is set to dump 100 million tonnes of mine tailings into the pristine Basamuk Bay (pictured).]
By Ash Pemberton, Green Left Weekly
October 24, 2010 -- More than 100 landowners from the Madang Province of Papua New Guinea have said they want to join a court battle to stop millions of tonnes of mine waste being dumped into the sea, the Ramu Nickel Mine Watch website said on October 17.
The challenge was launched by 37 landowners, with others indicating their intent to join the case.

October 14, 2010 -- Fisherfolk rally for debt cancellation, Karachi.
By Farooq Tariq -- The recent devastating flood, affecting the lives of more than 20 million people in Pakistan, has once again revealed the severe poverty that people of Pakistan are facing. The only property that many hundreds of thousands were left with after fleeing their mud homes perhaps was just a trunk, few clothes and pottery and may be a donkey, cow or a buffalo.

[RAMSI troops on patrol in Honiara. RAMSI continues to be criticised for targeting political opponents of Australian interests. Photo: pacific.scoop.co.nz.]
By Ash Pemberton, Green Left Weekly
October 17, 2010 -- The Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), involving involves police and soldiers, is set to continue its occupation of the Pacific island for at least “five to six years”, despite a change of government in the Solomon Islands.

[Image: MQ-9 Reaper drone in flight. Media stories quoting unnamed officials warning of potential terror attacks are being used to justify the increase in drone attacks in Pakistan.]
By Tony Iltis, Green Left Weekly
October 17, 2010 -- On October 3, US authorities warned US citizens travelling in Western Europe that there was an increased threat from Islamist terrorism. The same day, British authorities cautioned their citizens travelling in France or Germany. France, for its part, issued a warning for French nationals visiting Britain.

[Image: Activists have been jailed for displaying the Moluccan flag.] October 16, 2010, Green Left Weekly -- Moluccan refugees will protest against Australia’s support for the Indonesian military outside South Australian Parliament house on October 26.
The protesters say that the Indonesian military, particularly Detachment 88, which receives financial and logistical support from Australian army, has been involved in heavy repression of Moluccan independence activists.

Update from Australia Asia Worker Links
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) has called for international participation in a People’s Week of Collective Action protesting the G20 Seoul Summit. The Lee Myeong-bak administration is using the upcoming Summit as an excuse to strengthen repression against South Korean workers and labour unions, ordinary people and social movements in South Korea. At the same time, claiming they are "establishing public order to support the successful opening of the G20 Summit" the Immigration Service and other government agencies have been conducting a massive crackdown on undocumented migrants, during which migrants are brutally arrested, imprisoned and then deported.
For more information visit the KCTU site.

[For full-sized image click here.]
An October 13 report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council stated: "Since May 2010 and particularly in May and June, an unknown number of Papuans, ranging from several hundreds to several thousands, have been reported to be internally displaced in the central highlands region of Puncak Jaya, where the government of Indonesia has been conducting counter-insurgency operations against rebels of the OPM (Free Papua Movement).

Click here to see full set of photos
By Peter Boyle -- On Sunday October 10 (10-10-10, an auspicious date in Thailand and many other Asian countries) at the Democracy Monument in Bangkok there was another semi-spontaneous Red Shirt mass mobilisation built largely by word of mouth. An eyewitness estimated that up to 8000 participated in this action to make the victims of the April 10 military shooting of unarmed Red Shirt protesters in Bangkok.