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Four German activists have been arrested on suspicion of being members or supporters of an alleged 'terrorist organisation' [lawyers'
press release | de]. The German federal police suspect that Militante Gruppe (MG or Militant Group) was behind several arson attacks against police and army vehicles since the group surfaced in 2001 [Federal Prosecution's press release]. The direct actions are said to have
included an attack on German federal police vehicles to protest against their involvement in immigration deportations and another in response to the G8 raids earlier this year. If found guilty, the four could face up to 10 years in prison. Another three men have been accused but not arrested.

Derry Anti-War Coalition visit to Lebanon

Over the past week I accompanied 12 members of the Derry Anti-War Coalition (DAWC), including the Raytheon 9, to visit communities in southern Lebanon which were devastated by the Israeli war last summer. We visited Bint Jbail and A'ita al-Chaab near the Israeli border, both of which received heavy bombardment from Israeli airstrikes and incursions from armoured bulldozers, tanks and troops, reducing civilian infrastructure to dust and pebble, their hearts to shock and fear, their eyes to tears for their lost loved ones. In addition to this, the DAWC protested outside the obliterated Palestinian refugee camp Nahr-al-Bared near Tripoli in Northern Lebanon.

The primary purpose of their visit was to lay a commemoration stone at Qana (read: Slaughter in Qana by the Israelis), site of a brutal Israeli massacre of innocent civilians one year ago. A poignant ceremony took place on Monday last with families of the deceased, local community leaders and Lebanese media.

A presidential Executive Order issued on July 17th, repeals with the stroke of a pen the right to dissent and to oppose the Pentagon's military agenda in Iraq.

The Executive Order entitled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq" provides the President with the authority to confiscate the assets of "certain persons" who oppose the US led war in Iraq:

"I have issued an Executive Order blocking property of persons determined to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq or undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people."

Sinan Tekpetek, legally responsible of biweekly anarchist newspaper "Ozgur Hayat" and the youth movement %52's magazine "%52 Ofke", was attacked by police on July 26th. That's how the incident happened:

On that evening at 11:30 pm., in Taksim, one of Istanbul's central districts, Sinan was stopped by police and asked his ID Card. Police checked his records on police's database, afterwards gave back him his ID Card, and quite politely let him go. Sinan went on walking, but after 5 minutes a police car approached him and three policemen took Sinan into the car violently. In the car they consistently hit Sinan, used pepper gas on his face repeatedly. Sinan couldn't raise his head and so he couldn't see where he was taken. After almost 15 minutes, the car stopped in a place where Sinan could only see the historical 'city wall's. Here the violence went on, and two more police cars came, 10 or 11 policemen in total hit Sinan repeatedly with fists and batons, kicked, sweared him, used pepper gas on him, and threatened him ("we'll kill you") with their guns. This violence went on about one and a half hour. Then they took him again in one car and drove. While the car was moving (with a speed like 40 km/h) they threw Sinan from the car without stopping. The time was approximately 01:30 am.

From Athens News, Athens Ohio:
An un-permitted parade of more than 150 costumed anarchists and their supporters filled North Court Street Saturday night. They barricaded the West State Street intersection and danced, chanted, climbed light poles, banged on objects and fire danced before police dispersed the crowd, using squad cars and pepper spray. "Were just having fun," one marcher told a bystander who asked what they were protesting. The parade participants were in Athens for the 2007 CrimethInc. Convergence. CrimethInc. is an international network made up of anarchists and
other radicals. After the crowd scattered, Athens Police made one arrest for disorderly conduct by intoxication, one for riot, and three for obstructing official business, according to a report released by Police Lt. Randy Gray. The
identities of the individuals have not been released.

The Icelandic government and ALCOA are beginning to line up political prisoners with their repression of protests against the heavy industry policy.

A twenty three year old British Saving Iceland activist who was arrested today on the action against Rio Tinto-Alcan, has been imprisoned for eight days.

Apparently the activist was told by the Icelandic police that she was to pay a 100.000 kronur (£840) fine for her involvement in protests against ALCOA in the east of Iceland in the summer of 2006, or face prison. She chose the latter.

The third S. I. protestor to be imprisoned is an Icelandic 21 year old. (The first S.I. activist imprisoned was Paul Gill in 2005.) He is to sit in jail for 18 days, in August for protesting against the then still illegal ALCOA smelter in Reydarfjordur.

Other foreign protesters are now having their passports held at ransom by the police for fines based on accusations for obstructing the police, but no actual charges. According to a high ranking policeman this is the first time that the Icelandic police do this. It seems to be the routine with the Icelandic police that they repeatedly break their own laws in the almost certain hope they won't be caught out. This is yet another sign of the corruption that results from the close ties between the State and the judicial system in Iceland.

Dear friends,

At last, here comes an update on our situation! Our apologies to all our international friends, comrades and supporters throughout the world who have been awaiting this long for news, but as you can imagine, we've been really busy. Anyways, it's more than time to confirm the rumour that's been spreading for four weeks already: we might not have won the fight, but we definitely have won the first round!

Faced with a situation where even professed left-wing political parties refuse to take the measures necessary to prevent the deaths of people who have lost their homes and livelihoods, homeless families in Rio de Janeiro have taken matters into their own hands. Across the city, occupations by families of empty government and private buildings have sprung up.

Brazil: Homeless Occupation Movements in Rio De Janeiro
by Kyle Weinberg

Slavery wasn’t abolished in Brazil until 1888, and when it ended, newly-freed slaves were cast to the streets to fend for themselves with no resources or property. Thus began the precarious situation of Afro-Brasileros post-slavery. Current manifestations of this infamous legacy are the favelas - prevalent in all major Brazilian cities, including Rio de Janeiro. Unlike Sao Paolo, where favelas are concentrated on the periphery of the city, Rio has favelas spread out all over, often right next to the richest of neighborhoods. The favelas receive almost no government assistance and any resources they have are "appropriated" from outside the favela. Streets are unpaved, sewer infrastructure doesn't exist and electricity and water are often stolen from more affluent adjacent barrios.

Brazilians who were able to pay the rent for apartments in the city are now finding themselves priced out of the market as traditional working-class neighborhoods are being quickly gentrified. The minimum wage in Brazil is 380 reales a month (US $204) when the cheapest apartments in the city have rents of 500 reales (US $269). These conditions have led to an epidemic of homelessness amongst Rio’s poor. Only a few blocks away from places where tourists party in the clubs and are entertained by samba bands on the beach, homeless families can be found sleeping on the streets and participating in the informal economy by eking out a living as street vendors, if they are lucky. The current president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula), of the poorly-named Worker’s Party, has provided little if any resources to families forced onto the streets.

The Pentagon has awarded Boeing $80 million to begin planning and building two missile defence systems to be based in Poland and the Czech Republic, a spokesman for the US Missile Defense Agency said on Friday.

Rick Lehner said that under the contract, Boeing will deliver 10 interceptor missiles to a site in Poland and will move a large radar system from the US Marshall Islands to the Czech Republic. A smaller, mobile radar system will also be deployed.

The project will be worth around $3.5 billion and will come into effect once the US Congress approves a $310 million supplementary budget request for the European missile defence programme.

This report talks about the social condition of the people in Transcarpatia and the situation of "transit migrants". Many were hold on in camps like Pavshino (men) oder Mukachevo (women and children).

The city of Ushgorod, with about 125 000 inhabitants (1) lies in Transcarpatia, Ukraine, right beside the external EU border between Slovakia and Hungary. For the deterence experts Frontex (2) this is one of the most important "problem zones for illegal immigration". Transcarpatia is a focal point in a double sense: It's where tens of thousands of Ukrainian workers originate and the transit site for innumerable refugees and migrants from countries of the Global South.

As the Anarchists Against the Wall (AATW) get more credit as serious activists, we are both invited to (and on our own initiative) join other struggles. Among the struggles within Israeli borders, we have recently been invited to participate in four main struggles. There is the gentrification project in the old Palestinian neighborhood of Jaffa (now annexed as the southern district of Tel Aviv). About 500 Palestinian families holding Israeli citizenship were issued court orders for the demolition (of the whole or part) of their homes - to clear the area for gentrification by the rich (mostly Jews from Tel Aviv). The few direct actions AATW people were involved in have already prevented some demolitions for a while.

In the Ukrainian part of Transcarpatia the European Union keeps away refugees.

The Ukraine is a country shaken by political turbulences. And that not only because of its specific geopolitical position in the middle of the ambivalent "transit area" between European Union and Russia. While the Baltic States are firmly oriented towards the West and EU Member States since 2004, Belarus leans upon Russia closely and very strict. In the Ukraine both tendencies exist almost balanced. As a neighbouring country east of the European Union, the Ukraine is an important transit country on the way from the East to the West. Migration being no issue so far in Ukraine and the border towards the east still as pervious as ever, the situation at the western border changed a lot through the enlargement of the EU. These changes recently led to a downright "migration tailback" along the border of the EU towards Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. All these states made readmission agreements with the Ukraine, the EU followed lately. That's why the border police sends everyone back being taken up during an illegal border crossing, even refugees. Back in the Ukraine the illegal border-crosser is first arrested and then interned, for example in the detention camp in Pavschino in Transkarpatia. Via the UNHCR in Budapest an Kiew we got the permission to visit the prison in Chop and the detention camp in Pavschino. The Human Rights Organisation Pro Asyl initiated the research on detention camps in the western part of Ukraine.

The mounting legal cost of the joint Palestinian-Israeli struggle against the occupation is forcing us to send this urgent appeal for funds. We are asking for your support to continue the work of the Israeli group Anarchists Against the Wall (AATW).

For the past four years, the group has supported the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation and specifically against Israel's segregation wall. Week after week, AATW joins the Palestinian popular resistance against the wall, in diverse areas of the West Bank, including the villages of Bil'in west of Ramallah, al-Ma'asara, and Ertas, south of Bethlehem, and Beit Ummar, north of Hebron.

The resistance against heavy industry and large dams in Iceland has heated up, and not just because of global warming. The week began with Reykjavik's first Reclaim the Streets on the 14th of July, where a rebel clown army raved in opposition to aluminium. The day after a public meeting was held with the people of Thorlakshöfn (named as a site for two new aluminum smelters) and activists from anti-heavy industry struggles in South Africa and Trinidad. On Wednesday the 18th, Saving Iceland closed the supply road to Century Aluminum's Grundartangi Smelter and the Icelandic Alloys steel factory. On Friday, Reykjavik Energy was targeted and a huge banner was raised accusing the electricity company of supplying energy to war-mongering corporations ALCAN-RioTinto and Century-RUSAL. That morning, the Icelandic consulate in Edinburgh, Scotland was painted red under the slogan 'Iceland Bleeds', and locks were glued.

Much of the aluminium produced goes directly to the war efforts of the US, Russia and others. Aluminium is the single most important bulk metal for modern warfare(1). It is the most important bulk metal for missiles, tanks, fighter planes, and nuclear weapons. It's as if Iceland is organizing a competition which company - ALCOA, Alcan/RioTinto or Century/RUSAL - has committed the most human rights and environmental crimes to decide who to sell energy," says Saving Iceland.

On the night of 20-21 July, a large group of neo-nazis attacked the ecological camp in Angarsk Siberia. One person has died from the attack.

Ilya from Wladiwostok was unconscious and bleeding from the mouth already at the camp and died in the hospital. Others were seriously wounded - one guy has two broken legs, a women as two broken arms, someone has an injury to the skull. The campers were attacked with knives, metal bars and pnuematic pistols. The entire camp was also burned.

It should be said that the campers must have had little chance to defend themselves; there were probably less than 10 of them in the camp. They were attacked by about 40 people.