On August 30th 2009, The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), led by Yukio Hatoyama, won Japan’s Lower House election by a landslide, establishing 303 seats in the 480-seat chamber. The victory by the DPJ ended more than 50 years of almost continuous rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The... » read this article

This is an article about New Zealand (Godzone)* that is only controversial if you happen to be an archaeologist, an anthropologist, a Maori, or a rat. I have a friend in Godzone who is neither an archaeologist, nor an anthropologist, nor a Maori. I’m not sure about whether he’s a... » read this article

Published May 8, 2008 Rejecting the continued U.S. occupation of the sovereign nation of Hawaii, a group of Native Hawaiians has re-established its own government, named the Hawaiian Kingdom Government. On April 30, that government reclaimed the Iolani Palace, home of the last Hawaiian monarchs before they were overthrown by... » read this article

March 29, 2008 A category of semi-secret U.S. bases is vastly extending the Pentagon’s military presence around the globe. Innocuously called CSLs, for Cooperative Security Locations, these bases are a new, covert form of intervention. The CSLs and other loose security agreements allow the Pentagon to set up facilities and... » read this article

For its entire existence, Israel has been portrayed as a “civilised” society with Western “liberal democratic principles”, defended by an “heroic” army. Western media coverage has been bluntly biased in favour of Israel regardless of the enormity of Israel’s war crimes and Israel’s violations of international law and civilised norms.... » read this article

MAJURO, Marshall Islands (Marianas Variety, March 10) — Islanders from two ground zeros for 67 American nuclear tests and a third island that was engulfed in radioactive fallout in a Chernobyl-style nuclear accident are to file lawsuits in United States courts seeking more than $1 billion in compensation. Seeing virtually... » read this article

By Herbert Docena, February 25, 2006. Email : herbert@focusweb.org The author of this letter works at http://www.focusweb.org Dear all: Thanks to all the letters of concern and support. Yesterday morning, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared an indefinite "state of national emergency" in the Philippines. Issued on the very week when Filipinos... » read this article

"Have an aim in life, but don’t forget to pull the trigger." - Unknown Those who promote liberty and freedom, actually mean endless privileges for themselves. They’re the first in line for the handouts and to hell with everybody else. The mindless rhetoric dished out by presidents and prime ministers... » read this article

"Have an aim in life, but don’t forget to pull the trigger." - Unknown Those who promote liberty and freedom, actually mean endless privileges for themselves. They’re the first in line for the handouts and to hell with everybody else. The mindless rhetoric dished out by presidents and prime ministers... » read this article

16 December 2004 -The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan suffered a serious political setback in the country’s parliamentary election on December 11. Having won the presidency in 2000 and retained it in a bitterly contested election last March, the party had campaigned hard to gain a majority in... » read this article

28 June 2004 - Fields Avenue in Angeles, a seedy city north of Manila, is raucous and bustling. Music blasts out of the nightclubs that line the narrow strip, and Western men stroll along, a Filipina girl hanging off each arm. Inside the clubs, girls in bikinis and high-heeled boots... » read this article

  The White House has declared open season on Mark Latham. One by one, from George Bush to Richard Armitage (that's the no-neck bloke built like a brick dunny) and now to Armitage's boss, Colin Powell (or semi-colon, as John Button calls him), the Bush Administration made it obvious this... » read this article

  The White House has declared open season on Mark Latham. One by one, from George Bush to Richard Armitage (that's the no-neck bloke built like a brick dunny) and now to Armitage's boss, Colin Powell (or semi-colon, as John Button calls him), the Bush Administration made it obvious this... » read this article

  The country beyond Ramadi flattens out like a cracker biscuit. A six-lane desert highway stretches westward, all the way to Jordan. At times it crosses ribbons of green which sketch the route of irrigation canals; in other places it detours around scenes of battle-charred tanks and trucks, broken bridges... » read this article

  The country beyond Ramadi flattens out like a cracker biscuit. A six-lane desert highway stretches westward, all the way to Jordan. At times it crosses ribbons of green which sketch the route of irrigation canals; in other places it detours around scenes of battle-charred tanks and trucks, broken bridges... » read this article

  The United States has on more than one occasion inappropriately intervened in Australian politics. President George Bush's verbal attack late last week on the Australian Opposition Leader should not have taken place.   The argument between Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Mark Latham as to how long... » read this article

  The United States has on more than one occasion inappropriately intervened in Australian politics. President George Bush's verbal attack late last week on the Australian Opposition Leader should not have taken place.   The argument between Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Mark Latham as to how long... » read this article

Monday 17 May 2004, 13:36 Makka Time, 10:36 GMT  Pacific countries are under pressure to form an EU-style trading bloc, while tackling security issues at the same time. The security issues were high on Australia and New Zealand's agenda at the recent Pacific Roundtable on Counter-terrorism, hosted by the New... » read this article

April 29 2004 America's first experience of a relatively "easy" war followed by an extended period of guerrilla combat was not in Iraq; it was a century ago in the Philippines. Max Boot, the neoconservative commentator, described the defeat of the Filipino insurrection as "one of the most successful counter... » read this article

I am writing this in our autumn, once Tasmania's most beautiful season. But the china-blue skies are now nicotine scummed, as smoke from the burning of old-growth forest floats over Hobart, an inescapable reminder that the destruction of ancient woodland - like no other in the world - is accelerating.... » read this article