foreign affairs

Veiled Kashmiri Muslim women protesters wait to start a protest to mark the U.N. Human Rights Day in Srinagar, December 10, 2004. Indian police fired teargas shells in Kashmir's main city on Friday to disperse hundreds of demonstrators protesting against alleged human rights violations in the disputed Himalayan region, witnesses said. (Reuters)


A Palestinian boy holds an election poster of jailed presidential candidate Marwan Barghouthi during a rally for the Fatah movement in Rojeeb village near the West Bank city of Nablus, December 10, 2004. (Reuters)

news: Uneasy calm at indigenous funeral in Northern Australia. Pakistan says it has arrested 14 suspects from yesterday's bombing in Quetta. Spain arrests syriam, alleges extremist links. 5500 US soldiers refuse to serve. Of Cricket and Crusades in India, Bangladesh. Devastating oil spill feared in Alaska. science and tech: birds of a feather not related to each other. New Maldives island rises from the depths.
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Union Carbide: Innocent yet Guilty

The Union Carbide Corporation, a wholly owned susbidiary of Dow Chemical Co., owned a factory that released 27 tons of poisonous gas in Bhopal, India on December 3rd, 1984. A recent Amnesty International report stated: "Astonishingly, no one has been held to account for the toxic leak and its appalling consequences - over 20,000 people have died and 100,000 people are living with chronic illnesses." More info on this incident is available here.