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More than 30,000 Sri Lankan civilians have fled the northern part of their South Asian island nation in recent days. The Tamil rebel group, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE, controls the region, a final sanctuary of the country that they have been cornered into. It is estimated than 100,000 civilians are still trapped …

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This Friday April 24th is the day of commemoration for the Armenian Genocide and this year much attention will fall on President Barack Obama. The United States has continually failed to officially recognize the atrocities committed by the Ottoman Turkish government from 1915 – 1923 as ‘genocide.’ But Obama during his presidential campaign was unequivocal stating, …

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Monday marked the tenth anniversary of the so-called Columbine Massacre, when two teenagers killed 12 classmates and a teacher in a shooting rampage at a high school in Littleton, Colorado. Tom Mauser, whose son was murdered that day, marked the occasion by calling on the Obama administration and the U.S. congress to pass legislation closing a …

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The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889

Back in the day on April 22nd, 1889, the so-called Oklahoma Land Rush began. Exactly one-hundred and twenty years ago, an estimated 50,000 white would-be settlers made a mad dash at high noon to stake their claim to the newly available two million acres of so-called unassigned lands. A majority …

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The New York Times reported yesterday that the Central Intelligence Agency extensively used waterboarding against two al-Qaeda suspects. The technique, which Attorney General Holder has deemed to be torture, was employed 183 times on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 83 times against Abu Zubaydah according to one of the four Bush-era torture memos that were released by the …

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The United Nations opened its week long global conference against racism in Geneva, Switzerland yesterday. Known as the Durban II Conference, it is the first meeting in eight years since the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance took place in 2001 in Durban, South Africa. The US has boycotted both meetings over …

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There are currently more slaves today than at any time in human history. That’s the basis of a new and extremely disturbing book by Benjamin Skinner, called A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face With Modern Slavery. Using the definition of slaves as “those that are compelled to work, through force or fraud, for no pay beyond subsistence,” …

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The Tolpuddle Martyrs Demonstration

Back in the day on April 21st, 1834, a massive demonstration by thirty-five unions in Britain marched in defense of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. One month prior to the major protest that took place exactly one hundred and seventy-five years ago, six impoverished farm workers had been convicted in a blatantly unfair …

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Thirty four members of the Organization of American States met in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago over the weekend for the fifth Summit of the Americas. President Obama’s first meeting with many of Latin American heads of state, followed a widely-published op-ed prior to the summit that emphasized putting aside past differences and moving on …

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Acclaimed Indian actress Nandita Das makes her writing and directorial debut in a new film, Firaaq, part of this week’s Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. Das, who has played controversial roles in Deepa Mehta’s films, Fire and Earth, spent the past two years making a film that also stirs up controversy. Firaaq is a fictitious …

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