Hone Harawira, an elected member of New Zealand parliament for the newly formed Mana Party, caused a stir on July 14 when he refused to swear allegiance to the English queen in order to take his seat.
Instead, Harawiri swore allegiance, in Maori, to Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the 1840 treaty between Maori tribes and Britain that recognised Maori ownership of their lands.)
Stuff.co.nz said that day that parliamentary speaker Lockwood Smith refused to swear Harawira in as an MP on the grounds his affirmation was not legal.
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National Union of Journalists general secretary Michelle Stanistreet has drawn a direct link between compulsory redundancies at the BBC and the malign influence of Rupert Murdoch on the government.
She told pickets in London on July 15: "These cuts and job losses have been brought about directly by a decision to freeze the licence fee for the next six years.
"This was a shabby deal done by BBC management and the government behind closed doors last autumn, with no democratic scrutiny or transparent discussion.
About 1000 people took part in the Enough Campaign's protest against European Union/International Monetary Fund austerity program in Dublin on July 16.
Ireland鈥檚 seven-month-old United Left Alliance (ULA) is the 鈥渘ew kid on the block鈥 of European anti-capitalist parties.
Launched in November last year, it won five TDs (members of the Irish parliament, the Dail) in February elections, despite its name not appearing on the ballot paper.
To date the ULA has also won 20 positions in local councils and one seat in the European parliament.
In the Dail, the ULA TDs have already had successes, such as stopping the abolition of the Joint Labour Committees that set wages and conditions in some industries.
More than 100 loyalists (supporters of British rule) were involved in a serious mob assault at a 鈥減eaceline鈥 in the mid-Ulster town of Portadown in Northern Ireland on July 15, throwing bricks, bottles, paint-bombs, fireworks and at least one blast bomb.
The mid-Ulster Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) has been widely blamed for the assault, the latest in a series of large-scale attacks it has mounted over the 鈥渕arching season鈥 (when the Protestant Orange Order holds provocative anti-Catholic marches).
The six Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) members detained under the Malaysian government's emergency ordinance since June 25, have been deprived of all creature comforts.
They are locked up in 2-by-2.5 metre cells, in solitary confinement. The lights are on in the cells day and night and one-way mirrors ensure there is no privacy.
Shortly before noon on July 21, officers from the Australian Federal Police raided the Sydney office of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, confiscating material but making no arrests.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the millionaire former president of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and leader of France鈥檚 center-left Socialist Party, is charged with raping a west African immigrant housekeeper in a five-star Manhattan hotel.
But Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr seems like he wants to make the whole case go away.
After initially agreeing to US$1 million bail and house arrest, Vance arranged for Strauss-Kahn to be released without any bail. The press reported prosecutors and Strauss-Kahn鈥檚 lawyers met about a deal in which the case would be dropped.
Despite growing international outrage over the Sri Lankan military鈥檚 mass killings of over 40,000 Tamil civilians in 2009, the Sri Lankan government is defiantly refusing to heed international demands for an independent investigation into the atrocities. Instead it is escalating a range of discriminatory and repressive policies towards the Tamil people.
Australia鈥檚 cricketers should take a principled stand in defence of human rights and justice, and boycott playing with Sri Lanka until the government there conducts itself according to the rules of international society.
Asylum seekers in Scherger detention centre in north Queensland launched a hunger strike on the morning of July 21.
By the afternoon of July 22, 67 asylum seekers had joined the hunger strike. Most of the protesters are ethnic Hazaras from Afghanistan.
The asylum seekers released the statement below on July 22.
* * *
In the Name of Merciful God,
This hunger strike is a response to the continued pressure exercised by the Australian Immigration Department on us.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch described his appearance before the British parliamentary hearing into the News Of The World鈥檚 phone hacking scandal as the 鈥渕ost humble day鈥 of his life.
His son, James, added: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a matter of great regret 鈥 these actions do not live up to the standards that our company aspires to around the round.鈥
On July 15, former NSW Greens MP Sylvia Hale and I used the freedom from deportation awarded us by an Israeli court to good effect. We joined the largest rally for some years in support of a Palestinian state ahead of the expected United Nations vote in September.
We carried a green and yellow banner saying, 鈥淎ussies say end blockade of Palestine鈥. The rally and march, with drumming circles and flowers was organized by a coalition of groups called Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity.
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