Lead Stories
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Last month in Argentina, the legislature debated a bill authored by Senator Jorge Capitanich that was meant to help restore voters’ faith in their elected officials. (The country is gripped by the worst economic crisis in its history; food riots and violent protests have paralyzed major cities, and a slogan popular with the public translates to “Get Rid of Them All!”) The bill would require all congressional and presidential candidates to prove they’ve paid their taxes, disclose their criminal records, and submit to mental and physical exams to ensure they’re fit to hold office.
In July in Escravos, Nigeria, about 150 women occupied the country’s largest oil terminal for ten days, blockading over a thousand workers inside, and demanded jobs for their families and a fairer share of oil revenues; to back up their demands the women threatened to take off their clothes–a traditional protest used to shame and humiliate men. (The terminal’s owner, ChevronTexaco, capitulated and promised to hire local workers to modernize poor villages in the area.) And in August in Rajasthan, India, fundamentalist Hindus protesting the movie Kaante (whose profits they claim support organized crime) said they would release poisonous snakes into theaters showing the film.
In June near Chania, Crete, a 20-year-old fisherman accidentally shot himself with his spear gun, driving the three-foot projectile up through his jaw and out the top of his skull; still fully conscious, he floated in the sea for six hours before being found, then survived three hours of surgery to remove the spear. Because the spear passed through a “non-functional” space in his brain, the man was soon back on his feet with no serious problems.
In the Last Month
