Yasser Arafat, RIP also.
There's so much conflict about his legacy, he was well-loved and idolised by most of his people but hated and detested by the Israelis, by the Americans and others who thought him corrupt, inefficient, and dishonest.
This article presents a different view from that commonly expressed in most news-media articles and reports, one that paints an ironic picture of Arafat's actions and their impact on his people.
We can only hope that the situation in the Palestinian territories don't flare out of control.

Afghanistan has largely been forgotten by (American) mainstream newsmedia but that doesn't mean that things there are good and just. This news feature from The Nation's website shows just how chaotic and oppressive conditions have remained like before. Warlords of different factions rule the countryside and the government in Kabul are not blameless themselves. Also the democractic elections that took place weren't exactly democratic as the feature mentions.

The coming elections in Iraq are not exactly democratic either, and Naomi Klein writes about how and why the US administration has gathered so much hatred, ill-will and mistrust from the Iraqis concerning the running of their country.

The battle in Fallujah is almost coming to an end with US forces gaining control of most of the city and inflicting huge losses on the Iraqi resistance. However there is nothing beneficial to the Iraqi people from this victory or occupation for that matter. There's certainly great suffering by the people of Fallujah that we may never be aware of and know, but is happening.

Fianlly, this article also from the Nation, is on Columbia, more specifically the mounting US-supported war on drugs and rebels, one which is the longest-running war in the western hemisphere and also the bloodiest. While both sides in this conflict, the leftist FARC guerillas and the government with their rightist paramilitary 'allies' have committed serious violence and atrocities in this war, the government is reputed to carry out human-rights violations like assasinations and imprisonments of government civil opponents.