World Stage

"Liberty has no color" read the signs held outside a Buenos Aires city courthouse. "Arrested for having the wrong face," and "Suspected of an excess of pigment," said others. And more to the point: "Enough racism."

Over the last several decades, South Korea has made great strides: Our democracy has survived military dictatorships, our capital has evolved into one of the world's top ten financial and commercial cities, our companies have become global leaders, and our culture has spread its wings beyond our borders through the ``Korean Wave." But South Korea has a speckle: racism against foreigners.

Enacting the recently proposed Anti-Racism Law by Rep. Chin Young of the Grand National Party can be a crucial step to eradicate the blemish.

Nearly 60% of black and African people living in Russia's capital Moscow have been physically assaulted in racially motivated attacks, says a new study.
 
Africans working or studying in the city live in constant fear of attack, according to the report by the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy.
 
A quarter of 200 people surveyed said they had been assaulted more than once. Some 80% had been verbally abused.
 
But the number of assaults was down from the MPC's last survey in 2002.
 

 Absa Group Ltd., the South African bank controlled by Barclays Plc, said its black shareholders raised funds to retain a 5.1 percent stake, bolstering efforts to redress inequalities under apartheid.

Everywhere Rev. Jesse Jackson went in the pivotal West African nation of Cote d’Ivoire during a recent 4-day visit, he was was greeted as a head of state. He had a series of high level meetings with the President, Prime Minister, opposition leaders and national religious and youth leaders. He was ferried around in a 20-car motorcade, a local soccer stadium was named after him and thousands of people lined the streets, wearing his picture on t-shirts and chanting his name, ''Jesse! Jesse! Jesse!''

A United Nations envoy slammed Australia's military-led intervention in remote Aboriginal communities and said racism was "entrenched" in the country, in a damning assessment on Thursday.

UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights James Anaya said the intervention policy, where thousands of troops and police were sent to help curb alcohol-fuelled sexual abuse and domestic violence, was clearly discriminatory.

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro is accusing detractors of U.S. President Barack Obama of racism.

In an essay on state-run Web site cubadebate.com Monday, Mr. Castro said the "extreme right hates" Mr. Obama for being African-American and will do "everything possible" to block his agenda.

He said Mr. Obama inherited the problems of former U.S. President George W. Bush, but is trying to, in his words, "improve the deteriorated image" of the United States.

PRIME Minister Bruce Golding has ordered a probe into the theft of an estimated 500 truckloads of sand from a prime 64-acre property at Coral Spring near Duncans in Trelawny, which now seriously jeopardises a proposed $8-billion beachfront development.

Immediate speculation as to who could want that volume of sand that is said to be of no use to the construction industry, turned to the possibility that the culprits could be in the hotel sector where beaches are an enviable asset.