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OVER 100 people were killed by the gas which Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered to be pumped into the Moscow theatre siege last weekend. The horror of the siege's end gave a glimpse of the brutal methods used by the Russian state in Chechnya, methods which created the hostage crisis. Putin, along with Tony Blair and most of the British press, describe the Chechens as fanatical terrorists.

STRIKES ARE on the rise in Zimbabwe. Teachers, lecturers and health workers have all taken action over the last month as living conditions have deteriorated and rampant inflation has wiped out wage increases handed out before the presidential election. The Mugabe regime has responded with bitter repression, including torture and jailings. None of this is reflected in the British papers which are so quick to raise an outcry about the "sufferings" of white farmers

TONY BLAIR is putting lives at risk. But trade unionists the length of Britain are organising to protect the safety of themselves and the public, while standing in solidarity with the firefighters and control room staff. Even the government virtually admits that its "alternative fire service" run by the army is wholly inadequate.

TONY BLAIR last week gave a speech blaming the IRA for violence in Northern Ireland. Yet just the day before, a former soldier gave shocking evidence at the Bloody Sunday inquiry which graphically illustrated the responsibility of the British state.

THE HORRIBLE racist abuse that black England players Emile Heskey and Ashley Cole received during the recent match in Slovakia has caused outrage in the press over here. Newspapers like the Sun have rushed to condemn the racism and state that it would never be accepted in Britain.

AN INTERNATIONAL protest against the closure of the Sangatte Red Cross refugee camp and the detention of refugees in Europe took place last Saturday. Beginning in Dover, delegations from Britain, France and Belgium crossed the Channel to protest outside the Sangatte camp.

POSTAL WORKERS across Britain in the Cash Handling and Distribution (CHD) section start a strike ballot next week. The Post Office wants to sell CHD to Securicor, a full privatisation that will affect 3,000 workers.

FIREFIGHTERS AND emergency control room staff have been voting for their first national strikes in 25 years. None of them relishes going on strike. They have been forced into it by a government that treats them with contempt. It is the same arrogant New Labour government that backs George Bush's war drive even though unprecedented numbers of people in Britain oppose it.

MILLIONS OF people in north west England and East Anglia this week faced worry and uncertainty over their electricity supply. An enormous crisis is sweeping Britain's power generating industry, with power stations already being shut and warnings that worse could be to come. Millions across Britain could face the kind of power cuts which hit California in the US two years ago.

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) is demanding that Britain and British firms embark on wholesale privatisation of public services, government documents revealed this week. They revealed that Britain faces WTO demands to "remove all establishment restrictions on hospital and social services, rest, convalescent and old people's homes".

"NOT GUILTY." That was the jury's unanimous verdict on 12 charges against Asians who defended their community in Burnley from racist attack. The jury in Preston Crown Court last week sided with the Asians who on 24 June last year mobilised to stop gangs inspired by the Nazi British National Party terrorising the area.

Naomi Klein worked on her first book, No Logo, in the four years before the great anti-capitalist protests in Seattle. It was published just after and – according to the Guardian – sold 180,000 copies in Britain last year alone. Now she has a new book out. It is a collection of the various pieces of journalism she has written since No Logo propelled her to the forefront of the movement against capitalist globalisation.