A Palestinian who was detained without charge under an Israeli administrative detention order has ended a hunger strike he has been engaged in for sixty-six days. Khader Adnan reached a deal with Israeli authorities for his release.

Under the proposed deal, Adnan will be released on April 17, three weeks before his administrative order expires.

The term “banana republic” has become a cliche to describe economic imperialism throughout history, but the legacy of colonialism persists in Latin America today. The tradition of predatory capitalism echoed in the recent death of Miguel Angel González Ramírez, a member of the Izabal banana workers’ union SITRABI in Guatemala.

Humanitarians are taking an interest in how unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones could be used to protect human rights in countries all over the world. In particular, those who believe in preventing massacres or genocide are suggesting surveillance drones be considered as a tool that organizations could deploy to save lives. But there are numerous practical and ethical problems with going down this road.

The hedge funds swooped in late, but the banks or other investors that made these loan deals did so knowing full well that they risked a default. That’s true of any loan. There are two sides to every deal. The hedge funds, in fact, took their deal knowing that Greece was on the precipice of default. They’ve just decided to be raging assholes, and threaten to blow up the world if they don’t get paid back. So the idea that hedge funds have an inalienable human right to make this profit is one of the most egregious things I’ve seen in a long time.

As many of you will remember, I wrote a lot of posts here at FDL about the war in Iraq before I got ill and had to take a break. While writing less, I am still on the various “progressive” emails lists where “activists” talk about issues like the war and the traffic in recent days shook me up.

The first was an email inviting activists to join one group in an informal cocktail hour to “celebrate” the end of the war. I found myself sitting and shaking at the thought. What celebrate? How many years and we … celebrate?

We now have a United Nations special envoy for freedom of expression is making the obvious point that many would rather avoid, that the responses to Occupy Wall Street and other protests go against the universal right of freedom of expression.

What could possibly make a human being torture another human being?

That’s a question that, as a young boy, I recall asking my grandparents—Holocaust survivors—after they described to me in vivid detail the torture they and other members of my extended family were subjected to by the Nazis during World War II.

It’s a question I returned to earlier this year when I had the opportunity to interview a veteran of the US Army Reserves who was torn up about the torture he says he witnessed and participated in against some “war on terror” detainees while serving as a guard at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility. [That guard, Pfc. Albert Melise, has since been barred from reenlistment for speaking to me.]

Warning: Defending your rights may be hazardous to your health. Potential side effects can include rubber bullets, tear gas, and batons wielded with impunity.

Reports from Egypt say the Egyptian military has move army troops and armored vehicles in trying to end the clashes between Egyptians protesting the military’s rule and police and gain acceptance of an agreement with certain factions. So far, those efforts aren’t succeeding.

In a perfectly “free” labor market, everyone theoretically has the right to exchange work for commensurate compensation. But a free market is not necessarily a just one. And when the commodity is sex, how free is too free?

Sex work, and its attendant culture wars, have moved over time from traditional brothels of urban lore to online marketplaces, raising new questions about private and public freedom. In the digital world, how should trust and power be negotiated between provider and client, both encircled by systemic gender and economic inequities?