comparative studies (by area and theme)

afghanistan
Ind: British trying to train security forces in Afghanistan with limited resources

LAT: Karzai seeks dialogue with Taliban militants

iraq
WP: Americans find recruiting and training Iraqi police is tricky too

NYT: Bab al Sheik, the outlier neighborhood in Baghdad, where Sunnis, Shia, Christians and Kurds live together. the article mentions inter-marriage and centuries of family residence as reasons for the community's solidarity, but it seems like it can't be the only Baghdad neighborhood with those characteristics. (?)

New Yorker: the Baghdad suburb Ghazaliya's Sunni-Shia profile didn't survive the Samarra bombing and ensuing sectarian violence; then it became one of the first targets of the surge.

LAT: meanwhile, in Samarra today, Sunni groups are fighting each other

pakistan
NYT: Musharraf sets election date, but no end to emergency rule in sight

New Yorker: a bit more on Musharraf, and hints at division in the military

LAT: getting the youths to protest

(Gdn: like students have in Venezuela)

georgia
Slate: dispatch from another state of emergency

arms
NYT: losing track of weapons in Iraq. somehow it doesn't seem like anyone's fault

Gdn: trying to prohibit firearms in DC, the Supreme Court will announce tomorrow if it will hear the case, opine on the meaning of the 2nd amendment:
"A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." (stay tuned to learn how the "strict constructionists" of the constitution "interpret" when they want to.)

Slate: the NRA might point out that Finns manage to own lots of guns without killing each other with them quite so much. (they do have the highest murder rate in Western Europe, but it turns out they prefer other weapons.)

Gdn: fall-out from a shady arms deal in South Africa has Zuma in trouble again, and the ANC divided

Gdn: apparently guns and drugs are keeping the LTTE funded quite well, given the weapons they used against the gov't in a recent battle

LAT: the UDA in Northern Ireland commits to stop using theirs
"...loyalist paramilitaries, primarily the UDA and the Ulster Volunteer Force, have engaged in vicious internal warfare, drug dealing, extortion, loan sharking and the sale of counterfeit goods, according to the Independent Monitoring Commission, a group set up to help disarm the region."

did someone say drug dealing?
Gdn: British to pay farmers to abandon opium in Afghanistan: "Opium production is heavily concentrated in areas of insecurity, with the British area of responsibility in Helmand now the world's biggest source of illicit drugs."

Gdn: using teens as mules in the last leg of the trafficking route from Colombia to Europe, through West Africa. "Almost all of the Ghana-based mules used by drugs gangs are poor and willing to risk not only their liberty but their lives for less than £500...A kilo of cocaine brings about £25,000 in Europe, compared with about half that in the US."

LAT: as demand (and naturally, supply) increase in Europe, the US 'drug czar' claims success in the US front of the war on drugs. but it's debatable: ""Assuming that high cocaine prices are hurting cartels is like assuming high gasoline prices are hurting oil companies," Piper said.
Others say the decreased supply may just reflect the fact that more Colombian cocaine is being shipped to Europe, where it can fetch even higher prices."

Adam Isacson: on how tricky assessments of the narcotics trade can be

LAT: i'm not sure what the implications of this study are, but rats prefer sugar water to cocaine, even addicted ones

miscellaneous
Gdn: confusing violence in West Bengal kills 6, accusations of rape registered. but the details are unclear. it was reported to be members of the Communist party against farmers resisting plans to develop an oil project. but Maoist insurgents were also accused. plus 1,000 paramilitaries hired by the central gov't didn't intercede.

Ind: UN human rights envoy back in Burma after four years; will seek access to prisons

Newsweek online: de Waal and Prendergast debate Darfur and the role of activists, insult each other

WP: it's the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the Vietnam memorial

Gdn: students aren't the only ones sick of Chávez