strongly disapproving

Ind: developments in Swat; violence there was one of Musharraf's justifications for crackdown.

NYT: arrested justice urges protesters to continue

Slate: the US has poured billions into the Pakistani military for years, rather than any other institution. "The Bush foreign policy was neither shrewd enough to play self-interested power politics nor truly principled enough to enforce its ideals."

USAT: US opinion on Iran "While 46% of those surveyed say military action should be taken either now or if diplomacy fails, 45% rule it out in any case. Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats to endorse taking military steps."
[sidebar: at least the public is discerning in one dimension: "For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they "strongly disapprove" of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974."]

GDN: US public-at-large shares confusion on Iran: "Even at Harvard, that bastion of east coast intellectual liberalism, a dangerous mixture of ignorance and belligerency towards Iran swirls through the hallways of America's premier university."

BBC: Taliban fighters in Waziristan released 200 Pakistani troops Sunday

Ind: in nearby Afghanistan, stability slipping in Kandahar
"It is very worrying that an area that had previously been secure should become vulnerable to the Taliban," [a European diplomat] says. "But the big problem is, who is sitting on the fence? Are they going to remain against the insurgents or join them?"

LAT: wondering if drug traffickers' tactics will be copied by terrorists: "There could be 5 tons of anything" in submarines like the clandestine ones found recently in Colombia.

NYT: Chávez launching another coup, constitutional style?

BBC: Tuaregs talk peace in Mali

LAT: Colom wins in Guatemalan presidential election, over General Perez Molina, in power during the 1980s war and dictatorship.

LAT: Bhutanese refugees to be resettled in the US. the refugees are Hindu, and have been residing in Nepal for years after being forced out of Bhutan, the only Buddhist kingdom.

Ind: childrens' drawings can be used in ICC as evidence of war crimes in Darfur

LAT: breaking caste-based endogamy in India, with state-sponsored pay-offs

Ind: advancing dignity and public health (plus, for women, personal security): India commits to improving coverage by 2012 at the World Toilet Summit