tea time

AP: protests continue in Pakistan, Bhutto's party to hold rally. estimates that between 2500-3500 have been arrested. the opposition is divided because other parties resent that Bhutto's broke ranks to negotiate with Musharraf.
NYT: in an op-ed, she writes that the US should demand elections in 60 days
"It is dangerous to stand up to a military dictatorship, but more dangerous not to. The moment has come for the Western democracies to show us in their actions, and not just in their rhetoric, which side they are on."
NYT: how the lawyers lost hope in the general (this one estimates 700 have been arrested)
Salon: Juan Cole writes that the US stance towards Musharraf isn't even ambivalent.
Daily Show: Musharraf shares tea, discusses politics last year with Jon Stewart. (stay tuned for part II)

NYT: more US troops have died in 2007 than any other year in Iraq
"The deaths occurred only a few days after the military announced a steep drop in the rate of American deaths this year."
CSM: how things change: from one week ago, "US Troop Losses Plunge in Iraq"
Slate: no wonder all the recruitment packages and bonuses

Salon: and somehow, talk of attacking Iran is no joke

LAT: yahoo under fire for handing over names of email account holders in China, leading to their arrest

BBC: LRA deputy goes missing, speculation in Uganda that he and Kony had split

NPR: managing memories of the USSR in Russia:
"'A new history is being created: Stalin's rule was a golden age. Khrushchev was utopia. Brezhnev was a continuation of the golden age. None of this today is happening by chance,' Gorbachev says. [He] refuses to criticize Putin's administration directly, but he says the current trend toward historical revisionism is putting Russia at risk of a rebirth of Stalinism."

GDN: "misdemeanor murder" in New Orleans. what was Katrina's effect on an already violent city? unbelievable laxity in law enforcement seems to have gotten worse.

Chris Blattman comments on yesterday's news that children's drawings from Darfur can be used as evidence in ICC trials.

USAT: good thing DHS is keeping watch over potential terrorists (even if at an early age) "John Anderson of Minneapolis, who turned 6 on July 4, is among those who have been inconvenienced" by the terror watch list.