st nick

NYT: concerns about a US plan to fund tribal areas in Pakistan
(LAT had the story back on Nov 5 and Nov 18)

NYT: meanwhile, $5 billion in US aid to Pakistan diverted from intended counterinsurgency to conventional military investment

LAT: intra-agency squabbles in the CIA and the debate over the tapes

WSJ: Chávez's former ally's role in Venezuelan politics

LAT: pro-Putin youths running rackets:
"When Young Russia needs money, he explains earnestly, they find some local businesspeople to shake down. If the businesspeople are sensible and pay up, Young Russia will "lobby their interests with the organs of state power," he says.

If they prove stingy, forget about it.

"We're talking here about a civilized protection racket," he says, cool as ice. "If they don't give us money, we attack them."

AP: 5 former Guatanamo captives convicted of "criminal association with a terrorist enterprise" in France, sentenced to time already served. 1 acquitted.

LAT: the junta in Burma supported by enslaved children's labor in mines

NYT: before St Nicholas became Santa, he freed children from slavery