stabilization

Slate: maybe the US won't bomb Iran after all

WP: Chávez concedes first defeat at polls, after vote split 51-49
Gdn: "shock and celebration" that referendum failed
"'I recognise the decision a people have made. Those of you who were nervous I wouldn't recognise the results, you can go home quietly and celebrate.'" he added, "'I will not withdraw even one comma of this proposal, this proposal is still alive...'"
He has five more years as president to propose the changes again. Turnout was only 55%, and some speculate that ambivalent chavistas couldn't vote against him (and, as he put it, "for George W. Bush"), so they didn't go.

WP: Russian voters turn out for Putin
LAT: Russian voters turn out for Putin
(headline creativity goes south at the WP and LAT)
explaining one young woman's vote for United Russia, her husband said, "'She's in complete solidarity with her husband," Kondrashov said proudly. 'Not with my husband,' she corrected him. 'With Putin.'"
NYT: opposition, observers point out that voters turning out for Putin in parliamentary elections is precisely the problem: "Luc van den Brande of Belgium, leader of the mission from the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, said Mr. Putin had improperly used the Kremlin to help United Russia."

Gdn: Castro nominated for parliament, retains power

Gdn: Sharif can't run in January elections, because of convictions in criminal cases
LAT: Bhutto and Sharif meet Mon, try to unite in plan for elections

NYT: fear among politicians in Lebanon
BBC: Army General, ironically chosen for keeping the military out of politics, is compromise candidate for president. Cabinet has to change constitution to legitimize the nomination.

BBC: Burmese information minister announces the opposition's help is not needed in crafting consitutional reform. after all, the military has reached stage 3 all by itself in its "seven stage path to democracy."

LAT: riots reported in Tibet

BBC: professors jailed in Bangladesh for inciting protests against emergency rule. military has been in power since January

LAT: a young militant seeks revenge in Somalia

Ind: "warlords and criminal gangs" run Basra now that the British drawn down
"'The relative security of Basra is said to owe more to the dominance of militias and criminal gangs, who are said to have achieved a fragile balance in the city, than to the success of the Multi-National and Iraqi Security Forces in tackling the root causes of the violence.'"
LAT: khubz makes a comeback in Baghdad
Gdn: Sunni resistance group "re-grouping"

LAT: suspected ETA militants kill police officer in Spain, another in France

SWJ: Army adaptation in Afghanistan?
SWJ: starts with compiling a COIN library

BBC: Bosnia begins path towards EU membership

Gdn: tension in Kosovo; violence, Serb exodus feared if independence declared Dec 10

Gdn: speaking of autonomous regions, Belgium still can't form a gov't

Ind: humanitarian crises continue in Ogaden region of Ethiopia, Darfur, Somalia
Ind: Chad rebels declare war on France. Sarkozy pays no mind
Gdn: African migrants heading for Greek isles, on dangerous route to Europe

Ind: letter from Betancourt offers insight into how the kidnapped live with the FARC
"Here, we are living like the dead..."