NYT: protests, riots, and violence following the election in Kenya
"After three days of rioting, some streets in Nairobi are beginning to look like war zones, with trucks of soldiers rumbling through a wasteland of burned cars and abandoned homes, their tires crunching over broken glass. Gangs of young men have built roadblocks between neighborhoods of the Kikuyus, Mr. Kibaki’s tribe, and those of the Luos, the tribe of Raila Odinga, the top opposition leader who narrowly lost the election. The nomad’s land between them is often a single lane of pot-holed asphalt, patrolled by thugs with huge rocks in their hands."
NYT: campaigning in iowa (where a Luo descendant is also running for president)
NYT: protesting brings perks to Islamists jailed in Morocco
31 December 2007
27 December 2007
bullets and blasts
Gdn: Bhutto killed, riots ongoing
Ind: background
NYT: and obituary
Gdn: local-level order: guarding neighborhoods in Iraq (it's old, but good)
CSM: marry to reconcile?: businessman sponsors mass cross-sectarian wedding of Iraqis
WP: decline in violence in Iraq attributed to Iran
IHT: not Turkey
Slate: 3 possible post-surge scenarios in Iraq
CSM: pentecostals enter the fray in Rio's favelas
WP: Kenyan presidential elections - along tribal lines?
Econ: more on that
IHT: turnout reported to be very high
Ind: with allegations of vote-rigging
Econ: Fidel: how much longer will he hang on?
AP: 3 Colombian hostages may be released soon by the FARC to Chávez
LAT: the up-and-coming mafia Ndrangheta has consolidated the cocaine trade into Europe
Ind: the Escobar Zoo
WP: LBJ's plead with the pope for peace
Gdn: Lebanon still shaky
Gdn: Belgium hanging on to the union
Ind: apparent increase in "recruiting" child soldiers in the Congo
Ind: 10 ongoing humanitarian crises selected by Medecins San Frontiers
Econ: is the primary system better than the alternatives?
Ind: background
NYT: and obituary
Gdn: local-level order: guarding neighborhoods in Iraq (it's old, but good)
CSM: marry to reconcile?: businessman sponsors mass cross-sectarian wedding of Iraqis
WP: decline in violence in Iraq attributed to Iran
IHT: not Turkey
Slate: 3 possible post-surge scenarios in Iraq
CSM: pentecostals enter the fray in Rio's favelas
WP: Kenyan presidential elections - along tribal lines?
Econ: more on that
IHT: turnout reported to be very high
Ind: with allegations of vote-rigging
Econ: Fidel: how much longer will he hang on?
AP: 3 Colombian hostages may be released soon by the FARC to Chávez
LAT: the up-and-coming mafia Ndrangheta has consolidated the cocaine trade into Europe
Ind: the Escobar Zoo
WP: LBJ's plead with the pope for peace
Gdn: Lebanon still shaky
Gdn: Belgium hanging on to the union
Ind: apparent increase in "recruiting" child soldiers in the Congo
Ind: 10 ongoing humanitarian crises selected by Medecins San Frontiers
Econ: is the primary system better than the alternatives?
25 December 2007
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
(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
23 December 2007
out of (and back into) the shadows
Time: a tsar is born. (can't top that title.) i like how the article casually refers to one of his advisors as his "ideologist." also, unironically starts a paragraph: "Vladimir Putin gives a first impression of contained power..."
still working on the consolidation bit: Petraeus is runner-up for person of the year. "And yet Petraeus has not failed, which, given the anarchy and pessimism of February, must be considered something of a triumph."
Salon: different nominees from the same war "Both men represented the best of America's democratic tradition, where even in wartime, enlisted soldiers have a right to their opinions."
Salon: teenage insurgent in Iraq - complete with all the inconsistencies of adolescence
Salon: testimony from 19 months in a CIA "black site"
"After 19 months of imprisonment and torment at the hands of the CIA, the agency released him with no explanation, just as he had been imprisoned in the first place. He faced no terrorism charges. He was given no lawyer. He saw no judge. He was simply released, his life shattered."
NYT: community still divided, justice still evasive in Chiapas 10 years after a massacre
Econ: local elections in India - results due out today
Econ: turnover in South Korea
NYT: and, in rebuke to the military junta, potentially in Thailand
Econ: (background here)
NYT: and Kenya too: "[the liberal candidate] even played left wing in soccer."
Econ: ANC party leadership shifts to Zuma "Yet despite this victory, Mr Zuma is by no means assured of the national presidency in 2009."
NYT: housing protest turns violent in New Orleans
WP: new mayor in Philly tries to address violent crime with new policing strategies
"While the homicide rate among black men age 18 to 24 has dropped dramatically from the highs of the early 1990s during the height of the urban crack war, the group's murder rate is still about 10 times higher than for white men the same age, and far higher than the rate for any other group of black people...A pair of black activists has put out a call to 10,000 black men to step forward and become mentors, big brothers and community observers on the lookout for bad behavior."
WP: Afghan art and national treasures exhibit at the National Gallery in DC
"In 2003, a group of boxes from the museum was unexpectedly located in a sealed vault under the presidential palace. A year later, a team of international experts and Afghan officials began opening them...Jawad added that the Kabul government also hopes to bring some of the officials who hid the museum pieces, so they can tell their stories. "They could have gotten passports and fled like other people, but they stayed and saved these treasures," he said. "They are the real heroes."
The Onion: Bush warms up to science
plus, an update on Rove's activities: "Longtime political adviser and Republican strategist Karl Rove announced Aug. 13 that he would step down from his role as White House deputy chief of staff to spend more time in the shadows and devote his energy to the things he really cares about, such as creeping, slithering, and disappearing for all time into an ever-darkening realm shut off from hope and goodness."
still working on the consolidation bit: Petraeus is runner-up for person of the year. "And yet Petraeus has not failed, which, given the anarchy and pessimism of February, must be considered something of a triumph."
Salon: different nominees from the same war "Both men represented the best of America's democratic tradition, where even in wartime, enlisted soldiers have a right to their opinions."
Salon: teenage insurgent in Iraq - complete with all the inconsistencies of adolescence
Salon: testimony from 19 months in a CIA "black site"
"After 19 months of imprisonment and torment at the hands of the CIA, the agency released him with no explanation, just as he had been imprisoned in the first place. He faced no terrorism charges. He was given no lawyer. He saw no judge. He was simply released, his life shattered."
NYT: community still divided, justice still evasive in Chiapas 10 years after a massacre
Econ: local elections in India - results due out today
Econ: turnover in South Korea
NYT: and, in rebuke to the military junta, potentially in Thailand
Econ: (background here)
NYT: and Kenya too: "[the liberal candidate] even played left wing in soccer."
Econ: ANC party leadership shifts to Zuma "Yet despite this victory, Mr Zuma is by no means assured of the national presidency in 2009."
NYT: housing protest turns violent in New Orleans
WP: new mayor in Philly tries to address violent crime with new policing strategies
"While the homicide rate among black men age 18 to 24 has dropped dramatically from the highs of the early 1990s during the height of the urban crack war, the group's murder rate is still about 10 times higher than for white men the same age, and far higher than the rate for any other group of black people...A pair of black activists has put out a call to 10,000 black men to step forward and become mentors, big brothers and community observers on the lookout for bad behavior."
WP: Afghan art and national treasures exhibit at the National Gallery in DC
"In 2003, a group of boxes from the museum was unexpectedly located in a sealed vault under the presidential palace. A year later, a team of international experts and Afghan officials began opening them...Jawad added that the Kabul government also hopes to bring some of the officials who hid the museum pieces, so they can tell their stories. "They could have gotten passports and fled like other people, but they stayed and saved these treasures," he said. "They are the real heroes."
The Onion: Bush warms up to science
plus, an update on Rove's activities: "Longtime political adviser and Republican strategist Karl Rove announced Aug. 13 that he would step down from his role as White House deputy chief of staff to spend more time in the shadows and devote his energy to the things he really cares about, such as creeping, slithering, and disappearing for all time into an ever-darkening realm shut off from hope and goodness."
18 December 2007
doing what we can
WP: more pressure to shift focus, troops from Iraq to Afghanistan
NYT: reviewing the US and NATO mission in Afghanistan in three reports. but, “It is simply a matter of resources, of capacity,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress this week. “In Afghanistan, we do what we can. In Iraq, we do what we must.”
LAT: US to shift forces from periphery to Baghdad
USAT: and Iraqi central gov't moves to support the (mostly) Sunni private security militias
NYT: Ethiopia trying out civilian militias too
WP: refugees and displaced are returning to a segregated Baghdad. "...in many cases the local militias . . . have seized control and threw out anybody in that neighborhood they didn't like."
WP: US has given intel to Turkey, supporting attacks on the PKK. plus, Turkey moves 300 troops inside northern Iraq, and Secretary Rice makes surprise visit to Kirkuk.
NYT: Syria "cracking down" on political activists
BBC: or easing up? (some confusion on the situation, pointed out by Jonah)
WP: how much did those CIA tapes capture anyhow? and, that recurring theme: does torture "work"?
Econ: background and status of negotiations in Colombia
NYT: US abandons allies in Laos decades ago; bands of "rebels" still evading the gov't there.
Slate: apartheid in Saudi Arabia?
Slate: the Supreme Court takes up another case on courts and the war on terror
NYT: reviewing the US and NATO mission in Afghanistan in three reports. but, “It is simply a matter of resources, of capacity,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress this week. “In Afghanistan, we do what we can. In Iraq, we do what we must.”
LAT: US to shift forces from periphery to Baghdad
USAT: and Iraqi central gov't moves to support the (mostly) Sunni private security militias
NYT: Ethiopia trying out civilian militias too
WP: refugees and displaced are returning to a segregated Baghdad. "...in many cases the local militias . . . have seized control and threw out anybody in that neighborhood they didn't like."
WP: US has given intel to Turkey, supporting attacks on the PKK. plus, Turkey moves 300 troops inside northern Iraq, and Secretary Rice makes surprise visit to Kirkuk.
NYT: Syria "cracking down" on political activists
BBC: or easing up? (some confusion on the situation, pointed out by Jonah)
WP: how much did those CIA tapes capture anyhow? and, that recurring theme: does torture "work"?
Econ: background and status of negotiations in Colombia
NYT: US abandons allies in Laos decades ago; bands of "rebels" still evading the gov't there.
Slate: apartheid in Saudi Arabia?
Slate: the Supreme Court takes up another case on courts and the war on terror
11 December 2007
brief briefing
LAT: asking Iraqi policewomen to turn over their weapons to men
WP: Fujimori on trial in Peru
NYT: Sharif's party will participate in January elections
NYT: demographic engineering in Kirkuk leaves thousands living in stadium, waiting for referendum
WP: Fujimori on trial in Peru
NYT: Sharif's party will participate in January elections
NYT: demographic engineering in Kirkuk leaves thousands living in stadium, waiting for referendum
05 December 2007
political intelligence
Slate: the actual NIE assessment
NYT: offers the cliffs-notes version: intercepted complaints about a killed weapons program
NYT: not everyone on board with the latest conclusions
WP: of all people, Bolton points out that intel is political
"The real differences between the NIEs are not in the hard data but in the psychological assessment of the mullahs' motives and objectives."
Slate: synopsis of the Supreme Court Guatanamo hearing
"...it's clear (PDF) that the legal proceedings set up at Gitmo in the wake of Rasul, the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals (PDF), mostly give prisoners the "right" to be tried by a judge who answers to the military; the "right" to be tried with evidence obtained by torture; the "right" to be presumed a terrorist from the outset; the "right" to be tried without a lawyer present; and the "right" to be tried with evidence that's sloppy, inaccurate, and classified.
If those are rights, ladle me up some of them wrongs."
Gdn: Congress pushing for waterboarding ban
Ind: rendition and resistance in turn-of-the-(previous)-century Foreign Office
"The reaction of the Foreign Office mandarins was a little more robust than its attitude a century later when the CIA was allegedly landing aircraft in Britain with hooded and drugged prisoners on board on their way to secret prisons in eastern Europe and the Middle East. The then Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, who copiously annotated Henry's dispatches in red ink, asked for assurances that Yang would not be further mistreated if he was handed over, though he also made clear that fostering good relations with Japan was his priority."
Slate: Iraqis returning from Syria (but not other places)
LAT: officers resisting scaling down troop presence in Iraq
NYT: Secdef saying no to redeployment of Marines from Iraq to Afghanistan
NYT: meanwhile, insurgents redeploy to Mosul
Gdn: Communist party in West Bengal criticized at home, supported abroad, for policies and the use of violence last month against villagers
BBC: on 15th anniversary of mosque destruction, security tight in Ayodhya, India
LAT: division of labor within the Mexican drug trade
"Although "cartel" suggests that one group controls all aspects of the drug trade, drugs are actually shipped through the region thanks to alliances among local and regional crime groups.
When deals between groups are broken, violence ensues..."
Gdn: China goes after gangs
LAT: ICC goes after Sudanese leaders for Darfur violence
LAT: court convicts 14 Abu Sayyaf rebels in the Philippines for kidnapping in 2001
Atlantic: here's a good back story on the group, and the rescue operation (subscription required)
NYT: changes among Chavistas - referendum loss opens up possibility of internal dissent
Gdn: Mugabe gives annual address, blames Britain and West for economic problems
BBC: French consider reparations for harkis, Algerians who collaborated with the colonial regime and had to flee after independence, or suffer punishment at home
Slate: what can (US) police officers get on you?
Slate: in light of the teddy bear scandal in Sudan, some clarification on who can be named Mohammed. plus, who's named Jesus, and how names can be tricky for state bureaucracies
Cleveland Free Times: (not quite) breaking up criminal networks in Cleveland, 79 years ago
NYT: offers the cliffs-notes version: intercepted complaints about a killed weapons program
NYT: not everyone on board with the latest conclusions
WP: of all people, Bolton points out that intel is political
"The real differences between the NIEs are not in the hard data but in the psychological assessment of the mullahs' motives and objectives."
Slate: synopsis of the Supreme Court Guatanamo hearing
"...it's clear (PDF) that the legal proceedings set up at Gitmo in the wake of Rasul, the so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunals (PDF), mostly give prisoners the "right" to be tried by a judge who answers to the military; the "right" to be tried with evidence obtained by torture; the "right" to be presumed a terrorist from the outset; the "right" to be tried without a lawyer present; and the "right" to be tried with evidence that's sloppy, inaccurate, and classified.
If those are rights, ladle me up some of them wrongs."
Gdn: Congress pushing for waterboarding ban
Ind: rendition and resistance in turn-of-the-(previous)-century Foreign Office
"The reaction of the Foreign Office mandarins was a little more robust than its attitude a century later when the CIA was allegedly landing aircraft in Britain with hooded and drugged prisoners on board on their way to secret prisons in eastern Europe and the Middle East. The then Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, who copiously annotated Henry's dispatches in red ink, asked for assurances that Yang would not be further mistreated if he was handed over, though he also made clear that fostering good relations with Japan was his priority."
Slate: Iraqis returning from Syria (but not other places)
LAT: officers resisting scaling down troop presence in Iraq
NYT: Secdef saying no to redeployment of Marines from Iraq to Afghanistan
NYT: meanwhile, insurgents redeploy to Mosul
Gdn: Communist party in West Bengal criticized at home, supported abroad, for policies and the use of violence last month against villagers
BBC: on 15th anniversary of mosque destruction, security tight in Ayodhya, India
LAT: division of labor within the Mexican drug trade
"Although "cartel" suggests that one group controls all aspects of the drug trade, drugs are actually shipped through the region thanks to alliances among local and regional crime groups.
When deals between groups are broken, violence ensues..."
Gdn: China goes after gangs
LAT: ICC goes after Sudanese leaders for Darfur violence
LAT: court convicts 14 Abu Sayyaf rebels in the Philippines for kidnapping in 2001
Atlantic: here's a good back story on the group, and the rescue operation (subscription required)
NYT: changes among Chavistas - referendum loss opens up possibility of internal dissent
Gdn: Mugabe gives annual address, blames Britain and West for economic problems
BBC: French consider reparations for harkis, Algerians who collaborated with the colonial regime and had to flee after independence, or suffer punishment at home
Slate: what can (US) police officers get on you?
Slate: in light of the teddy bear scandal in Sudan, some clarification on who can be named Mohammed. plus, who's named Jesus, and how names can be tricky for state bureaucracies
Cleveland Free Times: (not quite) breaking up criminal networks in Cleveland, 79 years ago
new technical terms
WP: how the intelligence estimate on Iran changed from 2 years ago
"Drawing lessons from the intelligence debacle over supposed Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell required agencies to consult more sources and to say to a larger intelligence community audience precisely what they know and how they know it -- and to acknowledge, to a degree previously unheard of, what they do not know. " 'Do not know' is a new technical term for an NIE," said a senior official who was involved in preparation of the report, known as a National Intelligence Estimate."
NYT: evaluating the durability of reduced violence in Iraq
Slate: US Supreme Court considers whether habeas corpus applies to gitmo detainees
"What's unprecedented is the Bush administration's effort to run the detainees through stripped-down hearings and then hold them indefinitely, while at the same time barring them from trying to argue in a real court that they are entitled to something more."
Econ: more analysis of the Ethiopia-Eritrea Border Commission, and the likelihood of conflict
"The combination of Eritrea's antagonism towards the UN and the terror link proposed by Washington could lead to a sense within Ethiopia that an invasion would be tolerated by the international community, and it would take very little provocation to provide even a weak argument for launching an attack."
BBC: Rice visits Addis Ababa to hold meetings on several ongoing conflicts in Africa
NPR: on a related note, a new hebrew word aptly describes the Secretary of State's activities
"Le condel, verb, meaning to take a lot of meetings, to rush back and forth, but to accomplish nothing."
Econ: what happened in Russia?
"The irony is that United Russia would have won anyway—Mr Putin who has presided over economic growth is genuinely popular... The rigging matters nonetheless because it again demonstrates Mr Putin’s contempt not only for his critics, but for Russians as a whole."
Econ: what's happening in the Philippines?
Econ: what will happen in Venezuela?
"[Chávez's] aura of invincibility is forever damaged, and the battle for the succession seems bound to begin soon. Survival strategies no longer necessarily involve unquestioning loyalty to the “comandante”. Fractures may begin to appear in important institutions like the supreme court and parliament. The fight back is just beginning."
BBC: gunfight in Kashmir
BBC: awards for housing rights violators of the year: China, Burma, and Slovakia
BBC: Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta attacks Exxon-Mobile ship, disrupt peace talks in Niger Delta
BBC: UN force sides with Congolese army against renegade commander; army seizes rebel base
BBC: herd mentality
"Drawing lessons from the intelligence debacle over supposed Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell required agencies to consult more sources and to say to a larger intelligence community audience precisely what they know and how they know it -- and to acknowledge, to a degree previously unheard of, what they do not know. " 'Do not know' is a new technical term for an NIE," said a senior official who was involved in preparation of the report, known as a National Intelligence Estimate."
NYT: evaluating the durability of reduced violence in Iraq
Slate: US Supreme Court considers whether habeas corpus applies to gitmo detainees
"What's unprecedented is the Bush administration's effort to run the detainees through stripped-down hearings and then hold them indefinitely, while at the same time barring them from trying to argue in a real court that they are entitled to something more."
Econ: more analysis of the Ethiopia-Eritrea Border Commission, and the likelihood of conflict
"The combination of Eritrea's antagonism towards the UN and the terror link proposed by Washington could lead to a sense within Ethiopia that an invasion would be tolerated by the international community, and it would take very little provocation to provide even a weak argument for launching an attack."
BBC: Rice visits Addis Ababa to hold meetings on several ongoing conflicts in Africa
NPR: on a related note, a new hebrew word aptly describes the Secretary of State's activities
"Le condel, verb, meaning to take a lot of meetings, to rush back and forth, but to accomplish nothing."
Econ: what happened in Russia?
"The irony is that United Russia would have won anyway—Mr Putin who has presided over economic growth is genuinely popular... The rigging matters nonetheless because it again demonstrates Mr Putin’s contempt not only for his critics, but for Russians as a whole."
Econ: what's happening in the Philippines?
Econ: what will happen in Venezuela?
"[Chávez's] aura of invincibility is forever damaged, and the battle for the succession seems bound to begin soon. Survival strategies no longer necessarily involve unquestioning loyalty to the “comandante”. Fractures may begin to appear in important institutions like the supreme court and parliament. The fight back is just beginning."
BBC: gunfight in Kashmir
BBC: awards for housing rights violators of the year: China, Burma, and Slovakia
BBC: Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta attacks Exxon-Mobile ship, disrupt peace talks in Niger Delta
BBC: UN force sides with Congolese army against renegade commander; army seizes rebel base
BBC: herd mentality
04 December 2007
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..."
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..."
02 December 2007
once mighty empire, slightly used
Rolling Stone: the War on Drugs -- covers everything from community policing to formal modeling and policy, Pablo Escobar, and to too many reminders of how horrendous policies can be implemented in spite of well intentioned and informed bureaucrats, policy wonks, and politicians. plus, this gem: "The war itself had begun during the Nixon administration, when the White House began to get reports that a generation of soldiers was about to come back from Vietnam stoned, with habits weaned on the cheap marijuana and heroin of Southeast Asia and hothoused in the twitchy-fingered freakout of a jungle guerrilla war."
Slate: praises the coverage
NYT: in a related story, FARC videos of hostages seized in Bogotá
Gdn: i think it's safe to say they don't need the profits from T-shirt sales, anyhow
NYT: Chávez's referendum too close to call
WP: he didn't get Rummy's vote
NYT: or his old army chief's
NYT: shocker, no question on the outcome in Russia
Slate: photos of contemporary slavery in Gabon and Niger
(today is International Day for the Abolition of Slavery)
NYT: corruption and crime in Iraq (i.e., getting by)
WP: plus, militia attacks villages in Diyala, Turks launch attacks against the PKK
NYT: satire in Serbia
"'We have had wars, hyperinflation, cult of personalities, censorship, nationalism, ethnic cleansing — and if it weren’t for this self-defensive humor, these crazy people in power would have turned us into crazy people...'"
LT: Britains try to come up with new motto.
NYT: go bucks!
Slate: praises the coverage
NYT: in a related story, FARC videos of hostages seized in Bogotá
Gdn: i think it's safe to say they don't need the profits from T-shirt sales, anyhow
NYT: Chávez's referendum too close to call
WP: he didn't get Rummy's vote
NYT: or his old army chief's
NYT: shocker, no question on the outcome in Russia
Slate: photos of contemporary slavery in Gabon and Niger
(today is International Day for the Abolition of Slavery)
NYT: corruption and crime in Iraq (i.e., getting by)
WP: plus, militia attacks villages in Diyala, Turks launch attacks against the PKK
NYT: satire in Serbia
"'We have had wars, hyperinflation, cult of personalities, censorship, nationalism, ethnic cleansing — and if it weren’t for this self-defensive humor, these crazy people in power would have turned us into crazy people...'"
LT: Britains try to come up with new motto.
NYT: go bucks!
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