LAT: Iraq wants the US to stop Turkey's assault on Kurdistan
NYT magazine: microcosm of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict
"This miniaturist culture war and the fighting in the mountains are related because they both reflect the inability of Turkish society to integrate Kurds — about 20 percent of the country’s total population and the majority in the southeast — in a way that doesn’t insist on assimilation down to the last W, X or Q. For decades, Turkish law has not allowed acknowledgment of Kurds as a distinct ethnic group; from 1983 to 1991 it was even illegal to speak Kurdish in public. Until 2002, broadcasting in Kurdish was essentially banned, and only in 2003 could parents give their children Kurdish names (except, again, for names using W, X or Q). But even these small advances suggest that while the military fight has been a stalemate, the deeper cultural conflict can, with relative ease, be resolved. Such at least is the vision of Abdullah Demirbas. His may not be the effort that makes headlines, but it is probably the one that matters most."
BBC: Odinga calls off protests planned for tomorrow
LAT: more on the potentially lasting ethnic segregation the violence has spurred
"Tens of thousands of people like Kamau are making cross-country treks to resettle in their ancestral homelands. The nationwide population reshuffle is threatening to spur a permanent ethnic remapping of Kenya, worsening the East African nation's political divisions and creating regional fiefdoms.
Some worry that Kenya's sudden shift from ethnic integration to self-imposed segregation is reminiscent of what happened in Somalia after the government collapsed in 1991 and millions of people reorganized into clan-based factions that have engaged in a 17-year civil war."
Gdn: calling in the military delicate, because of its own potential ethnic divisions
AP: Annan begins mediation efforts again
BBC: violence from Kenya doesn't dissuade Zimbabwe from issuing shoot-to-kill orders to police in event of election protests Mar 29
CSM: Brazilian mayor reduces violence
AP: Guatemalan crowd releases 29 police officers held hostage
BBC: rescue mission underway to free 4 kidnapping victims in Colombia
LAT: coca destroying ecosystems in Colombia
BBC: new anti-drug policies proposed in Britain
BBC: ethnic conflict in Nepal
Madhesis break off talks with the gov't, plan strike in the south of the country.
NYT: the underclass in Yemen
"They are known as “Al Akhdam” — the servants. Set apart by their African features, they form a kind of hereditary caste at the very bottom of Yemen’s social ladder...There are more than a million of them among Yemen’s fast-growing population of 22 million, concentrated in segregated slums in the major cities."
LAT: recently arrested terrorism suspects in Morocco have distinct profiles
Gdn: former Khmer Rouge leader on trial visits the killing fields
Slate: the biological basis of aggression?
"A study says brain differences may cause differences in aggression among teenage boys. Sample: 137 12-year-old boys, observed while interacting with parents. Findings: 1) 1) "A significant positive association between volume of the amygdala [a brain area related to fear and arousal] and the duration of adolescent aggressive behavior during these interactions." 2) "Male-specific associations between the volume of prefrontal structures and affective behavior." Researchers' conclusions: 1) "Brain structure is associated with affective behavior and its regulation" in such interactions. 2) "There may be gender differences in the neural mechanisms underlying affective and behavioral regulation" during these years. Crude translation: 1) My amygdala made me do it. 2) "These boys may … be unable to control their emotions because … parts of the brain that normally control strong emotions don't mature till the early 20s." Critique: Correlation doesn't prove causal direction, or even causation. (Related: Rethinking the age of consent.)"
27 February 2008
24 February 2008
in the balance
NYT magazine: COIN operations in an Afghan valley
"By now, seven years of air strikes and civilian casualties, humiliating house searches and arbitrary detentions have pushed many families and tribes to revenge. The Americans then see every Afghan in those pockets of recalcitrance as an enemy. If you peel back the layers, however, there’s always a local political story at the root of the killing and dying. That original misunderstanding and grievance fertilizes the land for the Islamists. Whom do you want to side with: your brothers in God’s world or the infidel thieves?...
Just before I left, Kearney told me his biggest struggle would be holding his guys in check. 'I’ve got too many geeking out, wanting to go off the deep end and kill people,' he said. One of his lieutenants wanted to shoot every Afghan in the face. Kearney shook his head. He wished he could buy 20 goats and let the boys beat and burn them and let loose their rage. He tried to tell them the restraints were a product of their success — that there was an Afghan government with its own rules. 'I’m balancing plates on my goddamn nose is what I’m doing,' he said. 'All it’s gonna take is for one of these guys to snap.'"
WP: trying to govern Mosul
NYT: and Basra
WP: Sadr extends militia cease-fire for 6 months
"But Sadr's ability to enforce the truce hinges on his control over the unruly, decentralized militia. Many senior Mahdi Army leaders and politicians loyal to Sadr have called for the cease-fire to be lifted because they said it was being exploited by Iraqi and U.S. forces, and Sadr's political rivals, to arrest his followers. In some areas of Baghdad, militiamen have ignored Sadr's orders and continued to commit atrocities."
Atlantic: the intensifying religious cleavage in Nigeria
"No one knows what happened first. Someone shouted arna—infidel—at the Christians. Someone spat the word jihadi at the Muslims. Someone picked up a stone. 'That was the day ethnicity disappeared entirely, and the conflict became just about religion,' Abdullahi said. Chaos broke out, as young people on each side began to throw rocks. The candidates ran for their lives, and mobs set fire to the surrounding houses."
LAT: the FARC increases its presence in border towns -- on the Venezuelan side
"'The rebels live and move clandestinely but are very present in the countryside,' [Jesuit priest Father Belandria] said. 'There is no court or prosecutor here, so the rebels serve that judicial function, intervening in family problems, settling property and business disputes.'
They recruit Venezuelan youths, whom they "seduce with promises," and check on what schoolteachers are telling the children, Belandria said.
Rebels extort a "war tax" on farmers and business owners, typically demanding a cow or $20 a month. Those who don't pay are killed, said Belandria, who estimated that there was a killing a month in his parish, with the victims usually local people who hadn't paid up.
'The level of violence is very strong. The rebel groups fight among themselves over ideology and turf,' Belandria said.
'Every day there are more dead. So people are selling everything they own and leaving.'"
NYT: paco, a crack-like new form of cocaine, reeking havoc in Argentina and Brazil
Slate: the (ir)relevance of the (il)legality of torture
WP: tough times in Toledo
WP: and even tougher times in Zimbabwe with 100,000% inflation
NYT: no good for the opposition in Russia either
Slate: discovering and describing ancient civilizations
"By now, seven years of air strikes and civilian casualties, humiliating house searches and arbitrary detentions have pushed many families and tribes to revenge. The Americans then see every Afghan in those pockets of recalcitrance as an enemy. If you peel back the layers, however, there’s always a local political story at the root of the killing and dying. That original misunderstanding and grievance fertilizes the land for the Islamists. Whom do you want to side with: your brothers in God’s world or the infidel thieves?...
Just before I left, Kearney told me his biggest struggle would be holding his guys in check. 'I’ve got too many geeking out, wanting to go off the deep end and kill people,' he said. One of his lieutenants wanted to shoot every Afghan in the face. Kearney shook his head. He wished he could buy 20 goats and let the boys beat and burn them and let loose their rage. He tried to tell them the restraints were a product of their success — that there was an Afghan government with its own rules. 'I’m balancing plates on my goddamn nose is what I’m doing,' he said. 'All it’s gonna take is for one of these guys to snap.'"
WP: trying to govern Mosul
NYT: and Basra
WP: Sadr extends militia cease-fire for 6 months
"But Sadr's ability to enforce the truce hinges on his control over the unruly, decentralized militia. Many senior Mahdi Army leaders and politicians loyal to Sadr have called for the cease-fire to be lifted because they said it was being exploited by Iraqi and U.S. forces, and Sadr's political rivals, to arrest his followers. In some areas of Baghdad, militiamen have ignored Sadr's orders and continued to commit atrocities."
Atlantic: the intensifying religious cleavage in Nigeria
"No one knows what happened first. Someone shouted arna—infidel—at the Christians. Someone spat the word jihadi at the Muslims. Someone picked up a stone. 'That was the day ethnicity disappeared entirely, and the conflict became just about religion,' Abdullahi said. Chaos broke out, as young people on each side began to throw rocks. The candidates ran for their lives, and mobs set fire to the surrounding houses."
LAT: the FARC increases its presence in border towns -- on the Venezuelan side
"'The rebels live and move clandestinely but are very present in the countryside,' [Jesuit priest Father Belandria] said. 'There is no court or prosecutor here, so the rebels serve that judicial function, intervening in family problems, settling property and business disputes.'
They recruit Venezuelan youths, whom they "seduce with promises," and check on what schoolteachers are telling the children, Belandria said.
Rebels extort a "war tax" on farmers and business owners, typically demanding a cow or $20 a month. Those who don't pay are killed, said Belandria, who estimated that there was a killing a month in his parish, with the victims usually local people who hadn't paid up.
'The level of violence is very strong. The rebel groups fight among themselves over ideology and turf,' Belandria said.
'Every day there are more dead. So people are selling everything they own and leaving.'"
NYT: paco, a crack-like new form of cocaine, reeking havoc in Argentina and Brazil
Slate: the (ir)relevance of the (il)legality of torture
WP: tough times in Toledo
WP: and even tougher times in Zimbabwe with 100,000% inflation
NYT: no good for the opposition in Russia either
Slate: discovering and describing ancient civilizations
20 February 2008
transitions
NYT: Pakistan People's Party - the apparent victors of Sunday's elections - say they'll seek dialogue with militants; coalition talk on the table with Sharif's party
WP: they might want to send a memo to the CIA, because unilateral attacks seem here to stay
WSJ: chat with Musharraf
"Sitting in his office in Islamabad in a gray pinstriped suit, Mr. Musharraf issued cautionary words to the next prime minister. "The clash would be if the prime minister and president would be trying to get rid of each other. I only hope we would avoid these clashes," he said."
Slate: election analysis
Slate: el comandante signs off
LAT: brief profiles of four possible successors
NPR: text messages to incite violence in Kenya
NYT: ...maybe spurred demographic changes along ethnic lines
NYT: housing crisis in (the new state of) Kosovo, too -- sorting out squatters and IDPs
"The United Nations is trying to right the most recent of those wrongs, committed during the civil war in 1998 and 1999, when hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians and Serbs fled their homes in this poor, landlocked territory, only to seize a house belonging to somebody else.
New Yorker: an historical look at water boarding by Americans in the Philippines - at the turn of the last century
WP: they might want to send a memo to the CIA, because unilateral attacks seem here to stay
WSJ: chat with Musharraf
"Sitting in his office in Islamabad in a gray pinstriped suit, Mr. Musharraf issued cautionary words to the next prime minister. "The clash would be if the prime minister and president would be trying to get rid of each other. I only hope we would avoid these clashes," he said."
Slate: election analysis
Slate: el comandante signs off
LAT: brief profiles of four possible successors
NPR: text messages to incite violence in Kenya
NYT: ...maybe spurred demographic changes along ethnic lines
NYT: housing crisis in (the new state of) Kosovo, too -- sorting out squatters and IDPs
"The United Nations is trying to right the most recent of those wrongs, committed during the civil war in 1998 and 1999, when hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians and Serbs fled their homes in this poor, landlocked territory, only to seize a house belonging to somebody else.
The attempt to reverse these misdeeds underlines the challenge facing conflict zones around the world, where ensuring the right of returning minorities to take possession of their homes is deemed essential to reconstruction in multiethnic countries like Rwanda and Iraq."
NYT: the new country has other problems already
AP: Colombian soldiers convicted of killing anti-narcotics police squad
AP: Liberian refugees in US weigh participation in Truth and Reconciliation Commission
New Yorker: an historical look at water boarding by Americans in the Philippines - at the turn of the last century
14 February 2008
be mine
BBC: Chad gov't conducting house-by-house raids in N'Djamena, searching for alleged rebels
BBC: hunt for rebels also underway in East Timor
NYT: Philippines on the lookout too, after intel about possible assassination attempt on Arroyo
BBC: LRA on the move through southern Sudan, maybe towards CAR, allegedly kidnapping Sudanese along the way; peace talks look touch-and-go
BBC: in Thailand, search successful: Karen National Union rebel leader killed
NYT: in Lebanon as well: background on Imad Mugniyah
"Long before Osama bin Laden founded Al Qaeda and initiated the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States, [he] was perhaps the world’s most feared terrorist."
WP: has a profile too, on how he innovated terror tactics
AP: Nasrallah threatens Israel, urges revenge (Israel denies involvement)
BBC: Bangladesh military gov't accused of illegal detention, torture
"[Human Rights Watch] claims that many of the people arrested under the emergency rules by the army and its intelligence organisation, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, or DGFI, have been tortured to extract confessions."
IHT: Iraqi jails and courts can't handle detainees
NYT: one approach: parliament passes measures that may provide amnesty to thousands
"The three measures are the 2008 budget; a law outlining the scope of provincial powers, a crucial aspect of Iraq’s self-definition as a federal state; and an amnesty that would apply to thousands of the detainees held in Iraqi jails...The decision to vote on the three measures together broke the logjam that had held up the legislation for months, despite pressure from the Bush administration and some senior Iraqi officials. Every group was able to boast that it had won, to some degree."
IHT: Senate isn't buying administration's take on torture
Gdn: neither is Stephen Bradbury, acting head of DoJ's office of legal counsel (apparently consulting the laws changed his mind)
LAT: Spain arresting ETA, Basque dissidents
BBC: Malaysia to hold elections in March, about one year early, amid ethnic tensions
Daily Mail: a valentine for Vladimir, anyone?
"He accused the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe of trying to 'teach' Russia how to behave and mocked: 'Let them teach their wives to make cabbage soup.'" (to be fair, Leslie already called dibs)
BBC: hunt for rebels also underway in East Timor
NYT: Philippines on the lookout too, after intel about possible assassination attempt on Arroyo
BBC: LRA on the move through southern Sudan, maybe towards CAR, allegedly kidnapping Sudanese along the way; peace talks look touch-and-go
BBC: in Thailand, search successful: Karen National Union rebel leader killed
NYT: in Lebanon as well: background on Imad Mugniyah
"Long before Osama bin Laden founded Al Qaeda and initiated the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States, [he] was perhaps the world’s most feared terrorist."
WP: has a profile too, on how he innovated terror tactics
AP: Nasrallah threatens Israel, urges revenge (Israel denies involvement)
BBC: Bangladesh military gov't accused of illegal detention, torture
"[Human Rights Watch] claims that many of the people arrested under the emergency rules by the army and its intelligence organisation, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, or DGFI, have been tortured to extract confessions."
IHT: Iraqi jails and courts can't handle detainees
NYT: one approach: parliament passes measures that may provide amnesty to thousands
"The three measures are the 2008 budget; a law outlining the scope of provincial powers, a crucial aspect of Iraq’s self-definition as a federal state; and an amnesty that would apply to thousands of the detainees held in Iraqi jails...The decision to vote on the three measures together broke the logjam that had held up the legislation for months, despite pressure from the Bush administration and some senior Iraqi officials. Every group was able to boast that it had won, to some degree."
IHT: Senate isn't buying administration's take on torture
Gdn: neither is Stephen Bradbury, acting head of DoJ's office of legal counsel (apparently consulting the laws changed his mind)
LAT: Spain arresting ETA, Basque dissidents
BBC: Malaysia to hold elections in March, about one year early, amid ethnic tensions
Daily Mail: a valentine for Vladimir, anyone?
"He accused the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe of trying to 'teach' Russia how to behave and mocked: 'Let them teach their wives to make cabbage soup.'" (to be fair, Leslie already called dibs)
13 February 2008
the defense doesn't rest
WP: the obstacles to mounting a legitimate defense of detainees
WP: timing of Bush administration's declaration that waterboarding is not torture not coincidental to charges filed against the 9/11 six; Tony throws in with George
"Supreme Court Justice Antonin M. Scalia echoed the administration's view when he said in a BBC Radio interview yesterday that some physical interrogation techniques could be used on a suspect in the event of an imminent threat, such as a hidden bomb about to blow up. 'It would be absurd to say you couldn't do that,' Scalia said. 'And once you acknowledge that, we're into a different game: How close does the threat have to be? And how severe can the infliction of pain be?'"
LAT: Baitullah Mahsud's story: "pawn" or leading militant?
"Despite his growing infamy, Mahsud has preserved an aura of secrecy, speaking rarely to outsiders and scrupulously avoiding being photographed. Even his age is a mystery; he is believed to be in his 40s."
CSM: in legitimate politics, three old clans introduce new generation
CSM: signs of stress fractures in the Awakening Councils in Iraq
IHT: rape of US women in Iraq goes unpunished
"Kineston is one of a growing number of American women who have reported that they were sexually assaulted by co-workers while employed as contractors in Iraq, but find themselves in legal limbo, unable to seek justice or even significant compensation."
WP: Condi and Bob outline the options in Iraq (op-ed)
WP: Bush fails to acknowledge that NATO is struggling in Afghanistan, despite his own
"Jones, the former NATO commander, does not couch his judgment. In a pair of reports that he oversaw, he made clear he views the situation in dire terms."
Gdn: Red Cross says displacement is growing problem
"Speaking on condition of anonymity, humanitarian groups say most Afghans want security rather than "democracy" as represented by a powerful elite in control in Kabul."
WP: top Hezbollah leader killed in Damascus
BBC: attacks continue in Gaza
WP: Prime Minister says Israel saying one thing, doing another
WP: ethnic conflict reaching police force in Kenya
"...many Kenyans believe the police are as dangerously divided as the country itself. Officers from President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe have been accused of allowing attacks on Luos and other ethnic groups loyal to opposition leader Raila Odinga, a Luo, while others say Kalenjin and Luhya officers have permitted attacks on Kikuyus."
BBC: sexual violence spreading in Kenya, other conflicts in Africa
BBC: UN estimates 600,000 have been displaced
IHT: middle class collective action
"The well-established middle class here is thought to be one of the most important factors that separates Kenya from other African countries that have been consumed by ethnic conflict. Millions of Kenyans identify as much with what they do or where they went to college as who their ancestors are."
BBC: riots in Mozambique last week over transport prices
BBC: EUFOR mission to Chad resumes
IHT: Déby backed, dissidents fear increased repression
"At least half a dozen opposition leaders in Chad disappeared more than a week ago, carried off by armed men in military uniforms with no insignia, according to witnesses. They have not been heard from since."
BBC: Mugabe challenger expelled from party
BBC: opposition MP in Uganda charged with sedition after writing an article calling for Mau Mau-like action to remove Museveni from power
BBC: right-wing politician arrested in Mumbai, accused of increasing communal tensions
LAT: right-wing group raises concern in Hungary
"What many people here find particularly provocative are the Hungarian Guard's uniforms (black caps, vests, pants and boots), insignia and flags. All of it is reminiscent of the Arrow Cross, Hungary's World War II fascist militiamen who worked with the Nazis and were responsible for or assisted in the slaughter of tens of thousands of the Hungarian Jews who were killed...Some Hungarians fear the leap from rhetorical anti-Semitism to more dangerous action is a small one, especially with the rise of groups such as the Hungarian Guard that seem to receive at least tacit backing from more prominent rightist political factions."
BBC: death of exiled Georgian opposition figure "suspect"
BBC: 14 Basque political party members arrested, accused of ties to ETA
WP: timing of Bush administration's declaration that waterboarding is not torture not coincidental to charges filed against the 9/11 six; Tony throws in with George
"Supreme Court Justice Antonin M. Scalia echoed the administration's view when he said in a BBC Radio interview yesterday that some physical interrogation techniques could be used on a suspect in the event of an imminent threat, such as a hidden bomb about to blow up. 'It would be absurd to say you couldn't do that,' Scalia said. 'And once you acknowledge that, we're into a different game: How close does the threat have to be? And how severe can the infliction of pain be?'"
LAT: Baitullah Mahsud's story: "pawn" or leading militant?
"Despite his growing infamy, Mahsud has preserved an aura of secrecy, speaking rarely to outsiders and scrupulously avoiding being photographed. Even his age is a mystery; he is believed to be in his 40s."
CSM: in legitimate politics, three old clans introduce new generation
CSM: signs of stress fractures in the Awakening Councils in Iraq
IHT: rape of US women in Iraq goes unpunished
"Kineston is one of a growing number of American women who have reported that they were sexually assaulted by co-workers while employed as contractors in Iraq, but find themselves in legal limbo, unable to seek justice or even significant compensation."
WP: Condi and Bob outline the options in Iraq (op-ed)
WP: Bush fails to acknowledge that NATO is struggling in Afghanistan, despite his own
"Jones, the former NATO commander, does not couch his judgment. In a pair of reports that he oversaw, he made clear he views the situation in dire terms."
Gdn: Red Cross says displacement is growing problem
"Speaking on condition of anonymity, humanitarian groups say most Afghans want security rather than "democracy" as represented by a powerful elite in control in Kabul."
WP: top Hezbollah leader killed in Damascus
BBC: attacks continue in Gaza
WP: Prime Minister says Israel saying one thing, doing another
WP: ethnic conflict reaching police force in Kenya
"...many Kenyans believe the police are as dangerously divided as the country itself. Officers from President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe have been accused of allowing attacks on Luos and other ethnic groups loyal to opposition leader Raila Odinga, a Luo, while others say Kalenjin and Luhya officers have permitted attacks on Kikuyus."
BBC: sexual violence spreading in Kenya, other conflicts in Africa
BBC: UN estimates 600,000 have been displaced
IHT: middle class collective action
"The well-established middle class here is thought to be one of the most important factors that separates Kenya from other African countries that have been consumed by ethnic conflict. Millions of Kenyans identify as much with what they do or where they went to college as who their ancestors are."
BBC: riots in Mozambique last week over transport prices
BBC: EUFOR mission to Chad resumes
IHT: Déby backed, dissidents fear increased repression
"At least half a dozen opposition leaders in Chad disappeared more than a week ago, carried off by armed men in military uniforms with no insignia, according to witnesses. They have not been heard from since."
BBC: Mugabe challenger expelled from party
BBC: opposition MP in Uganda charged with sedition after writing an article calling for Mau Mau-like action to remove Museveni from power
BBC: right-wing politician arrested in Mumbai, accused of increasing communal tensions
LAT: right-wing group raises concern in Hungary
"What many people here find particularly provocative are the Hungarian Guard's uniforms (black caps, vests, pants and boots), insignia and flags. All of it is reminiscent of the Arrow Cross, Hungary's World War II fascist militiamen who worked with the Nazis and were responsible for or assisted in the slaughter of tens of thousands of the Hungarian Jews who were killed...Some Hungarians fear the leap from rhetorical anti-Semitism to more dangerous action is a small one, especially with the rise of groups such as the Hungarian Guard that seem to receive at least tacit backing from more prominent rightist political factions."
BBC: death of exiled Georgian opposition figure "suspect"
BBC: 14 Basque political party members arrested, accused of ties to ETA
12 February 2008
tainted trials
americas
Gdn: US already on defensive about 9/11 military trials
LAT: standards will be stricter than in Nuremberg; and apparently the military offered straight-faced assurance that defendants will have more rights than those facing trial for assassination of Lincoln. yes, in the 19th century.
WP: FBI claims the "Clean Team" gathered evidence without 'coercive' measures
IHT: drug traffickers' patron saint
"Jesús Malverde has been revered for almost a century in northwestern Mexico. According to folklore, he was a Robin Hood who took from the rich and gave to the poor until he was killed by the police in 1909...Courts in California, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas have ruled that Malverde trinkets and talismans are admissible evidence in cases involving drugs or money laundering."
[so much for offering protection from the law...]
Econ: drug-related violence in Vancouver
"...for many of the 2.2m residents of Vancouver, accustomed to idyllic calm, a spate of gun killings is starting to give their city the aura of Prohibition-era Chicago. In violent battles over power and money, brazen young bandits are blowing each other to pieces for a piece of another prohibited market—that for drugs."
LAT: remembering slavery in Barbados and the West Indies
africa
Econ: no one's innocent in Kenya
Gdn: opposition offers power sharing scheme for new elections in 2010
IHT: in one of its four open cases in Africa, ICC receives 3rd war crimes suspect from the Congo
"Ngudjolo allegedly led forces of the National Integrationist Front — including child soldiers — who attacked the village of Bogoro in the eastern Ituri region in 2003, the court said."
BBC: Nigeria orders oil companies to start production again in the Niger Delta, says it's safe enough
Ind: evolution of US operations in Somalia since 1993
"As America has lost its grip on southern and central Somalia it has turned its attention further north. Somaliland, formerly a British protectorate, declared itself independent in 1991, while Puntland, at Africa's most easterly tip, gained semi-autonomy from the rest of Somalia in 1998. Both provinces have their own intelligence services; both are funded by the US.
BBC: presidential election in Lebanon rescheduled (again) for Feb 26
Gdn: Musharraf not so popular
Gdn: suicide bomber kills six opposition supporters
Econ: summarizing scholarship on suicide bombing
Econ: Gaza border back in order (of sorts)
BBC: Olmert urged restraint
LAT: Azerbaijan in the middle
"In the turbulent world of geopolitics, the Middle East gets most of the ink. But it is here along the gloomy shores of the Caspian Sea that one of the most vital global contests -- for energy, money and political dominion -- is being waged between East and West."
asia
Econ: religious conflict and violence in the tribal belt...of India
Econ: (trying) to end military rule in Bangladesh
LAT: junta in Burma plans "elections" for 2010
Econ: maybe it plans to follow the lead of its friendly neighbor to the north
Econ: Sri Lanka's independece celebrated. sort of.
Gdn: clashes between the LTTE and gov't forces in the north
Ind: top Khmer Rouge leader gives interview
"The command had come from above, he said. 'All the prisoners had to be eliminated. We saw enemies, enemies, enemies everywhere.'"
Gdn: East Timor calls state of emergency after attack on PM
europe
Gdn: Serbia warns of potential violence in Kosovo
"Critics of the plan to declare independence, which follows the failure of Serbia and the Kosovo-Albania leaders to negotiate terms for separation, have already warned of the risk that Kosovo's Serbian population, concentrated in northern Mitrovica, would respond by declaring their own independence, setting the stage for violent confrontation."
Econ: assessing the new president
Econ: assessing a familiar face in Montenegro
Gdn: British troops allowed to record video while deployed, contribute to museum exhibit
Gdn: massive arrests last week in operation against Cosa Nostra, the Gambino crime family
misc
CSM: counting the atrocities: a profile of Patrick Ball
Gdn: no red roses for your sweetheart in Saudi Arabia
Gdn: Obama, Japan supports Obama
Gdn: US already on defensive about 9/11 military trials
LAT: standards will be stricter than in Nuremberg; and apparently the military offered straight-faced assurance that defendants will have more rights than those facing trial for assassination of Lincoln. yes, in the 19th century.
WP: FBI claims the "Clean Team" gathered evidence without 'coercive' measures
IHT: drug traffickers' patron saint
"Jesús Malverde has been revered for almost a century in northwestern Mexico. According to folklore, he was a Robin Hood who took from the rich and gave to the poor until he was killed by the police in 1909...Courts in California, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas have ruled that Malverde trinkets and talismans are admissible evidence in cases involving drugs or money laundering."
[so much for offering protection from the law...]
Econ: drug-related violence in Vancouver
"...for many of the 2.2m residents of Vancouver, accustomed to idyllic calm, a spate of gun killings is starting to give their city the aura of Prohibition-era Chicago. In violent battles over power and money, brazen young bandits are blowing each other to pieces for a piece of another prohibited market—that for drugs."
LAT: remembering slavery in Barbados and the West Indies
africa
Econ: no one's innocent in Kenya
Gdn: opposition offers power sharing scheme for new elections in 2010
IHT: in one of its four open cases in Africa, ICC receives 3rd war crimes suspect from the Congo
"Ngudjolo allegedly led forces of the National Integrationist Front — including child soldiers — who attacked the village of Bogoro in the eastern Ituri region in 2003, the court said."
BBC: Nigeria orders oil companies to start production again in the Niger Delta, says it's safe enough
Ind: evolution of US operations in Somalia since 1993
"As America has lost its grip on southern and central Somalia it has turned its attention further north. Somaliland, formerly a British protectorate, declared itself independent in 1991, while Puntland, at Africa's most easterly tip, gained semi-autonomy from the rest of Somalia in 1998. Both provinces have their own intelligence services; both are funded by the US.
So far there appears to have been little reward. One Puntland Intelligence Service officer thinks he knows why. "The Americans know nothing," he said, sitting in a café in the port city of Bosasso. 'They pay for information, but they don't know what's right and wrong.' This officer insisted he gave only good information but knew of others who used their position to settle old scores."
Econ: Europe's colonial legacy in Africa hobbling intervention nowScientific American: Jeff Sachs writes about resources and war in the "drylands"
BBC: another ambush in Algeria
BBC: presidential election in Lebanon rescheduled (again) for Feb 26
Gdn: Musharraf not so popular
Gdn: suicide bomber kills six opposition supporters
Econ: summarizing scholarship on suicide bombing
Econ: Gaza border back in order (of sorts)
BBC: Olmert urged restraint
LAT: Azerbaijan in the middle
"In the turbulent world of geopolitics, the Middle East gets most of the ink. But it is here along the gloomy shores of the Caspian Sea that one of the most vital global contests -- for energy, money and political dominion -- is being waged between East and West."
asia
Econ: religious conflict and violence in the tribal belt...of India
Econ: (trying) to end military rule in Bangladesh
LAT: junta in Burma plans "elections" for 2010
Econ: maybe it plans to follow the lead of its friendly neighbor to the north
Econ: Sri Lanka's independece celebrated. sort of.
Gdn: clashes between the LTTE and gov't forces in the north
Ind: top Khmer Rouge leader gives interview
"The command had come from above, he said. 'All the prisoners had to be eliminated. We saw enemies, enemies, enemies everywhere.'"
Gdn: East Timor calls state of emergency after attack on PM
europe
Gdn: Serbia warns of potential violence in Kosovo
"Critics of the plan to declare independence, which follows the failure of Serbia and the Kosovo-Albania leaders to negotiate terms for separation, have already warned of the risk that Kosovo's Serbian population, concentrated in northern Mitrovica, would respond by declaring their own independence, setting the stage for violent confrontation."
Econ: assessing the new president
Econ: assessing a familiar face in Montenegro
Gdn: British troops allowed to record video while deployed, contribute to museum exhibit
Gdn: massive arrests last week in operation against Cosa Nostra, the Gambino crime family
misc
CSM: counting the atrocities: a profile of Patrick Ball
Gdn: no red roses for your sweetheart in Saudi Arabia
Gdn: Obama, Japan supports Obama
11 February 2008
building nations
middle east (and the US)
NYT: Rand study on post-invasion Iraq planning buried by the Army
"A review of the lengthy report — a draft of which was obtained by The New York Times — shows that it identified problems with nearly every organization that had a role in planning the war."
IHT: new field manual stresses nation building
"The manual states: 'Army doctrine now equally weights tasks dealing with the population - stability or civil support - with those related to offensive and defensive operations. Winning battles and engagements is important but alone is not sufficient. Shaping the civil situation is just as important to success.'"
WP: several bombings kill across northern Iraq yesterday
WP: US finds the diary of an insurgent
"Over 16 pages, the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader detailed the organization's demise in his sector. He once had 600 men, but now his force was down to 20 or fewer, he wrote. They had lost weapons and allies. Abu Tariq focused his anger in particular on the Sunni fighters and tribesmen who have turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq and joined the U.S.-backed Sunni Sahwa, or "Awakening," forces."
IHT: diary with other 39-page memo basis for Army's claim that Al-Qaeda is losing strength
LAT: targeting of Iraqi volunteers on the rise; military suggests it's because Al-Qaeda on defensive
NYT: US seeks death penalty for 6 suspects linked to 9/11
"Even if the detainees are convicted on capital charges, any execution would be many months or, perhaps years, from being carried out, lawyers said, in part because a death sentence would have to be scrutinized by civilian appeals courts.
Federal officials have said in recent months that there is no death chamber at the detention camp at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and that they knew of no specific plans for how a death sentence would be carried out.
The military justice system, which does not govern the Guantánamo cases, provides for execution by lethal injection in death sentence convictions. But the United States military has rarely executed a prisoner in recent times." [the last was in 1961]
WP: 25 die in political party rally in northwest Pakistan
The explosion in the city of Charsadda ripped through a crowd of supporters of the secular Awami National Party moments before the party's provincial president arrived, witnesses said...'The ANP is a liberal party. It's a secular party,' [party official] Afridi said. 'We have condemned extremism and terrorism, so now we are under threat.'"
NYT: Bhutto's widower leads rally in Sindh, her home province
LAT: regional rivalries
WP: composition of militant groups changing, US intelligence suggests
"Compared with previous insurgent groups, the newcomers are well-armed, ideological and difficult to control, with fewer allegiances to local religious and tribal leaders and structures."
Econ: possibilities for reform in Iran look bleak; elections next month
africa
AP: new strikes in Darfur lead to 12,000 displaced to Chad, where an estimated 400,000 refugees are already living, not including those recently displaced by fighting within Chad
Econ: war in Chad. again.
Econ: Déby survives with the support of France
WP: UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan has squandered "tens of millions" in last 3 years
WP: inflation in Zimbabwe: 10 million dollars for an 18-mile bus ride
Econ: the opposition's chances
WP: gov't dissolved in Tanzania over corruption
europe
Reuters: meanwhile, the Greek PM hangs on so far in sex and corruption scandal
Islam, secularism, and integration
Econ: different laws for practicing Muslims in the UK? the Archbishop of Canterbury sets off a debate
NYT: Turkish parliament votes to lift headscarf ban for university students
Econ: Dutch brace for more backlash as legislator to release anti-Islamic film
WP: Sarkozy proposes plan to integrate immigrants, provide more public services in Parisian suburbs
"'We will no longer have young people who are foreigners in their own country,' he declared."
asia
WP: East Timor president wounded in shooting
americas
WP: Chávez threatens to cut off oil sales to the US, in retaliation for recent, successful Exxon-Mobile bids to freeze Venezuelan assets
"While a cut in Venezuelan oil exports would drive up oil prices sharply, oil analysts believe it is unlikely that Chavez would carry out his threat. Venezuela, beleaguered by food shortages, depends heavily on oil exports for about 90 percent of its export earnings and about half of government revenue. The United States is its main market."
Econ: el comandante also launches cabinet-level investigation into Bolivar's death -- apparently he's trying to claim that the Liberator was poisoned, while also alleging that he is the target of assassination attempts and conspiracies.
Wonkette: Georgia and Tennessee in border dispute
NYT: Rand study on post-invasion Iraq planning buried by the Army
"A review of the lengthy report — a draft of which was obtained by The New York Times — shows that it identified problems with nearly every organization that had a role in planning the war."
IHT: new field manual stresses nation building
"The manual states: 'Army doctrine now equally weights tasks dealing with the population - stability or civil support - with those related to offensive and defensive operations. Winning battles and engagements is important but alone is not sufficient. Shaping the civil situation is just as important to success.'"
WP: several bombings kill across northern Iraq yesterday
WP: US finds the diary of an insurgent
"Over 16 pages, the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader detailed the organization's demise in his sector. He once had 600 men, but now his force was down to 20 or fewer, he wrote. They had lost weapons and allies. Abu Tariq focused his anger in particular on the Sunni fighters and tribesmen who have turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq and joined the U.S.-backed Sunni Sahwa, or "Awakening," forces."
IHT: diary with other 39-page memo basis for Army's claim that Al-Qaeda is losing strength
LAT: targeting of Iraqi volunteers on the rise; military suggests it's because Al-Qaeda on defensive
NYT: US seeks death penalty for 6 suspects linked to 9/11
"Even if the detainees are convicted on capital charges, any execution would be many months or, perhaps years, from being carried out, lawyers said, in part because a death sentence would have to be scrutinized by civilian appeals courts.
Federal officials have said in recent months that there is no death chamber at the detention camp at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and that they knew of no specific plans for how a death sentence would be carried out.
The military justice system, which does not govern the Guantánamo cases, provides for execution by lethal injection in death sentence convictions. But the United States military has rarely executed a prisoner in recent times." [the last was in 1961]
WP: 25 die in political party rally in northwest Pakistan
The explosion in the city of Charsadda ripped through a crowd of supporters of the secular Awami National Party moments before the party's provincial president arrived, witnesses said...'The ANP is a liberal party. It's a secular party,' [party official] Afridi said. 'We have condemned extremism and terrorism, so now we are under threat.'"
NYT: Bhutto's widower leads rally in Sindh, her home province
LAT: regional rivalries
WP: composition of militant groups changing, US intelligence suggests
"Compared with previous insurgent groups, the newcomers are well-armed, ideological and difficult to control, with fewer allegiances to local religious and tribal leaders and structures."
Econ: possibilities for reform in Iran look bleak; elections next month
africa
AP: new strikes in Darfur lead to 12,000 displaced to Chad, where an estimated 400,000 refugees are already living, not including those recently displaced by fighting within Chad
Econ: war in Chad. again.
Econ: Déby survives with the support of France
WP: UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan has squandered "tens of millions" in last 3 years
WP: inflation in Zimbabwe: 10 million dollars for an 18-mile bus ride
Econ: the opposition's chances
WP: gov't dissolved in Tanzania over corruption
europe
Reuters: meanwhile, the Greek PM hangs on so far in sex and corruption scandal
Islam, secularism, and integration
Econ: different laws for practicing Muslims in the UK? the Archbishop of Canterbury sets off a debate
NYT: Turkish parliament votes to lift headscarf ban for university students
Econ: Dutch brace for more backlash as legislator to release anti-Islamic film
WP: Sarkozy proposes plan to integrate immigrants, provide more public services in Parisian suburbs
"'We will no longer have young people who are foreigners in their own country,' he declared."
asia
WP: East Timor president wounded in shooting
americas
WP: Chávez threatens to cut off oil sales to the US, in retaliation for recent, successful Exxon-Mobile bids to freeze Venezuelan assets
"While a cut in Venezuelan oil exports would drive up oil prices sharply, oil analysts believe it is unlikely that Chavez would carry out his threat. Venezuela, beleaguered by food shortages, depends heavily on oil exports for about 90 percent of its export earnings and about half of government revenue. The United States is its main market."
Econ: el comandante also launches cabinet-level investigation into Bolivar's death -- apparently he's trying to claim that the Liberator was poisoned, while also alleging that he is the target of assassination attempts and conspiracies.
Wonkette: Georgia and Tennessee in border dispute
09 February 2008
change (in specifics)
NYT: military commission system (MCS) prepares to charge 6 Guantánamo detainees for crimes related to Sept 11 attacks, one of whom was subjected to waterboarding. Actual charges have not been announced.
[please refer to Kafka's unfortunately relevant depiction]
AP: MCS slowed down by objections to secret evidence
"The law authorizing the war-crimes tribunals allows the use of classified evidence, and prosecutors say they fulfill their obligation to share it with the other side. But some defense attorneys say the government uses too narrow an interpretation of what information is relevant and should be provided to the defense." [again, please see Kafka]
Slate: torture's not legal? ok, waterboarding isn't torture. wait, yes it is. but it's legal now.
"This is not simply the theory of a unitary executive at work; this isn't the notion that the president makes the law, and acts of Congress are legal elevator music. This vision of executive power is that the law not only emanates from the president but also ebbs and flows with his hunches, hopes, and speculations, on a moment-to-moment basis. What we are hearing now from senior Bush administration officials is that if the president thinks someone looks kinda like a terrorist and the information sought from him seems kinda worth getting, it will be legal to torture him. And it's legal no matter who justified it, regardless of the supporting legal doctrine, because, well, the president just had a feeling that the information would prove valuable."
Foreign Affairs: all of the above central to change in 2009.
"To build a better, freer world, we must first behave in ways that reflect the decency and aspirations of the American people. This means ending the practices of shipping away prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far-off countries, of detaining thousands without charge or trial, of maintaining a network of secret prisons to jail people beyond the reach of the law."
BG: Q&A with Obama on these issues: see especially Qs 5,7,8,9,10
BG: and Clinton too
NYT: SecDef Gates says Europeans are resisting stepping up NATO commitments because they're angry about Iraq, "confusing" it with the war in Afghanistan
"'Many of them, I think, have a problem with our involvement in Iraq, and project that to Afghanistan, and do not understand the very different — for them — the very different kind of threat.'"
Slate: the alliance wasn't sustainable from the beginning
"In early 2006, NATO made plans to relieve the United States of command over operations in Afghanistan. The mission was seen as vital, above all, to NATO. It was a test of whether, in the post-Cold War era, the alliance had any role to play as a unified expeditionary force. To get all the nations involved, "caveats" were negotiated. Some nations would send troops, but only if they didn't have to fight; others would fight, but not at night; and so forth. Troops under NATO command, in general, could engage in "proactive self-defense," a deliberately vague term that permitted commanders to fire when fired upon and go after insurgents if they were spotted nearby. But they could not initiate offensive operations. (For that reason, the United States would keep 13,000 troops, mainly airmen, under its own command—in addition to the 7,000 it was placing under NATO's—so that somebody could continue to go after Taliban forces on the Pakistan border.)"
NYT: Dick wants his right to shoot friends in the face protected in the District
NYT: Pakistan People's Party disputes Scotland Yard's report on Bhutto's death
NYT: progress made on peace talks in Kenya
"The opposition has agreed to recognize Mr. Kibaki as the president and drop its demand for a new election, the person said, and the president’s negotiators have reciprocated by talking of a 'broad-based government.'"
Slate: background on Kikuyus and resentment towards them
NYT: Venezuelans growing restless with Chávez
"'I cannot find beans, rice, coffee or milk,' said Mirna de Campos, 56, a nurse’s assistant who lives in the gritty district of Los Teques outside Caracas. 'What there is to find is whiskey — lots of it.' The gulf between revolutionary rhetoric and the skewed availability of imported luxury items, many of which are consumed by a new elite aligned with Mr. Chávez’s government, known as the “Bolivarian bourgeoisie,” has led to even wider questioning of the priorities of his political movement."
McSweeney's: Tintin in the 21st century
[please refer to Kafka's unfortunately relevant depiction]
AP: MCS slowed down by objections to secret evidence
"The law authorizing the war-crimes tribunals allows the use of classified evidence, and prosecutors say they fulfill their obligation to share it with the other side. But some defense attorneys say the government uses too narrow an interpretation of what information is relevant and should be provided to the defense." [again, please see Kafka]
Slate: torture's not legal? ok, waterboarding isn't torture. wait, yes it is. but it's legal now.
"This is not simply the theory of a unitary executive at work; this isn't the notion that the president makes the law, and acts of Congress are legal elevator music. This vision of executive power is that the law not only emanates from the president but also ebbs and flows with his hunches, hopes, and speculations, on a moment-to-moment basis. What we are hearing now from senior Bush administration officials is that if the president thinks someone looks kinda like a terrorist and the information sought from him seems kinda worth getting, it will be legal to torture him. And it's legal no matter who justified it, regardless of the supporting legal doctrine, because, well, the president just had a feeling that the information would prove valuable."
Foreign Affairs: all of the above central to change in 2009.
"To build a better, freer world, we must first behave in ways that reflect the decency and aspirations of the American people. This means ending the practices of shipping away prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far-off countries, of detaining thousands without charge or trial, of maintaining a network of secret prisons to jail people beyond the reach of the law."
BG: Q&A with Obama on these issues: see especially Qs 5,7,8,9,10
BG: and Clinton too
NYT: SecDef Gates says Europeans are resisting stepping up NATO commitments because they're angry about Iraq, "confusing" it with the war in Afghanistan
"'Many of them, I think, have a problem with our involvement in Iraq, and project that to Afghanistan, and do not understand the very different — for them — the very different kind of threat.'"
Slate: the alliance wasn't sustainable from the beginning
"In early 2006, NATO made plans to relieve the United States of command over operations in Afghanistan. The mission was seen as vital, above all, to NATO. It was a test of whether, in the post-Cold War era, the alliance had any role to play as a unified expeditionary force. To get all the nations involved, "caveats" were negotiated. Some nations would send troops, but only if they didn't have to fight; others would fight, but not at night; and so forth. Troops under NATO command, in general, could engage in "proactive self-defense," a deliberately vague term that permitted commanders to fire when fired upon and go after insurgents if they were spotted nearby. But they could not initiate offensive operations. (For that reason, the United States would keep 13,000 troops, mainly airmen, under its own command—in addition to the 7,000 it was placing under NATO's—so that somebody could continue to go after Taliban forces on the Pakistan border.)"
NYT: Dick wants his right to shoot friends in the face protected in the District
NYT: Pakistan People's Party disputes Scotland Yard's report on Bhutto's death
NYT: progress made on peace talks in Kenya
"The opposition has agreed to recognize Mr. Kibaki as the president and drop its demand for a new election, the person said, and the president’s negotiators have reciprocated by talking of a 'broad-based government.'"
Slate: background on Kikuyus and resentment towards them
NYT: Venezuelans growing restless with Chávez
"'I cannot find beans, rice, coffee or milk,' said Mirna de Campos, 56, a nurse’s assistant who lives in the gritty district of Los Teques outside Caracas. 'What there is to find is whiskey — lots of it.' The gulf between revolutionary rhetoric and the skewed availability of imported luxury items, many of which are consumed by a new elite aligned with Mr. Chávez’s government, known as the “Bolivarian bourgeoisie,” has led to even wider questioning of the priorities of his political movement."
McSweeney's: Tintin in the 21st century
06 February 2008
torture smorture
LAT: while everyone's giddy with the idea of him not being president next year, Bush says torture [waterboarding] is a-ok, reminds everyone he can keep shaming the country for 11 more months
"The surprise assertion from the Bush administration reopened a debate that many in Washington had considered closed. Two laws passed by Congress in recent years -- as well as a Supreme Court ruling on the treatment of detainees -- were widely interpreted to have banned the CIA's use of the extreme interrogation method."
Gdn: meanwhile, UN special rapporteur on torture censures the US
"Nowak, an Austrian law professor, said: 'I'm not willing any more to discuss these questions with the US government, when they still say that this is allowed. It's not allowed.'"
NYT: more evidence that CIA tapes were destroyed during an investigation (apparently unnecessary, since the administration doesn't mind torture)
middle east
USAT: in Mosul, Al-Qaeda changes tactics, eases off the harsh rules and warns civilians before bombings
WP: Samarra mosque under reconstruction
NYT: quick facts on Pakistan's tribal region
Gdn: attacks continue in Gaza between Hamas and Israel
europe
BBC: OSCE will boycott Russia's Mar 2 presidential election
asia
BBC: journalists in Sri Lanka live in danger; many threatened have been Tamils working in north
BBC: mass grave discovered in Nepal, thought to contain remains of 49 people disappeared by military during war with Maoists
the carrot
BBC: back on track: US rewards new government in Thailand with resumed military aid
and the stick
Gdn: US imposes travel ban on 10 politicians linked to post-election violence in Kenya
africa
Gdn: background on conflicts and recent violence in Kenya
BBC: Kenyan police officer charged with murder during post-election violence
BBC: opposition candidate in Zimbabwe threatened by Zanu-PF militants
BBC: UN concerned about potential war between Ethiopia and Eritrea
Econ: and things don't look good in Central Africa, either
BBC: MSF estimates that 100 people were killed in Chad; capital is still quiet, with French soldiers patrolling
americas
WP: President Calderon might reduce role of military in drug war
still scratching your head over super tuesday?
TNR blog: let's just broker this, like the good ol' days
(Wiki: when did we start voting in primaries, anyhow?)
Slate: who has more delegates? depends on who you ask
USAT: make your own spreadsheet with the formulas
Slate: will florida seriously screw everything up again?
"The surprise assertion from the Bush administration reopened a debate that many in Washington had considered closed. Two laws passed by Congress in recent years -- as well as a Supreme Court ruling on the treatment of detainees -- were widely interpreted to have banned the CIA's use of the extreme interrogation method."
Gdn: meanwhile, UN special rapporteur on torture censures the US
"Nowak, an Austrian law professor, said: 'I'm not willing any more to discuss these questions with the US government, when they still say that this is allowed. It's not allowed.'"
NYT: more evidence that CIA tapes were destroyed during an investigation (apparently unnecessary, since the administration doesn't mind torture)
middle east
USAT: in Mosul, Al-Qaeda changes tactics, eases off the harsh rules and warns civilians before bombings
WP: Samarra mosque under reconstruction
NYT: quick facts on Pakistan's tribal region
Gdn: attacks continue in Gaza between Hamas and Israel
europe
BBC: OSCE will boycott Russia's Mar 2 presidential election
asia
BBC: journalists in Sri Lanka live in danger; many threatened have been Tamils working in north
BBC: mass grave discovered in Nepal, thought to contain remains of 49 people disappeared by military during war with Maoists
the carrot
BBC: back on track: US rewards new government in Thailand with resumed military aid
and the stick
Gdn: US imposes travel ban on 10 politicians linked to post-election violence in Kenya
africa
Gdn: background on conflicts and recent violence in Kenya
BBC: Kenyan police officer charged with murder during post-election violence
BBC: opposition candidate in Zimbabwe threatened by Zanu-PF militants
BBC: UN concerned about potential war between Ethiopia and Eritrea
Econ: and things don't look good in Central Africa, either
BBC: MSF estimates that 100 people were killed in Chad; capital is still quiet, with French soldiers patrolling
americas
WP: President Calderon might reduce role of military in drug war
still scratching your head over super tuesday?
TNR blog: let's just broker this, like the good ol' days
(Wiki: when did we start voting in primaries, anyhow?)
Slate: who has more delegates? depends on who you ask
USAT: make your own spreadsheet with the formulas
Slate: will florida seriously screw everything up again?
judgments
middle east
BBC: new flag over Baghdad
LAT: Diyala valley claimed by militant group
"The invaders pinned notices on the walls of mosques informing residents that they now lived in the Islamic State of Iraq."
LAT: Iraqi army and police rivalries slow handover
"Separated by tribal and regional differences, and a personality clash between top officers, the two branches of the Iraqi security forces have largely refused to coordinate their activities."
LAT: focus on professionalizing the police, an enormous challenge
WP: US troops kill 3 more civilians in another raid
WP: Hamas claims responsibility for suicide bomb in Israel; Israel retaliates with missile attacks, killing 9
New Yorker: why did Israel bomb Syria in Sept?
BBC: HRW calls for release of activist in Syria, opposition members
Gdn: Iranian missile test makes Russia nervous
LAT: Christians in Pakistan
WP: Mormons in the world
WP: Islamists in Chechnya
LAT: (liberal) Shiites in Lebanon
SWJ: link to full Afghanistan Study Group report
"It is time to re-vitalize and re-double our efforts toward stabilizing Afghanistan and re-think our economic and military strategies to ensure that the level of our commitment is commensurate with the threat posed by possible failure in Afghanistan."
SWJ: summaries of, links to other assessments
BBC: Poland chastises NATO allies for not sending enough troops, support to Afghanistan
Gdn: UK will deploy paratroopers to Helmand in April
BBC: announcement comes during Sec Rice visit to London
BBC: alternative development needed to reduce Afghan farmers' incentives to grow poppy
"Britain plays the lead role in coordinating counter narcotics policy in Afghanistan and six years on the failure in this area makes for grim reading...There have been some successes - half as many provinces grow opium poppies this year as last - but the report says there are ominous signs that the drugs business is increasingly linked to insecurity."
BBC: UNODC releases report estimating higher poppy growth in south
americas
LAT: Hayden acknowledges that only (at least?) 3 Al-Qaeda suspects were waterboarded
NYT: (despite the torture) Al-Qaeda is a growing threat. and more on those tricky guidelines:
"[director of national intelligence] Mr. McConnell said that a future C.I.A. request to use waterboarding on a detainee would need to be approved both by Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and by President Bush...
"It has been 70 years since the [Supreme Court's] last substantive review of the Second Amendment, and supporters and opponents of gun control remain adamantly divided on whether it protects an individual's right to possess guns or only provides a "collective" right of citizens related to military service.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last spring became the first appeals court to use the individual-rights interpretation of the amendment to strike a gun-control law. Most of the courts that have examined the issue have ruled that it protects only the collective right."
IHT: millions march against the FARC in Colombia, across the world
LAT: the marches became politicized, but many participated despite misgivings
"We're not talking about politics, just a condemnation of what the FARC does. We're tired of it."
BBC: Colombian cocaine capo sentenced to 30 years in NY court
Slate: series on visiting Venezuela
"Another time, I caught Chávez at a new hospital pledging to build or modernize hundreds more. He earnestly whipped out pencil and paper to make a list of all the things a great hospital needs. "Let's see," he told the assembled group of medical workers, "You need an X-ray unit with all the latest equipment, and what else, let's see …" On and on he went. It makes for seductive television, a bit like watching your Uncle Fred run the country from a reality TV show."
africa
NYT: rebellion in Chad on pause; bodies collected in the capital and opposition politicians arrested
BBC: Deby received pledged support from France, actual support from Darfur rebel group
AP: rebels agree to Libya-brokered cease fire
BBC: explosions kill at least 20 in Ethiopian migrant housing on Somali coast
BBC: Annan wants truth and reconciliation commission in Kenya
BBC: opposition threatens more rallies if regional meeting goes ahead
asia
BBC: speaker de Venecia ousted in Phillipines, after launching accusations of corruption against president Arroyo
BBC: UN hands off power to Timorese police
BBC: US approves more sanctions on Burma
europe
BBC: EU approves Kosovo mission,
BBC: delays deal with Serbia
BBC: because the PM has denounced the plan
BBC: Spanish judge issues arrest warrants for 40 Rwandan soldiers; charged with mass killing, genocide, terrorism, and crimes against humanity
NYT: elections set for April in Italy
misc
The Onion: Bob Seger tries to get Cleveland to open up, share its feelings and fears
"Maybe you can all just start by telling me a little about yourself. What do you do for fun, for example? I know you enjoy that old-time rock and roll, but what else? What is it like living in Cleveland? I have heard that the subprime mortgage crisis has hit Cleveland especially hard. That sucks."
BBC: new flag over Baghdad
LAT: Diyala valley claimed by militant group
"The invaders pinned notices on the walls of mosques informing residents that they now lived in the Islamic State of Iraq."
LAT: Iraqi army and police rivalries slow handover
"Separated by tribal and regional differences, and a personality clash between top officers, the two branches of the Iraqi security forces have largely refused to coordinate their activities."
LAT: focus on professionalizing the police, an enormous challenge
WP: US troops kill 3 more civilians in another raid
WP: Hamas claims responsibility for suicide bomb in Israel; Israel retaliates with missile attacks, killing 9
New Yorker: why did Israel bomb Syria in Sept?
BBC: HRW calls for release of activist in Syria, opposition members
Gdn: Iranian missile test makes Russia nervous
LAT: Christians in Pakistan
WP: Mormons in the world
WP: Islamists in Chechnya
LAT: (liberal) Shiites in Lebanon
SWJ: link to full Afghanistan Study Group report
"It is time to re-vitalize and re-double our efforts toward stabilizing Afghanistan and re-think our economic and military strategies to ensure that the level of our commitment is commensurate with the threat posed by possible failure in Afghanistan."
SWJ: summaries of, links to other assessments
BBC: Poland chastises NATO allies for not sending enough troops, support to Afghanistan
Gdn: UK will deploy paratroopers to Helmand in April
BBC: announcement comes during Sec Rice visit to London
BBC: alternative development needed to reduce Afghan farmers' incentives to grow poppy
"Britain plays the lead role in coordinating counter narcotics policy in Afghanistan and six years on the failure in this area makes for grim reading...There have been some successes - half as many provinces grow opium poppies this year as last - but the report says there are ominous signs that the drugs business is increasingly linked to insecurity."
BBC: UNODC releases report estimating higher poppy growth in south
americas
LAT: Hayden acknowledges that only (at least?) 3 Al-Qaeda suspects were waterboarded
NYT: (despite the torture) Al-Qaeda is a growing threat. and more on those tricky guidelines:
"[director of national intelligence] Mr. McConnell said that a future C.I.A. request to use waterboarding on a detainee would need to be approved both by Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and by President Bush...
Both Robert S. Mueller III, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told lawmakers that their agencies had successfully obtained valuable intelligence from terrorism suspects without using what Mr. Mueller called the “coercive” methods of the C.I.A.
But General Hayden bristled when asked about Congressional attempts to mandate that C.I.A. interrogators be required to use the more limited set of interrogation methods contained in the Army Field Manual, which is used by military interrogators.
'It would make no more sense to apply the Army’s field manual to C.I.A.,' General Hayden said, 'than it would to take the Army Field Manual on grooming and apply it to my agency, or the Army Field Manual on recruiting and apply it to my agency. Or, for that matter, the Army Field Manual on sexual orientation and apply it to my agency [???!!!].'"
(does this mean we can trust gays to gather important intelligence?! i'll keep watch for conservative reaction to such risky policy)
SWJ: preparing soldiers for deployment - using Habermas's 'communicative action'?
NYT: upcoming detainee hearings in the Supreme Court
"Cases that have been proceeding on completely separate judicial tracks may be about to converge."
WP: Bush tries to sap new ombudsman post of power to implement more transparency, faster response to FOIA requests
"By law, agencies must respond within 20 days to FOIA requests, but in practice the process can take months or years. Delays grew after the terrorist attacks in 2001 as agencies began to favor nondisclosure in the name of national security.
Under the new law, requests will be assigned public tracking numbers. Agencies that exceed the 20-day deadline for responses will be denied the right to charge requesters for research or copying costs." [But Bush wants to move the position from the non-partisan National Archives dept to the Justice Dept, notoriously evasive when it comes to FOIA requests.]
"It has been 70 years since the [Supreme Court's] last substantive review of the Second Amendment, and supporters and opponents of gun control remain adamantly divided on whether it protects an individual's right to possess guns or only provides a "collective" right of citizens related to military service.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last spring became the first appeals court to use the individual-rights interpretation of the amendment to strike a gun-control law. Most of the courts that have examined the issue have ruled that it protects only the collective right."
IHT: millions march against the FARC in Colombia, across the world
LAT: the marches became politicized, but many participated despite misgivings
"We're not talking about politics, just a condemnation of what the FARC does. We're tired of it."
BBC: Colombian cocaine capo sentenced to 30 years in NY court
Slate: series on visiting Venezuela
"Another time, I caught Chávez at a new hospital pledging to build or modernize hundreds more. He earnestly whipped out pencil and paper to make a list of all the things a great hospital needs. "Let's see," he told the assembled group of medical workers, "You need an X-ray unit with all the latest equipment, and what else, let's see …" On and on he went. It makes for seductive television, a bit like watching your Uncle Fred run the country from a reality TV show."
africa
NYT: rebellion in Chad on pause; bodies collected in the capital and opposition politicians arrested
BBC: Deby received pledged support from France, actual support from Darfur rebel group
AP: rebels agree to Libya-brokered cease fire
BBC: explosions kill at least 20 in Ethiopian migrant housing on Somali coast
BBC: Annan wants truth and reconciliation commission in Kenya
BBC: opposition threatens more rallies if regional meeting goes ahead
asia
BBC: speaker de Venecia ousted in Phillipines, after launching accusations of corruption against president Arroyo
BBC: UN hands off power to Timorese police
BBC: US approves more sanctions on Burma
europe
BBC: EU approves Kosovo mission,
BBC: delays deal with Serbia
BBC: because the PM has denounced the plan
BBC: Spanish judge issues arrest warrants for 40 Rwandan soldiers; charged with mass killing, genocide, terrorism, and crimes against humanity
NYT: elections set for April in Italy
misc
The Onion: Bob Seger tries to get Cleveland to open up, share its feelings and fears
"Maybe you can all just start by telling me a little about yourself. What do you do for fun, for example? I know you enjoy that old-time rock and roll, but what else? What is it like living in Cleveland? I have heard that the subprime mortgage crisis has hit Cleveland especially hard. That sucks."
05 February 2008
super somethin
(international coverage to return tomorrow)
BBC: if you haven't heard, people are voting in the US today
BBC: here's a map
Slate: making votes count. mostly.
Slate: which candidate would the constitution prefer?
Slate: the contents of the military budget
"As usual, it's about $200 billion more than most news stories are reporting. For the proposed fiscal year 2009 budget, which President Bush released today, the real size is not, as many news stories have reported, $515.4 billion—itself a staggering sum—but, rather, $713.1 billion.
BBC: last veteran of Iwo Jima dies
BBC: if you haven't heard, people are voting in the US today
BBC: here's a map
Slate: making votes count. mostly.
Slate: which candidate would the constitution prefer?
Slate: the contents of the military budget
"As usual, it's about $200 billion more than most news stories are reporting. For the proposed fiscal year 2009 budget, which President Bush released today, the real size is not, as many news stories have reported, $515.4 billion—itself a staggering sum—but, rather, $713.1 billion.
Before deconstructing this budget, let us consider just how massive it is. Even the smaller figure of $515.4 billion—which does not include money for fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—is roughly equal to the total military budgets of all the rest of the world's nations combined. It is (adjusting for inflation) larger than any U.S. military budget since World War II."
NYT: Afghan captive dies in Guantánamo; sheds unsurprisingly horrifying light on the detainee "process" that military budget would keep afloatBBC: last veteran of Iwo Jima dies
04 February 2008
coups and capos
africa
BBC: people flee fighting in N'Djamena, Chad's capital; rebels leave city, apparently to wait for civilians to be evacuated so fighting can resume
BBC: many heading to Cameroon; gov't claims Sudan is assisting rebels
WP: Western diplomats evacuated; US and France support Deby and accuse Sudan of involvement
"The U.S. and French ambassadors to the United Nations issued statements supporting the government of President Idriss Déby, as international concern mounted over the prospect of a rebel takeover that analysts say would be a foreign policy victory for the Sudanese government."
WP: opposition splintered in Zimbabwe; can't agree on parliament selection mechanism
BBC: pirates off Somalia seize Russian ship
Gdn: British coup plotter extradited from Zimbabwe to Equatorial Guinea
WP: Nigerian oil and insurgency
"In Nigeria's case, restricted production is not a matter of choice. A group called the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has been blowing up pipelines and attacking or kidnapping foreign oil workers for several years, demanding that the companies and Nigerian government share more revenues with the deeply impoverished region. There is also a bitter history of environmental disputes in the region with Shell and other oil companies...Because Nigeria's government does not want outside mediators to help negotiate with insurgents, oil companies are among the only ones searching for solutions. Shell, for example, has hired several hundred "community liaison officers" to help solve grievances. The company has sent storage tanks and generators to 21 towns and villages."
BBC: peace talks resume in Kenya; Odinga calls for foreign peacekeepers
Gdn: today they discuss the 250,000 displaced; tomorrow elections
IHT: looting and roadblocks in rural Kenya
"Roadblocks have been a problem since the elections, with angry mobs demanding to see the identification cards of passers-by to determine their ethnic identities. Such clashes led to the deaths of several people a few weeks ago.
But now a different kind of roadblock seems to be taking root, one based more on opportunism than on politics. After one young man extracted a toll, of sorts, he quickly examined the bill and stuffed it into his pocket. In case there were any questions, another armed teenager stood nearby, wearing fatigues and a jaunty skipper's hat."
Econ: demographics of violence: Kenya, Gaza have large supply of violence suppliers: young men
"The population of both Gaza and Kenya has grown by about six times since 1950, much more than the 3.6 times of, say, North Africa or the 4.3 times of sub-Saharan Africa. In Gaza about 1.5m people now crowd into 360 square kilometres (140 square miles), making the strip's population density about two-thirds Hong Kong's. Kenya is far bigger, but the land can no longer support the rural population. So the young, exchanging urban for rural poverty, head for the slums, bringing their anger, and machetes, with them."
middle east
Ind: Egyptians try to keep the young Palestinians out
BBC: first suicide bombing in a year in Israel kills one
NYT: domestic energy issues in Iran
Econ: Libyan leader of Al-Qaeda killed in Pakistan
LAT: the composition of Al-Qaeda membership: Libyans rise in the ranks
"The network has an ethnic pecking order of sorts. In the late 1990s, Libyans were quiet but influential. They played the role of mentors for fellow North Africans, particularly Moroccans who were seen as "little foot soldiers," according to a Spanish law enforcement chief... As they work with a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Libyans have stepped up in the Iraqi theater. "
LAT: Al-Qaeda may be focusing on acquiring WMD
"For now, the intelligence officials believe, that effort is largely focused on developing and using cyanide, chlorine and other poisons that are unlikely to cause the kind of mass-casualty attack that is usually associated with weapons of mass destruction."
WP: US to support Pakistani paramilitary groups, the Frontier Corps
"Pentagon officials have publicly described the Frontier Corps as having more credibility with local tribesmen because the troops come from the region, while most Pakistani army regulars do not...Congress added two unusual clauses in the authorization. It said the assistance will be provided "in a manner that promotes observance of and respect for human rights" and "respect for legitimate civilian authority within Pakistan." In the past, that type of language has been associated with training by U.S. personnel that also could involve them taking part in counterterrorist or counterinsurgency missions. That is what happened to Special Forces in Vietnam in the 1960s and in Central America in the 1980s."
BBC: bus bombing kills at least 6 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan
WP: 3 simultaneous wars in Iraq: against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Sunni insurgents, Shiite extremists
BBC: US kills 9 Iraqi civilians in south Baghdad
BBC: 100 have died from suicide bombing in Baghdad market
Slate: fortuitous rain saves the day in Beirut
"Is it possible that a rainstorm saved Lebanon, at least temporarily? It certainly looks that way in the wake of a mysterious shooting that killed seven Hezbollah-aligned demonstrators [last] Sunday night and threatened to send the nation beyond the political tension, name-calling, and occasional rock-throwing of the last year and into a rerun of the 1975-90 civil war."
BBC: Lebanese man shot by Israeli forces, apparently over drug smuggling
IHT: Afghan police attack Dostum, Uzbek warlord's home
Gdn: raids in Helmand and Farah provinces as well
Gdn: Taliban attacks on international forces increased by 1/3 last year
"But although admitting the figures show a 'significant rise', Nato insists the geographic extent of the violence remains limited. 'Seventy per cent of the incidents took place in just 10 per cent of the country, where no more than 6 per cent of the population live, and many have been initiated by our forces as we engage with the enemy,' a Nato source said. 'That is the same area as in 2006 which shows the insurgency is not spreading.'"
Ind: Germany won't send more troops
Ind: British were going to train Taliban, encourage them to switch sides
"Britain planned to build a Taliban training camp for 2,000 fighters in southern Afghanistan, as part of a top-secret deal to make them swap sides, intelligence sources in Kabul have revealed. The plans were discovered on a memory stick seized by Afghan secret police in December...The British insist President Karzai's office knew what was going on. But Mr Karzai has expelled two top diplomats amid accusations they were part of a plot to buy-off the insurgents."
AP: Turkey bombs 70 targets in Kurdistan
asia
BBC: trial postponed for Pol Pot's second-in-command, "Brother Number Two," most senior living Khmer Rouge official
BBC: bus attack in north Sri Lanka kills at least 15; Colombo celebrates 60 years of independence with military parade
BBC: 11 people died yesterday at Colombo train station in suicide bombing; 18 people died in attack in north on Saturday
NYT: Chinese internet censorship might backfire, because even apolitical sites blocked
NYT: (non)democratization in Central Asia
americas
LAT: Colombian cartel head, Wilber Varela "Soap," found dead in Venezuela
Gdn: collusion between the FARC and Venezuela to traffic cocaine, arms
"Rafael is one of 2,400 guerrillas who deserted Farc last year. He is one of four I spoke to, all of whom had grown despondent about a purportedly left-wing revolutionary movement whose power and influence rests less on its political legitimacy and more on the benefits of having become the world's biggest kidnapping organisation and the world's leading traffickers in cocaine...The varied testimonies I have heard reveal that the co-operation between Venezuela and the guerrillas in transporting cocaine by land, air and sea is both extensive and systematic. Venezuela is also supplying arms to the guerrillas, offering them the protection of their armed forces in the field, and providing them with legal immunity de facto as they go about their giant illegal business."
BBC: Colombians around the world demonstrate against the FARC in protests organized through Facebook
Slate: excerpts from Kaplan's new book on the 2 mistaken assumptions that led the Bush administration and the US to disastrous foreign policy
first, that the post-9/11 world was different, and second, that the US was stronger after the Cold War
Slate: American Samoans' (limited) voting rights
WP: Mexico investigates human rights violations by army in its "dirty war" between 1960s and 1980s
WP: indigenous groups in Peru sue Occidental, with help of technology like Google Earth
"In addition to alleging that Occidental illegally dumped toxic wastewater, the Achuar suit accuses the company of generating acid rain with gas flares, failing to warn Indians of health dangers and improperly storing chemical wastes in unlined pits."
europe
BBC: Tadic elected in Serbia, EU makes overture
LAT: Poland approves US missile defense system in exchange for aid
AP: Denmark to investigate CIA rendition flights
Slate: studying discrimination with data on the English soccer league
BBC: people flee fighting in N'Djamena, Chad's capital; rebels leave city, apparently to wait for civilians to be evacuated so fighting can resume
BBC: many heading to Cameroon; gov't claims Sudan is assisting rebels
WP: Western diplomats evacuated; US and France support Deby and accuse Sudan of involvement
"The U.S. and French ambassadors to the United Nations issued statements supporting the government of President Idriss Déby, as international concern mounted over the prospect of a rebel takeover that analysts say would be a foreign policy victory for the Sudanese government."
WP: opposition splintered in Zimbabwe; can't agree on parliament selection mechanism
BBC: pirates off Somalia seize Russian ship
Gdn: British coup plotter extradited from Zimbabwe to Equatorial Guinea
WP: Nigerian oil and insurgency
"In Nigeria's case, restricted production is not a matter of choice. A group called the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has been blowing up pipelines and attacking or kidnapping foreign oil workers for several years, demanding that the companies and Nigerian government share more revenues with the deeply impoverished region. There is also a bitter history of environmental disputes in the region with Shell and other oil companies...Because Nigeria's government does not want outside mediators to help negotiate with insurgents, oil companies are among the only ones searching for solutions. Shell, for example, has hired several hundred "community liaison officers" to help solve grievances. The company has sent storage tanks and generators to 21 towns and villages."
BBC: peace talks resume in Kenya; Odinga calls for foreign peacekeepers
Gdn: today they discuss the 250,000 displaced; tomorrow elections
IHT: looting and roadblocks in rural Kenya
"Roadblocks have been a problem since the elections, with angry mobs demanding to see the identification cards of passers-by to determine their ethnic identities. Such clashes led to the deaths of several people a few weeks ago.
But now a different kind of roadblock seems to be taking root, one based more on opportunism than on politics. After one young man extracted a toll, of sorts, he quickly examined the bill and stuffed it into his pocket. In case there were any questions, another armed teenager stood nearby, wearing fatigues and a jaunty skipper's hat."
Econ: demographics of violence: Kenya, Gaza have large supply of violence suppliers: young men
"The population of both Gaza and Kenya has grown by about six times since 1950, much more than the 3.6 times of, say, North Africa or the 4.3 times of sub-Saharan Africa. In Gaza about 1.5m people now crowd into 360 square kilometres (140 square miles), making the strip's population density about two-thirds Hong Kong's. Kenya is far bigger, but the land can no longer support the rural population. So the young, exchanging urban for rural poverty, head for the slums, bringing their anger, and machetes, with them."
middle east
Ind: Egyptians try to keep the young Palestinians out
BBC: first suicide bombing in a year in Israel kills one
NYT: domestic energy issues in Iran
Econ: Libyan leader of Al-Qaeda killed in Pakistan
LAT: the composition of Al-Qaeda membership: Libyans rise in the ranks
"The network has an ethnic pecking order of sorts. In the late 1990s, Libyans were quiet but influential. They played the role of mentors for fellow North Africans, particularly Moroccans who were seen as "little foot soldiers," according to a Spanish law enforcement chief... As they work with a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Libyans have stepped up in the Iraqi theater. "
LAT: Al-Qaeda may be focusing on acquiring WMD
"For now, the intelligence officials believe, that effort is largely focused on developing and using cyanide, chlorine and other poisons that are unlikely to cause the kind of mass-casualty attack that is usually associated with weapons of mass destruction."
WP: US to support Pakistani paramilitary groups, the Frontier Corps
"Pentagon officials have publicly described the Frontier Corps as having more credibility with local tribesmen because the troops come from the region, while most Pakistani army regulars do not...Congress added two unusual clauses in the authorization. It said the assistance will be provided "in a manner that promotes observance of and respect for human rights" and "respect for legitimate civilian authority within Pakistan." In the past, that type of language has been associated with training by U.S. personnel that also could involve them taking part in counterterrorist or counterinsurgency missions. That is what happened to Special Forces in Vietnam in the 1960s and in Central America in the 1980s."
BBC: bus bombing kills at least 6 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan
WP: 3 simultaneous wars in Iraq: against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Sunni insurgents, Shiite extremists
BBC: US kills 9 Iraqi civilians in south Baghdad
BBC: 100 have died from suicide bombing in Baghdad market
Slate: fortuitous rain saves the day in Beirut
"Is it possible that a rainstorm saved Lebanon, at least temporarily? It certainly looks that way in the wake of a mysterious shooting that killed seven Hezbollah-aligned demonstrators [last] Sunday night and threatened to send the nation beyond the political tension, name-calling, and occasional rock-throwing of the last year and into a rerun of the 1975-90 civil war."
BBC: Lebanese man shot by Israeli forces, apparently over drug smuggling
IHT: Afghan police attack Dostum, Uzbek warlord's home
Gdn: raids in Helmand and Farah provinces as well
Gdn: Taliban attacks on international forces increased by 1/3 last year
"But although admitting the figures show a 'significant rise', Nato insists the geographic extent of the violence remains limited. 'Seventy per cent of the incidents took place in just 10 per cent of the country, where no more than 6 per cent of the population live, and many have been initiated by our forces as we engage with the enemy,' a Nato source said. 'That is the same area as in 2006 which shows the insurgency is not spreading.'"
Ind: Germany won't send more troops
Ind: British were going to train Taliban, encourage them to switch sides
"Britain planned to build a Taliban training camp for 2,000 fighters in southern Afghanistan, as part of a top-secret deal to make them swap sides, intelligence sources in Kabul have revealed. The plans were discovered on a memory stick seized by Afghan secret police in December...The British insist President Karzai's office knew what was going on. But Mr Karzai has expelled two top diplomats amid accusations they were part of a plot to buy-off the insurgents."
AP: Turkey bombs 70 targets in Kurdistan
asia
BBC: trial postponed for Pol Pot's second-in-command, "Brother Number Two," most senior living Khmer Rouge official
BBC: bus attack in north Sri Lanka kills at least 15; Colombo celebrates 60 years of independence with military parade
BBC: 11 people died yesterday at Colombo train station in suicide bombing; 18 people died in attack in north on Saturday
NYT: Chinese internet censorship might backfire, because even apolitical sites blocked
NYT: (non)democratization in Central Asia
americas
LAT: Colombian cartel head, Wilber Varela "Soap," found dead in Venezuela
Gdn: collusion between the FARC and Venezuela to traffic cocaine, arms
"Rafael is one of 2,400 guerrillas who deserted Farc last year. He is one of four I spoke to, all of whom had grown despondent about a purportedly left-wing revolutionary movement whose power and influence rests less on its political legitimacy and more on the benefits of having become the world's biggest kidnapping organisation and the world's leading traffickers in cocaine...The varied testimonies I have heard reveal that the co-operation between Venezuela and the guerrillas in transporting cocaine by land, air and sea is both extensive and systematic. Venezuela is also supplying arms to the guerrillas, offering them the protection of their armed forces in the field, and providing them with legal immunity de facto as they go about their giant illegal business."
BBC: Colombians around the world demonstrate against the FARC in protests organized through Facebook
Slate: excerpts from Kaplan's new book on the 2 mistaken assumptions that led the Bush administration and the US to disastrous foreign policy
first, that the post-9/11 world was different, and second, that the US was stronger after the Cold War
Slate: American Samoans' (limited) voting rights
WP: Mexico investigates human rights violations by army in its "dirty war" between 1960s and 1980s
WP: indigenous groups in Peru sue Occidental, with help of technology like Google Earth
"In addition to alleging that Occidental illegally dumped toxic wastewater, the Achuar suit accuses the company of generating acid rain with gas flares, failing to warn Indians of health dangers and improperly storing chemical wastes in unlined pits."
europe
BBC: Tadic elected in Serbia, EU makes overture
LAT: Poland approves US missile defense system in exchange for aid
AP: Denmark to investigate CIA rendition flights
Slate: studying discrimination with data on the English soccer league
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