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