checkpoints

NYT: heavy fighting with Shiite militias in Baghdad and southern cities, especially in Basra
"A British Army spokesman for southern Iraq, Maj. Tom Holloway, said that while Western forces had not entered Basra, the operation already involved nearly 30,000 Iraqi troops and police forces, with more arriving. 'They are clearing the city block by block,' Major Holloway said...Sadr City, the Baghdad neighborhood that is the center of the Mahdi Army’s power, was sealed off by a cordon of Iraqi troops and what appeared to be several American units. A New York Times photographer who was able to get through the cordon found more layers of checkpoints, each one run by about two dozen heavily armed Mahdi Army fighters clad in tracksuits and T-shirts...Basra, which until 2005 enjoyed relative peace, has since been riven by power struggles among the Mahdi Army and local Shiite rivals, like the Badr Organization and a militia controlled by the Fadhila political party, a group that split from the Sadr party."
LAT: potential preview of election cycle violence
"The U.S. military says it is targeting rogue elements of Sadr's militia who continue to attack its forces, allegedly with Iranian backing, though Tehran denies the charges. Sadr loyalists accuse his Shiite rivals in the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party of using the Iraqi army and police to round up the cleric's followers ahead of the elections."
LAT: summary of the main Shiite factions
WP: Maliki gives militias 72 hours to stop fighting; rockets hit Green Zone in Baghdad

Gdn: Islamic Courts briefly seize Jowhar, Somalia

Gdn: Mugabe makes opposition eat campaign posters

Ind: behind the coup in the Comoros (ok, it's not really a coup, but SV favors alliteration)

Gdn: (slide show) Congo's displaced people

WP: violence in Sri Lanka escalates; famous monk advocates a "military solution"

WP: 1,000 arrested in Tibet protests

WP: US intelligence estimates to become more rigorous in attempt to regain credibility
(though it could be argued the NIE was only reflecting the executive, will rebound in Jan 2009)

jurisdiction, smurisdiction
LAT: US Supreme Court pushes back against executive power (so Texas can implement the death penalty unimpeded)
Slate: but seems ok with the executive denying habeas corpus to citizens held by "multinational forces"

WSJ: Black funeral parlors facing violence during services

Slate: apparently suicide bombers shave their bodies before attacks

BBC: sex workers' workshop canceled by Ugandan gov't