do as i say, not as i do

WP: clash between Chinese security forces, civilians, and Tibetan protesters leaves at least 10 dead
Gdn: an eyewitness account
WP: oops, just when US removes China from list of worst human rights abusers

Vanity Fair: the US supported Fatah militia to destabilize Hamas
"Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil war. But the secret plan backfired, resulting in a further setback for American foreign policy under Bush. Instead of driving its enemies out of power, the U.S.-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize total control of Gaza."
WP: seven weeks in, the official program is stumbling
Is this program a legal version of the previous one? I can't tell...

LAT: Rice expresses outrage at possibility that Chávez is supporting the FARC, presumably to destabilize Colombia
BBC: Colombia will pay millions in reward to FARC members who mutinied and killed Iván Ríos, member of the secretariat; still may be charged with homicide, mutilation of a corpse (for cutting off his hand to offer proof of death)

LAT: SV would like to thank the British general who points out that winning 'hearts and minds' is "ridiculous"
"He said the best an occupying army could hope for was the consent of local people, and this required delivering tangible benefits such as electricity, water and security."
Slate (but could've appeared in the Onion): Bush laments being too busy, old to fight in the romantic war that is Afghanistan. obviously he failed to read the summary of the NYT magazine article a few weeks back...

The Nation: who really is fighting, and how
"The government treats its soldiers the way most corporations treat their workforce--as an invisible, disrespected, disposable means to an end that is contrary to workers' interests."

WP: drug war on the Mexican border
"More than 20,000 Mexican troops and federal police are engaged in a multi-front war with the private armies of rival drug lords, a conflict that is being waged most fiercely along the 2,000-mile length of the U.S.-Mexico border...A total of more than 4,800 Mexicans were slain in 2006 and 2007, making the murder rate in each of those years twice that of 2005."
WP: mass grave uncovered at cartel safe house in Ciudad Juárez
Gdn: Peruvian lawmakers protest the UN's recommended ban on traditional uses of coca

Gdn: the fall of the USSR and the rise of the Russian mafia (book excerpt)

WP: glowing report on health of multi-party democracies in West Africa
WP: in Kenya, where glowing news stories on African states used to all be based, the Rift Valley still receiving displaced people, one week after peace deal reached
BBC: more than 150 members of the Sabaot Land Defence Forces (SDLF) have been arrested in West Kenya, for violence that appears to be opportunistic rather than motivated by election outcome
Gdn: further south, Mugabe receives "endorsement" from police and army
"Zimbabwe's police and army chiefs have said they will not allow Robert Mugabe to be defeated in this month's presidential election by opposition candidates they deride as "puppets" and "sell-outs" to Britain."
AP: Sudan and Chad agree to peace deal
Reuters: but Darfur armed groups balk at pact

WP: Croatians on trial for perpetrating war crimes against Serbs in 1995
Gdn: in another court, militia member testifies that Charles Taylor ordered combatants to eat enemies

Reason: sex work, slavery, and rhetoric at the turn of the 20th century still resonates, from New York to
Ind: Bangladesh

The Onion: war czar says war isn't imminent