building states [with glue and bailing wire]

WP: "securocrats" making the calls in Zimbabwe, including in the electoral commission
"National decision-making increasingly has been consolidated within the Joint Operations Command, a shadowy group consisting of the leaders of the army, air force, police, intelligence agency and prison service -- a group Zimbabweans call the 'securocrats.'"
Ind: militia taking revenge on behalf of Mugabe
Chris Blattman: calling the embassy

WP: building bureaucracies in the Congo
"'The report must be in order,' said [a mid-level administrator], 62, a meticulous man in a khaki suit who explained how different things were when he worked for Mobutu's government. 'In the old system, I would just take the public money and go drinking with women. When I moved to a different job, I would take the typing machine, the lamps, even the curtains -- I would put them in my house. Now there is no way. Now there is shame.'"

AP: Odinga sworn in as Kenya's prime minister
"Within hours, a feared gang [the Mungiki] promised to heed new Prime Minister Raila Odinga's call to stop its campaign of terror in the capital -- one small sign that resolving Kenya's political crisis could help return peace and stability to the fragile nation...
The apparent olive branch offered to the Mungiki, a gang dedicated to spreading Kikuyu culture, by Odinga, a Luo, is another strange strand in Kenya's web of politics, ethnicity and violence.
Many Mungiki say they were approached during the violence by Kikuyu politicians to act as an ethnic militia but refused to get heavily involved because the gang was angered by the extrajudicial killings of more than 450 Kikuyu youths last year.
The gang blamed police in Kibaki's administration in the deaths."

WSJ: US commanders begin releasing detainees in Iraq
"U.S. officials also believe freeing the primarily Sunni detainees will help persuade the embattled minority to participate more in Iraq's Shiite-heavy political process."
NYT: US building wall in Sadr City
WP: Congressional report strongly criticizes US efforts to rebuild communities in Afghanistan and Iraq
"'Rep. Todd Akin (Mo.), the subcommittee's ranking Republican, [said], 'The organizational structure is a little goofy,' he said, adding that it had been 'put together with glue and baling wire.'
...lawmakers praised the theory behind the PRTs, which focus on community and local governmental capacity-building in urban neighborhoods and in areas outside the capitals of Iraq and Afghanistan. They also recognized the dedication of individuals working on the teams, often under dangerous conditions. But the report notes that the success of the teams depends heavily on the "personalities" of staff individuals. It says that training is insufficient and that many staffers are unsuited for the jobs they are expected to perform."
Gdn: it would be helpful if NATO didn't supply the Taliban, for starters
WP: on a related note, GAO reports that US unprepared to operate in Pakistan "tribal region"
LAT: suicide bomber kills 50 at a funeral
"It was the latest strike in an internal war among Sunni Arabs, some of whom have aligned themselves with the Americans and others with the group Al Qaeda in Iraq."
WP: suicide bombing in general on the rise since 2001
WP: militias offer aid to the displaced
LAT: nearly 20% of US veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq suffering from depression or stress disorders
WP: stop-loss for diplomats too

Slate: dispatches from Saudi Arabia

WP: fighting the drug cartels in Mexico with the army, violating citizens' rights along the way; the US is considering sending a huge aid package to the military
LAT: the violence has led the US to issue a travel alert for US citizens
LAT: cocaine use highest among adults in Spain, once just a transit point
LAT: drug trafficking contributing to destruction of livelihoods, culture on Colombia's Pacific coast

Gdn: Paraguay presidential elections set to change one-party rule

LAT: Southern California man convicted of "conspiring to kill in a foreign country" (read: trying to overthrow the Cambodian government)
"'Obviously, we can't have private U.S. citizens waging war against foreign countries,' [Asst US Attny] Lee said."

CSM: Maoists won big in Nepal elections

BBC: the Simpsons are back in Venezuela
WP: but it's not just controversial there - they've angered the Argentines too
"During the episode, Homer and his friends gathered at Moe's Tavern and grumbled about their choices of political candidates. The conversation seemed innocent enough, until Homer's buddy Carl Carlson opened his mouth.
'I'd really go for some kind of military dictator, like Juan Perón," Carl said, mentioning the general who was elected president by Argentines three times. "When he 'disappeared' you, you stayed disappeared.'
Carl's friend Lenny then delivered a coup de grâce: 'Plus, his wife was Madonna.'
Most Argentines don't consider Perón a dictator, and they certainly don't blame him for the fact that up to 30,000 dissidents went missing during the country's "dirty war." Those disappearances are attributed to a military dictatorship that ruled from 1976 to 1983, after Perón's death."

New Yorker: book recommendation: Panther Soup
"This is a book about the appetites of war and peace—for food, sex, and human comfort—unbridled, sordid, and, somehow, in their ability to lead a civilization back to itself, redeeming."

The Onion: Nation agrees not to talk about politics (with so many other important things going on)

BBC: good luck on this news round-up quiz - sorry SV didn't help you out this week