"Moqtada, his friends said, has always been a prankster, in ways both innocuous and macabre. Once, he made a big show of offering a 7-Up to a student, who was then surprised to learn that Sadr had filled the bottle with water. In a more recent incident, he anonymously sent Shaibani, the aide, text messages threatening to kill him, only to reveal later with laughter that it was all a practical joke."
NYT: Marines go into southern Afghanistan
"The marines’ drive against the Taliban in this large farming region is certainly not finished, and the Taliban have often been pushed out of areas in Afghanistan only to return in force later. But for the British forces and Afghan residents here, the result of the recent operation has been palpable.
The district chief returned to his job from his refuge in the provincial capital within days of the battle and 200 people — including 100 elders of the community — gathered for a meeting with him and the British to plan the regeneration of the town.
“They have disrupted the Taliban’s freedom of movement and pushed them south, and that has created the grounds for us to develop the hospital and set the conditions for the government to come back,” said Maj. Neil Den-McKay, the officer commanding a company of the Royal Regiment of Scotland based here. People have already started coming back to villages north of the town, he said, adding, “There has been huge optimism from the people.”
BBC: at least 8 killed and dozens injured in Colombo commuter train bombing
"Commuter Ramani Padmalatha, 42, told French news agency AFP that the train suddenly slowed after a "deafening noise".
"People were shouting 'bomb, bomb!' and scrambling to get out of the windows of the carriage... I managed to jump out from the door. People were stumbling out of that carriage with blood stains on their clothes, some with burns, some looking dazed," she said.
NYT: Hezbollah speaks
Indian Express: Tribal agitation disrupts traffic and puts Delhi on alert
Daily Times (Pakistan): Sunni-Shia violence in the Northwest Frontier Province
washpost: Inside South Africa's shantytowns
"This was the kind of place that was not supposed to exist in the new South Africa. All black. All poor. Dense, squalid, dirty, angry -- with charred patches of earth where men once stood.
The violence that flared here, and in communities like it all over the Johannesburg area during two weeks of mob attacks that have left at least 56 people dead, has carried echoes of this nation's notorious past. But the rage is not old. It is new, born of the broken dreams of South Africa's post-apartheid era."
gdn: Aung San Suu Kyi house arrest extended
independent: peacekeepers and aid workers accused of child sex abuse
"Save the Children demanded action after its research found youngsters as young as six were trading sex for food, money, soap and even mobile phones in war zones and disaster areas.
It said all organisations, including itself, had their share of abusers involved in "some of the most despicable abuse against some of the world's most vulnerable children"."
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