of state-building and service-providing [unlikely saboteurs]

WP: NATO devising 'surge' of state-building in Afghanistan
"NATO alliance troops facing ever more aggressive Taliban insurgents are planning a winter "development surge" of civil works projects in eastern Afghanistan designed to win over tribes in regions near the Pakistan border and to prevent their sons from joining the Taliban's ranks, according to military officials here."
Slate: but the current programs have some perverse problems
"This is a country in which all the best people are being hired away from the national government by the alphabet soup of aid agencies on the ground; in which the same alphabet soup of aid agencies is driving up real-estate and food prices; in which millions of dollars are squandered on dubious contractors, both local and foreign; in which the minister for rural development says he doesn't know what all the NATO reconstruction teams in rural districts do; in which the top U.N. official, given a mandate to coordinate the donors, says the donors don't respond to his attempts to coordinate them...
Conflicting agendas, overlapping projects, money badly spent. We've been here before, many times, and the conclusions are always the same. Some of them have been recently restated by a former Afghan minister of finance, Ashraf Ghani, and his co-author, Clare Lockhart, in their book Fixing Failed States. Its central argument: Well-meaning foreigners should not fix roads; they should teach the Afghan government how to fix roads, thus helping it acquire legitimacy. Foreigners shouldn't feed Afghans, either; rather, they should develop Afghan agriculture so the Afghans can feed themselves, export their surplus, and thus develop a stake in the rule of law."

WP: census of Baghdad enclave raises fears among residents
"The document asked for a copy of the deed to his house, his children's names and, most disturbing, the name of his tribe, which identifies his religion and ethnicity. In Iraq, such a request has often been the first step toward death...The forms were part of an effort to enhance the rule of law and encourage reconciliation by identifying residents living in houses that had been emptied by sectarian cleansing and prodding them to return to their own neighborhoods.

NYT: Burma increases security ahead of year anniversary of protests
BBC: has anything changed?
"Meanwhile the military appears to be continuing with its political plans as if the protests had never happened.

It is pressing ahead with its new constitution and so-called "roadmap for democracy", which promises an eventual elected government but has already been labeled a sham by the international community."

BBC: ICC chief prosecutor ignores criticism, remains steadfast on indictment of al-Bashir

Reuters: pirates demand $35 million ransom for Ukrainian ship

Gdn: bombs in Damascus and Delhi

BBC: Ecuadorans vote tomorrow on sweeping constitutional changes
"These are some of the more controversial proposals:

• The state to tighten control of vital industries such as oil, mining and telecommunications and reduce monopolies
• Some foreign loans to be declared illegitimate, which could allow the government to stop debt repayments
• The state allowed to expropriate and redistribute idle farm land and ban large land-holdings
• The president allowed to stand for a second four-year term in office
• Free health care for older citizens
• Civil marriage for gay partners"

BBC: Turkmenistan takes on constitutional reforms
"The measure was passed unanimously by the People's Council, a group of 2,500 tribal elders and local lawmakers...However, exiles and observers said the measures were superficial, leaving President Berdymukhamedov free to rule by decree."

Gdn: judge opens inquiry into Republican repression during Spanish Civil War
"The names of those killed on the orders of Republican tribunals or by leftwing or anarchist death squads are readily available as they were gathered during Franco's 36-year dictatorship. Franco's courts dealt with many of the perpetrators of those atrocities - often by sending them to the firing squad...Many campaigners say it is too late for the perpetrators of the repression carried out by Franco's side to be put on trial as the people involved are mostly dead and the crimes are covered by a 1977 amnesty law."

BBC: memoir of museum-based resistance in WWII France purchased on ebay
"With her artist's eye, her self-deprecating humour, her talent for spotting the absurd and her palpable sense of outrage, Humbert was an irresistible companion, who offered a riveting day-by-day account of the genesis of the Resistance...That stifling summer, in a leap of blind faith and reckless courage, she and a handful of her distinguished colleagues at the Musée de l'Homme - eminent ethnographers and Egyptologists, linguists and librarians - formed what was almost certainly the very first organized Resistance group. It was as though the upper echelons of the British Museum had turned to new careers as urban guerrillas and saboteurs."

WP: Zulu virginity testing continues despite ban in South Africa
"The debate over virginity testing is an example of the clash common throughout Africa as governments try to regulate traditional practices that have long held sway, particularly in rural areas. Legal experts say the topic is particularly complex in post-apartheid South Africa, where patriarchal tribal cultures have dusted off long-stifled traditions under one of the world's most progressive constitutions, which lauds diversity but requires cultural customs to bend to individual rights."

NYT: test your specialty with squirt guns