all too common tragedies [can we talk?]

NYT: in defense of diplomacy: Martti Ahtisaari wins Nobel Peace Prize
Slate: Petraeus is pro
"In Iraq, the general recalled in his Heritage speech, "we sat down with some of those who were shooting at us"—a painful task but "an explicit part of our campaign." These talks formed the basis for the Anbar Awakening—in which Sunni insurgents allied themselves with U.S. forces to beat back the common foe of al-Qaida in Iraq—and for the tactical success of the "surge" itself."

new plans for Afghanistan include a little of this, a little of that:
BBC: talks with the Taliban and the other insurgencies: who will engage?
"And there's the question of who you speak to within the movement. Is it possible to speak to the senior leaders? In order to get an agreement that would stick, you would need to have these men on board.
And do the Taleban even want to hold peace talks?
From their point of view, it could be argued that things are going quite well.
The insurgency is spreading and the government is regarded as weak, corrupt and ineffective by many Afghans. Some of these people would prefer a Taleban alternative."
WP: NATO to begin interdiction in Afghanistan
"The vast majority of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan occurs in seven southern provinces, areas patrolled by U.S., British, Canadian and Dutch forces.
The compromise allows NATO troops to act after receiving a request from the Afghans and does not require any change in the alliance's operational plan in Afghanistan."
BBC: UK to launch anti-Taliban propaganda plan
LAT: US to train Afghan tribal militias
"Under that approach, U.S. forces would scale back combat operations to focus more on training Afghan government forces and tribal militias. The plan is controversial because it could extend the influence of warlords while undermining the government of President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, the capital.
The strategy also could set up a hair-trigger rivalry between national security units and the improved tribal forces, proponents acknowledge."

LAT: hopefully protection is part of the package - across the border, suicide bombers target anti-Taliban tribal elders in Pakistan

"Hundreds of people had gathered for the outdoor meeting in the remote village of Ghiljo, at which elders of the Alizai tribe were making plans to raise a fighting force and attack a base belonging to the militants.

Pakistani authorities have been providing tribal leaders in such villages with financial and logistical support to raise lashkars, or local militias, in a bid to counter the tightening grip of Islamic militant groups in the tribal areas along the Afghan border.

The tribe had already organized some smaller attacks against the Taliban in recent days, including the burning of two compounds occupied by insurgents...

It was the second attack in recent days on anti-Taliban tribal leaders. Authorities on Thursday recovered the decapitated bodies of four men from the Bajaur tribal agency who were believed to have been abducted by militants. The four were helping organize a tribal militia."

WP: expect Iraq coverage to continue to decrease as Western bureaus pull out journalists
"It remains important and it remains interesting," said Alissa J. Rubin, the New York Times' acting bureau chief in Baghdad. "But what's in front of us now is almost a static situation. There's not a clear narrative line. The stories are more complex."
NYT: ...and more personal: one journalist remembers the victim of a Sept 28 bomb
WP: "sticky" IEDs used more frequently, seen as shift in insurgent tactics
"These assassination attempts mark a shift from mass-casualty attacks that triggered a backlash against insurgent groups and militias, U.S. military officials said, and come as the Iraqi government is asserting more control over security matters in the country and as the United States starts to reduce troop levels.

The bombs have been used against Iraqi government officials, particularly those who work in the army and police. Local leaders, judges, journalists and members of U.S.-backed Sunni armed groups have also been attacked."
BBC: as troops draw down, challenges range from rebuilding to revenge
"There are scores to be settled. As American forces begin to draw down, not everyone will be restrained. Grief and anger cannot just be wiped away.

And there is a new danger now from the Awakening movement - the fighters who used to support al-Qaeda in Iraq but who switched sides.

They are uneasy about the plan to absorb only 20,000 of their men into the armed forces.

The rest - about 80,000 - will be paid until they have found other work, but they risk losing their status in the community and, as one of their leaders said to me, they could become "bad people again" and re-join al-Qaeda."

Econ: Khatami might challenge Ahmadinejad
"Mr Khatami, who served as president between 1997 and 2005, after winning successive landslide election victories, could emerge as the most potent challenger to the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has given every indication that he intends to seek a second term and who enjoys the support of both the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)...Mr Ahmadinejad has succeeded in redefining the role of the presidency, accumulating extensive powers in his office, but largely at the expense of the institutions that Mr Khatami had been trying to build up as autonomous bastions of civil society and economic management—notably parliament, the media and the Central Bank of Iran."

Econ: Saudi Arabia's role in the region
"In recent years, as an ailing Egyptian government has faded from its former role as the Arab world’s chief broker, the Saudis have tried interceding in regional troubles ranging from Lebanon to Israel-Palestine, Somalia and Iraq. Yet for all the pious ritual and lavish banqueting enjoyed by their guests, and for all the moral authority carried by King Abdullah, who styles himself the Servant of the Holy Places, the Saudis have an uneven record of success."

Slate: the lawlessness of Guantanamo
LAT: whistle-blower started out as true believer

LAT: North Korea shuts down a reactor, leaves 'axis of evil'

NYT: China might allow farmers to sell land-use rights
"The Chinese leadership has long insisted that the country must remain self-sufficient in the production of staple foods, and is highly unlikely to allow farmers to sell land-use rights for nonagricultural development. But if a market for trading farmland developed as expected, peasants could gain a new source of cash income that could help revitalize the stagnant rural economy."

CSM: intervention in Georgia exposes cracks in Russia's military, prompts proposed increase in spending

Econ: as Sri Lankan army closes in on LTTE stronghold, end of war seems near to some

Econ: sectarian, or settler/indigenous violence in Assam
"The Bodos, among the earliest settlers in the Assamese plains, resent any outsider who encroaches on their tribal homelands. They do not make subtle legal distinctions between them."

BBC: founder of the Free Aceh Movement returns after 30 years in exile
"Gam signed a peace-deal in 2005 to end a 29-year conflict that killed 15,000.
The peace deal with Indonesia's government - which resulted in Aceh's autonomy - followed the devastation of the 2004 Asian tsunami."

LAT: cabinet in Peru resigns over bribery charges
"Many Peruvians are fed up with what they view as endemic corruption and the failure of the country's rapid economic growth to stem poverty, surveys show. Strikes and marches by teachers, farmers and doctors, among others, regularly paralyze public services and roads."
BBC: military convoy ambushed by Shining Path rebels; 12 die
"It came amid reports that Peru's army had launched an operation to remove some 300 Shining Path rebels who work closely with cocaine traffickers in [Huancavelica province]."

Econ: Chavez faces challenges in local elections
"It remains to be seen whether the government’s attempt to paint the opposition as unpatriotic and undemocratic and present itself as the main defence against US “imperialism” will bring significant benefits on the electoral front. At the end of September the opposition agreed to support a single, unity candidate for governor in every state except for Bolívar, and most pollsters concur that most of the urban electorate is pro-opposition, while the reverse is true in rural areas.Given Venezuela’s highly urbanised population, the danger for the government is that it loses big and significant states like Carabobo and Miranda, retaining rural backwaters like Apure and Delta Amacuro."
BBC: unclear if shutting down McDonald's (for 48 hours) will help or hurt

BBC: US court sentences 2 former Colombian paramilitaries to 20 years in prison, on drug trafficking charges
"Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe said any international assets seized by US authorities from the paramilitary leaders would go to compensating their victims.
But some Colombians feared their extradition meant the militia leaders would not disclose alleged links to many government figures."
AP: Colombian defense ministry links FARC to Mexican cartels
AP: cartel violence claims 11 in Mexico

BBC: Videla imprisoned in Argentina
"Jorge Videla, 83, was convicted in 1985 of the murder of 66 people, the torture of 93 others, and the illegal detention of more than 300.
Videla, who ruled from 1976 to 1983, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
He was pardoned by President Carlos Menem in 1990 but a court cancelled that order last year."

NYT: Mugabe disregarding the terms of power-sharing agreement
"An opposition spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, said Mr. Mugabe’s allocation of ministries was a strategy meant to pre-empt Mr. Mbeki’s mediation and called on African leaders and the international community to intervene. In a statement, he called Mr. Mugabe’s division of the ministries “a giant act of madness which puts the whole deal into jeopardy.”

BBC: new rebel group emerges in Congo's northeast
"The new rebel coalition, the Popular Front for Justice in Congo - known by its French acronym, FPJC, had earlier taken a village close to Bunia, killing soldiers and sending thousands fleeing for their lives into the bush.

Mayhem broke out in Bunia on Friday after government troops clashed with the rebels less than 10km (6 miles) south of the town...

The area around Bunia suffered almost a decade of war, which ended with a peace deal in 2006.

But the rebels say they represent a new coalition, formed to force the implementation of that deal, which included an amnesty for all those who participated in the previous fighting.

Tension in the region has been growing over the past two weeks, with fighting between Congolese troops and the rebels moving closer to Bunia."

BBC: DRC's president issues 'call to arms' to fight other rebel group, led by renegade General
"Over and above any political divide, we must mobilise as one behind our armed forces and our elected representatives to preserve peace and the unity and (territorial) integrity of the country," he said.

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NYT: extending equal rights to gays in CT
"Striking at the heart of discriminatory traditions in America, the court — in language that often rose above the legal landscape into realms of social justice for a new century — recalled that laws in the not-so-distant past barred interracial marriages, excluded women from occupations and official duties, and relegated blacks to separate but supposedly equal public facilities."

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the tragedy of the commons, on a global scale

BBC: yikes, forest crisis
"The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study.
It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion."

Gdn: aligning incentives to protect rainforest in Ecuador
"The Ecuadorian government has said it is prepared to keep hundreds of millions of barrels of heavy crude oil in the ground, but in return it wants the international community to compensate it at the level of $350m (£202m) a year for a decade...

The Yasuni national park in Ecuador lies at the intersection of the Amazon, the Andes and the equator and spans almost a million hectares of primary rainforest. It is home to indigenous tribes, who wish to be left in isolation, and an extraordinary array of wildlife and plants, much of it endangered. Avoiding the oil extraction would also prevent the release of an estimated 100m tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere."

BBC: and Indonesia
"As well as protecting and restoring forest, the authorities have pledged to make development on Sumatra obey principles of "ecosystem-based planning", where any projects detrimental to the island's ecological health would be banned.

However, the vice-governor of the province of West Sumatra, Marlis Rahman, said help from the west would be needed to help meet the commitments. "We are calling on the international community to support us in implementing this commitment on the ground and help us to find extra livelihoods by protecting our forests," he said."

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history lessons

Gdn: Brits honored for fighting Franco in Int'l Brigades; offered Spanish citizenship
"Seventy years have passed since they marched out of Barcelona amid crowds of weeping, cheering Spaniards, but it is only now that the last few British volunteers who fought in Spain against General Franco's fascist-backed rebels are finally to be rewarded by the Spanish state...

While Hitler and Mussolini sent arms and troops to help Franco, Britain and Europe's other democracies stood on the sidelines as tens of thousands of volunteers from around the world travelled to Spain to help the Republic."

New Yorker: evolution of voting through 18th and 19th century US
“'To vacate an election,' an election-law textbook subsequently advised, “it must clearly appear that there was such a display of force as ought to have intimidated men of ordinary firmness.'...Americans used to vote with their voices—viva voce—or with their hands or with their feet. Yea or nay. Raise your hand. All in favor of Jones, stand on this side of the town common; if you support Smith, line up over there. In the colonies, as in the mother country, casting a vote rarely required paper and pen. The word “ballot” comes from the Italian ballotta, or little ball, and a ballot often was a ball, or at least something ballish, like a pea or a pebble, or, not uncommonly, a bullet. Colonial Pennsylvanians commonly voted by tossing beans into a hat. Paper voting wasn’t meant to conceal anyone’s vote; it was just easier than counting beans. Our forebears considered casting a “secret ballot” cowardly, underhanded, and despicable; as one South Carolinian put it, voting secretly would 'destroy that noble generous openness that is characteristick of an Englishman.'”

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conflict resolution
BBC: in some cases, partition could be the best option
"An estranged couple in Cambodia have sawn their house in half to avoid the country's convoluted divorce process."