a promise is a promise [dangerous if not outright deadly]

NYT: Sri Lankan government says it will stop using heavy weapons, artillery and air strikes in order to protect civilians...
In what appeared to be a concession to the visiting United Nations humanitarian coordinator, John Holmes, and foreign governments critical of the continued military offensive, a statement from President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s office said “combat operations have reached their conclusion.” The statement said military forces would “confine their attempts to rescuing civilians who are held hostage.”

But there was no sign on Monday that the government was backing away from its demand for a full surrender, after dismissing a unilateral cease-fire declared Sunday by the rebels... With only several hundred Tiger fighters remaining in a four-square-mile strip of territory, the government says it is close to ending the 25-year-old conflict. But Sri Lanka is coming under enormous international pressure to stop the fighting for the sake of the estimated 50,000 trapped civilians.
Gdn: ...but doesn't follow through
LAT: Q + A: how are conditions for those still trapped?
Dangerous if not outright deadly. The Red Cross has said the situation is "nothing short of catastrophic" for those in the tiny enclave. Food, water and medical care are in short supply, the agency says. That is to say nothing of the fighting.

Reuters: Egyptian efforts target Gaza tunnels
"Tunnel business has dropped to 20 percent of what it was before the war on Gaza because of Israeli destruction and the stepped-up security campaign by Egypt," said Abu Abdallah. The Egyptian effort was "more effective" than Israeli bombs, he said. They not only blow up the tunnels but also stop contraband goods reaching Egyptian cities near Gaza.

Accused in the past of turning a blind eye to the smuggling operations, Egypt is cooperating along with United States help in a bid to stop the contraband, which Israel says includes rockets that Gaza militants use against Israel. Since the Islamists seized control of Gaza in 2007, ousting forces of the Fatah movement of Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel has completely blocked the entry of cement and steel, which it says Hamas will use for military purposes.
LAT: Obama plan to allow aid for a unified Palestinian government which includes Hamas
But the administration has asked Congress for minor changes in U.S. law that would permit aid to continue flowing to Palestinians in the event Hamas-backed officials become part of a unified Palestinian government.

The aid measures may never come into play. Power-sharing negotiations between Hamas and its rival, the U.S.-backed Fatah faction, appear deadlocked. The two have been bitterly divided since 2007, when Hamas drove Fatah out of the Gaza Strip. Fatah controls only the West Bank...

U.S. officials insist that the new proposal doesn't amount to recognizing or aiding Hamas. Under law, any U.S. aid would require that the Palestinian government meet three long-standing criteria: recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and agreeing to follow past Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

Hamas as an organization doesn't meet those criteria. However, if the rival Palestinian factions manage to reach a power-sharing deal, the Obama administration wants to be able to provide aid as long as the Hamas-backed members of the government -- if not Hamas itself -- meet the three criteria.

NYT: torture and accountability: lessons from Israel
Until the court’s decision, Israel, like the Bush administration, had insisted that its methods of torment permitted in interrogating detainees were not “torture,” and therefore were not in violation of international and national law prohibiting the use of torture. Those methods included violent shaking, shackling prisoners to a low and tilted stool, covering their heads with urine-drenched hoods, and sleep deprivation... Israel’s official euphemism, “a moderate measure of physical pressure,” was a touch more honest than the Bush administration’s “enhanced interrogation techniques.” But the intent was the same.

Israel’s other line of defense, equally familiar, was that the country was embroiled in a “war on terrorism” (that was years before President George W. Bush used the term) and therefore could not deal gently with a Palestinian who may know of a — literally — ticking bomb.
FP: timeline of US torture, since 9/11
EmptyWheel(via Andrew Sullivan): and docs released in the last few weeks

LAT: the birth and slow death of the Sons of Iraq
The divergent fates of these two former Sunni insurgents highlight the major unknown about the intentions of Iraq's Shiite-led government: Is it reaching out to former Sunni insurgents such as Abu Azzam in the true spirit of "national reconciliation," or in hopes of splintering the movement?

And will the government's campaign against men such as Abu Maarouf succeed in snuffing out potential rivals? Or is it planting seeds for a long-term Sunni revolt?

The crackdown also points to a significant change in the U.S. forces' onetime policy of nurturing and protecting the Sons of Iraq. As the Iraqi government has arrested some of the movement's leaders, forced others into exile and failed to deliver jobs for rank-and-file fighters, the Americans have regularly deferred to Baghdad's wishes as they hand over responsibility for the country's security.
LAT: Iraqi government claims raid violated security pact with US

CSM: British court acquits only suspects ever tried in connection with 7/7 London bombings
The investigation into the July 7 plot is the largest criminal investigation in British history. Over the course of tens of thousands of man-hours, officers have taken 18,450 statements and produced 37,000 exhibits and 19,400 documents.

But, Mr. Gohel says: "What we are seeing repeatedly now is that the threshold for quality and quantity of evidence acquired is set so high it is almost impossible to obtain successful prosecutions unless there is irrefutable evidence, including a smoking gun and dead bodies, and the perpetrators being filmed in the act."

Gdn: Pakistani air strikes, troops fight Taliban expansion near Swat Valley
Fighter jets and helicopter gunships launched attacks on Taliban positions in Buner today in a dramatic expansion of a military operation to halt the march of extremists out of the Taliban-controlled Swat valley... Buner, a small mountainous district tucked into north-western Pakistan, was the centre of world concerns last week when Taliban militants overran the district, ransacking foreign aid agency offices and occupying government buildings.

Although the offensive posed no direct danger to Islamabad, the proximity of the advance to the capital stoked American worries that, as Hillary Clinton put it, Pakistan posed a "mortal threat" to world security. Under immense domestic and international pressure the military launched an operation in Lower Dir district on Sunday, attacking Taliban positions with gunships and artillery.
NYT: leading Taliban's main negotiator to break off talks with the government...
Under the February peace agreement, the government agreed to the imposition of Shariah courts and both sides agreed to stop fighting. The military has ceased operations in the Swat Valley, but Taliban militants have insisted they will remain armed until the Islamic courts are set up and functioning.

Government officials said they would continue to try to hold the Swat peace agreement together, but have demanded that militants cease their activities in several districts adjoining Swat and lay down their weapons. Several provincial officials have expressed growing frustration with Mr. Muhammad and his failure to make the militants abide by the agreement.
AJE: ...and flight of up to 50,000 civilians
LAT: Swat Valley conflict as demonstrative of Pakistan's identity crisis?
Although they have different reasons for leaving, those who have lived through the last few years in Swat say they have experienced firsthand what passes for peace, Taliban-style, and fear the worst as militants gain more influence across the region.

A former tourist destination, the Swat Valley is now ground zero in Pakistan's identity crisis... Many here and abroad fear the rising tide of extremism in Swat could foretell changes in an overwhelmingly Muslim society that has been largely secular and open.

CSM: new counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan: "cash and jobs instead of guns"
Others say agencies such as the Peace and Reconciliation Commission are part of the problem. Since 2005, the commission claims to have reconciled with nearly 4,000 fighters. It has lost track of most of these, however. Some critics charge that many of the surrendered were never with the insurgency or lied about surrendering to get a payment...

In many cases, the commission is unable to provide the jobs it promised to those fighters who genuinely want to reconcile, analysts say. Mr. Muzdja believes the government and the Americans must revamp the reconciliation program by making it more transparent and accountable.
LAT: Karzai to amend Afghani law basically permitting rape
The law, which sparked an international outcry after it was signed last month, says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill or would be harmed by intercourse. It also regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave her home alone...

Though the law would apply only to the country's Shiite Muslims, who make up about 20% of Afghanistan's 30 million people, many fear its passage marks a return to Taliban-style oppression of women.

LAT: 7 police officers dead in Tijuana drug violence
NYT: intrigue of assassination plot highlights tensions in Bolivia
But the episode, with its dash of Balkan intrigue, remains far from an open-and-shut case of right versus left. Instead, it falls somewhere in that gray area of Bolivian politics, in which Mr. Morales’s claims of destabilization plots, now a regular feature of his government, and his opponents’ counterclaims that such plots are shams contribute to growing tensions between the central government and the rebellious lowlands...

Indeed, the mystery of the case revolves largely around this enigmatic figure, believed to be the group’s leader... Mr. [Eduardo] Rozsa Flores went further in the interview, saying his goal was not toppling Mr. Morales, but achieving autonomy for Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s wealthiest department, or province. Envisioning a clash with La Paz over this issue, he nonchalantly described his goal as “declaring independence and creating a new country.”

NYT: thousands imprisoned and hundreds dead as China seeks to weed out Falun Gong

CSM: vigilantes fight back against pirates in Somalia