CSM: former friends make the worst enemies: the 'Haqqani network' in Afghanistan
The Haqqani network is considered the most sophisticated of Afghanistan's insurgent groups. The group is alleged to be behind many high-profile assaults, including a raid on a luxury hotel in Kabul in January 2008 and a massive car bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul that left 41 people dead in July 2008.
The group is active in Afghanistan's southeastern provinces – Paktia, Paktika, Khost, Logar, and Ghazni. In parts of Paktika, Khost, and Paktia, they have established parallel governments and control the countryside of many districts. "In Khost, government officials need letters from Haqqani just to move about on the roads in the districts," says Hanif Shah Husseini, a parliamentarian from Khost.
The leadership, according to US and Afghan sources, is based near Miramshah, North Waziristan, in the Pakistani tribal areas. Pakistani authorities and leading Haqqani figures deny this, although former Haqqani fighters say this is indeed the case.
The network is better connected to Pakistani intelligence and Arab jihadist groups than any other Afghan insurgent group, according to American intelligence officials.
These links go back a long way. It was here – in the dusty mountains of Paktia Province, near the Pakistani border – that the group's putative leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani, first rose to fame. Born into an influential clan of the Zadran tribe, Mr. Haqqani morphed into a legendary war hero for his exploits against the Russians in the 1980s. Many in the southeastern provinces of the country fondly recall his name, even those who are now in the government...
But for a few months after the US-led coalition invaded Afghanistan, Haqqani was on the fence as to whether to join the new Afghan government or fight against it, according to those who knew him at the time. A series of American bombing raids killed members of Haqqani's family, and he disappeared across the Pakistani border, telling friends that "the Americans won't let me live in peace," according to Mr. Saadullah. American officials, however, countered that he was abetting Al Qaeda fighters in their escape from Afghanistan into Pakistan and was not a neutral figure.
NYT: about those airstrikes: mistakes have been made, report finds
The official said the civilian death toll would probably have been reduced if American air crews and forces on the ground had followed strict rules devised to prevent civilian casualties. Had the rules been followed, at least some of the strikes by American warplanes against half a dozen targets over seven hours would have been aborted...
According to the senior military official, the report on the May 4 raids found that one plane was cleared to attack Taliban fighters, but then had to circle back and did not reconfirm the target before dropping bombs, leaving open the possibility that the militants had fled the site or that civilians had entered the target area in the intervening few minutes.
In another case, a compound of buildings where militants were massing for a possible counterattack against American and Afghan troops was struck in violation of rules that required a more imminent threat to justify putting high-density village dwellings at risk, the official said.
LAT: casualties likely to increase in Afghanistan: McChrystal
"I don't think that the Taliban have any reason right now to turn their back on Al Qaeda," McChrystal said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, his first public remarks since being selected last month to lead an overhauled U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.
One reason is that the Taliban is widely perceived in the region as prevailing against coalition forces. He also cited intermarriage among Al Qaeda members and Taliban-connected tribes along the border with Pakistan. "They've created connections that are beyond just organizational," he said.
WSJ: ...apparently accompanied by a new body count policy (though it's unclear how centralized this is)
In recent months, the U.S. command in Afghanistan has begun publicizing every single enemy fighter killed in combat, the most detailed body counts the military has released since the practice fell into disrepute during the Vietnam War.
The practice has revealed deep divides in military circles over the value of keeping such a score in a war being waged not over turf, but over the allegiance of the Afghan people. Does it buck up the troops and the home front to let them know the enemy is suffering, too? Or does the focus on killing distract from the goals of generating legitimacy and economic development?
American commanders have detailed nearly 2,000 insurgent deaths in Afghanistan over the past 14 months. U.S. officers say they've embraced body counts to undermine insurgent propaganda, and stiffen the resolve of the American public...
"Recording an ongoing body count is hardly going to endear us to the people of Afghanistan," says British Royal Navy Capt. Mark Durkin, spokesman for the 42-nation, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, or ISAF...
Even those who endorse the idea face the challenge of actually counting the bodies. Commanders know there's a good deal of uncertainty when firefights often take place at ranges of up to 1,000 yards and end with aerial bombardments. Insurgents frequently remove their dead, in what Lt. Col. Nielson-Green calls the "self-cleaning battlefield."...
Enemy death tolls have been a feature of war ever since armies stuck heads on pikes. They appear in Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War and in the Old Testament, which enumerates the casualties of King David's wars, including 360 Benjamites, 18,000 Edomites and 22,000 Arameans of Damascus.
In modern warfare, combatants have usually measured success by territory held. German progress during World War II was marked by front lines that advanced east and west across Europe. Allied progress was marked by pushing those lines back toward Berlin from the beaches of Normandy and the suburbs of Moscow.
That changed when the U.S. found itself mired in a guerrilla war in Vietnam, where front lines were blurred and villages taken or lost didn't indicate who was winning, says Dale Andrade, senior historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History. "Vietnam was the first war in which the body count became the one and only statistic on which victory was measured," he says...
As the insurgency intensified and American combat deaths rose, however, the U.S.-led military command in Iraq began releasing enemy casualty counts on occasion, generally after a big battle. Sometimes individual units detailed such information in press releases. But the military as a whole had no body-count policy...
In fact, the military kept classified its running tally of enemy deaths in Iraq between June 2003 and September 2007 -- 18,832 -- and only revealed the figure in 2007 when forced to do so under a Freedom of Information Act petition. That number hasn't been publicly updated.
In Afghanistan, counting bodies is now more prevalent than it ever was in Iraq...
Then the publicity battlefield shifted to the issue of civilian casualties. Time and again, American forces found themselves defending against allegations that bad intelligence and reckless tactics caused large-scale civilian casualties. The insurgents' media campaigns were often a step ahead of the U.S., according to U.S. officers, making it difficult for the Americans to debunk what they saw as enemy propaganda...
In October, Col. Julian assumed responsibility for public affairs for a new unified command, U.S. Forces -- Afghanistan, taking over much of the work done by the 101st Airborne. He immediately ordered his staff to get ahead of their Taliban counterparts by reporting enemy casualties, no matter how small. From now on, he decided, news releases would provide ample detail about each fight to add to their credibility.
The Haqqani network is considered the most sophisticated of Afghanistan's insurgent groups. The group is alleged to be behind many high-profile assaults, including a raid on a luxury hotel in Kabul in January 2008 and a massive car bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul that left 41 people dead in July 2008.
The group is active in Afghanistan's southeastern provinces – Paktia, Paktika, Khost, Logar, and Ghazni. In parts of Paktika, Khost, and Paktia, they have established parallel governments and control the countryside of many districts. "In Khost, government officials need letters from Haqqani just to move about on the roads in the districts," says Hanif Shah Husseini, a parliamentarian from Khost.
The leadership, according to US and Afghan sources, is based near Miramshah, North Waziristan, in the Pakistani tribal areas. Pakistani authorities and leading Haqqani figures deny this, although former Haqqani fighters say this is indeed the case.
The network is better connected to Pakistani intelligence and Arab jihadist groups than any other Afghan insurgent group, according to American intelligence officials.
These links go back a long way. It was here – in the dusty mountains of Paktia Province, near the Pakistani border – that the group's putative leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani, first rose to fame. Born into an influential clan of the Zadran tribe, Mr. Haqqani morphed into a legendary war hero for his exploits against the Russians in the 1980s. Many in the southeastern provinces of the country fondly recall his name, even those who are now in the government...
But for a few months after the US-led coalition invaded Afghanistan, Haqqani was on the fence as to whether to join the new Afghan government or fight against it, according to those who knew him at the time. A series of American bombing raids killed members of Haqqani's family, and he disappeared across the Pakistani border, telling friends that "the Americans won't let me live in peace," according to Mr. Saadullah. American officials, however, countered that he was abetting Al Qaeda fighters in their escape from Afghanistan into Pakistan and was not a neutral figure.
NYT: about those airstrikes: mistakes have been made, report finds
The official said the civilian death toll would probably have been reduced if American air crews and forces on the ground had followed strict rules devised to prevent civilian casualties. Had the rules been followed, at least some of the strikes by American warplanes against half a dozen targets over seven hours would have been aborted...
According to the senior military official, the report on the May 4 raids found that one plane was cleared to attack Taliban fighters, but then had to circle back and did not reconfirm the target before dropping bombs, leaving open the possibility that the militants had fled the site or that civilians had entered the target area in the intervening few minutes.
In another case, a compound of buildings where militants were massing for a possible counterattack against American and Afghan troops was struck in violation of rules that required a more imminent threat to justify putting high-density village dwellings at risk, the official said.
LAT: casualties likely to increase in Afghanistan: McChrystal
"I don't think that the Taliban have any reason right now to turn their back on Al Qaeda," McChrystal said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, his first public remarks since being selected last month to lead an overhauled U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.
One reason is that the Taliban is widely perceived in the region as prevailing against coalition forces. He also cited intermarriage among Al Qaeda members and Taliban-connected tribes along the border with Pakistan. "They've created connections that are beyond just organizational," he said.
WSJ: ...apparently accompanied by a new body count policy (though it's unclear how centralized this is)
In recent months, the U.S. command in Afghanistan has begun publicizing every single enemy fighter killed in combat, the most detailed body counts the military has released since the practice fell into disrepute during the Vietnam War.
The practice has revealed deep divides in military circles over the value of keeping such a score in a war being waged not over turf, but over the allegiance of the Afghan people. Does it buck up the troops and the home front to let them know the enemy is suffering, too? Or does the focus on killing distract from the goals of generating legitimacy and economic development?
American commanders have detailed nearly 2,000 insurgent deaths in Afghanistan over the past 14 months. U.S. officers say they've embraced body counts to undermine insurgent propaganda, and stiffen the resolve of the American public...
"Recording an ongoing body count is hardly going to endear us to the people of Afghanistan," says British Royal Navy Capt. Mark Durkin, spokesman for the 42-nation, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, or ISAF...
Even those who endorse the idea face the challenge of actually counting the bodies. Commanders know there's a good deal of uncertainty when firefights often take place at ranges of up to 1,000 yards and end with aerial bombardments. Insurgents frequently remove their dead, in what Lt. Col. Nielson-Green calls the "self-cleaning battlefield."...
Enemy death tolls have been a feature of war ever since armies stuck heads on pikes. They appear in Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War and in the Old Testament, which enumerates the casualties of King David's wars, including 360 Benjamites, 18,000 Edomites and 22,000 Arameans of Damascus.
In modern warfare, combatants have usually measured success by territory held. German progress during World War II was marked by front lines that advanced east and west across Europe. Allied progress was marked by pushing those lines back toward Berlin from the beaches of Normandy and the suburbs of Moscow.
That changed when the U.S. found itself mired in a guerrilla war in Vietnam, where front lines were blurred and villages taken or lost didn't indicate who was winning, says Dale Andrade, senior historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History. "Vietnam was the first war in which the body count became the one and only statistic on which victory was measured," he says...
As the insurgency intensified and American combat deaths rose, however, the U.S.-led military command in Iraq began releasing enemy casualty counts on occasion, generally after a big battle. Sometimes individual units detailed such information in press releases. But the military as a whole had no body-count policy...
In fact, the military kept classified its running tally of enemy deaths in Iraq between June 2003 and September 2007 -- 18,832 -- and only revealed the figure in 2007 when forced to do so under a Freedom of Information Act petition. That number hasn't been publicly updated.
In Afghanistan, counting bodies is now more prevalent than it ever was in Iraq...
Then the publicity battlefield shifted to the issue of civilian casualties. Time and again, American forces found themselves defending against allegations that bad intelligence and reckless tactics caused large-scale civilian casualties. The insurgents' media campaigns were often a step ahead of the U.S., according to U.S. officers, making it difficult for the Americans to debunk what they saw as enemy propaganda...
In October, Col. Julian assumed responsibility for public affairs for a new unified command, U.S. Forces -- Afghanistan, taking over much of the work done by the 101st Airborne. He immediately ordered his staff to get ahead of their Taliban counterparts by reporting enemy casualties, no matter how small. From now on, he decided, news releases would provide ample detail about each fight to add to their credibility.
A basic understanding of this will assist you in your observations of Afghan behavior. Observations of behavior are critical; your best way to prepare for danger is to be able to recognize what normal looks like. It is only through learning what normal looks like that you will have any hope of recognizing what abnormal looks like. Being able to recognize abnormal behavior or circumstances will help you to stay alive and keep your Soldiers safe. At first, when you arrive, your "Spidey sense" will be alerting you constantly, overloading your mind and your emotions. Relax. Learn. In a short time (2-3 weeks) you will have seen much of Afghan behavior enough to know (mostly) what normal looks like...
Do not confuse illiteracy with stupidity. Afghans very often learn quickly by observation. They have a strong tradition of oral history. Be aware of why they are consummate fence-sitters, the ferocity of their lack of commitment born of a strong survival instinct. Understand that, often, what we see as corruption they see as the price of doing business.
Newsweek: Yemen's attempt to moderate jihadis
Yemen's secret police, under pressure from American officials to crack down on local militants even before the World Trade Center attacks, didn't wait long to scoop him up. In December 2000, al-Bahri was arrested and locked in a small cell in the solitary-confinement wing of Sana's political prison. "I expected the worst torture," he recalled. Instead, one day the door opened and a figure wearing a white pillbox cap and flowing ceremonial robes stepped inside. The man dropped a stack of books—the Qur'an, volumes of the Prophet Muhammad's teachings—on the table. The only weapon he carried was his jambiya, the traditional Yemeni dagger that dangled from his waistband.
Yemen's secret police, under pressure from American officials to crack down on local militants even before the World Trade Center attacks, didn't wait long to scoop him up. In December 2000, al-Bahri was arrested and locked in a small cell in the solitary-confinement wing of Sana's political prison. "I expected the worst torture," he recalled. Instead, one day the door opened and a figure wearing a white pillbox cap and flowing ceremonial robes stepped inside. The man dropped a stack of books—the Qur'an, volumes of the Prophet Muhammad's teachings—on the table. The only weapon he carried was his jambiya, the traditional Yemeni dagger that dangled from his waistband.
The visitor was Hamoud al-Hitar, a local judge who had been enlisted by the Yemeni government to try to reform the country's burgeoning ranks of Islamic militants. Al-Hitar's idea was to engage the prisoners in what he called "theological duels," challenging them to justify their beliefs by citing religious texts. Al-Hitar would then counter with his own usually more moderate interpretation of the same texts. If a militant seemed to be making progress, after a few sessions the judge would offer him a written pledge to sign in which he renounced violence. In exchange, the young jihadist would be given several hundred dollars and granted his freedom. Most, like al-Bahri, were put under a loose "house arrest," which meant that they could travel freely throughout Sana, as long as they checked in regularly with their parole officers. Nearly 400 prisoners attended al-Hitar's classes, repented and were released.
Now that President Barack Obama has pledged to close the prison at Guantána-mo Bay within the year, some Yemeni and American officials want al-Hitar's help again. Nearly half of the Gitmo detainees—about 100 of the 240 still incarcerated—are originally from Yemen. A new Yemeni rehab program would allow Obama to send them home with a measure of political cover—and a scapegoat if things go badly. Last year Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, announced that he had struck a deal with the United States to build a campus for the returnees, using U.S. funds. When I met with him one recent afternoon, Saleh told me that the Americans had promised him $11 million for the facility. The president insisted that al-Hitar would help direct the new program.
There is only one problem with all this: al-Hitar's program doesn't work. By 2004 at least some of the judge's graduates had begun showing up in Iraq, American officials warned their Yemeni counterparts. Among al-Hitar's students, the program was a joke. "To be frank, everyone was making fun of him," says one former prisoner, who gave his name only as "Abu Hurieh" to avoid drawing renewed attention from the secret police. "We all understood that it was just extortion to take money from the Americans. They were just playing with us." Even Saleh acknowledges that al-Hitar's program was only effective about 60 percent of the time. The flaw, in retrospect, seems obvious: a prisoner will say anything to get out of jail. "If Satan himself told me to sign, I would have," al-Bahri told me. Al-Hitar's program, he explained, "was completely useless."
LAT: US-Philippines partnership 'model' for counterinsurgency
There are about 600 U.S. service members in Manila advising Philippine commanders and staff officers -- a small force that has been able to reduce the influence of the main Muslim militant group, Abu Sayyaf.
America's former role as a colonial ruler of the Philippines has left many Filipinos wary of a large U.S. military presence. Army Col. William Coultrup, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Task Force, said the Americans provide the Philippine military with their experience, resources and intelligence information. But, he said, it is the Filipinos who take the lead.
The Philippines, like Pakistan, has been reluctant to allow large numbers of U.S. troops to operate on its soil. The American forces on the ground are focused on training, not direct military action. Special operations soldiers generally stay off the front lines, and instead advise and train Philippine commanders and their staffs.
When the mission in the Philippines began in 2002, the United States viewed the southern portion of the country, including parts of Mindanao and the Sulu islands, as ungoverned spaces. Abu Sayyaf had ties with Al Qaeda and was using the area to train for attacks against Western targets.
The Philippine armed forces, according to a U.S. military official, were in a "shambles" and unable to counter Abu Sayyaf's advances. Over seven years of training, the Philippine military has grown in capacity.
"They were not looking too good," said a military official. "Now they are carrying on many operations without us."
LAT: protesters against the Taliban and US in Pakistan
While pundits and social critics quite freely attack extremism from the relative safety of Pakistani television studios or opinion pages, hitting the streets, where you're vulnerable to a real attack, is rarer.
WP: Pashtuns hosting the displaced
There are about 600 U.S. service members in Manila advising Philippine commanders and staff officers -- a small force that has been able to reduce the influence of the main Muslim militant group, Abu Sayyaf.
America's former role as a colonial ruler of the Philippines has left many Filipinos wary of a large U.S. military presence. Army Col. William Coultrup, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Task Force, said the Americans provide the Philippine military with their experience, resources and intelligence information. But, he said, it is the Filipinos who take the lead.
The Philippines, like Pakistan, has been reluctant to allow large numbers of U.S. troops to operate on its soil. The American forces on the ground are focused on training, not direct military action. Special operations soldiers generally stay off the front lines, and instead advise and train Philippine commanders and their staffs.
When the mission in the Philippines began in 2002, the United States viewed the southern portion of the country, including parts of Mindanao and the Sulu islands, as ungoverned spaces. Abu Sayyaf had ties with Al Qaeda and was using the area to train for attacks against Western targets.
The Philippine armed forces, according to a U.S. military official, were in a "shambles" and unable to counter Abu Sayyaf's advances. Over seven years of training, the Philippine military has grown in capacity.
"They were not looking too good," said a military official. "Now they are carrying on many operations without us."
LAT: protesters against the Taliban and US in Pakistan
While pundits and social critics quite freely attack extremism from the relative safety of Pakistani television studios or opinion pages, hitting the streets, where you're vulnerable to a real attack, is rarer.
WP: Pashtuns hosting the displaced
Because of the culture of extreme hospitality that prevails here, few have lacked for a place to stay. Pashtuns, who predominate in Pakistan's northwest, live by an ancient, unwritten honor code known as Pashtunwali, which dictates that a host must provide shelter, food and water for his guests, no matter how many there are or how long they stay.
In many ways, Pashtunwali has been the refugees' salvation. But it has also become a curse for their hosts, who are silently buckling under the strain.
As civilians continue to flee the scenes of the fighting, aid groups and government officials are concerned that the host communities could also become destabilized as they run out of money and resources trying to help their guests.
WP: violence ahead of elections in Iran
Violence in [Zahedan,] the ethnically mixed city near Iran's border with Pakistan and Afghanistan and bomb threats and attacks on opposition figures elsewhere have ratcheted up tension in the country ahead of a presidential election scheduled for June 12...
On Friday, three people were wounded when gunmen attacked a local campaign headquarters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. On Saturday, three men were hanged in Zahedan's central square after being convicted of involvement in the attack on the mosque.
Over the weekend, the city was roiled by rioting following protests against the participation of Sunni religious figures in a memorial service for the Shiite victims of the bombing, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported. According to unofficial sources, several people were killed during the unrest.
NYT: presidential contenders debate
Mr. Moussavi, a former prime minister whose moderate views have won him support from other reformers in Iran, including former President Mohammad Khatami, has positioned himself as the strongest challenger to Mr. Ahmadinejad. Support from the Islamic authorities for the president, who is a religious conservative, appears to have weakened, and he is now widely criticized for Iran’s economic malaise.
LAT: Iraqi casualties down, US casualties up last month
Iraqi casualties in May fell by more than half compared with the previous month and were at a record low for the years for which statistics are available, according to figures released Sunday.
The statistics suggested that insurgents have not been able to sustain the onslaught of attacks they mounted in April.
The U.S. military toll, meanwhile, was at its highest level since September, with 24 deaths recorded.
LAT: land rights in Zimbabwe: 'possession if 9/10ths of the law'
The invaders, led by a war veteran named Chimbambira, arrived at Mount Carmel on April 3. There were about 10 young thugs, armed with pellet guns.
But about 150 farmworkers, afraid they would lose their jobs if Campbell left the farm, confronted the invaders and chased them away.
The next morning, a phalanx of riot police arrived and beat or arrested many of the workers. That night the invaders were back, on the Campbells' veranda, singing war songs.
Gdn: at least Mugabe is polite?
LAT: Salvadorans swear in first leftist president
The new president faces a pile of problems, topped by an economic crisis and runaway street crime that has resulted in one of the world's highest homicide rates. Funes will have to navigate between a right-wing opposition that controls Congress and leftist hard-liners within his own party, the FMLN...
Funes has assembled a moderate-looking Cabinet drawn from Salvadoran intellectuals and allies within the FMLN whose views have mellowed since the conflict ended with the signing of peace accords in 1992.
LAT: South Ossetia holds elections
Residents of South Ossetia trooped to the polls Sunday in the first election since Russia and Georgia fought a brief and bitter war over the breakaway republic's fate.
Residents in the rebel territory, which was purged of Georgian troops by Russian intervention and recognized as an independent state by Moscow, cast votes for a 34-seat parliament. Georgia's central government dismissed the balloting as illegal...
South Ossetia and Abkhazia are emotional issues in Georgia, which is now home to refugees from conflicts in both places. The sight of the two territories marching ahead as self-declared countries under the patronage of powerful Russia has led many Georgians to criticize Saakashvili for bringing the country into a losing war.
CSM: diaspora radicals try to keep Tamil separatism alive
AJE: Mauritanian political leaders reach agreement to delay election in bid to get opposition groups to participate
AJE: Madagascar court sentences former leader to prison for corruption
++
BBC: first woman speaker selected in Indian parliament
Ms Kumar, who is from the low-caste Dalit (formerly untouchable) community, called her appointment "historic".
Gdn: women join parliament in Kuwait
All four winners came from the three (of five) primarily urban districts but a fifth woman, lawyer Thekra al-Rashidi, got 6,635 votes in a tribal constituency.
The celebrations were hardly over, however, when a lawyer brought a case against the two second-district winners, Rola and Aseel, for having violated the election law – because they do not veil. A last-minute and vaguely worded add-on to the law requires female – but not male – candidates and elected officials to abide by "Islamic law". What precisely was meant was not clarified at the time but few saw it as more than a demand for separate polling stations for women and men.
WP: woman wins court decision in South Africa, becomes chief
Last year, her six-year battle with a cousin went to South Africa's top court. The cousin said the 70,000-member tribe's tradition of male leadership gave him the right to be hosi, or chief. The court disagreed, citing the Valoyi royal family's decision to give Nwamitwa the throne, and she assumed the job full time last month...
These days, the job of hosi is a constant navigation of old and new. The land on which the Valoyi have lived for five generations, for example, belongs to the tribe's administrative branch. But it is subject to government land-use rules, which is why Nwamitwa brought a municipal official to a recent meeting with her 34 village headmen.
Like many traditional chiefs, Nwamitwa's predecessors generally let residents settle where they wanted, the official explained, pinning up a map inside the tribe's worn conference hall. It was marked "Spatial Development Framework," and its various colors, he told the group, indicated where houses could be built and crops planted...
Nwamitwa said she expects to remain hosi until death, at which point the succession question could resurface. Her only son was killed in a car accident at age 7, and her three daughters are married professionals who, she said, have little interest in the job.
The solution will be based on custom, she said. As hosi, Nwamitwa can marry a woman to bear a child from the "seed" of a man selected from within the royal family. The child would be accepted as Nwamitwa's -- and designated as the next hosi.
But the identity of the child's father would never be revealed, Nwamitwa said with a smile. Because surely that man, she said, "would want to take over."
++
NYT: a novel approach to gun control
...I propose curbing gun violence not by further restricting the availability of guns but by expanding and reorienting it. Men would still be forbidden to walk the streets armed, in accordance with current laws, but women would be required to carry pistols in plain sight whenever they are out and about.
Were I to board the subway late at night, around Lincoln Center perhaps, and find it filled with women openly carrying Metropolitan Opera programs and Glock automatics, I’d feel snug and secure. A train packed with armed men would not produce the same comforting sensation. Maybe that’s because men have a disconcerting tendency to shoot people, while women display admirable restraint. Department of Justice figures show that between 1976 and 2005, 91.3 percent of gun homicides were committed by men, 8.7 percent by women.
++
BBC: Nigerian masquerades
In many ways, Pashtunwali has been the refugees' salvation. But it has also become a curse for their hosts, who are silently buckling under the strain.
As civilians continue to flee the scenes of the fighting, aid groups and government officials are concerned that the host communities could also become destabilized as they run out of money and resources trying to help their guests.
WP: violence ahead of elections in Iran
Violence in [Zahedan,] the ethnically mixed city near Iran's border with Pakistan and Afghanistan and bomb threats and attacks on opposition figures elsewhere have ratcheted up tension in the country ahead of a presidential election scheduled for June 12...
On Friday, three people were wounded when gunmen attacked a local campaign headquarters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. On Saturday, three men were hanged in Zahedan's central square after being convicted of involvement in the attack on the mosque.
Over the weekend, the city was roiled by rioting following protests against the participation of Sunni religious figures in a memorial service for the Shiite victims of the bombing, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported. According to unofficial sources, several people were killed during the unrest.
NYT: presidential contenders debate
Mr. Moussavi, a former prime minister whose moderate views have won him support from other reformers in Iran, including former President Mohammad Khatami, has positioned himself as the strongest challenger to Mr. Ahmadinejad. Support from the Islamic authorities for the president, who is a religious conservative, appears to have weakened, and he is now widely criticized for Iran’s economic malaise.
LAT: Iraqi casualties down, US casualties up last month
Iraqi casualties in May fell by more than half compared with the previous month and were at a record low for the years for which statistics are available, according to figures released Sunday.
The statistics suggested that insurgents have not been able to sustain the onslaught of attacks they mounted in April.
The U.S. military toll, meanwhile, was at its highest level since September, with 24 deaths recorded.
LAT: land rights in Zimbabwe: 'possession if 9/10ths of the law'
The invaders, led by a war veteran named Chimbambira, arrived at Mount Carmel on April 3. There were about 10 young thugs, armed with pellet guns.
But about 150 farmworkers, afraid they would lose their jobs if Campbell left the farm, confronted the invaders and chased them away.
The next morning, a phalanx of riot police arrived and beat or arrested many of the workers. That night the invaders were back, on the Campbells' veranda, singing war songs.
Gdn: at least Mugabe is polite?
LAT: Salvadorans swear in first leftist president
The new president faces a pile of problems, topped by an economic crisis and runaway street crime that has resulted in one of the world's highest homicide rates. Funes will have to navigate between a right-wing opposition that controls Congress and leftist hard-liners within his own party, the FMLN...
Funes has assembled a moderate-looking Cabinet drawn from Salvadoran intellectuals and allies within the FMLN whose views have mellowed since the conflict ended with the signing of peace accords in 1992.
LAT: South Ossetia holds elections
Residents of South Ossetia trooped to the polls Sunday in the first election since Russia and Georgia fought a brief and bitter war over the breakaway republic's fate.
Residents in the rebel territory, which was purged of Georgian troops by Russian intervention and recognized as an independent state by Moscow, cast votes for a 34-seat parliament. Georgia's central government dismissed the balloting as illegal...
South Ossetia and Abkhazia are emotional issues in Georgia, which is now home to refugees from conflicts in both places. The sight of the two territories marching ahead as self-declared countries under the patronage of powerful Russia has led many Georgians to criticize Saakashvili for bringing the country into a losing war.
CSM: diaspora radicals try to keep Tamil separatism alive
AJE: Mauritanian political leaders reach agreement to delay election in bid to get opposition groups to participate
AJE: Madagascar court sentences former leader to prison for corruption
++
BBC: first woman speaker selected in Indian parliament
Ms Kumar, who is from the low-caste Dalit (formerly untouchable) community, called her appointment "historic".
Gdn: women join parliament in Kuwait
All four winners came from the three (of five) primarily urban districts but a fifth woman, lawyer Thekra al-Rashidi, got 6,635 votes in a tribal constituency.
The celebrations were hardly over, however, when a lawyer brought a case against the two second-district winners, Rola and Aseel, for having violated the election law – because they do not veil. A last-minute and vaguely worded add-on to the law requires female – but not male – candidates and elected officials to abide by "Islamic law". What precisely was meant was not clarified at the time but few saw it as more than a demand for separate polling stations for women and men.
WP: woman wins court decision in South Africa, becomes chief
Last year, her six-year battle with a cousin went to South Africa's top court. The cousin said the 70,000-member tribe's tradition of male leadership gave him the right to be hosi, or chief. The court disagreed, citing the Valoyi royal family's decision to give Nwamitwa the throne, and she assumed the job full time last month...
These days, the job of hosi is a constant navigation of old and new. The land on which the Valoyi have lived for five generations, for example, belongs to the tribe's administrative branch. But it is subject to government land-use rules, which is why Nwamitwa brought a municipal official to a recent meeting with her 34 village headmen.
Like many traditional chiefs, Nwamitwa's predecessors generally let residents settle where they wanted, the official explained, pinning up a map inside the tribe's worn conference hall. It was marked "Spatial Development Framework," and its various colors, he told the group, indicated where houses could be built and crops planted...
Nwamitwa said she expects to remain hosi until death, at which point the succession question could resurface. Her only son was killed in a car accident at age 7, and her three daughters are married professionals who, she said, have little interest in the job.
The solution will be based on custom, she said. As hosi, Nwamitwa can marry a woman to bear a child from the "seed" of a man selected from within the royal family. The child would be accepted as Nwamitwa's -- and designated as the next hosi.
But the identity of the child's father would never be revealed, Nwamitwa said with a smile. Because surely that man, she said, "would want to take over."
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NYT: a novel approach to gun control
...I propose curbing gun violence not by further restricting the availability of guns but by expanding and reorienting it. Men would still be forbidden to walk the streets armed, in accordance with current laws, but women would be required to carry pistols in plain sight whenever they are out and about.
Were I to board the subway late at night, around Lincoln Center perhaps, and find it filled with women openly carrying Metropolitan Opera programs and Glock automatics, I’d feel snug and secure. A train packed with armed men would not produce the same comforting sensation. Maybe that’s because men have a disconcerting tendency to shoot people, while women display admirable restraint. Department of Justice figures show that between 1976 and 2005, 91.3 percent of gun homicides were committed by men, 8.7 percent by women.
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BBC: Nigerian masquerades
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