multilateral (ir)relevance [generally assembling]

LAT: Italy deploys troops after mafia violence near Naples
"This time authorities are responding to months of deadly violence attributed to the Casalesi, a Camorra clan whose wild, swaggering exploits contrast with the brutal but more disciplined and discreet style of the Sicilian Mafia. Recent killings in Castelvolturno, a hub of the drug trade in Caserta province, also reflects the new ethnic structure of a criminal underworld that is being reshaped by immigration.

On Thursday, four men killed the owner of an amusement arcade in Castelvolturno. The assailants then drove to a clothing store operated by West African immigrants and fired hundreds of rounds into the store, killing three Ghanians, two Liberians and a man from Togo. On Monday, police arrested a suspect linked to the Casalesi clan.

The slayings set off riots by African immigrants, tens of thousands of whom have settled in the region.

Prosecutors suspect that the shootings stemmed from a clash over drug turf. As cocaine smuggled into Europe increasingly arrives via West Africa, criminals from that region have carved out a role in the underworld in places such as Caserta. The Neapolitan mafia collects "taxes" from Africans, Albanians and other immigrant gangs engaged in drug dealing, prostitution and other crimes in its territory."

BBC: Pakistan police kill 6 in protests against military operations in the northwest
BBC: group claims responsibility for suicide bomb in Islamabad last week
WP: Afghanistan wants joint operations with US and Pakistan

CSM: Iraq insurgents underground, not gone
"Facing a local population that has grown intolerant of AQI's indiscriminate acts of violence, many operatives like Mr. Wasit have gone underground – some have even formed sleeper cells in the Iraqi security forces. Members now only emerge from hiding to conduct high-profile attacks. Though this strategic shift has created an apparently less active AQI, the group has not given up the fight in Iraq and will likely remain a threat here for years."

BBC: UN says LRA has 90 child hostages in Congo

BBC: Nigeria militants claim air attacks have been launched against them, 3 days after they enacted a unilateral cease-fire
"[The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta] declared a ceasefire after appeals from local leaders, but it warned it would end the truce if attacked by the army again.

"Mend will not play into the hands of the military by retaliating and putting the peace process in jeopardy at this time," the group said in an e-mailed statement, Reuters news agency reports."

BBC: violence flares in Mogadishu, peacekeepers targeted

BBC: Somalia, other war-torn countries, top new ranking of most corrupt states

NYT: Burma political prisoner freed after 19 years in solitary confinement

BBC: fighting escalates in northern Sri Lanka as troops move against the LTTE; UN aid worker recounts withdrawal

BBC: the distribution of East Timor's resource wealth
"Oil and gas revenues currently make up more than 95% of the government's income and there is a pressing need to create a more stable mainstream economy for when those resources run out.

But most of the extra money in this year's budget was to enable the government to subsidise rice and fuel prices - not exactly a contribution to Timor's long-term growth.

And the finance minister herself admits this was more about avoiding potential instability than building a future economy."

Gdn: anti-government blogger imprisoned in Malaysia

WP: US offers aid to Cuba for first time in 47 years, following hurricanes - but so far it's rejected
"Our country cannot accept a donation from the government that blockades us," [Fidel Castro] wrote recently in Granma, the party's daily newspaper. "The damage of thousands of lives, suffering, and more than $200 billion that the blockade and the aggression of the Yankees has cost us -- they can't pay for that with anything."
But, the aid conversation on the US side might open opportunity to soften or end the embargo.

Gdn: Japan confirms Taro Aso new prime minister

BBC: Luo politicians undergo circumcision, against tradition, to support anti-HIV measures in Kenya

Gdn: landmark: it's the last time Bush will ever represent the US at the UN General Assembly
"The US president - who ultimately ignored the UN in pressing ahead with the 2003 invasion of Iraq - said the scale of the threat illustrated that the UN and other multilateral organisations 'are needed more urgently than ever.'"

the nerve

NYT: Iran in Iraq: stunningly, it's more complicated than the US administration acknowledges
"The United States has identified an unspecified number of Quds camps, warehouses and safe houses near the border with Iraq, according to other officials. Those sites are dispersed in Iranian cities, making them difficult to strike without risking killing civilians, the officials said...'Iran has hedged its bets,' said Ted Galen Carpenter of the Cato Institute, who has written extensively about Iran’s role in Iraq. 'It doesn’t know which Shiite faction is going to come out on top.'"
NYT: at Friday prayers, Sadr instructs militia not to attack Iraqis
Ind: UK troops still fighting the Mahdi Army in Basra
Ind: they will turn over three towns in Helmand to Afghan army within months
Although the ferocity of fighting has diminished, Brigadier Carleton-Smith admitted there was still a long way to go. 'When you are growing an army the currency is years,' he said. 'Think five to 10 years. We have only had a British battle group here since October 2006. Progress here is evolution, not revolution. People need to keep their nerve.'
Part of that progress will include giving more responsibility to local communities for their own security, instead of relying on soldiers or police, he said.
Ultimately, Brigadier Carleton-Smith said, the solution in Helmand hinges on negotiation and finding "Afghan solutions to Afghan problems".
'How do wars end?' he asked. 'It's not about military solutions, it is about political solutions. The solution here is about governance and rule of law and not the barrel of a gun.'"
Gdn: UK will also deploy to Kosovo soon
"Nato commanders expect increased ethnic tension in Kosovo over the coming months. Serb parliamentary and local elections are due to take place on May 11. On June 15, a new constitution establishing Kosovo independence - in defiance of Serb opposition - comes into effect."

Slate: long-term implications of the personnel changes at the top of the US army in Iraq and at the Pentagon
in brief: Odierno to continue what Petraeus started in Iraq, Petraeus moves on to Afghanistan from Central Command, and Chiarelli as Army vice chief of staff to implement systemic changes. "...Chiarelli is widely known as one of the Army's smartest, most creative senior officers. Many of Gates' boldest speeches and actions can be traced to Chiarelli. For instance, on several occasions, Gates has said that future wars are likely to be "asymmetrical" conflicts waged against insurgents or terrorists, not high-intensity, head-on set pieces against foes of comparable strength—more like Iraq or Afghanistan, not World War II or Korea. Therefore, Gates concludes, the military—especially the Army—must change its doctrine, training, promotion policies, and weapons-procurement plans to meet these new challenges."

Gdn: US attempting to tone down the 'war on terror' rhetoric
"And now from the people who brought you the phrase "axis of evil", a guide to non-inflammatory language for the Middle East."

BBC: Israel rejects truce offer from Hamas; girl killed in recent raid

LAT: Maoists have largest share of seats in Nepal parliament; pledge to end monarchy

AP: at least 24 killed in bus bomb outside Colombo, Sri Lanka

BBC: East Timor rebels to turn themselves in

BBC: world's smallest republic, Nauru, population 13,000, holds elections

Gdn: Cambodia for sale
"Shortly after Hun Sen, Cambodia's prime minister, came to power in 1985, frenzied landgrabbing began: influential political allies and wealthy business associates raced to claim land that the Khmer Rouge had seized, gobbling up such large chunks of the cities, forests and paddy fields that Cambodians used to say the rich were eating the country. By 2006, the World Bank estimated that 40,000 had been made homeless in Phnom Penh alone...Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) have, in effect, put the country up for sale. Crucially, they permit investors to form 100% foreign-owned companies in Cambodia that can buy land and real estate outright - or at least on 99-year plus 99-year leases. No other country in the world countenances such a deal. Even in Thailand and Vietnam, where similar land speculation and profiteering are under way, foreigners can be only minority shareholders."

BBC: armed groups in the Niger Delta continue attacks on oil companies
"The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta promised further violence.
'Our candid advice to the oil majors is that they should not waste their time repairing any lines, as we will continue to sabotage them', the militants said in a statement."

WP: plot to kill witness in the Colombian para-politics scandal, living in Canada
"As part of special judicial proceedings against former commanders, Colombian investigators have uncovered intimate details about the close links lawmakers had with paramilitary commanders. The attorney general's office and Supreme Court, which are carrying out the investigations, have found important witnesses, such as Castillo, from within the paramilitary movement." [plans discovered the week that President Uribe's cousin was arrested; Castillo has testified against him.]

Gdn: NYC detectives not guilty of crime after killing unarmed man with 50 bullets

be mine

BBC: Chad gov't conducting house-by-house raids in N'Djamena, searching for alleged rebels

BBC: hunt for rebels also underway in East Timor

NYT: Philippines on the lookout too, after intel about possible assassination attempt on Arroyo

BBC: LRA on the move through southern Sudan, maybe towards CAR, allegedly kidnapping Sudanese along the way; peace talks look touch-and-go

BBC: in Thailand, search successful: Karen National Union rebel leader killed

NYT: in Lebanon as well: background on Imad Mugniyah
"Long before Osama bin Laden founded Al Qaeda and initiated the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States, [he] was perhaps the world’s most feared terrorist."
WP: has a profile too, on how he innovated terror tactics
AP: Nasrallah threatens Israel, urges revenge (Israel denies involvement)

BBC: Bangladesh military gov't accused of illegal detention, torture
"[Human Rights Watch] claims that many of the people arrested under the emergency rules by the army and its intelligence organisation, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, or DGFI, have been tortured to extract confessions."

IHT: Iraqi jails and courts can't handle detainees
NYT: one approach: parliament passes measures that may provide amnesty to thousands
"The three measures are the 2008 budget; a law outlining the scope of provincial powers, a crucial aspect of Iraq’s self-definition as a federal state; and an amnesty that would apply to thousands of the detainees held in Iraqi jails...The decision to vote on the three measures together broke the logjam that had held up the legislation for months, despite pressure from the Bush administration and some senior Iraqi officials. Every group was able to boast that it had won, to some degree."

IHT: Senate isn't buying administration's take on torture
Gdn: neither is Stephen Bradbury, acting head of DoJ's office of legal counsel (apparently consulting the laws changed his mind)

LAT: Spain arresting ETA, Basque dissidents

BBC: Malaysia to hold elections in March, about one year early, amid ethnic tensions

Daily Mail: a valentine for Vladimir, anyone?
"He accused the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe of trying to 'teach' Russia how to behave and mocked: 'Let them teach their wives to make cabbage soup.'" (to be fair, Leslie already called dibs)

tainted trials

americas
Gdn: US already on defensive about 9/11 military trials
LAT: standards will be stricter than in Nuremberg; and apparently the military offered straight-faced assurance that defendants will have more rights than those facing trial for assassination of Lincoln. yes, in the 19th century.
WP: FBI claims the "Clean Team" gathered evidence without 'coercive' measures

IHT: drug traffickers' patron saint
"Jesús Malverde has been revered for almost a century in northwestern Mexico. According to folklore, he was a Robin Hood who took from the rich and gave to the poor until he was killed by the police in 1909...Courts in California, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas have ruled that Malverde trinkets and talismans are admissible evidence in cases involving drugs or money laundering."
[so much for offering protection from the law...]
Econ: drug-related violence in Vancouver
"...for many of the 2.2m residents of Vancouver, accustomed to idyllic calm, a spate of gun killings is starting to give their city the aura of Prohibition-era Chicago. In violent battles over power and money, brazen young bandits are blowing each other to pieces for a piece of another prohibited market—that for drugs."

LAT: remembering slavery in Barbados and the West Indies

africa
Econ: no one's innocent in Kenya
Gdn: opposition offers power sharing scheme for new elections in 2010

IHT: in one of its four open cases in Africa, ICC receives 3rd war crimes suspect from the Congo
"Ngudjolo allegedly led forces of the National Integrationist Front — including child soldiers — who attacked the village of Bogoro in the eastern Ituri region in 2003, the court said."

BBC: Nigeria orders oil companies to start production again in the Niger Delta, says it's safe enough

Ind: evolution of US operations in Somalia since 1993
"As America has lost its grip on southern and central Somalia it has turned its attention further north. Somaliland, formerly a British protectorate, declared itself independent in 1991, while Puntland, at Africa's most easterly tip, gained semi-autonomy from the rest of Somalia in 1998. Both provinces have their own intelligence services; both are funded by the US.

So far there appears to have been little reward. One Puntland Intelligence Service officer thinks he knows why. "The Americans know nothing," he said, sitting in a café in the port city of Bosasso. 'They pay for information, but they don't know what's right and wrong.' This officer insisted he gave only good information but knew of others who used their position to settle old scores."

Econ: Europe's colonial legacy in Africa hobbling intervention now

Scientific American: Jeff Sachs writes about resources and war in the "drylands"

BBC: another ambush in Algeria

middle east
BBC: presidential election in Lebanon rescheduled (again) for Feb 26

Gdn: Musharraf not so popular
Gdn: suicide bomber kills six opposition supporters
Econ: summarizing scholarship on suicide bombing

Econ: Gaza border back in order (of sorts)
BBC: Olmert urged restraint

LAT: Azerbaijan in the middle
"In the turbulent world of geopolitics, the Middle East gets most of the ink. But it is here along the gloomy shores of the Caspian Sea that one of the most vital global contests -- for energy, money and political dominion -- is being waged between East and West."

asia
Econ: religious conflict and violence in the tribal belt...of India

Econ: (trying) to end military rule in Bangladesh

LAT: junta in Burma plans "elections" for 2010
Econ: maybe it plans to follow the lead of its friendly neighbor to the north

Econ: Sri Lanka's independece celebrated. sort of.
Gdn: clashes between the LTTE and gov't forces in the north

Ind: top Khmer Rouge leader gives interview
"The command had come from above, he said. 'All the prisoners had to be eliminated. We saw enemies, enemies, enemies everywhere.'"

Gdn: East Timor calls state of emergency after attack on PM

europe
Gdn: Serbia warns of potential violence in Kosovo
"Critics of the plan to declare independence, which follows the failure of Serbia and the Kosovo-Albania leaders to negotiate terms for separation, have already warned of the risk that Kosovo's Serbian population, concentrated in northern Mitrovica, would respond by declaring their own independence, setting the stage for violent confrontation."
Econ: assessing the new president
Econ: assessing a familiar face in Montenegro

Gdn: British troops allowed to record video while deployed, contribute to museum exhibit

Gdn: massive arrests last week in operation against Cosa Nostra, the Gambino crime family

misc
CSM: counting the atrocities: a profile of Patrick Ball

Gdn: no red roses for your sweetheart in Saudi Arabia

Gdn: Obama, Japan supports Obama

building nations

middle east (and the US)
NYT: Rand study on post-invasion Iraq planning buried by the Army
"A review of the lengthy report — a draft of which was obtained by The New York Times — shows that it identified problems with nearly every organization that had a role in planning the war."
IHT: new field manual stresses nation building
"The manual states: 'Army doctrine now equally weights tasks dealing with the population - stability or civil support - with those related to offensive and defensive operations. Winning battles and engagements is important but alone is not sufficient. Shaping the civil situation is just as important to success.'"

WP: several bombings kill across northern Iraq yesterday
WP: US finds the diary of an insurgent
"Over 16 pages, the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader detailed the organization's demise in his sector. He once had 600 men, but now his force was down to 20 or fewer, he wrote. They had lost weapons and allies. Abu Tariq focused his anger in particular on the Sunni fighters and tribesmen who have turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq and joined the U.S.-backed Sunni Sahwa, or "Awakening," forces."
IHT: diary with other 39-page memo basis for Army's claim that Al-Qaeda is losing strength
LAT: targeting of Iraqi volunteers on the rise; military suggests it's because Al-Qaeda on defensive

NYT: US seeks death penalty for 6 suspects linked to 9/11
"Even if the detainees are convicted on capital charges, any execution would be many months or, perhaps years, from being carried out, lawyers said, in part because a death sentence would have to be scrutinized by civilian appeals courts.
Federal officials have said in recent months that there is no death chamber at the detention camp at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and that they knew of no specific plans for how a death sentence would be carried out.
The military justice system, which does not govern the Guantánamo cases, provides for execution by lethal injection in death sentence convictions. But the United States military has rarely executed a prisoner in recent times." [the last was in 1961]

WP: 25 die in political party rally in northwest Pakistan
The explosion in the city of Charsadda ripped through a crowd of supporters of the secular Awami National Party moments before the party's provincial president arrived, witnesses said...'The ANP is a liberal party. It's a secular party,' [party official] Afridi said. 'We have condemned extremism and terrorism, so now we are under threat.'"
NYT: Bhutto's widower leads rally in Sindh, her home province
LAT: regional rivalries
WP: composition of militant groups changing, US intelligence suggests
"Compared with previous insurgent groups, the newcomers are well-armed, ideological and difficult to control, with fewer allegiances to local religious and tribal leaders and structures."

Econ: possibilities for reform in Iran look bleak; elections next month

africa
AP: new strikes in Darfur lead to 12,000 displaced to Chad, where an estimated 400,000 refugees are already living, not including those recently displaced by fighting within Chad
Econ: war in Chad. again.
Econ: Déby survives with the support of France
WP: UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan has squandered "tens of millions" in last 3 years

WP: inflation in Zimbabwe: 10 million dollars for an 18-mile bus ride
Econ: the opposition's chances

WP: gov't dissolved in Tanzania over corruption

europe
Reuters: meanwhile, the Greek PM hangs on so far in sex and corruption scandal

Islam, secularism, and integration
Econ: different laws for practicing Muslims in the UK? the Archbishop of Canterbury sets off a debate
NYT: Turkish parliament votes to lift headscarf ban for university students
Econ: Dutch brace for more backlash as legislator to release anti-Islamic film
WP: Sarkozy proposes plan to integrate immigrants, provide more public services in Parisian suburbs
"'We will no longer have young people who are foreigners in their own country,' he declared."

asia
WP: East Timor president wounded in shooting

americas
WP: Chávez threatens to cut off oil sales to the US, in retaliation for recent, successful Exxon-Mobile bids to freeze Venezuelan assets
"While a cut in Venezuelan oil exports would drive up oil prices sharply, oil analysts believe it is unlikely that Chavez would carry out his threat. Venezuela, beleaguered by food shortages, depends heavily on oil exports for about 90 percent of its export earnings and about half of government revenue. The United States is its main market."
Econ: el comandante also launches cabinet-level investigation into Bolivar's death -- apparently he's trying to claim that the Liberator was poisoned, while also alleging that he is the target of assassination attempts and conspiracies.

Wonkette: Georgia and Tennessee in border dispute

judgments

middle east
BBC: new flag over Baghdad
LAT: Diyala valley claimed by militant group
"The invaders pinned notices on the walls of mosques informing residents that they now lived in the Islamic State of Iraq."
LAT: Iraqi army and police rivalries slow handover
"Separated by tribal and regional differences, and a personality clash between top officers, the two branches of the Iraqi security forces have largely refused to coordinate their activities."
LAT: focus on professionalizing the police, an enormous challenge
WP: US troops kill 3 more civilians in another raid

WP: Hamas claims responsibility for suicide bomb in Israel; Israel retaliates with missile attacks, killing 9
New Yorker: why did Israel bomb Syria in Sept?
BBC: HRW calls for release of activist in Syria, opposition members

Gdn: Iranian missile test makes Russia nervous

LAT: Christians in Pakistan
WP: Mormons in the world
WP: Islamists in Chechnya
LAT: (liberal) Shiites in Lebanon

SWJ: link to full Afghanistan Study Group report
"It is time to re-vitalize and re-double our efforts toward stabilizing Afghanistan and re-think our economic and military strategies to ensure that the level of our commitment is commensurate with the threat posed by possible failure in Afghanistan."
SWJ: summaries of, links to other assessments

BBC: Poland chastises NATO allies for not sending enough troops, support to Afghanistan
Gdn: UK will deploy paratroopers to Helmand in April
BBC: announcement comes during Sec Rice visit to London

BBC: alternative development needed to reduce Afghan farmers' incentives to grow poppy
"Britain plays the lead role in coordinating counter narcotics policy in Afghanistan and six years on the failure in this area makes for grim reading...There have been some successes - half as many provinces grow opium poppies this year as last - but the report says there are ominous signs that the drugs business is increasingly linked to insecurity."
BBC: UNODC releases report estimating higher poppy growth in south

americas
LAT: Hayden acknowledges that only (at least?) 3 Al-Qaeda suspects were waterboarded
NYT: (despite the torture) Al-Qaeda is a growing threat. and more on those tricky guidelines:
"[director of national intelligence] Mr. McConnell said that a future C.I.A. request to use waterboarding on a detainee would need to be approved both by Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and by President Bush...

Both Robert S. Mueller III, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told lawmakers that their agencies had successfully obtained valuable intelligence from terrorism suspects without using what Mr. Mueller called the “coercive” methods of the C.I.A.

But General Hayden bristled when asked about Congressional attempts to mandate that C.I.A. interrogators be required to use the more limited set of interrogation methods contained in the Army Field Manual, which is used by military interrogators.

'It would make no more sense to apply the Army’s field manual to C.I.A.,' General Hayden said, 'than it would to take the Army Field Manual on grooming and apply it to my agency, or the Army Field Manual on recruiting and apply it to my agency. Or, for that matter, the Army Field Manual on sexual orientation and apply it to my agency [???!!!].'"

(does this mean we can trust gays to gather important intelligence?! i'll keep watch for conservative reaction to such risky policy)

SWJ: preparing soldiers for deployment - using Habermas's 'communicative action'?

NYT: upcoming detainee hearings in the Supreme Court
"Cases that have been proceeding on completely separate judicial tracks may be about to converge."

WP: Bush tries to sap new ombudsman post of power to implement more transparency, faster response to FOIA requests
"By law, agencies must respond within 20 days to FOIA requests, but in practice the process can take months or years. Delays grew after the terrorist attacks in 2001 as agencies began to favor nondisclosure in the name of national security.
Under the new law, requests will be assigned public tracking numbers. Agencies that exceed the 20-day deadline for responses will be denied the right to charge requesters for research or copying costs." [But Bush wants to move the position from the non-partisan National Archives dept to the Justice Dept, notoriously evasive when it comes to FOIA requests.]

WP: DC gun ban challenged by those who argue against militia interpretation of 2nd amendment
"It has been 70 years since the [Supreme Court's] last substantive review of the Second Amendment, and supporters and opponents of gun control remain adamantly divided on whether it protects an individual's right to possess guns or only provides a "collective" right of citizens related to military service.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last spring became the first appeals court to use the individual-rights interpretation of the amendment to strike a gun-control law. Most of the courts that have examined the issue have ruled that it protects only the collective right."

IHT: millions march against the FARC in Colombia, across the world
LAT: the marches became politicized, but many participated despite misgivings
"We're not talking about politics, just a condemnation of what the FARC does. We're tired of it."
BBC: Colombian cocaine capo sentenced to 30 years in NY court

Slate: series on visiting Venezuela
"Another time, I caught Chávez at a new hospital pledging to build or modernize hundreds more. He earnestly whipped out pencil and paper to make a list of all the things a great hospital needs. "Let's see," he told the assembled group of medical workers, "You need an X-ray unit with all the latest equipment, and what else, let's see …" On and on he went. It makes for seductive television, a bit like watching your Uncle Fred run the country from a reality TV show."

africa
NYT: rebellion in Chad on pause; bodies collected in the capital and opposition politicians arrested
BBC: Deby received pledged support from France, actual support from Darfur rebel group
AP: rebels agree to Libya-brokered cease fire

BBC: explosions kill at least 20 in Ethiopian migrant housing on Somali coast

BBC: Annan wants truth and reconciliation commission in Kenya
BBC: opposition threatens more rallies if regional meeting goes ahead

asia
BBC: speaker de Venecia ousted in Phillipines, after launching accusations of corruption against president Arroyo

BBC: UN hands off power to Timorese police

BBC: US approves more sanctions on Burma

europe
BBC: EU approves Kosovo mission,
BBC: delays deal with Serbia
BBC: because the PM has denounced the plan

BBC: Spanish judge issues arrest warrants for 40 Rwandan soldiers; charged with mass killing, genocide, terrorism, and crimes against humanity

NYT: elections set for April in Italy

misc
The Onion: Bob Seger tries to get Cleveland to open up, share its feelings and fears
"Maybe you can all just start by telling me a little about yourself. What do you do for fun, for example? I know you enjoy that old-time rock and roll, but what else? What is it like living in Cleveland? I have heard that the subprime mortgage crisis has hit Cleveland especially hard. That sucks."

commemoration and conflict

LAT: Ashura has started; 80 have died in clashes between Shia cult and police in Basra and Nasiriya
"The Supporters of the Mahdi is named after a figure most Muslims believe will appear with Jesus and establish peace and justice worldwide. Most Shiites believe the Mahdi is their 12th imam, a descendant of the prophet Muhammad who they say went into hiding in 878 and is still alive and will return.

Southern Iraq, which is overwhelmingly Shiite, is home to a number of small doomsday-style cults whose leaders either claim to be the Mahdi, or who believe they can hasten his return by spreading chaos."

NYT: has an upbeat take on the same violence, says police protected pilgrims to Karbala.
"Government troops in southern Iraq fought with a millennial religious militia group on Friday in clashes that left more than 40 people dead, but the troops successfully protected millions of pilgrims on the first day of Ashura, the largest religious holiday for Iraq’s Shiite majority and one frequently marred by violence."

also, Sadr might "allow his militia to become active" at end of February

Econ: progress on the political front?

BBC: Pakistan arrest 5 men allegedly planning Ashura attacks in Karachi
LAT: including a 15-year-old accused of involvement in assassination of Bhutto
Gdn: military gains upper hand in South Waziristan, claiming 90 insurgents killed

BBC: Nasrallah commemorates Ashura by announcing Hezbollah has Israeli soldiers' body parts
Ind: attacks, funerals in Gaza

BBC: 14 arrested in Barcelona, accused of terror plot

BBC: ICG reports that security force reforms badly needed in East Timor

BBC: convictions in 2002 Gujarat riots

BBC: Ethiopian official says Westerners held for aiding rebels in Ogaden region, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)

Gdn: weeks before carnival, samba school in Rio under investigation for ties to drug traffickers
"This year...its preparations [for carnival] have been disrupted by a police investigation into its relationship with Brazilian drug traffickers, who control the neighbourhood where Mangueira is located."

Gdn: Kosovo independence on hold, international interests weighing in
LAT: on Serbian side, candidates for president differ on almost everything (except Kosovo independence)

Econ: more on Mugabe's rival
Ind: Zimbabwe prints $10 million bill

Econ: South Africa's policing problems

Econ: US military in space

Econ: "change" the buzzword in Barbados elections too; at least they only lasted a few weeks