Gdn: number of IDPs worldwide reaches historic high; Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Somalia lead growth
The number of people internally displaced within their own countries has reached a historical high of more than 28 million, the UN's refugee agency said today, as conflicts in Pakistan's Swat valley and Sri Lanka compound a growing global problem. At the end of last year the total number of people forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution around the world stood at 42 million, including 16 million refugees and asylum seekers and 26 million people uprooted within their own countries, according to UNHCR's annual Global Trends report, which was released this afternoon...
Those conflicts have taken the number of internally displaced people to more than 28 million and the total number of people forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution to 45 million, UNHCR said... The report says 80% of the world's refugees are in developing countries, as are the vast majority of internally displaced people. Since 2005 the agency has seen the number of people it cares for in the latter group double.
WP: displaced in Pakistan fear, and are feared
In the conflict between Pakistan and Islamist extremists, a fight that has drawn in the United States, trust is in short supply. Holbrooke's visit to this refugee camp and another earlier this month was an attempt to build confidence on all sides, and to seek some ground truth for the administration in a situation where it is sometimes as scarce as good faith. In the end, his presence boosted America's image in Pakistan but brought the refugees no closer to home.
Pakistani authorities appear distrustful of the refugees, wary of their loyalties and of the possibility of Taliban infiltrators. The government and military, while ostentatiously grateful for U.S. aid and concern, continue to mistrust American motives and staying power...
In meetings with Pakistan's government, military, judiciary and political opposition leaders, he pressed the message that getting the refugees back home safely was as crucial, and perhaps even more immediately important, as the ongoing military offensive. Temporary refugee camps tend quickly to become permanent, he argued. They are breeding grounds for public dissatisfaction and recruitment centers for extremists; getting people out of them is key to building confidence in the government.
"This has got to happen," he told a senior U.S. official in an aside at a dinner for international relief workers during the trip. "Figure out whatever we need to do. Don't worry about how much it costs."
Holbrooke is no stranger to refugee camps. He toured them in Southeast Asia, where he began his career as a junior Foreign Service officer in South Vietnam. In the 1990s, as chief U.S. negotiator for the Dayton peace accords, he walked the camps in Bosnia. As United Nations ambassador in the Clinton administration, and an activist official and board member for nongovernmental organizations during the George W. Bush years, he saw refugee squalor across Africa.
The Pakistani refugees, from their tent cities on the hot, dry plain west of the Indus River, can see the high mountain ridge to the north, the gateway to their homes in the Swat Valley and the neighboring districts of Buner and Dir. If they are still here when the summer monsoons arrive next month, the camps will become muddy swamps.
NYT: military offensive to begin in South Waziristan, targeting Taliban leader Baitullah Behsud
The government holds him responsible for dozens of suicide bombings across the country, including one on Sunday in western Pakistan that killed eight people, and the military has long indicated that he would be their next target.
The military has been conducting a campaign against the Taliban in a valley north of Islamabad, the capital, since last month, but the militants’ main base is Waziristan, and analysts said Pakistan could not curb their influence without controlling that area. Still, Mr. Ghani gave no specific time for the start of an operation, saying it would depend on the military, which has declined to disclose details in the past... South Waziristan is a mountainous area on the border with Afghanistan, an entry point for Taliban militants in the war against American soldiers. It is much more difficult terrain than the valley north of the capital, where 22,000 troops are currently fighting, and analysts expect the campaign to be much more costly in lives.
LAT: McChrystal officially takes command of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, puts civilians at core of mission
"The Afghan people are at the center of our mission -- in reality, they are our mission," he said to an audience of senior commanders, Afghan officials and diplomats. "We must protect them from violence, whatever its nature."...
Karzai's office said the president had stressed to McChrystal that recent instances of civilian casualties posed the single greatest threat to public support for the war effort... Because special-operations forces have been involved in many cases involving large-scale civilian deaths, McChrystal's extensive background in special operations may prove a double-edged sword.
NYT: only a third of Aghans now support Karzai
WSJ: leaders of India and Pakistan meet briefly, discuss security
The neighbors, with help from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, are already sharing intelligence on Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based group believed by officials in all three countries to have carried out the gun-and-grenade rampage in Mumbai, which left more than 170 people dead…
Indian officials have linked nearly all terrorist attacks in the country since 2005 to Pakistan-based groups once nurtured by Pakistan's military to wage an insurgency against Indian forces in Kashmir. But until the Mumbai attack, New Delhi remained steadfast to the peace process.
CSM: Tamil Tigers call for formation of “provisional transnational government” to fight for independence; role of diaspora stressed
LAT: near-silent protest against Iran election result following 8 deaths from recent clashes
Mousavi supporters, who had been told by the candidate to stay away from the square, instead assembled in a quiet march in northern Tehran along Vali Asr Street. The crowd, holding green banners and flags, marched in near silence. They held up posters of Mousavi and placards calling Ahmadinejad a "liar." Anti-riot poice stood along the roadways but did not interact with the demonstrators.
The dispute over election results have riven Iran, leading to massive protests, demands for a recount and clashes that state radio said today had taken the lives of at least seven people.
Khamenei has ordered the Guardian Council, which is led by a hardline cleric close to Ahmadinejad, to review the charges of voting fraud. Associated Press reported that a spokesman for the council, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, was quoted on state television as saying the recount would be limited to voting sites where candidates claim irregularities took place. He did not rule out the possibility of canceling the results, saying that is within the council's powers, although nullifying an election would be an unprecedented step.
The government meanwhile reportedly barred foreign media from covering today's rally by Ahmadinejad's supporters.
CSM: 300 rounds fired in scenes reminiscent of 1979 revolution
LAT: Netanyahu speech calls for two state solution conditioned on Palestinian demilitarization and possibly no right to return
Netanyahu has said previously that Israel could not agree to the creation of a Palestinian state that possessed a military, had full control of its borders or wielded authority over electronic communications...
U.S. officials were willing to overlook the fact that Netanyahu did not agree to the Obama administration's insistence on a complete halt in the growth of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories...
Netanyahu said in his speech that the Palestinians would need to recognize Israel as a "Jewish state," a comment that was widely taken to mean there would be no right of return for Palestinian refugees.
BBC: 800,000 displaced in DRC since January (pictures)
BBC: ex-Congolese VP Bemba to face 5 war crimes counts at the ICC for 2002-2003 CAR attacks
BBC: a view of Eyl, Somalia's main pirate town…
BBC: …and of the government navy trying to take down the pirates
When Somalia cut ties with the Soviet Union in 1977 (because of Russian support for Somalia's arch rival Ethiopia), Mogadishu signed a deal with Washington three years later. It gave the US access to Somali ports and airfields in exchange for tens of millions of dollars in military equipment and aid in subsequent years. "We used to be among the top navies in Africa. We had ships that carried deadly missiles and we had 10 battalions covering the whole coast," said Mr Omar.
The navy has not been operational since the country descended into violence in 1991, but its commander predicts a Somali naval renaissance. "The international community should give us one year and let them see what we are going to do," he said.
BBC: no more aid for refugees in Ethiopia, thanks to congested Djibouti port
Following a border war, Eritrea denied Ethiopia access to its ports, so the landlocked country relies on Djibouti. Correspondents say this time of year is known as "the hunger season", three months before the next harvest. The UN World Food Programme says breast-feeding mothers, children and refugees will be among those worst hit…
It warns after it hands out final rations this month there will be no further deliveries until September or October. The agency says it has no option but to cut back on the food they provide, which has already been cut by a third since July 2008.
CSM: Sudanese govt allows aid groups to return to Darfur, with few assurances and more red tape
As a result, Care Switzerland, Mercy Corps Scotland, and Padco, an international development consulting firm, have all begun the registration process. Save The Children Sweden is already operating in Darfur, after Save The Children US was expelled… The decision to return exposes rifts within the agencies and is opening fresh debate on how best to deliver aid to people living under oppressive regimes…
Fouad Hikmat, Darfur analyst with the International Crisis Group, says Khartoum was up to its old tricks, using tactics of divide and rule – this time directed at aid agencies, rather than tribes or rebel groups. "I would have thought [the aid groups] should have stuck together, insisted they had done nothing wrong, and established clear criteria for their return – guarantees on access, security, visas, an end to smears in the media. With that established, then they could think about returning," he says. "Instead, Khartoum has done a rather clever job of giving the US envoy what he wanted, but without any guarantees [that] conditions for the NGOs are going to be any better."
WSJ: high-level corruption and French-West Africa relations
Back then, Gabon was a budding oil producer. To maintain its sway on the country, France sealed a series of military, monetary and trade pacts with Gabon. Although the African country was independent, France kept a military base there, minted its currency -- the CFA franc -- and secured priority access to its raw materials. Defense deals, some of which remain secret, allowed France's military to intervene in Gabon to protect the country's national security or help with internal policing... Over the past decade, both France and Africa have focused on other directions, with France working on European Union integration, while Gabon started to trade extensively with China.
Still, France maintains a military base in Gabon with 1,100 soldiers, and French oil company Total SA produces about a third of Gabon's oil. Mr. Sarkozy has moved slowly toward fulfilling his pledge of making Gabon and other former French colonies in Africa fully responsible for their own security.
The embezzlement case due to be examined by the Paris appeals court stems from a complaint filed in December by the French branch of anticorruption association Transparency International against the "ruling families" of Gabon, Congo and Equatorial Guinea for "embezzlement of public funds."
Chron: nearly 10,000 migrants kidnapped in Mexico en route from Central America in last 6 months; bribes paid may total $25 million
WSJ: State Dept overpaid Blackwater by some $55 million due to "shortfalls"
The audit by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and the State Department's Inspector General said the firm didn't employ enough guards, medics, marksmen and dog handlers to fully man the teams, which were responsible for protecting the U.S. ambassador to Iraq and other high-level officials.
The failure to consistently field the right numbers of guards endangered the U.S. officials whom the company was being paid to protect, the report concluded.
Chron: in released CIA memo, detainees (including KSM) say US torture made them give false evidence
One detainee, Abu Zubaydah, told the tribunal that after months "of suffering and torture, physically and mentally, they did not care about my injuries."
Zubaydah was the first detainee subjected to Bush administration-approved harsh interrogation techniques, which included a simulated form of drowning known as waterboarding, slamming the suspect into walls and prolonged period of nudity. Zubaydah claimed in the hearing that he "nearly died four times… After a few months went by, during which I almost lost my mind and my life, they made sure I didn't die," Zubaydah said in his statement to the tribunal.
He claimed that after many months of such treatment, authorities concluded he was not the No. 3 person in al-Qaida as they had long believed.
WSJ: EU to accept some Guantanamo detainees
Since Mr. Obama ordered a review of each prisoner's case, government lawyers have reviewed the files of more than half the 232 men remaining at Guantanamo... Several have been recommended for prosecution in U.S. criminal courts and their case files are being reviewed by Justice Department lawyers to determine what charges may be brought. More than 50 have been approved for transfer to other countries...
In recent weeks, Guantanamo detainees have been transferred to France, Chad, Saudi Arabia and Bermuda. In some cases, the transferees are freed; in others, they are handed over for prosecution. Saudi Arabia is in talks to possibly accept a group of Yemenis, who make up the largest single nationality at the facility. The government of Palau, a Pacific island nation, said it will accept a group of Uighurs -- a minority ethnic group from China -- who have languished in Guantanamo for years despite being cleared for release...
The EU said it would "on a case by case basis" assist in resettling detainees "who the United States has determined it will not prosecute, and who for compelling reasons cannot return to their countries of origin." The U.S. promised to share intelligence on transferred detainees and to help with resettlement costs.
CSM: post-Guantanamo life for resettled Uighurs
WSJ: FBI to devote resources to “lone-wolf” political extremists, like Holocaust Museum attacker
The lone-wolf initiative is one element of a broader strategy to fight domestic terrorism, dubbed "Operation Vigilant Eagle," launched late last year in response to what the memo identified as "an increase in recruitment, threatening communications, and weapons procurement by white supremacy extremist and militia/sovereign citizen extremist groups."
The memo, and the recent killings, also show the limits of the lone-wolf effort. Both James von Brunn, who is charged with the Holocaust Museum shooting, and Scott Roeder, the man arrested in the murder of George Tiller in Kansas, had openly expressed to associates and on Web sites their extremist views, on anti-Semitism in Mr. von Brunn's case and on abortion in the case of Mr. Roeder. The FBI, in fact, was aware of Mr. von Brunn because of the postings but wasn't tracking him.
Neither man appears to have been active in groups that might have tipped off authorities to the danger. In the search for potentially violent individual extremists, "an emphasis should be placed on the identification of individuals who have been ostracized from a group for their radical beliefs," the FBI memo said. It added that officials should look for "those who have voluntarily left a group due to their perception of the group's inactivity, or those forced from the group for being too extreme and or violent." That description doesn't appear to have fit either Mr. von Brunn or Mr. Roeder.
WSJ: international monitors leave Georgia upon Russian SC veto
Moscow had already forced the U.S. and its European Security Council allies to abandon a draft resolution that would have given the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia, which monitors the conflict zone in the breakaway territory of Abkhazia, a fresh post-war mandate. That draft included language reaffirming Georgia's territorial integrity and calling for all sides to abide by the terms of an Aug. 12 cease-fire, which among other things requires a partial Russian troop withdrawal.
Russia said that language was unacceptable and that the mission needed to be renamed so it didn't include the word Georgia. Since the war last August, Moscow has recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries. Only Nicaragua has followed Moscow's lead, but Russia insists the two territories are now independent.
Showing posts with label Ethiopia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ethiopia. Show all posts
19 April 2009
south asian srebrenica [contested]
BBC: Sri Lanka rejects UN truce, despite incomplete evacuation of civilians
Between 50,000 and 100,000 civilians are still thought to be trapped in the zone - about 20 sq km (8 sq miles) of coastal area in Mullaitivu district.
Gdn: trapped Tamil civilians killed, wounded as Sri Lankan army shells no-fire zone
The casualties' graphic accounts of a fierce onslaught on the no-fire zone, supported by the evidence of their severe wounds, have been reported by doctors who have treated them at a field hospital at Pulmoddai, inside the military area, where thousands of evacuees have been taken by ship. According to the senior doctor handling the casualties for the Sri Lankan government as they arrive at Pulmoddai, shells are falling among the tightly packed tents and shelters that are home to tens of thousands of civilians, killing and wounding dozens every day...
BBC: others arrested in Turkish coup conspiracy, now involving nearly 150
BBC: Togo also on the trail: police allegedly preempt coup attempt by president's brother
Our correspondent says relations between the two went cold when the president sacked his brother as defence minister during a cabinet reshuffle without explanation in 2007.
The Abu Sayyaf, which has about 400 fighters, has been blamed for numerous kidnappings, bombings and beheadings. It is believed to have received funds from Al Qaeda and is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.
AJE: 60,000 displaced Somalis have returned to Mogadishu
AJE: Somali parliament unanimously approves adoption of Sharia law; unclear how it will be enforced
Analysts say that the move to implement sharia is an attempt by political leaders to re-assert government control over southern and central parts of the country. [ceding the north to the pirates, apparently]
Slate: how to get a grip on the pirates
BBC: ...which have incredible reach
Reuters: how about sending more Dutch sailors to the scene?
random: hey, at least there's a bright side if it doesn't happen
(NYT: this can't be coincidence)
AJE: 10 JEM rebels sentenced to death by hanging for launching attack on Khartoum
Under Sudanese law, any death sentence must be ratified by both an appeals' court and the country's highest court. Then all death warrants must be signed and approved by Omar al-Bashir, the president.
At least 50 other Jem fighters are already awaiting execution over the attack.
The recent abductions of dozens of opposition and human rights activists began in October. Many were held for weeks or months in hidden locations. Most were eventually produced in court and many have provided sworn accounts, corroborated by doctors, of being tortured to elicit confessions that they were recruiting militants to overthrow Mr. Mugabe or were involved in bombing plots.
BBC: rebel leader in Burundi demobilizes
Agathon Rwasa, of the Forces for National Liberation (FNL), gave his arms to African Union troops overseeing the peace process.
Rendón Herrera's organization is responsible for 3,000 killings in the past 18 months alone, said Gen. Oscar Naranjo, who directs the national police. Police said Rendón Herrera had offered his assassins $1,000 for each officer they killed, in hopes of evading arrest...
The military's arrival in Tijuana two years ago was less than auspicious. Soldiers disarmed the city's 2,300-strong police force, long thought to be compromised by the cartels, and began rumbling down busy streets in public displays of force.
But the toll of killings and kidnappings only accelerated, as rival factions of the Arellano Felix drug cartel clashed, leaving behind scrawled threats to each other beside decapitated bodies or barrels of lye with liquefied human remains...
In November, a captured cartel lieutenant began giving up names of police officers on the payroll of organized crime. Duarte's soldiers swept down on high-ranking commanders across the city...
The police departments in Tijuana and Rosarito Beach, as well as the state police, are now run by current or former army officers.
Gone are many of the police informants, or "antennas," that supplied organized crime with intelligence and cleared the streets before cartel kidnappings and raids, U.S. and Mexican authorities say.
LAT: mayors catching the brunt of the risk
Vergara, 34, a member of the once-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, is among at least 11 Mexican mayors and ex-mayors who have been killed or have disappeared during the last 15 months. Many more have received extortion demands. Others, such as Jose Reyes Ferriz, the mayor of beleaguered Ciudad Juarez, received public death threats.
Mexico's 2,400 mayors occupy a dicey spot on the front line of the country's war on drug traffickers. They are prime targets for bribe offers because they oversee local police. And well-meaning mayors are hard pressed: Most municipal governments have skimpy tax bases from which to equip and pay police well enough to break long-standing graft...
Analysts say the rise in violence at the municipal level reflects political changes in Mexico, where the former ruling party, the PRI, has ceded the top-to-bottom control it once wielded, including over the drug trade.
Under PRI mayors, governors and presidents, traffickers largely went about their business with little trouble as long as they kept killings down and maintained payoffs to the right politicians.
But the rise of a multiparty system in Mexico during the last 20 years has upended that tacit pact.
BBC: map of the cartels' strongholds
NYT: cocaine street price up, but indicator of drug war success doubtful
BBC: Afro-Bolivians create new kingdom
King Julio is one of the many poverty-stricken Afro-Bolivians. But a few years ago he discovered that he was a direct descendant of Bonifaz, a tribal king from central Africa.
BBC: memories of Solidarity and betrayal
Natalia's father is 67 years old now. He won a presidential award for his contribution to Polish democracy.
++
BBC: guernica
Army of Dude (via AM): game theory
the Onion: 'cost of living now outweighs benefits'
Between 50,000 and 100,000 civilians are still thought to be trapped in the zone - about 20 sq km (8 sq miles) of coastal area in Mullaitivu district.
Gdn: trapped Tamil civilians killed, wounded as Sri Lankan army shells no-fire zone
The casualties' graphic accounts of a fierce onslaught on the no-fire zone, supported by the evidence of their severe wounds, have been reported by doctors who have treated them at a field hospital at Pulmoddai, inside the military area, where thousands of evacuees have been taken by ship. According to the senior doctor handling the casualties for the Sri Lankan government as they arrive at Pulmoddai, shells are falling among the tightly packed tents and shelters that are home to tens of thousands of civilians, killing and wounding dozens every day...
And last night the Sri Lankan military sources said 2,857 civilians had broken through Tamil Tiger lines and made their way to safety during the day. They added that 5,000 people had tried to escape and had come under fire from the rebels. But it was not possible to verify the reports because the military has denied access to the area surrounding the no fire zone.
Until last month the government allowed civilians injured in the no-fire zone to be taken to the larger hospital in Trincomalee, but then decreed that they must be kept inside the military area...
Most of the Tamil Tiger fighters were on the front line, he said, but some were moving among the civilians, visiting family members or moving casualties. He said Tamil Tiger police were still operating, attempting to control the crowds.
NYT: can it be compared to Srebrenica?
BBC: others arrested in Turkish coup conspiracy, now involving nearly 150
BBC: Togo also on the trail: police allegedly preempt coup attempt by president's brother
Our correspondent says relations between the two went cold when the president sacked his brother as defence minister during a cabinet reshuffle without explanation in 2007.
He adds that the family feud risks introducing an ethnic dimension between the two half-brothers as the president's mother is from the Ewe group in southern Togo, while his sibling's mother is from the Kabye people in the north.
BBC: motley crew of mercenaries allegedly plot to assasinate Morales
Three died and two were arrested in the eastern city of Santa Cruz after police fought a gunbattle with the group.
Bolivian police officials said two of the five fought for Croatian independence. The three others are said to be Irish, Romanian and Hungarian.
CSM: violence between 'yellow' and 'red' shirts in Thailand
Econ: Fiji's fun with constitutions
Fleetingly, on April 10th, Fiji’s armed forces commander, Frank Bainimarama, seemed to lose his other job as prime minister. President Ratu Josefa Iloilo announced the abrogation of the country’s constitution, the sacking of the judiciary and the postponement of elections until 2014. Calling the president’s decision deeply regrettable, Mr Bainimarama resigned and said he was heading back to barracks. Yet the next day, he and his cabinet were back in their offices, as if nothing had happened. Belying the pretence of normalcy, however, soldiers were sent into the newsrooms of the country’s newspapers, and television and radio stations to prevent “negative” publicity; several foreign journalists were booted out of the country...
The trigger for the jettisoning of Fiji’s constitution was a ruling by the Court of Appeal declaring illegal Mr Bainimarama’s interim regime, which took power in a coup in 2006. The court demanded that a neutral caretaker be appointed prime minister, pending the dissolution of parliament and a general election.
WP: violence as India votes; Maoists kill 17
The staggered, five-phase national election, which ends May 13, will cost an estimated $2 billion, with about 714 million voters. Vote-counting is scheduled for May 16, with 543 lawmakers being chosen for the lower house of Parliament. More than 6 million security and civil officials are responsible for helping to oversee the elections, and 1.3 million voting machines will be used.
The government deployed hundreds of thousands of police and paramilitary forces to guard polling stations, especially along thickly forested areas that security officials call India's "red corridor" because of the Maoist presence...
The attacks targeted security forces and polling officials, not voters. Helicopters were flown into some areas to evacuate soldiers who had come under fire. Maoists also destroyed electronic voting machines. The Maoist rebels are active in 17 of India's 28 states, and for four decades, they have been waging a low-grade insurgency that they say is intended to promote the rights of landless farmers and tribal people...
The election features three primary political alliances: the ruling, left-of-center coalition led by the Congress party; the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party-led group; and a third bloc consisting of smaller, regional and communist parties.
BBC: Muslim parties also contesting elections
More than two dozen Muslim political parties, big and small, are contesting these elections - almost double the figure of the last election...
Since India's independence from British rule, Congress has been getting a sizeable chunk of Muslim votes at national level, largely because Muslims felt they had to prove their loyalty to India in early post-partition days, experts say.
AJE: $5 billion in aid pledged for Pakistan at summit in Japan
Gdn: as Islamabad is targeting by the Taliban
CSM: breakdown of the umbrella organization in Afghanistan and Pakistan
NYT: Pakistan branches exploit class cleavage
In Swat, accounts from those who have fled now make clear that the Taliban seized control by pushing out about four dozen landlords who held the most power.
To do so, the militants organized peasants into armed gangs that became their shock troops, the residents, government officials and analysts said.
The approach allowed the Taliban to offer economic spoils to people frustrated with lax and corrupt government even as the militants imposed a strict form of Islam through terror and intimidation.
BBC: thousands have been displaced in the process
NYT: Afghan women protest harsh new law despite risks
About 300 Afghan women, facing an angry throng three times larger than their own, walked the streets of the capital on Wednesday to demand that Parliament repeal a new law that introduces a range of Taliban-like restrictions on women, and permits, among other things, marital rape.
It was an extraordinary scene. Women are mostly illiterate in this impoverished country, and they do not, generally speaking, enjoy anything near the freedom accorded to men. But there they were, most of them young, many in jeans, defying a threatening crowd and calling out slogans heavy with meaning.
With the Afghan police keeping the mob at bay, the women walked two miles to Parliament, where they delivered a petition calling for the law’s repeal.
BBC: Afghanistan to recruit thousands more police ahead of August elections
Gdn: special series on Baghdad
Gdn: and Basra
Gdn: evaluating Britain's performance there
NYT: cobbling together provincial councils
BBC: sexual violence in the US military
According to several studies of the US military funded by the Department of Veteran Affairs, 30% of military women are raped while serving, 71% are sexually assaulted, and 90% are sexually harassed.
The Department of Defense acknowledges the problem, estimating in its 2009 annual report on sexual assault (issued last month) that some 90% of military sexual assaults are never reported.
AP: captives of Islamist rebels in Phillippinnes freedThe Abu Sayyaf, which has about 400 fighters, has been blamed for numerous kidnappings, bombings and beheadings. It is believed to have received funds from Al Qaeda and is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.
AJE: 60,000 displaced Somalis have returned to Mogadishu
AJE: Somali parliament unanimously approves adoption of Sharia law; unclear how it will be enforced
Analysts say that the move to implement sharia is an attempt by political leaders to re-assert government control over southern and central parts of the country. [ceding the north to the pirates, apparently]
Slate: how to get a grip on the pirates
BBC: ...which have incredible reach
Reuters: how about sending more Dutch sailors to the scene?
random: hey, at least there's a bright side if it doesn't happen
(NYT: this can't be coincidence)
AJE: 10 JEM rebels sentenced to death by hanging for launching attack on Khartoum
Under Sudanese law, any death sentence must be ratified by both an appeals' court and the country's highest court. Then all death warrants must be signed and approved by Omar al-Bashir, the president.
"God is Great! Jem is strong! Revolution, revolution until victory!" the defendants shouted after hearing the verdict...
More than 220 people were killed when Jem fighters reached Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, more than 1,000km from the western Darfur region where it has been fighting government forces and allied Arab militias...At least 50 other Jem fighters are already awaiting execution over the attack.
BBC: Ethiopians mobilize for release of opposition leader
[Birtukan] was among more than 100 people jailed for political offences after Ethiopia's election in 2005, most of whom have since been pardoned...
Ms Birtukan is a former judge and was one of the younger and more charismatic leaders of the coalition which did well against the ruling party in the 2005 elections.
Gdn: Human Rights Watch calls Eritrea a "giant prison"
There is no freedom of speech, worship or movement in Eritrea, while many adults are forced into national service at token wages until up to 55 years of age.
AP: Mugabe calls for reconciliation on independence day
NYT: while his thugs appear to have other ideas
...Mr. Mugabe’s lieutenants, part of an inner circle called the Joint Operations Command, know that their 85-year-old leader may not be around much longer to shield them, and they fear losing not just their power and ill-gotten wealth, but also their freedom, officials in the party said.
The recent abductions of dozens of opposition and human rights activists began in October. Many were held for weeks or months in hidden locations. Most were eventually produced in court and many have provided sworn accounts, corroborated by doctors, of being tortured to elicit confessions that they were recruiting militants to overthrow Mr. Mugabe or were involved in bombing plots.
BBC: rebel leader in Burundi demobilizes
Agathon Rwasa, of the Forces for National Liberation (FNL), gave his arms to African Union troops overseeing the peace process.
Up to 20,000 FNL rebels are due to be disarmed next week and some will be integrated into the security forces.
Econ: the aid to the DRC is as messy as the country
Rendón Herrera's organization is responsible for 3,000 killings in the past 18 months alone, said Gen. Oscar Naranjo, who directs the national police. Police said Rendón Herrera had offered his assassins $1,000 for each officer they killed, in hopes of evading arrest...
Rendón Herrera and his brother Freddy Rendón controlled an area near the border with Panama known as a major corridor for drug and arms traffickers. Before the arrival of their far-right militia, the area was dominated by leftist rebels.
The brothers were among the last paramilitary leaders to demobilize in 2006, under a 2003 peace deal that promised fighters reduced sentences and protection from extradition to the United States in exchange for pledges to renounce violence. But while his brother and other paramilitaries agreed to await justice in jail, Don Mario fled back to the jungle and rearmed, police say.
LAT: the war on drugs in Tijuana
The military also appears to be targeting symbols of narco culture. Tijuana Mayor Jorge Ramos said the military was behind the destruction late last month of five shrines in Tijuana and Rosarito Beach dedicated to folk saints such as La Santa Muerte (Saint Death), whose followers include drug traffickers.
The military's arrival in Tijuana two years ago was less than auspicious. Soldiers disarmed the city's 2,300-strong police force, long thought to be compromised by the cartels, and began rumbling down busy streets in public displays of force.
But the toll of killings and kidnappings only accelerated, as rival factions of the Arellano Felix drug cartel clashed, leaving behind scrawled threats to each other beside decapitated bodies or barrels of lye with liquefied human remains...
In November, a captured cartel lieutenant began giving up names of police officers on the payroll of organized crime. Duarte's soldiers swept down on high-ranking commanders across the city...
The police departments in Tijuana and Rosarito Beach, as well as the state police, are now run by current or former army officers.
Gone are many of the police informants, or "antennas," that supplied organized crime with intelligence and cleared the streets before cartel kidnappings and raids, U.S. and Mexican authorities say.
LAT: mayors catching the brunt of the risk
Vergara, 34, a member of the once-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, is among at least 11 Mexican mayors and ex-mayors who have been killed or have disappeared during the last 15 months. Many more have received extortion demands. Others, such as Jose Reyes Ferriz, the mayor of beleaguered Ciudad Juarez, received public death threats.
Mexico's 2,400 mayors occupy a dicey spot on the front line of the country's war on drug traffickers. They are prime targets for bribe offers because they oversee local police. And well-meaning mayors are hard pressed: Most municipal governments have skimpy tax bases from which to equip and pay police well enough to break long-standing graft...
Analysts say the rise in violence at the municipal level reflects political changes in Mexico, where the former ruling party, the PRI, has ceded the top-to-bottom control it once wielded, including over the drug trade.
Under PRI mayors, governors and presidents, traffickers largely went about their business with little trouble as long as they kept killings down and maintained payoffs to the right politicians.
But the rise of a multiparty system in Mexico during the last 20 years has upended that tacit pact.
BBC: map of the cartels' strongholds
NYT: cocaine street price up, but indicator of drug war success doubtful
BBC: Afro-Bolivians create new kingdom
King Julio is one of the many poverty-stricken Afro-Bolivians. But a few years ago he discovered that he was a direct descendant of Bonifaz, a tribal king from central Africa.
Almost two years ago he was crowned at a lavish ceremony as the first Afro-Bolivian king - a move intended to further the group's cause and gain recognition in the country's new constitution.
The original Bonifaz was brought to Bolivia as a slave in the 16th Century to work in the silver mines of Potosi.
WP: race an issue at the Summit of the Americas
AJE: Haitian senate elections upcoming; Aristide's party excluded
WP: as the country, reliant on remittances and aid, struggles to get by
Econ: Correa likely to win re-election
BBC: memories of Solidarity and betrayal
Natalia's father is 67 years old now. He won a presidential award for his contribution to Polish democracy.
"From time to time he puts on a suit and goes to meetings. He is very proud of his contribution. He jokes that he even wears his medal in bed."
But this recognition came with a bitter aftertaste. When his personal file was declassified, he discovered that close friends he had trusted had betrayed him.
Econ: political leadership (or lack of it) in post-communist statesCSM: Russia ends emergency rule in Chechnya, will withdraw half of troops
"Chechnya exists today as a kind of enclave, completely outside the framework of Russian or international law," says Tatiana Lokshina, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Russia, who was reached by phone in Grozny. "This decision to lift the state of emergency has purely symbolic significance for the population of Chechnya. Today, the human rights abuses are committed by [pro-Moscow] Chechens rather than Russian security forces, but the atmosphere of impunity is the same," she says.
BBC: crime in Croatia
++
BBC: guernica
Army of Dude (via AM): game theory
the Onion: 'cost of living now outweighs benefits'
08 February 2009
selection and mutations [but the nation died]
AJE: campaigning in Israel
About 20 per cent of Israelis remain undecided on who they will vote for, polling organisations say, and the leading candidates in the election are focusing their efforts on winning them over.
Gdn: in Umm al-Fahm, conflict between far-right and Arab-Israelis
If Lieberman [head of the far-right Israel Our Homeland Party] has his way - and his party has surged ahead of Labour to push it to a humiliating fourth place - Umm al-Fahm may be transferred out of Israel into the Palestinian Authority, something its residents forcefully oppose in exchange for Israeli "villages", or settlements.
If confirmed—the final results are not expected for several weeks—Mr Maliki will be well placed to run for a second term in the general election due within a year. His success, though, did not reflect a trend towards voting along religious lines. Quite the opposite. The prime minister, who leads the Dawa Party, a Shia religious movement, seems to have benefited from his party’s decision to join with others to form the State of Law Coalition, which campaigned, in a non-religious way, on themes of national unity, law and order. Mr Maliki thus managed to profit from an apparent shift to secularism.
IHT: unlikely candidate, former Baathist, wins in Karbala
WP: how General Odierno shaped the surge
Sent back to Iraq in 2006 as second in command of U.S. forces, under orders to begin the withdrawal of American troops and shift fighting responsibilities to the Iraqis, Odierno found a situation that he recalled as "fairly desperate, frankly."
Perhaps the most basic change is that suspects are presumed innocent, reversing the inquisitional system brought by Spanish colonizers. The arrested are no longer tossed straight into jail, but can remain free while prosecutors present evidence in hopes of winning an indictment.
Many residents question whether the reforms that include more rights for the accused may be to blame for a yearlong wave of killings in Chihuahua, especially in Ciudad Juarez. A little less than a year after the reforms debuted in the capital, lawmakers responded to public pressure and made more suspects subject to incarceration before appearing in court.
But killings tied to drug trafficking are federal offenses. Robberies, assaults and murders not linked to organized crime are handled in state courts.
LAT: witnesses are being killed in Colombian trial linked to former governor
Diaz, the reform-minded mayor of El Roble in northern Sucre state, had received death threats from paramilitary groups, and told [President] Uribe during a community meeting in February 2003 that he feared for his life.
The 47-year-old doctor had resisted the right-wing militias' efforts to take control of El Roble's treasury and health system for fear they would loot them, according to his son, Juan David.
Diaz had also denounced Arana at the 2003 meeting before Uribe, saying the then-governor backed paramilitary fighters.
Despite his warnings, two months later, in April, Diaz was kidnapped, tortured for five days and killed. The mayor had been on his way to a meeting supposedly to reconcile with Arana.
PCB: meanwhile, Uribe decries left-leaning leaders the 'intellectual bloc' of the FARC
CNN: ...as Colombians for Peace (the NGO organized by said leaders) negotiates release of politician kidnapped in 2002 by the FARC; he was the last politician held, though police officers and soldiers are still in captivity, as well as hundreds of civilians
BBC: reforms in Bolivia reveal regional divisions
There are two main areas where the opposition is likely to continue its fight.
The first is in Congress, where the ruling Movement to Socialism party (MAS) does not have a majority in the upper house.
Dominance by a single man or family was not uncommon in Brazil’s north-east. But it is fading away. The Sarney clan is becoming unusual. Mr Sarney’s daughter, Roseana, has been Maranhão’s governor and currently represents it in the Senate. His son was a minister in Brazil’s previous government. Other relatives are scattered in positions of authority in Maranhão’s courts and the civil service. One of his lieutenants, Edison Lobão, is Lula’s minister for mines and energy. When he took the job, Mr Lobão’s seat in the national Senate went to his son; his wife sits in the lower house. All three of Maranhão’s senators answer to Mr Sarney, as do his fellow senators from Amapá.
This control is aided by the Sarney family’s ownership of Maranhão’s biggest media company.
WP: economic downturn in Russia endangers immigrant laborers
Econ: the problem is likely under-reported, given the targeting of journalists
Both [human rights lawyer] Mr Markelov and [journalist] Ms Baburova were killed in broad daylight in the centre of Moscow. The next day, a party of Russian nationalists brought champagne to the murder scene to celebrate the “elimination” of their enemies. Her death was part of a continuing battle between fascists and anti-fascists in Russia, which is seldom so plainly revealed to the outside world...
[Baburova] and her friends rightly identified fascism as the biggest and most pressing threat to her country. She swore to fight it. She sensed accurately the social kinship between Stalinism and fascism: the link between attempts to portray Stalin as a “successful manager”, and the current upsurge of nationalism.
BBC: Poland, the Round Table Talks and communism's fall
Twenty years ago, Poland's communist government did something without precedent - it sat down with the banned Solidarity trade union to try to defuse growing social unrest.
Ind: Burmese seeking opportunities risk enslavement
It appears that the businesswoman's potential customers are middlemen, probably Chinese. Through a translator, they discuss placing the men on boats in the South China Sea, trawling for tuna. First, they will be flown to a Chinese city. In echoes of the slave trade, she describes a selection process worthy of a livestock market. In a 21st-century twist, she does so with the aid of pictures on her laptop.
[Human Rights Watch] says that Ethiopian troops burned down villages and killed, raped and tortured civilians in a counter-insurgency campaign against the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front after its fighters had killed 74 Ethiopian and Chinese oil-exploration workers in 2007. Ethiopia’s government was so incensed by the description of “systematic atrocities” in the Ogaden that it commissioned a report of its own that dismissed Human Rights Watch’s allegations as hearsay and its methods as slapdash.
AJE: opposition in Madagascar undeterred by state violence
LAT: the accord in Zimbabwe and power sharing in general
Critics argue that African-brokered power-sharing deals such as those signed after Kenya's violent 2007 elections and Zimbabwe's disputed vote last year have set a precedent that leaders in Africa can cling to power when voted out, just by refusing to leave office.
They say bodies such as SADC [the Southern African Development Community] and the African Union have done little to protect democracy or stop violence and human rights abuses, tending to side with incumbent leaders such as the long-ruling Mugabe, whose regime has been accused of unleashing violence to stay in power and denying food to opposition villagers.
BBC: water vendors in Abuja
The urban poor in developing world cities including Abuja pay much more for their water than citizens of rich cities such as New York or Tokyo, precisely because the poor have to depend on private providers rather a piped municipal supply.
++
NYT: satirizing politics in Lebanon
Although direct political satire is virtually impossible in most of the Arab world, the impulse has long thrived in more oblique and private forms. “Basmat Watan” draws on the live comedy and song performances known as chansonières, which started in Beirut theaters in the early 1960s and continue today. For centuries before that, villagers here would gather to sing “zajal” — an indigenous form of poetry that is partly improvisatory, a kind of ancient Levantine rap.
About 20 per cent of Israelis remain undecided on who they will vote for, polling organisations say, and the leading candidates in the election are focusing their efforts on winning them over.
Gdn: in Umm al-Fahm, conflict between far-right and Arab-Israelis
If Lieberman [head of the far-right Israel Our Homeland Party] has his way - and his party has surged ahead of Labour to push it to a humiliating fourth place - Umm al-Fahm may be transferred out of Israel into the Palestinian Authority, something its residents forcefully oppose in exchange for Israeli "villages", or settlements.
Its young people may be required to serve in the army, which they currently resist as they consider that army is fighting their own people in the Palestinian Territories. They would, all in all, be required to demonstrate - in Lieberman's own words - their loyalty to the state, both ordinary people and politicians, in exchange for citizenship.
LAT: Livni works women, leftists for their vote
Gdn: and everyone goes clubbing for the youth vote in Tel Aviv
BBC: where a new party has emerged, advocating reform of the closed-list PR electoral system
"Every day he changes his dirty underwear... This is the way also he votes in elections - when there is a dirty government, he replaces it with a clean one.
"And when the second government is more dirty than the first, we swap them back."
With this sales pitch, Haisraelim, a new, single issue party has entered the political fray ahead of Israel's 10 February elections, pushing for a change in the electoral system...
While rockets from Gaza and potential nuclear bombs from Iran are looming large in the minds of Israeli voters, the party's leader, political science Professor Gideon Doron, says the voting system itself is a "threat to Israel's existence".
"We can't make peace and we can barely make war," he says, as he fields phone calls about election billboards.
Econ: parsing the election results in IraqIf confirmed—the final results are not expected for several weeks—Mr Maliki will be well placed to run for a second term in the general election due within a year. His success, though, did not reflect a trend towards voting along religious lines. Quite the opposite. The prime minister, who leads the Dawa Party, a Shia religious movement, seems to have benefited from his party’s decision to join with others to form the State of Law Coalition, which campaigned, in a non-religious way, on themes of national unity, law and order. Mr Maliki thus managed to profit from an apparent shift to secularism.
IHT: unlikely candidate, former Baathist, wins in Karbala
WP: how General Odierno shaped the surge
Sent back to Iraq in 2006 as second in command of U.S. forces, under orders to begin the withdrawal of American troops and shift fighting responsibilities to the Iraqis, Odierno found a situation that he recalled as "fairly desperate, frankly."
So that fall, he became the lone senior officer in the active-duty military to advocate a buildup of American troops in Iraq, a strategy rejected by the full chain of command above him, including Gen. George W. Casey Jr., then the top commander in Iraq and Odierno's immediate superior.
Communicating almost daily by phone with retired Gen. Jack Keane, an influential former Army vice chief of staff and his most important ally in Washington, Odierno launched a guerrilla campaign for a change in direction in Iraq, conducting his own strategic review and bypassing his superiors to talk through Keane to White House staff members and key figures in the military. It would prove one of the most audacious moves of the Iraq war, and one that eventually reversed almost every tenet of U.S. strategy.
NYT: the state of Iraq, after the invasion, surge and elections (not so enlightening analysis)
WP: unclear why presence of mani/pedi salon for soldiers in Mosul not considered, for example
TAL: Americans talk to an Iraqi (part 1; part 2)
"I think people here want me to say yes, that things will get better, so you will feel better."
Reuters: Bush shoe-thrower trial set; if convicted, faces 15 years in prison
WSJ: the tedious and dangerous work sniffing out roadside bombs in Afghanistan
Perhaps the most basic change is that suspects are presumed innocent, reversing the inquisitional system brought by Spanish colonizers. The arrested are no longer tossed straight into jail, but can remain free while prosecutors present evidence in hopes of winning an indictment.
Many residents question whether the reforms that include more rights for the accused may be to blame for a yearlong wave of killings in Chihuahua, especially in Ciudad Juarez. A little less than a year after the reforms debuted in the capital, lawmakers responded to public pressure and made more suspects subject to incarceration before appearing in court.
But killings tied to drug trafficking are federal offenses. Robberies, assaults and murders not linked to organized crime are handled in state courts.
LAT: witnesses are being killed in Colombian trial linked to former governor
Diaz, the reform-minded mayor of El Roble in northern Sucre state, had received death threats from paramilitary groups, and told [President] Uribe during a community meeting in February 2003 that he feared for his life.
The 47-year-old doctor had resisted the right-wing militias' efforts to take control of El Roble's treasury and health system for fear they would loot them, according to his son, Juan David.
Diaz had also denounced Arana at the 2003 meeting before Uribe, saying the then-governor backed paramilitary fighters.
Despite his warnings, two months later, in April, Diaz was kidnapped, tortured for five days and killed. The mayor had been on his way to a meeting supposedly to reconcile with Arana.
PCB: meanwhile, Uribe decries left-leaning leaders the 'intellectual bloc' of the FARC
CNN: ...as Colombians for Peace (the NGO organized by said leaders) negotiates release of politician kidnapped in 2002 by the FARC; he was the last politician held, though police officers and soldiers are still in captivity, as well as hundreds of civilians
BBC: reforms in Bolivia reveal regional divisions
There are two main areas where the opposition is likely to continue its fight.
The first is in Congress, where the ruling Movement to Socialism party (MAS) does not have a majority in the upper house.
It is likely that more than 100 new laws will need to be passed to make the constitution operational. Some members of Podemos, the main opposition party in Congress, are bound to try to block them.
The second area is how the various levels of autonomy will work.
AJE: opposition mounts massive demonstration against Chavez's proposed constitutional reforms
WP: Jews raise concerns about anti-Semitic attacks and rhetoric
Dominance by a single man or family was not uncommon in Brazil’s north-east. But it is fading away. The Sarney clan is becoming unusual. Mr Sarney’s daughter, Roseana, has been Maranhão’s governor and currently represents it in the Senate. His son was a minister in Brazil’s previous government. Other relatives are scattered in positions of authority in Maranhão’s courts and the civil service. One of his lieutenants, Edison Lobão, is Lula’s minister for mines and energy. When he took the job, Mr Lobão’s seat in the national Senate went to his son; his wife sits in the lower house. All three of Maranhão’s senators answer to Mr Sarney, as do his fellow senators from Amapá.
This control is aided by the Sarney family’s ownership of Maranhão’s biggest media company.
WP: economic downturn in Russia endangers immigrant laborers
Econ: the problem is likely under-reported, given the targeting of journalists
Both [human rights lawyer] Mr Markelov and [journalist] Ms Baburova were killed in broad daylight in the centre of Moscow. The next day, a party of Russian nationalists brought champagne to the murder scene to celebrate the “elimination” of their enemies. Her death was part of a continuing battle between fascists and anti-fascists in Russia, which is seldom so plainly revealed to the outside world...
[Baburova] and her friends rightly identified fascism as the biggest and most pressing threat to her country. She swore to fight it. She sensed accurately the social kinship between Stalinism and fascism: the link between attempts to portray Stalin as a “successful manager”, and the current upsurge of nationalism.
BBC: Poland, the Round Table Talks and communism's fall
Twenty years ago, Poland's communist government did something without precedent - it sat down with the banned Solidarity trade union to try to defuse growing social unrest.
What became known as the Round Table Talks led to the first multi-party elections in the Soviet bloc and a stunning victory by Solidarity, led by Lech Walesa, which heralded the collapse of communism across the eastern half of Europe.
NYT: the legacy of war in Bosnia
Today, the country known as Bosnia and Herzegovina has a new class of young entrepreneurs, a growing influx of tourists and new shopping malls selling everything from luxury ski equipment to mango bathing gel. But the country remains weighed down not just by a bloated bureaucracy, but also by a national brand inextricably linked with ethnic violence and an economy overly dependent on foreign aid.
BBC: technology and warfare: using cell phones to fight Maoists in India
The government in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand has given free mobile phones to more than 200 village leaders to help fight Maoist rebels.
Police say the aim is to receive swift tip-offs about rebel movements...
Jharkhnd is under presidential rule, which ensures Delhi's direct control over its administration.
More than 6,000 people have died during the Maoists' 20-year fight for a communist state in parts of India.
The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of poor peasants and landless workers.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the Maoist insurgency is the "single biggest threat" to India's security.
The rebels operate in 182 districts in India, mainly in the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal.Ind: Burmese seeking opportunities risk enslavement
It appears that the businesswoman's potential customers are middlemen, probably Chinese. Through a translator, they discuss placing the men on boats in the South China Sea, trawling for tuna. First, they will be flown to a Chinese city. In echoes of the slave trade, she describes a selection process worthy of a livestock market. In a 21st-century twist, she does so with the aid of pictures on her laptop.
"We make them stand in the sun for one hour," she says. "In the middle of the day when it is very hot. We see how they manage, if they look uncomfortable." The group leans in to see the pictures on her computer. "We make them carry 20 kilos, like this," she continues, showing them photographs I cannot see. "For deep-sea fishing, they may need to carry very big fish for long distances across the ship."
Then comes the seasickness test. "We put them in here," the woman says, but I can't see the picture. I think it must be an enclosed truck or some sort of container on water. "Then we start to move them around. If they are sick or find it hard to breathe we don't select them. This is how we select the best bodies."
The group nods. The images of Burma's Rohingya boat people, fleeing oppression only to be allegedly abused and cast adrift by the Thai military, has drawn international attention to the plight of one of the world's most downtrodden people. The Muslim Rohingyas face particular persecution in military-ruled Burma, but throughout the country, impoverished men and women who see no future at home are embarking on risky journeys abroad in search of an income for their families.
Econ: HRW accuses Ethiopia of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ogaden[Human Rights Watch] says that Ethiopian troops burned down villages and killed, raped and tortured civilians in a counter-insurgency campaign against the separatist Ogaden National Liberation Front after its fighters had killed 74 Ethiopian and Chinese oil-exploration workers in 2007. Ethiopia’s government was so incensed by the description of “systematic atrocities” in the Ogaden that it commissioned a report of its own that dismissed Human Rights Watch’s allegations as hearsay and its methods as slapdash.
AJE: opposition in Madagascar undeterred by state violence
LAT: the accord in Zimbabwe and power sharing in general
Critics argue that African-brokered power-sharing deals such as those signed after Kenya's violent 2007 elections and Zimbabwe's disputed vote last year have set a precedent that leaders in Africa can cling to power when voted out, just by refusing to leave office.
They say bodies such as SADC [the Southern African Development Community] and the African Union have done little to protect democracy or stop violence and human rights abuses, tending to side with incumbent leaders such as the long-ruling Mugabe, whose regime has been accused of unleashing violence to stay in power and denying food to opposition villagers.
BBC: water vendors in Abuja
The urban poor in developing world cities including Abuja pay much more for their water than citizens of rich cities such as New York or Tokyo, precisely because the poor have to depend on private providers rather a piped municipal supply.
++
NYT: satirizing politics in Lebanon
Although direct political satire is virtually impossible in most of the Arab world, the impulse has long thrived in more oblique and private forms. “Basmat Watan” draws on the live comedy and song performances known as chansonières, which started in Beirut theaters in the early 1960s and continue today. For centuries before that, villagers here would gather to sing “zajal” — an indigenous form of poetry that is partly improvisatory, a kind of ancient Levantine rap.
The actors in “Basmat Watan” often break into zajals, which by tradition often include satire and plays on words. The name “Basmat Watan” is itself a play on words, with the sounds meaning both “The Smile of the Nation” and “But the Nation Died.”...
Mr. Bou-Gedeon becomes grim when asked about the role of comedy, and dramatic art in general, in Lebanon. Only shallow work is possible, he said, because the Lebanese are always trying to escape themselves.“Shakespeare said, ‘Show a mirror to the people,’ ” he said. “But people do not want to see themselves here. They want an image that is false, not the truth.”
Mr. Khalil, who cites Woody Allen and Mel Brooks as two of his chief influences, concedes that satire is not a very powerful weapon in a country where politics is still largely a matter of feudal allegiance. But he seems willing to settle for making people laugh.
LAT: celebrating Darwin, evolving faster than ever
As it happens, the pace of evolution has been speeding up -- not slowing down -- in the 40,000 years since our ancestors fanned out from Ethiopia to populate the globe.
And in the 5,000 to 10,000 years since agriculture triggered the growth of large societies, the pace has accelerated to 100 times historical levels.
"When there's more people, there are more mutations," [paleoanthropologist] Wolpoff said. "And when there are more mutations, there's more selection."
06 January 2009
trapped [don't follow the leader]
WP: Gazan civilians are trapped
"As Israeli forces attacked Gaza by land, sea and air, residents living in the congested coastal strip faced a fateful question: Flee the shelling and shooting, or hole up inside their homes and hope for the best?"
NYT: sometimes there are no good options...
"The Samouni family knew they were in danger. They had been calling the Red Cross for two days, they said, begging to be taken out of Zeitoun, a poor area in eastern Gaza City that is considered a stronghold of Hamas. No rescuers came. Instead, Israeli soldiers entered their building late Sunday night and told them to evacuate to another building. They did. But at 6 a.m. on Monday, when a missile fired by an Israeli warplane struck the relatives’ house in which they had taken shelter, there was nowhere to run."
LAT: ...since missiles often fail to reach their intended target
WP: even areas of refuge aren't safe: at least 30 killed in UN school shelter
Gdn: (this story several hours before the bombing highlights the tragedy)
"Besides the schools in Jabaliya, three others have been turned into shelters in Gaza City, one in Rafah, in the south of the strip, and a handful of others scattered around. But Hasna says there will be more, although he is only marginally more confident than Khalil that the UN flag will provide protection.
LAT: Q&A on the sustained assault
NYT: reactions in the West Bank
"Fatah leaders are growing deeply worried over popular reaction and support for its rival, Hamas, to the point of crushing recent demonstrations.
[Others interviewed] said that support for Hamas would grow as this conflict went on, and that they were intimidated by the Palestinian security forces of Mr. Abbas and his appointed prime minister, Salam Fayyad — forces subsidized by the United States and trained by Jordan — which have cracked down on a series of demonstrations and banned the showing of the Hamas flag."
WP: repercussions in France...
CSM: ...and Arab states
LAT: meanwhile, Israel dealing with its own domestic issues: gang war is on
"An over-the-top gang war between Israeli crime families, complete with daylight bombings, bystander deaths and the occasional rocket attack, has laid bare the shortcomings of the country's formidable security apparatus...
Organized crime blossomed here in the 1980s and '90s while security forces were focused on Palestinian terrorist threats. By the time Israeli authorities truly began to grapple with the problem a few years ago, they faced a sophisticated global network of gambling, prostitution and drug trafficking, with Los Angeles as one of its hubs."
WP: speaking of urban warfare, Rio police apply some tactics to fight gangs
"The police have regularly launched large operations in Brazil's favelas, or slums, in their battle against drug gangs over the years, but authorities say the occupation of Santa Marta, a relatively small, contained neighborhood, is part of a new approach, a pilot project for the future of crime fighting in this violent city. Brazilian police officers are attempting counterinsurgency tactics similar to those used by U.S. soldiers in Iraq -- setting up small bases occupied around the clock inside violent neighborhoods, developing intelligence by living among their adversaries, and using government funds to rebuild broken areas and generate goodwill."
Gdn: which hasn't been so popular
"Authorities say the R$1m (£300,000) "eco-barrier", which will encircle part of the famous Dona Marta slum in southern part of the city, is intended to protect the nearby Atlantic rainforest from illegal occupation as well as improve security and living conditions for slum residents.
NYT: violence trends over time: better days, but still deadly ones
BBC: Taliban kills three in Pakistan for spying
Slate: ...the incident is not an isolated one
NYT: 6 years in Guantanamo
BBC: Nigerians get in on the piracy gig
WP: Ethiopia withdraws from Somalia
Econ: travelogue from the other side of the country, in border area with Kenya
AP: opposition leader declared winner in Ghana
"Ghana is now one of the few African countries to successfully transfer power twice from one legitimately elected leader to another. It made the transition to a mature democracy after experiencing years of coups in the 1970s and 1980s, and survived the closest presidential vote in its history with Atta Mills's win."
LAT: reconciliation efforts underway in Kenya after less successful election
"In a sun-drenched valley of central Kenya, a few dozen villagers gather each Saturday to sit under the trees and conduct the painstaking work of reconciliation that their government leaders seem happy to avoid.
These traumatized victims of Kenya's post-election clashes meet to talk, pray, sing and -- they hope -- heal...
At most sessions, group members still segregate themselves by tribe. But singing, dancing and a touch of pragmatism have helped break the ice."
BBC: those government leaders, meanwhile, are in 'crisis talks'
"Our correspondent says tensions were heightened on Friday when President Kibaki approved the media law, which journalists say will muzzle the press.
BBC: ...then take it back
LAT: Subcomandante Marcos makes an appearance
"In January 1994, the Zapatista guerrillas launched an offensive aimed at dramatizing the bleak living conditions, poverty and alienation of Mexico's indigenous population. They managed to seize control of several towns in Mexico's southernmost province, Chiapas, before the army beat them back into remote hills. It was over in less than two weeks.
Since then, the Zapatistas functioned as a largely political movement. A folk culture emerged around the masked Marcos, meanwhile, as he gave interviews, received visitors from around the world and saw dolls and T-shirts bearing his likeness. And although he and his followers brought attention to the plight of Mexican Indians and achieved some voice in local governments, Chiapas remains mired in poverty and violence."
WP: Ohio man could face Nazi crimes trial in Germany
Slate: reporting from the Holocaust archives
"This is the Central Names Index—CNI—which covers three rooms and includes 50 million references for 17.5 million victims."
New Yorker: the legacy of Arendt
Econ: and Huntington
++
The Onion: Hallmark scientists discover three new emotions
"As Israeli forces attacked Gaza by land, sea and air, residents living in the congested coastal strip faced a fateful question: Flee the shelling and shooting, or hole up inside their homes and hope for the best?"
NYT: sometimes there are no good options...
"The Samouni family knew they were in danger. They had been calling the Red Cross for two days, they said, begging to be taken out of Zeitoun, a poor area in eastern Gaza City that is considered a stronghold of Hamas. No rescuers came. Instead, Israeli soldiers entered their building late Sunday night and told them to evacuate to another building. They did. But at 6 a.m. on Monday, when a missile fired by an Israeli warplane struck the relatives’ house in which they had taken shelter, there was nowhere to run."
LAT: ...since missiles often fail to reach their intended target
WP: even areas of refuge aren't safe: at least 30 killed in UN school shelter
Gdn: (this story several hours before the bombing highlights the tragedy)
"Besides the schools in Jabaliya, three others have been turned into shelters in Gaza City, one in Rafah, in the south of the strip, and a handful of others scattered around. But Hasna says there will be more, although he is only marginally more confident than Khalil that the UN flag will provide protection.
"We depend on it being a UN installation with a big flag. We hope the Israelis will respect that. We are contacting them and telling them," he said."
WP: as death toll surpasses 550, Israel ignores European calls for ceasefireLAT: Q&A on the sustained assault
NYT: reactions in the West Bank
"Fatah leaders are growing deeply worried over popular reaction and support for its rival, Hamas, to the point of crushing recent demonstrations.
There is also, after so many years of struggle, of Palestinian against Israeli and of Palestinian against Palestinian, no small degree of weariness with yet another deadly round. Even with the war in Gaza, there is no sign of a third intifada, or uprising, despite Hamas’s call for one.
“The people are tired,” said Jamal Fayez, who runs a modest restaurant in the city center...[Others interviewed] said that support for Hamas would grow as this conflict went on, and that they were intimidated by the Palestinian security forces of Mr. Abbas and his appointed prime minister, Salam Fayyad — forces subsidized by the United States and trained by Jordan — which have cracked down on a series of demonstrations and banned the showing of the Hamas flag."
WP: repercussions in France...
CSM: ...and Arab states
LAT: meanwhile, Israel dealing with its own domestic issues: gang war is on
"An over-the-top gang war between Israeli crime families, complete with daylight bombings, bystander deaths and the occasional rocket attack, has laid bare the shortcomings of the country's formidable security apparatus...
Organized crime blossomed here in the 1980s and '90s while security forces were focused on Palestinian terrorist threats. By the time Israeli authorities truly began to grapple with the problem a few years ago, they faced a sophisticated global network of gambling, prostitution and drug trafficking, with Los Angeles as one of its hubs."
WP: speaking of urban warfare, Rio police apply some tactics to fight gangs
"The police have regularly launched large operations in Brazil's favelas, or slums, in their battle against drug gangs over the years, but authorities say the occupation of Santa Marta, a relatively small, contained neighborhood, is part of a new approach, a pilot project for the future of crime fighting in this violent city. Brazilian police officers are attempting counterinsurgency tactics similar to those used by U.S. soldiers in Iraq -- setting up small bases occupied around the clock inside violent neighborhoods, developing intelligence by living among their adversaries, and using government funds to rebuild broken areas and generate goodwill."
Gdn: which hasn't been so popular
"Authorities say the R$1m (£300,000) "eco-barrier", which will encircle part of the famous Dona Marta slum in southern part of the city, is intended to protect the nearby Atlantic rainforest from illegal occupation as well as improve security and living conditions for slum residents.
As tenders for construction of the 3-metre-high (10ft) wall opened yesterday, critics claimed the project was a form of "social apartheid", comparing it to Israel's security barrier."
WP: female suicide bomber kills 40 at Baghdad shrineNYT: violence trends over time: better days, but still deadly ones
BBC: Taliban kills three in Pakistan for spying
Slate: ...the incident is not an isolated one
NYT: 6 years in Guantanamo
BBC: Nigerians get in on the piracy gig
WP: Ethiopia withdraws from Somalia
Econ: travelogue from the other side of the country, in border area with Kenya
AP: opposition leader declared winner in Ghana
"Ghana is now one of the few African countries to successfully transfer power twice from one legitimately elected leader to another. It made the transition to a mature democracy after experiencing years of coups in the 1970s and 1980s, and survived the closest presidential vote in its history with Atta Mills's win."
LAT: reconciliation efforts underway in Kenya after less successful election
"In a sun-drenched valley of central Kenya, a few dozen villagers gather each Saturday to sit under the trees and conduct the painstaking work of reconciliation that their government leaders seem happy to avoid.
These traumatized victims of Kenya's post-election clashes meet to talk, pray, sing and -- they hope -- heal...
At most sessions, group members still segregate themselves by tribe. But singing, dancing and a touch of pragmatism have helped break the ice."
BBC: those government leaders, meanwhile, are in 'crisis talks'
"Our correspondent says tensions were heightened on Friday when President Kibaki approved the media law, which journalists say will muzzle the press.
Mr Odinga had asked the president to reconsider the measures, after it was bitterly opposed by journalists."
BBC: Congo CNDP rebels rebel against NkundaBBC: ...then take it back
LAT: Subcomandante Marcos makes an appearance
"In January 1994, the Zapatista guerrillas launched an offensive aimed at dramatizing the bleak living conditions, poverty and alienation of Mexico's indigenous population. They managed to seize control of several towns in Mexico's southernmost province, Chiapas, before the army beat them back into remote hills. It was over in less than two weeks.
Since then, the Zapatistas functioned as a largely political movement. A folk culture emerged around the masked Marcos, meanwhile, as he gave interviews, received visitors from around the world and saw dolls and T-shirts bearing his likeness. And although he and his followers brought attention to the plight of Mexican Indians and achieved some voice in local governments, Chiapas remains mired in poverty and violence."
WP: Ohio man could face Nazi crimes trial in Germany
Slate: reporting from the Holocaust archives
"This is the Central Names Index—CNI—which covers three rooms and includes 50 million references for 17.5 million victims."
New Yorker: the legacy of Arendt
Econ: and Huntington
++
The Onion: Hallmark scientists discover three new emotions
27 May 2008
overdue [please do not harrass the ducks]
WP: town on North-South border of Sudan desolate in anticipation of renewed fighting
"...southern officials are accusing Bashir of using a minor street scuffle this month as an excuse to unleash a brutal military campaign that they say is aimed at clearing the area of its pro-southern population ahead of the referendum."
WP: Sudan's president, army celebrates victory over rebels in attack in "macabre" affair
LAT: ongoing catastrophe in Somalia
"Few dare use cellphones lest they fall victim to thieves or be accused of spying. There's no socializing because it's too risky to stop for chitchat and no one knows whom to trust...Somalia's social breakdown has hit the young the hardest. They have rarely known peace, stability or even a semblance of order. In one desolate neighborhood, shabbily dressed children played away a recent afternoon. As usual, it was a war game. They carried guns carved from wood and tossed plastic bags filled with ash to mimic the smoke of exploding grenades.
There are three sides in their game: transitional government soldiers, Ethiopian troops and insurgents. Insurgents usually trounce the soldiers, who then run to Ethiopians for help. Ethiopians chase away the insurgents as they sweep through neighborhoods, terrorizing civilians.
None of the boys seek the role of government soldier. 'No one wants to play the ones who are defeated,' said Ahmed Ali, 13, who played the role of insurgent leader."
Ind: Ethiopia supreme court sentences former dictator Mengistu to death
WP: South Africa marshals troops to protect immigrants
"At least 13,000 people have been chased from their homes, often a step ahead of mobs demanding that foreigners return to their native countries. News reports put the death toll at 42, with hundreds injured."
Ind: context of the violence
BBC: which continues
Gdn: attacks against migrants in Rome too
LAT: chances that Mugabe's party will recognize results of an unfavorable run-off election are, er, slim
FP blog: what happened to those Chinese weapons destined for Zimbabwe? (HT: Chris Blattman)
WP: touch-and-go in Bangladesh due to food prices
WP: Burma finally agrees to allow in aid workers
AP: renews detention of Suu Kyi
WP: FARC vows to continue war despite leader's death
ideologue Alfonso Cano chosen as new leader over military strategist Mono Jo Joy
Gdn: obituary for Pedro Marín, aka "Tirofijo" and Manuel Marulanda, oldest guerrilla leader
WP: will extradition of paramilitary leaders be good for Colombian victims in the end?
BBC: Chavez preparing for elections with huge pay outs
Reuters: judge orders 100 from Pinochet's regime arrested
NYT: drug war in Mexico taking its toll on police
Gdn: main drug cartels
LAT: simulating illegal border crossings from Mexico
"Dubbed the Caminata Nocturna (Night Hike), the three-hour simulation is a combination obstacle course, sociology lesson and PG-rated family outing. Founded in 2004, it's run by members of a local village of Hñahñu Indians, an indigenous people of south-central Mexico. The village's former population of about 2,500 has been decimated by migration to the United States.
Every Saturday night, dozens of the several hundred remaining villagers take part in the Caminata. Many work as costumed performers impersonating Border Patrol agents, fellow migrants and masked coyotes and polleros, the Mexican guides who escort migrants for a fee.
The 7 1/2 -mile hike, which involves quite a bit of running, costs about $10 per person."
BBC: peacekeepers sexually assaulting children
Gdn: Kabul's heroin problem isn't only on the production side
WP: Lebanon reaches belated accord
Gdn: new president sworn in
Gdn: administrators of British prison system concerned about "Muslim gangs" in jails
Chris Blattman: terrorism, civil wars declining?
WP: military spending on the rise everywhere, but especially by the US - nearly 10 times larger than next highest spender (the UK)
WP: an increase of air strikes in Iraq is among the expenditures
LAT: Iraqis growing impatient with militias in continued fighting
LAT: but the US says violence is at 4-year low
Gdn: soccer wars: FIFA suspends Iraqi Soccer Association
WP: US is irrelevant on the peace side of things in the Middle East
USAT: only 20% of detainees in Iraq belong to extremist groups; US military says rest can be reintegrated into society
"The assessment reflects a new approach to detainees, which emphasizes isolating al-Qaeda and Shiite extremists and increasing the release of many average men caught up in the fighting...
U.S. commanders are not suggesting that U.S. forces captured innocent men, but some defense analysts say it is difficult to make distinctions in unconventional warfare, where insurgents don't wear uniforms and most troops don't speak the local language...
The more aggressive release strategy appears to be working, statistics show. Of 8,000 released over the past 10 months only 28 have returned to the main detention facilities, a recidivism rate of less than 1%. Prior to the new program, the rate was 6.4%, Stone said.
The detainee population hasn't decreased by 8,000 because new detainees continue to enter the system. However, the average number of daily releases is about 53 now and the average daily intake of detainees has held steady at about 30 since December."
NYT: the FBI dissented on tactics used against detainees and kept records in "war crimes" file, says DOJ report
"The report describes what one official called “trench warfare” between the F.B.I. and the military over the rough methods being used on detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq...Many of the abuses the report describes have previously been disclosed, but it was not known that F.B.I. agents had gone so far as to document accusations of abuse in a “war crimes file” at Guantánamo. The report does not say how many incidents were included in the file after it was started in 2002, but the “war crimes” label showed just how seriously F.B.I. agents took the accusations. Sometime in 2003, however, an F.B.I. official ordered the file closed because 'investigating detainee allegations of abuse was not the F.B.I.’s mission,' the report said."
not your onion
WP: if you're going to crush insurgencies and manage British soccer hooligans, it best be in style
BBC: Peruvian MP in trouble for shooting another legislator's dog
BBC: Canadian foreign minister resigns for leaving classified documents in "unsecured location," i.e., hot ex-girlfriend's house
"...southern officials are accusing Bashir of using a minor street scuffle this month as an excuse to unleash a brutal military campaign that they say is aimed at clearing the area of its pro-southern population ahead of the referendum."
WP: Sudan's president, army celebrates victory over rebels in attack in "macabre" affair
LAT: ongoing catastrophe in Somalia
"Few dare use cellphones lest they fall victim to thieves or be accused of spying. There's no socializing because it's too risky to stop for chitchat and no one knows whom to trust...Somalia's social breakdown has hit the young the hardest. They have rarely known peace, stability or even a semblance of order. In one desolate neighborhood, shabbily dressed children played away a recent afternoon. As usual, it was a war game. They carried guns carved from wood and tossed plastic bags filled with ash to mimic the smoke of exploding grenades.
There are three sides in their game: transitional government soldiers, Ethiopian troops and insurgents. Insurgents usually trounce the soldiers, who then run to Ethiopians for help. Ethiopians chase away the insurgents as they sweep through neighborhoods, terrorizing civilians.
None of the boys seek the role of government soldier. 'No one wants to play the ones who are defeated,' said Ahmed Ali, 13, who played the role of insurgent leader."
Ind: Ethiopia supreme court sentences former dictator Mengistu to death
WP: South Africa marshals troops to protect immigrants
"At least 13,000 people have been chased from their homes, often a step ahead of mobs demanding that foreigners return to their native countries. News reports put the death toll at 42, with hundreds injured."
Ind: context of the violence
BBC: which continues
Gdn: attacks against migrants in Rome too
LAT: chances that Mugabe's party will recognize results of an unfavorable run-off election are, er, slim
FP blog: what happened to those Chinese weapons destined for Zimbabwe? (HT: Chris Blattman)
WP: touch-and-go in Bangladesh due to food prices
WP: Burma finally agrees to allow in aid workers
AP: renews detention of Suu Kyi
WP: FARC vows to continue war despite leader's death
ideologue Alfonso Cano chosen as new leader over military strategist Mono Jo Joy
Gdn: obituary for Pedro Marín, aka "Tirofijo" and Manuel Marulanda, oldest guerrilla leader
WP: will extradition of paramilitary leaders be good for Colombian victims in the end?
BBC: Chavez preparing for elections with huge pay outs
Reuters: judge orders 100 from Pinochet's regime arrested
NYT: drug war in Mexico taking its toll on police
Gdn: main drug cartels
LAT: simulating illegal border crossings from Mexico
"Dubbed the Caminata Nocturna (Night Hike), the three-hour simulation is a combination obstacle course, sociology lesson and PG-rated family outing. Founded in 2004, it's run by members of a local village of Hñahñu Indians, an indigenous people of south-central Mexico. The village's former population of about 2,500 has been decimated by migration to the United States.
Every Saturday night, dozens of the several hundred remaining villagers take part in the Caminata. Many work as costumed performers impersonating Border Patrol agents, fellow migrants and masked coyotes and polleros, the Mexican guides who escort migrants for a fee.
The 7 1/2 -mile hike, which involves quite a bit of running, costs about $10 per person."
BBC: peacekeepers sexually assaulting children
Gdn: Kabul's heroin problem isn't only on the production side
WP: Lebanon reaches belated accord
Gdn: new president sworn in
Gdn: administrators of British prison system concerned about "Muslim gangs" in jails
Chris Blattman: terrorism, civil wars declining?
WP: military spending on the rise everywhere, but especially by the US - nearly 10 times larger than next highest spender (the UK)
WP: an increase of air strikes in Iraq is among the expenditures
LAT: Iraqis growing impatient with militias in continued fighting
LAT: but the US says violence is at 4-year low
Gdn: soccer wars: FIFA suspends Iraqi Soccer Association
WP: US is irrelevant on the peace side of things in the Middle East
USAT: only 20% of detainees in Iraq belong to extremist groups; US military says rest can be reintegrated into society
"The assessment reflects a new approach to detainees, which emphasizes isolating al-Qaeda and Shiite extremists and increasing the release of many average men caught up in the fighting...
U.S. commanders are not suggesting that U.S. forces captured innocent men, but some defense analysts say it is difficult to make distinctions in unconventional warfare, where insurgents don't wear uniforms and most troops don't speak the local language...
The more aggressive release strategy appears to be working, statistics show. Of 8,000 released over the past 10 months only 28 have returned to the main detention facilities, a recidivism rate of less than 1%. Prior to the new program, the rate was 6.4%, Stone said.
The detainee population hasn't decreased by 8,000 because new detainees continue to enter the system. However, the average number of daily releases is about 53 now and the average daily intake of detainees has held steady at about 30 since December."
NYT: the FBI dissented on tactics used against detainees and kept records in "war crimes" file, says DOJ report
"The report describes what one official called “trench warfare” between the F.B.I. and the military over the rough methods being used on detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq...Many of the abuses the report describes have previously been disclosed, but it was not known that F.B.I. agents had gone so far as to document accusations of abuse in a “war crimes file” at Guantánamo. The report does not say how many incidents were included in the file after it was started in 2002, but the “war crimes” label showed just how seriously F.B.I. agents took the accusations. Sometime in 2003, however, an F.B.I. official ordered the file closed because 'investigating detainee allegations of abuse was not the F.B.I.’s mission,' the report said."
not your onion
WP: if you're going to crush insurgencies and manage British soccer hooligans, it best be in style
BBC: Peruvian MP in trouble for shooting another legislator's dog
BBC: Canadian foreign minister resigns for leaving classified documents in "unsecured location," i.e., hot ex-girlfriend's house
19 January 2008
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
"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
18 December 2007
doing what we can
WP: more pressure to shift focus, troops from Iraq to Afghanistan
NYT: reviewing the US and NATO mission in Afghanistan in three reports. but, “It is simply a matter of resources, of capacity,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress this week. “In Afghanistan, we do what we can. In Iraq, we do what we must.”
LAT: US to shift forces from periphery to Baghdad
USAT: and Iraqi central gov't moves to support the (mostly) Sunni private security militias
NYT: Ethiopia trying out civilian militias too
WP: refugees and displaced are returning to a segregated Baghdad. "...in many cases the local militias . . . have seized control and threw out anybody in that neighborhood they didn't like."
WP: US has given intel to Turkey, supporting attacks on the PKK. plus, Turkey moves 300 troops inside northern Iraq, and Secretary Rice makes surprise visit to Kirkuk.
NYT: Syria "cracking down" on political activists
BBC: or easing up? (some confusion on the situation, pointed out by Jonah)
WP: how much did those CIA tapes capture anyhow? and, that recurring theme: does torture "work"?
Econ: background and status of negotiations in Colombia
NYT: US abandons allies in Laos decades ago; bands of "rebels" still evading the gov't there.
Slate: apartheid in Saudi Arabia?
Slate: the Supreme Court takes up another case on courts and the war on terror
NYT: reviewing the US and NATO mission in Afghanistan in three reports. but, “It is simply a matter of resources, of capacity,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress this week. “In Afghanistan, we do what we can. In Iraq, we do what we must.”
LAT: US to shift forces from periphery to Baghdad
USAT: and Iraqi central gov't moves to support the (mostly) Sunni private security militias
NYT: Ethiopia trying out civilian militias too
WP: refugees and displaced are returning to a segregated Baghdad. "...in many cases the local militias . . . have seized control and threw out anybody in that neighborhood they didn't like."
WP: US has given intel to Turkey, supporting attacks on the PKK. plus, Turkey moves 300 troops inside northern Iraq, and Secretary Rice makes surprise visit to Kirkuk.
NYT: Syria "cracking down" on political activists
BBC: or easing up? (some confusion on the situation, pointed out by Jonah)
WP: how much did those CIA tapes capture anyhow? and, that recurring theme: does torture "work"?
Econ: background and status of negotiations in Colombia
NYT: US abandons allies in Laos decades ago; bands of "rebels" still evading the gov't there.
Slate: apartheid in Saudi Arabia?
Slate: the Supreme Court takes up another case on courts and the war on terror
18 October 2007
evolution
with mild reluctance, i'm moving specialists in violence to the blogosphere. (and look what's happened - i'm already using terms like blogosphere.) it seems like this format will be more convenient than the group email.
Ind (and everyone else): Bhutto's back. Pakistan's court will rule in 10-12 days on whether or not Musharraf's re-election was legal.
LAT: Turkey voted to authorize force in Iraq; already has an estimated 1500 troops in 3 battalions in Iraq.
Ind: Somali gov't troops arrested the head of the UN's World Food Program for unclear reasons 3 days after the program started; "Since Ethiopian troops drove out the Union of Islamic Courts at the end of December, violence in the capital has increased dramatically with insurgents engaging Ethiopian and Somali government troops almost daily." Islamic Courts members formed a new party in Asmara, Eritrea; appear to be biding time for stand-off between Somalia's president and prime minister to blow up.
So to sum up the web of issues smoldering in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia: Eritrea is mobilizing residents into military for potential clash with Ethiopia, which has reportedly moved troops to the border because Eritrea is allowing Islamists to operate from the country. Ethiopia-backed gov't on edge of collapse in Somalia; Eritrea at least passively backing exiled rivals. Finally, Ethiopia fighting a separatist insurgency in region of Ogaden by targeting civilians. uf.
Ind: looking for relief? try Mauritius
Ind: burmese junta acknowledges 3,000 have been arrested, 468 still held. observers suspect it's an underestimate. but the generals are steadfast, rebuking calls for democratization: "We will go ahead. We will not deviate from our path...We will get rid of the barriers and obstacles on the way."
Ind: gang violence in the UK
Slate: taking the principle out of principle-agent: an update on the CIA investigation of its own investigator general.
Slate: law and order: how mormon fundamentalists and the amish get to break so many laws. "Such group rights are a challenge for a legal system centered on the individual;" does the US gov't allow groups to regulate themselves on the condition that no members can live under both systems? the amish give 18-year-olds a year to work out if they'll commit to the community, if not, they're banished. mormon fundamentalist boys, among others, are kicked out for transgressions from group rules (or to increase the supply of women available to older men to marry). both are extreme in the sense that community members can't even maintain contact with the outsiders. contact Ryan for a comparison with nomads and pastoralists in Kenya. (note: the entire series is an interesting look at how law flexibly keeps order.)
USAT: armed group recruitment sometimes misfires
New Yorker non sequitur: race in the indie rock scene
Ind (and everyone else): Bhutto's back. Pakistan's court will rule in 10-12 days on whether or not Musharraf's re-election was legal.
LAT: Turkey voted to authorize force in Iraq; already has an estimated 1500 troops in 3 battalions in Iraq.
Ind: Somali gov't troops arrested the head of the UN's World Food Program for unclear reasons 3 days after the program started; "Since Ethiopian troops drove out the Union of Islamic Courts at the end of December, violence in the capital has increased dramatically with insurgents engaging Ethiopian and Somali government troops almost daily." Islamic Courts members formed a new party in Asmara, Eritrea; appear to be biding time for stand-off between Somalia's president and prime minister to blow up.
So to sum up the web of issues smoldering in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia: Eritrea is mobilizing residents into military for potential clash with Ethiopia, which has reportedly moved troops to the border because Eritrea is allowing Islamists to operate from the country. Ethiopia-backed gov't on edge of collapse in Somalia; Eritrea at least passively backing exiled rivals. Finally, Ethiopia fighting a separatist insurgency in region of Ogaden by targeting civilians. uf.
Ind: looking for relief? try Mauritius
Ind: burmese junta acknowledges 3,000 have been arrested, 468 still held. observers suspect it's an underestimate. but the generals are steadfast, rebuking calls for democratization: "We will go ahead. We will not deviate from our path...We will get rid of the barriers and obstacles on the way."
Ind: gang violence in the UK
Slate: taking the principle out of principle-agent: an update on the CIA investigation of its own investigator general.
Slate: law and order: how mormon fundamentalists and the amish get to break so many laws. "Such group rights are a challenge for a legal system centered on the individual;" does the US gov't allow groups to regulate themselves on the condition that no members can live under both systems? the amish give 18-year-olds a year to work out if they'll commit to the community, if not, they're banished. mormon fundamentalist boys, among others, are kicked out for transgressions from group rules (or to increase the supply of women available to older men to marry). both are extreme in the sense that community members can't even maintain contact with the outsiders. contact Ryan for a comparison with nomads and pastoralists in Kenya. (note: the entire series is an interesting look at how law flexibly keeps order.)
USAT: armed group recruitment sometimes misfires
New Yorker non sequitur: race in the indie rock scene
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