THE ISSUE ONE PDF ZINE IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD.

From wallspankers.com:

This is a brand spankin’ new project headed by MWMgraphics and Knuckle Sandwich Press. The idea is pretty simple and we have been meaning to make it happen for years. It is a collaborative endeavor that entirely relies on participants submissions and “spanks”. Spanking refers to slapping stickers up (an incredible current worldwide phenomenon).

As a graffiti head, designer, illustrator, and sticker fan, I wanted to create a place where friends, fam and new acquaintances could share their Black and White designs with the world.
Here.

Somali Islamists win city battle

From the BBC:

One of the Islamist leaders, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, urged all gunmen not allied to the UIC to surrender their weapons.

“Any attempt to fight the Islamic courts is pointless. We are committed to put Mogadishu under one leadership,” he said.

“Any group that tries to fight the Islamic courts will be destroyed. The Islamic courts have overcome the infidel stooges.”

Here.

Pakistan Aftermath

Photos by Paolo Pellegrin from MagnumPhotos:

Last October’s earthquake in Kashmir was the worst natural disaster in Pakistan’s history. The tremor killed more than 80,000 people and injured hundred of thousands.

Eight months after the catastrophy, some 3 million people still remain homeless. The relief operation has been ongoing and massive: helicopters have flown more than 27,000 sorties into the Himalayan region in northern Pakistan, where the 7.6-magnitude quake was centered. They’ve dropped off some 30,000 tons of provisions–food, medicine, blankets and tents. Still, the reconstruction of the 600,000 homes in the region has barely begun, and all the villages in the quake zone, one of the poorest and most remote in the world before the disaster, have sunk even deeper into poverty.

Here.

War Photographer Catherine Leroy Dies In California

From PDN:

Leroy was part of a generation of photojournalists who made their names in Vietnam – some others include David Burnett, Don McCullin, Gilles Caron, Larry Burrows, Tim Page and Dirck Halstead – by taking advantage of the access afforded to journalists there.

“We rode in military planes, did helicopter assaults during operations, walked with units, everywhere, anytime,” Leroy recalled in a 2002 interview with PDN. “We were not subjected to censorship. It was unprecedented, and it will never be repeated again. We have now entered ‘the brave new world’ where disinformation and censorship are being implemented and access reduced to photo opportunities.”

In the same interview, Leroy described her how she traveled to Saigon at age 21, with a Leica and $150 and no combat experience. “I had never heard a gun fired in anger before, and I spoke three words of English,” she said.

Here.

In Haditha

Lucian Read, from Digital Journalist:

The battalion and company limped out of Fallujah heroes–a fistful of Bronze Stars, a Navy Cross. That Navy Cross was one of only eight since the war began. If the First Sergeant who earned it had died they probably would have given him The Medal. I took the photo that helped to bring him the recognition. In the image, two young Marines carry a grim older Marine from a house, his arms around their shoulders, lap and legs covered in blood, pistol still at the ready as he nearly bleeds to death. He saved Nicoll’s life when he took the blast from the grenade. Then he gave up his tourniquet as he bled from 50 places. Books have been, are being written about it. The picture is now on posters wherever two or three Marines gather together, an example for generations of Marines to come.

To the Marines, I am that guy who took that picture. A year and a half later, my pictures of these same Marines run under the words “shame, massacre, bloodbath.”

Here.

Sewage business is serious business

From the Daily Sun, Nigeria’s King of the Tabloids:

When you said shit business is serious business, could you please expatiate on that?
Yes, what I mean is that every human-being on earth excretes. Man, woman, children etc and no one would want to stay there after doing it. So, if you decides to pack the shit and you are not serious you won’t do it, it’s a serious business because it is not something that smells nice, if you don’t do it with passion or won’t want to be identified with it, you can’t do it because it is not a job anybody can wake up to tell the whole Nigeria he does. So I am passionate about it, it’s a serious business. Something that 120 million Nigerians will wake up to do everyday must be a serious business.

Here.

Beslan terrorist leader killed, reports say

From The Guardian:

The Chechen rebel leader who claimed responsibility for the Beslan school massacre and the Moscow theatre siege has been killed, Russian media reported today.

Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency reported that Shamil Basayev, who led the most violent wing of the Chechen separatist movement, had been killed overnight in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, to the west of Chechnya.

Here.

Obey – Supply and Demand

From obeygiant:

So, after two years in the making Supply and Demand has finally arrived and I’m very happy with the results. This book is 350 pages, large format (9″x12″) with a foil embossed cover. More than looking spiffy from the outside, it is mega-juicy on the inside. There are tons of images that have never been published as well as essays and interviews by Steven Heller, Carlo McCormick, Roger Gastman, Rob Walker, Helen Stickler, and me. This is the definitive case study, art book, bible of Obey Giant. I hope you dig it. All copies from the site are signed.
-Shepard

Preview Here.

The Bride Price

From The New York Times Magazine:

On the day she witnessed the engagement party of 11-year-old Ghulam Haider to 40-year-old Faiz Mohammed, Sinclair discreetly took the girl aside. “What are you feeling today?” the photographer asked. “Nothing,” the bewildered girl answered. “I do not know this man. What am I supposed to feel?”

Here.

Sex slavery for residency permit!

From the Daily Sun, Nigeria’s King of the Tabloids:

Take a look, Tunde’s wife is four times his size, and perhaps weight. Now, how does he cope with this woman Mountain, considering the endless “rounds” he must perform each time she needs him, that is during and after he is eventually granted his residency? Can he weather the marriage? This appears to be the challenge as he must be seen to perform his duty and keep his residency status.

Here.

A Drive to Root Out the Resurgent Taliban

Photographer Tyler Hicks, from the New York Times:

The Americans face the hard job of trying to tell local farmers from Taliban insurgents, who have gained strength across southern Afghanistan. The Americans set up a base, then probed into villages. They were soon ambushed. The Taliban can easily persuade or coerce villagers to assist them. They arm the villagers or equip them with radios. Almost any man is suspect. During one raid, which was typical, the Americans separated the men. Homes were searched, and the men were marched to the base for questioning.

Here.

In Ramadi, Fetid Quarters and Unrelenting Battles

From the New York Times:

“Let’s see, Lance Corporal Tussey, shot in the thigh.

“Lance Corporal Zimmerman, shot in the leg.

“Lance Corporal Sardinas, shrapnel, hit in the face.

“Lance Corporal Wilson, shrapnel in the throat.”

“That’s all I can think of right now,” the captain said.

So it goes in Ramadi, the epicenter of the Iraqi insurgency and the focus of a grinding struggle between the American forces and the guerrillas.

Here.

Somali World Cup viewers killed

From the BBC:

According to reports on a Somali news network, gunmen arrived to close down the cinema in the town of Dhuusa Marreeb in central Galgadud district, where a crowd had gathered to watch the Germany-Italy World Cup semi-final.

Some of the football fans began to protest and according to reports, the gunmen fired in the air in an attempt to disperse them.

When this failed, shots were fired at the demonstrators and two people were killed.

Here.

Radicals Gain Edge In Somali Capital

From the Washington Post:

Ali Iman Sharmarke, a businessman and radio journalist in Mogadishu, said he believed the Islamic militias would lose power if they grew too strict in their interpretation of religious law. “People will hate them as they hated the warlords,” Sharmarke said from Nairobi. “The moderates will not fly with bin Laden.”

But Jamal said it was increasingly apparent that outsiders — bin Laden, the United Nations, the United States, the African Union, Ethiopia, Eritrea — were shaping events, rather than Somalis.

“It looks like the interests of the Somali will not be looked after,” he said. “The situation is really very, very bad right now.”

Here.