Category: News

  • New Militant Leader Emerges in Mogadishu

    From the New York Times:

    Still, Hassan Dahir Aweys, of the powerful Ayr clan, has publicly told followers that God would forgive them for spilling the blood of any foreign peacekeepers who set foot on Somali soil. He has also said Somalis who hand over their countrymen to American operatives in exchange for cash are guilty of “selling us to the Jews.”

    Mr. Aweys was appointed to lead a new 88-member council at a meeting of hundreds of Islamic leaders in Mogadishu on Saturday night. Earlier in the week, a delegation of Somali Islamists agreed to recognize and work together with the secular government that was formed in 2004 after long peace negotiations involving all of Somalia’s clans. That United Nations-backed government, based in the provincial town of Baidoa because Mogadishu had been considered too dangerous for it to relocate there, is struggling to gain a foothold.

    Mr. Aweys has repeatedly declared that an Islamic state is the only answer for Somalia, which has effectively been in anarchy since its last government fell in 1991. Mr. Aweys is a critic of the secular government and a longtime foe of its president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

    Here.

  • Tragicommerce

    Tragicommerce

    From the New York Times:

    Winn didn’t take that advice — at first. There was nothing cute or campy about Nagin’s remarks, and the hurricane was a deadly tragedy, not a pop-culture moment. Winn had friends who had lost everything. He understood Nagin’s tone. “That’s kind of how I felt,” he says. Gradually, however, his thinking changed. Da Mayor in Your Pocket (“da” instead of “the” to reflect a local accent) became commercially available several months ago, emitting sound bites from that Nagin interview like “This is a national disaster,” “You gotta be kiddin’ me” and several that can’t be printed here. Thousands have been sold. Nagin himself held one up in a speech during the New Orleans mayoral election (which he eventually won, last month).

    Here.

  • Chechen Leadership Isn't the Issue

    From the Moscow Times:

    The question of who will succeed Sadulayev is less political than technical. The question of whether or not Shamil Basayev will assume control of the separatist movement is also of secondary importance. Nor can it be assumed that the movement would become more radical under Basayev’s leadership. No one is stopping Basayev from adopting even more brutal tactics right now. Maskhadov and Sadulayev couldn’t stand in his way, and the heir apparent, warlord Doku Umarov, will fare no better. But the Russian authorities should be worried not so much about Basayev as the social conditions that make people like Basayev popular, for it is the unfavorable political and social situation in the North Caucasus that produces Basayev’s terrorist foot soldiers.

    Last but not least, Sadulayev’s death has been presented as a victory for Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, rather than for the Russian leadership and the security services. Kadyrov is now the sole master of the republic. His actions often violate Russian law and the logic of the so-called power vertical. No other regional leader is allowed such latitude. His inner circle includes many former fighters who ultimately realized that becoming a part of the Russian power structure was a whole lot better than taking part in guerrilla attacks.

    Here.

  • Rebel Leader Sadulayev Shot Dead

    Rebel Leader Sadulayev Shot Dead

    From the Moscow Times:

    Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov said (chechen rebel leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev) was shot dead Saturday in his hometown of Argun during a raid prompted by a tip from someone in his inner circle.

    Kadyrov, posing and grinning for television cameras next to a battered, half-naked body that resembled Sadulayev, said the informant had tipped off police for drug money.

    “One person sold us Sadulayev — their dearest friend whom they consider their own — for 1,500 rubles,” or about $50, Kadyrov said. “He needed to buy a gram of heroin. He sold out his leader for heroin.”

    Here.

  • Cripple With Tall Dreams

    Cripple With Tall Dreams

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

    As you enter through the back gate of the new Area 1 shopping complex under construction, he sits proudly, apparently oblivion of his physical state, on his wheel chair.

    Here.

  • The Snake Joint of Lagos

    The Snake Joint of Lagos

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

    The joint opens as early in the morning. The 45-year-old widow may not be seen around but some of her five children are always In a day, about give long snake are consumed. Mrs. Iyabo’s dilemma in giving the place a name is based on the fact that the joint also sell snail, cow tail, fried meat, and of course, drinks.

    Here.

  • Zarqawi: Master of the Massacre, or Inept Dolt?

    From CJR:

    Who was Musab al-Zarqawi? Evil mastermind or bumbling fool? Intelligent or doltish? Enterprising terrorist or al Queda puppet? As the bloated, bloody face of America’s enemy number one in Iraq dominated the front pages of newspapers today, reporters on the scene could not even agree on the answer to a simple question: Who the hell was this guy?
    That he killed many, or at least set off forces that inspired the killing of many, is not in question. But almost everything else is. Here’s the second paragraph of Jeffrey Gettleman’s profile today in the New York Times: “His life story was riddled with contradictions: he was close to Saddam Hussein, he was fighting Mr. Hussein; he had two legs, he had one; he was Palestinian, he was Jordanian; he was right-handed, he was left-handed; he was a cunning leader, he was an illiterate brute.”
    Indeed, Gettleman goes so far as to state that “several people who knew Mr. Zarqawi well, including former cellmates, voiced doubts about his ability to be an insurgent leader, or the leader of anything.” (Emphasis ours.)

    Here.

  • The Long Interrogation

    The Long Interrogation

    With a photo by Edward Keating (is he back with NYT?), from the New York Times Magazine:

    Late one afternoon in February 1978, according to sworn testimony, a squad of revolutionary guards arrived at the home of Edgegayehu Taye, a 22-year-old civil servant. They told her she was wanted for questioning. She went without protest. The guards pushed her into the back seat of a Volkswagen and drove her some distance, until the car reached a corrugated metal gate marked by a sign that read: “Higher Zone 9.” The guards took her into the main office. Edgegayehu was ordered to strip naked and was bound with rope at her wrists and knees. Then the guards ran a pole through the loops in the rope and hung her between two desks, like a pig on a spit. They lashed her with plastic cables.

    Over and over again, the man behind the desk, the one with the afro, asked her, “Are you a member of the E.P.R.P.?”

    Years later, when she saw the man standing by the elevator at the Colony Square Hotel, Edgegayehu wasn’t sure it was Kelbessa at first. He’d gotten older, gained some weight, lost his swagger. He certainly didn’t seem to recognize her. Then Kelbessa smiled widely and greeted her, and she knew for sure. “The voice,” she told me. “You don’t forget the voice.”

    Here.

  • H-E-A-R-T-L-E-S-S

    H-E-A-R-T-L-E-S-S

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

    To signpost the wicked world she was being brought into, first, Kehinde lost her twin sister two days after birth. Three weeks later, she lost an arm owing to alleged staff negligence at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. And worse still, her parents are HIV positive.

    Here.

  • As President's Poll Numbers Fall, Many in Utah Stand by the Man

    As President's Poll Numbers Fall, Many in Utah Stand by the Man

    From the New York Times:

    “He’s strong, and he doesn’t waver,” said Jaren Olsen, 18, a freshman at Brigham Young, the nation’s largest religiously affiliated private university, who is from Albany. “I like that he is for the family, that marriage should only be between a man and woman. And the war, we need to finish what we started.”

    Another student at Brigham Young, Danielle Pulsipher, a junior, offered blanket approval of the president. Asked to name which of his actions as president she liked most, she was hard-pressed to answer.

    “I’m not sure of anything he’s done, but I like that he’s religious — that’s really important,” Ms. Pulsipher said.

    Here.

  • Online Throngs Impose a Stern Morality in China

    From the New York Times:

    It began with an impassioned, 5,000-word letter on one of the country’s most popular Internet bulletin boards from a husband denouncing a college student he suspected of having an affair with his wife. Immediately, hundreds joined in the attack.

    “Let’s use our keyboard and mouse in our hands as weapons,” one person wrote, “to chop off the heads of these adulterers, to pay for the sacrifice of the husband.”

    Within days, the hundreds had grown to thousands, and then tens of thousands, with total strangers forming teams that hunted down the student, hounded him out of his university and caused his family to barricade themselves inside their home.

    Here.

  • CrisisWatch No.34

    From the International Crisis Group:

    Ten actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated in May 2006, according to the new issue of CrisisWatch,* released today. Afghanistan saw its worst violence since 2001, with  some  350 insurgents, civilians and security personnel killed across its southern provinces. There was heavy fighting in  Mogadishu, Somalia,  between the Islamic Courts militia and the U.S.-backed Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, leaving over 200 dead. Tensions increased in the Democratic Republic of Congo ahead of 30 July elections, and clashes in Ituri province killed 60. Security collapsed in Timor-Leste after renegade soldiers clashed with security forces. In Israel/Occupied Territories, mounting violence in Gaza fuelled by a power struggle between Fatah and Hamas loyalists raised fears of civil war. Lebanon experienced its worst cross-border fighting in six years after rockets were fired into northern Israel in apparent response to the killing of an Islamic Jihad group leader in southern Lebanon. The situation also deteriorated in Brazil, Mali, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

    Here.

  • Utahns Support Medicaid Dental Care

    Utahns Support Medicaid Dental Care

    From KSL:

    Bill Tibbitts, Anti-Hunger Action Committee: “Extremely frustrating, very sad.”

    Here.

  • The Wages of Chaos

    The Wages of Chaos

    From the Guardian:

    The report also shows that in a single year checkpoints run by a warlord in a medium-size town can earn him more than $4m (£2.1m).

    There, in dollars and cents, lie the reasons that Somalia has remained a byword for anarchy for so long. Chaos equals cash for those with guns.

    A functioning national government, which President Abdullahi Yusuf is trying to install, would spell financial disaster for the warlords and the cartels.

    Here.

  • Okinawa Uncovered

    Okinawa Uncovered

    Please read the comments below. They are more informative and correct than this article may have been. It seems obvious to me that the article I quoted here is not up to snuff. -Trent

    From the Guardian Newspaper:

    “First, I cut off your head. Then, I cleave you in two.” Eugene, my travelling companion and a fluent Japanese speaker, translated as a 450 year old samurai sword sliced a curving arc around his body, inches away from his face and chest. The words, and the sword, belonged to Hamamoto, a 70-year-old sensei and founder of the Hamamoto fighting style. The Hamamoto style, we soon discovered, is extremely violent and quite unsporting: he beckoned Eugene to kneel opposite him and encouraged him to bow. Mid-bow he suddenly unsheathed his sword and told him: “Now I take the butt of my sword and break your chin. Then I disembowel you.”

    More Here.

  • Armenian Teen Slain on Train

    From the Moscow Times:

    No suspects had been detained as of Tuesday.

    “According to witnesses, the killers were yelling, ‘Glory to Russia’ and ‘Long live Russia,’” said Simon Tsaturyan, the Sardaryan family’s lawyer.

    Tsaturyan said the attackers pulled the train’s emergency lever after stabbing Sardaryan and fled the scene. Sardaryan died on the spot, Tsaturyan said.

    Here.

  • Zimbabwe demolition images shown

    Zimbabwe demolition images shown

    From the BBC:

    The satellite images show the destruction of one settlement near Harare, which had contained some 850 structures before last May.

    The human rights group says the photos are irrefutable evidence how entire communities were obliterated.

    The UN says some 700,000 people were directly affected by the demolitions.

    Here.

  • The Troops Have Moved On

    The Troops Have Moved On

    From the New York Times:

    Somehow Operation Iraqi Freedom, not a large war by America’s historical standards, has blossomed into a crisis of expectations that threatens our ability to react to future threats with a fist instead of five fingers. Instead of rallying we are squabbling, even as the slow fuse burns.

    One party is overly sanguine, unwilling to acknowledge its errors. The other is overly maudlin, unable to forgive the same. The Bush administration seeks to insulate the public from the reality of war, placing its burden on the few. The press has tried to fill that gap by exposing the raw brutality of the insurgency; but it has often done so without context, leaving a clear implication that we can never win.

    Here.

  • Bigots Not Discriminating About Their Targets

    From the Moscow Times:

    “I punched him in the face myself because I’m a normal Russian guy,” Alexei said, grinning.

    Using a widespread Russian expression, Alexei said he and others came to protest the march to “combine the pleasant things with the useful things” — hanging out with his friends while physically beating people he considers perverts.

    Here.

  • Somalis Brave a Sea of Perils

    Somalis Brave a Sea of Perils

    From the New York Times:

    The Somali smugglers are a ruthless lot. They charge $30 to $100 for passage, quite a bit since they pack 80 to 200 bodies into the fishing boats. And payment does not guarantee safe passage, not by a long shot.

    If the seas get too rough, some passengers might be hurled overboard to lighten the load. If someone dares to stand up during the voyage, a whack with a stick or a gun butt is the inevitable punishment. Unaccompanied women might find themselves sexually molested by the crew in the dark.

    But it is when the Yemeni Coast Guard appears and the boat owner risks losing his craft that things get even worse. The crew is likely to force all the passengers into the sea at gunpoint. If anyone hesitates, the crew will sometimes tie the hands of the passengers and throw them out, or simply shoot them.

    Here.