What’s behind Christian-Muslim fighting in Nigeria?

The Nigerian Army was sent in Tuesday to stop violence that began Sunday, after Christians protested the construction of a mosque and after Muslim protesters attacked a Catholic church. Fighting is centered in the city of Jos – an acronym for “Jesus Our Savior.” Read more

Haitian dig out from earthquake

Jan. 16 (GVMonitor) — Tons of aid supplies are arriving in Haiti but workers are finding problems getting the materials to the people stricken by the earthquake.

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Tuesday wrecked the Haitian capital’s infrastructure, further limiting humanitarian efforts to reach victims. Estimates are that as many as 70,000 people may have died and thousands of survivors are without food, water or medical help. Read more

Coordinated Bombings Kill at Least 101 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — In what appeared to be a coordinated assault, a series of car bombings across Baghdad on Tuesday killed at least 101 people and wounded scores more, according to preliminary accounts by police and hospital officials… Five bombs, including at least one suicide attack, struck near a university, a court, a mosque and a market in a neighborhood near the Interior Ministry. The blasts began shortly Read more

Keep an Eye on the Balkans

Trouble is brewing.

The Balkans is a region we love to forget. Sandwiched between the Adriatic and Black seas, the peninsula is a hodgepodge mix of religions, peoples and cultures. The complexity and obscurity of the Balkans—together with its geographic situation—fosters the perception of the region as a largely irrelevant backwater to Europe, Russia and the Middle East… History punctures this perception… Historically, the Balkans is a place where civilizations have converged and clashed. During the Middle Ages, the peninsula fell under the control Read more

Palestinians warned over UN move

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has warned the Palestinian leadership against any attempts to unilaterally declare statehood for the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem… West Bank-based Palestinian officials said on Sunday that they were preparing to ask the United Nations Security Council to declare their backing for the Palestinian quest for an independent state… In a radio address on Sunday evening, Netanyahu said: “There is no substitute for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority—[read more…]

This story from Al Jazeera.net | posted: 16 November 2009

On patrol in Mexico’s most dangerous city

Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez is one of the world’s most dangerous cities, plagued by battles between drug gangs. A BBC team witnessed its violence at first hand on a police patrol, as Ian Sherwood reports… The sun sets early now that winter is approaching. It is nearly 1800 and Ciudad Juarez has already descended into darkness…We drive up to Estacion Delicias police station, where all is quiet–[read more…]

This story from BBC NEWS | posted:16 Nov. 2009

Is Israel too strong for Barack Obama?

From The Economist

As America drops its demand for a total freeze on the building of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, angry Palestinians say there is no scope for resuming talks

Cairo And Jerusalem — FIVE months after Barack Obama went to Cairo and persuaded most of the Arab world, in a ringing declaration of even-handedness, that he would face down Israel in his quest for a Palestinian state, American policy seems to have run into the sand. The American president’s mediating hand is weaker, his charisma damagingly faded. Read more

New EU President

From the Trumpet.com

The first president of the European Council may be in for a brief term in office.

Consistent with the way of the Franco-German agenda for the European Union, Germany and its lackey, France, got their leader of choice appointed to the new position of EU president.

As has been the case with this most undemocratic of institutions from its inception, the whole process leading to the appointment of the Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy to be the first permanent European Council president lacked transparency. Read more

When Generals and Ambassadors Feud

From Foreign Policy

Take it from this former ambassador: Disagreements over the war in Afghanistan may do more long-term harm than short-term good.

In 2007 in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker set a model for civil-military collaboration: They never let daylight show between their positions — not to outsiders, not to official Washington, not even to their own staffs. In providing differing advice to Washington over troop levels in Afghanistan, General McChrystal and Ambassador Karl Eikenberry have diverged from this model. Read more

Afghanistan: Too Big to Fail?

From The Nation

Why All of Obama’s Afghan Options Are Bad Ones

In the worst of times, my father always used to say, “A good gambler cuts his losses.” It’s a formulation imprinted on my brain forever. That no-nonsense piece of advice still seems reasonable to me, but it doesn’t apply to American war policy. Our leaders evidently never saw a war to which the word “more” didn’t apply. Hence the Afghan War, where impending disaster is just an invitation to fuel the flames of an already roaring fire.

Here’s a partial rundown of news from that devolving conflict. In the last week, Nuristan, a province on the Pakistani border, essentially fell to the Taliban after the United States withdrew its forces from four key bases. [read more…]

By Tom Engelhardt | from www.thenation.com | Posted: 02 November 2009

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