The Pentagon has, astutely, chosen an African American as first chief of the new Africa Command, Gen. William “Kip” Ward—and his first official visit to the continent was, of course, to chief US ally Ethiopia. Meeting with African Union leaders… Read moreAfriCom chief does Ethiopia; proxy war escalates in Somalia
Six US soldiers were killed in three separate attacks in Iraq Nov. 5, bringing the number of deaths this year to 852—and making 2007 the deadliest year of the war for US troops. The news comes days after the military… Read moreIraq deaths hit record; Congress talks tough, funds carnage
While we certainly don’t put it past the Taliban to blow up a bunch of schoolchildren to take out a couple of politicians, we note that this attack comes in the normally (relatively) peaceful north of the country, where the… Read moreAfghanistan: who is behind Baghlan suicide blast?
Days after a car bomb in the normally (relatively) peaceful northern city of Kirkuk left eight dead in a Kurdish neighborhood (Reuters, Oct. 28), comes this ominous news from AlJazeera Nov. 6: Kirkuk’s Arabs paid to pack up It is… Read moreArabs paid to leave Kirkuk in “reverse ethnic cleansing”
A fascinating story from the New York Times Nov. 5. The Vatican seems to be sending an explicit message here about the need to protect Christians in Muslim lands. But note that the situation for Iraq’s Christians has dramatically worsened… Read moreIraq: Chaldean patriarch becomes Catholic Cardinal
The New York Times reports Nov. 5 on an initiative to win justice for Jews who fled Arab countries after 1948, and their descendants. But the first paragraph makes nearly explicitly clear that they are being exploited as bargaining chips… Read moreMizrahi Jews as political cannon fodder?
Within days of the 9-11 attacks, media speculation started that al-Qaeda was seeking nuclear weapons. Now it is starting to look like US actions could make that a self-fulfilling prophecy. Washington imposed sanctions on both Pakistan and India after their… Read morePakistan’s nukes up for jihadi grabs?
From Newsday, Nov. 3: Mom accidentally hits son with SUV The mother of a 4-year-old Central Islip boy accidentally struck her son with her SUV Friday afternoon when she backed up out of the family driveway, police said. Joshua Felisberto,… Read moreWHY WE FIGHT
Peru is sending a force of 100 national police to what has been declared a zona cocalera (coca-growing zone) in ApurĂmac region to hunt down suspected Shining Path guerrillas who killed a police commander and wounded an officer in a… Read morePeru: ApurĂmac militarized after “narcoterror” attack
The Spanish parliament Oct. 31 passed a landmark bill that condemns the 1939-75 fascist dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco and mandates restitution to its victims. The Law of Historical Memory, approved by the lower house, will expand benefits to victims… Read moreSpain passes “Historical Memory” law on Franco era
Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez read out the verdicts Oct. 31 in the long-running Madrid 3-11 terror trial. Three of the defendants—Jamal Zougam, Emilio Suarez Trashorras, and Osman Gnaoui— were found guilty of murder and handed prison terms of up to… Read moreSpain: survivors protest 3-11 verdicts —despite 40,000-year sentences
With the price of oil creeping ominously and seemingly inexorably towards an unprecedented $100 per barrel, the long and equally unprecedented mega-profit-fest for Exxon and the other industry majors is nonetheless starting to level off. It seems that consumption is… Read moreConsumers get revenge on Exxon …a little
