The conservative Washington Times exploits the arrest of four Kosovar Albanian youth in the apparent Ft. Dix terror conspiracy, raising once again Slobodan Milosevic’s specter of a Balkan jihad. Good timing, just as Kosova is poised to become Europe’s first… Read moreKosovars busted in Ft. Dix terror plot: xenophobe fodder
What a bizarre irony. The international press are playing up the lovefest between the once-implacable enemies who have united to revive the “devolved” government at Stormont for the first time since the power-sharing assembly was suspended in October 2002: new… Read moreUlster: old enemies unite in new government —and opposition
A US helicopter opened fire on an elementary school in Diyala province May 8, killing seven students and wounding three, according to Iraqi security sources and local residents. Iraqi sources said the helicopter was fired on from the ground and… Read moreIraq: US kills civilians —again
An air raid killed 21 civilians in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand May 8, the provincial governor charged. “Twenty-one civilians, including women and children, were killed” in the raid on a village in Sangin district, Gov. Assadullah Wafa said. AlJazeera… Read moreAfghanistan: air strike kills civilians —again
Transitional government security forces in Somalia have begun seizing and burning women’s face veils in Mogadishu in an attempt to stop insurgents disguising themselves in order to carry out attacks. When the city was under the control of the Islamic… Read moreSomalia: transition government bans hijab
Another bloody entry in Ansar al-Islam‘s bid to extend the “insurgent” terror campaign to Iraq’s (relatively) stable Kurdish autonomous zone. The need to mollify these thugs may explain the increasing conservative Islamist tilt of the supposedly secular Kurdish regional authorities… Read moreIraq: truck bomb in Irbil —Ansar al-Islam strikes again?
From AlJazeera, May 7: Two Palestinian were killed and four wounded during clashes between rival factions in Lebanon’s main refugee camp of Ein el-Helweh. Palestinian security sources said the two dead men belonged to the Fatah movement of Mahmud Abbas,… Read morePalestinian factions clash in Lebanon: Fatah versus al-Qaeda?
Veracruz state prosecutors have concluded that 73-year-old grandmother Ernestina Ascencio* wasn’t raped or beaten by Mexican federal army soldiers but died of natural causes, spokesmen said at a news conference in the state capital, Xalapa. Juan Alatriste Gómez, a special… Read moreVeracruz: rape-murder case against soldiers dropped —as victims’ children “disappear”
Major General Rick Lynch, who commands US forces south of Baghdad, told reporters May 7 recent history indicates that it takes an average of nine years to put down internal insurgencies, and there is “no instantaneous solution” in Iraq. “You… Read moreUS could be in Iraq for years: general
From AP, May 6: GREENSBURG, Kan.— The rebuilding effort in tornado-ravaged Greensburg, Kansas, likely will be hampered because some much-needed equipment is in Iraq, said that state’s governor. Governor Kathleen Sebelius said much of the National Guard equipment usually positioned… Read moreIraq war hampers Kansas tornado recovery
Colombian prosecutor general Mario Iguarán confirmed that several foreigners, at least three from Ecuador, are among the 105 presumed paramilitary victims whose bodies were exhumed from a mass grave near La Hormiga, Putumayo department, May 5. Another 106 bodies were… Read moreColombia: AUC’s “Macaco” behind Putumayo mass grave
Three campesino leaders from San Salvador Atenco were each sentenced to 67 years and six months in prison on charges of kidnapping May 5. The sentences come almost exactly a year after a violent clash between Atenco residents and Mexican… Read moreMexico: Atenco leaders get 67 years
