Around the World
Kathy Gannon
Yahoo! News
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00 EST
© AP Photo/Allauddin Khan
In this photo taken on Oct. 30, 2009, Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, speaks during an interview in Kandarhar, south of Kabul, Afghanistan. He's a self-confessed wheeler-dealer, an old-style power broker who maneuvers through a murky, dangerous world of intelligence, tribal intrigue and - some critics allege - guns and drugs.
He calls himself a wheeler dealer - an old-style power broker who maneuvers through a murky, dangerous world of intelligence, tribal intrigue and, some critics allege, guns and drugs.
Ahmed Wali Karzai is also a half brother of Afghanistan's embattled president, whose international partners believe removing him from the country's political mix is essential if the newly elected administration is to prove its commitment to good governance.
So far, President Hamid Karzai has refused to push aside his brother without convincing proof he's done anything wrong.
Noah Shachtman
Wired
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00 EST
© Noah Shachtman
The U.S. military is turning to guns-for-hire to guard one of its outposts in Afghanistan. But Blackwaters of the world, take note: simply hiring former G.I.s or American cops or even Nepalese Gurkhas won't do the trick this time. At least half of the 50-man force has to come "from within a 50 kilometer radius" of the base, according to a contract
solicitation issued by the U.S. Air Force.
Al Jazeera
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:57 EST
© Reuters
Bignone was president of Argentina between
1982 and 1983
Argentina's last military ruler has gone on trial accused of involvement in the kidnapping, torture and murder of 56 people at a military base.
Reynaldo Bignone, who was president of the South American nation from 1982 to 1983, appeared in a makeshift courtroom in an indoor sports arena, along with seven other former military and police officers, on Monday.
Hundreds of people, including numerous relatives of the victims, turned out for the start of the trial in a Buenos Aires suburb.
Juan O. Tamayo
Miami Herald
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:48 EST
Whether it's called an ''arms race'' or a ''coincidental modernization'' of existing stocks, a wave of weapons purchases by Latin American nations is causing neighbors to watch each other with growing mistrust and fear.
Protection
Brazil says it must protect its newfound oil and gas riches. Venezuela says the U.S. military might attack it. Colombia is worried by Venezuela, Ecuador is watching Colombia and Paraguay is keeping an eye on Bolivia.
There's no question that weapons sales around the region are soaring. They almost doubled in just five years, from $24 billion in 2003 to $47 billion last year, according to one report by Colombian analyst Javier Loaiza. Others put the 2008 total at $60 billion.
U.S. government officials are monitoring the deals with a level of concern but avoid the term ''arms race.'' One said he preferred to call it a ''coincidental modernization of existing stocks'' to reflect the absence so far of widespread tit-for-tat arms purchases.
IANS
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:39 EST
Nine soldiers and at least 30 rebels were killed in clashes in the southwestern Colombian province of Cauca, the Colombian Army said Tuesday.
The gun battle started late Monday when about 200 members of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) tried to storm the village of Corinto, 300 km southwest of Bogota.
Deccan Herald
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00 EST
© Unknown
He also confirmed a recent media report which cited an account provided by him as saying that China provided Pakistan enough weapons-grade uranium for two atomic bombs and the blueprint for a simple nuclear weapon in 1982.
"The nation must know that national secrets were handed over to Washington by the former president (Pervez Musharraf) who was an American stooge," Khan told
The News.
Yahoo! News
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00 EST
© AFP/Pool/File/Nicolas Asfouri
Pakistani soldiers secure an area near Kotkai village in the south of Waziristan in October 2009. The Taliban hit back Wednesday at claims that towns in their mountain bastion have fallen to Pakistan army control, vowing their guerrilla war would defeat troops waging a major assault.
The Taliban have hit back at Pakistan claims of success in a major offensive, vowing on Wednesday that their guerrilla war would expel troops from their stronghold near the Afghan border.
"We have not been defeated. We have voluntarily withdrawn into the mountains under a strategy that will trap the Pakistan army in the area," Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told journalists taken by blindfold to a mountain top.
Pakistan's main umbrella Taliban faction, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) arranged a news conference for journalists from the tribal belt a day after the military flew correspondents into South Waziristan to visit the battlefield.
Gulf Times
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00 EST
The use of Israeli-made light arms by militants in Pakistan against security forces in Waziristan region of the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan has raised several questions amongst many, news reports revealed yesterday.
La Via Campesina
Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:13 EDT
Jakarta--About 100 women peasant members of Serikat Petani Indonesia (SPI) gathered at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout, Jakarta commemorating the 2009 World Food Day. They were doing a peaceful rally by walking around the big fountain.
News24.com
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:09 EST
Dakar - South African and Israeli army instructors, hired by the ruling Guinea junta, are training pro-junta recruits in a camp in Forecariah, 100km south of Conakry, witnesses said on Monday.
The new soldiers recruited by the junta, which seized power in Guinea on December 23 last year, are being trained in a camp formerly used to house Sierra Leone refugees outside Forecariah.
The around 40 military instructors are training soldiers "recruited on the basis of their ethnicity" as they belong to the same group as junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, witnesses said.
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