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The National Solidarity Program in Afghanistan seeks to boost morale and regional stability by directly involving communities with reconstruction programs (at right). Now, the Washington Monthly reports that decreasing U.S. support for the program may undermine gains.
Photo: nspafghanistan.org
Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED:
“Although this certainly is a case of domestic violence, some are referring to this as an example of an ‘honor’ killing.” — The Muslim American Society on the killing of an immigrant teen in Canada, allegedly by her father (see “Fundamentalism,” below). CONTENTS:
*Top Stories*
Iraqi officers AWOL in the U.S.
Protestors say Israel will exclude Ethiopian Jews
Afghan reconstruction faces U.S. budget cuts
*Fundamentalism*
Muslim teen’s slaying sparks Canada debate
*Media*
Fur flies in tiger photo fight
TOP STORIES
* Iraqi Officers AWOL in U.S.
At least five and as many as a dozen Iraqi officials have deserted U.S.-based military training, and are at large and unaccounted for, the Washington Times reports. Now, a pair of Texas Republicans are demanding answers from White House officials — more than a year after first inquiring about the disappearances.
Oil trucks on the Napo River (right) are blazing trails into a vast corner of the Amazon, thick with rare species and indigenous peoples in “voluntary isolation.” Environment News Service reports that an area there larger than California and Maine has been opened to development.
Photo: drcohen
Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED:
“[W]hen former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan, where did he go? To the Sufi shrine in Lahore.” — Pakistani anthropologist Akbar Ahmed on Sufism as an antidote to Islamic fundamentalism (see “Islam,” below). CONTENTS:
*Top Stories*
Oil industry’s Amazon frontier
A man, a dam and a salmon plan
Corruption roils Alaska oil politics
*Australia*
Things looking up for the poor Down Under
*Islam*
The stirrings of Islamo-liberalism
TOP STORIES
* Oil Industry’s Amazon Frontier
Economic development and ecological conservation are once again at odds in the Amazon, where a remote region thick with rare species — and indigenous peoples in “voluntary isolation” — has been opened to extensive oil and gas development.
Concurrent outbreaks in Uganda of ebola, meningitis, cholera, bubonic plague and even yellow fever have health officials there on the defensive. Critics say the government has been slow to react, and that clinics in rural areas (right) are short on funding.
Photo: Clinic sign in Uganda (make_change)
Riot police (right) greeted thousands of minority protesters in Malaysia’s capital, turning back their calls for increased social benefits — including business licenses, scholarships and other privileges “reserved exclusively for native Maylays” — with water cannons and tear gas.
Photo: Police line in Kuala Lumpur (Angshah)
Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED:
“I was expecting the site to tell me that I couldn’t do that. I’m just curious about these things so I tried it, and boom, there was somebody else’s name and somebody else’s data.” — Canadian Jamie Laning changed one letter on a passport renewal Web site, and got surprising results (see “Privacy,” below). CONTENTS:
*Top Stories*
Whither Cuba’s green thumb?
China’s Three Gorges Dam cost $15.6 billion, displaced 1.2 million people, and has 19 hydropower generators expected to produce 84.7 million megawatt-hours of electricity each year. Now, reports of landslides around the dam are stoking fears of a super-sized disaster.
Photo: Three Gorges hydropower (Mr. Frosted)
Important but overlooked news from around the world. QUOTED:
“The Chinese government is closely monitoring and is intensifying repair work, and I think we can avoid losses as far as possible.” — Wang Xiaofeng on landslides and pollution around China’s largest hydroelectric project (see “Three Gorges Dam,” below). CONTENTS:
*Top Stories*
Japan to expand atomic bomb victim standards
Kosovo threatens unilateral independence
Tear gas for ethnic protest in Malaysia
*Three Gorges Dam*
Cracks at the seams? China bolsters Three Gorges
*Kenya*
Sex on the beach or birds in hand?
Nigeria’s oil industry is hugely profitable, but poverty remains widespread. Now, British officials are investigating the potential laundering of $40 million in aid money by a former Nigerian state governor, and direct cash payments by Chevron and Shell to his businesses.
Photo: Shell oil gear, Nigeria (only_e)