Death and salvation in Kashmir
Indian soldiers shot dead three suspected militants attempting to "infiltrate" into Indian-administered Kashmir. With the winter snows melting this time of year, militants seek to cross over from Pakistan through the region's frost-chapped mountain passes.
Since the outbreak of troubles in Kashmir twenty years ago, the idyllic Dal Lake has suffered years of neglect and pollution. Local villages and sewage companies have been blamed for the fouling of the famous lake. Government authorities have planned multimillion dollar clean-up of the lake, the jewel in Kashmir's once thriving tourism industry.
Ominous warnings for Karachi journalists
Three Pakistani journalists working in the restive coastal metropolis of Karachi recently found envelopes containing bullets in their cars, in what is considered an attempt to intimidate and silence the press in a city that has endured political violence and turmoil in recent weeks.
US-Iranian diplomacy = "satanic"
The al-Qaida affiliated militant coalition the Islamic State in Iraq has slammed recent bilateral talks between US and Iranian representatives in Baghdad as "satanic". The negotiations, which focused on the security situation in Iraq, coincided with a spate of bombing attacks in the Iraqi capital.
The same militant group has claimed responsibility for the downing of an American helicopter yesterday.
Turkey ups the ante
A detachment of twenty Turkish tanks has moved on the border with Iraq in a move meant to pressure US and Iraqi authorities to crush the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) fighters hiding across the border in Iraq. Recent bombings in Ankara and in the militarised border regions on Turkish targets have convinced Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he must "talk tough" ahead of national elections.
Erdogan has demanded that the US destroy all PKK bases and hideouts in the north of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Sunni Arab militants are heaping pressure on Kurds in the city of Mosul in Iraq's diverse Nineveh province. An estimated 70,000 Kurds have been forced to move east to Iraqi Kurdistan after threats, intimidation and violence by Sunni fighters.
Deal brokered in the Philippines?
Philippine authorities and Islamic rebels are nearing a deal that would delineate "ancestral Muslim lands" in the south of the island archipelago. For forty years the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has fought a bloody rebellion that has cost 120,000 lives and displaced nearly 2 million people. Talks have stumbled on the specificities of the size and wealth of the Muslim autonomous region. As a MILF negotiator said, "When you deal with the government, it's not easy like buying a buffalo."
Afghan, US officials at odds over casualties
Local officials in Khogiani district in eastern Afghanistan have contradicted US claims that coalition troops killed Taliban fighters in the area. Instead, the provincial officials allege that the troops killed and abducted several civilians in a dawn raid on a house.
US Qaida warns of coming attacks
A video of Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam and member of al-Qaida, demanding that the administration of President George W Bush withdraw all its troops from "Islamic soil" has appeared on the internet. Gadahn is thought to be in hiding in Pakistan. He was charged with treason in absentia, the first instance of such a charge being used since the World War Two era.
Fear and loathing in Sri Lanka
With the security situation in Sri Lanka deteriorating further, ethnic Tamils have come under increasing scrutiny and persecution by state authorities in the largely Sinhala nation. Many Tamils are summarily arrested and beaten by police, who suspect them of supporting the rebel Tamil Tigers.
Fourteen people have died in recent fighting between the government and the rebels.
Niger Delta remains anarchic
Gang members in the southern state of Rivers in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria were ambushed by militiamen in fights that left 15 people dead. The gang members were unhappy over compensation they had received for intimidating opponents in recent elections, and were on their way to disrupt the inauguration of the new governor of the state when they were waylaid by militiamen also in the pay of the politicians.
Blair visits Libya, cashes in
British Prime Minister Tony Blair met with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at the start of an African tour to raise support on action regarding Darfur and climate change. Blair acknowledged that relations with Libya had "transformed" in recent years, as Tripoli distances itself from its past isolation from the west.
Abetting that transformation is a $900 million oil deal signed between Libya and British Petroleum.
Russia tests missile
Russian officials claim to have tested a new multiple-warhead ballistic missile capable of overcoming the latest missile defence systems, including the American-planned missile shield over eastern Europe. The Kremlin has repeatedly protested against the expansion of the US missile shield to countries like the Czech Republic and Poland, arguing that the shield is deliberately targeted against Russia.
Sanctions and successes in Sudan
The Counterterrorism Blog notes that recently approved sanctions against Sudan do not impinge upon the influential Chinese companies that prop up Khartoum.
In the dusty Darfur town of al-Fasher, Awatef Ahmed Isaac, a self-taught 24 year-old woman, has shot to minor celebrity after her "newspaper" which she pinned every week to a tree for public reading was reported on in the Washington Post. She seeks to capture the daily lives and struggles of people in the war-torn region.
