In addition to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto near Islamabad, Pakistan, here’s some other news and the afternoon’s open thread.

1. With the Iowa caucus just a week away, Reuters notes the obvious: U.S. presidential contenders scour Iowa for votes. While CNN predicts Edwards and McCain are positioned to shake up race. While, the Tribune’s Washington bureau notes that big white hunter Huckabee has a muzzle control problem. Out hunting pheasants, “at one point, Huckabee’s party turned toward a cluster of reporters and cameramen and, when they kicked up a pheasant, fired shotgun blasts over the group’s heads.” Huckabee is using the Cheney method.

   Meanwhile, Ghouliani is battling poll shrinkage and is going big and playing his 9/11 card. The Boston Globe reports Giuliani ad links World War II to 9/11. “The 60-second spot mixes video of Giuliani speaking and then speaking over images of American soldiers and homefront workers during the war and then firefighters at Ground Zero in New York. One is the famous photo of Marines planting the US flag on Iwo Jima and another of the flag raised over the rubble of the World Trade Center.”

   Disgusting and offensive, but he is not stopping there. Desperately trying to regain relevancy in the Republican primary, Giuliani was first to pounce on the Bhutto Assassination. Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post writes, “The assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was only minutes old and details remained sketchy when former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign issued a condemnation of terrorism writ large… Bhutto’s assassination could well work to Giuliani’s benefit because it may enable him to thrust himself back into the daily political conversation after steadily losing ground in the presidential campaign for weeks.”

2. The Miami Herald reports Colombian hostage handover in the works. “Relatives of hostages held captive for more than five years by Colombian leftist rebels Thursday packed their bags to travel to neighboring Venezuela hoping to be reunited with their loved ones, while Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez prepared to send planes and helicopters to pick up the three hostages… A senior Venezuelan diplomat, Rodolfo Sánz, said that the handover would happen between Friday and Sunday… The release would also be a major diplomatic coup for Chávez, who has emerged as a key figure in the liberation process even after he was told by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to stay out of hostage negotiations a month ago.”

3. The murders of musicians in Mexico continues. The Washington Post reports on The savage silencing of Mexico’s musicians. “Sergio Gómez, 34, was the latest of a dozen pop musicians to have been killed in the past year in Mexico. Nearly every one of the slayings bore the hallmarks of the drug cartel hitmen blamed for 4,000 deaths in the country in the past two years. But the savage murder of Sergio Gómez — one of Mexico’s hottest singers, a headliner whose band, K-Paz de la Sierra, commanded $100,000 a show, twice the rate of other top bands — was different. It has set off an unprecedented chain reaction in which at least half a dozen bands have canceled concert tours… Among music industry insiders, Sergio Gómez’s death and the previous killings are also forcing a quiet assessment of the influence drug trafficking kingpins wield over the business.”

4. While people were distracted by Santa and the North Pole, The Guardian reports that at the South Pole, two Antarctic base staff evacuated after Christmas brawl. “Two men, one with a suspected broken jaw, have been airlifted from the Antarctic’s most remote research facility after an incident described as a ‘drunken Christmas punch-up’. The brawl happened at the US-operated Amundsen-Scott South Pole station, located at the heart of the frozen continent… The injured man is an employee of Raytheon Polar Services, one of America’s largest defence contractors.” Defense contractors are everywhere!

Accusations, riots, and political instability are among the immediate reactions to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Here’s a roundup.

Talking Points Memo:

A longtime adviser and close friend of assassinated Pakistani ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto places blame for Bhutto’s death squarely on the shoulders of U.S.-supported dictator Pervez Musharraf.

After an October attack on Bhutto’s life in Karachi, the ex-prime minister warned “certain individuals in the security establishment [about the threat] and nothing was done,” says Husain Haqqani, a confidante of Bhutto’s for decades. “There is only one possibility: the security establishment and Musharraf are complicit, either by negligence or design. That is the most important thing. She’s not the first political leader killed, since Musharraf took power, by the security forces.”

Haqqani notes that Bhutto died of a gunshot wound to the neck. “It’s like a hit, not a regular suicide bombing,” he says. “It’s quite clear that someone who considers himself Pakistan’s Godfather has a very different attitude toward human life than you and I do.”

Times of India:

The immediate finger of suspicion though pointed to Pakistan’s security establishment. A key Benazir aide said the country’s military government had much to answer for the assassination because it had not met certain security arrangements required and officials were “dismissive” about Bhutto’s requests in this regard.

“They could have provided better security. Even the equipment they gave consistently malfunctioned. Bhutto had asked for independent security arrangements,” Hussain Haqqani, a US-based former Bhutto aide told CNN .

Haqqani and other analysts like Peter Bergen also pointed out that the attack took place in Rawalpindi, the military garrison town outside Islamabad that is crawling with security personnel and spooks. The fact that she had been shot dead following up a suicide bombing pointed to a concerted effort to finish her off.

Haqqani said he had spoken to Benazir two days ago and she was concerned about the security arrangement and the military government’s effort to rig the election.

Reuters:

Analysts say President Pervez Musharraf, who stepped down as army chief of the nuclear-armed country two weeks ago under intense international pressure, is likely to seize the moment to reimpose emergency rule and cancel, or at least postpone, elections scheduled for Jan. 8.

“It is fair to assume now that elections cannot go ahead,” said Farzana Shaikh, an expert on Pakistan and an associate fellow at the Chatham House analysis group in London.

“The electoral process has been stopped dead in its tracks. I think there is a very real possibility that Musharraf will decide that the situation has got out of control and that he needs to impose emergency rule again.

She said Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the battle against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, was entering “uncharted waters”, which could lead to instability in a region that has seen three wars fought between Pakistan and its nuclear-armed neighbour India.

BBC:

Some supporters at the hospital wept while others broke into anger, throwing stones at cars and breaking windows.

Protests erupted in other cities as news of the assassination spread

A number of cars were torched in Karachi, capital of the PPP’s heartland province of Sindh, where shots were also reportedly fired

Cars were reportedly set on fire in Hyderabad, also in Sindh Province

Police in Peshawar, in the north-west, used batons and tear gas to break up a rally by protesters chanting anti-Musharraf slogans

Unrest was also reported in Quetta, Multan and Shikarpur

Associated Press:

Stocks fell in early trading Thursday after the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and after the U.S. government reported a weak increase in durable goods orders.

Bhutto’s assassination raised the possibility of increasing political unrest abroad, always an unsettling prospect for investors. Oil, gold and bond prices rose following the news.

Global Voices Online has reactions from Pakistani bloggers.

Thanks for stopping in….

Please don’t rec the pony party, another will trot up in a few hours. Hang out and chit chat, and please go check out some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

(^.^)

A few years ago we went to Puerto Rico for our first ‘real’ vacation (no kids- furred or furless)

If I had my druthers I’d be….

We’ll stop at Panaderia for ‘cubanos’ for breakfast…

and head out of town…

to the hills and dirt roads…

some cool stuff…

Thanks for stopping in….

Please don’t rec the pony party, another will trot up in a few hours. Hang out and chit chat, and please go check out some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

(^.^)

A few years ago we went to Puerto Rico for our first ‘real’ vacation (no kids- furred or furless)

If I had my druthers I’d be….

We’ll stop at Panaderia for ‘cubanos’ for breakfast…

and head out of town…

to the hills and dirt roads…

some cool stuff…

(This diary just broke my heart. Promoted for its beautiful writing and just because. – promoted by noweasels)

Grieving is hard. Writing is cathartic.

At least, it is for us.

I just posted a piece called “As I Lay Dying…” — A Farewell to Mumsie on both ePluribus Media and DailyKos, the two spots on the vast Intertube network where she was known the best.

It was a stream-of-consciousness piece that Wifey and I both shared in the creation of, started as I sat vigil by Mumsie’s side in the nursing home and completed, for the most part, last night as Wifey and I quietly passed the small pocket computer between us at our local watering hole.

Please go leave a comment in one or both places for Wifey, and if you “knew” Mumsie through any of our writings please feel free to post a note for her as well.

As 2007 draws to a close, it’s again time for the annual data about executions in the US.  From my abolitionist’s perspective, this year’s statistics are better than last year’s and are trending in the right direction.  But the numbers are especially troubling because they show a concentration of state killing and a continued enthusiasm for it in Texas.

Join me across the wall for the 2007 wrap up.

The New York Times reports:

This year’s death penalty bombshells – a de facto national moratorium, a state abolition and the smallest number of executions in more than a decade – have masked what may be the most significant and lasting development. For the first time in the modern history of the death penalty, more than 60 percent of all American executions took place in Texas.

Over the past three decades, the proportion of executions nationwide performed in Texas has held relatively steady, averaging 37 percent. Only once before, in 1986, has the state accounted for even a slight majority of the executions, and that was in a year with 18 executions nationwide.

But enthusiasm for executions outside of Texas has dropped sharply. Of the 42 executions in the last year, 26 were in Texas. The remaining 16 were spread across nine other states, none of which executed more than three people. Many legal experts say the trend will probably continue.

The trend in the starkest terms is that Texas executes and other states refrain from state killing.  As University of Houston Professor David Dow points out, “”The reason that Texas will end up monopolizing executions is because every other state will eliminate it de jure, as New Jersey did, or de facto, as other states have.”  According to the Times and the Death Penalty Information Center, Texas’s rate of imposing the death penalty isn’t higher than other states, it’s just far more aggressive in carrying out executions state killings.

Other developments in 2007 point strongly toward abolition of state killing in the US:

*All state executions have been stayed until the Supreme Court decides the constitutionality of lethal injection as a means of killing.  A decision is not expected until Spring.  If the decision is unfavorable to abolition, there will be a host of immediately re-scheduled executions.  There are no real predictions on how the Court lines up on the issue.

*New Jersey legislatively abolished its death penalty.  My previous essay about this fantastic news is here, with follow-ups here and here.

*There are possible abolition moves in other states including New Mexico and Montana, but these are not as strong (yet) as the initiative in New Jersey was.

*The rate at which Texas has been imposing the death penalty, believe it or not, is actually falling:

In the 10 years ending in 2004, Texas condemned an average of 34 prisoners each year – about 15 percent of the national total. In the last three years, as the number of death sentences nationwide dropped significantly, from almost 300 in 1998 to about 110 in 2007, the number in Texas has dropped along with it, to 13 – or 12 percent.

Indeed, according to a 2004 study by three professors of law and statistics at Cornell published in The Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Texas prosecutors and juries were no more apt to seek and impose death sentences than those in the rest of the country.

*The US Supreme Court has been critical of Texas’ appeals processes in death penalty cases.  And with just cause.  Just before the moratorium took affect, Texas showed a shameful disregard for the legal rights of one of those it had condemned to death:

The last execution before the Supreme Court imposed a de facto moratorium happened in Texas, and in emblematic fashion. The presiding judge on the state’s highest court for criminal matters, Judge Sharon Keller, closed the courthouse at its regular time of 5 p.m. and turned back an attempt to file appeal papers a few minutes later, according to a complaint in a wrongful-death suit filed in federal court last month.

The inmate, Michael Richard, was executed that evening.

Judge Keller, in a motion to dismiss the case filed this month, acknowledged that she alone had the authority to keep the court’s clerk’s office open but said that Mr. Richard’s lawyers could have tried to file their papers directly with another judge on the court.

*Today, the New York Times again has written another strong Editorial in favor of abolition and about Texas’ role in meting out death:

It is a shameful distinction, but Texas is the undisputed capital of capital punishment. At a time when the rest of the country is having serious doubts about the death penalty, more than 60 percent of all American executions this year took place in Texas. That gaping disparity provides further evidence that Texas’s governor, Legislature, courts and voters should reassess their addiction to executions.

/snip

The traditional objections to the death penalty remain as true as ever. It is barbaric – governments should simply not be in the business of putting people to death. It is imposed in racially discriminatory ways. And it is too subject to error, which cannot be corrected after an execution has taken place.

In recent years, two other developments have undercut the public’s faith in capital punishment.

There has been a tidal wave of DNA exonerations, in which it has been scientifically proved that the wrong people had been sentenced to death. There is also increasing awareness that even methods of execution considered relatively humane impose considerable suffering on the condemned.

So, in 2007, there was movement, again, toward abolition of the state death penalty. The movement is glacial.  And the possibility for a judicial set back in Spring, 2008, is obvious.  I’m still hoping and working for abolition in my lifetime, and I still see it as a possibility.

Please join me in ending the death penalty, in stopping all state killing.    

This just in from NBC news.  Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a suicide bombing in Pakistan:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22…

VIDEO LINK:   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21…

Here’s the BBC Report

[UPDATE] Eye witness report from the assassination:

Sardar Qamar Hayyat, a leader from Bhutto’s party, said at the time of the attack he was standing about 10 yards away from her vehicle _ a white, bulletproof SUV with a sunroof.

“She was inside the vehicle and was coming out from the gate after addressing the rally when some of the youths started chanting slogans in her favor. Then I saw a smiling Bhutto emerging from the vehicle’s roof and responding to their slogans,” he said.

“Then I saw a thin, young man jumping toward her vehicle from the back and opening fire. Moments later, I saw her speeding vehicle going away,” he added.

Mangled bodies lay in a pool of blood and pieces of clothing and shoes were scattered on the road. The clothing of some victims was shredded and people covered their bodies with party flags.  There was an acrid smell of explosive fumes in the air [following the bomb detonation].

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto died shortly after being seriously wounded in an attack after a rally in the city of Rawalpindi, news agencies reported on Wednesday.

This is both horrible and dangerous.

More news will follow on the above link.  This is breaking now.  If you have access to MSNBC, they have brought on Madeline Albright to comment.

She referred to this as a “coup against the rule of law.”

Bhutto’s husband has reported that his wife was shot in the neck during the suicide bombing.

To say that this is a potential disaster for so many is an understatement.  This will put the West in the position to have to strengthen their ties with Mussharaf and cause further destabilisation in what is a nuclear power under pressure from both Al Quaeda and the Taliban.

Madeline Albright: “This has made things even worse in the most tragic way.”

The gunman shot at her as she stood in her vehicle, exposing herself through the sunroof and then detonated his bomb.  It was thought that a bullet severed her spine at her neck and came out through her cheek, but after surgery, reports are emerging that is was the force of the blast that caused her death.

This was a true assassination.   The rally was supposed to be secured by the government security forces with metal detectors and body searches.   That the bomber blew himself up after shooting at her raises the question:  Was it to inflict chaos, maximum damage, kill her supporters or to hide his own identity (or all of the above)?

[UPDATE] VIDEO LINK

The question becomes how both the bomber gained access and who he was that it was important he blow himself up beyond recognition.

Another point of interest:  She met with Karzai of Afghanistan just before the rally.

[UPDATE] The BBC has just filed their report with Mussharaf’s response.

The funeral will be very telling in terms of where the Pakistani people stand and how much further they and the stability of the region are at risk.

[UPDATE]  al Qaeda has claimed responsibility and the Pakistani authorities said they intercepted a phone call from an al Qaeda suspect congratulating someone for the assassination.

This is an Open Thread: Everything Is On Sale

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) — Pakistan former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was targeted in a deadly suicide bombing Thursday. Media reports quote her husband saying she suffered a bullet wound to the neck in the attack.

The attack has left at least 14 dead and 40 injured, Tariq Azim Khan, the country’s former information minister, told CNN in a telephone interview.

Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari told CNN affiliate Geo TV that his wife was shot in the neck in the attack.

The attacker is said to have detonated a bomb as he tried to enter the rally where thousands of people gathered to hear Bhutto speak, police said.

Headlines For Thursday December 27:U.S. Ruling Backs Benefit Cut at 65 in Retiree Plans: Democrats Enter Stretch in Iowa: Kenyans vote in tight race

USA

U.S. Ruling Backs Benefit Cut at 65 in Retiree Plans

WASHINGTON – The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Wednesday that employers could reduce or eliminate health benefits for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare.

The policy, set forth in a new regulation, allows employers to establish two classes of retirees, with more comprehensive benefits for those under 65 and more limited benefits – or none at all – for those older.

More than 10 million retirees rely on employer-sponsored health plans as a primary source of coverage or as a supplement to Medicare, and Naomi C. Earp, the commission’s chairwoman, said, “This rule will help employers continue to voluntarily provide and maintain these critically important health benefits.”

Democrats Enter Stretch in Iowa

As Clinton Emphasizes Experience, Obama and Edwards Call for Change

MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa, Dec. 26 — With just eight days left to break a three-way deadlock in the Democratic contest here, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton began delivering a closing argument Wednesday that centered on the experience she and her husband gained in the Oval Office during his administration, while her two chief rivals both argued that they could best succeed in bringing change to Washington.

The issues of experience and change have defined the Democratic race for nearly a year, and the dichotomy continued to dominate as the three Democratic front-runners hit the campaign trail running after a Christmas break. Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), who plans to make his endgame pitch in a speech on Thursday, urged voters to ask themselves, “Do you believe in change?” Former senator John Edwards (N.C.) detoured through New Hampshire before a planned return to Iowa, arguing that his is a more radical call for change than Obama’s. Clinton and Obama are launching television ads in the state to bolster their arguments as the three remain tightly bunched in surveys.

Military thinks twice on fortified trucks

Gates insisted on the MRAP vehicles. But they’re ill-suited to Iraq, some say, and may even be counterproductive if troops don’t ‘get out and walk.’

WASHINGTON — It was just what American soldiers had been longing for — a patrol vehicle designed to withstand the powerful roadside bombs that have killed more service members than any other insurgent weapon in the Iraq war.

But as the Defense Department hits its year-end goal of delivering 1,500 heavily armored, V-hulled “mine-resistant ambush-protected” trucks to Iraq, the feeling in the Pentagon is far from elation. Instead, an intense debate has broken out over whether the vehicle that is saving lives also could undermine one of the most important lessons of the whole war: how to counter an insurgency.

Though offering needed armor, the MRAP lacks the agility vital to urban warfare. “It’s very heavy; it’s relatively large; it’s not as maneuverable as you’d like it to be,” Gen. William S. Wallace, the officer in charge of Army doctrine and training, said recently. “All of those things should be of concern.”

Africa

Kenyans vote in tight race

Long queues of voters are waiting to cast their ballots, as Kenyans choose a president in an atmosphere marred by accusations of poll rigging.

President Mwai Kibaki is seeking a second term, in what is seen as the tightest election in Kenya’s history.

Turnout seems to be high in many areas but voting has been delayed for hours in parts of the Nairobi slum of Kibera.

Mr Kibaki’s closest challenger Raila Odinga has not been able to vote in Kibera – his parliamentary seat.

There were problems with the voters’ roll for names starting with “R” and “O”, although the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) said a new register would be issued shortly.

Death toll in Egypt building collapse rises to 23

CAIRO (Reuters) – The death toll from the collapse of a 12-storey residential building in Egypt’s Mediterranean city of Alexandria rose to 23 on Thursday, security sources said.

Rescue workers have brought out three survivors from the rubble since Monday when the building collapsed, they said.

Authorities had said they thought 25 to 30 people were buried under the rubble when the building collapsed.

The building disintegrated on Monday as construction workers carried out repairs on the first floor.

It was constructed as a seven-storey building in 1982 without a permit, authorities said. The owner obtained a permit later but then illegally added five stories.

Middle East

Abbas wants settlement freeze at summit

JERUSALEM – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will demand Israel commit to a freeze on all settlement construction at a peace summit Thursday, the first since the two sides agreed to resume peace talks at a U.S.-sponsored conference last month.

On Wednesday, Abbas appealed to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to press Israel on the construction issue, Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said. A State Department spokesman said Rice called both Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and urged them to make progress toward an agreement.

Israel announced last month that it was building 307 new apartments in Har Homa, part of a ring of Jewish neighborhoods around east Jerusalem where about 180,000 Israelis live, and Palestinians are demanding that Israel halt the project.

Israel, which annexed east Jerusalem after capturing it along with the West Bank in 1967, does not accept demands to limit its construction there.

Iraqi cabinet backs pardon for thousands of detainees

The Iraqi cabinet approved a draft law yesterday that will offer a general pardon to thousands of prisoners in US military and Iraqi custody, a government spokesman said.

“The cabinet has passed the general pardon law, which will define who is eligible to be freed from all prisons, both Iraqi and American,” spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters.

Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, said earlier this month that the draft law was aimed at boosting reconciliation between majority Shia and Sunni Arab Muslims, locked in a cycle of violence. The issue of detainees is one of the most sensitive, especially as detentions have soared since military operations were stepped up this year. The Iraqi authorities now hold 24,000 detainees and US forces 26,000. Only a small proportion of those held are ever prosecuted.

Elsewhere in Iraq yesterday, Turkish aircraft attacked eight suspected Kurdish rebel hideouts in the north of the country, the third cross-border air assault in 10 days, Turkey’s military said.

Europe

Serb MPs threaten to cut ties with EU

Serbia is heading towards international isolation with the adoption of a parliamentary resolution to sever diplomatic ties with the United States and European Union countries if they recognise independence for the province of Kosovo.

The document debated yesterday says that Serbia must “reconsider” diplomatic ties with Western countries that recognise Kosovo’s statehood.

The resolution, created under the nationalist Prime Minister, Vojislav Kostunica, also said that Serbia must “act efficiently to protect the lives and property” of non-Albanians in Kosovo if it proclaims independence, but falls short of mentioning any military options.

Engineers check the Queen Victoria is shipshape for her maiden voyage

MALAGA The bow of Cunard’s new liner the Queen Victoria is examined by specialists carrying out safety checks before sailing on her maiden voyage.

Weighing 90,000 tonnes, the Queen Victoria, which was christened by the Duchess of Cornwall in Southampton earlier this month, is the second-largest vessel the cruise line has constructed.

Currently berthed in Malaga, the ship is expected to set sail for New York on January 6 where she will drop anchor alongside two of the world’s most celebrated liners – the Queen Mary 2, Cunard’s largest liner, and the Queen Elizabeth 2. The rare meeting of three nautical giants, lit by fireworks against the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty, is expected to attract New Yorkers as well as maritime enthusiasts from around the world. It will also be one of the last outings for Queen Elizabeth 2, Cunard’s longest-serving liner, which is expected to be retired next November.

After visiting New York, the Queen Victoria will go on to complete a round-the-world cruise, tickets for which cost about £12,000.

The facilities on the luxurious ship include seven restaurants, 13 bars, three swimming pools, a ballroom and a theatre.

Asia

Hindu extremists burn down village churches

By Ashok Sharma

Published: 27 December 2007

Hindu extremists attacked Christians celebrating Christmas in eastern India, ransacking and burning at least six village churches. One person was killed.

Four hundred and fifty police were deployed to quell the violence in the remote district of Orissa state where the churches – most nothing more than mud and thatch houses – were attacked. The violence had eased by yesterday.

There were conflicting reports of what sparked the unrest in Orissa, which has a history of violence against the state’s tiny Christian minority. Some reports said Christians had attempted to attack a hardline Hindu leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad group, who led an anti-conversion movement.

“The situation was aggravated by some Christians forcibly stopping the 80-year-old Hindu leader Laxmanananda Saraswati and attempting to attack him,” said Giriraj Kishore of the VHP. “When they were prevented from attacking him by his followers, the Christians hit someone with an axe and one Hindu died,” he said.

Diplomats to leave Afghanistan as new ‘Great Game’ played with tribal leaders

By Jerome Starkey in Helmand, Afghanistan

Published: 27 December 2007

Two senior diplomats are to fly out of Afghanistan today after being accused of talking to the Taliban, despite international pressure to let them stay.

The expulsion of Michael Semple, an Irishman who is acting head of the EU mission, and Mervin Patterson, a Briton who is the third-ranking UN official in Kabul, has shed light on the murky world they inhabit in the search to bring peace to a trroubled land.

For spies, diplomats and soldiers in Afghanistan are playing the Great Game today as much as their forefathers ever did.

Six years ago some military commanders believed they could beat the Taliban and stamp harmony on Helmand by force – but not any more. Titanium-plated Apache gunships, designed to fight the might and military sophistication of Soviet Russia, can still annihilate ragtag gunmen hired to fight for a few dollars a day. Heat-seeking javelin rockets designed to hit T72 tanks tearing across Europe are very good at finding insurgents cowering in compounds. Marines call it “throwing a Porsche at them”, because the missiles cost £65,000 a pop. But there is a profound realisation in Afghanistan that victory will never be achieved by fighting alone. “We are going to have to sit down and do business with people who we don’t like, and who don’t like us,” said one diplomat.

Latin America

Colombia OKs Venezuelan role in hostage release

Hugh Chavez’s representatives will be allowed to take custody of kidnapping victims from leftist rebels.

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — In an unusual twist to an ongoing hostage saga, President Alvaro Uribe has agreed to let emissaries of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez travel to the Colombian jungle to take custody of three kidnapping victims set for release by their leftist rebel captors.

The exchange could take place as early as today. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, said last week that it would release hostages to Chavez if the logistics could be worked out.

Hostages to be released include former presidential campaign manager Clara Rojas and her young son Emmanuel, who was born in captivity. Rojas was abducted in 2002 along with her boss, presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who remains a captive. Former Colombian legislator Consuelo Gonzalez is also to be released.

FARC’s offer to release the prisoners, who are among 45 political hostages in rebel custody, came weeks after Uribe abruptly ended mediation efforts by Chavez to secure the release of prisoners. Uribe said that Chavez had broken protocol by talking to a Colombian military leader.

Boxing Day.

On the day after Christmas…

• In feudal times the lord of the manor would give boxes of practical goods such as cloth, grains, and tools to the serfs who lived on his land.
• Many years ago on the day after Christmas servants would carry boxes to their employers when they arrived for their day’s work. Their employers would then put coins in the boxes as special end-of-year gifts.
• In churches, it was traditional to open the church’s donation box on Christmas Day and distribute it to the poorer or lower class citizens on the next day.

Take your pick.

In the world of retail Boxing Day is the day everyone brings back all the crap they got for gifts that they didn’t want or is the wrong size or the wrong color or that they shoplifted and now want full retail for instead of the 10% that the local fence will give them.

Now fortunately for me I never had to work the counter during this period of long lines and testy, hung over sales people and managers dealing with irate customers who think that making their sob story more pitiful than the last one will get them any treatment more special than what everyone gets.

1. Is it all there?
2. Is it undamaged?
3. Did you buy it here?

Bingo, have some store credit.  Go nuts.  Have a nice day.

What makes it especially crappy for the clerks is that you don’t normally get a lot of practice with the return procedures because your manager will handle it since it’s easier than training you.  Now you have 20 in a row and the first 7 or 8 are slow until you get the hang of things.

As a customer I have to warn you, this is not a swap meet.  If they didn’t have a blue size 6 on Christmas Eve, they don’t have it now either EVEN IF THE CUSTOMER RIGHT AHEAD OF YOU IN LINE JUST RETURNED A SIZE 6 IN BLUE!

It has to go back to the warehouse for processing and re-packaging.  Really.

So if you braved the surly stares today you have my admiration for your tenacity.  If you waited for the rush to pass my respect for your brilliance.

But don’t wait too long.  It all has to be out of the store before February inventory so it doesn’t have to be counted.