Curated knowlege, trenchant insights & witty bon mots
Here's the list: The 10 most fucked-up countries on earth in 2005 (2004 position in brackets): 1. Sudan (3) 2. DR Congo (2) 3. Ivory Coast (1) 4. Iraq (4) 5. Zimbabwe (15) 6. Chad (7) (Tie) Somalia(5) 8. Haiti (10) 9. Pakistan (34) 10 Afghanistan (11) Here's the BBC story on the list, and [...]
Fri, May 5 2006 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
A senior Afghan army officer says there's essentially no way to stop foreign suicide bombers from infiltrating Afghanistan and attacking foreign troops, including Canadians. An excerpt from the May 4 Globe and Mail story: “There are more than 16 vehicle-entry points across this porous border, some of which are not controlled by Afghan forces,” said [...]
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Britain's Lt. Gen. David Richards has assumed command of NATO's Afghanistan mission (ISAF, or International Stabilization Assistance Force). He will take command of the southern region in late July. Canada's Brig. Gen. David Fraser currently calls the shots there. An excerpt from the NYT story: The arrival of some 6,000 NATO troops in the south [...]
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Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb-e-Islami, is onside with Osama. An excerpt from the BBC story: “We hope to participate with them in a battle that they lead. They hold the banner and we stand alongside them as supporters,” he said in the video (broadcast by al-Jazeera). The rebel warlord is classified as a terrorist by [...]
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According to a Canadian Council on Learning report, 42 per cent of all adults in this country are semi-literate. See the CTV.ca story for details. I didn't see anything that said whether a semi-literate person could read a newspaper competently, but I'm guessing no.