Six In The Morning

Attackers in uniform add to anxiety in Afghanistan  

Foreign troops say they’re increasingly concerned about the ‘enemy within,’ as deadly assaults by men who appear to be police or soldiers become more frequent. But those Western personnel also stress the importance of keeping anxiety in check in a climate of deepening mutual distrust.

By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times

June 26, 2011

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan– In late May, a NATO soldier was killed as he emerged from his tent. Two weeks earlier, two NATO soldiers were killed while eating a meal. In late April, eight U.S. troops were shot dead at a meeting at Kabul airport.

The attacks had one thing in common: The killers all wore Afghan military or police uniforms.

Foreign troops serving in Afghanistan say they’re increasingly concerned about the “enemy within.” Yet they emphasize the importance of keeping anxiety in check amid a climate of deepening mutual distrust.

“You can’t go out scared every day,” said Sasha Navarro, an Air Force staff sergeant based at Camp Mike Spann in the northern province of Balkh. “You have to be confident in your training, and keep your head on a swivel.”

World turning blind eye to 10 million child brides each year, charity warns

UK must help to cut level of forced marriages for girls under 18, says Plan UK report

Tracy McVeigh, social affairs editor

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 26 June 2011  

One girl below the age of 18 is married off every three seconds worldwide, according to a community development charity which is calling for the British government to help end child marriage.

Plan UK will publish a report this week entitled Breaking Vows which states that 10 million under 18s become child brides every year. In developing countries in South America, North Africa and parts of Asia, one in three under 18-year-olds, and one in seven of all girls under 15, are married.

Rates of early and forced marriage are also high in Europe, with the highest percentages in central and eastern Europe where 2.2 million girls have married before their 18th birthday.

What has the war in Afghanistan really achieved?

The IoS takes stock after one of the bloodiest months since the conflict began, and a week in which President Obama announced a speeding up of troop withdrawals

By Jonathan Owen, David Randall, Jane Merrick and Rupert Cornwell  Sunday, 26 June 2011

At least 60 people died in a suicide bombing just 25 miles from Kabul yesterday. In a few days’ time, a report on Afghanistan from the International Crisis Group will say that violence and the billions of dollars in international aid have brought wealthy officials and insurgents together. As a result, “the economy is increasingly dominated by a criminal oligarchy of politically connected businessmen”.

The negatives column in the Afghan war’s balance sheet does not get any shorter. So far, the conflict has lasted nine years, eight months and 17 days, cost the lives of 2,547 coalition troops, and between 14,000 and 34,000 civilians, created millions of refugees, and opened up a black hole in Western economies that has sucked in more $500bn dollars. Afghanistan costs the US around $10bn (£6.3bn) a month; and Britain will pay £4.5bn this year.

Gaddafi ‘unable to breathe’

NICK CAREY TRIPOLI, LIBYA – Jun 26 2011  

A top rebel official said rebels would be ready to discuss any political settlement that did not involve Gaddafi remaining in power, although no proposals had emerged yet at talks with Gaddafi allies that were taking place through intermediaries.

The attack late on Friday was the second within hours on what Nato said were clearly identified military targets in the coastal city of Brega, around 200km west of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Libyan state television said a local bakery and a restaurant had been hit, wounding 20 people in addition to the 15 dead. State news agency Jana said a strike in the same area earlier on Friday had killed five civilians.

Peru’s new highway to the future

The Interoceanic Highway, which will connect Peru’s Pacific coast to the shores of the Atlantic in Brazil, could revolutionize the region much as the transcontinental railroad did in the US in 1869.

  By Steven Bodzin, Correspondent /

Puerto Maldonado, Peru

Traveling from Brazil’s Atlantic coast to Assis, on the border with Peru deep in the Amazon, took Raul Pereira weeks over a precarious dirt road in 1974. The trip required machetes.

Today, his house and workshop are on a paved road. “This was an animal trail in those days,” he says.

For years, Assis was the end of the road. Traveling on through the Peruvian Amazon and over the Andes was an adventure on mud tracks. Asked how business is at his roadside mechanic’s workshop, the Brazilian gives a thumbs-down. And the lack of a road didn’t just hurt his business, but also cut billions of dollars in potential trade between Brazil and Peru.

China frees dissident Hu Jia

Hu was imprisoned for criticising human rights conditions in China ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Last Modified: 26 Jun 2011  

One of China’s most prominent dissidents, Hu Jia, has been released after serving more than three years in jail on subversion charges.

“He is back home with his parents and me,” his wife, Zeng Jingyan, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Hu Jia was arrested in December 2007 after a long period of confinement at his home. He was sentenced in April 2008 for “incitement to subvert state power.”

Hu had written a series of articles ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games criticising the Chinese government on the state of human rights in China