Is the Russian province of Dagestan going the way of neighboring Chechnya? This July 2 AFP account (online at Qatar's The Peninsula) makes a disturbingly good case:

The Kurdistan Bloggers Union notes the recent killing of Muhammad Mashouk al-Khaznawi, a Kurdish leader in Syria, providing this July 1 account of his death (refering to northern Syria as "West Kurdistan"):

A Kurdish Sunni Muslim cleric in Syria who was reported missing last month has died after being tortured, Kurdish party officials said Wednesday. Sheikh Mohammed Maashuq al-Khaznawi had not been heard from since May 10 and was believed to have been detained by Syrian police.

Surprise, surprise! None other than Karl Rove has been named as the source who leaked that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent, a crime for which two journalists may yet do time, even though they didn't commit it. Time magazine has now gone over the head of its own reporter Matt Cooper—who took a principled stance in refusing to name his source despite a federal subpoena—and released his e-mails regarding the case to the Justice Department, so he may be off the hook in terms of prison time. (Not so Judith Miller of the New York Times, whose own shameless pom-pom waving for Bush's military escapades makes her an unlikely hero.) The e-mails apparently confirm that he at least discussed the story with Rove, and allegations are mounting that Rove was in fact the source. So this is a convenient little double-whammy for the Bush administration. First they got to discredit Plame's husband Ambassador Joseph Wilson when he was claiming (correctly, it turns out) that Saddam did not seek uranium from Africa. Then, it uses the case sparked by the leak to erode the principle of journalistic privilege. Pretty Machiavellian. One wishes their hubris would catch up with these guys already, as it did for Machiavelli in the end. From the July 2 Editor & Publisher:

US helicopters and hundreds of troops are searching for soldiers who went missing in Afghanistan just before a helicopter coming to their aid was shot down in Kunar province June 28, killing the 16 on board, all Navy Seals and Army Special Forces. Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi boasted that insurgents killed seven US "spies" before the Chinook was downed, and that one survivor of the crash is being held. "He was trying to escape up the mountain when our mujahedeen caught him," he said.

Some 225,000 came out for the Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh July 2, on the eve of the G8 summit about to open at the Gleneagles resort outside the city, as Live8 concerts echoing the demand for action against poverty in Africa and elsewhere were held in London's Hyde Park and other venues around the globe. Only one arrest was reported, but many activists complained of being photographed by police, both on the march and at road stops and train stations en route to Edinburgh. Police are also said to be concerned about an "Anarchist Carnival" scheduled for this evening in Edinbugh. (BBC, July 2) Anti-war themes were prominent in the Edinburgh march, but another action by the UK's Stop the War Coalition is scheduled for tomorrow, with a blockade of the nearby Faslane Naval base scheduled for Monday the 4th.

The third and apparently last installment of the Zapatistas' Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Selva was released yesterday. While the first was entitled "Who We Are" and outlined the history of the Zapatista struggle, and the second was dubbed "How We See the World," this one proclaims "What We Want to Do." It begins by declaring solidarity with indigneous and popular struggles throughout Latin America, singling out Bolivia and Ecuador, as well as with Venezuela and Cuba in their "path of resistance." It even offers to send a bus loaded with indigenous maize from Chiapas to the Cuban embassy in Mexico City as a symbolic donation to help ride out the embargo. It also announces the Zapatistas' new plan to send a delegation to travel throughout Mexico, building alliances with other popular organizations in a bid to unite the left and indigenous movements, with the ultimate aim of a new constitution that "defends the weak against the powerful." The statement says the delegation will only work with "non-electoral" movements, and those which embrace principles of popular democracy rather than seeking to "impose upon those below." (Online in English at Narco News)

Gee, is this a great time to be alive or what? More good news from TruthOut.

One in Six Countries Facing Food Shortage
By John Vidal and Tim Radford
The Guardian UK

Thursday 30 June 2005

One in six countries in the world face food shortages this year because of severe droughts that could become semi-permanent under climate change, UN scientists warned yesterday.

In a stark message for world leaders who meet in Gleneagles next week to discuss global warming, Wulf Killman, chairman of the UN food and agriculture organisation's climate change group, said the droughts that have devastated crops across Africa, central America and south-east Asia in the past year are part of an emerging pattern.

RFE/RL Newsline reports July 1 that a leading Uzbek opposition figure, Muhammad Solih, is seeking to use a visit to Washington to urge the US and European Union to expand their support for "democracy activists" in Uzbekistan.

"We do not ask for a lot from the West," Solih said. "We want the West to aid the legalization of political parties in Uzbekistan. We would like the West to aid the leaders of the opposition to function in Uzbekistan, to ensure the conduct of fair elections in Uzbekistan and the participation of the opposition in those elections and to ensure the existence of a free press. This in and of itself is enough to ensure the peaceful removal of this antidemocratic regime."