Greece Paralyzed by Strike Over Austerity Plan

A nationwide strike on Thursday closed hospitals and schools and stopped all flights and most public transport across the debt-plagued country.
Read more [International Herald Tribune]

Nigerians Recount the Night of Their Bloody Revenge

The police have arrested about 200 people in Jos, where this week dozens of herdsmen slaughtered hundreds of people in a brutal act of sectarian retribution.
Read more [International Herald Tribune]

Disease Cause Is Pinpointed With Genome

Geneticists said the new research shows it is now possible to sequence the genome of a patient at reasonable cost and with sufficient accuracy to be of practical use to researchers.
Read more [International Herald Tribune]

Kidnapped boy Sahil Saeed's fate unclear after reports of rescue

Claims by Pakistani minister that boy was found contradicted by senior police officers

There was confusion today over the fate of Sahil Saeed, the five-year-old British boy kidnapped in Pakistan, after local media reports that he had been found were contradicted by police chiefs.

A Punjab minister, Rana Sanaullah, told Geo TV that Sahil, who was kidnapped from his grandmother's house in Jehlum a week ago, was rescued in Sialkot, a city in the north-east Punjab province of Pakistan.

He said Sahil had been sent back to the UK to be reunited with his father and a man and woman had been arrested on kidnapping charges.

But police chiefs said the boy who was rescued was not Sahil, and the minister was mistaken.

A spokesman at the British high commission in Islamabad said he received "no evidence" this morning that the boy had been found but they were "urgently" checking reports.

Sahil and his father were on the last day of a two-week holiday when robbers broke into his grandmother's house.

The robbers made a ransom demand of £100,000 when they snatched Sahil and were understood to have repeated the demand in phone calls to his father. The Pakistani authorities contacted Interpol for help with the investigation after reports the kidnappers called from international numbers, including a number in Spain.

Pakistani officials have accused members of Sahil's family of being involved in the abduction. They denied the claims.

The five-year-old's father, Raja Naqqash Saeed, returned to the UK yesterday. He left the country in defiance of Pakistani wishes that he remained there as a witness, according to reports.

• Pakistan

Vikram Dodd on report threatening to brand police as racist over stop and search

Vikram Dodd on report threatening to brand police as racist over stop and search

Down boy!

Dangerous dogs are big news right now. But never mind all that stuff about microchips: what's it like to walk one?

The idea of walking a dangerous dog did not immediately appeal to me as an assignment. I walk a non-dangerous dog every day, and even that is sort of a drag. To exchange it for a powerful, snarling beast would just add an additional, unwanted element of anxiety to the outing. As a pet owner, I already apologise enough.

When I say dangerous dog, of course, I don't mean dangerous at all. In fact, I'm not sure what I mean. Even the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act doesn't have a clear idea: dogs outlawed under section 1 of the act don't have to be dangerous, just one of four proscribed breeds; one of those, the pit bull terrier, isn't really a breed, so "pit-bull types" and crossbreeds must be assessed as dangerous (without necessarily being dangerous, remember) on a case-by-case basis by a dog legislation officer. A dog that looks like a pit bull, but is in fact half-labrador and half-boxer, might well qualify.

Section 3 of the Act refers to dogs that are "dangerously out of control in a public place" and could technically apply to any breed – possibly not chihuahuas – but let us, for the sake of settling on a definition, simply change our terms. Let's speak instead of "status dogs", in reference to the large, heavily muscled, big-headed persuasion – usually Staffordshire bull terrier crosses of one sort or another – that are increasingly bred and reared for their threatening bearing, for use as a weapon, or even for dog-fighting. These are, after all, the dogs the government clearly had in mind when it unveiled legislation this week to make microchipping and third-party insurance compulsory; the type home secretary Alan Johnson said were bred "for the sole purpose of intimidating others". That's the sort. Where can I get my hands on one of those?

The Mayhew Animal Home in north London has a Staffy-bulldog cross called Duddly on its website who might fit the bill. Duddly looks deadly: he has the face of a nightclub bouncer and a body like a Victorian ottoman. They are willing to let me take him for a walk, although he will have to be recalled from his foster home.

One corridor of the Mayhew is decorated with pictures of celebrity supporters: Joanna Lumley, Jason Donovan, David Seaman. Chrissie Hynde and Brian Sewell both adopted dogs from the Mayhew; it may well be the only thing they have in common.

I've been to the Mayhew before; it's where I got my dog. It's also where I made my wife take a Staffy-cross bitch I found tied to the railings of the park gates last year – abandoned, pregnant, heavily scarred and mildly insane. Although the Mayhew has space for just 35 dogs, it is contracted to take in all the strays rounded up by Brent council, and around 25 dogs pass through their doors every month, most commonly Staffy crosses. Because the breed now has a reputation as a dangerous dog, Staffies are harder to re-home. The wrong type of people seek them out; the right type don't want them. Their reputation, according to the Mayhew's CEO Caroline Yates, is undeserved. "Twenty years ago they were top of the list for ideal family dogs," she says.

Duddly hasn't arrived yet, so Yates shows me some of the other dogs they have in at the moment, including a pair of Rhodesian Ridgebacks whose owner couldn't cope. They're enormous; a child could ride one like a horse. There has been such a glut of backstreet breeding of Staffies recently, says Yates, that they've begun to lose their status as status dogs. People are seeking out bigger, less familiar breeds, and the unwanted ones are starting to show up in the Mayhew.

Yates welcomes any strengthening of dog legislation, although she thinks the government's proposals come at the problem from the wrong angle. Compulsory microchipping, she says, is "good, but not much use on its own". The microchip identifies the original owner, but most of the strays they take in have been passed from hand to hand before they're abandoned. It's not preventative, and it's no deterrent. She favours licensing, and has little time for the objections of "responsible" dog owners. "Licensing and registration should be a recognition that you are a responsible dog owner," she says.

Finally, Duddly arrives. Unfortunately for my purposes, Duddly is not deadly. He may look the part, but in the flesh, Duddly is cuddly. He doesn't have any unresolved anger, or a killer instinct. He does suffer from separation anxiety, according to the Mayhew's Dan Stibbs, perhaps as a result of his abandonment. Duddly's worst trait is that he hates being left alone. When I bend down to pet him, he licks my face. His breath isn't bad for a dog, but I know that's not much of a compliment.

Which isn't to say that Duddly isn't a bit of a handful. Taking him for a spin round the block is like waterskiing behind a tethered shark. Even our overall route is a compromise between the direction he wants to go in and the one I do. It's alarming to be only nominally in control of something so big and powerful; it reminds me of a time when, in search of a van to move some furniture, I accidentally hired a lorry.

The streets of Harlesden are quiet at midday, but there is no question that Duddly, straining at his lead as I dig in my heels – he has amazing traction – constitutes an intimidating presence. People heading in our direction spontaneously cross the road as we approach. Passing cyclists give us a wide berth. It is empowering, I suppose, to be at the helm of something that alarms people so readily. Certainly my own personal safety was the last thing on my mind, although I couldn't say I had time to stop and enjoy the sense of security. I was too worried about what would happen if I let go of the lead.

"He's really very friendly," I say to one passerby who has chosen to walk down the middle of the road to avoid us. He looks unconvinced. If I were him, I would be too: although Duddly is gentle, sweet-natured and frankly, a little needy, he's also untrained and therefore unpredictable. When he stops in the middle of the pavement and his ears shoot up, my first thought is, "Oh my God, Duddly, what are you going to do?" It turns out he's going to sit down and refuse to move because he's frightened of the traffic cone across the street.

Training a dog like Duddly, who is already two years old, can be difficult. "If you don't put the work in by 16 weeks, it's really hard," says Stibbs. "You can do it, but it's a lot harder."

After a brief but exhausting tour of the local area, it's time to say goodbye to Duddly, whose abandonment the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act – a piece of legislation almost no one has a good word to say about – did so little to prevent. "The law as it stands at the moment hasn't worked," says Yates. In addition to the proposed government reforms, she would like to see the Dangerous Dogs Act amended – with the contentious section 1 repealed – and the introduction of compulsory neutering for all breeds.

"There are too many dogs in this country," she says. "Full stop."

Dog owners respond to the new legislation on dangerous dogs guardian.co.uk/video

• Law
• Pets
• Animals

Muslims right to engage in democracy | Inayat Bunglawala

Groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir calling for Muslims to not participate in the British political process are woefully misguided

An email from Dr Abdul Wahid, chair of the British branch of the Islamic political party, Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), arrived in my inbox on Tuesday afternoon. Entitled "The price for political participation in the UK", it was centred on a recent Channel 4 Dispatches programme presented by Andrew Gilligan, which hysterically accused an Islamic organisation, the IFE (headquartered in east London) of trying to "infiltrate" the local Labour party with a view to "imposing" Islamic values on the UK. I commented on the programme last week for Cif.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a small but very active organisation – especially on British campuses. It has long campaigned for UK Muslims to refrain from taking part in democratic politics or joining any of the mainstream political parties, declaring it all to be haraam (forbidden). Judging by the email from Wahid, HT clearly viewed the C4 programme as a welcome opportunity to further promote this message.

His email said that the Dispatches film and the accompanying series of articles by Gilligan for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph should have highlighted "some harsh truths" for those of us who advocate participating in the British political system:

"All of this proves something we have said for years – in order to achieve ANY influence in the political system in the UK, a Muslim is expected to abandon his values and sell his principles, and adopt the western secular values of the corrupt political parties. This should not be a surprise to any observer of British politics. Many mainstream MPs, who might even have started life with good intentions, have been shown to be corrupted by the political process, wrongfully claiming thousands of pounds in expenses … Over the coming weeks Hizb ut-Tahrir will be holding gatherings and discussions in different parts of the country, and we hope to meet in order to discuss things further."

I have met Wahid on several occasions and took part in a debate with him on political participation back in 2005 in the runup to that year's general election. He is like many others in the senior HT leadership in the UK, very well educated and very charming. However, on this issue he and his group are woefully misguided.

No doubt there are a number of obvious failings in liberal democracies, including especially the ability of those with wealth to subvert democracy through buying power and influence.

However, the solution to combating warmongering policies, racism, discrimination, bigotry and the eroding of our civil liberties cannot be to withdraw in disgust due to the actions of some corrupt politicians but to increase our participation and work with other like-minded people to help make our elected officials more accountable to us.

In the larger scheme of things, despite their shortcomings liberal democracies are the best political setup we have yet managed to come up with to try and ensure that – despite all our differences and beliefs – we can all rub along without too much inconvenience.

The Conservative party has a long-standing pledge to ban HT as soon as they attain power, but any ban will, I think, only serve to convince HT members and their sympathisers of the inequity inherent in liberal democracies. It is far better in my view to uphold our freedoms and allow them to engage in their vociferous criticism to their hearts' content. That would be the response of a confident democracy.

In any case, despite over two decades of activity in Britain, HT has failed to make significant inroads into UK Muslim communities who are, with every passing year and notwithstanding Gilligan's fear-mongering, showing every sign that they understand the value and the necessity of democratic engagement.

• Islam
• Channel 4
• Telegraph Media Group
• Conservatives
• General election 2010

Family fears for missing Sri Lankan cartoonist (AFP)

AFP - Six weeks ago Sri Lankan political writer and cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda went missing, and his fate has raised further concerns about the island's culture of violence against the media.

Voters are far ahead of the elite – so they'll get no say | Seumas Milne

Afghanistan should be at the heart of the election campaign. But it won't be because the main parties all support the war

National elections are supposed to be about debating and settling the great issues and controversies facing a country. There are few issues as serious and controversial as the war now being fought by a 10,000-strong British force, in support of more than 90,000 US and other Nato troops, in Afghanistan. As in the rest of Nato, the war is deeply unpopular in Britain, where the most recent poll showed that 69% regard it as unwinnable and 63% want all British troops withdrawn by the end of the year.

But in the coming general election, this ever more bloody conflict is unlikely to intrude into the heart of the campaign, except in well-rehearsed spats about equipment and funding. For all the promise of a great national debate, don't expect one about the life- and-death struggle on the plains of Helmand. The reason is that, unlike in the case of Iraq, all three main parties are signed up to carrying on with a war the public has decisively rejected.

The gulf between people and politicians could scarcely be wider. The British army is taking casualties at a level not seen since Korea and Malaya in the 1950s, with 27 soldiers killed by Taliban guerrillas in the last couple of months and six in the last week. Opposition to the war is strongest in working-class areas where army recruitment is concentrated. Joe Glenton, the first British soldier to be charged with refusing to return to the battlefield and campaigning against a war now costing £4bn a year, was jailed last week.

But the political class seems determined to cling to Nato and its US patron, rather than represent the now settled will of the voters. Even the Liberal Democrats, who benefited five years ago from their opposition to the Iraq catastrophe, appear to have convinced themselves against all the evidence that Afghanistan is a just war for human rights and signed up to the elite consensus.

The same goes for the bulk of the media, which largely ignores opposition to the war in favour of gung-ho embedded dispatches from the frontline and sanitised commemoration of the young soldiers sent back in a never-ending parade of coffins through Wootton Bassett. The much larger number treated for horrific injuries at Selly Oak hospital in Birmingham is kept well out of sight.

The dangers of ignoring public opinion altogether on Afghanistan do, however, seem to have registered with some politicians, judging by David Miliband's repositioning efforts in Boston yesterday. Granted, he repeated the government's absurd claim that the Afghan occupation is a bulwark against terrorism, when it has in fact fuelled terror attacks both in the region and in Britain. More honestly, he warned that the credibility of Nato and "western power" was at stake in Afghanistan.

But his call for peace talks with the Taliban mainstream and the full involvement of all the regional powers, from Pakistan to China, in a new Afghan settlement represents a significant shift towards the case long made by opponents of the war – as well as the need to signal the prospect of an exit strategy in the runup to a general election.

What was missing, of course, was the crucial commitment to bring an end to foreign occupation, without which agreement with all the main forces in the country will be impossible. So far openings to the Taliban have been tentative, and the speculation is that Pakistani intelligence may have allowed the recent arrest of the Taliban leader Mullah Baradar because he had failed to keep them in the loop over contacts with Kabul or its western sponsors.

The idea behind the current surge is to cut the Taliban down to size in preparation for the new settlement all sides understand is inevitable. In reality it's a last throw of the US dice, and so far the signs are it isn't working. Set aside the frenzy of spin that accompanied the media-acclaimed Operation Moshtarak, trailed as a turning point of the war, and the results look less than impressive.

It began with the US-British assault on Marja, described by the US military – and widely reported in the western media – as a Taliban-controlled "city of 80,000 people". Naturally, the 7,500 Nato troops conquered it in triumph – not least because no such town exists, let alone a city: Marja is in fact an agricultural district spread over more than 100 square miles.

Now that phase of the campaign is over, the Taliban have intensified attacks on British troops around the real town of Sangin, just as they have returned in force to areas from which US troops were withdrawn to take part in the surge, such as Zabul. What reason is there to doubt that the same thing will happen when the United States takes the fight to Kandahar in the coming months – or that Nato troops are in practice clearing areas of Taliban so that the notoriously corrupt Afghan police and Karzai cronies can take their slice of the opium trade? Even the US claim to have reduced its "collateral" slaughter of Afghan civilians turns out to be nonsense: the most reliable figures show that more than 80 were killed by Nato forces last month compared with 50 in February last year.

Unfortunately, there is as yet no sign that the Obama administration has taken the strategic decision to opt for a negotiated withdrawal from Afghanistan, despite the promise of troop reductions next year. But there is growing alarm in the US establishment at what Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, described earlier this month as a growing European aversion to the use of military force and "the risks that go with it".

No doubt the collapse of the Dutch government over the Afghan war was on his mind. Miliband seemed to have similar concerns about his own people at the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war this week, when in the course of a bizarre defence of the 2003 aggression (the UN's authority would have been "severely dented" if the US and Britain had not invaded, he reckoned), the foreign secretary warned against Britain drawing the "wrong lessons" from Iraq and "turning its back" on the world.

Of course, negotiating an end to a failed occupation doesn't mean turning your back on the world at all – rather the opposite. Some politicians might be groping towards what is the only possible solution in Afghanistan, but if British voters had the chance of a real say on the matter, they would certainly get there a lot quicker.

• Afghanistan
• Taliban
• David Miliband
• Military
• US military
• Middle East
• General election 2010

Guardian Daily podcast: Authorities say sorry to rapist father’s victims; and rate of extinction of UK species revealed

Social services in Sheffield and Lincolnshire have apologised to a family for failing to protect them from a father who repeatedly raped and abused them for 33 years. Helen Carter reports from Derby on the publication of the executive summary into a serious case review. SocietyGuardian's Patrick Butler gives his view of the case.

Eliza Manningham-Buller, former head of MI5 has claimed she didn't know about the mistreatment of terror suspects by American intelligence agencies. Chris McGreal reports from Washington on the US response, while security editor Richard Norton-Taylor looks at Manningham-Buller's speech at the House of Lords.

A wide-ranging audit of England's wildlife highlights the rate of extinction of British plants and animals. Dr Tom Tew, Natural England's chief scientist, outlines the ways we can best protect our species.

Some police forces face being branded racist by the equalities watchdog because of their excessive use of stop and search powers against people from ethnic minorities. Vikram Dodd has the details.

Why do Egyptians love Avatar? | Joseph Mayton

Parallels between the Na'vi and oppressed people in the Arab world are flimsy – and imply the need for a foreign saviour

The gigantic blue Na'vi of Pandora have captured Egyptianand Arab minds over the past few months. When they were snubbed at Sunday's Oscar ceremony in favour of The Hurt Locker, the Twittersphere and blogs were ablaze with people crying foul. How, they cried, could a politicised movie glorifying war in Iraq win over a film, Avatar, which "so resembles the causes of struggling people"?

The battle between Avatar and The Hurt Locker has revealed a great divide in the culture of Egypt and the Arab world, where films that show brutal reality are often shunned in favour of the otherworldly tale of the Na'vi, which had made more than 8m Egyptian pounds (£1m) by mid-February. It is still number four in the Egyptian box office chart.

Egyptians usually dislike films that look into political situations in the region unless there is a direct anti-American angle. Body of Lies is the model for success in winning Egyptian and Arab support. Ridley Scott's film is weak and barely scrapes the surface of the harsh realities in the region, but many Egyptians thought it spoke to the wrongs of the American government's war on terror.

Consequently, there was little that Egyptians liked about The Hurt Locker. To their mind, it was an American pro-war film that did little more than show the greatness of the American soldier. Eman Hashem, an Egyptian women's activist, told me The Hurt Locker is a story that glorifies war and the "struggle" of the United States in the region against the "angry Arab". She was more partial to Avatar.

Others gave similar arguments. On Twitter, dozens of Avatar supporters claimed The Hurt Locker was only getting mentioned in the lead-up to the Oscars because it was about Iraq and "makes Arabs look like terrorists". Sure, there is the opening scene that shows an Iraqi man use his mobile phone to detonate an IED, but this happens in real life. What needs to be understood and what the anti-Hurt Locker camp seems unable to realise is that this is not a film about Iraq but a film that reveals the tragic side of soldierhood.

The Hurt Locker does not glorify war. It is a film about soldiers and the neurotic addiction that war can produce in them. It is essentially an anti-political movie about the hardships war brings on the individual and the family inside and outside the war theatre. Egyptians and Arabs should be commending the ugly truth portrayed by the writer Mark Boal and the director Kathryn Bigelow in their gutsy attempt to show the truth about war.

"Egyptians don't like to see reality on the big screen, this is why films such as Syriana and The Hurt Locker are not popular. Egyptians want an escape," said Mohsen Goma'a, an aspiring filmmaker. But their support for Avatar also misses the mark. They have escaped from reality only to enter a new imaginary world where a film speaks directly to their struggle. "Through Avatar I lived the story of the Palestinian, Iraqi, Afghan and Lebanese peoples and the wars waged against them; where the west treats these peoples as if they were the children of the Na'vi" wrote the blogger South Lebanon.

There are numerous short films on YouTube paralleling the stories of the Na'vi and the Palestinians. One Arabic blog argues that Avatar is delivering a message to Americans that is "optimistic and hopeful despite the current situation". What are Americans supposed to be optimistic about? That they are the holders of the world's destiny, much in the same manner that Jake Sully is with the Na'vi? Sully, not the Na'vi, is the hero of the film. He becomes their leader in order for the Na'vi to defend themselves from the vastly superior technology of his former brethren.

Egyptians want something to believe in and Avatar offers a vague picture that is being co-opted into something it isn't. These arguments that Pandora represents the modern Middle East are essentially people pulling an idea out of the sand in order to connect with a very entertaining film. One could see the struggle of the Palestinians and other occupied societies as akin to that of the Na'vi in Avatar, but why would we want to? If Palestinians are dressing in blue and going to the streets in protest to show how connected they are to the fictional people of Pandora, does it not also reveal a stark reality that they would deny: a foreign saviour is needed if they are realise their goal of throwing off the yoke of Israeli occupation?

• Egypt
• Palestinian territories
• Middle East

Great Himalayan Trail: trekking's holy grail

For the first time walkers can take a guided trek traversing the entire length of the Himalayas in Nepal

In pictures: The Great Himalayan Trail

Have you got six months off? Do you fancy a long walk? If so, World Expeditions may have just the holiday for you. They have become the only trekking outfit to offer a guided trip along the first completed section of the Great Himalayan Trail (GHT).

Stretching for 1,700km along the length of Nepal, the GHT will take you a mere 157 days to complete. You'll see eight of the world's 14 peaks over 8,000m, including Everest, and cross passes reaching up to 6,000m, climbing a total of 150,000m. That's a Snowdon every day for half a year. Oh, and it will set you back £20,500.

The GHT isn't the world's longest long-distance footpath. The Continental Divide Trail in the US is 5,000km and the Trans Canada will be three times that. But this steroidal version of the Pennine Way looks like being the most coveted of all. Eventually, the trail's originators hope it will stretch from the mighty 8,000m peak Nanga Parbat in Pakistan, considered the westernmost outlier of the Himalaya, to Namche Barwa in Tibet. It will connect five Asian countries - Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Pakistan.

That version will stretch for 4,500km, a with a predicted completion date of February 2011. But for now the focus is on Nepal. For as well as being an enormous challenge, the GHT could also prove to be a welcome money-spinner for a country still recovering from 10 years of civil war. Some parts of Nepal have benefited hugely from tourism, like the Everest and Annapurna regions. Those areas without such famous mountains, particularly in remote western Nepal, haven't fared nearly so well.

Last year, I trekked along a section of the GHT through the Mugu district of western Nepal, a remote region peopled by Tibetan traders and animist tribes. Thousands of people were relying on aid from the World Food Programme, flown in by helicopter with the nearest roads a week's walk away. Many young men leave to find work abroad. Tourism, for all its faults, could really make a difference here.

Several adventurous souls have travelled the arc of the Himalaya before, while Richard and Adrian Crane, cousins of television presenter Nicholas Crane, actually ran it in 1983. But the idea of a defined and designated route for trekkers is more recent. In 2006, the Dutch development agency SNV and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development based in Kathmandu committed to developing the idea, and have brought together government agencies and local people.

But it's the hard work of one man, Australian trekker Robin Boustead, that has moved the project along most. After years of research (read his account here), he completed the trek in two sections, and has drawn an excellent free map of the trail's route as well as writing a guidebook. Every water source, camping ground and elevation has been meticulously logged with GPS, but he says that the route will undoubtedly develop as more people do it and discover better alternatives.

For those without the time – or the knees – to do the whole thing in one go, Boustead has broken the GHT down into nine sections, which you can pick off at your leisure. And if you think 20 grand is a lot of chapatties to spend on an adventure holiday, it's still a lot less than the current price of a trip up Everest – and a lot more exclusive. There have been four thousand ascents of the world's highest mountain, but only one man has done the GHT.

• The full-length Great Himalaya Trail opens in February 2011. Currently, only the Nepal section (1,700km) is available to traverse, as it is the only part that has been walked and mapped thoroughly. It costs £20,500, not including interntaional flights. It takes 157 days to complete, although it can be broken down to seven smaller stages up to 34 days. For more information and bookings call World Expeditions on 0800 0744 135 or visit worldexpeditions.co.uk

• Nepal
• Walking holidays
• Adventure travel
• Nepal

Barcelona Journal: Trumpeting the Catalan Language, by Law, in Small Type on the Big Screen

A local bill requiring that at least half the copies of every film from outside Europe be dubbed in Catalan is the latest attempt to assert Catalan culture.
Read more [International Herald Tribune]

Second General Strike in a Week Called in Greece

A nationwide strike on Thursday closed hospitals and schools and stopped all flights and most public transport across the debt-plagued country.
Read more [International Herald Tribune]

Report: Iran releases former senior official (AP)

AP - An Iranian pro-reform Web site says authorities have released a former senior official detained for suspected involvement in the country's postelection turmoil.

Dragons up ante in bid to stay with Eels

St George Illawarra backrower Dean Young claims the Dragons can't afford to simply replicate the game-plan which won them last year's NRL minor premiership.
Read more [The Age: Australia National]

Callus primed for Games swim trials

Australia's fastest swimmer Ashley Callus says he is primed for next week's Commonwealth Games trials in Sydney.
Read more [The Age: Australia National]

24-hour vigil for miracle Aussie elephant 'Mr. Shuffles' (AFP)

AFP - Australian zoo keepers were keeping a round-the-clock vigil for "Mr. Shuffles", the miracle elephant calf who survived a marathon nine-day labour despite being declared dead.

Bank of Korea keeps interest rate at record low (AP)

AP - South Korea's central bank left its key interest rate at a record low Thursday amid international sovereign debt concerns and as the institution prepares for a leadership change.
Read more [Yahoo World News]

Greece braced for strike by unions

Protest over state's austerity plans to affect schools and hospitals and also ground flights.
Read more [Al Jazeera]

Chile’s New President Enters a Changed Political Landscape

The aftermath of the earthquake may give the country’s new right-wing government a chance to entomb the ghosts of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
Read more [International Herald Tribune]

Labor favoured to win Tasmanian election

Bookmakers have Labor as favourites to win the Tasmanian election for a fourth successive term on March 20, despite a swing to the Liberals.
Read more [The Age: Australia National]

The Rogue Nation

Philip Giraldi on the nation which dispenses
Read more [AntiWar]

Iran, Israel Spoiling for a Fight?

RAMALLAH — Iran and Israel appear to be spoiling for a fight, going by recent belligerent statements emanating from several regional capitals. Military movement on the ground is also lending credence to the idea that the mutual loathing and major ideological differences between the two countries could lead to a vortex of violence capable of sucking [...]
Read more [AntiWar]

Rachel Corrie Family Finally Puts Israel in Dock 

Seven years after Rachel Corrie, a US peace activist, was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza, her family was to put the Israeli government in the dock today.  A judge in the northern Israeli city of Haifa was due to be presented with evidence that 23-year-old Corrie was killed unlawfully as she stood in [...]
Read more [AntiWar]

Premature Withdrawal

Tom Engelhardt on Washington's cult of narcissism
Read more [AntiWar]

Anthrax and the WMD Fear Lobby

Half a dozen dead is mass destruction? asks Alan Reynolds
Read more [AntiWar]

Rice-Seebohm clash to ignite swim trials

Stephanie Rice and Emily Seebohm are poised to ignite Australia's next great rivalry in the pool at this month's national trials in Sydney.
Read more [The Age: Australia National]

Waratahs on attack for Waugh's record

The Waratahs will go on the attack against the Lions on Friday in an attempt to mark inspirational captain Phil Waugh's franchise record appearance with a win.
Read more [The Age: Australia National]

US condemns Myanmar poll 'mockery'

Criticism grows of Myanmar election laws barring Aung San Suu Kyi from standing.
Read more [Al Jazeera]

No excuse for failure: Ford's top driver

Ford's new No.1 man Mark Winterbottom says there are no excuses for failure after his best ever start in his quest for a maiden V8 Supercar championship.
Read more [The Age: Australia National]

Victoria's criminal laws to be reviewed

Victoria's criminal laws are about to undergo a major review with the public getting a bigger say about increasing maximum penalties.
Read more [The Age: Australia National]

Greeks stage fresh general strike

Public and transport services grind to a halt in Greece as workers stage a second strike in protest at austerity measures.
Read more [BBC Europe]

Law bars Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi from elections (AP)

AP - A decision by Myanmar's military junta to bar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from upcoming elections drew sharp criticism from around the world, with one of the country's Southeast Asian neighbors Thursday calling it "a complete farce."
Read more [Yahoo World News]

Bulls trying to dig in against WA

Queensland teenager Chris Lynn and all-rounder Nathan Reardon dug their heels in after the Bulls' top-order again failed to fire against WA at the Gabba.
Read more [The Age: Australia National]