Hydrablog

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/28/AR2008012802837.html
WORLD IN BRIEF
Tuesday, January 29, 2008; A16
canada
Prime Minister Warns Of Afghanistan Pullout
[Canada] [NATO and trade ally] [Canada’s public is aking why they are losing troops in Afghanistan] [the tragedy is 2007 was such a pivotal year the alliance needs unity in Afghanistan as much as any other time] [now is not the time to go wobbly there] [a week or so ago it looked ominous] [now there’s some hope that a NATO member and Canada will step up] [followup ] [**************]
Canada will extend its military mission in Afghanistan only if another NATO country puts more soldiers in the dangerous south, the prime minister said Monday, echoing the recommendation of an independent panel to withdraw unless additional forces are deployed.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government is under pressure to withdraw its 2,500 troops from Kandahar province, the former Taliban stronghold, after the deaths of 78 soldiers and a diplomat. The mission is set to expire in 2009 without an extension by Canadian lawmakers. [*********]
The refusal of European allies to deploy to Afghanistan's dangerous south and east has opened a rift with Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and other countries that, along with the United States, have borne the brunt of Taliban violence.
gaza strip
Abbas Gains Support For Rafah Crossing Plan
[Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [Gaza and border with Egypt] [followup] [*****]
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas won European and Arab backing on Monday for taking control of Gaza's breached border with Egypt, intensifying his power struggle with the Hamas extremists who rule the enclave.
The Rafah border crossing with Egypt has largely been closed since June, when Hamas seized control of the territory and the European Union pulled its monitors out of the Gaza Strip. The E.U. said on Monday it would consider returning them to the crossing.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit endorsed Abbas's proposal to deploy his own, Western-trained forces at the crossing along with the E.U. monitors, though the presence of neither force was imminent, given Hamas's command on the ground.
france
8-Year Prison Terms For Charity Workers
A French court on Monday sentenced six French charity workers to eight years in prison, after they were convicted in Chad of trying to kidnap 103 children they said were orphans from Darfur.
In October, Chadian authorities arrested members of the aid group Zoe's Ark as they sought to fly 103 children to France, insisting they were driven by compassion to help Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region, which borders Chad. But investigations showed most of the children had at least one parent or close adult relative.
The six were sentenced in Chad last month to eight years of hard labor, then transferred to France under a 1976 judicial accord between the two countries. They were jailed soon after their arrival.
somalia
Land Mine Blast Kills Aid Doctors, 2 Others
Two foreign doctors working for an international medical aid organization, their Somali driver and a reporter died Monday when the doctors' vehicle hit a land mine in the southern Somali town of Kismaayo, police said. Another doctor and three Somalis were injured.
The Dutch branch of Doctors Without Borders said it did not immediately have details on the violence involving its workers, but was evacuating international staff from Kismaayo.
The Somali reporter, who was passing by, was injured in the explosion and later died in the hospital, a hospital worker said.
egypt
Al-Jazeera Producer Is Arrested Again
An al-Jazeera journalist already appealing one jail sentence was arrested again while filming a documentary, allegedly without a proper license, her lawyer and police said.
Egyptian Howaida Taha, 44, a documentary producer for the pan-Arab TV news channel, was filming in a low-income neighborhood in Cairo when police detained her.
Taha, who is known for her criticism of the Egyptian regime, was detained last January for two days for possessing 50 videotapes that police alleged contained fabricated scenes of torture by Egyptian police. [*****]Taha said the footage was a "reconstruction" for her documentary on police torture in Egypt.
* * *
U.S. Warship Visits Hong Kong
China has allowed the warship USS Blue Ridge to dock in Hong Kong waters for the first time since a diplomatic tiff over Beijing's refusal to allow another ship, the USS Kitty Hawk, to stop in the territory in November. The Blue Ridge was expected to dock in Hong Kong for several days to allow rest and recreation for more than 700 sailors.
Suspended Term for Professor
A Turkish court imposed a suspended 15-month jail sentence on Prof. Atilla Yayla for insulting modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. At a 2006 conference, Yayla questioned whether Ataturk's beliefs contributed to Turkey's progress. Insulting Ataturk's memory is a crime in Turkey.
India Probes Transplant Scheme
Police in India said they were raiding hospitals and guest houses in a posh New Delhi suburb as part of a probe into an illegal transplant scheme that allegedly removed kidneys from up to 500 poor laborers and sold their organs to wealthy clients. Police suspect that dozens of doctors were involved in the scheme, which had a waiting list of some 40 people hailing from at least five countries.
From News Services
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