Private security firms look to continent for recruits (IRIN News via AllAfrica, 03/17/08)
As if the bloody wars in Africa over the past three decades were not enough, security contractors are encouraging even more from battle-hardened veterans. Several private security companies are head-hunting in Africa, visiting the most war-ravaged nations to find their most blood-thirsty fighters.

Congo-Kinshasa: 14,200 cases of rape registered from 2005 to 2007 (United Nations Mission in the DRC via AllAfrica, 03/17/08)
When entire sections of a country are part of “no-law zones” where crimes cannot be tried, the situation is more than worrying. Both government forces and militias have been using rape as a weapon.

Violence over land on the rise in Jigawa state (IRIN News via AllAfrica, 03/17/08)
Competition between farmers and nomadic herders turned deadly when five farmers were killed this week. With Nigeria’s population almost doubling over the past two decades, agrarian land is becoming a highly valued commodity.

Mugabe threat to foreign press as poll looms (The Guardian, 03/18/08)
The oncoming Zimbabwean poll has President Robert Mugabe agitated enough to start lashing out at western journalists. This week, the President’s spokesman George Chiramba accused several journalists of illegally entering the country and even spying on behalf of hostile parties.

Gaddafi says Africans must reject conditional aid (Reuters, 03/17/08)
Speaking to an Afro-Arab conference of 5,000 youth in Uganda, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi asked governments not to adhere to western demands to democratize their governments in exchange for aid. Gaddafi reminded his audience that countries offering Africa aid were originally its colonizers, and could not understand that western systems could not work in the continent.

E.U. force starts mission in Chad, CAR (Yahoo! News, 03/17/08)
After weeks of squabbling over troop strengths and a Chadian rebel assault on Ndjamena in early February that made deployment a logistical nightmare, the French-led E.U. forces have brought 3,700 troops to Chad and the Central African Republic for the express purposes of assisting Darfur refugees. With internal problems in Both Chad and CAR, the total number of displaced people the troops will have to protect will number in excess of 450,000.

Israel’s Shin Bet launches blog (BBC News, 03/17/08)
Embracing new media with awkward arms, Israel’s secret service has started an online blog featuring four Shin Bet agents. The agents discuss how they were recruited, what they do, and even debunk myths. The whole exercise is a bare attempt at pushing people to the recruitment area of the Shin Bet website.

Retired Kuwaiti pop star joins al Qaeda (Al Arabiya, 03/15/08)
Hussein al-Ahmad was one of the region’s most celebrated pop stars, until he ensconced what he calls his life of sin, and joined up with the militant group.

Turkish PM slams move to ban his ruling party (Al Arabiya, 03/15/08)
The ruling AKP party denounced Turkey’s chief prosecutor’s plans to try and ban the party for opposing the national secular system as unconstitutional. The prosecutor also wants the Turkish Prime Minister and 70 other members to be banned from politics.

Hopes and concerns in Iraq
Both U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney (AFP, 03/17/08) and Presidential hopeful Senator John McCain visited Iraq this week (Al Arabiya, 03/16/08). The former assured the media that the war was going well, and encouraged Arab states to curb Iranian influence in the region. McCain insisted that his was not a political visit, but instead one to attain a situational debriefing. A suicide bombing rocked Karbala on their arrival when a suspect detonated explosives near a Shiite shrine, killing 43 and injuring 73 (AFP, 03/17/08). The bombing comes as the international community takes a long look at the mess that was the Iraq war that has become the occupation of Iraq. A recent poll by ABC News, BBC, ARD German TV and NHK Japan confirmed that though Iraqis are feeling more hopeful (Yahoo! News, 03/17/08), very few of them attribute their condition to the U.S. occupation, which the majority still see as being detrimental. Both the Red Cross and Amnesty International have noted that the situation in Iraq has become one of the worst in the world (AFP, 03/17/08), with politically-motivated murders and the lack of health care topping the list of concerns. With 4 million Iraqis on the run (Yahoo! News, 03/17/08), the plight of the displaced is also a major concern. The future of younger generations that see these problems and the convincing though ignorant solutions offered by extremists (The Guardian, 03/18/08), is a prime issue for Iraq as the invasion/occupation marks its fifth year.

New Pakistan parliament convenes (Al Jazeera, 03/17/08)
The new government will take office later this month, and promises to give President Pervez Musharraf no rest in keeping his laws in place. The swearing-in ceremony took place just days after al Qaeda’s deadly twin-attacks in Lahore that killed 30 and injured 200 (Asia Times Online, 03/15/08).

Germany’s first suicide bomber in Afghanistan? (Der Spiegel, 03/15/08)
In what is being called the worst attack on ISAF forces this year, a suicide bomber on March 3 blew up his explosive-laden truck in front of a district center. Investigators are now wondering if the perpetrator was a German-born Turk with known Islamist links.

After the deadline in Tibet
The world waits with baited breath as Tibetan activists refused to surrender after China gave them a deadline for 17 March (Al Jazeera, 03/18/08). Sick of passivity, a younger generation of exiles took a more violent approach last week when they rioted against Chinese forces (The Guardian, 03/17/08). China for now is relieved that no nations have boycotted the Olympics (Yahoo! News, 03/17/08), especially after the violence the state used against the protesters (The Guardian, 03.17/08). Given China’s stature as a rising economic power, western nations are likely to do little other than protest verbally (Der Spiegel, 03/17/08), if that. As China protested claims that it uses lethal force against demonstrators (The Times of India, 03/17/08), the Dalai Lama said that the country should not be penalized in terms of the Olympics (The Times, 03/16/08). The Dalai Lama is being uncharacteristically resolute in not calling off the violent protests in Tibet, and has even dragged India into the situation (Asia Times, 03/18/08). The Tibetan parliament-in-exile is accusing China of causing the deaths of hundreds during the protests (AFP, 03/17/08).

My Lai probe hid policy that led to massacre (Asia Times Online, 03/18/08)
New evidence alleges that the massacre of 400 civilians during the Vietnam War was not an act of misconduct by soldiers, but one of obedience to distinct military operational guides coming from high up in the chain of command.

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For more of GNN’s exclusive news roundups, read Nathan Coe’s Labor News Roundup, Alfonzo Torrez’s The Rebel Communique, and mwm’s If you knew…