“This is a preliminary report produced under very challenging circumstances and with very limited access to affected areas... However what it suggests has been happening in Southern Kordofan is so serious that it is essential there is an independent, thorough and objective inquiry with the aim of holding perpetrators to account.”

Extracts from the editorial of The Guardian (see full article here):

Almost 60 years after an armistice ended the Korean war, the United States has resumed its efforts to bring home the remains of more than 2000 American soldiers.

The US has written to North Korea on the matter, the Pentagon said.

Despite the complete absence of diplomatic ties and particularly frosty ties over recent attacks on South Korea, the US has long sought cooperation with North Korea over the repatriation of soldiers’ remains.

North Korea has reportedly received several millions of dollars in exchange for cooperation.

David Clay Large, professor of history at Montana State University, writes in the New York Times (see full article here):

Few Olympics are as famous as the 1936 Berlin Games, whose 75th anniversary falls this month. The publicity that accompanied the competition, held under the watchful eye of Adolf Hitler, supposedly tamed the Nazi regime.

A Pakistan court prosecuted six paramilitary soldiers and one civilian security guard for the shooting of an unarmed teenager in Karachi two months ago.

A video of the killing, recorded by a local cameraman,  showed the young boy begging for mercy, before being shot, twice.

The video was widely broadcast across television channels and internet sites.

So much for China’s communism.

The editorial by Xinhua, China’s official news agency, in response to the downgrading of the United States’ debt rating reads like a neoliberal manifesto.

Extracts:

“The days when the debt-ridden Uncle Sam could leisurely squander unlimited overseas borrowing appeared to be numbered.