October 26:
According to the Times of India, radical clerics in the volatile northwestern border region of Pakistan are increasingly using the airwaves to rally support for their cause, broadcasting fiery speeches against authorities and issuing edicts against “forbidden” practices. Experts say there could be more than 100 illegal FM radio stations in the tribal area, safely tucked away between the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. One radical cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, has earned himself the nicknames "Mullah Radio" and "FM Maulana" for his broadcasts, prompting the attention of the Pakistan army which has deployed thousands of troops in the NWFP’s Swat valley to counter his activities.
A recent study released by the Asia Foundation has revealed the destructive effect clan violence is having on the peace process in the southern Philippines. Identified as a "type of conflict characterized by sporadic outbursts of retaliatory violence between families and kinship groups," this violence – known as “rido” - has crippled negotiations between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the main Islamic separatist group. According to the International Herald Tribune, no substantial agreement has been reached between the two because “rido” repeatedly draws both sides into unnecessary violence, causing death and suffering, destruction of property, crippling of the local economy, and displacement of communities.
November 3:
While violence in Kashmir is down 50 percent year-on-year, thanks to a tenuous ceasefire now in effect along the India-Pakistan border, The Hindu reports that cross-border support to Islamic militants continues. Pakistan, however, is not the only source for militants now active in the unruly region. Reports have also suggested that Chinese forces have crossed into Indian territory as part of a bid by Beijing to stake a claim to India’s Arunchal Pradesh province.
November 5:
Reuters reports that Taliban insurgents have captured their third district for one week in western Afghanistan, refuting Western claims that the rebel extremists are too weak to stage large military offensives. "Khake-e Sefid district fell into Taliban hands yesterday without any resistance from Afghan forces," says Qadir Daqiq, a Farah provincial council member. According to another provincial official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, rebel fighters have been acquiring arms through a Taliban leader based near the Iranian border, forcing lightly-armed Afghan police to flee from confrontation. This momentum has also been aided by poor morale plaguing Afghan police; up to 38 officers have defected to the Taliban in recent months, while those who are left are often unwilling to put up any resistance to the Islamist opposition.
November 8:
Now that an American-lead team of experts has finally begun to disable three of North Korea’s nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, new questions are being raised about the extent that the DPRK is willing to disarm. The Economist reports that the deployment of the team, which commenced work on November 5th, caps a 15-year effort to roll back North Korea’s nuclear program. But Pyongyang is still believed to possess some 110 pounds of separated plutonium – enough for at least six to eight nuclear devices – which observers say Kim Jong-il may be loathe to part with. North Korea, moreover, has yet to turn over its list of weapons programs as mandated under the most recent Six Party Talks agreement, and without it the full scope of the Stalinist state’s WMD capabilities cannot be known.