Free Republic

AFP - The Philippines on Saturday announced the imposition of martial law in a southern province to quell a rebellion by a powerful clan accused of being behind the massacre of 57 people. President Gloria Arroyo placed Maguindanao province under military control late on Friday in an effort to contain heavily armed militias belonging to the provincial governor and other members of his Muslim clan, authorities said. "There's a rebellion in the area," Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said. "It was practically an overthrow of government." Arroyo's controversial move is the first time martial law has been declared in the Philippines...

LEMIYA, Iraq, Sept. 27 — Iqbal Muhammad does not recall her first glimpse of her future husband, because they were both newborns at the time, but she remembers precisely when she knew he was the one. It was the afternoon her uncle walked over from his house next door and proposed that she marry his son Muhammad."I was a little surprised, but I knew right away it was a wise choice," she said, recalling that afternoon nine years ago, when she and Muhammad were 22. "It is safer to marry a cousin than a stranger."Her reaction was typical in a...

Russia: War Destroyed Chechnya's Clan Structure (Part 1) By Francesca Mereu With the world's attention largely focused on the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan, Russia's two-year-old war in the breakaway republic of Chechnya -- which it defends as a battle against terrorism -- continues unabated. The Russian military said on 3 January that it had killed more than 100 rebels in a special operation that ended a week of fierce fighting. The war -- Chechnya's second such conflict with Russia in a decade -- has claimed thousands of lives and has irreparably altered the traditional bonds of religion and family...