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http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/021339.php
(AP)

June 9, 2008
“Stop the presses! Pakistan helped the Taliban!”

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BLOG:

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/06/pakistans_swat_peace.php

“Pakistan’s Swat peace agreement in the crossfire”
By BILL ROGGIO
June 9, 2008 2:42 PM

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Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028525/posts

Pakistani girls are traded to settle feuds
Miami Herald ^ | 6/9/08 | SAEED SHAH
Posted on June 9, 2008 3:45:07 PM PDT by Dawnsblood

It began with an errant dog, and it’s now culminated with the forced betrothal of 15 little girls, some of them as young as 3, as compensation in a case of tribal feuding in a remote part of Pakistan.

It’s thought that around 20 people have died in the bitter quarrel, and the marriage offer of the girls is meant to end the bloodletting.

Under a brutal custom, called Vani, the girls are being traded as settlement of a long-running dispute between two tribes. This case occurred on the border between the southern provinces of Sindh and Baluchistan, but the practice, known as Swara in some areas, isn’t uncommon in rural parts of Pakistan.

‘’The murderer gets away. It is his daughter, his sister, his niece, that pays the price,’’ said Samar Minallah, a human rights activist based in Islamabad. ``The girl has to pay the price for the rest of her life.’’

Vani usually involves the daughters of illiterate and poor people, who don’t have money or other assets to give as compensation. Minallah said that a disturbing feature of such settlements is that they’re often ordered by the rich local landowners who adjudicate the cases. Typically, they’re educated people and even include members of parliament. A law bans the practice, but police and local officials rarely intervene.

In this instance, Noor Ali, whose three daughters are to be given away, said in an interview that he accepted the verdict. His girls, however, had no choice.

‘’I think it is right,’’ said Ali, speaking by telephone from his village in the Jaffarabad area. ``This is our culture.’’

(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/northkorea
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/nkorea

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028725/posts

“North Korea reiterates anti-terror policy in apparent bid for removal from US blacklist”
AP ^ | 06/10/08
Posted on June 10, 2008 1:54:29 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2028726/posts

U.S. Official Travels to North Korea for Nuclear Talks
Fox News ^ | Tuesday, June 10, 2008 | Associated Press
Posted on June 10, 2008 2:04:12 AM PDT by BloodOrFreedom

Sung Kim, the U.S. State Department’s top Korea expert, crossed into North Korea via the heavily fortified land border with South Korea, the U.S. Embassy in Seoul said.

Kim was to stay in North Korea for two days to discuss how it can finish several remaining steps in disabling its Yongbyong reactor as well the possibility of blowing up a cooling tower there, according to the State Department and the embassy.

North Korea has promised to provide a complete declaration of its nuclear programs in return for aid and political concessions, but has not yet done so. It handed 18,500 pages of nuclear records to the U.S. in May.

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Energy-starved North Korea was promised aid equivalent to 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil for taking initial steps toward disarmament. It has requested that half of the aid be provided in heavy fuel oil and the other half in energy-related equipment — mostly steel products for renovating its outdated power plants.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...