Bishops, Refugees, and Balochistan
Maybe I can actually keep up this whole "daily news" thing for a while. If I can, perhaps I'll start chipping away at the roughly sixty stories I have back-logged, some from as far back as October.
A major conference of the Worldwide Anglican Communion is being held in Tanzania. The issue of homosexual clergy, which has been causing a growing rift in the denomination since 2003, is likely to dominate the proceedings.
Continuing with coverage of the migrant boat that's docked in northern Mauritania, the Mauritanian government is having trouble deporting the migrants. Apparently none of the other nations in Western Africa are willig to let aircraft carrying the migrants so much as land, and their home countries are unwilling to make any effort to take the migrants back.
Finally, there's been a car bomb attack in the eastern Iranian city of Zahedan. (Fox, CNN, BBC) The attack occurrred in broad daylight when a car overtook a bus carrying members of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard, then feigned mechanical failure. Initial casualty reports of eighteen dead have been updated to eleven dead, thirty-one wounded, apparently all Revolutionary Guards. An al Qaeda-linked group called Jundallah ("Allah's Brigade") has claimed responsibility, though the Iranians are officially blaming "insurgents and drug traffickers".
Zahedan is the capital of the Sistan-Balochistan province; as I've mentioned before, Balochistan spans into Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. (map) The majority of the region is in Pakistan, but Pakistan's administration of the region is severely limited. The Afghan province of Helmand, where Coalition forces have been encountering the heaviest Taliban resistance in recent months, borders Pakistani Balochistan. There's an excellent article that I linked to previously about the rise in nationalism among Balochis. Further proof of this came right here at TSTF a few months back, when I received a comment from the alleged general secretary of the Government of Balochistan in Exile. Interestingly enough, Balochistan shares a number of traits with Kurdistan.
That's it for tonight.
A major conference of the Worldwide Anglican Communion is being held in Tanzania. The issue of homosexual clergy, which has been causing a growing rift in the denomination since 2003, is likely to dominate the proceedings.
Continuing with coverage of the migrant boat that's docked in northern Mauritania, the Mauritanian government is having trouble deporting the migrants. Apparently none of the other nations in Western Africa are willig to let aircraft carrying the migrants so much as land, and their home countries are unwilling to make any effort to take the migrants back.
Finally, there's been a car bomb attack in the eastern Iranian city of Zahedan. (Fox, CNN, BBC) The attack occurrred in broad daylight when a car overtook a bus carrying members of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard, then feigned mechanical failure. Initial casualty reports of eighteen dead have been updated to eleven dead, thirty-one wounded, apparently all Revolutionary Guards. An al Qaeda-linked group called Jundallah ("Allah's Brigade") has claimed responsibility, though the Iranians are officially blaming "insurgents and drug traffickers".
Zahedan is the capital of the Sistan-Balochistan province; as I've mentioned before, Balochistan spans into Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. (map) The majority of the region is in Pakistan, but Pakistan's administration of the region is severely limited. The Afghan province of Helmand, where Coalition forces have been encountering the heaviest Taliban resistance in recent months, borders Pakistani Balochistan. There's an excellent article that I linked to previously about the rise in nationalism among Balochis. Further proof of this came right here at TSTF a few months back, when I received a comment from the alleged general secretary of the Government of Balochistan in Exile. Interestingly enough, Balochistan shares a number of traits with Kurdistan.
That's it for tonight.
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