Van Diemen's Station Blues

400-Pound Car Bomb Fails to Detonate in Belfast (AP, CNN)

Guardian: US funds anti-Taliban Afghan militias - Experts warn that secretive programme could fuel long-term instability in the country; Times: British to train Afghan militias

Guardian: Can Islam be reconciled with science?, Religion and science shouldn't mix

BBC: Coffee and chess - Kandahar revives cultural pastime

BBC: Tough lessons for Obama on Mid-East peace; Are the Democrats losing their way?

BBC: NASA Cassinin spacecraft sends pictures of Saturn's moon

Guardian: WWII Aerial Images

Guardian: Silent witness in the Sinai

Guardian: Climate sceptics 'put world at risk' - Ahem.

Guardian: Saudi Arabia goes to war [in Yemen]

Guardian: An insidious argument for censorship

Times: Afghanistan's grievances and tribal splits: ripe for exploitation?

Times: Save this oasis of pleasure for Iraqis [soccer] - FIFA banned Iraq from playing soccer because there's a political mess entanging Iraq's soccer executives. Bad mojo all around.

Times: [British] Army lacks bite to take on Taleban

UPI: Enigma of Russian MiG-29s for Lebanon

AFP: China ramps up espionage against US: study

AFP: Obama Afghan decision to come after Thanksgiving

AFP: Britain's Tories say would pull troops out of Germany

Commentary: How Politics Destroyed a Great TV Show - Jonah Goldberg has an interesting take on the politicization of Battlestar Galactica. He brings up a number of points that I hadn't considered, or hadn't caught on to, when watching the course of the show. Worth the read if you're a Galactica fan.

Commentary (Michael Totten): A Third Lebanon War Could Be Much Worse than the Second