news and links and such

• from democracy now!

- The Start of An Asian Nuclear Arms Race? North Korea Tests First Nuclear Weapon: North Korea says it has carried out its first-ever test of a nuclear weapon, sparking a wave of condemnation from the international community. [and more: ...nuke kid on the block on the daily show]
- Anna Politkovskaya, Prominent Russian Journalist, Putin Critic and Human Rights Activist, Murdered in Moscow: On Saturday, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead at her apartment in Moscow. Anna was a correspondent for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper and was an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and its policies in Chechnya. Her reporting on the second Chechen war, torture, mass executions and kidnappings by Russian soldiers made her into one of the country's most prominent human rights advocates.
- Sarah Chayes on Life in Afghanistan After the Taliban and Why She Left NPR: Chayes discusses her new book and the stories she couldn't tell when she was at NPR. Chayes covered the US invasion of Afghanistan for NPR but she left journalism in 2002 to run an aid organization in Kandahar called Afghans for Civil Society. She now runs the Arghand cooperative.

• from alternet

- THE INSANITY OF 'STAYING THE COURSE' IN IRAQ: At this point, the only people left who think that the U.S. must 'stay the course' in Iraq are Bush's neocons and al Qaeda.
- AMERICAN PRISON CAMPS ARE ON THE WAY: Kellogg Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, is constructing a huge facility at an undisclosed location to hold tens of thousands of Bush's "unlawful enemy combatants." Americans are certain to be among them.
- HELEN THOMAS: ASKING BUSH THE TOUGH QUESTIONS: Fearless White House correspondent Helen Thomas has covered nine presidents, and says Bush is undoubtedly the worst.
- DOES BUSH THINK WAR WITH IRAN IS PREORDAINED?: The Christian right sees an apocalyptic nuclear war with Iran as a vision set forth in the Bible. Bush himself may be a believer, too.
- WHAT THE AMISH ARE TEACHING AMERICA: The rest of us can learn a lot from how the Amish community responded to last week's gruesome school shooting in Pennsylvania.
- THE BYLINE GENDER GAP: It's time for progressive editors to stop paying lip service to the idea of gender parity and make some real changes.

• a few posts REALLY worth reading by sage of persephone's box:

- THE F-WORD REVISTED
- MEN IN SKIRTS
- APOLOGY FOR AN EVENING
- MASSAGE PARLOR PONDERINGS: The Sex Trade, Part I
- ON PROSTITUTION: The Sex Trade, Part II
- MAXIM PORN: The Sex Trade, Part III

• and speaking of the sex trade, under "PROSTITUTION DIVIDES EUROPE":

- ... a parliamentary hearing to find common ground
- ... but none of the approaches - whether in favour of prohibition, regulation or abolition - brings conclusive results

(thanks h. for the info)