The Irish National Liberation Army, an IRA splinter group responsible for some of the most notorious killings of the Northern Ireland conflict, renounced violence Sunday and signaled it could hand over weapons soon to disarmament officials.

http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/10/11/ira-splinter-group-renouncing-violence-in-ireland/

Speaking again on the unfolding scandal, UN Special Envoy to Afghanistan Kai Eide conceded today what everyone following the story has known for at least a month: that there was widespread fraud in August’s presidential election.

Eide followed up his admission by dismissing concerns about what, by all accounts, has been one of the most fraudulently run elections in history, insisting that the fact that the investigations hadn’t yet concluded proved that the “system is working.”

Eide’s role in the election fraud was brought to light following the firing of his chief assistant, Peter Galbraith. Galbraith says he was ordered by Eide to cover up the extent of the fraud, and claims Eide spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to assure him of his support after the UN had uncovered evidence that up to a third of Karzai’s votes were actually fraudulent.

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/10/11/uns-afghan-chief-admits-widespread-fraud-in-vote/

Ethiopia appears to have launched yet another incursion into Somalia, with hundreds of Ethiopian soldiers pouring across the border into Central Somalia and rounding up villagers suspected of having ties to the insurgency.

Locals say the Ethiopian forces were accompanied by soldiers affiliated with the self-proclaimed Somali government and the forces cut off the communication lines in the villages.

Ethiopia previously launched an invasion of Somalia in 2006 with the blessing of the US government. The invasion was an attempt to prop up the Somali government, which at the time was struggling in the face of growing support for the Islamic Courts Union.

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/10/11/ethiopian-troops-pour-into-central-somalia/

Here’s the thing: This may be our next “Vietnam moment,” but Afghanistan is no Vietnam: there are no major enemy powers like the Soviet Union and China lurking in the background; no organized enemy state with a powerful army like North Vietnam supporting the insurgents; no well organized, unified national liberation movement like the Vietcong, and that’s just a beginning. Almost everywhere, in fact, the Vietnam analogy breaks down – almost everywhere, that is, except when it comes to us. Because we never managed to leave Vietnam behind, even when we were proclaiming that we had kicked that “syndrome,” it turns out that we’re still there. Our military leaders, for instance, only recently dusted off the old Vietnam-era counterinsurgency doctrine that once ended in catastrophe, shined it up, and are now presenting it as an ingenious new solution to war-fighting. Let’s face it: everything about American thinking still stinks of the Vietnamese debacle, including the inability of our leaders to listen to a genuinely wide range of options.

http://original.antiwar.com/engelhardt/2009/10/11/apocalypse-then-afghanistan-now/

Clashes between Israeli security forces and protesting Palestinians have subsided as several hundred Muslims agreed to evacuate Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque following a deal brokered by the Jordanian embassy in Tel Aviv Saturday.

But the Islamic Movement, whose members sought to take over the mosque, is at the center of intense controversy. In Israel, demands have risen for the arrest of Islamic Movement leader Sheikh Raed Salah.