Islamist threat to Turkey’s secular system

Turkish secularism on the ropes. Sharia is advancing in what is always held out to be that exemplary beacon of democracy in the Islamic world, Turkey. The reasons why Sharia supremacists are advancing there have not — unsurprisingly — been sufficiently explored by Western analysts, who of course dismiss out of hand the appeal of a call to restore Islamic authenticity.

“Erdogan Set for Election Win That May Revive Tension Over Islam,” by Ben Holland for Bloomberg, March 27

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to win a fresh mandate from voters that may embolden his challenge to the country’s military and courts, which see him as an Islamist threat to Turkey’s secular system.

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Drone kills 24 Pakistan Taleban

Missiles fired by an unmanned US drone have killed at least 24 people in Pakistan’s Kurram tribal region near the Afghan border, officials have said.

Local officials said the dead were local Taleban and that the toll may rise. Thirty others were injured.

Correspondents say this is the fifth drone attack on Pakistani territory since Barack Obama became US president.

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China willing to meet Dalai Lama’s envoys

Premier Wen Jiabao said on Friday China was open to holding more talks with envoys for the Dalai Lama as long as the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader renounces what Beijing describes as separatism.

Wen said China’s policies toward Tibet were correct and the region was peaceful and stable, even as security forces enforced a lockdown on ethnic Tibetan regions a year after protests and demonstrations across ethnic Tibetan areas.

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Will Dalai Lama ever return to Tibet?

Half a century after the Dalai Lama fled Tibet after a failed uprising against the Chinese, the question of whether he will ever return is growing increasingly urgent.

In Tibet itself, “strong pressure is building, more than at any time previously, for him to be allowed to come back,” says Robbie Barnett, a Tibet expert at Columbia University in New York.

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Hamas popularity rises after Gaza war

Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians has risen sharply since a three-week Israeli war in January devastated the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip, an opinion poll released Monday showed.

If an election were held today, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would beat Mahmoud Abbas, the Western-backed Palestinian president and leader of Fatah who advocates a peace deal with Israel.

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Tibet’s Tense Anniversary

Fifty years after the failed Tibetan revolt against Chinese rule, prospects for resolving the dispute over the Himalayan region remain remote. China treats Tibet as an inalienable part of the country and vilifies the region’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, as a “splittist.” The Tibetan government in exile in India, under the leadership of the Dalai Lama, refuses to give up its demand for “genuine autonomy” for the Tibetan people. At the same time, China’s growing global influence makes many states reluctant to offer more than lip service to the Tibetan cause. Now, uncertainties surrounding the succession of the 73-year-old Dalai Lama are fueling fears about the future for Tibetan autonomy as well as China’s stability. The fate of about 120,000 Tibetans exiled in neighboring India also remains uncertain, experts say, as India looks to better relations with China.

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Roadside bomb kills a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan

One Canadian soldier died and four were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded Sunday near their armoured vehicle on patrol northeast of Kandahar city, the second deadly attack for troops in Afghanistan in less than a week.

The soldiers were conducting security operations in the mountainous region of Sha Wali Kot district — a known entry point for Taliban fighters — when the explosion occurred at about 1:15 p.m. local time on Sunday, the military said.

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Obama to step up attacks on Taliban

Officials in contact with the State Department said on Sunday that a new offensive would see a dramatic increase in Predator drone attacks on Taliban targets in defiance of Pakistani objections to cross-border attacks.

President Barack Obama on Sunday admitted that the US military was pushing for talks with the Taliban, but officials consulted on the plans said the military conflict would be raised to new levels of intensity before talks could begin. “There will be talks but the Taliban are going to experience a lot of pain first, on both sides of the border,” said one senior Western diplomat.

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Pakistan’s tenuous gains on Taliban

A pair of recent cease-fires in Pakistan has drawn many of the same critiques as past deals: They give militants legitimacy as well as an opportunity to regroup or relocate. But this time may be different. In the tribal agency of Bajaur, the military for the first time made significant headway before observing a truce.

To build on these gains, counter terrorism analysts say Pakistan must use the lull in fighting to bring in as much security and development as possible to Bajaur and to Swat, where a separate cease-fire deal was made.

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IAF aircraft hit gaza as rockets fall on Israel

Four Kassam rockets fired by Gaza terrorists hit southern Israeli civilian areas on Sunday morning.

Two of the rockets hit the Eshkol region and two struck the Sdot Negev area.

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