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CNEWS:Fatal attack on Chinese in Afghan province “not terrorism,” minister says Canadian news site reports that the bombing of a peacekeeping force vehicle and the murder of some 11 Chinese workers in northern Afghanistan was “not terrorism”. These supposed non-attacks non-occurred in Kunduz on the 10th fo June. Kunduz, significantly, is the first town outside…

What You Can Get Away With – Nick Barlow’s weblog It appears that UKIP’s Nick Croucher has very clear ideas on the content of that “free trade agreement” they think we could have with the EU in the event of withdrawal. Apparently he’s only going “to Europe” (eh? he’s standing on it!) in order to…

Those Nanniebots from the spring have been back in the news. Andy Pryke was able to take part in a supposed test of the system at Jim Wightman’s place, and discovered that the replies it produced were identical to those from a much older AI called ALICE. He also offered to produce the source code,…

Last night’s TV. What a great subject for a blog post. Newsnight last night was taken up by the BBC’s favourite post-Hutton pastime – broadcasting earnest discussions of its own failings. On the panel was Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips, who had a number of curious things to say about Andrew Gilligan, reporting and her…

As heavily reported, the Iranians have seized three speed boats belonging to the Royal Naval party in southern Iraq after they allegedly crossed the border between Iran and Iraq. The people involved are engaged in setting up an Iraqi river police for the area (chalk up another bunch of gunmen to us! I hope I’m…

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Private craft makes space history They did it! Burt Rutan’s outfit went to space! Best news all year!

So – having besieged Fallujah for weeks without success, you hand it over to a new and rather vague “Fallujah Brigade” in the hope that they will be less provocative (with the subtext that it’s a Kosovo Protection Corps-style way of incorporating the gunmen into something quasi-legitimate). Then, without apparently considering any further, you call…

The mighty Talking Points Memo has an interview with Anonymous, the spook author of Imperial Hubris, the book in which he bashes Bush’s counterterrorist policy comprehensively. TPM and Anon discuss Saudi Arabia (or next month’s outrage, as I’ve decided to call it) and establish that al-Qa’ida apparently operates on the principles laid down in Withnail…

Just not for our side. The chart shows numbers of “significant activities” by insurgents. Blue line is the daily total, red is the moving average. From Global Security

In the week that Kabul’s first gastropub opened for business, Phil Carter’s Intel Dump has a great post on the bar scene that has developed inside the walls of the Baghdad Green Zone. Apparently, the Zone’s hottest ticket is the CIA disco. Complete with mirrorball and (sprung I hope) dance floor. “The plushest tavern is…