The New Great Game in Asia is “all about pipelines”

The New Great Game is a geopolitical game with rivalry for pipeline routes to access energy resources in Central Asia and the Caspian Sea. It is widely reported in the Asian press but rarely commented upon in Canada.

“It began after the Soviet Union broke up and the five "Stans" of Central Asia became independent,” according to an article of John Foster who is an international energy economist and an expert on the world oil scene.

In the Canadian newspaper the Toronto Star: "Asia's new 'great game' is all about pipelines"
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/481731

Ahmed Rashid about “nation building” in Central Asia

The new book of the journalist Ahmed Rashid, “Descent Into Chaos”, is an investigation into the failure of nation building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia and the threat from radical Islam.

The BBC’s Soutik Biswas spoke with Rashid about this book and the situation in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia: “'Militancy will not run out of steam":
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7530272.stm

In June, Jane Perlez wrote the article “A prophetic voice on Taliban calls out again”
for the International Herald Tribune about Rashid's book “Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia”:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/20/asia/profile.php

The website of Ahmed Rashid
http://www.ahmedrashid.com/

American casualties in Afghanistan risen in june 2008

“June was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war there began in late 2001, as resilient and emboldened insurgents have stepped up attacks in an effort to gain control of the embattled country.” The Washington Post is reporting.

The economic involvement of China in Afghanistan

“In all the millions of square kilometres of print devoted to Afghanistan over the past few decades, one word - China - has appeared very seldom.”

However, over the next few years that could change, because “booming, ever-growing China is in the early stages of some massive investments in the troubled nation”.

Anthony Paul reports in “Dragon descends on Afghanistan” for China Elections and Governance:
http://en.chinaelections.org/newsinfo.asp?newsid=16377

Returnees in Afghanistan may become refugees again

“The worsening security situation, unemployment, the food crisis, drought, shelter problems and lack of socio-economic opportunities may force some Afghans who have returned to their country in the past six years to cross international borders again in search of a better life, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Refugees and Repartition (MoRR) warned.”

IRIN is reporting:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78822

Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan and media

It is almost one year ago Ira Chernus, professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, wrote an article for Global Research about civilian deaths in Afghanistan.

“Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan: No Coincidence”, and the reactions in the media. At this time, the article of Chernus is as actually as it was one year ago, or even more?

On Global Research
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6865

Mass prison break from the jail in Kandahar in South-Afghanistan

Bill Van Auken wrote an article for the WSWS about the prisoners who escaped from the prison in the city Kandahar: “Afghanistan: Mass prison break underscores crisis of US-backed regime."

“Large numbers of US-led NATO troops together with Afghan puppet forces continued a largely fruitless search over the weekend for more than 1,000 prisoners who escaped from a fortress-like jail in the southern city of Kandahar.”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/afgh-j16.shtml