Rumsfeld's secret order

A secret order issued in the spring of 2004 by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and approved by President George W. Bush gave the US military the authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against al-Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials. Some of these attacks were conducted in close coordination with the CIA. Keep up to date with the latest developments and sharpest perspectives in a world of strife and struggle.

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The toD verdict: The secret order, called "Al-Qaeda Network Exord," or execute order, was created in order to speed up the process through which the military could act outside officially-declared war zones. Previously the Pentagon needed to get approval for missions on a case-by-case basis, a time-consuming procedure. Despite the order's streamlining of decisions, however, it still requires each mission to have high-level government approval. Fifteen to twenty countries, including Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and several other Gulf states where al-Qaeda militants were believed to be operating or to have sought sanctuary, are recognised within the order.

Examples of the order being put to use include a 2006 raid by the Navy Seal team on a suspected militants' compound in the Bajaur region of Pakistan, and a Pentagon Joint Special Operations Command which sent 130 gunships to an airstrip near the Ethiopian town of Dire Dawa shortly after Ethiopian troops crossed into Somalia in late 2006 to dislodge an Islamist regime in Mogadishu in order to hunt senior members of al-Qaeda cells believed to be responsible for the 1998 American Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Last month's raid on Syria, in which eight people were killed, is another example of the use of this order. Military officials explain that the protest it drew from the Syrian government was due to the fact that it had drawn more attention than previous raids.

The 2004 order reflects the sweeping tactics implemented by the Bush administration in its prosecution of the "war on terror", and followed the granting by the government of enlarged powers to intelligence agencies to secretly detain and interrogate terrorism suspects in overseas prisons and to conduct warrantless eavesdropping on telephone and electronic communications. It also stems from the Bush administration's redefinition of "self-defense" as unilateral "pre-emption" by legitimizing strikes on targets in nations without those countries' consent. The Pakistani government, amongst others, has lodged numerous complaints about violations of sovereignty; the latest attack by US drones in Pakistan killed at least ten people on Friday in North Waziristan, a tribal region on the Afghan border.

President-elect Barack Obama will likely overturn many of the policies put in place by Bush's government, but it remains uncertain whether he'll repeal this order in particular when trying to "unpick the most egregious acts of the Bush administration".

Deadly bombs in Iraqi capital

Two bombs went off in quick succession of each other during rush hour on Monday morning, killing a total of at least 28 people and wounding 68 others in the Azamiya neighbourhood of northern Baghdad. The first bomb struck a bus of schoolgirls and the second targeted the crowd that this explosion had gathered. At the time of writing, no group had claimed responsibility for the blasts which were the deadliest seen in the Iraqi capital in months; violence is down significantly in Baghdad since the worst of the Sunni-Shia fighting in 2006 and 2007, though small-scale bombings have been on the rise in recent weeks. In a separate attack also on Monday, a teenage girl wearing a bomb vest blew herself up at a US checkpoint, killing four people and wounding eighteen.

Bomb attacks over the weekend also claimed at least ten lives in separate incidents, including a blast in a crowded market in the town of Khalis in Diyala province and when a female suicide bomber exploded in front of a hospital near the city of Fallujah. US forces have reported that young girls and women are being recruited more and more often for suicide missions because they find it easier to evade security checks.

China defends itself to the UN

China defended itself against allegations of torture before a ten-member independent committee of the United Nations on Monday, saying it had "zero tolerance" for abuses in its police stations, jails and on the streets. The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy is among the organisations that have raised concerns about the cruel and inhumane treatment of detainees, including monks and nuns arrested during demonstrations this year in Tibet. Beijing delegation chief Li Baodong rejected as "groundless and untrue" the allegations against China.

Elsewhere in China, the government has said that recent talks with the Dalai Lama have not been successful in reaching an agreement over China's policy in Tibet. The Chinese authorities still suspect the Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Peace laureate of being an advocate of Tibetan independence, an idea that many younger, radical Tibetan activists advocate. China has made clear its refusal to make concessions on the region's status.

Blast kills Georgian police officers

A landmine blast killed two Georgian police officers near the breakaway region of South Ossetia on Monday morning in what the EU mission in the area called "an unacceptable breach" of the pact brokered between Georgia and Russia after Moscow fought off a Georgian bid to retake the rebel region in August. The explosion occurred in the village of Dyani in what was until early October a Russian-controlled buffer zone, and a second mine went off when a group of police officers arrived to help, wounding three others. The explosions come just days after a roadside blast in the southern Russia region of North Ossetia killed 11 people on a minibus as it was travelling through the provincial capital. This region has been the site of several bomb blasts since the start of Russia's conflict with Chechen separatists which began over a decade ago, and also borders restive South Ossetia.

Hamas leader ready to negotiate with Obama

The leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, has declared his willingness to open talks with the US President-elect Barack Obama as the end draws near to Bush's term in office. Hamas has been in control of the Gaza Strip since in-fighting in June 2007 with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. However Obama's advisers have said that Hamas, a group that much of the international community refuses to engage with, must change their tactics and policies before US officias are willing to meet at the negotiating table. The US was also part of the Quartet of middle east mediators who have organised a meeting in Moscow early next year to continue talks on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

These discussions of peace came just after three successive days of hostilities that saw rockets launched into Israel, raids of the Gaza Strip and tension between Israelis and Palestinians.

Spanish troops die in Taliban attack

An explosive-laden vehicle crashed into a Spanish convoy on Sunday as in travelled through the Shindand district in the southern part of the Herat Province of Afghanistan, killing at least two Spanish soldiers and injuring three others. The attack, which occurred in what is usually a non-combat zone, was reportedly carried out in response to a US raid in August which killed at least 90 civilians, mostly women and children. Violence has increased steadily in Afghanistan in recent months as the Taliban, who were in government between 1996 and 2001, have grown in strength. Spain has about 700 military personnel based in Afghanistan, most of them in Herat province, and this incident brings the death toll of Spanish troops in Afghanistan to 25. The latest attack coincidences with announcements that Obama's administration will reassess policies towards violence and militancy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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