International News

By REBECCA DUBE
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
For Larissa Vingilis-Jaremko, not getting called on helped her find her calling.

She remembers that moment from elementary school quite vividly. Her science teacher needed someone in the class to set up an experiment from a kit quickly, so she asked for volunteers.

By MARK MACKINNON
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Fatem Toubasi can't identify the specific moment she gave up on Palestine. It was a slow, heartbreaking process.

It started maybe a decade ago, when she first noticed the West Bank's relaxed and cosmopolitan atmosphere becoming more and more conservative.

By ANNA BADKHEN
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
When Steven Thompson returned from Iraq to North Carolina, the war followed him home.

He scans pastures and chicken farms for roadside bombs. He shoots wary glances at the faces of shoppers and moviegoers, searching for potential suicide bombers.

By PETTI FONG
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Two million residents of Greater Vancouver have been advised to boil their cloudy water after heavy rainfall created mudslides in the region's reservoirs, the widest water warning in Canadian history.

Health officials said tap water is unsafe for drinking, brushing teeth or washing fruits and vegetables after the mudslides increased the risk of bacteria and viruses infecting the water supply.

By PAUL KORING
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Troops from most major European nations are kept far from the fighting in Afghanistan, crippling NATO's effort to defeat the Taliban and secure the embattled south, according to NATO officers and independent analysts.

That leaves U.S., British and Canadian soldiers doing most of the fighting and dying in the battle with the fierce Taliban insurgency, a review of casualties shows.

Germany, France, Italy, and Spain _ all major military powers with significant troop contributions _ have stayed far from the Taliban fighters, deploying thousands of combat-capable troops, but keeping them hunkered down in the mostly peaceful northern and western parts of the country.

The starkest indicator of the imbalance is the body count, with three countries _ the United States, Canada and Britain _ accounting for 90 percent of NATO's combat casualties.

Americans killed in action account for half of the total, followed by Canada with 25 percent and Britain with 15 percent.

The unwillingness of many European nations to allow their troops to be sent into combat is only part of the problem.

Most of the 37 "troop-contributing" nations to the International Security and Assistance Force have sent too few soldiers to make any meaningful military impact.

Some are just token contributions.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006
In Afghanistan: Troop levels:

Country Troops

U.S. 11,250

Britain 5,200

Germany 2,750

Canada 2,300

Neth

By PAUL KORING
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The Afghan National Army, linchpin of the nation's hopes of eventually defeating the Taliban insurgency and defending its fragile democracy, remains woefully unready, according to the nation's leaders, its own officers and foreign soldiers currently spearheading the fight.

While the army gets qualified good reviews _ it is, for instance, the least-corrupt of Afghanistan's security forces and its soldiers have acquitted themselves ably in limited combat encounters _ the glimmers of hope are vastly overshadowed by darker realities.

Any long-term prospect of winning the war against a resurgent Taliban in southern Afghanistan depends ultimately on large numbers of "boots on the grounds," meaning a viable and continuing presence of Afghan soldiers and police throughout the region.

By DOUG SAUNDERS
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
In an ancient gymnasium, a sea of gray heads and brown overcoats suddenly parts, and a striking silhouette of shocking pink appears through a door marked "women's toilets." There is an explosion of excitement as the well-tailored pink apparition makes her way through the chanting mob and stands in the center of the mass.

"It is amazing that I could be here before you," Segolene Royal says in a hoarse but calmly conversational voice, the beginning of a two-hour extemporaneous speech billed as a participatory meeting.

"People ask how it is that you make me stronger.

By BRIAN LAGHI
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
China has delivered a diplomatic snub to the Canadian government by rejecting a meeting between its president and Prime Minister Stephen Harper as relations between the two countries continue to sour.

Harper and Chinese President Hu Jintao had tried to set up a meeting just before the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference that opens in Hanoi this week.

It would have been the first major get-together between the two men, although they spoke briefly last summer at a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized countries.

However, the Prime Minister's spokesperson, Sandra Buckler, said Tuesday the Chinese have decided not to pursue the meeting.

By GRAEME SMITH
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Kandahar's director of customs has threatened to resign, saying he feels ashamed of the corruption in his own office and the entire government of Afghanistan.

Azizullah Sakzai, 44, controlled a major source of government revenue during his three years as customs chief, as his outpost on the highway near the eastern edge of Kandahar city collected millions of dollars every year from trucks passing along the busy southern trade routes.

Those revenues were often caught in political tugs-of-war between Afghanistan's top power brokers, but Sakzai said the situation has now deteriorated so badly that it's impossible to continue working.

"I feel shame, because our administration is very weak and cannot control corruption," Sakzai said.