Sunday Night Push

*Whew*, what a week, ne?

Several perfectly noteworthy stories got pushed to the research archive rather than posted here simply because there has been so much going on that requires attention.

Anyway...

Here's your place to start something of your own interest. This thread is left open to comments for folks to make their own fun or leave messages for me about breaking news events. The usual rules still apply: play nice.

It has been an astounding week for visitors at CompHyp, again rising over even last week's solid numbers. I remain impressed that folks find this to be of use and interest, and you have my thanks for visiting.

A particular thanks goes out to Rantburg.com which has kindly made CompHyp one of their Blog Spotlight items:

"Via Legal Insurrection, this blog seems to offer sensible, factual analysis of world events. Based on the few posts of his that I read, it's prolly worth bookmarking."

Thank you, Seafarious, and thanks again to the relationship chain of Legal Insurrection, Honduras Abandoned, and Fausta's Blog for getting CompHyp noticed in new places. I remain in your debt, All.

Now let's see if I can be worthy of all the attention.

Xinjiang riots worse than first reported

First reports in the People's Republic of China news outlets sounded bad, but not overwhelmingly bad by Chinese standards...

China says a riot that shook the capital of western Xinjiang region on Sunday was a plot against its power, after at least three people died in the eruption of ethnic unrest and authorities launched a crackdown.

Hundreds of locals took to the streets of the regional capital, Urumqi, some burning and smashing vehicles and confronting ranks of police and anti-riot troops.

Not so fast there.

It seems that there was a *bit* more to it than that:

Violence in China's restive western region of Xinjiang has left 129 people dead, state media say - a sharp increase on an earlier reported toll.

Some sources are putting an even higher number of deaths, but those are not yet second-sourced.

This matters, besides the obvious matter of more than a hundred dead people, in that Xinjiang is the western border territory held by the P.R.C., is a vital part of their energy and resource development plans, and is a little less than half-populated by Uighur (Uyghur)... the Turkic people shared across Central Asia... and they (collectively) haven't exactly taken well to being a part of Han-dominated China. There are perfectly peaceful nationalist Uighur groups, but there are some bad apples as well (cf. East Turkestan Islamic Movement) that have ended up on the wrong side of the GWOT, and then there are armed liberation groups.

The P.R.C. government finds it useful to lump them all under the "terrorist" label, and treats the problem as such.

There may not be that many "terrorist" Uighurs out there, but after today, there may well be more rebels.

Zelaya thinks he can force the issue

...by trying to go back to Honduras.

He couldn't get any of his ALBA buddies to get on the airplane with him, nor would the OAS leader. That pretty much rules out the "300 journalists" on the flight, too, although there are certainly seats available now.

He is said to have gotten Miguel D'Escoto, the former regional troublemaker now supposedly gainfully employed as the U.N. General Assembly president, to go with him.

The Honduran Government-in-place is not taking this lightly. Furthermore, given the raft of indictments against M. Zelaya, if he does reach the ground he should be arrested. If D'Escoto would like, he can waive whatever diplomatic immunity he has and be arrested too, but he'd have to ask nicely.

***

UPDATE ~1700hrs ('blogtime):

Roughly four hours ago Spanish language media had the aircraft landed in El Salvador. That may well have been a refueling.

In the last hour, Honduras ATC warned off the flight, then Zelaya claimed the flight was circling the airport at Tegucigalpa but the runway was blocked. He shortly thereafter claimed the flight was redirecting "to El Salvador" which doesn't quite jibe with having been their just before... and now the announcement comes that he will be landing in Managua, Nicaragua.

I didn't know Kabuki was popular in Latin America... sheesh.

***

If you have time to read one more source... Read Hunter Smith at Honduras Abandoned. His updates #4 and #5 for today are the best on-the-scene reporting out there right now. Shame on the major media outlets...

***

Hunter Smith called it, and I got lucky on spotting the staged Reuters wirephoto as it came in. Both he and William A. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection have kindly tipped the hat to CompHyp for this. Thank you both, gents.

There is reasonable confirmation from multiple sources of 1 dead in the encounter at the airport perimeter fence (*not* the main body of the demonstration, the agitators that pressed on past the stop-line), there may well be 2 dead. What isn't in yet are the medic reports on cause of death. That's another one for us to look to those on-scene to get news out on.

***

More on this as it comes in.

***

Kang Nam 1 in the Yellow Sea

That would be today's report:

The Kang Nam 1 is being tracked in the Yellow Sea, south of the Korean Peninsula, headed north.

It is running in international waters.

That pretty much puts to rest any thought of anyone trying to inspect it at sea as, if it hasn't happened yet, it isn't going to happen.

Given what is known, just to remind readers, that's a good thing. It is likely a trap, politically if not physically.

Army to pull out of Marange diamond fields

Hm. Color me surprised.

The Kimberley Review Process visit, some publicity of the atrocities by Human Rights Watch, and the Government of Zimbabwe's (Rhodesia) desperate need to avoid any more bad press while they are trying to drum up financial support seem to have all worked in concert...

The Army will be withdrawn from the Marange diamond fields.

Zimbabwe's deputy mines minister Murisi Zwizwai, whose department has denied charges of killings by soldiers, told the state-controlled Sunday Mail that the army would be gradually pulled out of the diamond fields, which cover 66,000 hectares.

"We agreed to remove soldiers but it will be done in phases while proper security settings would be put in place," Zwizwai told the paper after meeting the Kimberly Process team.

Ah. There's the devil in the details.

They expect others to pay for securing the fields, and will only then withdraw the troop presence, *and* nothing is done about the role of certain ZANU-PF Kleptocrats who have been running the whole illicit activity. Heck, done right, this could even legitimize their role.

I'll rank this under the "small victory" category simply because the number of locals being killed might decrease, but as long as the Mugabe regime is calling the shots (literally) this matter is still unresolved.

The Great Experiment

...that a people could rule themselves, free of kings or despots...

...continues.

Frankly, simply attempting it has changed the world.

Luck on that, Yanks, and Happy Independence Day.

The count is up to 7, today

SCUDs... or Nodongs flying on short trajectories...

Seven of them were launched over the course of the 3rd of July (4th, local time).

All apparently went splash on target in the Sea of Japan, well short of endangering much of anything. For those who got the advance brief on this, yes, the launch site for several of the missiles was Kittaeryong (Gitdaeryong).

Kyoudou wire service also has the report, with the obligatory condemnations:

The Japanese and South Korean governments separately condemned the missile launches as provocative actions that are in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

That would be the least of what they are...

On the positive side, there are mixed reports of anything longer ranged being stacked for launch. This may mean that Hawaii will be off the target list for this little display of measured contempt.

We'll see if the North Koreans will pull off a surprise launch or whether they are happy to just be putting on the display they've managed so far.