Explosions across Afghanistan's Kandahar
14 March 2010 - Taliban suicide bombers struck across Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar on Saturday, killing 30 people and wounding scores in a series of strikes the militants called a message to NATO. The city is at the centre of the Taliban's heartland and the next major target for NATO forces this year. Officials said the biggest attack was aimed at the prison on the city's outskirts, apparently an attempt to repeat a jailbreak there two years ago. (more)

India: Genetically modified crops 'suicidal' for climate change
14 March 2010 - Widespread adoption of genetically modified (GM) varieties by small farmers would be 'suicidal in terms of climate change,' said Vandana Shiva, an Indian social activist, environmentalist, and proponent of small-scale farming. 'The (GM) system is more about companies making money from farmers than food security,' she told AlertNet in an interview in London. Adopting GM crops puts small farmers at greater financial risk because they often have to borrow money to buy more expensive GM seeds. If their crops fail, particularly repeatedly, they can find themselves unable to repay the loans, she said. In recent years there has been an unprecedented spate of suicides by heavily indebted cotton farmers in Central India, Shiva said. More than three quarters of the suicides, her research shows, have been committed by farmers using GM cotton seed and struggling to repay loans. GM suppliers sell their seeds on the condition that farmers buy fresh seed each year, something many growers can't afford if their crop fails. A decade ago, 80 per cent of Indian farmers saved part of their harvest as seed to plant the following season's crops, Shiva said. (more)

Insulted by Israel, US scrambles to save talks
14 March 2010 - Israel's relationship with the United States, a defining feature of the troubled Middle East, was under severe strain as diplomats scrambled on Saturday to save newborn US-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians. A senior US official predicted 'a dicey period here in the next couple days to a couple of weeks' as Palestinians demanded the reversal of a new Israeli settlement plan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, which includes pro-settler parties, reacts to unusually blunt criticism from Washington. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Israel's behaviour 'insulting' after it approved 1,600 new homes last week at a settlement in the Jerusalem area on the very day Vice President Joe Biden was there to set a seal on relaunched negotiations. (more)

Television 'war' hoax sparks panic in Georgia
14 March 2010 - Georgia's opposition accused the government on Sunday of being behind a fake primetime news report that Russian tanks had entered the capital at the call of the opposition, causing widespread panic. For many Saturday night viewers, the 20-minute report on pro-government Imedi TV thrust the country back to its five-day war with Russia in August 2008. The report laid out a scenario in which opposition leaders called on Russian forces now stationed in South Ossetia to intervene in political unrest following mayoral elections in Tbilisi, which are due by the end of May. Imedi, which is run by a close ally of President Mikheil Saakashvili, did not hide the fact the report was in response to two opposition leaders meeting separately with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin late last year and this month. The aim, it said, was to demonstrate how events might unfold. Introduced as a simulation of 'the worst day in Georgian history', the report then ran without a banner making clear it was not real. Mobile phone networks crashed and the emergency services reported a spike in calls. Many Georgians rushed home, and some Russian media interrupted their regular programming. (more)