Inside the Israel-Palestine Talks: Going Nowhere? (Haaretz)

The three meetings held so far between Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the current round of peace talks have addressed nothing of substance, diplomatic sources say.

American mediators are still trying to save the talks from collapsing in the crisis following the resumption of construction in settlements.

Netanyahu refused to hold a serious discussion on any of the core issues apart from security, Abbas reportedly told diplomats he met at the UN General Assembly. Israeli and foreign sources say the main problem is that Netanyahu refuses to present fundamental positions or discuss the borders of the Palestinian state.

"I heard nothing from Netanyahu but niceties," Abbas reportedly told foreign diplomats.

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Burma: Seeing the Political Prisoners

The Guardian of London highlights Even Though I'm Free, I'm Not, an exhibition by James MacKay,  of the portraits of former Burma's political prisoners, almost all photographed in exile from Thailand to Britain to Norway. 

The exhibition can be seen on-line at Enigma Images' website.

Two years ago Aye Min Soe was known the world over, star of Oscar-nominated documentary Burma VJ, the shot-in-secret story of Burma's 2007 Saffron Revolution. Today, the former political prisoner leads an anonymous existence, stateless, penniless and vulnerable, on the Thai-Burma border. Mired between UN and Thai government bureaucracy, his application for refugee status has stalled. He has no documentation allowing him to be in Thailand, he cannot work, and is regularly threatened with deportation back to Burma.

"If I was sent back to Burma, I would be arrested and jailed straight away. I might be killed. I thought I would be free when I escaped from my country, but I am not. I feel I am still in prison."

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The Latest from Iran (3 October): Sedition's Gonna Get Ya

2020 GMT: Economy Watch --- Revised. An EA source makes a vital correction to our [portrayal of the article in Peyke Iran that 48 million of Iran's 75 million people "live below the poverty line" (see 1900 GMT):

There is no official poverty line in iran.  All the article says is that 2/3 of Iranian families have incomes under $800 a month.  That is almost $10,000 a year/household. We know that Iran is a middle-income country, so that should not shock anyone.

2010 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Revolving Door Edition). So as Alireza Beheshti Shirazi leaves detention, Saeed Noormohammadi, a member of the youth branch of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, goes back to prison.

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Afghanistan: US Struggles to Counter Taliban Propaganda (Londono)

The Taliban in recent months has developed increasingly sophisticated and nimble propaganda tactics that have alarmed U.S. officials struggling to curb the militant group's growing influence across Afghanistan.

U.S. officials and Afghan analysts say the Taliban has become adept at portraying the West as being on the brink of defeat, at exploiting rifts between Washington and Kabul and at disparaging the administration of President Hamid Karzai as a "puppet" state with little reach outside the capital. The group is also attempting to assure Afghans that it has a strategy for governing the country again, presenting a platform of stamping out corruption and even protecting women's rights.

As the radical Islamist movement steps up conventional grass-roots propaganda efforts and polishes its online presence - going so as far as to provide Facebook and Twitter icons online that allow readers to disseminate press releases - the U.S.-led coalition finds itself on the defensive in the media war.

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Israel-Palestine: Washington's Commitments to Keep the Talks Going

Israel News Today, via Laura Rozen, summarises:

Reports indicate that the US administration appears to have made parallel commitments to Israel and the Palestinians, offering them benefits and US assurances in exchange for Israeli consent to extend the construction freeze by 60 days and Palestinian consent to continue the direct talks.

According to another version, the administration offered Israel a comprehensive package of benefits in exchange for its willingness to continue the freeze in the settlements, and if Israel should turn down the proposal-it plans to offer incentives to the Palestinians to remain in the talks nonetheless. Yedioth Ahronoth quotes high-ranking Israeli officials as expressing surprise that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appears inclined to reject the package of benefits offered to him by the Americans.

Another official opined that if it were up to Netanyahu alone he would consent to extend the freeze, but he is being subjected to great pressure.

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Iraq: Finally, A New Government? And What Does It Mean? (Myers)

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq appeared almost assured of a second term in office on Friday after securing the support of an anti-American Shiite Islamic movement whose return to political power could profoundly complicate relations with the United States.

The deal came as a breakthrough after nearly seven months of bare-knuckle back-room bargaining that followed the country’s election on March 7.

It came with political costs, uncertainty and risks, splintering a broad Shiite alliance and threatening to raise tensions with Sunnis who largely supported a secular Shiite leader, Ayad Allawi.

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The Latest from Iran (2 October): Adding Up the Punishments

1707 GMT: The Bazaar Strikes. Claimed video of the closing of the gold market today in Ahvaz in southern Iran:

1655 GMT: Syria in Tehran. So how did President Ahmadinejad's showpiece visit from Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad go?

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Iran Snap Analysis: What is The Next Step Against the Reformists?

The crude paradox continues. The regime and Government claim they are stable. They claim they have vanquished the illegitimate post-election opposition. They claim that "Iran" is supported by its people and has stood up to the West as a unified nation.

Yet, in this secure state, the repression escalates. At least some in the Government are not secure in those declarations of stability and unity. So another site has to be shut down, another arrest has to be made, another trial has to be held, another sentence handed down.

How far can they go?

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Pakistan: US Supplies for Afghanistan Blocked, 27 Trucks Burned (Cole)

Tensions between the United States, NATO, and the Pakistani government boiled over on Thursday and Friday after American helicopter gunships killed 3 Pakistani Frontier Corpsmen and wounded 4 others. The two countries are nominally allies in the battle against Taliban and other extremists, but Pakistan stands accused of being selective in which extremists it wants to combat and of remaining anti-American even as it takes $8.5 bn. in aid from Washington.

Some 27 NATO fuel tankers parked near Shikarpur and sidelined because of the Pakistani blockade of such vehicles were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades by insurgents early on Friday, turning them into a massive bonfire.

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Pakistan: As Military Threatens Move, The Tension Rises for Washington (DeYoung)

Karen DeYoung's article for The Washington Post is a must-read. Work through the detail and analysis and the following is on the table.

1: Pakistan's military is threatening a takeover if the Zardari Government does not carry out sweeping action against its own officials;

2. The US Government, while not happy with a coup, is looking to a "best-case scenario" of those Government changes;

3. At least one key Administration officials says that changes from military pressure are preferable to Pakistan's constitutional process, carried out through the courts, concerning President Zardari:

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