Most of this story is about plans, and hopes and dreams. But the actual news is interesting, especially for the men who fought in and around that terrain in the Vietnam War. Click through for the entire piece.

A seemingly obscure agreement on traffic rights between Vietnam, Laos and Thailand now allows trucks to transit the three countries without having to unload cargo at border crossings for trans-shipment.

This will cut costs and time for regional trade, funding agencies say, and is expected to have far-reaching consequences for the region’s trade.

The formal opening of the East-West Corridor is part of a regional plan to break down barriers at borders across mainland South-East Asia, and later, beyond.

Overland transport time between Vietnam and Thailand has been shortened by the agreement for commercial trucks from Thailand and Vietnam to be able to enter each others’ territory for the first time to deliver and pick up goods.

Ceremonies were held last week at the two major border gates along the East-West Economic Corridor: between Lao Bao in Vietnam and Dansavanh in Laos, and between Savannakhet in Laos and Mukdahan in Thailand.

BBC

The humanitarian catastrophe in the eastern Congo seems to be reaching a climax, one of the many over the last fifty years.

The Congolese Army has fled from a rebel advance. The UN is using what forces it has, including helicopter gunships, to slow the rebels, Tutsis. North Kivu province, which borders Rawanda, has been the site of ethnic fighting for at least five years as a result of the genocidal acts that took place in Rawanda. The rebel factions are primarily made up of forces from the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

A blogger from the region reports:

It’s total chaos in Goma. I am being told, through various phone calls and text messages, that the army have now laid down their weapons at Kibumba, 12 miles north of Goma, and are fleeing the rebels. In other words they have totally given up.

Some of the soldiers are running/driving/zooming on motorbikes through town towards the west, Sake, and they are going past my house.

The governor of North Kivu has apparently also left town.

Now there is only the UN peacekeeping forces stopping Nkunda’s rebels from taking Goma.

There is lots and lots of speculation right now – and panic. I will keep you posted.

Current News:

• Fighting in Congo Approaches Goma
• Red Cross Intends to Boost Medical Teams in Goma
• Humanitarian Situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

I just completed an interview with a United States Army officer who was in Goma earlier in the year. I am trying to confirm what I heard him say. If I heard him correctly, it will be a shocker.

In Turkey, the military is the protector of the secular state. Since the Islamists have taken control of the government, there have been rumors of a coup by the military to restore secularism. From AP via the Houston Chronicle, here is a story about recent arrests of alleged plotters.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted party has been locked in a power struggle with secular groups supported by the military and other state institutions, including the judiciary.

Secularists see themselves as the defenders of the modern secular ideology espoused by Turkish national founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and oppose groups they say want to impose Islam on society.

Earlier in the week, the Constitutional Court heard allegations against the ruling party of anti-secular activity. The prosecutor wants the party disbanded, and Erdogan and 70 other party members banned from joining a political party for five years.

The prosecutor cited the government’s attempt to permit Islamic-style head scarves at universities — which the Constitutional Court last month ruled unconstitutional.

India is another country made up of a variety of peoples welded together by a European colonial power. Despite the major PR blitz of the last decade, it, too, threatens to fall apart. Here’s a story about one of the many cracks.

BBC

More than 15 years ago, Tombi studied advertising in Delhi. These days, he is putting his communication skills to a different use in the remote Indian state of Manipur.

At a hidden destination deep within waterlogged paddy fields and lush palm trees, Tombi (not his real name) meets me as I disembark from a small canoe. He is flanked by around 20 militants in camouflage uniforms bearing AK47s and other heavy arms, including a rocket propelled gun.

Tombi is now the publicity officer for a rebel group called the United National Liberation Front, aka the UNLF.

It’s one of more than 20 separatist outfits engaged in bloody conflict with the Indian army.

Manipur lies in India’s north-east, in an isolated area that borders Burma. The region is connected to mainland India by a narrow 22km (13.6 mile) strip of land known colloquially as the “chicken’s neck”, which passes along the border with China, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

The entire region is a melting pot of hundreds of tribes and ethnicities.

It is also racked by insurgency.

Continuing my series of stories about eunuchs in India, I find this:

BBC

Tax authorities in one Indian state are attempting to persuade debtors to paying their bills – by serenading them with a delegation of singing eunuchs.

Eunuchs are feared and reviled in many parts of India, where some believe they have supernatural powers. Often unable to gain regular employment, the eunuchs have become successful at persuading people to part with their cash.

The eunuchs will get a commission of 4% of any taxes collected.

In Bihar’s capital, Patna, officials felt deploying the eunuchs was the only way to prompt people to pay up.

“We are collecting taxes for the municipal corporation, collecting money from those who have not paid their taxes for years,” said Saira, one of the eunuchs on the streets of Patna. “Tax payment is necessary. When the corporation won’t have any money how will they look after the people?”

Accompanied by police officers, the eunuchs approached shopkeepers and large defaulters on their first foray into tax collection.

“Pay the tax, pay the Patna Municipal Corporation tax,” the eunuchs sang as they approached Ram Sagar Singh, who owed 100,000 rupees (£1,180), the AFP news agency reported. Mortified by the commotion, Mr Singh reportedly agreed to pay up within a week.

The eunuchs collected about 400,000 rupees on their first day of work, authorities said, sharing 16,000 rupees (£188) amongst themselves.

Bharat Sharma, a revenue officer, told the Associated Press agency he was pleased with the eunuchs’ work. “We are confident that their reputation and persuasive skills will come in handy,” he said.

From “The Local“, which bills itself as “Sweden’s News in English”

A group of Swedish soldiers was attacked on Tuesday in northern Afghanistan by locals armed with handguns, mines and and handheld rocket-launchers. The Swedish troops returned fire and no Swedes were reported injured, according to a statement from the Armed Forces.

The patrol, which was part of the international ISAF force and also included Finnish soldiers, arrived at the village of Boka in Balkh province to meet Afghan representatives at around 11.40am local time.

Around 15-30 Afghans attacked the patrol and not until around 1pm did reinforcements arrive, allowing the Swedes to withdraw from the area.

The Swedish Armed Forces said that it is still unclear if any Afghans were wounded or killed as the Swedes fired back.

Two days ago another Swedish patrol in a different province in northern Afghanistan was attacked. Trouble flared up when the troops tried to arrest a suspected criminal.

But the statement from the Armed Forces on Tuesday gave no indication of the cause of the latest attack.

The Nato-led ISAF force has faced most difficulty in peacekeeping duties in the south of the country. So far the north of Afghanistan, where the Swedish troops are stationed, has remained calmer.

One after another, we’re seeing stories from Old Blighty about truly nonsensical rulings and actions, and this appears to be one.

BBC

A group of youngsters have fallen foul of the law for playing hopscotch.

West Midlands Police community support officers asked parents in Spring Street in Halesowen to remove chalk markings after complaints about them.

Several children were involved in the games resulting in several markings on the pavement.

Police said they were also investigating complaints of anti-social behaviour. But mother Lisa Mangan said their action was “extreme”.

She told BBC News: “I think it is pretty extreme.

“With what is going on in the world it is pretty extreme for a few chalk markings on the pavement which will be washed away.”

Globe & Mail

Although waged in the tight quarters of the villages of Pashmul — these small villages are in their way every bit as indistinct and alike as North American suburbs, and many have no names — the battle was both so diffuse and shifting that while a CTV crew, reporter Steve Chao and cameraman Tom Michalak, and I were probably never more than 50 metres apart, we never once saw one another, and indeed, emerged with entirely different snapshots of the same fighting.

I was embedded with Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry; Mr. Chao and Mr. Michalak with Bravo Company.

We might as well have been at different wars, though each of ours had elements in common — highly disciplined Canadian soldiers and undisciplined Afghan National Army forces working together (a fabulous piece of tape shot by Combat Camera photographer Master Corporal Ronald Duchesne shows one cowering ANA soldier blindly firing into the air over a mud wall, while beside him Canadian troops stand calmly waiting for a decent shot, and I saw one “N.D.,” or Negligent Discharge, by an ANA soldier) and an incredible amount of gunfire and smoke.

In the first 12 hours of battle, Lt.-Col. Hope said, the Canadians had 17 separate and distinct engagements with the enemy; in the remaining two days, a total of six.

Bravo Company alone had in swift succession its 13th, 14th and 15th all-out fights with the enemy over the weekend, but as Officer Commanding Major Nick Grimshaw said yesterday at Zharei, where the Canadians have established a forward operating base in the region, “It should be known that of those 15 firefights, we haven’t started a single one. We were not on the offensive. We were reacting. If the enemy wants a fight, we give them a fight.”

For all that Major Grimshaw, 35, is proud of how his soldiers have stepped up as the intensity level occasionally ratchets “up to 11,” he is most impressed by those occasions when the soldiers, “in full battle rattle” as they call their body armour and kit, can switch gears on a dime to speak to villagers on medical outreach visits and the like. “We’re not afraid to talk to people,” he said yesterday. “Very genuinely, that’s the Canadian approach. We honestly believe we’re here to help.”

As for Cpl. Mooney, before he was hit in the upper legs and evacuated to the small but sophisticated base hospital at Kandahar Air Field, he was ruminating on the randomness of battle.

“Bullets,” he said, “have no prejudice.”

In one of Charlie Company’s major battles, on June 12, two of his fellows were wounded, and as he checked one to find the wound, he emerged covered with blood. “I thought I was hit,” he told me as we made our way to Pashmul on Friday night. When he realized he wasn’t, he was as furious as if he had been. When a brother goes down, he said, “Everything else, whether you knew the guy, or if you didn’t like this guy — it all goes out the window. It’s all about winning the fucking firefight and killing the enemy. I was so proud to be with my fucking company that day.”

Cpl. Mooney’s turn came Sunday afternoon. I had been following him around like a bad smell — his calm and his bulk made me feel safe and his rich Newfoundland accent falls lovely on the ears — for two days, but during one running skirmish, briefly lost sight of him. Next thing I knew, he was hit.

He felt, he said yesterday, as though someone had whacked him hard across the knees, and looked down in surprise to see blood pouring out the top of his legs. “I started shaking,” he said, “and I was so cold.” He was evacuated out of the immediate danger zone, assessed by medics, who now, knowing Cpl. Mooney will recover, fondly remember him as their most cheerful patient — once he was repeatedly reassured that his private parts were all in place and intact.

A former Liberian warlord accused of atrocities against civilians was found living a modest life along America’s North Shore and arrested today.

Democrat & Chronicle and here, too

A Clarkson man who once headed a Liberian political party — a group accused by some human rights activists of atrocities against civilians — was arrested today at his home on federal immigration-related criminal charges.

Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement allege that George S. Boley, 56, is illegally living in Clarkson. Agents arrested Boley, a married father of seven, at his home at 630 Lawton Road today, and accused him of fraudulent use of visas and other immigration documents to travel to and from the United States. He was released on his own recognizance after a late afternoon hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman.

Boley, a graduate of the State University College at Brockport, was a central figure during Liberia’s tempestuous civil war in the 1990s. In 1993 he formed the Liberian Peace Council, or LPC, to counter the reign of terror by Charles Taylor, whose tenure as leader of the west African nation was so brutal that he now faces trial on international war crimes.

But the LPC, despite its name, also targeted civilians who did not share the party’s politics, according to Human Rights Watch. In 1994, Human Rights Watch reported that both the LPC and its adversarial political party were “responsible for widespread looting, arbitrary arrests, beatings and extrajudicial executions.”

“There were credible reports that George Boley … authorized the summary execution of seven of his fighters November 14 for harassment of civilians,” stated a 1996 U.S. Department of State report on human rights in Liberia.

Boley unsuccessfully ran for Liberian president in 1997.

C-R.org

Liberia Peace Council (LPC)

Estimated to have 4,650 combatants, the LPC emerged in the wake of the 1993 Cotonou Accord, partly as a proxy force for the AFL. It has since made substantial gains from the NPFL in south eastern Liberia, vying for control of commercial operations in timber and rubber. A predominantly Krahn organization, it draws supporters from ULIMO and the AFL, but also from other ethnic groups who have suffered under NPFL occupation. The LPC is led by Dr. George Boley, and is implicated in widespread murder, torture and looting and in efforts to terrorise and depopulate rural areas held by the NPFL.

State Dept. Human Rights Report 1995

There were credible reports that George Boley, leader of the LPC faction and member of the LNTG-II, authorized the summary execution of seven of his fighters November 14 for harassment of civilians. Boley did not deny these allegations. Displaced persons reported that factions usually did not hold prisoners, but either released them or shot and killed them on the spot.

Brookings Institution

At the end of February [1997], several factional leaders who were running for office converted their militias into political parties. Charles Taylor transformed his NPFL into the National Patriotic Party (NPP); Al-Haji Kromah disbanded ULIMO-K and established the All Liberian Coalition Party (ALCOP); and LPC leader George Boley eventually became the standard-bearer for the late President Doe’s former party, the National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL).

Amnesty International

n accordance with the provisions of the Abuja II Accord, presidential and legislative elections were originally scheduled to take place on 30 May 1997. After an assessment by an ECOWAS committee, and an endorsement by UNOMIL, it was agreed that the elections be postponed to 19 July. Of the thirteen political parties which contested the elections, three were led by former warring faction leaders. They were: George Boley, Alhaji Kromah and Charles Taylor. Charles Taylor won the elections and was sworn in on 2 August 1996. During the electoral campaign the various factions repatriated an estimated number of 50,000 refugees from the neighbouring countries to participate in the elections. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Liberia assisted in the voluntary return of about 1,800 refugees as in July 1997. The voluntary return of refugees and the protection of their rights on their return is a concern of Amnesty International.

Human Rights Watch

The fighting between Charles Taylor’s NPFL and a relatively new faction, calling itself the Liberian Peace Council (LPC), began in October 1993 and continues at this writing. The LPC claims to control six counties — Sinoe, Grand Gedeh, River Cess, Grand Kru, Maryland, and Grand Bassa. The fighting, which began in the area of Grand Kola, got as far as the LAC plantation in early February, and had reached the outskirts of Buchanan by late April.

Little is known about the LPC. The LPC emerged after the Cotonou peace agreement was signed by the NPFL, ULIMO and the interim government in July 1993. It is clear that the LPC is an offshoot of former President Doe’s army, the Armed Forces of Liberia, and of the Krahn wing of ULIMO. It is composed mainly of people from the Krahn ethnic group. “The LPC was formed because the Mandingos [in ULIMO] weren’t going to spill blood to liberate Grand Gedeh [the county where many of the Krahn live],” a well-informed, foreign observer in Monrovia noted. “The only way to get the LPC to disarm is to convince ECOMOG that they will be safe with Taylor in the government.”

The lpc’s strength is estimated to be some 800 fighters, organized into mobile combat units. It is headed by George Boley, a Krahn and former minister of education in the Doe government, also formerly a member of ULIMO.

According to Boley, the LPC was formed because of “continued acts of atrocities by the NPFL in southeastern Liberia” since the Cotonou agreement. He also claimed that most of his fighters were refugees from the Ivory Coast who had been forced to flee from the NPFL. Boley described the LPC as “a broad-based national entity which advocates the protection of the rights of exiled and displaced citizens and residents of Liberia as well as the restoration of constitutional democratic leadership in Liberia.”

In recent statements, LPC spokespersons have made it clear that they will continue fighting until they are included in the transitional government. LPC Secretary General, Octavius Walker, told reporters on April 14 that the LPC wanted six seats in the transitional parliament as well as portfolios in the interim government, but that discussions with the NPFL had failed to produce an agreement on amending the Cotonou accord to include the LPC. “We will fight on until they include us in the administrative process,” he said. [Much more info at the link]

Trackback to the Beltway Traffic Jam

National Post

The most intense fighting Canadian troops have been part of since the civil wars in Cyprus or the Korean War involved virtually the entire 1st Battalion Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry and the big guns of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, as well as U.S. fighter jets, attack helicopters and armed airborne drones.

The Battle of Zharei/Panjwei tailed off at dusk yesterday in the village of Pashmol with at least 20 Taliban dead, 20 seriously wounded and six captured, according to General Ahmad (who goes by one name only) of the Afghan Army.

“This was by far the biggest engagement since we got here. The intensity level was dialled up to 11 for a while,” said Major Nick Grimshaw, commander of Bravo Company, which spent about 15 hours fighting its way out of an ambush early Saturday and had further gun battles with Taliban insurgents on Sunday.

“This is my usual area of operations and we are used to the ground to a degree, but the enemy has always been changing tactics. They were very cunning.”

When interviewed at a forward operating base near the site of the fighting, the 35-year-old major from Kingston said the Patricias had repeatedly called for air and artillery support because “this is complex terrain that can only [be] dominated if you use a combined arms approach.”

Among the prisoners seized was a Taliban dubbed “the Man Who Wouldn’t Die,” because he had eluded multiple attempts by Canadian troops and coalition aircraft to kill him. The insurgent was finally captured yesterday in a tunnel complex underneath the compound where Corporal Anthony Boneca of Thunder Bay was shot and killed on Sunday.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Hope, the Patricias’ commander, praised Cpl. Boneca — the 17th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan.

“We know it will cost in the lives of our soldiers and we will pay that cost,” Lt.-Col. Hope told a news conference held for Afghan and Canadian journalists at the forward operating base, which was crowded with weary and dirty soldiers returning from battle in LAV (light armoured vehicle) III and Bison armoured fighting vehicles.

After about 1,000 Canadian and coalition troops paid their respects at a ramp ceremony at Kandahar Airfield at dawn yesterday. A C-130 Hercules carried Cpl. Boneca’s flag-draped casket on the first leg of the long journey back to northwestern Ontario.

Three other Patricias infantrymen were hospitalized with injuries suffered during the fighting. Four other Pats were treated for severe heat stroke after daytime temperatures touched 60C.

“It was really hairy, for sure the heaviest firefights since we’ve been here,” said Master Corporal Donald Haley of St. Lawrence, Nfld., one of several medics who returned fire when his armoured ambulance was ambushed.

“Our troops did really well. There would have been a lot more injuries except for our superior training and equipment.”

The Royal Canadian Horse Artillery of Shilo, Man., joined the fight by firing 40 rounds of high-explosive, illumination or rocket-propelled shells at places where the Taliban were believed to be hiding.

“It got pretty hot and hectic, but so far, so good. We’ve been very effective,” said Sergeant Eldon Seawood, of Stephenville, Nfld., who worked with the 155-millimetre howitzers.

“With three companies in the fight area, it was very hard to keep track of where everyone was because Zharei/Panjwei is nothing but compounds where it is so easy to hide behind a wall.”

Despite the lopsided casualty figures, Lt.-Col. Hope did not describe the Battle of Zharei/Panjwei as a triumph.

“We will have victory when we no longer have to fight in places like Pashmol,” he said. “We can have victory when I can bring my children here as visitors.”

The Canadians had already defeated the Taliban several times in Zharei/Panjwei. The reason the Taliban kept returning was because they needed to control the local poppy crop to sell for heroin in order to buy weapons, Lt.-Col. Hope said.

Ethiopian troops are reported to be as far as 140 miles inside Somalia. The Counterterrorism Blog has details.

Note the arrows I have added to the map. The blog reports suggest that the Ethiopians are moving to secure the two major roads in the region, which end up in Mogadishu. Their military has significant combat experience, and is not adverse to using mercenaries. Depending on logistics, and the blog suggests that Central Command may be their support for that aspect of the movement, they could move towards the capital in a matter of days if not hours.

Our friends, the Bulgars, are aiding in Iraq.

American Forces Press Service

Charged with providing security at the Multinational Force Iraq Temporary Interview and Protection Facility here that houses nearly 200 protected people and refugees, the First Guard Company from Kazanluk, Bulgaria, received the personal congratulations of its nation’s ambassador to Iraq at a formal ceremony here yesterday.

Although the Bulgarian Contingent completed its training some time ago, and began its security mission at the end of April, the soldiers elected to wait until Bulgarian Ambassador to Iraq Valeri Ratchev could join them to hold an official ceremony.

The soldiers spent 21 days training with members of the 49th Military Police Battalion’s 110th Military Police Company from Fort Hood, Texas, to prepare for their mission.

“You will be fully successful and will have an important contribution to our common goals in support of the new Iraqi state and the Iraqi people,” said Ratchev. “The mission will be long and full of unforeseen situations and risks, but your destiny is to manage because you are Bulgarians, because you are here for a noble cause and because you work together with true allies and friends.”

The 49th Battalion commander noted the significance of the Bulgarian Contingent’s participation. “Know that you are making history,” said Army Lt. Col. Anthony Palumbo. “We welcome you as a coalition partner and look forward to serving with you.”

The Bulgarian and American soldiers live and work side by side, and their professional relationships contribute to the successful mission.

“The biggest accomplishment is us working together and gaining experience from each other,” said Pvt. Stefan Ilchev, a Bulgarian Section Commander. “We have a lot in common, and our goals are the same. We’re both walking on the same side of the road.”

The First Guard Company will continue serving in its current role until September, when it will be relieved by Bulgaria’s Second Guard Company.

I’m including Sergeant Mcgough in my Heroes of the War on Terror category, though I normally only select Americans. This man was one of the heroes that created a legend, and he deserves our repect and admiration.

Telegraph

Sergeant Paul “Scruff” Mcgough, who has died aged 41, was a member of the Special Boat Service unit which took part in the siege of Qala-i-Janghi, Afghanistan, one of the most highly decorated missions in the recent history of the British special forces.

In November 2001 McGough was with C Company, SBS, when it flew unannounced into the former Soviet airbase at Bagram. A key strategic objective in north-east Afghanistan, it was disputed by thousands of Afghan government fighters, and the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, led by the Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum.

Though vastly outnumbered, the SBS held the huge airbase for a day and a night, to the fury of both armies, and to the chagrin of the Americans, who had expected to be first there.

Once relieved by the much larger US 10th Mountain Division and Delta Force (the American equivalent of the SAS) McGough, in local dress, undertook intelligence-gathering patrols in the mountains.

On November 25, as his team returned to the Anglo-American special forces base in the newly captured town of Mazar-i-Sharif, McGough heard the sound of battle at Dostum’s sprawling headquarters in the mud-built prison-fortress of Qala-i-Jangi, known as the “Fort of War”.

Several hundred prisoners had revolted while being interrogated by the CIA, and, overpowering their Northern Alliance guards, armed themselves with AK47s, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades from Dostum’s huge armoury.

They killed Captain “Mike” Spann, a former member of the US Marine Corps with the CIA, and cornered another agent, Dave Dawson, in a blockhouse.

McGough was one of eight SBS men in two armed Land Rovers under a British commander, and nine US special forces, led by Major Mark Mitchell, who raced to prevent the Taliban from breaking out of the jail to retake Mazar-i-Sharif.

Using only Leatherman handtools, McGough and a comrade stripped two general purpose machine-guns (known as “jimpies”) from their vehicle mountings and carried them with ammunition to the ramparts. McGough stood silhouetted against the sky firing his heavy jimpy from the hip to halt a determined charge by scores of screaming warriors, despite a hail of bullets which tore up the battlements under his feet.

Next he and another SBS man set alight three pick-up trucks. As the guns in the fort fell silent for first time since the battle had started, Dawson made his escape.

McGough’s action marked a turning point, and for two days he and the other seven SBS men displayed extraordinary heroism in the face of hundreds of fanatical Taliban. A man of few words, he chain-smoked while repelling charges by the tribesmen for several days until the US Special Forces called in air strikes.

Chief Petty Officer Stephen Bass (USN), who was attached to the SBS, received the Navy Cross from the American President and the Military Cross from the Queen.

Mitchell received the US Distinguished Service Cross from his government, and two SBS men received the British Conspicuous Gallantry Cross.

Despite reports to the contrary no Britons received any foreign awards, and McGough, though rumoured to have been recommended for the award of the Military Cross and the Congressional Medal of Honor, received a mention in dispatches.

True to the cloak of secrecy which surrounds all operations of the SBS, whose motto is “By Strength and Guile”, little else is known about Paul McGough.

He was one of the most respected men to serve with the SBS and fought in Operation Barras during September 2000, when 11 members of the Royal Irish Regiment and a Sierra Leonean soldier were being held hostage by “the West Side Boys”, former members of the Sierra Leone Army.

Some of McGough’s exploits were described in Damien Lewis’s Bloody Heroes, published earlier this month.

He was killed in a hang gliding accident on Cyprus on June 1, and leaves a widow and children.

eat oatmeal in a kitchen?

The Star

A West Vancouver woman felt a little like Goldilocks in reverse when she arrived home to find a bear happily eating oatmeal in her kitchen.

“It sounds like a nursery rhyme, doesn’t it?” quipped Sgt. Paul Skelton of West Vancouver Police. “At least we have a health-conscious bear on our hands.”

When the woman returned to her home on Thursday afternoon, she was shocked to see the bruin — but didn’t let it ruin her day.

“The bear had made its way into her kitchen through an open sliding glass door,” said Skelton. “It appeared to be a one- to two-year-old bear — a juvenile — within the kitchen enjoying some oatmeal it had obtained by breaking a ceramic food container. When she saw it, she did the right thing. She vacated the area and called us.”

Despite the arrival of three of West Van’s finest, the bear wouldn’t budge.

“The bear didn’t appear to be aggressive and wasn’t destroying the house, so they just let it do what it was doing and eventually the bear decided to make its way out of the residence and down toward a forested gully,” Skelton said.

The worst that happens is that he takes his wife back. Is that a win-win, or what?

The Star

Some husbands in western India are renting out their wives to other men, cashing in on a shortage of single women available for marriage, according to a news report Monday.

Atta Prajapati, a farm worker who lives in Gujarat state, leases out his wife Laxmi to a wealthy landowner for $175 US a month, the Times of India reported, citing unidentified police officials. A farm worker earns a monthly minimum wage of around $22.

Laxmi is expected to live with the man, look after him and his house, and have sex with him, the report said.

The Times said this was not an isolated incident in the western state, and that several men rent their wives to other men on a month-by-month basis.