Another Christian Martyred in Pakistan (Time.com)

In another chilling message to Pakistani politicians willing to speak out for the rights of suffering minorities, extremists on Wednesday murdered the country's Minister of Minorities. The assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian in the ruling cabinet, came just two months after the slaying of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, shot 27 times by his own bodyguard because he had called for changes in a blasphemy law used to persecute religious minorities. Bhatti was killed when gunmen ambushed his vehicle outside his home. And in both cases, the killers gleefully boasted that the same fate awaits anyone else who dares challenge their brutally intolerant brand of Islam.

For Pakistan's Christians, the assassination is a grim reminder of the peril that attaches to merely practicing their faith. "We've been attacked many, many times in our history," says Shimon Gill, a member of the All Pakistan Minority Alliance. "But now we have been orphaned. Who will speak up for us now?" Gill, a campaigner who had worked alongside Bhatti to secure the rights of Pakistan's minorities, says that the minister had long endured threats to his life. Those threats, however, had escalated after Bhatti joined forces with Taseer to speak in defense of Aasia Noreen, a Christian farm laborer sentenced to death under the draconian blasphemy laws. "Bhatti was undaunted," says Gill. "He told us that he was prepared to be martyred for our cause." In his home village, Bhatti's supporters came out on to the streets to torch tyres, beat their chests in protest and denounce his killers. (See pictures of Christians under siege in the Muslim world.)

Militants linked to the Pakistani Taliban are suspected to be behind the assassination. Before the killers sped away in a car, they left pamphlets at the scene, proclaiming that "The only punishment for blasphemy against the Prophet is death". Bhatti's attempts to have Pakistan's blasphemy laws repealed was itself, in the eyes of his killers, an act of blasphemy. The pamphlet says that the assassination was a warning to "infidels" and "apostates". It was signed by "The organization of Al-Qaeda and the Punjabi Taliban," an odd formulation, combining the global jihadist group and the Punjabi branch of the Pakistani Taliban. Some of the language the document used to revere Islam's Prophet, however, is more commonly associated with the milder Barelvi sect, which is followed by the majority of Pakistani Muslims - and is at odds with the more austere Deobandi school of Islam favored by the local Taliban. Mumtaz Qadri, Taseer's confessed assassin, was a Barelvi.

Bhatti had predicted his own death, saying in a recently recorded video, "The forces of violence, militant banned organization, the Taliban and al-Qaeda, want to to impose the radical philosophy in Pakistan. Whoever stands against their radical philosophy, they threaten them." Bhatti insisted he was ready to "die for a cause", adding that he wanted defend the rights of his beleaguered community. "These threats and these warning cannot change my opinion and principles, he said. I would prefer to die for my principles, and for the justice of my community, rather than compromise on these threats." (See pictures of the battle against the Taliban.)

In the weeks since Taseer's slaying, Pakistan's government has rushed to distance itself from the more tolerant advocacy associated with the slain governor and with Bhatti. A parade of ministers has repeatedly insisted that the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) - to which both Taseer and Bhatti belonged - would not touch the blasphemy laws. The government had hoped the controversy over the controversial laws would die down. "Clearly the government was wrong," says Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch. In the time that has passed, the religious right - composed of disparate and often fractious sects - has forged rare consensus over the issue of blasphemy and taken to the streets of Pakistans cities in tens of thousands. Qadri, Taseer's assassin, has been celebrated as a hero. Banned terror organizations such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the November 2008 Mumbai massacre, have joined them. And for the past month, they have sustained their fury by focusing it on the demand for the execution of Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor registered as a diplomat who killed two Pakistanis in January but says he acted in self-defense and who has claimed diplomatic immunity with the support of the U.S. government.

"The government has chosen to pursue a policy of appeasement in order to keep itself in power," laments Hasan of Human Rights Watch. "This policy is misguided and self-defeating. If the last three months are any indication, President Asif Ali Zardari may be the last man standing. The problem is that he wont be standing for very long. If one by one, the people who are supposed to uphold the politics of tolerance remain silent, they will have no viable prospects left." Bhatti's assassins warn in their pamphlet that they will "pick out" others from Zardari's "infidel government" and dispatch them "to hell" in the same manner. (See more about Pakistan's deepening religious divide.)

The assassination also appears to have vanquished any hopes of reclaiming the secular Pakistan envisioned by its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. "Jinnah's Pakistan died long ago," says Gill. The tragedy for Pakistan's minorities, adds Hasan, is that many of them don't have the option to leave. "They will have to live here regardless," he says. "The issue is not that they will become second class citizens, because they have been second class citizens for many, many years." (Comment on this story.)

Still, Gill and other Christians remain resolute. "We refuse to be frightened," he says, his voice thick with emotion. "We have lost Bhatti, but we have not lost his philosophy. We are clear. We will continue to fight for our rights. Bhatti's martyrdom will give us the strength to do so."

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Yoweri Museveni wins another disputed Uganda election (The Christian Science Monitor)

Kampala, Uganda – After 25 years in power, veteran Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni just seems to be getting more and more popular.
Uganda’s Electoral Commission announced Sunday that Mr. Museveni had won Friday’s disputed presidential election with 68 percent of the vote. That's up from the 59 percent he claimed in 2006 and nearly three times more than his nearest rival, his former personal physician Kizza Besigye, who got 26 percent.
The result was “a great victory,” said Amama Mbabazi, secretary general of Museveni’s ruling National Resistance Movement, immediately after the announcement at the official tallying center in Kampala’s Nelson Mandela stadium. And the Museveni supporters who quickly lined the road from the stadium seemed to agree.
But Mr. Besigye – who was challenging Museveni for the third time running – begged to differ.
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Shortly before the official results were released he told a press conference that he was already rejecting the electoral commission’s tally. After saying throughout the campaign that a skewed voter registry and partisan electoral commission made the vote “fundamentally flawed,” Besigye produced a list of complaints – from rampant voter bribery, to ballot stuffing and military intimidation – that he said proved the elections had been systematically rigged.The electoral commission denied the allegation.
“We are rejecting the leadership that is emerging out of this election.” Besigye said. “We are not willing to put up with an illegitimate president.”
No Egypt-style protests?But after warning for weeks that a rigged election could spark Egypt-style revolt, one thing he did not do was call his supporters onto the street for mass protests.
After failing to get the results of previous polls overturned in court, Besigye ruled out going to court and said protests were an option. First, though, he said he would be consulting with “political actors, religious leaders, civil society, and the public to determine how to bring an end to the illegitimate government.â€
Besigye's parallel tally problemsBesigye had hoped to release his own tally of the results ahead of the official announcement in contravention of government orders not to do that.
One hundred and fifty students were set up in the unofficial tally center at a guest house in an undisclosed location in Kampala. But the location did not remain a secret, as plain clothed security officers visited and soldiers briefly surrounded the hostel. Meanwhile, a text message system to deliver the results was disrupted, meaning that the opposition results were severely delayed.
As the election commission whizzed through the data, Besigye’s count lagged behind and by Sunday morning only 20 percent of polls had been counted by his supporters. That tally put Museveni at 62 percent but opposition activists were at pains to point out that data had not been received from opposition strongholds in northern Uganda.
While Besigye’s post-election planning was going awry, foreign election observers said that there had been serious problems with the polls.
A statement from the European Union observer mission said that the level playing field had been severely compromised by Museveni’s overusing his powers of incumbency, while bribery – mostly from the ruling party – had been widely observed and the voting procedure had been poor or very poor in 30 percent of cases.
But with momentum slipping away from the opposition and officials handing Museveni another 5-year term, this may be the end of the road for Besigye, says Frederick Golooba-Mutebi, a political scientist at Makerere’s University.
“It is now seems more likely that Museveni will stand again in 2016,” Mr. Golooba-Mutebi says. “As things stands, I do not think that we will see Besigye stand again.”
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Mexico gunmen kill U.S. customs agent, wound another (Reuters)

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Gunmen shot dead a U.S. customs and immigration agent and wounded another on Tuesday in Mexico, where violence between powerful drug cartels and security forces has surged.

The two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were driving north on Mexico's main highway on official business when they were attacked in broad daylight.

It was not immediately clear why they were targeted.

The U.S. government condemned the attack, which came just over two weeks after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned Mexico's drug cartels not to take their violent tactics across the border.

"Any act of violence against our ICE personnel ... is an attack against all those who serve our nation and put their lives at risk for our safety," Napolitano said in a statement after the agents were shot.

They were shot in the mid-afternoon south of the city of San Luis Potosi, which is roughly half way between Mexico City and Monterrey, the country's business capital where drug-related violence has soared over the past year.

The two agents may have been ambushed after stopping at what appeared to be a military checkpoint, said a Mexican official who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak about the case.

Mexican drug cartels have been known to set up official-looking checkpoints, and the official said security forces had no checkpoints in the area.

Television footage showed a blue sports utility vehicle with several large bullet holes lying in the median of the highway, which was guarded by heavily armed Mexican federal police.

The U.S. agents were rushed to a hospital where one died of his injuries. The second agent, who was shot in the arm and the leg, remains hospitalized, ICE said.

More than 15,000 people were killed in drug violence in Mexico last year but, despite growing domestic criticism of President Felipe Calderon's army-led strategy, the government has vowed to press on with its campaign to crush the cartels.

The violence has alarmed Washington, which worries that the fighting could spill over the border. It has also prompted some companies to reconsider plans to invest in Mexico.

The United States has provided funds and training to help Mexico in its fight against the cartels and intelligence from U.S. law enforcement sources is credited with helping Mexico kill and capture several cartel leaders in recent years.

FIRST ICE DEATHS

Attacks on Mexican police by drug gangs are common but U.S. government employees are rarely targeted despite Washington's strong support of Calderon.

San Luis Potosi is home to a federal police academy and has not experienced many drug war killings, but gangs have been moving in to use it as a base for trafficking operations to the north.

Monterrey, Guadalajara and other Mexican cities once far from the front lines of the drug war have seen a recent spike in killings.

ICE said the two men were the first of its agents shot in the line of duty in Mexico.

If there is any evidence that drug gangs targeted the two agents, it would mark an escalation in the conflict.

"What we would hope is that there would be an incredibly strong response from the U.S. government ... Otherwise we could have a situation where it's open season on U.S. federal agents at the border," said Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.

Enrique Camarena, an undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, was kidnapped, tortured and murdered while on assignment in Mexico in 1985.

More recently, two U.S. citizens and a Mexican linked to staff at the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez were killed in March last year, prompting the State Department to tighten security at its diplomatic missions in northern Mexico.

(Additional reporting by Krista Hughes, Adriana Barrera and Armando Tovar in Mexico City; Robin Emmott in Monterrey; Tim Gaynor in Phoenix and Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington; Editing by Kieran Murray and Christopher Wilson)

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Gunmen kill US agent, wound another, in Mexico (AP)

MEXICO CITY – The killing of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and wounding of another in Mexico highlights the risk for American officials helping fight Mexico's bloody drug war under increasing cooperation between the two countries.

Special Agent Jaime Zapata, on assignment to the ICE Attache in Mexico City from his post in Laredo, Texas, died Tuesday when gunmen attacked the agents' blue Suburban vehicle as they drove through the northern state of San Luis Potosi.

The second agent, who wasn't identified, was shot in the arm and leg and was in stable condition, according to statements from the Department of Homeland Security.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the fatal attack on American law enforcement, the highest-profile since the 1985 torture and killing of DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, won't change the U.S. commitment to supporting Mexico in its crackdown on organized crime.

"Let me be clear: any act of violence against our ICE personnel — or any DHS personnel — is an attack against all those who serve our nation and put their lives at risk for our safety," Napolitano said in a statement. "We remain committed in our broader support for Mexico's efforts to combat violence within its borders."

U.S. and Mexican officials said they were working closely together to investigate the shooting and find those responsible.

The two agents were driving a four-lane, federal highway between Mexico City and the northern city of Monterrey when they were stopped at what may have appeared to be a military checkpoint, according to one Mexican official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. Mexican military officers said they had no checkpoints in the area.

After they stopped, someone opened fire on them, the official said.

San Luis Potosi police said gunmen killed one person and wounded another on Highway 57 near the town of Santa Maria Del Rio at about 2:30 p.m., though they couldn't confirm they were the ICE agents. Police said a checkpoint was unlikely on such high-speed stretch of highway and that the bullet-riddled Suburban was found off to one side.

"This worries us very much because this type of incident doesn't happen very often in San Luis Potosi," said a police spokesman, who was not authorized to give his name because the investigation is being carried out by federal police.

While San Luis Potosi has seen sporadic incidents of drug violence, it borders two states where cartels are waging a bloody fight for territory.

Mexico is fighting heavily armed and powerful drug cartels that supply the U.S. market. Since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown on organized crime shortly after taking office in December 2006, almost 35,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence.

The U.S. has increased equipment and training support for Mexico in recent years through its $1.4 billion Merida Initiative.

Former director Julie Myers said ICE agents in Mexico investigate drugs, money laundering, and smuggling of weapons and other contraband. As of January last year, 26 ICE special agents also had trained over 4,000 new Mexican police recruits, according to the embassy.

Zapata, who joined ICE in 2006, served on the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit as well as the Border Enforcement Security Task Force. He also served as a member of the U.S. Border Patrol in Yuma, Arizona. The agency didn't provide his age but said he was a native of Brownsville, Texas, who graduated from the University of Texas at Brownsville in 2005.

Though Mexico is seeing record rates of violence, it is rare for U.S. officials to be attacked. The U.S. government, however, has become increasingly concerned about the safety of its employees in Mexico.

In March, an U.S. employee of the American consulate in Ciudad Juarez, her husband and a Mexican tied to the consulate were killed when drug gang members fired on their cars as they left a children's party in the city across from El Paso, Texas.

The U.S. State Department has taken several measures over the past year to protect consulate employees and their families. It has at times authorized the departure of relatives of U.S. government employees in northern Mexican cities.

In July, it temporarily closed the consulate in Ciudad Juarez after receiving unspecified threats. Earlier this month, the consulate in Guadalajara prohibited U.S. government officials from traveling after dark on the road to the airport because of cartel-related attacks in Mexico's second-largest city.

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Associated Press writers Alexandra Olson in Mexico City, Mark Walsh in Monterrey, Mexico, Martha Mendoza in Santa Cruz, California, Elliot Spagat in San Diego, and Alicia A. Caldwell and Suzanne Gamboa in Washington D.C. contributed to this report.

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Another cyclone bruises weather-weary Australia (AP)

DARWIN, Australia – A cyclone struck a glancing blow on Australia's main northern city Wednesday, two weeks after a much stronger storm devastated another part of the weather-weary country.

Cyclone Carlos knocked down trees and power lines and caused limited flooding as it passed by the city of Darwin with heavy rain and wind gusts up to 80 mph (130 kph). Schools, the airport and government buildings were closed, but officials said evacuations were not needed.

Emergency services rescued several people from cars that stalled in floodwaters. One man was hospitalized after being injured by a falling tree, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The storm passed as close as 2 miles (3 kilometers) to the city but stayed offshore. The Bureau of Meteorology warned it could circle back toward the city Thursday but that the cyclone's path was proving erratic.

Residents were warned to stay off the streets because of the blustery winds. Police went door-to-door in several low-lying coastal suburbs telling people their properties could be inundated by extra-high tides. People stocked up on bottled water and food and queued at filling stations for fuel.

Police Commissioner John McRoberts said people should prepare for rough weather but that there was no need for people to evacuate. "I certainly recommend preparedness, but not panic and there is a very significant difference," he told reporters.

Darwin is the unofficial capital of Australia's tropical "Top End," a vast, sparsely-populated zone that stretches for thousands of miles (kilometers) and that experiences some half-dozen cyclones a year.

Cyclone Tracy destroyed the city and killed 71 people at Christmas in 1974, in one of the country's worst natural disasters. A much sturdier city was rebuilt under a stricter building code.

Cyclone Yasi, a category 5 storm that officials said was Australia's largest in a century, crashed ashore in northeastern Queensland state on Feb. 3, smashing scores of houses in coastal communities but causing no deaths.

Yasi came on top of Australia's worst flooding in decades, which destroyed 35,000 homes, inundated the country's third largest city, Brisbane, and killed 35 people. The government estimated last week its bill for roads, bridges and other infrastructure damaged by the Queensland flooding before Yasi was at least $5.6 billion.

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