/18

Ten girls die in Afghanistan explosion as US pushes for permanent presence - World Socialist Web Site
By Bill Van Auken
18 December 2012
►http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/18/afgh-d18.html

The horror of the protracted US intervention in Afghanistan was driven home again on Monday as at least 10 young Afghan girls, ages nine to eleven, were blown to pieces in what local authorities said was a landmine explosion. Two other girls were badly wounded and reported in critical condition at a local hospital.

The girls were gathering firewood in eastern Nangarhar province when they accidentally set off a buried mine with an ax. A police spokesman said that the mine was not located near a road or any other evident target, and that another old, unexploded mine was found nearby.

Israel considering attack on Syria - World Socialist Web Site

►http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/18/syri-d18.html
By Jean Shaoul
18 December 2012

L’Iran, la Syrie, la Palestine, ça commence à faire beaucoup pour un si petit pays.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has twice asked Jordan for its support to bomb Syria’s alleged chemical weapons facilities.

Citing intelligence sources in Israel and Jordan, The Atlantic wrote that, while Israel could attack without Jordanian approval—as it did when it bombed an alleged nuclear installation in September 2007—Tel Aviv was concerned about the repercussions of such an attack for Jordan. One intelligence source said that since “A number of sites are not far from the border, the Jordanians have to be very careful about provoking the regime, and they assume the Syrians would suspect Jordanian complicity in an Israeli attack.”

According to the report, Israeli drones patrol the skies over the Jordan-Syria border, with both American and Israeli drones keeping watch over suspected Syrian chemical weapons sites. Allegations that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad is preparing to use chemical weapons against its opponents is being used as a pretext for a military operation for regime change in Syria by NATO in order to isolate Iran.

New Chinese leader signals further pro-market restructuring - World Socialist Web Site

Donc, la Chine va devenir encore plus capitaliste !

►http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/12/18/tour
–d18.html
By John Chan
18 December 2012

The new Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary, Xi Jinping, conducted a “southern tour” from December 7 to 11. It was designed to send an unequivocal message that his leadership will impose another round of pro-market restructuring, further opening up the Chinese economy to foreign capital. The tour followed the recent 18th CCP congress, which installed Xi as party leader and adopted an economic agenda in line with the China 2030 report, jointly published with the World Bank in February.

Xi sought to replicate the “southern tour” of CCP leader Deng Xiaoping in January-February 1992, just weeks after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union. Deng’s tour greatly accelerated the processes of capitalist restoration that he had begun in 1978. With the backing of the military, Deng ended the protracted internal debates that had followed the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and crackdown, and opened up all of China as a cheap labour platform for global corporations. As investment flooded in, tens of millions of workers were laid off as state enterprises were restructured into joint-stock companies or sold to private owners.