The Read International For 8/23/10: News Runthrough

Spanish Journalists are freed from Al Qaeda's captivity. (Photo from AFP)

His weird media tour continues:

The commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan says the momentum built up by the Taliban has been reversed in the south of the country and capital Kabul.

General David Petraeus said it was important to destroy the safe havens of Taliban.

He also said he would offer President Obama his best professional advice on the wisdom of handing control to Afghan forces next July.

$815.58 million given to Pakistan is still not enough for its epic disaster. But with NATO forces focusing on silly wars, I guess that isn't a surprise indeed.

Julian Assange seems to be in the midst of fighting a smear campaign against him, especially after the charges of him raping someone was dropped in Sweden.


Sudan, an ally of Iran, is looking to start its own nuclear programme:

The Sudanese government is planning to build a nuclear reactor which is first of its kind purposely for peaceful electricity by 2020, according to the state news agency, SUNA. It has also built dams along the Blue and White Niles, which merge in Sudan, to generate power. But large swathes of the country remain without regular electricity.

Those Chilean miners trapped deep underground are alive. But the rescue will still take some time .

President Sebastian Pinera said the paper message was tied to a perforation drill that rescuers used to bore through to the area near an underground shelter, where the miners took shelter after the Aug. 5 collapse at the small gold and copper mine in the far north.

"The 33 of us in the shelter are well," read the message written with red paint on the piece of paper that Pinera held up on television. Pinera has vowed a major overhaul of the mining regulator in the world's No.1 copper producer.

"It will take months" to get them out, the beaming president said at the mine head. "It will take time, but it doesn't matter how long it takes to have a happy ending."

And nice to see that the Spanish journalists, handled captive by Al Qaeda's in Africa, have been freed.

Your Read International thread.