Links January 9th and January 10th

Automatically posted links for January 9th through January 10th:

• ??????? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ?????? ?«?????» ??????? - Egypt cuts subsidies on food oils, etc.


• 151,000 civilians killed since Iraq invasion - WHO, Iraq Gov says revises death tool (1/4 that of Lancet)


• Has the Era of Cheap Oil and Food Prices Ended? - Walid Khadduri addresses top question in many Arabs' minds


• Can the Middle East sustain democracy? Middle East Strategy at Harvard - Debate on Arab democracy - Alterman, Dunne, Carpenter, etc. in comments


• La rééducation des terroristes d'Arabie saoudite - Jihadi re-education: to do jihad, make sure the Saudi Gov says it's OK


• US candidates are vague on Middle East democracy - Steven Cook examines -- Edwards has most concrete plans


• Jacob?s Jottings: The Case of Fouad Ajami The National Interest - Another Ajami takedown, this time on his newfound Huntingtonism


• Rehabilitating Libya - International Herald Tribune - Op-ed reminds of Libya's nastiness -- or does it not count when victims are not Western?


• Democracy: inevitable no more - M. Albright on democracy, but she was never a supporter of Arab democracy


• Saudi Calls on Sarkozy to Visit Alone - After some in Egypt were outraged by Sarko's new girlfriend, Saudi draws the line

Comments

[SP]

On the new WHO Iraq study, the range is actually between 105,000 and 220,000 roughly, and the study authors explicitly noted that they had not been able to visit some of the most violent areas and had probably missed many deaths because of relatives who had left Iraq. Even accounting for that the number difference with Lancet is startling, though.