This is an Open Thread: Speed Talking is Allowed
U.N. says it’s time to adapt to warming
In the final installment of its landmark report, the climate-change panel says many countries will just have to learn to live with the effects.
By Alan Zarembo and Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
November 17, 2007
The United Nations’ Nobel Prize-winning panel on climate change approved the final installment of its landmark report on global warming on Friday, concluding that even the best efforts at reducing CO2 levels will not be enough and that the world must also focus on adapting to “abrupt and irreversible” climate changes.New and stronger evidence developed in the last year also suggests that many of the risks cited in the panel’s first three reports earlier this year will actually be larger than projected and will occur at lower temperatures, according to a draft of the so-called synthesis report.
USA
Immigration Dilemma: A Mother Torn From a Baby
Federal immigration agents were searching a house in Ohio last month when they found a young Honduran woman nursing her baby.
The woman, Saída Umanzor, is an illegal immigrant and was taken to jail to await deportation. Her 9-month-old daughter, Brittney Bejarano, who was born in the United States and is a citizen, was put in the care of social workers.
Petraeus Helping Pick New Generals
Army Says Innovation Will Be RewardedBy Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 17, 2007; Page A01The Army has summoned the top U.S. commander in Iraq back to Washington to preside over a board that will pick some of the next generation of Army leaders, an unusual decision that officials say represents a vote of confidence in Gen. David H. Petraeus’s conduct of the war, as well as the Army counterinsurgency doctrine he helped rewrite.
The Army has long been criticized for rewarding conventional military thinking and experience in traditional combat operations, and current and former defense officials have pointed to Petraeus’s involvement in the promotion board process this month as a sign of the Army’s commitment to encouraging innovation and rewarding skills beyond the battlefield.
Writers, studios to resume talks
Offering hope of an end to the walkout, the two sides announce that they’ll return to negotiations Nov. 26.
By Richard Verrier and Meg James, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
November 17, 2007
Hollywood’s film and TV writers and its major studios have agreed to return to the bargaining table, offering the first glimmer of hope that a deal to end a costly two-week strike could be within reach.The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said late Friday that they would resume talks Nov. 26 on a new contract for 10,500 writers to replace the one that expired Oct. 31. The two sides announced the plan in identical statements, a rare show of unity.
Sports
Concern delayed the case against Bonds
Federal prosecutors, unsure of the strength of their evidence, gave the slugger time to break Henry Aaron’s home run record.
By Tim Reiterman, Greg Krikorian and Lance Pugmire, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
November 17, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO — Internal political considerations and concern among federal prosecutors that their case against baseball star Barry Bonds might not be strong enough delayed his perjury and obstruction of justice indictment for more than a year, according to a former FBI official familiar with the case.During that year, Bonds completed his last season with the San Francisco Giants without the threat of a suspension and overtook baseball legend Henry Aaron to set the home run record.
Middle East
US air assault targets militants in Iraq
BAGHDAD – Hundreds of American and Iraqi troops backed by helicopters descended Friday on a remote desert area southwest of Baghdad to root out al-Qaida in Iraq and search for two U.S. soldiers missing after a deadly insurgent ambush six months ago.
Acting on intelligence, the soldiers dug with shovels through heaps of sand and went house-to-house after a dramatic pre-dawn air assault into two Sunni villages near the boundary with Anbar province.
Hamas warns Abbas: No peace concessions
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Thousands of Hamas loyalists protested outside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Gaza City home Friday, warning that violence would erupt if he makes concessions to Israel in a U.S.-sponsored peace conference.
The protest by about 10,000 followers of the militant group came just days after Hamas security shot and killed eight civilians at a large rally of Abbas’ Western-backed Fatah party. The rally was Fatah’s greatest show of strength since Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip in June.
Europe
Roma welcome anti-segregation ruling
Roma rights groups across eastern Europe have warmly welcomed a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which found the Czech Republic guilty of discriminating against Roma children by placing them in special schools for the mentally handicapped.
In a landmark decision, the Court ruled in favour of 16 young people from the city of Ostrava in the east of the Czech Republic.
Monitors to miss Russian poll after Moscow fails to give visas
· OCSE forced to pull out as papers go unprocessed
· Decision raises doubts about legitimacy of voteLuke Harding in Moscow
Saturday November 17, 2007
The GuardianRussia was on a collision course with the European Union last night after the main international organisation responsible for monitoring elections said it would not send observers to next month’s parliamentary elections.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said Moscow had refused to give visas to its 70 experts and observers. The OSCE said it had applied for visas as soon as it received an invitation from Russia on November 2. Although the paperwork had been done, it said officials had deliberately not processed the visas. This made its mission impossible, it said.
Latin America
Venezuela ‘attacked Guyana boats’
Venezuela has denied destroying two gold-mining dredges on Guyanese territory following a strong protest from Guyana’s government.Guyana says 36 Venezuelan soldiers used helicopters and Compostion-4 (C-4), a type of plastic explosive, to blow up the two dredges on Thursday.
It has summoned Venezuela’s ambassador to explain the incident.
Asia
Okinawa’s war time wounds reopened
When Japanese officials decided to erase Okinawa’s most notorious war time incident from official textbooks, residents were furious. They explained to the BBC’s Pramod Morjaria why their anger has not abated.
A bustling group of islands surrounded by clear waters and coral reef, Okinawa is a haven for tourists all over Asia.
Musharraf defends democratic aims ahead of US talks
By Andrew Buncombe in Islamabad
Published: 17 November 2007Pakistan’s military leader President Pervez Musharraf, who declared a state of emergency and suspended the constitution two weeks ago, yesterday claimed he had helped jump-start democracy in Pakistan.
As he swore in a caretaker government, a move towards parliamentary elections in January, General Musharraf defended his eight-year record in office, since he seized power in a coup in 1999. “I take pride in the fact that, being a man in uniform, I have actually introduced the essence of democracy in Pakistan – whether anyone believes it or not,” said the sombre-looking general.
Africa
Restaurant is toast of the prison that held Mandela
By Ian Evans in Paarl, Western Cape
Published: 17 November 2007The waiter is a convicted thief, the chefs dress in orange prison jumpsuits and guards patrol the restaurant grounds. Bon appetit from the Western Cape’s most unlikely restaurant.
While most eating establishments in South Africa’s renowned Winelands area around Paarl, Franschhoek and Stellenbosch have to fight to retain their best staff, Drakenstein A La Carte in the grounds of Drakenstein prison has to keep a permanent watch to prevent its workers fleeing.
Black Zimbabweans rally for white farms
By Ian Evans in Cape Town
Published: 17 November 2007More than 4,000 white farmers have left Zimbabwe since President Robert Mugabe began his seizing their properties under his redistribution” scheme in 2000. But one provincial governor has made an unprecedented attempt to reverse the trend by preventing two white Zimbabweans from being evicted from their land, in a move that has surprised the country’s white minority,
Lindsay Guild and his sister Heather were told that they can continue working their two farms near the city of Mutare after a campaign supported by people from all walks of society, including Vice-President Joseph Msika.