Docudharma Times Tuesday Dec.4

This is an Open Thread: For the Curious

Headlines for Tuesday December 4: Editorial
Evolution and Texas: On Thrill Rides, Safety Is Optional: For Congress, election imperils balanced budget: Bay Area counties toughest on black drug offenders: S African miners strike on safety

USA

Editorial

Evolution and Texas

Published: December 4, 2007

Is Texas about to become the next state to undermine the teaching of evolution? That is the scary implication of the abrupt ousting of Christine Comer, the state’s top expert on science education. Her transgression: forwarding an e-mail message about a talk by a distinguished professor who debunks “intelligent design” and creationism as legitimate alternatives to evolution in the science curriculum.

In most states, we hope, the state department of education would take the lead in ensuring that students receive a sound scientific education. But it was the Texas Education Agency that pushed out Ms. Comer after 27 years as a science teacher and 9 years as the agency’s director of science.

On Thrill Rides, Safety Is Optional

No Federal Oversight of Theme Parks

By Elizabeth Williamson

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, December 4, 2007; Page A01

In December 2005, 9-year-old Fatima Cervantes and her 8-year-old brother boarded a Sizzler ride at a carnival in Austin, thrilled to climb into one of the candy-colored cars on rotating arms. But shortly after their blue car started whirling, Fatima slipped beneath the lap bar and was thrown onto the platform, where a metal arm crushed her head.

Since 1997, Sizzlers have been involved in at least four other deaths and dozens of injuries in the United States. Noting similarities in several accidents, a group of 25 state inspection chiefs requested in June that the ride’s manufacturer, Wisdom Industries, take immediate measures to prevent “an unacceptable level of ejection risk.”

For Congress, election imperils balanced budget

By Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

December 4, 2007

WASHINGTON — Facing an out-of-whack federal budget and a ballooning debt, congressional Democrats made a simple pledge when they took power in January: If lawmakers increased spending or cut the taxes needed to pay bills, they would find money elsewhere to balance the national checkbook.

But less than a year later, the plans for what was portrayed as a more responsible fiscal future — enshrined in stringent new budgeting rules — have collapsed amid a politically explosive debate over taxes.

Bay Area counties toughest on black drug offenders

Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer

San Francisco imprisons African Americans for drug offenses at a much higher rate than whites, according to a report to be released today by a nonprofit research institute.

In a study of nearly 200 counties nationwide, the Justice Policy Institute found that 97 percent of large-population counties have racial disparities between the number of black people and white people sent to prison on drug convictions.

The institute, which is based in Washington, D.C., and researches public policy and promotes alternatives to incarceration, says whites and African Americans use illicit drugs at similar rates. But black people account for more than 50 percent of sentenced drug offenders, though they make up only 13 percent of the nation’s population.

Africa

S African miners strike on safety

South African mine workers have begun a one-day strike in protest at poor safety in the country’s mines.

About 240,000 workers are taking part in the stoppage – the first countrywide strike by miners over safety issues.

Mineworkers are gathering in central Johannesburg for a protest march expected to draw up to 40,000 people.

British teacher arrives home from Sudan

LONDON – A British teacher jailed in Sudan for letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad as part of a writing project arrived home Tuesday after being pardoned and said she was “very upset to think that I might have caused offense to people.”

Gillian Gibbons told reporters after arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport that she was looking forward to seeing her family and friends.

“I’m just an ordinary middle-aged primary school teacher. I went out there to have an adventure, and got a bit more than I bargained for,” Gibbons said at a brief news conference.

Middle East

Israeli prisoner release derided by Palestinians

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem

Published: 04 December 2007

Israel has released 429 Palestinian prisoners in a gesture welcomed by their families but described as a “joke” by the jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti because of the severely limited numbers freed.

At the same time officials of the Ramallah-based emergency government established by the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, said it had shut down a total of 92 charities linked to Hamas in the West Bank in a fresh crackdown on the Islamic faction.

The numbers of mainly Fatah prisoners freed in a release originally approved in the approach to the Annapolis conference fell well short of the 2,000 reportedly urged by the US and Mr Abbas. Mr Barghouti complained to a group of Israeli Knesset members at the weekend that the sentences of most of the freed detainees would have been served in a matter of months anyway.

Iran’s nuclear ambitions on hold, U.S. agencies conclude

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that international pressure has compelled the Islamic Republic to back away from its pursuit of the bomb.

The new findings represent a retreat from a fundamental U.S. assumption about one of its main adversaries, and an admission that a central component of previous intelligence estimates on Tehran’s nuclear program was wrong. But the report makes it clear that Iran could decide at any point to resume its efforts to develop a nuclear weapon.

Europe

Poverty and exclusion blight Roma

The European Commission is set for an unprecedented meeting with Roma (Gypsy) people from all over Europe.

It is a response to the challenge posed by what has become the biggest ethnic minority in the enlarged European Union.

Europe’s roughly 10 million Roma remain the poorest of the poor, often migrating abroad in search of work.

Anti-war protest replica wins Turner Prize

LONDON (AFP) – An exact replica of a 40-metre long anti-war protest outside the Houses of Parliament has won this year’s Turner Prize.

Mark Wallinger’s painstaking recreation, “State Britain”, which is now featured inside the Tate Britain gallery in Liverpool, was praised by the award panel for its “immediacy, visceral intensity and historic importance.”

The 48-year-old artist initially made headlines for his film “Sleeper” in which he dressed up as a bear and wandered around a Berlin art gallery for 10 nights.

But it was his detailed replica of protestor Brian Haw’s encampment in Westminster that scooped up the 25,000-pound prize.

Asia

Japan elderly abuse much more than disclosed: media

TOKYO (Reuters) – Nearly 500 elderly people were abused at Japan’s nursing homes in the space of nine months last year — 10 times the number of cases reported by the government for a whole year, Japanese media reported on Tuesday.

A survey conducted by experts on elderly care earlier this year revealed 498 cases of nursing facilities employees abusing the elderly between April and December last year, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.

Of the 498 cases, 190 involved psychological abuse, such as cursing and ignoring the elderly. More than 130 cases involved physical abuse and 110 involved tying elderly people to a bed or otherwise restraining them, the paper reported.

Opposition leader Sharif barred from fighting Pakistan election

· Criminal charges rule him out, officials declare

· Former PM fails to recruit Bhutto for poll boycott

Declan Walsh in Islamabad

Tuesday December 4, 2007

The Guardian

The Pakistani opposition leader Nawaz Sharif was barred yesterday from contesting the forthcoming election, sparking fresh allegations that President Pervez Musharraf intends to rig the poll. Barely a week after Sharif’s dramatic return from exile, officials in Lahore declared the former prime minister ineligible to stand for election, due to criminal charges going back to the 1999 coup which brought Musharraf to power.

Latin America

Venezuela Vote Sets Roadblocks on Chávez Path

CARACAS, Venezuela, Dec. 3 – The surprising defeat of a referendum over the weekend to accelerate President Hugo Chávez’s socialist-inspired revolution has given new energy to his long-suffering opposition.

But just how long that momentum lasts will depend on whether his opponents can keep within their ranks the Venezuelans who defected from Mr. Chávez to vote no on the proposals.

For nine years, a combination of populist politics and rising oil prices have propelled Mr. Chávez’s socialist program for Venezuela with an almost inexorable momentum. On Sunday, his country put on the brakes.