This is an Open Thread: Ted has cleared the Tubes
As primaries play out, whole world tunes in
By Kevin Sullivan and Mary JordanThe Washington Post
LONDON – John Mbugua, 56, a taxi driver in Mombasa, Kenya, woke himself at 3 a.m. the day of the Iowa caucuses and flipped on CNN. He said he watched for hours, not understanding precisely what or where Iowa was but thrilled about the victory of Barack Obama, the first U.S. presidential contender with Kenyan roots.“I have never been interested in the elections before,” said Mbugua, who also got up at 4 a.m. to watch the New Hampshire primary results. “But now everybody is watching. Everybody feels that Kenya has a stake in the outcome of the U.S. election.”
From Mombasa’s sandy shores on the Indian Ocean to the hot tubs of Reykjavik, Iceland, the U.S. primaries are creating unprecedented interest and excitement in a global audience that normally doesn’t tune in until the general election in November.
USA
Clinton and Obama Spar Over Remark About Dr. King
Escalating their fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Barack Obama engaged in a war of words on Sunday over Mrs. Clinton’s recent remark about the role that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. played in securing civil rights laws in the 1960s.
Mrs. Clinton made the remark last Monday as part of her latest political argument that Mr. Obama was an eloquent speaker but not a proven force for change, a description she is applying to herself.
A Dark Addiction
Miners Caught in Western Va.’s Spiraling Rates of Painkiller Abuse
The crowd is gathering early in the dirt parking lot outside the Clinch Valley Treatment Center, the only methadone clinic within 80 miles. Third in line, Jeff Trapp smokes Winstons in his pickup, watching the cars turn off the highway and settle behind him, tires crunching on cold gravel, headlights glaring. It is 2:45 a.m., and Trapp has been awake for two hours. The clinic does not start dosing until 5.Like Trapp, many of the patients who filled the lot one recent morning have jobs at far-off mines that start at 6 or 7. They sleep upright in their vehicles, slumped against the steering wheel, dressed for work in steel-toed black boots and coveralls lined with orange reflective strips. Dark rings circle their eyes where the previous day’s coal dust didn’t wash off.
Middle East
‘Core issues’ on Mid-East agenda
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will begin discussions on what are regarded as the core issues in the peace process when they meet on Monday.These include the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a Palestinian state, Jewish settlements in the West Bank, refugees, security and water resources.
The negotiations will be led by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei.
On Sunday, two Palestinian militants died in an Israeli strike in Gaza.
Bush urges Arab allies to confront Iran, ‘the world’s leading sponsor of state terror’
· President accuses Tehran of backing Shia groups
· Gulf media highlight uncritical support of IsraelIan Black, Middle East editor
Monday January 14, 2008
The GuardianPresident George Bush yesterday ratcheted up US rhetoric over Iran, lambasting it as “the world’s leading sponsor of state terror”, and urging America’s closest Arab allies to confront it “before it is too late”.
Giving the only formal speech of his seven-country Middle East tour in the United Arab Emirates, the president accused Tehran of backing Shia groups in Iraq, Hizbullah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Palestinian territories and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Africa
SA police chief resigns as Interpol leader as he is charged with bribery
Chris McGreal in Johannesburg
Monday January 14, 2008
The GuardianSouth Africa’s police chief and the head of Interpol, Jackie Selebi, stepped down from both jobs at the weekend after prosecutors said they intend to charge him with bribery and defeating the ends of justice over his “generally corrupt relationship” with a convicted drug trafficker who is on trial for murder.
Selebi told the international police agency he was stepping down “in the best interests of Interpol and out of respect for the global law enforcement community” amid further revelations about the charges he is to face.
Kenyan police ‘had shoot-to-kill policy’
By Steve Bloomfield in Nairobi
Published: 14 January 2008International human rights campaigners have accused Kenya’s police of carrying out an unofficial “shoot to kill” policy during post-election violence which has killed at least 575 people.
The statement from Human Rights Watch (HRW) came as the United States and the European Union released their strongest comments yet on the flawed presidential election. Both said it would not be “business as usual” in Kenya until the political impasse was resolved, which diplomats say is a veiled threat of sanctions.
US assistant secretary of state Jendayi Frazer said vote rigging had “made it impossible to determine with certainty the final result”.
Europe
Relatives of victims of Beslan siege go on trial
· Women had accused Putin of complicity in deaths
· Kremlin ‘using extremism law to silence critics’
Tom Parfitt in Moscow
Monday January 14, 2008
The GuardianA group of women whose relatives were killed in the Beslan school siege are to go on trial in Russia today after they accused President Vladimir Putin of complicity in the deaths.
The Voice of Beslan group has been charged with “extremism” over an appeal to politicians in Europe and the US which implied that Putin assisted terrorists.
The prosecution was launched under legislation introduced last year which civil rights activists warned could be used to attack critics of the Kremlin.
How Britain plotted coup d’état to topple Italy’s Communists
By Peter Popham in Rome
Published: 14 January 2008Britain and its Nato allies considered organising a coup in Italy in 1976 to prevent the Communist Party from coming to power, Foreign Office papers reveal.
The documents, made public after 30 years, were unearthed by an Italian researcher in the government archives at Kew, Surrey. In 1976, the Cold War was still raging, Henry Kissinger was the US Secretary of State and Italy’s political situation was a shambles.
After 30 years of domination by the corrupt Christian Democrat party (DC), the country was ready for change. The Partito Comunista Italiana (PCI), led by the moderate Enrico Berlinguer, was the only political force which seemed to offer it. In an election scheduled for 20 June 1976, there was a strong chance it would beat the Christian Democrats into second place and lead a coalition
Asia
Dog-crazy Japan puts canines on catwalk
By Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo
Published: 14 January 2008With glossy hair, sparkling eyes and a clinging dress in turquoise silk, the model floats along the catwalk amid a blaze of swirling lights, dance beats and the click of cameras.
So far, so fashion. But this is no ordinary catwalk show: the model is a white poodle, one of 20 dogs making their catwalk debut in Japan’s first ” human-canine” fashion show.
The dog industry is booming in Japan. The economy may be sluggish but that has failed to dent an expanding pet industry worth more than a trillion yen (£4.7bn) a year. The number of dogs has doubled to more than 13 million in the past decade – there are actually fewer children under 12 in Japan. From dog yoga classes and dog sunglasses to dog gourmet restaurants and dog aromatherapy spas, there are few aspects of human life that have not been extended to include canines.
Taiwan voters turn against ‘independence’ leader Chen Shui-bian who frayed nerves
From Beijing to Washington, the sigh of relief was almost audible when the Nationalist Party of the late Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek triumphed in weekend elections in Taiwan.In droves, voters sent out the message that they wanted to see a cooling of the political rhetoric from their leaders that has enraged China and made their island among the hottest possible flashpoints for war in Asia.
The main opposition Nationalist Party, which fled to the island when Chiang lost a civil war in China to the Communists in 1949, thrashed the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the legislative elections.
Latin America
Freed Colombia hostage reunited with son
BOGOTA, Colombia – Recently released Colombian hostage Clara Rojas was reunited Sunday with her 3-year-old son, who was fathered by one of her guerrilla captors but taken away from her months after he was born.Rojas gave birth to Emmanuel in 2004, but the guerrillas separated her from the child when he was 8 months old. A peasant delivered him to Colombian social services, which – unaware of his true identity – placed him in the foster home in the capital, Bogota, where he has been for the past two years.
Accompanied by her aging mother and brother, Rojas returned to Bogota on Sunday nearly six years after she was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and held captive in the jungle.
2 comments
So what, they are trying to lower the collective IQ on a world basis now?