Docudharma Times Saturday January 26

This is an Open Thread: No Hiding Under a Rock Here.

Saturday’s Headlines: Senators Push to Expand Stimulus: Huckabee’s book deal after Jonesboro tragedy still rankles: A Clash of Views On Whale-Loving: Gazans foil Egyptian moves to close border: Kenya’s Olympic hopefuls forced to choose between training and survival

U.S. Race Captures World’s Eye, and Holds It

DAVOS, Switzerland – To look at the reams of coverage in newspapers outside the United States or to follow the hours of television news broadcasts, you might conclude that foreigners had a vote in selecting an American presidential candidate – or, at least, deserved one, so great is America’s influence on their lives.

From Berlin to London to Jakarta, the destinies of Democratic and Republican contenders in Iowa or New Hampshire, or Nevada or South Carolina, have become news in a way that most political commentators cannot recall. It is as if outsiders are pining for change in America as much as some American presidential candidates are promising it.

USA

Senators Push to Expand Stimulus

Both Parties Seek Additions to Plan

Saturday, January 26, 2008; Page A01

Shrugging off a personal plea from President Bush, senators from both parties said yesterday that they will push for significant additions to the $150 billion stimulus package hammered out Thursday by House leaders and the administration.

Bush, appearing at a retreat for House Republicans in West Virginia, warned Congress not to load the deal with spending projects or delay sending it to his desk for a signature. Although it may not be everything Republicans want, he said, the package of payments to workers and incentives for business investment puts money in the hands of everyday Americans and does not raise taxes.

Huckabee’s book deal after Jonesboro tragedy still rankles

Critics say the Arkansas governor cashed in on the school shooting with the 1998 publication of ‘Kids Who Kill.’

JONESBORO, ARK. — After two middle-school boys in camouflage gear shot and killed four classmates and a teacher here, leaving 10 others wounded and a community shattered, it seemed inevitable that someone would see opportunity in the tragedy for a book deal.

Indeed, within days a publisher agreed to pay $25,000 to an Arkansas writer to produce a book on youth violence.

Victims’ families were outraged. They called the payment blood money and said the author was cashing in on their pain. They demanded that the money go to the school, victims’ relatives or scholarships for the wounded, not to the writer’s personal bank account. He refused.

Asia

A Clash of Views On Whale-Loving

Creature Is a Delicacy in Japan, a Cause in the West

TOKYO, Jan. 25 — At Ohana, a restaurant not far from the Japanese parliament in central Tokyo, a small plate of chilled raw whale costs $17.50. Grilled whale is $9, while whale in a hot pot goes for $29.

The mammalian flesh for these dishes — available year-round and served mostly to businessmen older than 40 — comes from Japan’s annual whale hunt, carried out, the government here declares, to advance “scientific” knowledge of cetaceans.

Just make it clear. I know that what the Japanese government calls “Research” is nothing more than a lie to cover-up their real initiation which is commercial whaling.

Musharraf issues warning to West

President Pervez Musharraf has said that Pakistan’s success in fighting terrorism is critical and any failure could impact on the West.

In an address to a British think tank, he called for support and encouragement not “criticisms and insinuations”.

He outlined his strategy for defeating al-Qaeda and the Taleban, and securing Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

The president reiterated that delayed elections now due next month would be “free, fair, transparent and peaceful”.

Middle East

Gazans foil Egyptian moves to close border

Rory McCarthy in Rafah

Saturday January 26, 2008

The Guardian

Egyptian soldiers in riot gear deployed water cannon and rolls of barbed wire yesterday as they started to close the Gaza/Egypt border, turning back the thousands of Palestinians who have flooded across.

But even as some gaps in the wall were being closed, Palestinians used a bulldozer to puncture another section of the seven-mile border. Several thousand people still crossed in both directions. One crane was set up by the border at Rafah to bring over goods more quickly – particularly cement and fuel, which are scarce in Gaza.

Beirut’s assassins kill the detective on their trail

By Robert Fisk in Beirut

Saturday, 26 January 2008

The assassins of Beirut are getting personal. Yesterday morning, they killed the most important detective on their trail, the very man who is leading the Lebanese government’s investigations into the murder – and attempted murder – of so many of the country’s politicians, journalists and soldiers.

Captain Wassem Eid, a highly intelligent officer in the Lebanese police intelligence division who was close to the government – in other words, he was not pro-Syrian – was torn apart, along with his bodyguard and at least three civilians, under a motorway overpass. So devastating was the explosion – an entire truck was blasted into the air and its driver killed – that it was not at first clear whether the killers used a car bomb or had planted their bomb beside the highway.

Africa

Kenya’s Olympic hopefuls forced to choose between training and survival

· Elite athletes targeted in post-election violence

· Attacks and threats force runners to stay at home

Xan Rice in Eldoret

Saturday January 26, 2008

The Guardian

Dozens of Kenya’s top athletes, including Olympic hopefuls, are unable to train properly and are living in fear for their lives as violence convulses the Rift Valley, home of world distance running, in the wake of last month’s disputed elections.

Elite runners told the Guardian they had been forced to cut training after receiving death threats and being accused of fomenting post-election violence. Two athletes, including Lucas Sang, a former Olympic 400m runner, have been killed. The impact on runners’ daily schedules has left some concerned that they will struggle at the World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh in March and at the Beijing Olympics in August.

Gold mines shut as South Africa forced to ration power supply

Chris McGreal in Johannesburg

Saturday January 26, 2008

The Guardian

The South African government is to introduce electricity rationing, as the country’s deepening power crisis forced the world’s largest gold and platinum mining companies to shut down operations yesterday.

The move to drastically cut power consumption came as the cabinet described a fortnight of rolling blackouts to millions of homes and businesses as a “national emergency” amid warnings that the electricity shortage will go on for years.

In an unprecedented move, the state power utility, Eskom, told the mines to evacuate all underground staff and cease mining to cut electricity consumption to “minimal levels”.

Europe

‘He’s done nothing wrong’: mother springs to the defence of rogue trader

By John Lichfield in Paris

Saturday, 26 January 2008

Jérôme Kerviel is finding it difficult to deal with his new-found fame. In the space of 24 hours, the Breton-born amateur yachtsman, judo expert and dog lover has become one of most talked-about Frenchmen in history.

His frowning, puzzled, handsome ID photo has appeared on every TV station, and almost every newspaper front page, in the world. Even Nicolas Sarkozy might have reason to be jealous.

M. Kerviel, 31, who is married but separated, is alleged to be responsible for the largest one-man fraud in the history of banking. According to his lawyers, he is finding it difficult to comprehend what has happened to him. The lawyers insist, however, that he is not on the run and will answer questions from French investigators.

Eggs fly as German Right faces defeat

A quick-witted bodyguard just managed to open an umbrella to prevent rotten eggs splattering Roland Koch, the prime minister of Hesse. The crowd in Frankfurt’s sedate Opera Square was in uproar.

“Listen,” said the 49-year-old conservative. “You have to be able to talk about subjects like this in a city where 66 per cent of young people have an immigrant background!” More boos.

Suddenly German politics is beginning to look turbulent. Regional elections are to be held tomorrow in the large states of Hesse and Lower Saxony, and in Hesse, at least, a clear division is emerging between an angry, increasingly radical Left and a disorientated, conservative Right.

Latin America

Venezuela, allies to start new bank

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and three of his closest allies are teaming up to create a regional development bank intended to strengthen their alliance and promote independence from U.S.-backed lenders like the World Bank.

The bank is to be launched Saturday as Chavez hosts a summit with leaders from Nicaragua, Bolivia and Cuba – members of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA.

The left-leaning regional trade alliance is intended to offer an alternative, socialist path to integration while snubbing U.S.-backed free-trade deals.

The ALBA Bank will be started with $1 billion to $1.5 billion of capital, Venezuelan Finance Minister Rafael Isea said Friday, according to the state-run Bolivarian News Agency.