Happy 2008 From Docudharma

This is a New Year

New Years Headlines: An Odd Couple With Big Influence: It’s Huckabee on offense, or not: After Ruling, Groups Spend Heavily to Sway Races: Race to save moulding Lascaux cave paintings: 2008: The year a new superpower is born

Doctors Cite Pressure to Keep Silent On Bhutto

By Emily Wax and Griff Witte

Washington Post Foreign Service

Tuesday, January 1, 2008; Page A01

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, Dec. 31 — Pakistani authorities have pressured the medical personnel who tried to save Benazir Bhutto’s life to remain silent about what happened in her final hour and have removed records of her treatment from the facility, according to doctors.

In interviews, doctors who were at Bhutto’s side at Rawalpindi General Hospital said they were under extreme pressure not to share details about the nature of the injuries that the opposition leader suffered in an attack here Dec. 27.

USA

An Odd Couple With Big Influence

By Joel Achenbach

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, January 1, 2008; Page A01

GRUNDY CENTER, Iowa — Two states guard the campaign trail as though they own it. Their influence on national politics is wildly disproportionate to their modest populations. Neither has anything that could be called a large city, or a slum, or a sprawling suburb. Both are dotted with small towns where everyone knows everyone else. One is very white, the other whiter still.

Iowa and New Hampshire have defied all predictions of their impending obsolescence. By the time Iowans finish caucusing Thursday and New Hampshirites vote in their primary five days later, the course of the 2008 presidential race may have been shaped, before many people in 48 other states have even paid much attention.

It’s Huckabee on offense, or not

The GOP candidate purportedly turns the other cheek on an anti-Romney strategy. Still, he shows an attack ad to reporters anyway.

DES MOINES — In the last days before Thursday’s Iowa caucuses, Mike Huckabee, lacking money and staff, is adopting a freewheeling and inexpensive strategy of asymmetrical political warfare — inviting reporters to a pheasant hunt, a morning jog and a haircut — to needle his better-funded, better-organized challenger, Mitt Romney.

As the campaign enters a new year, the daily battle of visual images increasingly pits Huckabee’s Doo Dah Parade-style theatrics against Romney’s Rose Parade of stately, flowery events. On Monday, Huckabee’s approach culminated in the most head-spinning news conference of the presidential campaign.

Huckabee aides had set the stage — a hotel conference room here — for the former Arkansas governor to attack Romney. Three poster boards rested on easels to display Romney’s gaffes and policy reversals. A blue backdrop read “Enough Is Enough” in reference to Romney’s TV ad attacks on Huckabee. And a screen had been set up to project a new Huckabee ad attacking the former Massachusetts governor for his record on crime, healthcare, spending and abortion.

After Ruling, Groups Spend Heavily to Sway Races

DES MOINES – Spurred by a recent Supreme Court decision, independent political groups are using their financial muscle and organizational clout as never before to influence the presidential race, pumping money and troops into early nominating states on behalf of their favored candidates.

Iowans have been bombarded over the last few days with radio spots supporting John Edwards that were paid for by a group affiliated with locals of the Service Employees International Union, which just kicked in $800,000 – on top of $760,000 already spent.

Europe

Paris and Berlin ban cafe smoking

Smoking has been banned in bars in the capitals of France and Germany but the laws will not be enforced immediately.

Eight German states, including Berlin, have ushered in 2008 declaring their pubs and restaurants smoke-free.

Almost a third of Germans smoke and the authorities in Berlin have decided not to enforce the restrictions actively for the first six months.

In France, a law forbidding smoking in public places has now been extended to bars, cafes and hotels.

Race to save moulding Lascaux cave paintings

The French government is taking emergency action to rescue the world’s most celebrated prehistoric cave paintings from a second fungal invasion in seven years.

Each day until 8 January, experts are treating the caverns at Lascaux in the Dordogne – nicknamed the Sistine Chapel of pre-history – with a fungicide to try to check a gradual spread of spots of grey and black mould. The caves will then be closed to all but essential visitors for three months.

An air conditioning system, installed just before a similar fungal attack seven years ago, is to be replaced. Some scientists believe the introduction of the machinery was misconceived and may be partially responsible for the fungal invasions.

Other experts blame global warming for increasing the temperature in the caves. Others point to an increased level of human activity in the caverns as part of an ambitious attempt to create an exact computerised record in three dimensions of the 17,000-year-old paintings of bison, wild cattle, deer and other animals.

Africa

Kenya on the brink as more than 100 killed in poll riots

Disputed election result sparks worst violence in 25 years

Kenya’s reputation as one of Africa’s most stable democracies was shattered yesterday as the fallout from Sunday’s highly controversial presidential elections led to nationwide rioting and the deaths of more than 100 people.

Police and protesters fought running battles in a number of Nairobi’s slums as supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga burned down homes and looted shops owned by supporters of the victorious incumbent Mwai Kibaki.

In western Kenya, where Odinga’s support is greatest, 40 people were reported to have been killed, many of them by police, and a day-time curfew was enforced.

Africa’s oasis of calm threatened by dangerous political game

Kenya is rare among east African nations. While its neighbours Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Somalia have all at one time or another been ripped apart by civil war, Kenya has remained stable.

In a country made up of 42 different ethnic tribes, the tensions which exist between certain communities have never spilled over into all-out war. Ethnic clashes have broken out, most recently in the Mount Elgon region near the border with Uganda, but the country as a whole has remained united.

This may be Kenya’s biggest test. Luos, the second-largest tribe in Kenya, but one that has long been marginalised, believed they were finally going to get their chance to rule. The Kikuyus, Kenya’s largest tribe, have provided two of Kenya’s three presidents and retained influential positions during the rule of Daniel arap Moi, a Kalenjin.

Asia

2008: The year a new superpower is born

Here comes the world’s newest superpower. The rest of the world is gloomily contemplating economic slowdown and even recession. Not in Beijing. China is set to make 2008 the year it asserts its status as a global colossus by flexing frightening economic muscle on international markets, enjoying unprecedented levels of domestic consumption and showcasing itself to a watching world with a glittering £20bn Olympic Games.

The world’s most populous nation will mark the next 12 months with a coming-of-age party that will confirm its transformation in three decades from one of the poorest countries of the 20th century into the globe’s third-largest economy, its hungriest (and most polluting) consumer and the engine room of economic growth.

Middle East

Iraqis fear surge is a temporary lull instead of permanent peace

Cheering triumphantly as his kick smashed through the front door of the abandoned house in a tense Baghdad neighbourhood, the Iraqi soldier led a team of four inside while a group of American troops watched.

Moments later the men emerged empty-handed, signalled to their US shadows that the place was clear and trotted off to the next house as part of a joint operation to look for corpses, weapons and al-Qaeda fighters in one of the worst hotspots in the city.

Four US soldiers stepped into the rundown home in Saydiyah to check the Iraqis’ search skills, muttering about how their inexperienced counterparts preferred speed over thoroughness and sometimes missed things.

Baghdad: First New Year’s in years

BAGHDAD – It was something not seen in Baghdad since before the 2003 invasion – people publicly welcoming a new year with singing, dancing and general revelry.

The ballrooms of two landmark hotels – the Palestine and the Sheraton – were full of people for the first New Year’s Eve celebrations after four years of violence that has bloodied Iraq.

“This place is now more secure,” said Zahraa, 23, adorned with heavy black eyeliner and red lipstick, sitting with colleagues at the Palestine hotel, which was the target of huge car bombs in 2005. “Yes, we are still afraid, but we need to lighten our moods occasionally.”

Latin America

Colombian hostage release halted

A Venezuelan-led mission to free three hostages held by Colombian left-wing Farc rebels has been suspended.

The rebels said the planned release was not possible because of government military operations, according to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

But the Colombian president Alvaro Uribe said no new operations were under way and that the rebels may not be in possession of one of the hostages.

The Farc had promised Mr Chavez that they would release two women and a boy.