Docudharma Times Tuesday February 12

This is an Open Thread:

The grabbing hands

Grab all they can

All for themselves

After all

Tuesday’s Headlines: Seeking Unity, Obama Feels Pull of Racial Divide: U.S. Latino Population Projected To Soar: An invitation to the future: The withdrawal of foreign troops would be a disaster for Afghanistan: Russia shuts university that displeased Putin: Kenya talks head to secret site: Hospital boss arrested over al-Qaeda attack by human boobytraps

Is this justice?

US accused of using ‘kangaroo court’ to try men accused of role in September 11 attacks

By Andrew Gumbel

Tuesday, 12 February 2008

The United States military announced yesterday that it was bringing death penalty charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other men suspected of orchestrating the September 11 attacks, and intended to try them under the Bush administration’s much-criticised military tribunal system, which is subject only to partial oversight by the civilian appeals system.

The decision to use Mohammed and the others as guinea-pigs in a constitutionally dubious legal proceeding is likely to trigger a firestorm of anti-American sentiment in the Islamic world and spark a fractious domestic debate in an already highly charged presidential election year.

Concerns were raised last night of political interference by the White House in the military’s decision to go to trial in the middle of an election campaign in which the Republican frontrunner, John McCain, has made the fight against al-Qa’ida central to his election bid.

USA

Seeking Unity, Obama Feels Pull of Racial Divide

WASHINGTON – It was November 2006 when Senator Barack Obama first gathered friends and advisers at a Washington law firm to brainstorm about what it would take for him to win the presidency.

Those who attended the meeting said the mix of excitement and trepidation at times felt asphyxiating, as the group weighed the challenges of such a long shot. Would Mr. Obama be able to raise enough money? What kind of toll would a campaign take on him and his family? What kind of organization could he build?

Halfway into the session, Broderick Johnson, a Washington lawyer and informal adviser to Mr. Obama, spoke up. “What about race?” he asked.

U.S. Latino Population Projected To Soar

Forecast Predicts Tripling by 2050

The number of Hispanics in the United States will triple by 2050 and represent nearly 30 percent of the population if current trends continue, according to a report released yesterday.

The study by the nonpartisan, Washington-based Pew Research Center also found that nearly one in five Americans will be foreign-born in 2050, compared with about one in eight today. Asian Americans, representing 5 percent of the population today, are expected to boost their share to 9 percent.

Asia-Pacific

An invitation to the future

The apology to the Stolen Generations may not alter the lives of Aboriginal people. But it is a crucial step for all Australians

It is difficult to convey the deep emotion many Australians feel about the apology that is to be made to those indigenous Australians now known as the Stolen Generations, this Wednesday at 9am, as the first act of the newly elected Australian parliament. The national excitement around the event is palpable, with thousands heading to Canberra for it, and public screens being erected in most major cities for the live, national broadcast of the event.

Newly elected prime minister Kevin Rudd spent time last weekend with a Stolen Generation survivor, listening to her story. He has pointedly negotiated the wording of the apology with indigenous leaders but not the leader of the Liberal party. If Rudd’s Labor government achieves nothing else, it deserves credit for this historic act which allows Australia to once more move forward.

Asia

The withdrawal of foreign troops would be a disaster for Afghanistan

International forces are needed to bring a stable and lasting peace, says Michael Williams

The situation in Afghanistan is less than optimal. But one cannot pretend that this is the sole result of western involvement in Afghanistan, remedied only by the immediate removal of all international forces, as Seumas Milne claims (The war that can bring neither peace nor freedom, February 5).

I have spent nearly two years working with various allies involved in Afghanistan as an independent academic. Milne writes that Nato is losing ground against the Taliban: “And while Nato claims that 70% of incidents took place in the southern Taliban heartland, the independent Senlis Council thinktank recently estimated that the Taliban now has a permanent presence in 54% of Afghanistan.”

‘Unforgivable rape’ angers Japan

Japan’s prime minister has described the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl by a US marine as “unforgivable”.

Marine Tyrone Hadnott, 38, is being questioned in relation to the alleged assault on the island of Okinawa.

He denies raping the girl in his car on Sunday night, but police say he has admitted forcing her to kiss him.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda condemned the alleged assault in parliament, complaining that this kind of grave incident had happened repeatedly.

Europe

Russia shuts university that displeased Putin

· St Petersburg buildings said to be a fire risk

· Closure a reprisal for fair elections project, say staff

The Kremlin was yesterday accused of mounting an unprecedented attack on academic freedom after one of Russia’s top universities was closed.

The European University at St Petersburg (EUSP) has been forced to suspend its teaching after officials claimed that its historic buildings were “a fire risk”. On Friday a court ordered that all academic work cease, classrooms be sealed and the university’s library shut.

Academics at the EUSP said the move was politically motivated – and followed a row last year over a programme funded by the European commission to improve the monitoring of Russian elections. The university accepted a three-year, £500,000 EU grant to run a project advising Russia’s political parties on matters such as how to ensure elections are not rigged.

The Dutch restaurant that’s really a laboratory – and the diners are the guinea pigs

By Claire Soares in Wageningen

Tuesday, 12 February 2008

“Watching what you eat” has taken on a whole new meaning at the Restaurant of the Future.

Although the university canteen in the Dutch town of Wageningen looks like an upmarket eatery – with its floor-to-ceiling windows, black marble worktops and minimalist fixtures and fittings – it is in fact a laboratory in disguise. Banks of hidden cameras zoom in on every morsel that enters diners’ mouths, invisible scales built into the floor weigh you as you pay for your meal, and beware of that comfy-looking chair which could be monitoring your heartbeat as you chew.

Africa

Kenya talks head to secret site

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) — Negotiators trying to resolve a political crisis in Kenya plan to move to an undisclosed location and make no public statements for the next few days, a senior aide to former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan told CNN on Monday.

Teams representing President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga plan to move their discussions from a hotel in Nairobi to confer in private at a secret location, the aide said.

The goal is to meet far from the media spotlight in hopes of reaching an agreement, the aide said. The negotiating teams plan to make no public statements for the next 48 to 72 hours, the aide said.

Chad’s Leader Survives, but Dissidents’ Peril Grows

NDJAMENA, Chad – Françoise Djiuiheïn responded with a start to each rap at the door, each passing car that lingered too long beyond the front gate of the safe house.

“All of us who are against this government are afraid now,” said Ms. Djiuiheïn, a teacher and a member of an opposition party here. “The government wants to eliminate all its enemies.”

The crisis in Chad, which reached a climax last week as rebels nearly toppled the president, has largely been seen through the lens of its effect on the catastrophe in the Darfur region of neighboring Sudan.

Middle East

Hospital boss arrested over al-Qaeda attack by human boobytraps

Martin Fletcher in Baghdad

The acting director of a Baghdad psychiatric hospital has been arrested on suspicion of supplying al-Qaeda in Iraq with the mentally impaired women that it used to blow up two crowded animal markets in the city on February 1, killing about 100 people.

Iraqi security forces and US soldiers arrested the man at al-Rashad hospital in east Baghdad on Sunday. They then spent three hours searching his office and removing records.

Sources told The Times that the two women bombers had been treated at the hospital in the past.

Hamas leaders hiding from Israeli hits

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Hamas leaders in Gaza turned off their cell phones, avoided public appearances and were sleeping in safe houses after Israel threatened Monday to assassinate those responsible for Palestinian rocket attacks on border towns.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that Israel could bring down the Hamas regime and he ordered plans for a large ground invasion of Gaza. But he said troops would not move soon, all but admitting that Israel has no quick answer for the rocket barrages and leaving his threats as mostly verbal pressure on Hamas.

It was the first time a senior official hinted so strongly that Israel was prepared to overthrow Hamas if the Palestinians didn’t do it themselves.

Latin America

Petrobras’ global quest for power

MELGAR, COLOMBIA — For most of Latin America’s state oil companies, these are hardly halcyon days: Although high global prices have lifted revenue, crude oil production is either in decline or moving sideways.

Then there’s Brazil’s go-go Petrobras.

The company has doubled its oil output over the last decade to 2.2 million barrels a day and joined the ranks of the world’s major producers. Petrobras’ deep-water discoveries off Brazil’s coast, such as the Tupi oil field announced in November, plus aggressive energy exploration around the world — from the U.S. Gulf Coast to West Africa, Turkey and here in Colombia — have captured investors’ attention.

So what’s the secret behind its success? Analysts say the Brazilian government’s decision to open the company up to outside investors, to break its monopoly on the nation’s oil fields and to push the company to develop deep-water drilling technology were critical to its growth. But the company’s adventuresome spirit is also paying dividends.