This is my mistake. Let me make it good
I raised the wall, and I will be the one to knock it down
Editorial
Another Test for Habeas Corpus
One of the dismal hallmarks of the Bush administration’s conduct of the war on terror has been its obsession with avoiding outside scrutiny of its actions, including by the federal courts. In particular, it has attacked habeas corpus, the guarantee that prisoners can challenge their confinement before a judge. The administration is doing so again in an important Supreme Court case concerning the habeas rights of American citizens held abroad. The justices should rule that the detainees have a right to review by a United States court.
USA
‘Soft money’ battle brewing
Millions raised; attack ads set
Four years ago, wealthy Republicans bankrolled two influential, loosely regulated political organizations that helped President Bush win reelection with TV ads invoking the 2001 terrorist attacks and maligning the Vietnam War record of Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.
Now, some of the same GOP donors and operatives are planning a similar independent group to help the party hold onto the White House this fall, according to Republicans familiar with the discussions.
Three Days of Fire Still Seared in Witnesses’ Minds
F orty years ago today, the District was emerging from three days of riots that began after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Hundreds of stores had been looted or burned. Thousands of federal troops were standing by to prevent further disturbances. And residents had witnessed chilling scenes that would remain vivid in their minds for decades.In April 1968, students and store owners, civil rights activists and politicians, police and firefighters had encountered a wave of rage, pent-up frustration and lawlessness that devastated the commercial strips along Seventh and 14th streets NW and H Street NE.
Europe
Olympic spirit comes to Britain
Monday, 7 April 2008If you were on the snowy streets of London yesterday and were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of an Olympic torchbearer carrying the sacred flame of Olympia, then count yourself lucky. Most spectators saw little more than a blur of fluorescent-yellow police jackets.
Officers were forced to surround Britain’s 80 torchbearers, who did eventually include the Chinese ambassador, with a protection ring of Olympic proportions yesterday as they wound their way through the capital, flanked by thousands of angry protesters who had descended upon London to voice their fury at China’s human rights record and Gordon Brown’s decision to receive the flame in Downing Street.
Is the food still Italian if the chef is a foreigner?
ROME: Last month, Gambero Rosso, the prestigious reviewer of restaurants and wine, sought out Rome’s best carbonara, a dish of pasta, eggs, pecorino cheese and guanciale (smoked pig cheek; for the aficionados, pancetta is not done) that defines tradition here.In second place was L’Arcangelo, a restaurant with a head chef from India. The winner: Antico Forno Roscioli, a bakery and innovative restaurant whose chef, Nabil Hadj Hassen, arrived from Tunisia at 17 and washed dishes for a year and a half before he cooked his first pot of pasta.
“To cook is a passion,” said Hassen, now 43, who went on to train with some of Italy’s top chefs. “Food is a beautiful thing.”
Africa
· MDC may boycott any run-off to protect voters
· High court to rule on forced release of results
Zimbabwe’s war veterans have launched fresh invasions of the country’s few remaining white-owned farms as Robert Mugabe appears to be falling back on the tested tactics of violence and raising racial tensions, in preparation for a run-off vote in the presidential election.The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) warned that it might boycott a second round of elections because it would lead Zimbabweans “to the slaughter” of a wave of government-sponsored violence.
Darfur women still face rape risk
Women and girls in Darfur are still subjected to widespread rape and sexual assault five years after the start of the conflict, Human Rights Watch says.
The New York-based group said neither the Sudanese security forces nor international peacekeepers were doing enough to protect women from attack.Pro-government militias have been accused of using attacks on women to terrorise the civilian population.
Sudan’s army has criticised a UN report accusing soldiers of raping women.
The report, released last month, said witnesses saw soldiers joining in attacks by the Janjaweed, raping girls and taking part in the looting of towns in West Darfur.
Asia
Sri Lankan minister among dozen killed in suicide blast at marathon
· Bombing at New Year race blamed on Tamil Tigers
· Victims include former Olympic runner and coach
A suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber detonated a powerful device yesterday at the start of a marathon race in Sri Lanka, killing a dozen people including a government minister and a former Olympic athlete.According to the Sri Lankan government, they were killed instantly as the blast ripped through crowds in Waliweriaya who were waiting for the highways minister, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, to wave off the runners in an event celebrating the country’s new year.
Television pictures showed immediate panic, with screaming people surging through blood-stained streets in the town 16 miles north of the capital, Colombo. “I saw severed heads, hands and legs,” a witness, Nalin Warnasooriya, told the Associated Press. “Blood and body parts were everywhere.”
War reporter Jon Swain pays tribute to Dith Pran
Jon Swain was about to be shot by the Khmer Rouge when Dith Pran intervened. The Sunday Times war reporter pays tribute to the courage of his friend, who died last week
Four years after his enslavement by the Khmer Rouge, an intrepid Cambodian stumbled out of the thickly wooded jungle to freedom. His legs were wobbly. He was weak with malaria. His front teeth were broken. His face was gaunt. He was incredibly thin – but he still retained his lopsided grin.That grin was still in place – although fading – in the weeks before Dith Pran died last Sunday in a hospital in America, his adopted home, from pancreatic cancer. He was 65. Although wan and thin, he moved on gracefully, loved and mourned by all whose lives he had touched. “This is my path and I must go where it takes me,” he said shortly before the end.
Middle East
Clashes in Egypt strike stand-off
Egyptian textile workers and police have clashed after security forces prevented a strike by taking control of a major Nile Delta textiles plant.
Workers threw stones and set fire to shops in Mahalla al-Kubra as police fired tear gas to disperse protesters.Elsewhere in Egypt, protests against economic conditions have largely failed in the face of a heavy police presence.
But traffic in Cairo was reported to be lighter than usual as many people
avoided going to work or school.
Rift widens between Iraq’s Shiites
Basra offensive inflamed long-standing rivalry, redefining nature of conflict
BAGHDAD – As verses from the Koran floated from a loudspeaker, the Shiite militia commander’s face glowered. Inside the cavernous funeral tent, a large portrait of his 16-year-old son, Mustafa, hung over the mourners. Abu Abdullah, who fought U.S. troops and Sunni insurgents for five years, never expected his son to die before him. Now, he said, his anger was directed at other Shiites.An Iraqi soldier, he said, had shot Mustafa two days earlier as he approached a checkpoint in Sadr City, where Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army rule. Abu Abdullah blamed Sadr’s Shiite rivals, who lead the Iraqi government.
Latin America
In Mexico, refusing to take men for an answer
In some of the country’s rural towns, women have no voice and no vote. A Oaxacan villager didn’t accept that, and she took on the system.
OAXACA, MEXICO — Many years ago, when she was still a tiny girl in braids, and not the professional she is today, Eufrosina Cruz heard the story of how her father married off her sister to a stranger at age 12: She wondered if a man might come to claim her too.Being a girl isn’t easy in Santa Maria Quiegolani, a poor rural village where Zapotec is the native language and most girls are lucky to complete grade school.
Cruz left to eventually become a college-educated accountant. But now, at age 27, she has returned to her old village in the mountains of Oaxaca, and stirred up a gender war.
1 comments
Is more fun than pulling teeth from an angry crocodile.