Docudharma Times Thursday April 24

Its on the front page of the papers

This is their hour of need

Wheres a policeman when you need one

To blame the colour tv?

Thursday’s Headlines: Deomcratic superdelegates also divided over a prolonged race: For Children, a Better Beginning: Gaza fuel embargo blocks UN aid: Hints of progress toward a deal on the Golan Heights: Korea’s ‘comfort women’: The slaves’ revolt: Filmgoer faces jail in Thailand for sitting during the national anthem: French finally face Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo: Credit Suisse bank loses billions: Zimbabwe’s church leaders warn the world: intervene to avert genocide:    

Is it time to give up the search for an Aids vaccine?

After 25 years and billions of pounds, leading scientists are now forced to ask this question

By Steve Connor and Chris Green

Thursday, 24 April 2008

Most scientists involved in Aids research believe that a vaccine against HIV is further away than ever and some have admitted that effective immunisation against the virus may never be possible, according to an unprecedented poll conducted by The Independent.

A mood of deep pessimism has spread among the international community of Aids scientists after the failure of a trial of a promising vaccine at the end of last year. It just was the latest in a series of setbacks in the 25-year struggle to develop an HIV vaccine.

The Independent’s survey of more than 35 leading Aids scientists in Britain and the United States found that just two were now more optimistic about the prospects for an HIV vaccine than they were a year ago; only four said they were more optimistic now than they were five years ago.

USA

Democratic superdelegates also divided over a prolonged race

Many party leaders say an ongoing Democratic contest can’t hurt. Others want it over well before the convention.

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Pennsylvania win has bought her time — but not much — to make her case to the Democratic Party’s superdelegates, many of whom expressed a strong desire Wednesday to end the nominating contest once the final votes are cast.

Though few seem eager to use their power to call a halt to the presidential race — and many said they welcomed the continued balloting — a number of party leaders and other activists sent a clear signal that they want the fight over well before the Democratic convention in August.

“If June 3 is the last primary, then after June 3 is the time to make a decision,” said Wayne Dowdy, chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party and an uncommitted superdelegate.

Blake Johnson, vice chairman of Alaska’s Democratic Party, agreed. “After all the states have voted, it’ll be time for the superdelegates to make their decision,” said Johnson, who is also neutral in the primaries

For Children, a Better Beginning  

Study Finds Progress on Array of Issues From Birth to 10

In a wide-ranging look at how children have fared in their first decade of life, a study to be released today offers a promising picture of American childhood: Sixth-graders feel safer at school. Reading and math scores are up for 9-year-olds. More preschoolers are vaccinated. Fewer are poisoned by lead.

The analysis, which created a composite index of more than 25 key national indicators, reports an almost 10 percent boost in children’s well-being from 1994 to 2006. This overall improvement comes in spite of two significant negative trends: increased rates of childhood obesity and low-birth-weight babies.

Middle East

Gaza fuel embargo blocks UN aid

The United Nations says that it is being forced to suspend its humanitarian work in Gaza because of the Israeli fuel blockade.

A UN official says food aid to 650,000 refugees and the collection of sewage will have to stop on Thursday if Israel does not allow in more vehicle fuel.

The UN Security Council met to discuss the crisis, but Western representatives walked out over comments from Libya.

They objected to the Libyan delegate likening Gaza to a Nazi death camp.

Among the diplomats to leave the UN chamber in New York were representatives of the United States, Britain, France and Belgium.

Hints of progress toward a deal on the Golan Heights

JERUSALEM: Peace overtures between Israel and Syria moved up a gear on Wednesday when a Syrian cabinet minister said that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel had sent a message to President Bashar al-Assad to the effect that Israel would be willing to withdraw from all the Golan Heights in return for peace with Syria.

The Syrian expatriate affairs minister, Buthaina Shaaban, told Al Jazeera television that “Olmert is ready for peace with Syria on the grounds of international conditions; on the grounds of the return of the Golan Heights in full to Syria.” She said that the message had

been conveyed by Turkey.

Asia

Korea’s ‘comfort women’: The slaves’ revolt

Korea’s dwindling band of ‘comfort women’ have spent years fighting for justice. But a growing revisionist movement in Japan refuses to recognise the abuse they suffered. David McNeill reports

In Korea they call them halmoni or grandmothers – although many are so scarred mentally and physically that they have never married or had children. In Japan, they are known as “comfort women”, a hated euphemism for their forced role of providing “comfort” to marauding Japanese troops in military brothels. But around the world, another, altogether starker term will follow them to their graves: sex slaves.

Kang il-chul is one of a handful of the surviving women living their final days in the Sharing House, a museum and communal refuge two hours from the South Korean capital, Seoul. It is a stark, concrete building in a sparsely populated area of rice fields and scraggly mountain forests. But she says she has found some peace here. “I am among my friends, who treat me well,” she says.

Filmgoer faces jail in Thailand for sitting during the national anthem

The lights had gone down, the film was about to begin, and the young Thai couple were cosily ensconced in the big Bangkok cinema when the popcorn started flying. Most of it landed on the woman, hurled by a man to her right. Soon he was slapping her with a rolled-up film flyer, and screaming at her and her boyfriend to get out of the cinema.

As the rest of the audience joined in, jeering, throwing water bottles and urging on the assailant, the two made their retreat. The incident reached its climax this week when the boyfriend, Chotisak Onsoong, was charged with an offence that could land him in jail for 15 years. His alleged crime was simple: during the playing of the royal anthem which precedes all films in Thai cinemas, he had remained in his seat.

Europe

French finally face Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo

It was a defining moment in British history – a triumph that brought the crowning of a national hero and the end of a bitter foe.

And France is determined to ensure that it never happens again.

Almost two centuries after the Battle of Waterloo, senior army officers have been sent back to the scene of their predecessors’ humiliation. In all 38 spent a day analysing what went wrong for Napoleon in his bloody struggle with the Duke of Wellington.

Brigadier-General Vincent Desportes ordered strategists from France’s Armed Forces Employment Doctrine Centre to undertake the visit because “you learn more from your failures than from your successes”.

Credit Suisse bank loses billions

Credit Suisse has reported a loss for the first three months of the year, hit by its exposure to the credit markets.

The bank made a net loss of 2.1bn Swiss francs ($2.1bn; £1.0bn) after writing down 5.3bn Swiss francs in mortgage securities and big buyout loans.

It had made a net profit of 2.7bn Swiss francs in the same period of last year.

Credit Suisse had already warned it was likely to make a loss, which it blamed partly on the “intentional misconduct” of a number of traders.

Africa

Zimbabwe arms returning to China

A ship carrying weapons to Zimbabwe is returning to China after neighbouring countries refused to unload it, China’s Foreign Ministry has said.

“The [shipping] company took this decision,” said spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

Zambia’s president urged African countries not to let the arms pass through their territories to landlocked Zimbabwe, in case it increased tension.

Zimbabwe is still waiting for the results of last month’s presidential election amid growing violence.

Zimbabwe’s church leaders warn the world: intervene to avert genocide

Zimbabwe is a deeply religious country. Daily discussions of the country’s crisis end with Zimbabweans, black and white, saying: “We can only pray.”

So when the leaders of Zimbabwe’s churches unanimously warn that the country faces “genocide” unless the international community intervenes, it is an important moment.

The clerics were speaking more than three weeks after a presidential election whose result President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party refuse to disclose, almost certainly because he was soundly defeated by Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). A recount of 23 parliamentary seats is under way in an apparent attempt to restore Zanu-PF’s lost majority, and a wave of violence and intimidation has swept the country ahead of any possible presidential run-off.

Latin America

Latin American allies attack food crisis

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez joined with his leftist allies on Wednesday to create a $100 million program to fight the rising cost of food for Latin America’s poor.

Chavez and leaders from Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua also promised joint programs for agricultural development in addition to the new Food Security Fund, though they provided no details on how the programs and fund would work.

“This food crisis is the biggest demonstration of the historic failure of the capitalist model,” Chavez told Bolivian President Evo Morales, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage during a summit in Caracas.