Docudharma Times Tuesday July 29

Department Of Justice

Hiring Questions:

Who Do You Love

More?

The Constitution Or

George Bush?

Which Law Is

Higher?

Gods Law

Or

The Rule Of Law?

You Know The Answers

Beijing losing battle against Olympic smog



By Clifford Coonan in Beijing

Tuesday, 29 July 2008

With 10 days to go until the Beijing Olympics opens, the smog simply refuses to lift and the Games organisers are preparing emergency measures to clear the air ahead of the big day.

The traffic on the streets of Beijing is noticeably lighter, and many of the big steelworks and coal-fired power stations have been silenced. But the capital was still enveloped yesterday in a haze that restricted visibility to a couple of hundred yards.

For years the authorities have been trying to clear the yellow-tinged smog masking the city, including a recent batch of measures as a quick-fix solution.

Report Faults Aides in Hiring at Justice Dept.



By ERIC LICHTBLAU

Published: July 29, 2008

Senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales broke Civil Service laws by using politics to guide their hiring decisions, picking less-qualified applicants for important nonpolitical positions, slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the department’s credibility, an internal report concluded on Monday.

A longtime prosecutor who drew rave reviews from his supervisors was passed over for an important counterterrorism slot because his wife was active in Democratic politics, and a much-less-experienced lawyer with Republican leanings got the job, the report said.

USA

Lawmakers Agree to Ban Toxins in Children’s Items



By Lyndsey Layton

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, July 29, 2008; Page A01

Congressional negotiators agreed yesterday to a ban on a family of toxins found in children’s products, handing a major victory to parents and health experts who have been clamoring for the government to remove harmful chemicals from toys.

The ban, which would take effect in six months, would have significant implications for U.S. consumers, whose homes are filled with hundreds of plastic products designed for children that may be causing dangerous health effects.

A U.S. Trial by Its Looks, but Only So

Guantánamo Memo

By WILLIAM GLABERSON

Published: July 29, 2008

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba – On the surface, the proceedings unfolding inside a makeshift courthouse on a hill here resemble an American trial. A judge wearing a black robe presides. There is a public gallery and a witness stand. Prosecutors present witnesses, and defense lawyers cross-examine them. Objections are made and ruled upon.

But behind the judicial routine at the first trial for a Guantánamo detainee lies a parallel universe of law and lawyers. Secret evidence held in red folders is not revealed in open court. The gallery is mostly empty, because there are no members of the public. In what would be the jury box, every occupant wears a military uniform.

Asia

China, protesters may play cat-and-mouse during Olympics



By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers

BEIJING – Activists savor the chance to steal the spotlight during the Olympic Games and air their grievances. They’d like to unfurl banners, streak across playing fields and hack into stadium screens.

China is even more determined to stop them.

One of the more interesting events in this summer’s Aug. 8-24 Summer Olympics isn’t even a sanctioned sport: It may be the cat-and-mouse game between activists and police, or between opinionated Olympic medalists eager to mouth off and officials ready to stifle them. These are the potential “demonstration” sports of the most politically charged Olympic Games in decades.

China rights ‘worsen with Games’

The human rights situation in China has deteriorated in the run-up to its hosting of the Olympic Games this year, Amnesty International says.

The BBC

It documents the use of “re-education through labour”, the suppression of rights activists and journalists, and the use of arbitrary imprisonment.

A spokesman urged world leaders due to attend the Games, opening in 10 days, to speak out against the violations.

Chinese officials were not commenting on the report ahead of its publication.

However, Beijing routinely denies allegations that it abuses human rights, arguing that recent reforms have improved the situation and saying its economic management has improved the quality of life of hundreds of millions of people.

Middle East

Middle East: Palestinians ‘routinely torture’ rival detainees

· Human rights reports accuse Fatah and Hamas

· Violations have led to three recorded deaths

Jonathan Steele

The Guardian,

Tuesday July 29 2008

Palestinians detained by Fatah and Hamas, the two main factions in the West Bank and Gaza, face routine abuse and torture, according to two leading human rights organisations in reports published this week.

Al-Haq, an independent Palestinian human rights group, said yesterday that more than 1,000 people have been detained by each side within the past year. An estimated 20%-30% of the detainees suffered torture, including severe beatings and being tied up in painful positions, said Al-Haq director Shawan Jabarin, citing sworn statements from 150 detainees. It said mistreatment had led to three deaths in Gaza and one in the West Bank.

Shiite pilgrimage in Baghdad reaches climax



By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims gathered around a golden-domed shrine in a massive religious assembly in Baghdad on Tuesday, a day after three female suicide bombers struck their procession and killed 32 people.

The black-clad pilgrims streamed toward the shrine of Imam Moussa al-Kadhim in the northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah, where police set up checkpoints and searched them.

Authorities have imposed a vehicle ban in the city and deployed tens of thousands of policemen in the streets in fear of further violence during Tuesday’s pilgrimage.

Europe

Kurds are blamed for bombs that killed 17 in Istanbul



By Nicholas Birch

Tuesday, 29 July 2008

Turkish police are studying security camera footage of two men carefully placing white plastic bags in rubbish bins in their search for clues after two bombs exploded in a busy Istanbul suburb, killing 17 people. The blasts on Sunday evening further raised tensions in this divided country.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in Turkey’s biggest city since more than 60 people died in four co-ordinated car bomb attacks on British and Jewish targets in November 2003. And the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, has denied that it played any role in the blasts. Istanbul’s Governor, meanwhile, linked the bombings to the PKK.

Serbian nationalists gear up to fight Radovan Karadzic’s extradition>



From The Times

July 29, 2008

David Charter in Belgrade

Belgrade braced itself for a show of force today by thousands of Serb nationalists opposed to the extradition of Radovan Karadzic, as more details emerged of the wartime leader’s recent career as a New Age healer.

In a further twist to the story of how Dr Karadzic morphed into the mysterious Dr Dragan Dabic, a 78-year-old man came forward yesterday to claim that his persona was stolen by the fugitive. Petar Glumac, a bearded faith healer who looks almost identical to Dr Dabic and lives in northern Serbia, said that he had travelled throughout Austria, Croatia and Serbia treating thousands of patients, accounting for a number of false sightings.

Africa

Zambia leader’s health sparks power struggle

President Levy Mwanawasa – a key Mugabe critic – is recovering from a June 29 stroke.

By Joseph J. Schatz  | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the July 29, 2008 edition

Lusaka, Zambia –  What happens when a country hasn’t heard from its president in a month?

That’s the question Zambians are asking in the curious case of Levy Patrick Mwanawasa.

Mr. Mwanawasa, who has served as president of this peaceful but poor southern African nation since 2001, suffered a stroke on June 29 while attending an African Union summit in Egypt. He underwent surgery and was subsequently rushed to a French military hospital in Paris amid rumors that he had died.

The Zambian government says the ailing Mwanawasa, who remains in the French hospital, is “stable” and very much alive. But there have been no photos, TV footage, or audio recordings, and many Zambians fear the worst. The stroke was Mwanawasa’s second in less than three years, and the former attorney’s health has often fueled speculation.

Zimbabwe power-sharing talks falter over role for Tsvangirai



Xan Rice in Nairobi

The Guardian,

Tuesday July 29 2008

Power-sharing talks in Zimbabwe between the government and opposition were near collapse last night, as negotiations faltered over the role of Morgan Tsvangirai in a possible unity government.

President Robert Mugabe’s envoys left the talks in Pretoria, which had started on Thursday, with no sign of agreement.

An official of the Movement for Democratic Change opposition said Mugabe’s men were only mandated to negotiate the position of vice-presidency. “The MDC is the largest party in parliament, and all they could offer was the vice-presidency? Obviously, the MDC’s position is that that’s not acceptable,” the official told Reuters.

Latin America

Peru’s women unite in kitchen – and beyond

With food prices on the rise, ‘community kitchens’ provide half a million Lima residents with affordable daily meals.

By Sara Miller Llana  | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Lima, Peru – Steam rises into air thick with the scent of garlic as women prepare lunch for 120 of Peru’s neediest.

But this is no charity. Obaldina Quilca and Veronica Zelaya – who are on cooking duty today – are also beneficiaries of one of the estimated 5,000 community kitchens run by women in Peru’s capital, Lima.

The kitchens started in the 1970s and persisted through the ’80s and ’90s, through dictatorship, terrorism, and hyperinflation that brought Peru to its knees. And now that global food prices have put basic staples out of reach for families across the region, the kitchens that feed an estimated half million residents of metropolitan Lima every day are again providing a refuge.