Docudharma Times Sunday August 10

Breathing Easy At The Olympics

If You’re An

Exhaust Pipe

Russia widens attacks as world pleads for peace in South Ossetia

· Moscow targets Georgian towns

· UN heads frantic bid to contain war in Caucasus

Peter Beaumont, Matthew Collin in Tbilisi and Helen Womack in Moscow

The Observer,

Sunday August 10 2008

Russian bombers and artillery yesterday widened their attack against Georgian forces with strikes against towns and military bases across the country in a dangerous escalation of the two-day-old war. Moscow appeared determined to dismantle Georgia’s military capability in punishment for its rival’s brutal attempt to regain control of the breakaway enclave of South Ossetia.

Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, last night insisted that its actions were ‘legitimate’ and called on Georgia to end its ‘aggression’ against the separatist province.

As the civilian casualties escalated on both sides, Georgia’s military adventure seemed to be unravelling. President Mikheil Saakashvili demanded a ceasefire from Russia and implored the West to intervene to help him. Georgia’s difficulties deepened further as separatists in a second pro-Russian breakaway Georgian republic – Abkhazia – joined the conflict, attacking Georgian forces in the contested upper Kodori Gorge.

Beijing Curbs Religious Rights

Christian Activists Detail Harassment

By Maureen Fan

Washington Post Foreign Service

Sunday, August 10, 2008; Page A01

BEIJING — China describes itself as a religiously tolerant society, one that allows its citizens to worship freely. This week, per Olympic tradition, it is extending that same freedom to athletes in the form of worship rooms in the Olympic Village, each dedicated for the world’s major religions.

Worshipers also have at their disposal dozens of foreign clerics; 10,000 English-Chinese Bibles emblazoned with the Olympics logo; and an electric organ, for Catholics.

But religious freedom does not extend beyond the heavily secured perimeter fence of the Olympic Green.

USA

Democrats derail effort by Clinton backers to ban caucuses



By Steven Thomma | McClatchy Newspapers

PITTSBURGH – Devoted Hillary Clinton supporters urged the Democratic party Saturday to get rid of caucuses, the town hall meetings in states such as Iowa where Clinton’s presidential campaign stumbled and Barack Obama launched his march to the nomination.

“We need to get rid of caucuses,” said Melissa Whitener, a waitress from Conneaut, Pa., who traveled to lobby the Democratic National Committee as it prepared its party platform.

“Caucuses are inherently unfair,” she said. “I work in a restaurant. I can’t take off a whole shift to go sit in a caucus. We need to all be on the same primary system. Why should 2,000 people in Iowa have the same say as 2 million in Pennsylvania?”

Michael Phelps is off to a roaring start

Even his brash teammate Ryan Lochte can no longer suggest he might be beatable, after the 400-meter individual medley.

Helene Elliott

August 10, 2008  

The 400-meter individual medley loomed as perhaps the biggest obstacle Michael Phelps would face in swimming for a record eight Olympic gold medals, the event in which his brash, skateboard-loving teammate Ryan Lochte had insisted that he alone among Phelps’ rivals wasn’t too intimidated to play the role of spoiler along the path to history.

Phelps, cautious where Lochte is impetuous, and self-contained where Lochte is chatty, knew this was the moment that could change the course of his Olympics.

Standing in the swimmers’ ready room before the race, encased in a bulky white robe, he looked down at his hands, at the floor, at nothing in particular.

“To be honest, I didn’t really feel that good,” he said. “Then I started getting these kinds of chills on my body. Right then and there I knew I was starting to get more and more excited.”

Europe

Sarkozy accused of hypocrisy as his wife meets the Dalai Lama



By John Lichfield in Paris

Sunday, 10 August 2008

The French First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, will meet the Dalai Lama in France this week – adopting for the first time her self-proclaimed role as a kind of queen of human rights.

Officially, Mme Bruni-Sarkozy will meet the Buddhist spiritual leader as a man of faith, not as as a symbol of Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule. In truth, her role will be more ambiguous and more political, deflecting criticism from her husband, President Nicolas Sarkozy, who announced last week that he would not “provoke” the Chinese government by meeting the Dalai Lama while the Olympic Games were in progress in Beijing.

Although French first ladies are frequently deployed to greet visiting cultural or spiritual dignitaries, the Bruni-Dalai meeting has taken on unusual international, and domestic, political significance.

Russian ballet students: Pirouetting for Putin

Under communism, ballet students were driven to achieve international fame for the glory of the state. In Putin’s Russia, nothing has changed. Alastair Gee investigates the post-Soviet machine. Photographs: Rachel Papo

From The Sunday Times

August 10, 2008

Zhenya Ganeyev is marooned on a sofa bed in the corner of his St Petersburg living room. A narrow, sinewy 15-year-old, he has been forbidden by doctors to walk since early June. So the ballet student rests on an elbow tucked behind his head, a position that seems to verge on contortionism but is not uncomfortable for him, and occasionally curls his long feet into the en pointe position. His schoolteachers, who have a distinctive take on such issues, are pleased about his injury.

Ganeyev is enrolled at the Vaganova Ballet Academy in St Petersburg, perhaps the most famous ballet school in the world. He suffered a compressed spinal fracture while lifting a partner. But he was thought by instructors to be too short, and they hope the bed rest will give him a chance to grow.

Africa

Mbeki flies in to speed power deal between Mugabe and opposition



Xan Rice in Nairobi

The Observer,

Sunday August 10 2008

South African president Thabo Mbeki flew to Harare last night as Zimbabwe’s government and main opposition party appeared to be moving ever closer to a power-sharing agreement.

Early reports suggest that President Robert Mugabe has agreed to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai becoming Prime Minister, although the extent of his powers were still under discussion, a Zanu-PF official said last night. A breakthrough is believed to have been reached when Tsvangirai’s opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), agreed to recognise Mugabe’s legitimacy as President. Mugabe will meet Tsvangirai today to discuss forming a possible unity government.

Africa shamed one more time

Editorial

Sunday Monitor

Op-Ed | August 10, 2008

Kenya kicked off the madness at the start of the year when depraved politicians decided that a few thousand deaths were what their people deserved for voting in the December 27 elections.

Then the totally inept and wicked government of Zimbabwe picked up the button from Kenya. Egomaniacal Robert Mugabe simply chose to not hand power to Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai who had defeated him at the March 29 poll. For good measure, he unleashed his goons on Opposition supporters even as the economy collapsed.

But just when we were feeling relieved with Kenya’s government of national unity seemingly holding and the opposing sides in Zimbabwe talking – however belatedly – the Mauritanian generals chose to insert themselves into prime news.

Asia

Renewed bomb attacks kill five in China



From Times Online

August 10, 2008

Richard Lloyd Parry in Beijing

At least five people were killed and several more were critically injured in a series of bomb explosions in China’s far west region of Xinjiang, in what looks increasingly like a concerted bombing campaign by Muslim separatists to coincide with the Beijing Olympics.

Witnesses described how attackers threw home made bombs at a police station and office buildings, injuring police and security guards and destroying two police cars. Five of the attackers were reported to have been killed at the scene.

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi met lawyer: party spokesman >



YANGON (AFP)

Myanmar’s detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed a rare meeting with her lawyer to discuss her ongoing house arrest, a spokesman for her party said Sunday.

“Last Friday (August 8), The Lady met with her lawyer U Kyi Win from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm regarding her detention,” said Nyan Win, National League for Democracy (NLD) spokesman, referring to Aung San Suu Kyi.

“This is the first such meeting since 2004,” he told AFP.

Middle East

U.S., Iraq Remain Unresolved On Dates for U.S. Troop Pullout

Political Concerns Slow Completion of Security Framework

By Karen DeYoung

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, August 10, 2008; Page A17  

U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have agreed on most elements of a framework under which U.S. combat troops would withdraw from Iraqi cities sometime next year, but dates have not yet been settled and Iraqi political approval of the draft accord remains uncertain, according to Bush administration officials.

“What makes this complicated is that, until the whole package is done, it’s not done,” one official said, adding, “Yes, we have things on the table that we’ve agreed to,” but they await high-level Iraq agreement that may be weeks away, if not longer.

Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish dead at 67



By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer    

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Mahmoud Darwish, a Palestinian cultural icon whose poetry eloquently told of his people’s experiences of exile, occupation and infighting, died Saturday in Houston. He was 67.

The predominant Palestinian poet, whose work has been translated into more than 20 languages and won numerous international awards, died following open heart surgery at a Houston hospital, said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Born to a large Muslim family in historical Palestine – now modern-day Israel – he described his people’s struggle for independence while also criticizing both the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian leadership.

Latin America

U.S. guns arm Mexican drug cartels

Licensed weapons dealers are abundant near the border. ‘Straw buyers’ assist the traffickers.

By Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 10, 2008

SIERRA VISTA, ARIZ. — High-powered automatic weapons and ammunition are flowing virtually unchecked from border states into Mexico, fueling a war among drug traffickers, the army and police that has left thousands dead, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.

The munitions are hidden under trucks and stashed in the trunks of cars, or concealed under the clothing of people who brazenly walk across the international bridges. They are showing up in seizures and in the aftermath of shootouts between the cartels and police in Mexico.

More than 90% of guns seized at the border or after raids and shootings in Mexico have been traced to the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Last year, 2,455 weapons traces requested by Mexico showed that guns had been purchased in the United States, according to the ATF. Texas, Arizona and California accounted for 1,805 of those traced weapons