Docudharma Times friday October 3

Debates Have Questions And Usually Have Answers

Except One Person On That Stage In

St Louis Some How Failed To Notice

Palin and Biden Are Cordial but Pointed  

 

 By PATRICK HEALY

Published: October 2, 2008  

Gov. Sarah Palin used a steady grin, folksy manner and carefully scripted talking points to punch politely and persist politically at the vice-presidential debate on Thursday night, turning in a performance that her rival, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., sought to undermine with cordially delivered but pointed criticism.

If the issues and positions were familiar to many viewers – on taxes and the economy, energy and oil, same-sex marriage, Iraq and Afghanistan – it was Ms. Palin’s debut in a nationally televised debate that made for unusual theater.

March marks 1968 Mexico killings

 The massacre of students in the capital by troops just before the Olympics has yet to be properly investigated.

By Tracy Wilkinson and Deborah Bonello, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

October 3, 2008  

MEXICO CITY — Thousands of Mexicans marched across their nation’s capital Thursday to demand justice for victims of a 1968 massacre of students by government troops — contemporary Mexico’s most traumatic atrocity and one that remains unresolved.

Survivors of that bloody night 40 years ago and Mexicans who had not been born then joined forces, chanting “Dos de octubre! No se olvide!” (Oct. 2! Don’t forget!) as they converged on the downtown Zocalo plaza.

USA

Support Rallied as House Readies for Its Second Bailout Vote

 

By Lori Montgomery and Dan Eggen

Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, October 3, 2008; Page A01  

A tide of lobbyists representing corporate executives, small-business owners, farmers and retirees swamped Capitol Hill yesterday in hopes of pushing an emergency economic rescue plan through Congress, but the fate of the measure remained uncertain as the House prepared for a climactic vote at midday today.

Leaders of both parties said they were optimistic that they would be able to marshal more support for the Bush administration’s $700 billion bailout than they mustered on Monday, when the House delivered a shocking defeat to the measure and sent the Dow Jones industrial average plummeting 778 points, or about 7 percent.

Alaska judge refuses to halt troopergate probe

?

By Sean Cockerham | Anchorage Daily News  

An Anchorage judge today refused to halt the Legislature’s investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin and denied the state attorney general’s attempt to throw out legislative subpoenas.

Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski heard arguments from both sides Thursday morning and ruled just before 5 p.m. Alaska time.

“I think it’s great. It’s a big day for the state of Alaska,” said Peter Maassen, the lawyer representing the Legislative Council, which ordered the investigation.

Maassen said he expected the other side to attempt a last-minute appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Europe

Greece’s deposit guarantee deepens EU financial rift

• Move presents challenge to leaders at summit

• Economists raise fears of 1930s-style depression

David Gow in Brussels

The Guardian,

Friday October 3 2008

Europe’s dispute over how to protect the banking sector from the financial crisis deepened yesterday when Greece joined Ireland in offering to guarantee savings in domestic banks.

George Alogoskoufis, the Greek finance minister, said deposits “in all banks that operate in Greece” would be “absolutely guaranteed”, amid signs that savers were becoming restless.

The move by a second eurozone country presented a big challenge to European leaders meeting at an emergency summit tomorrow in Paris to hammer out a coordinated response to the threat of meltdown among European banks.

Ireland’s move, which passed through parliament after 30 hours of debate, amounts to a €440bn (£313bn) underwriting exercise that has been criticised as anti-competitive

European bank rescue plan in tatters amid savings stampede

 

 From The Times

October 3, 2008  

Patrick Hosking

Plans for a pan-European response to the global financial crisis lay in tatters last night as Greece followed Ireland in unilaterally guaranteeing all bank deposits.

Amid reports that Greek depositors were rushing to withdraw their savings, Greece’s Cabinet agreed to protect all deposits whatever their size. Previously the maximum guaranteed was €20,000 (£15,600).

A proposal by President Sarkozy of France to create a European €300 billion bailout fund also collapsed, leaving attempts on this side of the Atlantic to calm investor panic and lubricate the money markets in chaos.

America’s rejigged $700billion bank bailout still hangs in the balance, awaiting the approval of Congress today

Middle East

Iran willing to abandon uranium enrichment, envoy suggests

 

Julian Borger, diplomatic editor

The Guardian,

Friday October 3 2008

Iran would consider suspending uranium enrichment if the country were guaranteed a supply of nuclear fuel for its power stations, a senior Iranian diplomat said yesterday.

Western officials responded cautiously to the remarks, pointing out that Iran had already been offered a legally binding fuel supply in a multinational proposal put forward in 2006, and renewed in June.

But the officials said the comments by Ali Asghar Soltanieh marked a break from Tehran’s customary insistence that it would not negotiate its right to enrich uranium.

There have been three UN security council resolutions to impose sanctions for Iran’s refusal to suspend enrichment.

An uncertain future for the Sons of Iraq

Iraq’s Shiite-led government has begun taking control of the anti-insurgent Sunni fighters who have helped improve security across the country.

By Scott Peterson  | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 3, 2008 edition

Baghdad –  Fresh concern is washing over Iraq of a new wave of insurgent violence as the bands of mainly Sunni Muslim Iraqis trained, armed, and paid by the US military to fight Al Qaeda in Iraq are now coming under the control of a skeptical Shiite-led government.

While the group called the Sons of Iraq (SOI) has been critically important in improving security, the US military and many leaders within the SOI worry that their foot soldiers – many of them ex-insurgents – will simply return to their old ways if they are not paid or brought into Iraq’s official security forces.

“If the government doesn’t accept them, most will join [insurgent] groups, and they will restart their activities stronger than before,” says Khalid Jamal, an SOI leader in Baghdad. “That will make Iraq return to zero.”

Keeping the insurgency and sectarian killing at bay is crucial in Iraq’s fragile security, where the SOI (known also as the Awakening, or Sahwa in Arabic) are but one reason for the sharp fall in violence. Official figures point to 440 Iraqis killed in September, down from peaks of more than 3,000 a month in 2006.  

Africa  

The challenge of raising teens in AIDS-ravaged South Africa  

Thabang Thimbela’s foster parents struggle to guide him and his foster sister Bulelwa through the temptations of adolescence.

By Scott Baldauf  | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 3, 2008 edition

Tshipesong, South Africa –  On the way home from school, Thabang Thimbela stops off to visit his girlfriend, a few blocks from the tin shack where he and his foster parents and seven foster brothers and sisters live.

The teenager has never told his foster parents, Olga Thimbela and Pontsho Monamodi, about Lebo, but they know about her all the same.

They know she has a baby girl by another father. They know that Thabang’s friends are urging him to have sex with her. And they worry that Thabang may some day suffer the same fate as his mother, who died of AIDS in June 2006.

S. Africa supports Mbeki role in Zimbabwe talks >

 

 Fri 3 Oct 2008

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE (Reuters)

South Africa’s new government called on former President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday to continue as the region’s mediator in Zimbabwe’s political crisis despite his ousting as president.

But a senior official with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party said Mbeki’s involvement was not needed now to break an impasse threatening to derail a power-sharing deal and the recovery of the African nation’s shattered economy.

Mbeki, a trouble-shooter in a series of African crises during nine years as president, brokered the September 15 deal between Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai that is to establish a unity government.

Asia  

Fighting Taliban, Pakistan finds itself at war





By Jane Perlez and Pir Zubair Shah

Published: October 3, 2008

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: War has come to Pakistan, not just as terrorist bombings, but as full-scale battles, leaving Pakistanis angry and dismayed as the dead, wounded and displaced turn up right on their doorstep.

An estimated 250,000 people have now fled the helicopters, jets, artillery and mortar fire of the Pakistani Army, and the assaults, intimidation and rough justice of the Taliban who have dug into Pakistan’s tribal areas.

About 20,000 people are so desperate they have flooded over the border from the Bajaur tribal area to seek safety in Afghanistan.

Many others are crowding around this northwest Pakistani city, where staff members from the United Nations refugee agency are present at nearly a dozen camps.

India treats smoking ban the same way it treated ban on public spitting

 

From The Times

October 3, 2008  

Rhys Blakely in Bombay

The world’s biggest smoking ban came into force in India yesterday – but try telling that to Om Prakash, an affable motorcycle policeman patrolling south Bombay in the midday sun.

His ears muffled by his enormous crash helmet, Constable Prakash misheard The Times query: whether he had yet fined any itinerant smokers caught lighting up in a public place.

Instead, he thought that the request was for directions to a suitable spot to enjoy a cigarette. “Yes sir, over there at bus stop. Sit down. Most comfortable,” he said, flashing a smile. “But surely smoking in public is now illegal? And isn’t smoking at bus stands explicitly prohibited?” The Times asked.

“Which country?” Constable Prakash asked, cheerfully oblivious. “UK? Very good.” He gave a thumbs up as he zoomed off into the traffic.

Latin America

Brazil’s worst logger: the government?

A new governmental report lists Brazil’s land reform agency as the biggest culprit for illegal logging of Amazon rain forests.

By Andrew Downie  | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 3, 2008 edition

São Paulo, Brazil –  Brazil’s environment minister announced yet another series of measures to halt deforestation of the Amazon this week, but their impact was weakened not only by the fact that destruction had increased sharply once again but that the government itself was among the worst culprits.

A federal agency charged with implementing agrarian reform and giving land to the poor filled the top six spots on a list of the nation’s 100 worst deforesters since 2005, according to the list, published by the environment ministry on Monday. The top 100 deforesters cut down the equivalent of 160,000 soccer fields, said Environment Minister Carlos Minc.

“The numbers are terrible,” he admitted to reporters. The statistics were a surprise and an embarrassment to Mr. Minc, who took office in May after his predecessor resigned, complaining that her hands were tied by a government more interested in economic growth than environmental protection.