Docudharma Times Thursday May 14

 I mean, one of the reasons

these techniques have survived for about 500 years

is apparently they work.  

Sen. Lindsey Graham Moron(R-SC)

Obama Urges Rules on Investments Tied to Crisis



By STEPHEN LABATON and JACKIE CALMES

Published: May 13, 2009

WASHINGTON – In its first detailed effort to overhaul financial regulations, the Obama administration on Wednesday sought new authority over the complex financial instruments, known as derivatives, that were a major cause of the financial crisis and have gone largely unregulated for decades.

The administration asked Congress to move quickly on legislation that would allow federal oversight of many kinds of exotic instruments, including credit-default swaps, the insurance contracts that caused the near-collapse of the American International Group.

The Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, said the measure should require swaps and other types of derivatives to be traded on exchanges or clearinghouses and backed by capital reserves, much like the capital cushions that banks must set aside in case a borrower defaults on a loan.

Mumbai terror group exploits refugee crisis

Pakistan comes under fire for failure to shut ‘charity’

By Andrew Buncombe and Omar Waraich in Mardan, Pakistan

Thursday, 14 May 2009

An Islamist charity accused of links to the militant fundamentalists blamed for the Mumbai terror attacks has resurfaced at the centre of the aid effort to help hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing Pakistan’s war on the Taliban.

Six months after Pakistan, under international pressure, outlawed the charity said to be a front for the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), The Independent has discovered that scores of volunteers from the charity are openly working to ferry refugees from the edge of the conflict zone to emergency camps and hospitals. They are also providing food, water and first aid.

Despite a government undertaking that it had cracked down on Jamaat-ud-Dawa – described as the charitable arm of LeT – and pledged that it would not allow it to operate under a different name, volunteers say they are providing crucial services in an area where the government’s resources are stretched.

USA

As Cheney Seizes Spotlight, Many Republicans Wince



By Dan Balz

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, May 14, 2009

As vice president, Richard B. Cheney famously spent much of the past eight years in undisclosed locations and offering private advice to President George W. Bush. But past was not prologue.

Today Cheney is the most visible — and controversial — critic of President Obama’s national security policies and, to the alarm of many people in the Republican Party, the most forceful and uncompromising defender of the Bush administration’s record. His running argument with the new administration has spawned a noisy side debate all its own: By leading the criticism, is Cheney doing more harm than good to the causes he has taken up and to the political well-being of his party?

His defenders believe he has sparked a discussion of vital importance to the safety of the country, and they hold up Obama’s reversal of a decision to release photos of detainee abuse as a sign that Cheney is having an effect.

Unease Grows for Democrats Over Security



By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: May 13, 2009

WASHINGTON – Congressional Democrats are voicing growing unease over the Obama administration’s national security policies, including the seemingly open-ended commitment in Afghanistan and the nettlesome question of what to do with prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

House leaders have yanked from an emergency military spending bill the $80 million that President Obama requested to close the detention center, saying he had not provided a plan for the more than 200 detainees there. The White House has said the center will close by Jan. 22, 2010.

It is virtually certain that the Democratic majorities, with solid Republican support, will approve $96.7 billion in spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for other military operations.

Asia

Pakistan’s displacement camps: A study in contrasts

The government’s large Jalala camp pales in comparison to privately run Hazrat Usman. Analysts warn that could turn huge numbers of Pakistanis against the military crackdown on the Taliban.

By Mark Magnier

May 14, 2009

Reporting from Takht Bhai, Pakistan — At the entrance to the Hazrat Usman camp just south of the Swat Valley, a welcoming committee greets those fleeing violence between the government and militants with a cool glass of water, a meal and a place to sleep with fans and a pharmacy.

Though camp organizers don’t voice any overt sympathy for the Taliban, their view is clear: The entire crisis is a creation of the government and the army.

Two miles up the road sits the much larger government-run Jalala camp. It is hot, mosquito-ridden and busy turning newcomers away. Water, food and medicine are in short supply, tempers flare and many people are forced to sleep in the open — a particular indignity for women in this Islamic society.

Burma’s Suu Kyi faces trial over American intruder

Pro-democracy leader accused of violating house arrest and could be jailed for up to five years

Staff and agencies

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 14 May 2009 07.22 BST

Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been charged with violating terms of her house arrest and could face a prison sentence of up to five years, her lawyers said this morning.

The Nobel peace laureate was taken by armed escort to a prison compound where she will be tried in connection with an American man’s entry into her home last week.

Her lawyer Hla Myo Myint told reporters that Suu Kyi’s trial was scheduled to start next Monday.

The American man has been charged with entering a restricted zone and breaking immigration laws. Her lawyers said Suu Kyi did not invite the man to her compound.

Europe

Day of the lentil burghers: Ghent goes veggie to lose weight and save planet

• Belgian city hopes radical experiment will catch on

• Meat, fish and seafood off the menu every Thursday

Ian Traynor in Ghent

The Guardian, Thursday 14 May 2009

On the bouncy play platform outside Ghent’s 15th century slaughterhouse, the banana was thumping the beefsteak.

The two boys battled in the drizzle yesterday, the one in the fruity yellow costume serving up another veggie victory over his rival in bloody scarlet.

The parent onlookers laughed and munched another soya fritter. Mmm, yummy, said the man with a heart condition. They queued five-deep in the rain to dip their organic, wholegrain bread in the aubergine caviar, to smear their lips with eggless mayo. Another pure fruit vitamin cocktail under the marquee?

“This is pretty special, pretty unique,” said Tobias Leenaert, an anti-meat campaigner. “An entire city proclaiming one day a week a veggie day.”

Le fin for the original French pop idol

Such is the contradiction of Johnny Hallyday, a giant in his native France whose music never travelled. John Lichfield reports on his farewell tour

Thursday, 14 May 2009

Will you still love me, will you still need me, when I’m 66? The answer, in the case of Jean-Philippe Smet, one of the world’s longest-serving rock stars, is a resounding “Oui”.

Despite persistent rumours of his death, M. Smet, also known as Johnny Hallyday, has just started his latest, farewell tour. More than 7,000 fans roared their approval when Johnny started the tour in Saint Etienne, almost half a century after he first appeared as a 16-year-old Elvis Presley wannabe and cosmic threat to the French way of life.

From a distance, nothing much has changed: Johnny has the same outrageously tight trousers; the same suggestive, open-legged stance; the same raucous, voice; the same quiffed mane of blond hair.

Middle East

Pope Benedict XVI calls for Palestinian state on visit to refugee camp

From The Times

May 14, 2009

James Hider in Bethlehem

The Pope gave his most forthright endorsement of a Palestinian state yesterday as his Holy Land pilgrimage took him to a refugee camp in the shadow of Israel’s controversial “separation barrier”.

“The Holy See supports the right of your people to a sovereign Palestinian homeland in the land of your forefathers, secure and at peace with your neighbours, within internationally recognised borders,” Benedict XVI told Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President.

Spike in suicide attacks: Is Al Qaeda in Iraq coming back?

US intelligence officials do not see a reversal in security gains, but Iraqi political maneuvering could affect decisions to keep US troops in trouble spots.

 By Jane Arraf | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

BAGHDAD – US and Iraqi officials facing an increase in high-profile suicide bombs do not believe it signals a reversal of a trend of declining attacks. But they say political maneuvering by an Iraqi leadership preparing for national elections is likely to sway decisions that are key to bolstering security.

In a series of interviews, senior US and Iraqi officials and US intelligence officers say they expect gains made against Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) to continue to limit the group’s ability to destabilize stronger Iraqi security forces and a more confident government.

But the outlook for progress in some of the country’s most volatile cities is less certain. Iraqi security officials in Mosul and Diyala Province have consistently said that they need the assistance of US troops past a June 30 deadline for American forces to leave Iraqi cities. But Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki’s recent statements that he will not ask US forces to stay in those cities, while domestically popular ahead of elections next year, has sent military planners scrambling.

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