Reports on U.S. Detention Policy Will Be Delayed
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The Obama administration is delaying completion of reports examining U.S. detention and interrogation policy, officials said Monday, in a sign of the formidable issues it faces in grappling with how to handle terrorism suspects as it prepares to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.The work of a Justice Department-led task force, which had been scheduled to send a report on detention policy to President Obama on Tuesday, will be extended for six months, according to senior administration officials. A second task force examining interrogation policy will get a two-month extension to complete its work, which had also been due Tuesday.
Han Chinese revenge attackers should be punished, says Beijing official
Uighur assaults in Xinjiang were covered extensively in the press but witnesses report attacks on Uighurs days later
Tania Branigan in Beijing guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 July 2009 08.54 BST
Han Chinese who took part in violent riots in China’s north western region of Xinjiang should be punished, a senior official in Beijing said today.While state media have extensively covered the events of 5 July, when Uighurs launched indiscriminate assaults on Han, they did not report Han revenge attacks on Uighurs two days later.
In all, at least 197 people died in the inter-ethnic conflict – including 137 Han and 46 Uighurs – and 1,700 were injured.
“After the 5 July incident, some people in Urumqi, out of indignation over the crimes committed by rioters or sorrow for the loss of their families, did take to the streets,” acknowledged Wu Shimin, vice minister in charge of the state ethnic affairs commission, when asked about the events of 7 July at a press conference in Beijing.
USA
Calif. governor, lawmakers reach budget deal
Agreement announced on plan to close state’s $26 billion deficit
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California’s legislative leaders agreed Monday on a plan to close the state’s $26 billion budget shortfall, potentially getting the state back on firm financial ground so it can stop issuing IOUs.The governor and leaders from both parties announced the compromise after more than five hours of closed-door talks. If the agreement survives its run through both houses of the Legislature, it would provide temporary relief to an epic fiscal crisis that has captured national attention, sunk the state’s credit rating and forced deep cuts in education and social services.
U.S. Withheld Data on Risks of Distracted Driving
By MATT RICHTEL
Published: July 20, 2009
In 2003, researchers at a federal agency proposed a long-term study of 10,000 drivers to assess the safety risk posed by cellphone use behind the wheel.
They sought the study based on evidence that such multitasking was a serious and growing threat on America’s roadways.But such an ambitious study never happened. And the researchers’ agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, decided not to make public hundreds of pages of research and warnings about the use of phones by drivers – in part, officials say, because of concerns about angering Congress.
Europe
Serbian warlord gets life for crimes against humanity
Milan Lukic guilty of massacring Muslims in Bosnian war during reign of terror under Radovan Karadzic
Ian Traynor, Europe editor guardian.co.uk, Monday 20 July 2009 17.05 BST
One of the most notorious Serbian mass murderers and paramilitary chiefs from the war in Bosnia was sentenced to life in prison today, 17 years after he helped turn the ancient town of Visegrad in eastern Bosnia into a morgue for Muslims.Milan Lukic, whose career has included organised crime, drug rackets, involvement in the protection networks of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and years on the run in Latin America, was found guilty of murder and crimes against humanity by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
He was sentenced to life for six separate incidents of war crimes, entailing murder, extermination, cruelty, persecution and inhumane acts. His cousin and co-defendant, Sredoje Lukic, received 30 years.
‘Defenders of Ataturk’ on trial for plotting to overthrow government
Controversial case begins amid tension between supporters of secular army and backers of Turkish governmentBy Nicholas Birch in Istanbul
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
In a case described as the most important in Turkey’s history, two retired four-star generals went on trial yesterday at a high-security court outside Istanbul, charged with trying to overthrow the government.For some, the arrest of the highest-ranking officers in Turkey’s 63-year history of multi-party democracy is a critical blow against a once-untouchable military that has toppled four elected governments since 1960.
For others, the charges are an invention of the ruling AKP party to weaken the secular army and open the way for the country’s Islamisation.There are 56 defendants in the case, including journalists, university rectors and businessmen. Outside the courtroom in Silivri, hundreds of their supporters waved national flags and portraits of Ataturk, the secularist founder of modern Turkey. “The patriots are in prison,” they chanted.
Asia
Gambling epidemic snares Burma’s poor
People living on just $3 a day spend half of their incomes on illegal wagersBy Phoebe Kennedy in Rangoon
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
As the clock ticks towards noon, the Sky Cafe in Rangoon’s shabby Daubon Township starts to fill up. Young women carrying babies, men from the bicycle repair shop across the road, and old ladies smoking cheroots take their places on the small plastic chairs. By 11.55am, the wooden shack is packed, and a waiter revs up the generator to power the big TV in the corner. In an atmosphere of anticipation, the crowd is waiting for the Bangkok stock exchange price at its lunchtime close.These are not people who have ever owned shares in anything. They are day labourers, hawkers, and low-ranking civil servants with earnings of around $3 (£1.80) a day. Their interest is not in the performance of the stock market, but in the random, final two digits of the share price, on which most bet at least half of their daily wages.
Mumbai gunman Ajmal Amir Kasab changes plea to guilty
From The Times
July 21, 2009
Rhys Blakely in Mumbai
The lone terrorist gunman to survive the Mumbai attacks confessed to his role in the atrocity yesterday, dramatically reversing months of denials – and possibly paving the way for a thaw in relations between India and Pakistan.Azam Amir Kasab, 21, rose to his feet moments before the 135th witness in the case was to begin testifying.
“Sir, I plead guilty,” he said.
The Pakistani national’s confession, four months into his trial, drew gasps from those present in the austere, bomb-proof Mumbai courtroom.
Middle East
Israeli settlers burn olive groves in ‘price tag’ retaliation attack
From The Times
July 21, 2009
Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem
sraeli settlers on horseback set fire to fields of olive trees and stoned Palestinian cars in the West Bank yesterday, apparently in response to the Israeli army’s removal of an illegal outpost in the area.At least 1,500 Palestinian-owned trees were destroyed and two Palestinians were injured in the attack, near the city of Nablus, by about 30 settlers, security officials said. Farmers fought fires late into the afternoon, as fears grew that the flames would spread across the dry summer fields.
It was the most recent example of the “price tag” policy, in which settlers seek revenge by attacking Palestinians for every outpost that is demolished. “The goal is to create a price for each evacuation, causing Israeli authorities to think twice about carrying them out,” the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said.
Khatami urges referendum on poll
The former President of Iran, Mohammad Khatami, has called for a referendum on the legitimacy of the government, following June’s disputed elections.
The BBC
Mr Khatami, quoted on Iranian websites, said millions of Iranians had lost faith in the electoral process.The Iranian opposition, including Mr Khatami and the defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, say the election was rigged.
Only the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, can organise a referendum.
Ayatollah Khamenei has already declared the elections, which the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, won by a landslide, as valid.Thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets after the poll results were announced, to protest against what they saw as mass fraud. At least 20 people are believed to have died in the clashes.
Latin America
A State in Grip of Kidnappers and the Family of Hugo Chávez
By SIMON ROMERO
Published: July 20, 2009
BARINAS, Venezuela – Stretching over vast cattle estates at the foothills of the Andes, Barinas is known for two things: as the bastion of the family of President Hugo Chávez and as the setting for a terrifying surge in abductions, making it a contender for Latin America’s most likely place to get kidnapped.
An intensifying nationwide crime wave over the past decade has pushed the kidnapping rate in Venezuela past Colombia’s and Mexico’s, with about 2 abductions per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the Interior Ministry.But nowhere in Venezuela comes close in abductions to Barinas, with 7.2 kidnappings per 100,000 inhabitants, as armed gangs thrive off the disarray here while Mr. Chávez’s family tightens its grip on the state. Seizures of cattle ranches and crumbling infrastructure also contribute to the sense of low-intensity chaos.