White House deal with drug firms draws flak
An $80-billion pact with the pharmaceutical industry intended to advance the administration’s healthcare reform goals has instead created confusion and discord.
By Tom HamburgerAugust 14, 2009
Reporting from Washington – An $80-billion deal with the drug industry that the White House thought would add momentum to its campaign for national healthcare reform has instead provoked a political tempest, frustrating and bewildering some of the president’s most important allies.As complaints rolled in, the administration offered varying, sometimes contradictory explanations of the deal.
“I’ve heard a lot of confusion about what was agreed to,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who wrote healthcare legislation that would impose more cost on the industry than that contained in the White House agreement.
North Korea frees South Korean worker after Hyundai official’s visit
The chairwoman of Hyundai Group went to Pyongyang to seek the man’s release after President Clinton’s successful trip gained the freedom of two American TV reporters.
By Ju-min Park and John M. GlionnaAugust 14, 2009
Reporting from Seoul – A 44-year-old South Korean worker held in North Korea since March was released Thursday during a visit to Pyongyang by a prominent South Korean corporate leader, authorities said.The release came a week after former President Clinton traveled to the North Korean capital and secured pardons for two American television reporters who had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering the country.
Chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun of Hyundai Group flew to Pyongyang on Monday to negotiate the release of her employee, a technician at a northern industrial complex jointly run by North and South Korea.
USA
False ‘Death Panel’ Rumor Has Some Familiar Roots
By JIM RUTENBERG and JACKIE CALMES
Published: August 13, 2009
WASHINGTON – The stubborn yet false rumor that President Obama’s health care proposals would create government-sponsored “death panels” to decide which patients were worthy of living seemed to arise from nowhere in recent weeks.
Advanced even this week by Republican stalwarts including the party’s last vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, and Charles E. Grassley, the veteran Iowa senator, the nature of the assertion nonetheless seemed reminiscent of the modern-day viral Internet campaigns that dogged Mr. Obama last year, falsely calling him a Muslim and questioning his nationality.
Road to Recovery
Woman’s Path to Work Ends in Rural, and Job-Rich, North Dakota
By Eli Saslow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 14, 2009
GLENFIELD, N.D. — For the first time in five months, Janet Morgan was on her way to work — a happy occasion diminished only by what now was required to get there. She packed 13 boxes into the bed of her rusted pickup, careful to include what she considered her “survival items.” Family photographs would help her stave off loneliness. A 5,000-piece puzzle would prevent boredom. Instructional Spanish audiotapes would offer simulated conversation.
Morgan, 63, loaded all of it into the truck before dawn one recent Saturday and left her home in Zanesville, Ohio.
Asia
Taliban chiefs agree ceasefire deals for Afghan presidential election
Jon Boone in Kandahar guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 August 2009 20.07 BST
A series of secret ceasefire deals have been agreed with Taliban commanders to ensure that voting can go ahead in Afghanistan’s volatile south during next week’s presidential elections.Under the deals, brokered by Ahmed Wali Karzai – the controversial brother and campaign manager of the president, Hamid Karzai – individual Taliban commanders will agree to pull back on election day and allow the Afghan army and police to secure the polling centres.
A Nato spokesman confirmed that a number of deals between the Afghan government and insurgents were in the pipeline, saying: “We support any initiative that enhances security and enables the people of Afghanistan to vote.”
Burmese villagers ‘forced to work on Total pipeline’
French energy giant accused of profiting as new testimony gives shocking insight into junta’s labour regimeBy Rajeshree Sisodia and Andrew Buncombe, Asia correspondent
Friday, 14 August 2009
The French energy giant Total is at the centre of allegations that Burmese villagers are being used as forced labour to help support a huge gas pipeline that is earning the country’s military regime hundreds of millions of dollars.Testimony from villagers and former soldiers gathered by human rights workers suggests that Burmese soldiers, who provide security for the Yadana pipeline on behalf of Total, are forcing thousands of people to work portering, carrying wood and repairing roads in the pipeline area. They have also been forced to build police stations and barracks.
Africa
Kenyan mothers too poor to pay for treatment locked up in hospital
Campaigners say practice of detaining people for unpaid medical bills is widespread
Xan Rice in Nairobi
As a poor woman from the slums, Monica Wanjiku knew that gaining admission into a maternity hospital would be difficult. Leaving was to prove much harder.Three weeks past her due date, Wanjiku was referred as an emergency case to Nairobi’s Pumwani hospital, the biggest maternity facility in east Africa. She gave birth to Aftab, a healthy boy weighing 3.9kg (8lb 5oz).
But when she was unable to pay the £27 delivery fee the hospital refused to discharge her. Instead, Wanjiku was moved to a special detention ward housing 42 other poor mothers and allocated a bed already shared by two women with babies.
Sudan intelligence chief replaced
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has replaced the country’s influential intelligence chief Salah Gosh, the official Suna news agency reports.
The BBC Friday, 14 August 2009
It gave no reason for the move, but said Mr Salah had now been appointed as Mr Bashir’s adviser.Suna said Gen Mohamed Atta al-Mawla was named as Mr Salah’s successor.
In January, Mr Salah said “outlaws” may start targeting foreigners if the International Criminal Court pursued a case against President Bashir.
Attacks on aid workers have increased in the months since the ICC issued the warrant against Mr Bashir over alleged war crimes in Sudan’s conflict-torn Darfur region, correspondents say.
Mr Salah had been the chief of Sudan’s national security and intelligence since the mid-1990s.
Asia
Did Kremlin political chief really write murky gangster novel?
Vladislav Surkov used pseudonym to tell tale of corruption at heart of powerBy Michael Stott in Moscow
Friday, 14 August 2009
Close to Zero is the tale of a Russian publisher operating in a murky political system featuring paid-off media, corrupt officials, dubious politicians and law enforcement agencies on the take.The short novel was published last month and passed unnoticed until yesterday, when a newspaper reported that its author was none other than the Kremlin’s chief political strategist Vladislav Surkov, writing under a pseudonym.
Mr Surkov, a shadowy figure who rarely speaks in public, wields immense influence.
Arpad Bella, the border guard who helped to bring down Iron Curtain
From The Times
August 14, 2009
Adam LeBor in Sopronpuszta, on the Hungarian-Austrian borderAs Europe celebrates the 20th anniversary of the collapse of communism, politicians are scrambling to claim credit for bringing down the Iron Curtain. But Arpad Bella, a name unknown to most, has one of the strongest claims of all.
Mr Bella was the Hungarian border guard on duty at his remote crossing on August 19, 1989, when hundreds of East German refugees forced their way through it.
The first mass border breakout since the failed Hungarian revolution of 1956 accelerated a chain of events that led to the collapse of the region’s dictatorships, and the Berlin Wall crumbled in the months that followed.
Middle East
Iran plays with French nerves as it delays release of Clotilde Reiss
From The Times
August 14, 2009
Charles Bremner in ParisIran played with French nerves yesterday, delaying the release on bail of a 24-year-old student whose trial on spying charges has cast her in the role of hostage to the Islamic Republic.
The French Ambassador in Tehran failed to extract Clotilde Reiss from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison despite Iran’s announcement on Wednesday that she would be freed pending her verdict.
The French Foreign Ministry asked Tehran to “align its deeds with its words”. It said: “We request that Clotilde Reiss be freed without delay.”
Iran inmates ‘tortured to death’
One of Iran’s defeated opposition presidential candidates has said some protesters held after July’s disputed poll were tortured to death in prison.
The BBC Friday, 14 August 2009
The claim by Mehdi Karroubi comes days after he said a number of prisoners, both male and female, had been raped.Officials deny the rape claims, but admit that abuses have taken place.
The BBC’s Jon Leyne says the opposition is using the issue to keep up political pressure without directly questioning Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s poll victory.
On Thursday, Mr Karroubi alleged that a number of detainees had been tortured to death.
“Some young people are beaten to death just for chanting slogans in [post-election] protests,” his website said.
Latin America
Honduran protestors target Dunkin Donuts, Burger King
Demonstrators calling for the return of deposed President Manuel Zelaya clashed with police Wednesday for the second day in a row. Curfew declared.
By Tyler Bridges | McClatchy Newspapersfrom the August 13, 2009 edition
Tegucigalpa, Honduras – Thousands of protesters calling for the return of deposed President Manuel Zelaya clashed with police Wednesday for the second day in a row, but Honduras’ de facto government showed no willingness to allow Zelaya to return.Youths with bandannas covering their faces threw rocks at police outside Honduras’ congressional building. The police, protecting themselves with riot shields, periodically launched tear gas to disperse them.
It was unclear how many protesters took part in the demonstration. Police placed the number at 3,000; pro-Zelaya supporters said 10,000. There were no reports of deaths or injuries, but police said they’d arrested at least 43 people.
On Tuesday, Honduran authorities declared a curfew in the capital after the protesters, many of whom arrived by foot from outside Tegucigalpa in their largest organizing effort yet, broke windows, looted a Dunkin’ Donuts franchise and set fire to a municipal bus.
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