Docudharma Times Saturday August 8

U.S. and Britain Again Target Afghan Poppies

Farmers Would Be Paid Not to Grow Crop

By Karen DeYoung

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, August 8, 2009

The U.S. and British governments plan to spend millions of dollars over the next two months to try to persuade Afghan farmers not to plant opium poppy, by far the country’s most profitable cash crop and a major source of Taliban funding and official corruption.

By selling wheat seeds and fruit saplings to farmers at token prices, offering cheap credit, and paying poppy-farm laborers to work on roads and irrigation ditches, U.S. and British officials hope to provide alternatives before the planting season begins in early October. Many poppy farmers survive Afghanistan’s harsh winters on loans advanced by drug traffickers and their associates, repaid with the spring harvest.

Interest in organic food on the rise in China

A small group of Chinese farmers is devoted to growing natural foods. But gaining consumers’ trust is an obstacle.

By Joshua Frank

August 8, 2009

Reporting from Beijing — Unlike most farms in China, no heaps of blackened sewage sludge are piled on the fields at the Green Cow farm. No workers spray pesticides from pumps strapped to their backs. No animals are in quarantine.

An oasis in a Beijing suburb, the organic farm’s modest 6 acres boast pepper and tomato plants, fields of corn and wheat, and sunflower patches that pop up in between. Two rotund cows chomp on grasses; under a grove of fruit trees, three young pigs slurp water.

Restaurateur and environmentalist Lejen Chen started Green Cow with her husband in 2004, fearful of the pesticides, chemical fertilizers and sewage sludge used in the cultivation of most domestic produce.

In China, the organic food movement is growing steadily, led by Chen and a small, dedicated group of like-minded farmers. It’s a battle in a country of recurring food scares, loosely enforced regulations and skepticism about paying more for produce that looks the same as regular market fare. But interest in natural food is on the rise.

USA

Health Debate Turns Hostile at Town Hall Meetings



By IAN URBINA

Published: August 7, 2009

The bitter divisions over an overhaul of the health care system have exploded at town-hall-style meetings over the last few days as members of Congress have been shouted down, hanged in effigy and taunted by crowds. In several cities, noisy demonstrations have led to fistfights, arrests and hospitalizations.

Democrats have said the protesters are being organized by conservative lobbying groups like FreedomWorks. Republicans respond that the protests are an organic response to the Obama administration’s health care restructuring proposals.

Democrats struggle to sell an undecided health plan

As lawmakers use their summer vacation to lobby in the face of vocal criticism, much has yet to be sorted out — but the party appears to be moving toward consensus on the priorities for change.

By Janet Hook

August 8, 2009

Reporting from Washington — As Congress adjourns for a summer recess, Democrats are in the uncomfortable position of trying to defend a plan for vast change in the nation’s healthcare system that has not yet been written. Critics have ramped up their protests, and disruptions of lawmakers’ town hall meetings have dominated news coverage.

And yet, the Democrats also find themselves in a surprising place: When they return after Labor Day, they will be well-positioned to pass a bill that would touch the lives of almost everyone in America.

Many questions remain, including how to pay for insuring the 47 million in the U.S. who now do not have coverage, and how to corral health cost inflation. Legislation from three House committees will have to be blended; and the House bill will have to be reconciled with still-evolving legislation in the Senate. An effort in the important Senate Finance Committee to craft a bill with the support of several moderate Republicans is likely to continue until Sept. 15, a deadline imposed by Democratic leaders.

Europe

The Beslan siege five years on

They were too young or too traumatised to recount their experiences at the time, but now survivors of the terrorist attack on School Number One talk exclusively to Viv Groskop about the three days that horrified the world, and their lives since

Viv Groskop

The Guardian, Saturday 8 August 2009

At first Fatima appears like any other teenager, hugging herself self-consciously in a T-shirt and leggings, gold hooped earrings and a paisley headband. She has peeling silver nail varnish and sparkly butterfly nail transfers. When she’s indoors, she tells me sternly, she likes to wear two pairs of socks. As the photographer arrives to take her picture, she says, “Shall I put my evening dress on?”

Fatima means this as a joke. Because she can’t dress herself. And although she may almost look like any other 15-year-old, she is different. The left side of her body is partially paralysed. At times she rocks and mumbles to herself, and often obsessively claps and touches her eyes, nose and knees. She struggles to eat without dribbling and can barely walk unaided.

Russia blamed for cyber terror blitz

Attack on Twitter and Facebook designed to silence Georgian blogger

By Jerome Taylor

Saturday, 8 August 2009

Russian hackers have been accused of being behind an enormous cyber attack which temporarily shut down two of the world’s most popular social networking sites in order to silence a Georgian blogger who is critical of Moscow’s policies in the Caucasus.

Twitter went offline for several hours on Thursday whilst Facebook and Livejournal suffered major slowdowns following a large distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack which flooded their networks. The attacks are believed to have been aimed at a 34-year-old Georgian economics lecturer who has written blogs critical of Russia’s military presence in the area.

Hackers use DDOS attacks to flood a website’s servers with communication requests from a network of thousands of compromised computers, forcing the website to temporarily shut down.

Asia

Indonesian police storm suspected militant hide-out

By Irwan Firdaus, Associated Press

Saturday, 8 August 2009

Southeast Asia’s most wanted terror suspect was reportedly killed during a 16-hour siege on a suspected militant hide-out that ended this morning when police stormed the house.

Local TV stations reported militant chief Noordin Mohammad Top, who is blamed for last month’s attacks on two American hotels in the capital Jakarta, was killed in the bathroom of the house in a rice-growing village in central Java province following a lengthy bomb and gun battle.Those reports were not confirmed by police. DNA tests will likely have to be performed to ensure the identification.

New Tamil Tiger leader Selvarasa Pathmanathan captured before elections

From The Times

August 8, 2009

Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent

The new leader of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels has been captured in South-East Asia and flown back to Sri Lanka for interrogation, according to both the Sri Lankan military and the rebels.

The arrest of Selvarasa Pathmanathan – formerly the Tigers’ chief arms buyer, and a notorious arms dealer who has long been sought by Interpol – is another boost for Sri Lanka’s Government as it prepares to stage the first local elections today for 11 years in the war-torn north.

Mr Pathmanathan, widely known as K. P., assumed control of the Tigers after Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed in May.

Middle East

Sex and the Saudi: one man riles a nation

Airline worker arrested after boasting about his exploits on television

By Donna Abu-Nasr in Riyadh  

Saturday, 8 August 2009

In this ultra-conservative kingdom, where husbands and wives rarely even kiss in public, many Saudis have been scandalised by a compatriot who spoke frankly about sex on satellite TV, showing off erotic toys and fantasising about joining the mile-high club.

More than 200 people have filed legal complaints against Mazen Abdul-Jawad, dubbed a “sex braggart” by the media, and Saudis say he should be severely punished. “His punishment should be as harsh as his sin,” said Mohsen al-Awajy. “He has outraged everybody.”

Mr Abdul-Jawad was detained a week ago for questioning. But his lawyer said the interview, which aired on the Lebanese-based LBC satellite TV station, was manipulated. He also said his client was not aware in many instances that he was being recorded. The LBC chief, Pierre Daher, refused to comment on the allegations.

More Iran protesters go on trial

Iran has put more opposition activists and protesters on trial after disputed elections, Iranian media report.

The BBC Saturday, 8 August 2009

Those appearing in a Tehran court include French language teacher Clotilde Reiss, 23, who was detained a month ago.

This is the second group of people brought before Iranian courts following violent protests in the wake of June’s presidential elections.

Last week more than 100 people appeared on charges including conspiracy.

The detainees include several leading reformers.

“The trial session of the second group of those accused of being involved in post-election unrest started this morning,” the semi-official Fars news agency said.

Africa

Clinton Hails Zuma’s Policies on HIV/AIDS

New South African Government Eschews Skeptical, Unscientific Approach of Past

By Mary Beth Sheridan

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, August 8, 2009

PRETORIA, South Africa, Aug. 7 — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday welcomed the new South African government’s approach to fighting HIV/AIDS after years in which officials questioned the link between the two and suggested such “cures” as eating beets and garlic.”We have the challenge everyone is aware of. We have to make up for some lost time, but we are looking forward,” Clinton said at a U.S.-funded clinic where patients receive antiretroviral drugs.

The Two Faces of Ghana



By LABAN CARRICK HILL

Published: August 9, 2009

AT midday, the heat was so palpable that it had its own color, a pulsing, iridescent yellow. I paused at a tiny market stall and bought a peeled and sliced half pineapple – sweet and juicy, not like the tart pineapples in the markets at home in Vermont. Then I stopped a young woman carrying a tray of hard-boiled eggs on her head. She took the tray down, knelt and, with a plastic bag over her hand, peeled and salted the egg for me. To complete my meal, I bought a tiny sachet of filtered water from a small boy carrying a bucket of them on his head.

I was in the Kotokuruba Market in Cape Coast, a city of about 82,000 people in the West African nation of Ghana, on a Wednesday morning last summer.

Latin America

Brazil oil giant, Petrobras, in corruption spotlight

A congressional inquiry could taint not only the state-owned company but Brazil’s president and the woman he hopes will succeed him.

By Andrew Downie | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s congressional inquiry into corruption inside the state-controlled oil company promises sleepless nights for those involved, any number of scandals, and months of political theater that threaten to taint Petrobras, the government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and the woman he hopes will replace him as president.

The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, known by its Portuguese-language acronym CPI, kicked off Thursday and comes at an annoying time for Petrobras, one of Brazil’s biggest and best-known companies. In 2007 and 2008 it discovered huge new fields that contain estimated reserves of between 8 and 12 billion barrels of oil. The finds were the biggest in the world for almost a decade.

The oil is stuck below more than 5,000 meters of water, rock, and salt. It is expensive and logistically problematic to extract, but the sheer volume of the fields – and their presence in a country that is stable and has not nationalized petroleum and gas firms – has turned Petrobras into the oil world’s new darling.

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