Docudharma Times Thursday August 13

Cheney Uncloaks His Frustration With Bush

‘Statute of Limitations Has Expired’ on Many Secrets, Former Vice President Says

By Barton Gellman

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, August 13, 2009

In his first few months after leaving office, former vice president Richard B. Cheney threw himself into public combat against the “far left” agenda of the new commander in chief. More private reflections, as his memoir takes shape in slashing longhand on legal pads, have opened a second front against Cheney’s White House partner of eight years, George W. Bush.

Cheney’s disappointment with the former president surfaced recently in one of the informal conversations he is holding to discuss the book with authors, diplomats, policy experts and past colleagues. By habit, he listens more than he talks, but Cheney broke form when asked about his regrets.

Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, convicted of Lockerbie bombing, ‘to be released’



From The Times

August 13, 2009

 Charlene Sweeney

Speculation was growing last night that the Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is to be released next week.

Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, 57, who is suffering from prostate cancer, is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 27 years for his part in the attack, which claimed the lives of 270 people more than 20 years ago.

The BBC reported that al-Megrahi is to be freed following talks between UK and Libyan officials earlier this week.

The broadcaster claimed the speed of the transfer was to allow al-Megrahi to be home in time for the beginning of Ramadan, the annual Muslim fast.

USA

Obama Injects Himself Into Health Talks, Despite Risks



By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: August 12, 2009

WASHINGTON – In pursuing his proposed overhaul of the health care system, President Obama has consistently presented himself as aloof from the legislative fray, merely offering broad principles. Prominent among them is the creation of a strong, government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers and press for lower costs.

Behind the scenes, however, Mr. Obama and his advisers have been quite active, sometimes negotiating deals with a degree of cold-eyed political realism potentially at odds with the president’s rhetoric.

Last month, for example, hospital officials were poised to appear at the White House to announce a deal limiting their industry’s share of the costs of the overhaul proposal when a wave of jitters swept through the group.

Deadly contractor incident sours Afghans

Four men with the U.S. firm once known as Blackwater are said to be under investigation in the deaths of two Afghans. A U.S. report found serious fault with private security firms in Afghanistan.

By David Zucchino

August 13, 2009

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan – Mirza Mohammed Dost stood at the foot of his son’s grave, near a headstone that read, “Raheb Dost, martyred by Americans.”

His son was no insurgent, Dost said. He was walking home from prayers on the night of May 5 when he was shot and killed on a busy Kabul street by U.S. security contractors.

“The Americans must answer for my son’s death,” Dost said as a large crowd of young men murmured in approval.

The shooting deaths of Raheb Dost, 24, and another Afghan civilian by four gunmen with the company once known as Blackwater have turned an entire neighborhood against the U.S. presence here.

Europe

Merkel ally makes a boob in low-cut poster

Female candidate deploys revealing images of herself and Chancellor in campaign

By Tony Paterson in Berlin

Thursday, 13 August 2009

With her political dream-team poised to capture 51 per cent of the vote in next month’s elections, Angela Merkel hardly needed to show off her generous cleavage to attract support.

But in Berlin, one member of her family-oriented conservative party is hoping that the German Chancellor’s breasts – juxtaposed with her own – will secure victory in a tight race. Vera Lengsfeld is the Christian Democrat candidate in the eastern Berlin district of Freidrichshain, and yesterday placards distributed in the area were a little racier than typical campaign fare.

French Muslim woman wearing ‘burkini’ banned from Paris swimming pool



From The Times

August 13, 2009



Charles Bremner in Paris

France’s struggle with Islamic dress has moved into the swimming pool after a 35-year-old woman was banned from bathing in her “burkini”, a head-to-toe swimsuit.

The woman, identified only as Carole, was making her third outing in a burkini to the town pool at Emerainville, on the eastern outskirts of Paris, when the chief lifeguard ordered her to leave.

She was said to be breaking hygiene rules, but her ejection has become the latest episode in a battle between fundamentalist Muslims and a state that has banned head-cover from schools and may curb face-covering in public.

Asia

Battle for hearts and votes reaches Taliban heartland

The ballots in Pashtun region could settle next week’s crucial poll. Kim Sengupta reports from Helmand

Thursday, 13 August 2009

It is a small town in Helmand, with nothing much to show for itself except decaying relics of American investment from the days of the Cold War and a landscape of unusual greenery amid the vast arid plains of southern Afghanistan.

But yesterday, Char-e-Anjir was the subject of much attention when it hosted a visit by VIPs from Kabul and the provincial capital, Lashkar Gar, who were accompanied by the international media. A shura, or community meeting, was held for local people and a ceremonial lunch for community elders.

The spotlight was a precursor to the Afghan presidential election.

India’s water use ‘unsustainable’

Parts of India are on track for severe water shortages, according to results from Nasa’s gravity satellites.

By Richard Black

Environment correspondent, BBC News website

The Grace mission discovered that in the country’s north-west – including Delhi – the water table is falling by about 4cm (1.6 inches) per year.

Writing in the journal Nature, they say rainfall has not changed, and water use is too high, mainly for farming.

The finding is published two days after an Indian government report warning of a potential water crisis.

That report noted that access to water was one of the main factors governing the pace of development in the world’s second most populous nation.

Middle East

Iran jail rape claims ‘baseless’

The speaker of Iran’s parliament has dismissed claims by a defeated presidential candidate that opposition protesters were raped in detention.

The BBC  

“Based on parliament’s investigations, detainees have not been raped or sexually abused in Iran’s Kahrizak and Evin prisons,” Ali Larijani said.

“Such claims are totally baseless,” state television quoted him as saying.

Opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi called on Sunday for an inquiry into alleged rapes of male and female detainees.

In a letter to former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, now the head of a powerful adjudicating body, Mr Karroubi said some of the detainees had been seriously injured in the alleged sexual abuse.

Fellow opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said the reports of abuse showed there was “a need for deep change” in Iran, according to his website.

Report: Israeli troops fired on Gazans waving white flags  

Posted on Thursday, August 13, 2009

By Dion Nissenbaum | McClatchy Newspapers

JERUSALEM – Israeli soldiers battling Hamas militants last winter in Gaza opened fire on at least seven groups of Palestinian civilians who were carrying white flags, killing 11 people, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Thursday.

During the three-week conflict, the U.S.-based human rights group says, Israeli soldiers in separate parts of Gaza killed five women, four children and two men as they used white flags to try to escape the battle zone.

The report raises new questions about the actions of Israeli soldiers during the military offensive.

Africa

Invest in Africa, invest in the whole world

Africa will feel the worst effects of rising food prices. But with greater investment in agriculture from governments and donors, the continent could become the bread basket of the world, says Peter Hazell

Katine Chronicles

For more than three decades, a technology driven, agricultural revolution has enabled global food production to outstrip growth in demand. Modern plant breeding, together with greater use of irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides created a situation in which the world price of grains trended downwards to reach historically low levels by the end of the millennium. Moreover, over most of this three-decade period, more than enough food was produced each year to feed everybody in the world had it been distributed more equitably.

In reality there are about 1 billion people who live in abject poverty (on less than $1 a day), and who do not get enough to eat. About 75% of the poor live in rural areas where they depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihoods.

Gem expert Campbell Bridges killed by Kenyan mob after mining row

From The Times

August 13, 2009

Tristan McConnell in Nairobi

A renowned Scottish gem expert has been murdered in Kenya by a mob wielding knives, clubs, spears and bows and arrows.

As many as 30 men set upon Campbell Bridges, 71, his son Bruce and four Kenyan employees near the town of Voi, southern Kenya, close to Tsavo National Park.

“It was an ambush,” a shaken Bruce Bridges told The Times. “My men were cut to ribbons and I took a panga \ to the neck.”