Gates: Mistake to set Afghan withdrawal date
Defense secretary says a defeat in Afghanistan would be disastrous for U.S.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates is pushing back against liberal calls for withdrawal timelines from Afghanistan, saying it’s a mistake to set a deadline to end U.S. military action and a defeat would be disastrous for the U.S.In a stern warning to critics of a continued troop presence in Afghanistan, Gates said the Islamic extremist Taliban and al-Qaida would perceive an early pullout as a victory over the United States as similar to the Soviet Union’s humiliating withdrawal in 1989 after a 10-year war.
2 Brothers’ Grim Tale Of Loyalty And Limbo
To Leave Guantanamo Means Abandoning Family
By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 28, 2009
Bahtiyar Mahnut, a detainee at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, learned a few weeks ago that the Pacific island nation of Palau had invited him to settle there.
It should have been cause for celebration, especially for a man who desperately wants to be free. But, to the surprise of his attorneys, Bahtiyar has turned down the offer. He wishes to remain a prisoner, they say, so he can look after his older brother, a fellow detainee.
USA
An Afghan in Muncie, Ind.: Enrolling in U.S. Life 101
A translator leaves Kabul to become a college freshman in Indiana. Lesson 1: ‘Everything is regulated here.’
By David Zucchino
September 28, 2009
Reporting from Muncie, Ind. – Khalid Fazly arrived on U.S. soil last month carrying his mother’s homemade cookies, a prayer rug, dried dates and thousands in $100 bills tucked into his trousers.He was pretty certain he was prepared for America.
Except for a car trip to Pakistan, Fazly had never been outside Afghanistan. Now he almost certainly is the only freshman at Indiana’s Ball State University who has been threatened with death by the Taliban, survived insurgent ambushes and braved roadside bombs.
Racism or just plain politics? It depends on who’s listening
By Rick Montgomery and Dave Helling | Kansas City Star
Does our first black president lie? Is his accuser a racist?Or neither? Or both?
Americans have been working their way through that explosive equation.
Among those listening most carefully are African-Americans.
Some heard echoes of the Jim Crow South when a white congressman from South Carolina shouted “You lie!” while Barack Obama delivered a health care speech.
Others heard nothing of the sort. The sounds we all hear depend on our politics, our histories, our lives.
Middle East
Iran test-fires long-range missiles
Show of defiance follows tests of short and medium-range weapons days before key talks on nuclear programme
Julian Borger in New York and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 08.41 BST
Iran today test-fired missiles capable of hitting targets across the Middle East, state television reported.The move was a show of defiance before pivotal talks on the country’s nuclear programme on Thursday.
The test of the Shahab-3 missiles – which followed trials of short-range missiles yesterday and medium-range missiles overnight – is likely to raise tensions across the region.
Tehran claims the missile, based on a North Korean design, has a range of 1,500 miles, enough to reach Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Israeli vigilantes target young Arab-Jewish couples
From The Times
September 28, 2009
Sheera Frenkel in Pisgat Ze’ev
It’s past 10pm, but work has just begun for the group of vigilantes in a small white hatchback patrolling the streets of Pisgat Ze’ev – a Jewish settlement on the outskirts of east Jerusalem.As the car crawls through the nearly empty streets, the men peer out at couples. They say they are experts at spotting those that don’t “match”.
“Stop, right there. Stop the car. Is he an Arab? That dark guy . . . If they are both Jewish, keep the car moving!” yells out ‘David’, a 31-year-old Jewish settler who does not use his real name.
For more than a decade, David has considered it his unofficial job to patrol the streets looking for mixed Arab-Jewish couples. “We are protecting the Jewish people, our traditions, our heritage. Some people just get mixed up. We talk to them, explain why it’s important for Jews to be with Jews,” he said.
Asia
Philippines storm death toll rises
At least 100 people have been killed and scores are missing after tropical storm brings worst flooding for four decades
Matthew Weaver and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 09.22 BST
At least 100 people have been killed and 32 more are missing after a tropical storm caused the worst flooding to hit the Philippines for 40 years.The Philippine defence secretary, Gilbert Teodoro, said army troops, police and civilian volunteers, backed by US troops, were continuing search and rescue efforts.
He said welfare agencies had begun to provide food, medicine and other help to more than 115,000 people in government-run emergency shelters.
It is feared the death toll could increase significantly as rescue workers come to terms with the scale of the disaster, which happened when tropical storm Ketsana tore through the northern Philppines on Saturday. Teodoro estimated that 435,000 people had been displaced by the storm.
Rivals of the East: Battle for batik
The long-term ‘friendly enemies’, neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia, clash yet again – this time over the right to claim ownership of the elegantly printed silk and cotton textilesBy Kathy Marks
Monday, 28 September 2009
First they “stole” an Indonesian folk song. Then a sacred temple dance. Now Malaysians are being accused of appropriating batik, the traditional dyeing technique, sparking violent demonstrations in Indonesia and top-level meetings to defuse growing tensions between the two neighbours.Batik was recently recognised by the UN’s cultural body, Unesco, as part of Indonesia’s distinctive heritage. The country’s President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is frequently seen in elegant silk batik shirts, has urged all his compatriots to wear batik this Friday, in celebration. But Malaysia still claims the technique as its own.
Europe
Merkel must pull politics back from the prosaic – it’s time to take risks
From The Times
September 28, 2009
Roger Boyes: Profile
Angela Merkel, Chancellor on Sunday, will be Chancellor on Monday. That, more than anything, was the result that the Germans wanted. The most interesting question, however, has still to be settled: will she now, after four years of ducking and weaving, emerge as a strong leader in Europe and at home? Or will her authority start to flake away?“I am not spontaneously courageous,” she told one of her biographers in a rare moment of self-exposure. “I’m too rational.”
Sure enough, her first term in office has been spent undercover. She was initially a radiant presence in world politics – but largely because her counterparts, the Blairs and the Bushes, were rapidly becoming lame ducks or succumbing to fatigue.
Africa
Zimbabwe drops activist charges
Terrorism charges against a prominent Zimbabwean rights activist have been thrown out after a court ruled she had been tortured while in custody.
The BBC Monday, 28 September 2009
The Supreme Court granted Jestina Mukoko a permanent stay of prosecution after she told how security agents took her from her home and beat her.
She was accused of plotting to topple President Robert Mugabe.
Critics say the charges were fabricated in an attempt to silence opponents of Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party.
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku agreed with Ms Mukoko’s lawyers that security agents had not upheld her rights.
“The state, through its agents, violated the applicant’s constitutional rights… entitling the applicant a permanent stay of criminal prosecution,” Mr Chidyausiku said.
Latin America
Honduras suspends civil liberties amid calls for ‘rebellion’
Interim leaders empower police to break up ‘unauthorised’ meetings as ousted president Manuel Zelaya urges supporters to march
Associated Press in Tegucigalpa
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 10.27 BST
Honduras’s interim leaders suspended key civil liberties last night in response to “calls for insurrection” by ousted president Manuel Zelaya, empowering police and soldiers to break up “unauthorised” public meetings, arrest people without warrants and restrict the news media.The announcement came just hours after Zelaya called on supporters to stage mass marches today to mark the three-month anniversary of the 28 June coup that ousted him. Zelaya described the marches as “the final offensive” against the interim government.