Docudharma Times Monday October 12

U.S. Can’t Trace Foreign Visitors on Expired Visas



By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. and JULIA PRESTON

Published: October 11, 2009

DALLAS – Eight years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and despite repeated mandates from Congress, the United States still has no reliable system for verifying that foreign visitors have left the country.New concern was focused on that security loophole last week, when Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year-old Jordanian who had overstayed his tourist visa, was accused in court of plotting to blow up a Dallas skyscraper.

Last year alone, 2.9 million foreign visitors on temporary visas like Mr. Smadi’s checked in to the country but never officially checked out, immigration officials said.

Blood, rage & history: The world’s first terrorists

We think of jihadism as a modern creation, but a major new TV film reveals how the 19th-century anarchist movement was equally nihilistic – and equally deadly.

By Johann Hari

Monday, 12 October 2009

Imagine it. A network of violent radicals is picking off the world’s leaders one by one. They have killed the American President, the Russian head of state, the French President, the Austrian head of state, and the Spanish Prime Minister.

Bomb attacks are ripping through the world’s richest cities: explosions devastate Wall Street, the London Underground, a theatre in Barcelona, cafés in Paris, parades in Moscow. The police profile of a typical bomber warns: “He walks to his death with courage and no regrets.” There is panic, and governments launch programmes of torture and deportation targeted at immigrant communities. Yet still the radicals wash defiantly across the world, killing as they go. They say they have “only one aim, one science: destruction”.

USA

New Bill Would Raise Rates, Says Insurance Group

Report Issued Before Key Committee Vote

By Ceci Connolly

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, October 12, 2009

After months of collaboration on President Obama’s attempt to overhaul the nation’s health-care system, the insurance industry plans to strike out against the effort on Monday with a report warning that the typical family premium in 2019 could cost $4,000 more than projected.

The critique, coming one day before a critical Senate committee vote on the legislation, sparked a sharp response from the Obama administration. It also signaled an end to the fragile detente between two central players in this year’s health-care reform drama.

Industry officials said they intend to circulate the report prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers on Capitol Hill and promote it in new advertisements. That could complicate Democratic hopes for action on the legislation this week.

Federal scientists oppose offshore drilling plans

Citing danger to marine life, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration opposes opening large tracts of coast to drilling and recommends buffer zones off Santa Barbara.

By Jim Tankersley and Josh Meyer

October 12, 2009

Reporting from Washington – The federal government’s top ocean scientists are urging the Interior Department to drastically reduce plans to open the coast to offshore oil and gas drilling, citing threats to marine life and potentially devastating effects of oil spills in Arctic waters.

The recommendations by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are informal and not binding. But if adopted, they would restrict development in some of the nation’s most resource-rich untapped offshore areas and mark a significant departure from the pro-drilling policies of the George W. Bush administration. They also give added — and official — weight to environmentalists’ concerns.

Asia

Taking On Skyscrapers to Protect View of an ‘Old Friend’

TOKYO JOURNAL

By MARTIN FACKLER

Published: October 11, 2009

TOKYO – Growing up in prewar Tokyo, Makoto Kaneko recalls that the perfectly shaped, snow-capped cone of Mount Fuji was like a constant companion, visible on the horizon from the narrow streets of his hilly working-class neighborhood. The most majestic view was from a steep hillside affectionately named Fujimizaka, “the slope for seeing Mount Fuji.”

Today, Mr. Kaneko’s cramped 80-year-old shop selling foods cooked in soy sauce is one of several old wooden stores and Buddhist temples that still stand here, making the Nippori neighborhood a rare oasis of medieval charm in Tokyo’s concrete sprawl. But the distant volcano, Japan’s tallest peak and pre-eminent national symbol, has been increasingly blocked by skyscrapers and smog.

Top UN official in Afghanistan admits fraud tainted election

Head of mission Kai Eide says fraudulent votes were cast but denies claims by former deputy of attempted cover-up

Jon Boone in Kabul

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 11 October 2009

The most senior United Nations official in Afghanistan today acknowledged that “widespread fraud” had marred Afghanistan’s presidential election, but denied allegations from his sacked second-in-command that he had attempted to cover up evidence of cheating.

With days to go until the final result of the August election, Kai Eide, the head of the UN mission in Kabul, admitted there had been “significant fraud”. He said that the claims made by Peter Galbraith, the American diplomat sacked earlier this month, had “affected the entire election process”.

The report of a fraud investigation is due in the coming days, which will decide the final outcome of the voting that took place more than seven weeks ago.

Europe

The Big Question: Is the bitter divide between Turkey and Armenia coming to an end?

By Marcus Tanner

Monday, 12 October 2009

Why are we asking this now?

Because Turkey and Armenia finally signed an agreement on Saturday to restore diplomatic ties, which Turkey broke off in 1993, and reopen the border, which Turkey closed that same year. The accord will hopefully bury the hatchet – or at least part of the hatchet – between two bitterly estranged neighbours.

Estranged by what?

Accusations of genocide, principally. Armenia says Ottoman-era Turks carried out a mass slaughter of Armenians in the First World War in what is now eastern Turkey. They insist the authorities planned and organised the slaughter, that at least 1.5 million perished and that this constitutes genocide.

Czech Cabinet in emergency session to force President Klaus to sign Lisbon treaty

From The Times

October 12, 2009

David Charter in Brussels  

The Czech Cabinet meets in emergency session today to consider how to persuade their stubborn President to sign the Lisbon treaty – under intense pressure from Paris and Berlin to complete the ratification as soon as possible.

With President Klaus demanding a last-minute amendment as the price of his signature – the final approval required in the 27-nation European Union – the Government is locked in a trial of strength with its head of state and on the brink of a constitutional crisis. If it supports his demands the treaty might have to be reopened amid lengthy delays, possibly allowing time for David Cameron’s Conservatives to win the next British election and hold a referendum on the treaty as they have promised.

Middle East

Iran dismisses Clinton warning on nuclear drive

(AFP)

 

TEHRAN – Iran dismissed on Monday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s warning over Tehran’s nuclear programme, saying such “threats” have no impact on the Islamic republic.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said Iran would not listen to any deadlines and added that it was committed to following international laws when it comes to its nuclear programme.

“Our commitments under the international regulations are based on legalities. Remarks that bear threats, deadlines and timetables do not have any impact on us,” Ghashghavi said at his weekly press conference, responding to Clinton’s comments.

Clinton warned Iran on Sunday that world powers were running out of patience.

Africa

Apartheid leader Eugene Terre’Blanche returns to politics

Eugene Terre’Blanche, the once-feared white supremacist leader of apartheid South Africa, has returned to politics, pledging to revitalise the Nazi-style Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB).

Published: 7:00AM BST 12 Oct 2009

Speaking to a group of about 300 supporters in a small town outside Johannesburg, he used rousing sentiments from the past to call white farmers and their families to action.

“Now is not the time to be afraid,” he shouted, to murmurs of approval from the audience.

“Now all true Afrikaners must reach out to each other and fight to the bitter end.

“Our country is being run by criminals who murder and rob. This land was the best, and they ruined it all.

“We are being oppressed again. We will rise again.”

Terre’Blanche, 68, said he aims to bring together 23 far-right groups under the banner of the AWB and told the Times he would take the fight for a “free Afrikaner” to the Hague, demanding the right to a separate republic.

Latin America

Brazilian newspapers celebrate a rise in circulation

Print media booms in South America’s biggest economy

Andrew Clark

The Guardian, Monday 12 October 2009

The historic Olympic Games win for Rio de Janeiro, which prompted thousands of revellers to turn Copacabana beach into a giant party, is not the only reason why Brazilian journalists are celebrating.

In contrast to consumers in Europe and the US, the people of Brazil are reading newspapers in bigger numbers than ever. In fact, print media is noisily booming in South America’s biggest economy. The total circulation of Brazilian newspapers rose 12% in 2007, according to the Instituto Verificador de Circulacao, the country’s equivalent of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, compared to a worldwide average rise of 2.7%. And last year, despite the woes of the credit crunch, sales of Brazilian papers rose a further 5% to 4.35m newspapers per day.

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