McChrystal Flown to Denmark To Discuss War With Obama
By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 3, 2009
A brief meeting between President Obama and his top general in Afghanistan on Friday offered the commander in chief an opportunity to question directly the dire assessment of the war effort there, officials said.The previously unannounced meeting between Obama and Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal took place aboard Air Force One after it landed in Copenhagen Friday morning. McChrystal, who had been in London for a speech, was whisked to Denmark at Obama’s request, White House aides said.
French general planned 18th-century invasion of Britain using American force
From The Times
October 3, 2009
Valentine Low
From Julius Caesar to Adolf Hitler, the invasion of Britain has been a constant theme in the history of these islands, even if the successful attempts have been heavily outnumbered by the unsuccessful ones.Until now, however, one plan has remained unknown: an 18th-century plot to invade with an American army during that country’s War of Independence.
Drawn up by a French general, the scheme was to bring over an American force of 10,000 that would find a Britain so distracted by the war on the other side of the Atlantic, that victory would seem certain. Just to make sure, however, the general suggested that the force include a corps of Native Americans, or “sauvages”, as he termed them, who would strike such fear in British troops that any resistance would collapse immediately.
USA
Senate finance panel nearly done with its healthcare bill
Attention will now focus on Democratic leaders in the Senate and the White House to referee the differences between Baucus’ middle-of-the-road bill and a more liberal one.
By Janet Hook
October 3, 2009
Reporting from Washington – The healthcare debate in Congress will enter a more intensive phase now that the Senate Finance Committee has nearly completed its far-reaching overhaul legislation. The question still dividing Democrats is whether the bill is far-reaching enough.The finance panel finished considering amendments in the early morning hours Friday, after approving ones to shore up the Democrats’ position on a politically explosive issue: making sure that the bill does not saddle middle-class families with insurance costs they cannot afford.
Dreams still ablaze at stuntman school
Some taking a risk on a new career at a time when jobs are scarce
Associated Press
SEATTLE – In this job market, people will do some crazy things.Say, for instance, flailing around with their clothes on fire, plunging 50 feet into an enormous air bag, or being catapulted through the air headfirst like a human missile.
At the International Stunt School, those daring feats are just part of the beginner’s course. But some of the students have added another risk: During the worst recession in decades, they’ve plunked down thousands of dollars to start a new career in Hollywood.
Asia
Swat Valley civilians turn to arms as uneasy peace takes hold
Militias aim to keep Taliban at bay, but critics fear a bout of score settling
Declan Walsh in Matta, Swat valley
Dr Naeem Khan was taking no chances. Walking through streets once filled with Taliban gunmen, the amiable country doctor looked ready for battle – an AK-47 in his hand, ammunition across his chest, and a chunky dagger tucked into his pocket.He patted his weapon fondly. “This has become part of our everyday life now, like lunch and dinner,” he said as he entered the small hospital where he works.
In his surgery Khan pulled a stethoscope from a drawer and turned to his first patient of the day, a burka-clad mother bearing a sick infant. His gun remained tucked under the desk.
Rescuers fight to save thousands trapped by Indonesia quake
From The Times
October 3, 2009
Annie Barrowclough and Tomasz Johnson
A US Embassy emergency team is standing silently in the ruins of a school, listening to the faint cries beneath their feet. Half an hour before, a representative of the Red Crescent told them that three girls could be heard calling for help from under the Lia School, an English-language institute. Now they are here they can see a dozen soldiers lounging in the shade.“Why aren’t you doing anything?” they ask. The soldiers say that they are waiting for earth-moving machinery as it is too dangerous to move the rubble on their own.
Any operation to rescue them would have to be incredibly delicate. Gerald Heuett, the director of the US Embassy team, explains that attempts to clamber into the cavity in which the girls are trapped by concrete blocks could bring the rest of the building down – “one tug and the whole thing could collapse”.
Middle East
Women prisoners go free in return for a glimpse of hostage
Video shows soldier seized by Gaza militants in 2006 in good health after Israel opens its prisonsBy Donald Macintyre in Gaza City
Saturday, 3 October 2009
The Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who was seized by Gaza militants in June 2006 appears in good health in a video handed over by his captors in exchange for the release of 20 Palestinian women prisoners.The first video proof since his capture that Corporal Shalit is alive, and apparently of sound mind, yesterday showed him holding a copy of the pro-Hamas Arabic language newspaper Falasteen dated 14 September. He also refers to a private family memory from six months before his capture in a cross-border raid which left two of his fellow soldiers dead. The video was released for broadcast by the Shalit family after they watched it at their home in northern Israel as jubilant Palestinian families welcomed back 19 of the women – all but one in the West Bank – after they were freed from Israeli prisons. The 20th woman – and the second from Gaza – will be released tomorrow.
Europe
Nato commander warns of conflict with Russia in Arctic Circle
From The Times
October 3, 2009
Tom Coghlan, Defence Corresponden
Competition for resources in the Arctic Circle could provoke conflict between Russia and Nato, a newly appointed commander at the alliance warned yesterday.Russia has recently been aggressive in its pursuit of claims to parts of the region and in February sent a submarine to the floor of the sea symbolically to plant a Russian flag. Admiral James Stavridis said that military activity and trade routes would also be potential sources of competition around the polar cap.
Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute in London on Nato’s future direction, Admiral Stavridis, Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, predicted that relations with Russia will dominate thinking at the alliance.
Warsaw ghetto uprising head dies
The last surviving leader of the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis, Marek Edelman, has died at the age of 90.
The BBC
The uprising – triggered by the Nazis’ decision to send residents to concentration camps – lasted three weeks before it was crushed.
Mr Edelman, then 23, was one of 200 young Jews who fought German troops.
His friend, Paula Sawicka, told the Associated Press that he died “at home, among friends”.
Former Polish Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski paid tribute to him.
“He reached a good age. He left as a contented man even if he was always aware of the tragedy he went through,” he told the Gazeta Wyborcza paper.
Africa
The great drought: Disaster looms in East Africa
Rotting carcasses testify to the scale of the disaster looming in East Africa.Daniel Howden reports from Marsabit, Kenya
Saturday, 3 October 2009
On the plains of Marsabit the heat is so intense the bush seems to shiver. The leafless scrub, bleached white by the sun, looks like a forest of fake Christmas trees. Carcasses of cattle and camels are strewn about the burnt red dirt in every direction. Siridwa Baseli walks out of the haze along a path of the dead and dying. He passes a skeletal cow that has given up and collapsed under a thorn tree. A nomad from the Rendille people, he is driving his herd in search of water.He marks time in seasons but knows that it has not rained for three years: “Since it is not raining there is no pasture,” he says. Only 40 of his herd of sheep and goats that once numbered 200 have survived. Those that remain are dying at a rate of 10 every day.
Latin America
Mexico makes record drugs seizure
Mexican authorities say they have made their largest-ever seizure of chemicals used in the manufacturer of the synthetic drug methamphetamine
By Stephen Gibbs
BBC News, Mexico City
A total of 37 tonnes were confiscated in two separate raids in different parts of the country.
Mexico, one of the world’s leading producers of the drug, says the seizure represents a blow to organised crime.
Some 20 tonnes of the psycho-stimulant drug were found on a boat entering the Pacific Coast port of Manzanillo.
A further 17 tonnes were uncovered in the city of Nuevo Laredo, close to the border with Texas.
Several arrests are understood to have been made.
Both the Mexican and US authorities have recently pointed to the fact that drug cartels in Mexico are increasingly diversifying their business into the manufacture and trafficking of methamphetamine.