Docudharma Times Saturday November 14

9/11 Trial Poses Unparalleled Legal Obstacles for Both Sides



By ERIC LICHTBLAU and BENJAMIN WEISER

Published: November 13, 2009

WASHINGTON – How do you defend one of the most notorious terrorist figures in history?

One step, legal analysts say, may be to ask for a change of venue.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s lawyers, whoever they are, will no doubt question whether he can get a fair trial from a jury sitting, as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. noted, in a Manhattan courthouse “just blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood.”

Then will come the inevitable challenges to interrogation methods used on Mr. Mohammed during more than six years in detention.

In Korea, a round on the world’s most dangerous golf course



The golf course at Camp Bonifas, just on the South side of the DMZ, consists of a single hole, but myriad obstacles: a narrow fairway, dense trees, vicious winds — and a nearby minefield. Good luck.

Reporting from U.S. Army Camp Bonifas, South Korea – You stand atop an elevated tee box on the first and only hole of the world’s most dangerous golf course.

And you consider your chances.

This deadly little par 3 measures 192 yards but plays more like 250 in the face of the vicious winds that often blow out of North Korea across an exclusive piece of real estate called the DMZ just a few yards away.

USA

Satellite shows signs of water at moon’s pole



By Joel Achenbach

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Water on the moon, once a wild conjecture, appears to be solidifying into a scientific fact. Jubilant NASA scientists announced Friday that they have found the telltale signature of significant quantities of water, in the form of ice and vapor, in a shadowed crater at the moon’s south pole.

The discovery came from the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, which early on the morning of Oct. 9 abjured the tradition of looking at the moon in favor of crashing into it.

Napolitano sees hope for immigration reform

The Homeland Security chief sees a shift in support of such an effort. She calls for a ‘tough pathway’ to legal status for undocumented workers.

By Joe Markman

November 14, 2009

Reporting from Washington – The government has beefed up border security and workplace immigration enforcement, and now should begin the work of overhauling immigration laws, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday.

“The hope is that when we get into the first part of 2010, that we will see legislation begin to move,” Napolitano said. The legislation should not only give law enforcement officials more tools to fight illegal immigration but create a “tough pathway” for undocumented workers to gain legal status, she said.

Middle East

Huge rise in birth defects in Falluja

Iraqi former battle zone sees abnormal clusters of infant tumours and deformities

Martin Chulov in Falluja

guardian.co.uk, Friday 13 November 2009 19.24 GMT

Doctors in Iraq’s war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting.

The extraordinary rise in birth defects has crystallised over recent months as specialists working in Falluja’s over-stretched health system have started compiling detailed clinical records of all babies born.

Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth defects – which include a baby born with two heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system problems – are unprecedented and at present unexplainable.

Turkey is to allow Kurdish television as peace process gathers pace

From The Times

November 14, 2009

Nicholas Birch in Ankara

Turkey’s Government has unveiled a “historic” offer to end its 25-year armed conflict with Kurdish fighters that has cost more than 40,000 lives.

Besir Atalay, the Interior Minister, told parliament that he intended to end permanently the conflict with separatists, who are thought to have about 6,000 fighters. “Our slogan is more freedom for everybody,” Mr Atalay said yesterday, outlining what he described as “an open-ended process” to “end terrorism and raise the level of democracy”.

One of the first steps would be to lift a ban on private television channels broadcasting in Kurdish. The Government would then end a ban on political campaigning in the language, and permit the restoration of Kurdish names to towns and villages given Turkish names since the 1950s. A committee will be established to address Kurdish concerns that they suffer discrimination.

Europe

Meet Haiku Herman, Will Europe make him, A very famous Belgian?

The demise of Tony Blair’s bid to become the EU’s first president has opened the way for a politician with more interest in Japanese poetry than publicity

By Vanessa Mock in Brussels Saturday, 14 November 2009

One is a young, dynamic reporter with a blond quiff who roams the world in search of adventure. The other is a greying, diminutive politician with glasses, a penchant for poetry and a love of country life. On the face of it, Belgium’s national hero, Tintin, could not be more different from the man who is tipped to be chosen as the European Union’s first president next week.

Unlike Hergé’s boy reporter, Herman Van Rompuy was virtually unknown outside of Belgium until a few weeks ago when his name began to do the rounds in Brussels as a possible candidate for the newly created post of President of the European Council.

Clint Eastwood made Legion of Honour commander in France‘

Clint Eastwood, the Hollywood actor, was made a commander in France’s prestigious Legion of Honour on Friday.

Published: 10:33PM GMT 13 Nov 2009

French President Nicolas Sarkozy presented the 79-year-old actor and director with the decoration, honouring his body of work, his longevity and his ability to delight audiences around the globe, according to the award citation.

It is unusual for a foreigner to be elevated to the rank of commander of the French Legion of Honour but Eastwood, who went from playing tough guy roles like Dirty Harry to directing critically acclaimed films, said he saw France as his second home.

Jacques Chirac, the former French president, had honoured Eastwood as a knight of the Legion of Honour two years ago, and Friday’s decoration was a step up for the star to grade three on the legion’s five-grade scale.

Asia

Suicide attack piles pressure on Obama and Brown

Prime Minister says Nato will send another 5,000 troops to Afghanistan

By Kim Sengupta in Kabul Saturday, 14 November 2009

Barack Obama declared yesterday that his long-awaited decision on sending reinforcements to Afghanistan would come soon. But as the US President was declaring his determination on “getting this right”, the Taliban issued a bloody reminder of the stakes in Kabul, carrying out a suicide attack on a US convoy in the Afghan capital.

Mr Obama, on a tour of Asia, went on to reiterate that there will be no “open-ended commitment” in the conflict. But, despite weeks of debate, the President and his team avoided talking about the specifics of any new plan.

Sri Lanka’s President Rajapaksa ‘feared coup’ after defeat of Tamil Tigers

From The Times

November 14, 2009

 Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent

President Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka was so afraid of a military coup after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers that he warned India to place its troops on high alert as recently as last month, according to the former head of the Sri Lankan Army. General Sarath Fonseka, who led the victorious campaign against the Tigers only to be sidelined two months later, made the allegation in a bitter resignation letter, seen by The Times yesterday.

General Fonseka, who was switched to the largely ceremonial role of Chief of Defence Staff in July, said the Government alerted India on October 15 that a coup was imminent, “unnecessarily placing Indian troops on high alert”.

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