Docudharma Times Thursday December 10

Pakistan Detains Five Americans in Raid Tied to Militants



By SCOTT SHANE

Published: December 9, 2009

WASHINGTON – Five young Muslim American men from the Washington suburbs who disappeared late last month were detained in Pakistan on Wednesday in a police raid on a house linked to a militant group, American and Pakistani officials said.

One of the men had left behind an 11-minute video calling for the defense of Muslims in conflicts with the West and suggesting that “young Muslims have to do something,” said one person who had seen the video, describing it as a farewell of sorts. Another person who viewed it called the video “disturbing,” though he said it was not a martyrdom video of the kind sometimes made by extremists planning suicide attacks.

A street vendor pleads the First

D.C.’s attempt to license sales of political buttons called a violation of free speech

By Del Quentin Wilber

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Frank Enten loves selling political and historical buttons. He loves selling buttons so much that on a recent afternoon the 78-year-old ignored a cracked rib and stinging rain so he could hawk buttons on a D.C. street corner.

“Everybody needs a button,” he yelled over the din of traffic while waving a hand over two canvas-covered boards festooned with Ronald Reagan buttons, Sarah Palin buttons, Bill Clinton buttons, Jimmy Carter buttons and one that said “Chinese for Nixon.”

USA

For conservatives, a political surge

NEW PACS AND FUNDRAISING

‘It’s time to take control,’ say ‘tea party’ groups

By Dan Eggen and Perry Bacon Jr.

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The energized “tea party” movement, which upended this year’s political debate with noisy anti-government protests, is preparing to shake up the 2010 elections by channeling money and supporters to conservative candidates set to challenge both Democrats and Republicans.

Buoyed by their success in capsizing a moderate Republican candidate this fall in Upstate New York, tea party activists and affiliated groups are unveiling new political action committees and tactics aimed at capitalizing on conservative opposition to health-care reform, financial bailouts and other Obama administration policies.

Obama’s jobs package draws fire from left and right

Black legislators chide the president for not doing more to reduce the high unemployment rate among African Americans, while Republicans warn about rising deficits.

By Peter Nicholas and Kathleen Hennessey

December 10, 2009

Reporting from Washington – As President Obama began selling his new jobs package, he was pressed Wednesday from both the left and the right, with Republicans warning about ballooning deficits and black lawmakers seeking bolder action on an unemployment rate that approaches 16% for African Americans.

Partisan tensions surfaced at a private White House meeting with congressional leaders of both parties. In an unusually aggressive move, Obama opened the meeting by accusing Republicans of “rooting against” an economic recovery, according to an account provided by Republican aides.

Middle East

Abuse and show trials – Amnesty reports on Iran

Human rights group criticises increase in political repression in six months since reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Ian Black

The Guardian, Thursday 10 December 2009

Human rights abuses in Iran are now as bad as at any time in the past 20 years, Amnesty International reports tomorrow in a survey marking six months since June’s disputed presidential election.

Amnesty documents “patterns of abuse” by the Basij militia and revolutionary guards involving beatings, rape, death threats, forced confessions, intimidation and official cover-ups. Many detainees have been subjected to show trials and five have been sentenced to death.

“The authorities have resorted to exceptionally high levels of violence and arbitrary measures to stifle protest and dissent,” says the 80-page report. “The courts have not been an instrument of justice to hold police, security forces and other state officials to account … or to protect the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association and religion.”

Jailed Fatah chief emerges as Palestinian presidential contender

As Abbas prepares to step down, Marwan Barghouti speaks out from prison cell

By Ben Lynfield in Ramallah Thursday, 10 December 2009

Marwan Barghouti, the senior Fatah leader who could be set free in a prisoner swap with Israel, appears to be already testing the waters for a possible bid to succeed the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas.

In an interview yesterday in al-Quds newspaper, the charismatic leader criticised his rival for relying on negotiations alone in dealing with the Jewish state and said he is considering standing as a candidate if an agreement is reached to hold presidential elections.

Europe

A matter of life and death – Irish abortion law in dock

Three women launch landmark case in Strasbourg that could overturn Ireland’s ban on terminations

By John Lichfield Thursday, 10 December 2009

Ireland’s almost complete ban on abortion was challenged before 17 European judges yesterday as a violation of fundamental human rights.

Three women, named only as A, B and C, brought a landmark case before the European Human Rights court in Strasbourg, the outcome of which could force Ireland to weaken its strict laws against abortion for the first time in 17 years.

The three plaintiffs – two Irish women and a Lithuanian – say that their own rights to health and life were threatened by pregnancies which they could not terminate legally in Ireland the only EU state other than Malta, with a near outright ban on the procedure. Like an estimated 7,000 Irish women a year, the three women travelled to the UK to obtain legal abortions in Britain.

 Gordon Brown and Nicholas Sarkozy attempt a reconciliation

From The Times

December 10, 2009

David Charter in Brussels

Gordon Brown and President Sarkozy will try to make peace today after the French leader called Britain the “big losers” in the carve-up of EU jobs and hailed France’s victory against the “excesses of Anglo-Saxon financial capitalism”.

Mr Sarkozy’s task will not be made easier, however, after the French Agriculture Minister snubbed his British counterpart by excluding him from a meeting on the contentious issue of EU farm subsidies.

The entente cordiale has been under stress for several weeks after the backroom deal in which Baroness Ashton of Upholland became the EU High Representative, its foreign minister, while France secured the plum job of EU Internal Market Commissioner for Michel Barnier. His appointment raised fears of a barrage of regulations on the City – fears that Mr Sarkozy did little to dispel with a series of triumphalist statements.

Asia

Afghanistan: UK and US seek to cancel 2010 parliamentary election

Britain and America are seeking to cancel next year’s parliamentary election in Afghanistan amid fears that it will distract from President Barack Obama’s new strategy to bring security to the country.

By Ben Farmer in Kabul

Published: 6:00AM GMT 10 Dec 2009

The two allies are in dispute with European states over whether to fund and secure the elections in the spring or press for postponement until 2011, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

The Afghan constitution states elections for the lower house of the parliament and for district councils must be held in May.

But after the widespread fraud of this summer’s presidential poll, London and Washington fear soldiers would risk Taliban attacks securing polling stations for a barely credible election plagued by renewed ballot stuffing.

After a summer of fraud in favour of President Hamid Karzai, officials said holding a May poll was now unrealistic and without widespread reform it would “throw good money after bad”.

Philippines gunmen abduct dozens of students

Armed bandits have abducted dozens of students and teachers in the southern Philippines, officials say.

The BBC Thursday, 10 December 2009

A military spokesman said 65 people had been seized at a school in Agusan del Sur province on Mindanao island.

Police later said 18 hostages – 17 of them children and one teacher – had been freed by the gunmen, who were described as a criminal gang.

A BBC correspondent says there is no sign it is linked to a massacre of 57 people on Mindanao last month.

The BBC’s Rachel Harvey in Bangkok says there is much lawlessness in the southern Philippines.

Africa

Kenyan courts on legal front line in battle to stop Somali pirates

From The Times

December 10, 2009

Tristan McConnell in Mombasa

Squeezed into the wood-panelled dock, the nine young men wilted in the tropical heat. Overhead a single ceiling fan battled against the crushing coastal humidity that left judge, lawyers, accused and witness sweating in the shabby Kenyan courtroom.

As the suited lawyers for the prosecution and defence parried legalistic blows, a translator changed each half-sentence from English to Somali for the accused men, while Judge Rose Makungu wrote down every word by hand. These sluggish proceedings are the front end of the global fight against piracy.

Latin America

Zelaya is negotiating departure to Mexico

 The ousted leader, holed up for months in the Brazilian Embassy, has refused to seek political asylum, saying he wants to travel as the legitimate president of Honduras.

By Alex Renderos

December 10, 2009

Reporting from San Salvador – Deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is negotiating plans to leave the Brazilian Embassy in the Honduran capital, where he took refuge 2 1/2 months ago, and head to Mexico, an associate said late Wednesday.

The de facto government, which has threatened to arrest Zelaya, issued a safe-passage document to allow him to leave the country, said Victor Meza, who served as Zelaya’s interior minister.

But the plans still could go awry.

Zelaya refuses to seek the political asylum that would allow him to make the trip safely, Meza said.

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