Docudharma Times Thursday December 31

Taliban responsible for deaths of 8 ‘CIA agents’ in Afghanistan

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a base in eastern Afghanistan that killed eight American citizens believed to be working for the CIA.

By Toby Harnden in Washington

Published: 6:00AM GMT 31 Dec 2009

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that a Taliban bomber wearing a military uniform and a suicide vest entered a base in Khost and blew himself up inside the gym.

One official described Forward Operating Base Chapman, near the Pakistan border, as a former military compound that was “not a regular base” any more. Another source said the base was used by “other agencies”, suggesting that intelligence personnel were involved. Breaching a secure base that carries out potentially sensitive operations made it a particularly bold attack.

How contagious is H1N1? New study finds out

If someone in your home has it, you’ve got a 1 in 8 chance of getting sick

Associated Press

How contagious is swine flu? Less than the novel viruses that have caused big world outbreaks in the past, new research suggests.

If someone in your home has swine flu, your odds of catching it are about one in eight, although children are twice as susceptible as adults, the study found. It is one of the first big scientific attempts to find out how much the illness spreads in homes versus at work or school, and who is most at risk.

The study was done by outbreak specialists from Imperial College London and from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results are in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.

Swine flu has sickened an estimated one-sixth of Americans since the novel virus was first identified in April. The second wave of cases now seems to have peaked, and health experts do not know if another surge lies ahead.

USA

In aftermath of Fort Hood, community haunted by clues that went unheeded

FORT HOOD SHOOTINGS

By Eli Saslow, Philip Rucker, William Wan and Mary Pat Flaherty

Washington Post Staff Writers

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Nidal Hasan was causing a ruckus in his one-bedroom apartment during the early hours of Nov. 5, banging against the thin walls long after midnight, packing boxes and shredding papers until he woke up the tenants next door.

Maybe that was a clue.

He picked up the phone at 2:37 a.m. and dialed a neighbor. Nobody answered. Hasan called again three hours later, this time leaving a message. “Nice knowing you, friend,” he said. “I’m moving on from here.”

Maybe that was a clue, too.

He left Apartment 9 early that morning and stopped next door to see a woman named Patricia Villa, whom he had known for less than a month.

Marine’s success in Afghanistan has a history

A battalion commander in the southern province of Helmand takes it slow, and uses lessons learned in Iraq.

By Tony Perry

December 31, 2009

Reporting from Nawa, Afghanistan – It’s not yet 10 a.m., and Lt. Col. William McCollough must confront a pair of problems that threaten to undercut Marine success in this onetime Taliban stronghold.

Two members of the community council, the group organized by Marines to instill confidence among villagers in their government, have been killed, probably by Taliban fighters. The Afghan police response has been sluggish.

Meanwhile, rumors are sweeping the farming community that there is favoritism and corruption in the U.S.-sponsored program to distribute wheat seed and fertilizer.

Middle East

Revealed: hand of Iran behind Britons’ Baghdad kidnapping

• Hostage released after two years

• Shia cleric freed as part of deal

• Aid money at heart of abduction

Mona Mahmood, Maggie O’Kane, Guy Grandjean

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 December 2009 21.30 GMT

The five British men kidnapped in Iraq were taken in an operation led and masterminded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, according to evidence uncovered during an extensive investigation by the Guardian.

The men – including Peter Moore, who was released today after more than two years in captivity – were taken to Iran within a day of their kidnap from a government ministry building in Baghdad in 2007, several senior sources in Iraq and Iran have told the Guardian.

They were incarcerated in prisons run by the al-Quds force, a unit that specialises in foreign operations on behalf of the Iranian government.

Iran Government stages rallies as Mousavi’s nephew is quietly buried

From The Times

December 31, 2009

Martin Fletcher

Iran’s beleaguered regime sought to bolster its support with stage-managed rallies in several cities yesterday and said last night that the leaders of the opposition had fled Tehran because they were scared of the people’s anger. The claim was swiftly denied.

Another day of high drama began with the authorities returning Seyed Ali Mousavi’s body to his family on condition that the nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition leader, was buried quickly and quietly. The family complied.

The regime demanded a low-key funeral for the most prominent casualty of last Sunday’s massive anti-government demonstrations out of fear that the event could be transformed into another opposition protest – on the day that it had chosen to stage large rallies of its own.

Europe

Nurse who inspired Geldof to launch Live Aid is made a dame



Caroline Davies

The Guardian, Thursday 31 December 2009

A nurse forced to choose which starving children should receive food during the 1984 Ethiopian famine and who inspired Bob Geldof to launch Live Aid is today made a dame in recognition of her contribution to international humanitarian aid.

Then working as an international Red Cross nurse in Ethiopia, Dr Claire Bertschinger, from Sheering, Essex, galvanised a huge global response to the crisis when TV journalist Michael Buerk asked her on camera how she felt about deciding who to feed, and she responded: “What do you expect? It breaks my heart.”

The wine-lover’s dream – in the suburbs of Paris

The hills around the French capital were once famed for their vintages. Now one small vineyard which has survived the urban sprawl is in need of an expert to run it

By John Lichfield  Thursday, 31 December 2009

Wanted: urban wine producer to run small, hilltop vineyard with beautiful views of the Eiffel Tower. No house or château but the successful applicant can easily commute to work by Metro and bus.

The town of Suresnes, in the heart of one of the densest urban conurbations in the world, is searching for a municipal vigneron or wine grower. His or her task will be to prepare the town’s two-and-a-half acres of vines – a remnant of the immense vineyards which once surrounded Paris – for official recognition and regional label status next year.

Asia

The Big Moment: Officials were overwhelmed. Monks fed the frantic crowds as best they could

A series of articles from The Independent archive recalling key events of the past decade: the Indonesian Tsunami – Boxing Day 2004

By Danielle Demetriou Thursday, 31 December 2009

In its original usage, the term meant something akin to “harbour wave” in Japanese. Five years ago, it came to mean much more than that, and this time to a global audience. A devastating undersea earthquake, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, in Indonesia, measured between 9.1 and 9.3 on the Richter scale, the second strongest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. It triggered a series of smaller tsunamis, vividly manifested in waves upto 30 metres (100ft) high. In all, nearly 230,000 people were killed in 11 countries, with most of the land masses touched by the Indian Ocean severely affected. The scenes of ruination and catastrophe were perhaps most appalling in Sri Lanka, from where our correspondent filed the report below.

Abdurrahman Wahid: Former Indonesia president was a key democratic voice

Abdurrahman Wahid led Indonesia for two years after the fall of US-backed strongman President Suharto. He passed away Wednesday at a Jakarta hospital.  

By Simon Montlake Correspondent / December 30, 2009

Bangkok, Thailand

An Islamic scholar and secular democrat, former President Abdurrahman Wahid led Indonesia for two years after the fall of US-backed strongman President Suharto. He passed away Wednesday at a hospital in Jakarta.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Indonesian flags would be flown at half mast for a week. A funeral is to be held on Thursday for the former president, who stepped down in 2001.

Popularly known as Gus Dur, Mr. Wahid emerged as a democratic voice in the chaos of 1998, when Mr. Suharto resigned in disgrace and his deputy paved the way for Indonesia’s first free elections in four decades.

As a politician, Wahid could draw on the support of Nahdlatul Ulama, a Muslim social organization founded by his grandfather that has around 40 million members. He also built ties to civil society groups pushing for change in the 1990s, when economic growth accelerated.

Africa

Somali held last month with chemicals, syringe

‘We caught him red-handed,’ official says after arrest in Mogadishu airport

Associated Press  

MOGADISHU, Somalia – A man tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month carrying powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that could have caused an explosion in a case bearing chilling similarities to the terrorist plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The Somali man – whose name has not yet been released – was arrested by African Union peacekeeping troops before the Nov. 13 Daallo Airlines flight took off. It had been scheduled to travel from Mogadishu to the northern Somali city of Hargeisa, then to Djibouti and Dubai. A Somali police spokesman, Abdulahi Hassan Barise, said the suspect is in Somali custody.

Latin America

In Cuba, Hopeful Tenor Toward Obama Is Ebbing



By MARC LACEY

Published: December 30, 2009

HAVANA – The Obama honeymoon here is over.

When President Obama came to office, the unflattering billboards of George W. Bush, including one outside the United States Interests Section of him scowling alongside Hitler, came down and the anti-American vitriol softened. Raúl Castro, who took over from his ailing brother Fidel in 2006, even raised the possibility of a face-to-face meeting with Mr. Obama, which would have been the first time one of the Castros met with a sitting American president.

But the tenor here has changed considerably, and Mr. Obama, whose election was broadly celebrated by Cuba’s racially diverse population, is now being portrayed by this nation’s leaders as an imperialistic, warmongering Cuba hater.

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