Docudharma Times Tuesday December 15

China and U.S. Hit Strident Impasse at Climate Talks



By JOHN M. BRODER and JAMES KANTER

Published: December 14, 2009

COPENHAGEN – China and the United States were at an impasse on Monday at the United Nations climate change conference here over how compliance with any treaty could be monitored and verified.

China, which last month for the first time publicly announced a target for reducing the rate of growth of its greenhouse gas emissions, is refusing to accept any kind of international monitoring of its emissions levels, according to negotiators and observers here. The United States is insisting that without stringent verification of China’s actions, it cannot support any deal.

The Palestinians’ opposite poles

Divide between Gaza and West Bank may affect thinking on an independent state

By Howard Schneider

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

JABALYA, GAZA STRIP — Sami and Tayseer Barakat grew up together in the concrete warrens of this refugee camp in Gaza, but the common thread ends there.

As young adults, Tayseer moved to the West Bank while Sami remained in Gaza. The choices have shaped the brothers’ lives, values, prosperity and opportunities, and they have placed the two at very different points in what is now a three-way feud among Israelis and Palestinians.

More than ever before, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank represent opposite poles of a future state of Palestine, each increasingly distinct, adding fresh obstacles to the quest for a two-state solution that envisions Israel and Palestine existing side by side. Gaza has become imbued with a narrow Islamist culture that considers Israel’s elimination the ultimate goal; the West Bank, in contrast, has become relatively open and secular, with its government trying to resolve disputes with Israel through politics and diplomacy.

USA

U.S. to announce transfer of detainees to Ill. prison



By Peter Slevin

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

CHICAGO — Dozens of terrorism suspects being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be moved to a little-used Illinois state prison that will be acquired and upgraded by the federal government, an Obama administration official said.

The critical step toward fulfilling President Obama’s pledge to shut the Guantanamo detention center will be announced Tuesday, said the official, who reported that Obama has ordered the acquisition of the eight-year-old Thomson Correctional Center, about 150 miles northwest of Chicago.

Schuss! At 94, Mammoth Mountain resort founder is shooting the slopes (with a camera)

Dave McCoy, the elder statesman of the California ski industry, is exploring the world through zoom lenses with the same enthusiasm he used to transform the remote mountain into a renowned resort.

By Louis Sahagun

December 15, 2009

Reporting from Bishop, Calif. – In October 2005, Dave McCoy’s friends bought him a digital camera, hoping it would help the founder of the storied Mammoth Mountain ski resort stay active after selling the enterprise to a private investment firm.

Instead, McCoy found a new calling.

The elder statesman of the California ski industry has been, as he likes to say, “shootin’ shots” ever since, exploring the world through zoom lenses with the same enthusiasm and dedication he used to transform the remote mountain into a ski resort that sold for $365 million.

Middle East

Palestinian tunnel tycoons feeding demand for banned goods

Boom in illicit trade in motorbikes, dismantled in Egypt and smuggled into Gaza, brings deadly consequences

Harriet Sherwood in Rafah

The Guardian, Tuesday 15 December 2009

Mahmoud is proud of the motorbike he bought two months ago for $700, now parked in the sand at the entrance of one of the tunnels used to smuggle the machines into Gaza.

It is all the more precious these days. After an influx of bikes through the deep underground passages between Gaza and Egypt resulted in carnage on the roads by young, untrained riders, the Hamas government ordered the imports to stop.

Mahmoud, 18, is one reason why. He has no licence and no helmet, but his Chinese-made bike makes him feel good. “It is what all the young men want,” he says. “It is much better than driving a car.”

Iran protesters say torn Khomeini photos were staged

Iran claims that opposition supporters defaced pictures of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to increase the pressure on the opposition Green Movement. But protesters charge it’s a set up.



Istanbul, Turkey

Of all the sanctities in the Islamic Republic, few are more sacred than the memory of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, father of Iran’s 1979 revolution. So desecration of his image – as shown repeatedly on state-run TV in the past week, and blamed on protesting students – has prompted outrage in Iran.

Prosecutors on Monday announced several arrests, vowed there would be “no mercy toward those who insulted” Khomeini, and claimed that “one of them has confessed.”

The “incident” is being used by arch-conservative elements of the regime to ramp up pressure on reformist opponents – which is exactly why students deny it ever took place, and say it was concocted to discredit them and the Green Movement.

Asia

Sri Lankan government killed surrendering Tamil Tigers, says general

Sacked commander running for president says three rebel leaders were machine-gunned on minister’s orders

Simon Tisdall

guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 December 2009 19.02 GMT

Three Tamil Tiger rebel leaders who tried to surrender during the bloody climax of Sri Lanka’s civil war in May were shot and killed on the orders of the country’s defence minister and a senior adviser to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the army commander at the time has claimed.

General Sarath Fonseka, who helped direct the final offensive against the Tigers but later broke with the government and is running for president in next month’s elections, said he had been personally unaware of the Tamils’ attempts to give themselves up, which included frantic last-minute appeals for help to a Norwegian minister, diplomats, journalists and UN and Red Cross officials.

North Korean arms plane linked to East European arms traffickers

From Times Online

December 15, 2009

Anne Barrowclough

The weapons laden plane seized in Bangkok en route from North Korea at the weekend has been linked to two renowned East European arms traffickers by a respected Swedish think tank in the latest twist in the mysterious saga.

The Ilyushin-76 aircraft, which was found to be carrying 35 tons of weapons including rockets and grenades, was most recently registered under a company called Beibars, linked to Serbian arms dealer Tomislav Dmanjanovic. It had previously been registered with three companies identified by the US Department of the Treasury as firms controlled by the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, according to a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Europe

Berlusconi ‘amazed’ at attack but rivals blame PM for stoking violence

Premier to remain in hospital for 25 days after losing ‘half a litre of blood’

By Michael Day in Milan Tuesday, 15 December 2009

Silvio Berlusconi yesterday spoke of his amazement that anyone would wish him ill, following the assault on Sunday night that put him in hospital.

The Prime Minister, who is being treated for facial wounds after the attack at the end of a political rally, told the priest at Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital, Don Luigi Verzè, of his bafflement. “I wish everyone well, everyone,” he said, according to Italian press reports. “I can’t understand why they hate me now.”

Misfits and runaways join French Foreign Legion for Afghanistan tour

From The Times

December 15, 2009

Jerome Starkey in Surobi, Afghanistan

When Corporal James walked in on his fiancée sleeping with another man he threw him through a second-storey window and beat him with a wrench until the police arrived.

The former US Navy signalman was facing seven years in jail for what was – by his own account – a frenzied assault. But on March 9, 2007, just three days before he was to stand trial, James, 22, packed a change of clothes and some cigarettes into a small duffle bag, said goodbye to his mother, his stepfather and his sister, and flew to Paris to start a new life.

Today he is on his third tour of duty in Afghanistan – but this time it is with the French Foreign Legion. “The legion was a second chance, an opportunity to reinvent myself,” he said. “It was either here or prison.”

Latin America

Chile’s love for Bachelet goes only so far

Most voters rejected Eduardo Frei, her party’s candidate in the presidential election. The country’s economic and education woes apparently are to blame.

By Chris Kraul

December 15, 2009

Reporting from Santiago, Chile – An overwhelming majority of Chileans are happy with President Michelle Bachelet, grateful for the social safety net she has extended to women and the poor, and optimistic about the future.

Then why did Eduardo Frei, the candidate for her ruling center-left Concertacion coalition, fare so poorly in Sunday’s presidential election, finishing a distant second to right-wing billionaire businessman Sebastian Pinera in the first round of voting?

For all the social progress under Bachelet, who leaves office in March because she is limited to one term under the constitution, there is dissatisfaction over Chile’s economy and educational system.

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