Docudharma Times Monday February 8

Taliban will negotiate, but path fraught with risk



LONDON (Reuters)  

Unthinkable a year ago and still officially beyond the pale, the idea of a political role for Taliban leaders in Afghanistan is creeping onto the agenda as war-weary governments seek to bring an end to an unpopular war.

Some say this could open the door for negotiations if the Taliban think they can secure a better settlement through talks than by waiting for U.S.-led troops to leave and then fighting their way to power through a renewed civil war.

“The Taliban know they can’t take over the country. They would be presiding over a country with persistent and perennial poverty and civil war. So they would like to negotiate,” said one diplomat involved in discussions about Afghanistan.

After a Super Bowl triumph, joyous New Orleans swings to the rhythm of the Saints

Super Bowl XLIV

By Les Carpenter

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, February 8, 2010

NEW ORLEANS — At the moment the Saints won the Super Bowl and New Orleans would never be the same, they spilled through the doors of Sidney’s Saloon at the corner of St. Bernard Avenue and St. Claude. They jumped and they danced and they hugged and they shouted to the night, “Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?”

Somewhere near downtown, fireworks climbed into the sky; in the section of New Orleans known as Treme, police cars with lights flashing stopped for the party in the middle of the intersection.

White policemen laughed as black revelers jumped on their hoods and rocked their bumpers. Cruiser windows opened, and nowhere in the city once broken by a hurricane did it ever come together quite like this.

USA

Irked, Wall St. Hedges Its Bet on Democrats



By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: February 7, 2010

WASHINGTON – If the Democratic Party has a stronghold on Wall Street, it is JPMorgan Chase.

Its chief executive, Jamie Dimon, is a friend of President Obama’s from Chicago, a frequent White House guest and a big Democratic donor. Its vice chairman, William M. Daley, a former Clinton administration cabinet official and Obama transition adviser, comes from Chicago’s Democratic dynasty.

But this year Chase’s political action committee is sending the Democrats a pointed message. While it has contributed to some individual Democrats and state organizations, it has rebuffed solicitations from the national Democratic House and Senate campaign committees. Instead, it gave $30,000 to their Republican counterparts.

Mass. wind farm that Obama administration might support meets strong resistance



By Juliet Eilperin

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, February 8, 2010

ABOARD THE IDA LEWIS — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar journeyed out into Nantucket Sound on a Coast Guard vessel last week to signal the Obama administration’s readiness to put some muscle behind wind energy. To do that, Salazar has to resolve a battle over building a wind farm on 25 square miles of open water that has driven a rift between environmentalists, infuriated local Native Americans and threatened one of the administration’s cherished priorities.

Europe

Old foe set to crush Orange revolution

Ukrainian Prime Minister cries foul and threatens to challenge election result

By Shaun Walker in Moscow  Monday, 8 February 2010

Marking a spectacular personal resurrection, Viktor Yanukovich appeared on course last night to win Ukraine’s presidential election, a victory that will take the former Soviet nation back into a closer embrace with Moscow.

Exit polls suggested that the fervour of the Orange Revolution – which prevented Mr Yanukovich assuming the presidency five years ago – had well and truly died. Exit poll figures released by the Central Election Commission had the 59-year-old winning 50.09 per cent of the vote, and his bitter rival Julia Tymoshenko on 44.39 per cent. Other polls gave him a slightly bigger margin of victory. Mr Yanukovich’s team celebrated last night and called on Ms Tymoshenko to resign as Prime Minister and concede defeat. He said he would focus on economic reforms during the first months of his presidency.

Ukraine braced for conflict as polls signal end of Orange Revolution

From The Times

February 8, 2010

Tony Halpin in Kiev

Ukraine faced the prospect of renewed political confrontation on the streets after exit polls predicted that the man closely allied to Moscow was heading for victory in the fiercely contested presidential election last night.

According to exit polls published immediately after voting ended, Yuliya Tymoshenko, the glamorous, firebrand leader of the Orange Revolution and Prime Minister, was narrowly beaten by Viktor Yanukovych, her bitter rival.

The margin of defeat, however, was as little as 3 percentage points, paving the way for a potential challenge in the courts – and in the streets, if her campaign alleges widespread ballot fraud.

Middle East

 Iranian leader tells nuclear chief to step up enrichment

Televised request by Ahmadinejad raises fresh fears over Tehran’s uranium intentions

By David Usborne in New York Monday, 8 February 2010

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has raised the stakes once more in Iran’s nuclear stand-off with the West, publicly instructing his officials on state television to start upgrading the country’s stockpiles of uranium to a 20 per cent enrichment level.

Officials said they would start the work tomorrow. The British Foreign Office swiftly issued a statement warning that were Iran to take such action it would instantly be in additional violation of five United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Missing US contractor Issa Salomi paraded by terrorist group

From Times Online

February 8, 2010

Oliver August in Baghdad

An Iranian-backed terrorist group that held a British man hostage for more than two years in Iraq has kidnapped an American military contractor who wandered off base in Baghdad.

The League of the Righteous said that it was holding Issa Salomi, 60, an Iraqi-American who was visiting relatives in the Karrada district of central Baghdad when he disappeared two weeks ago. In a video posted on the internet by the League he was shown dressed in a military uniform and reading a text calling for the release of Iraqi prisoners and denouncing America.

Asia

Australia to focus immigration policy on skills

Australia’s immigration minister, Chris Evans, has announced policy changes to attract more highly skilled workers.

The BBC Monday, 8 February 2010  

He criticised the current trend for new arrivals to sign up for cookery or hairdressing courses to gain residency.

Mr Evans said Australia would abolish the current list of 106 skills in demand and review a points test used to assess migrants.

His comments were welcomed by the mining sector, which is struggling to meet China’s demand for raw materials.

“We had tens of thousands of students studying cookery and accounting and hairdressing because that was on the list and that got them through to permanent residency,” Mr Evans told Australian radio.

U.S. of Who?

Why China is no longer interested in following America’s lead.

By Melinda Liu | NEWSWEEK

China’s America watchers have fallen on tough times. Back in their profession’s glory days, in the 1980s and ’90s, they were able to spend years in the United States learning about the place, and both Washington and Beijing were eager for them to report home on what they’d discovered in the New World. Chinese leaders were trying to integrate their vast country into a world system dominated by America, and they took particular interest in how Washington viewed their country. But now U.S. funding for stateside field work has dried up, and Beijing shows little interest in the United States except to complain, threaten, or refuse to work together on global problems.

Latin America

Costa Rica elects first woman president

Ruling party candidate Laura Chinchilla wins 47% of vote well beyond 40% needed to avoid run-off against Otton Solis

Associated Press, San Jose

guardian.co.uk, Monday 8 February 2010 08.38 GMT

Costa Ricans have elected their first female president as the ruling party candidate won in a landslide after campaigning to continue free market policies in Central America’s most stable nation.

With most of the votes from Sunday’s election counted, Laura Chinchilla held a 22-point lead over her closest rival. Her 47% share of the vote was well beyond the 40% needed to avoid a run-off.

The 50-year-old protege of the current president, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oscar Arias, promised to pursue the same economic policies that recently brought the country into a trade pact with the US and opened commerce with China.

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