Docudharma Times Sunday February 14

Wall St. Helped Greece to Mask Debt Fueling Europe’s Crisis



By LOUISE STORY, LANDON THOMAS Jr. and NELSON D. SCHWARTZ

Published: February 13, 2010

Wall Street tactics akin to the ones that fostered subprime mortgages in America have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermining the euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts.As worries over Greece rattle world markets, records and interviews show that with Wall Street’s help, the nation engaged in a decade-long effort to skirt European debt limits. One deal created by Goldman Sachs helped obscure billions in debt from the budget overseers in Brussels.

Australia’s old ties with U.S. deepened in the past decade



By John Pomfret

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, February 14, 2010

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA — On succeeding days in October 2003, then-President George W. Bush was heckled in Australia’s Parliament and China’s president, Hu Jintao, received a standing ovation. The events were widely seen as a crystallization of the slide in American influence over its longtime ally in the Pacific.

But behind the scenes, the United States and Australia were working to strengthen their security and intelligence ties with a view to countering a rising China.

Canberra’s ties to Washington have always been close. U.S. troops served under an Australian commander in World War I. Australians have fought on the U.S. side in every war since World War II.

USA

Under Obama, more targeted killings than captures in counterterrorism efforts



By Karen DeYoung and Joby Warrick

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, February 14, 2010

When a window of opportunity opened to strike the leader of al-Qaeda in East Africa last September, U.S. Special Operations forces prepared several options. They could obliterate his vehicle with an airstrike as he drove through southern Somalia. Or they could fire from helicopters that could land at the scene to confirm the kill. Or they could try to take him alive.

The White House authorized the second option. On the morning of Sept. 14, helicopters flying from a U.S. ship off the Somali coast blew up a car carrying Saleh Ali Nabhan.

Washington state lawmaker ascends to powerful funding post



By Les Blumenthal and Scott Fontaine | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON – Over the past 30 years, Rep. Norm Dicks has been in the middle of virtually every of the nation’s major defense funding controversies – from increasing military pay after the Vietnam War to the B-2 stealth bomber, and from the MX missile to replacing the Air Force’s C-5 cargo plane with a modified Boeing 747.

At the same time, the major Army, Air Force and Navy installations in Washington state survived four rounds of base closings unscathed and emerged as cornerstones in the nation’s defense community.

Europe

Europe’s south refuses to downsize without a fight

The hard-hit ‘Club Med’ countries of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy once flourished within the eurozone. Now the financial markets have turned on Athens, and Greece’s neighbours fear they could be next

Helena Smith in Athens, Giles Tremlett in Madrid, Tom Kington in Rome, and Julian Coman

The Observer, Sunday 14 February 2010

Nikos Strovlos has worked for the National Statistics Service of Greece – as the head of the service’s accountancy office – for 21 years. He has seen some turbulent times, not least when desperate colleagues allegedly “cooked the books” that were used to parlay Greece into the eurozone in 2001.

Last week, as the chaotic state of Greek accounts and accounting became clear, and Europe’s single currency endured its first serious crisis as a result, the sound of disapprobation from Berlin and Brussels became deafening. But Strovlos is not about to apologise on behalf of the Greek government’s number-crunchers.

El Bulli to serve its last brioche

Chef Ferran Adrià is to close his Catalonian restaurant for good, despite the 3,000 foodies on its waiting list

By Paul Bignell Sunday, 14 February 2010

The world’s most exclusive restaurant just got that bit more exclusive: epicureans the world over will lament, as they scramble for a last chance to sample fare at the Catalonian eaterie El Bulli, after its owner’s decision this weekend to close for good.

Ferran Adrià, the Catalan chef who has spent two decades in the vanguard of avant-garde cuisine, recently announced that he planned to close El Bulli in 2012, reopening two years later having considered its future direction.

Middle East

Imprisoned Iranian protesters share a bond forged in hell

Former inmates describe the horrors they endured during five days in Kahrizak prison in Tehran after their arrests during postelection unrest.

By Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim

February 14, 2010  

Reporting from Tehran and Beirut – “What is this place?” the guard shouted.

“The end of the world!” the prisoners replied.

“Are you happy with the food?” he demanded.

“Yes, sir!” they answered.

“Have you been tamed?” he asked.

“Yes, sir!”

As ordered, they answered as one. And over the next five hellish days, they forged a bond that would remain even when they were freed. Cut off from the world, the 147 Iranian protesters rounded up during a July 9 demonstration in Tehran and stuffed into the notorious Kahrizak prison found they could rely only on themselves.

Paralysed Palestinian girl Marya wins a home

From The Sunday Times

February 14, 2010

Uzi Mahnaimi

An eight-year-old Palestinian girl who was paralysed from the neck down in an Israeli rocket attack won a significant victory last week.

Israel’s Ministry of Defence has been ordered by the country’s High Court to provide her with a home near the hospital where she is being treated.

The ruling means that Marya Aman, whose mother, brother and grandmother were killed in the Israeli attack in May 2006, will be able to leave the confines of the Alin hospital in Jerusalem for the first time in nearly four years.

“This is marvellous news for Marya,” said Adi Lustigman, her lawyer, who has been fighting to secure her future in the face of Israeli foot-dragging.

Asia

Coalition troops force Taliban retreat from key stronghold

Meticulous operation achieves its military objectives with minimal casualties – but what are the implications for President Barack Obama’s aim to establish Afghan democracy?

Jason Burke and Mark Townsend

The Observer, Sunday 14 February 2010

Hundreds of American Marines and British soldiers claimed early successes last night against light resistance as they advanced into key Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan in the biggest operation against insurgents since 2001.

One soldier from 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards was killed by an explosion while on vehicle patrol in Operation Moshtarak in the Nad-e-Ali area. Gordon Brown last night paid tribute to the fallen soldier. The prime minister said: “I want to pass on my condolences to the family and friends of one of our soldiers, very brave, very courageous, lost in this assault, making the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

The Year of the Tiger: The Chinese century

Today, China celebrates its New Year. But how much do we really know about the economic powerhouse in the east – and what lies in store for the rest of the world? Rupert Cornwell, Clifford Coonan, Hamish McRae and Greg Walton hunt down the answers

Sunday, 14 February 2010  

The pace and extent of China’s ascent among nations has been remarkable. Barely 20 years ago, it went virtually unnoticed. Today it is an economic superpower – if not (at least yet) a cultural and military one.

By every measure it is a rising power. It is now the world’s second- biggest economy behind the United States, and some experts predict it will overtake the US within two decades. It has overtaken Germany to become the world’s largest exporter.

Africa

World Cup may trigger early general election in Zimbabwe

MDC hopes to use global spotlight on South Africa to ensure Robert Mugabe runs a fair and non-violent poll

Alex Duval Smith, Africa correspondent

The Observer, Sunday 14 February 2010

Opponents of President Robert Mugabe have demanded early elections in Zimbabwe, timed to coincide with the World Cup being staged in neighbouring South Africa.

The demand by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) came as talks to extend the lifespan of the year-old unity government ended in deadlock last week.

The MDC hopes that the media focus on the region will raise the possibility of staging free and fair elections. High-ranking figures in the party, whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister a year ago, said South Africa’s desire to host a successful World Cup depended on peace in the region.

Latin America

Can’t miss if you seek a kiss at Rio Carnival



By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press Writer

RIO DE JANEIRO – A kiss is just a kiss, but at Rio’s Carnival, collecting as many pecking partners as possible at one of the 650 massive street parties that hit high gear on Saturday is truly a competitive sport.

Wearing a pink bikini top, flower-print miniskirt and a face dabbed with silver glitter, Taline Pereira was not shy about getting to the heart of what drives the parties – known as “blocos” – that in some cases draw upward of 1 million people.

“I traveled thousands of kilometers to come to my first Rio Carnival,” said the 18-year-old student from Brazil’s northeast. “Of course I’m going to kiss as many boys as possible.”

Yet Brazilians don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea about the widespread kissing known as “ficar,” which literally means “to stay.” It is an innocent game, they say, in which touching a woman anywhere outside the small of her back draws a red card – if not a slap.

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