Docudharma Times Friday March 5

Chile says rebuilding after quake could take years



By MICHAEL WARREN and EVA VERGARIA, Associated Press Writer

DICHATO, Chile – Chile’s president says it will take three years to rebuild the region wracked by an earthquake and tsunami, something all too clear to the people cleaning up this splintered tourist town.

Dichato is nestled between pine-forested hills and a lovely sheltered bay where colorful fishing boats served coastal communities and export companies. Its population of 4,000 triples each January and February with tourists – many were in town when disaster struck – and residents count on that brief summer vacation for much of their income.

The quake and tsunami killed at least 19 people in Dichato and smashed neat wooden houses and small hotels into huge splinter piles. The surge ruined most other buildings in town, which stank Thursday with decomposing fish. One fishing boat marooned far inland was full of rotting octopus.

Dinosaurs were killed off by Isle of Wight-sized asteroid, scientists say

After studying 20 years of research and data, panel of 41 scientists rules out volcanic explosions for dinosaurs’ demise

Vikram Dodd

The Guardian, Friday 5 March 2010

A mere 65 million years after the demise of the dinosaurs, a panel of the world’s most eminent scientists have finally got to the bottom of the extinction. The creatures were wiped out by a large asteroid slamming into the Earth, they insist.

After studying 20 years worth of research and data, a panel of 41 scientists came to a conclusion which will sound more than just a bit familiar to most schoolchildren who paid attention in science class.

The new finding flies in the face of claims by other scientists that the extinction was caused by volcanic explosions.

USA

House Adopts $15 Billion Plan to Spur Job Creation



By CARL HULSE

Published: March 4, 2010

WASHINGTON – The House on Thursday approved a $15 billion measure intended to spur job creation by granting tax breaks to businesses that hire workers, as Democrats, bracing for new jobless figures, tried to show that Congress was doing something about stubborn unemployment.Democrats pushed through the measure on a mainly party-line vote of 217 to 201. They characterized the measure, which also funneled an extra $20 billion into road and bridge construction, as just the first step in a broad legislative push to bolster the economy and encourage hiring.

Thousands protest California education cuts

Rallies and walkouts are largely peaceful, but 150 are arrested in Oakland as a freeway is blocked. The demonstrations are part of a nationwide ‘Day of Action for Public Education.’

By Carla Rivera, Nicole Santa Cruz and Larry Gordon

March 5, 2010

A day of passionate protest against education funding cuts attracted thousands of demonstrators Thursday to mostly peaceful rallies, walkouts and teach-ins at universities and high schools throughout California and the nation. In Oakland, however, about 150 protesters were arrested after they blocked a freeway, snarling rush-hour traffic.

From Los Angeles to New York and from San Diego to Humboldt in Northern California, students, faculty and parents at many schools decried higher student fees, reduced class offerings and teacher layoffs in what leaders described as a “Day of Action for Public Education.” Labor unions and student government groups were the main organizers.

Europe

Extreme right on the march in Europe’s most tolerant nation

Geert Wilders triumphs in Netherlands local elections

By Vanessa Mock   Friday, 5 March 2010

The anti-Islamist party led by Dutch firebrand Geert Wilders has triumphed in municipal polls in The Netherlands, opening the way for a political breakthrough for the far-right in general elections in June.

Mr Wilders, known for his blond mane and due in London today to show his anti-Islam film in the House of Lords at the invitation of a Ukip peer, has campaigned for an immediate freeze on immigration and a ban on the wearing of Muslim headscarves in public. His Freedom Party was declared the surprise winner yesterday in Almere, a city just east of Amsterdam with a large immigrant population.

Greece ready for IMF rescue if eurozone fails to ‘rise to the occasion’

Latest €5bn bond issue is oversubscribed

By Sean O’Grady, Economics Editor Friday, 5 March 2010

Fears that Greece may have to turn to the International Monetary Fund for a rescue package were played down yesterday by European officials and the IMF itself as the country finally succeeded in getting a key bond issue away, with a €5bn (£4.5bn) fund-raising oversubscribed.

Greek government sources have dropped steadily stronger hints in recent days that Athens might have to turn to the IMF in the absence of substantive European support – possibly in an attempt to force the European Union’s hand. The Greek finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, said yesterday that the EU should outline the specifics of an aid package to send a message of “tangible solidarity”.

“If they would be clearer in what way they’d help Greece if it were necessary, then Greece wouldn’t need support,” Mr Papaconstantinou said. “In practice, what we are looking for are clear support mechanisms so markets can be assured they can’t play games at Greece’s expense.”

Middle East

Iraq election: Sunnis get ready to make their mark

After years of bloodshed, religious minority warily sets aside boycott to vote in multi-party poll

Martin Chulov in Ramadi

The Guardian, Friday 5 March 2010

Sheikh Hamid al-Hayis, a cherubic local chieftain, gestures from an ornate chair in his new concrete palace and states his case for being elected to Iraq’s new parliament: “If the Shias only knew how much I loved them,” he said, “They would weep on my shoulder like they weep for Imam Hussein.”

The self-proclaimed Iraqi nationalist could have been campaigning anywhere in Iraq’s Shia majority heartland, which is set to consolidate its hold on power in Sunday’s general election.

But what makes Hayis’s bid for office remarkable is that he is a key Sunni chief and his words are uttered from a base where once they would have been seen as a profanity – Ramadi, the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency.

Turkey recalls Ambassador after US vote on Armenia ‘genocide’

From The Times

March 5, 2010

Giles Whittell, Washington

One of the worst massacres of the 20th-century came back to haunt international politics yesterday when a powerful Washington panel voted to call the murder of about 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey “genocide”.

After more than three hours of debate, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs narrowly approved a resolution calling on President Obama to “characterise the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide”.

The vote went ahead despite last-minute pleas from the White House and State Department and triggered a furious reaction from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister.

Asia

Wen Jiabao unveils increased social and rural spending for China

From Times Online

March 5, 2010

Jane Macartney in Beijing

China congratulated itself today on its escape relatively unscathed from the global financial crisis but warned against complacency and vowed the poor would not be forgotten in its economic advance.

In his annual “state of the nation” address to the opening session of the National People’s Congress, the rubber-stamp parliament, Premier Wen Jiabao drew thunderous applause from the nearly 3,000 deputies when he said China’s economy had been the first in the world to turn around.

But the premier’s two hour speech was imbued with his traditional conservatism rather than triumphalism.

Kaesong holds value-added role for Koreas

Mar 5, 2010

By Andray Abrahamian  

SEOUL – The South Korea-United States free-trade agreement ( FTA) awaiting approval by the US Congress and Korea’s National Assembly is languishing in legislative purgatory nearly three years after the initial signing. The political impact it will have on bilateral US-South Korean relations when eventually ratified in some form has been thoroughly debated, but a subtle impact on US-North Korean relations has slipped under the radar. Namely, the status of the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

In a relationship defined by largely ineffective sticks, the US might finally have a useful economic carrot to brandish in negotiations with the North, potentially helping to provide a way out of the largely confrontational posture that both nations have adopted since president George W Bush’s “axis of evil” speech: free trade through Kaesong.

Africa

Togo opposition claims ‘irregularities’ in poll

The main opposition party in Togo has claimed widespread irregularities in the country’s presidential election.

The BBC Friday, 5 March 2010  

People in Togo voted on Thursday to chose a new head of state – five years after hundreds died following the last, disputed election.

President Faure Gnassingbe is running for a second term, and his main challenger is Jean Pierre Fabre of the Union of Forces for Change (UFC).

All parties have been stressing the need for a peaceful poll.

The UFC has pointed to several problems with the voting that it says could lead to fraud.

The ballot papers did not have serial numbers, only the stubs did, says the BBC’s Caspar Leighton in Lome.

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