Docudharma Times Monday May 31

10 Reported Killed as Israel Attacks Boats Headed to Gaza



By ISABEL KERSHNER

Published: May 31, 2010

JERUSALEM – The Israeli Navy attacked a flotilla carrying thousands of tons of supplies for Gaza on Monday morning, killing at least 10 people, according to the Israeli military and activists traveling with the flotilla. The Israeli Defense Forces said naval personnel boarding the six ships in the flotilla met with “live fire and light weaponry including knives and clubs.”

“As a result of this life-threatening and violent activity, naval forces employed riot dispersal means, including live fire,” the I.D.F. said in a statement.

In a financial crisis, what counts is what works

Free-market capitalism has imploded, and Europe’s moment has not come: big-picture explanations of the world rarely hold good for long

Larry Elliott

The Guardian, Monday 31 May 2010

Grievous, but perhaps not grievous enough. Sufficient to prompt swift action to prevent the global economy sliding into depression, but perhaps so successful that the option of a return to business as usual has been kept alive.

Almost three years into the financial crisis, all regions are growing, albeit at varying speeds. There is pressure on heavily indebted governments to abandon unorthodox economic policies and return to rigid fiscal austerity. Banks, hedge funds and private equity firms are lobbying hard to water down attempts to rein in their activities.

USA

Holiday weekend is ominous sign of hard times to come for Louisiana beach town

Tourism

By Theresa Vargas

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, May 31, 2010

GRAND ISLE, LA. — If the rig had never blown, if the oil had never spewed, if the roads of Grand Isle had never given way to an endless stream of military vehicles, Mary Jackson would have spent Memorial Day weekend fishing with her 3-year-old grandson, a boy who wakes up in the morning talking about the water.

Penny and Frank Besson would have added up more than $800 in sales each night at their souvenir shop, instead of $26.23 one night and $48 another.

BP’s new plan risks worsening oil spill  

A maneuver that includes severing a leaking pipe from the well may increase the flow as much as 20%. Officials also say there is no immediate remedy to plug the well until August.

By Margot Roosevelt and Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times

May 31, 2010

Reporting from Los Angeles and New Orleans – BP’s plan to sever a leaking pipe as part of an effort to cap its runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico could increase flow by as much as 20%, and the oil giant has no remedy to stop up the well until August, Obama administration and company officials said Sunday.

The risky maneuver, part of an attempt to contain the gusher and divert the oil through a pipe to the surface, could begin Monday or Tuesday.

Europe

Vatican reaches out to atheists – but not you, Richard Dawkins



By Jerome Taylor, Religious Affairs Correspondent  Monday, 31 May 2010

The Vatican is planning a new initiative to reach out to atheists and agnostics in an attempt to improve the church’s relationship with non-believers. Pope Benedict XVI has ordered officials to create a new foundation where atheists will be encouraged to meet and debate with some of the Catholic Church’s top theologians.

The Vatican hopes to stage a series of debates in Paris next year. But militant non-believers hoping for a chance to set senior church figures straight about the existence of God are set to be disappointed: the church has warned that atheists with high public profiles such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens will not be invited.

Henry II’s mistress returned to righful resting place

From The Times

May 31, 2010

Adam Sage, Paris

With her porcelain skin, blonde hair and dark blue eyes she was once hailed as the most beautiful woman in Europe. Yet for more than 200 years the bones of Diane de Poitiers were left in a common grave after her tomb was destroyed in the French Revolution.

This weekend the celebrated mistress of Henry II – not to mention pioneer in the fields of dieting and jogging – returned to her rightful resting place in a ceremony that marked the healing of the historic scars running through Gallic society.

Thousands of locals turned out to watch when de Poitiers was transported from the village church to the sepulchre in the mansion where she spent the final years of her life in the 16th century.

Middle East

Iran outflanks Israel in the dark arts of nuclear diplomacy  

 

By Rupert Cornwell Monday, 31 May 2010

The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, cornerstone of global disarmament efforts, has gained a new lease of life – but at the price of a small but telling diplomatic victory for Iran, and new strains between Israel and its most important ally, the US.

Unlike its predecessor in 2005, the regular five-yearly NPT review conference that wrapped up at the United Nations at the weekend this time did manage to produce a final resolution. The 189 signatories unanimously reaffirmed the treaty’s basic bargain – that states with nuclear weapons will take steps to get rid of them (although once again no deadline is stipulated), while those that don’t have them undertake not to do so.

Israeli filmmaker adopts camel race dream

Ezry Keydar lives in the desert and wants Bedouins and camels to stay part of the natural and cultural scene. He is helping a dreamer set up a camel race. Besides, he can’t finish his film without it.

By Batsheva Sobelman, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Jerusalem – Ezry Keydar and Nadav Ben Israel, two Israeli filmmakers, began making a documentary last year about a Bedouin man’s dream of restoring camel races and cultural pride. But even before the film has been finished, his dream has become theirs.

Camel racing in Israel may sound outlandish, but there’s a serious point. Keydar says Israel is systematically pushing camels – a symbol of Bedouin culture – into extinction.

Asia

Insurgents in Kandahar’s undergrowth drag Nato forces into ‘green hell’

Spring brings renewed risk from IEDs, and political solutions seem a long way off. Julius Cavendish reports from Pashmul  

Monday, 31 May 2010

Under a baby-blue sky Sgt Michael Ingram was bleeding his life into the Afghan dirt. Explosives hidden in a mud house had taken off both his legs, and as the call went out for a medic, it took a moment to realise that the medic was also hurt, along with a third US soldier who had taken shrapnel in his shoulder.

One of the most popular men in Charlie Company, First Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, Sgt Ingram died from massive blood loss. “There is no way to comp-rehend an IED (improvised explosive device) until you see someone hit one,” Lt Mark Morrison, a platoon leader in the same company, said later. “Then everything changes.”

China pins food-security hopes on humble potato



By Lauren Keane

Washington Post Foreign Service

Monday, May 31, 2010

JIUTIAOLONG, HUNAN PROVINCE, CHINA — In the land of rice, China is looking at an unlikely tool for maintaining growth and social harmony: the potato.

The Chinese government has begun ramping up research, production and training related to the humble spud, and hopes are high that it could help alleviate poverty and serve as a bulwark against famine.

Africa

Egyptian mayor’s ‘lost tomb’ found

3,300-year-old site rediscovered after being plundered

Associated Press

CAIRO – Archaeologists have discovered the 3,300-year-old tomb of the ancient Egyptian capital’s mayor, whose resting place had been lost under the desert sand since 19th-century treasure hunters first carted off some of its decorative wall panels, officials announced Sunday.

Ptahmes, the mayor of Memphis, also served as army chief, overseer of the treasury and royal scribe under Seti I and his son and successor, Ramses II, in the 13th century B.C.

Latin America

Colombia election surprise: Juan Manuel Santos routs Antanas Mockus

Polls had suggested that upstart Antanas Mockus was in a dead heat with Juan Manuel Santos in the Colombia presidential election. But Mr. Santos won the first round handily. He will face Mr. Mockus on the final ballot on June 20.

By Sara Miller Llana, Staff writer / May 30, 2010

Cartagena, Colombia

A race that was in a deadlock ahead of presidential elections in Colombia today ended with a clear lead for former defense minister Juan Manuel Santos, who captured 46.6 percent of votes.

Because Mr. Santos, a staunch ally of conservative President Álvaro Uribe, did not get 50 percent of the votes, he will face off against former Bogotá mayor Antanas Mockus on June 20. Mr. Mockus, second in a field of 9 candidates, captured 21.5 percent of votes.

Mockus had surged before the race, with polls showing he would capture 32 percent of votes, just slightly less than Santos with 34 percent. Many analysts surmised that his popularity represented a shift in priorities for Colombians, away from security and towards jobs and more transparency.

Ignoring Asia A Blog