‘Huge inferno’ kills scores in Bangladesh
Burning chemicals ‘spewed on the streets like lava from a volcano’
By Anis Ahmed
DHAKA – At least 114 people were killed in a fire that raged through a crowded, centuries-old Dhaka neighborhood into early Friday morning.The blaze, which broke out about 10.30 p.m. local time Thursday (12.30 p.m. ET), was the worst to sweep through the Bangladeshi capital in almost four decades.
Witnesses said flames rose as high as six stories with burning chemicals oozing from buildings “like lava.”
Rescue workers scrambled Friday to pull bodies, many charred beyond recognition, from smoldering debris.
Glastonbury: field of dreams
The first Glastonbury festival attracted 1,500 hippies. Now, 40 years on, it is bigger than ever. So what is the secret of its success?
Laura Barton
The Guardian, Friday 4 June 2010
Worthy Farm lies between two limestone ridges on the southern tip of the Mendip Hills, six miles east of Glastonbury. This is a region famed for its legends and its leylines, but for much of the year the farm’s acres stretch in broad green tranquillity, preoccupied with the rhythms of dairy farming; the grazing and milking of nearly 400 cows that begins each day at 4am.For 40 years, however, these fields have also played host to Europe’s largest and most revered outdoor music and arts festival. In 1970, it welcomed 1,500 people; this June, it will be more than 175,000. Then, it was Marc Bolan playing the headline slot, with Roy Harper and Quintessence on the bill and free milk for all; this year, it will be Gorillaz and Muse and Stevie Wonder, a circus, vintage Indian motorcycles, sushi bars and the Free University, all broadcast around the world by the BBC.
USA
BP caps well; effectiveness of ‘top hat’ unclear
By Joel Achenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 4, 2010; 1:01 AM
The well has been capped, more or less. BP engineers Thursday night guided a containment dome onto the hydrocarbon geyser shooting from the Gulf of Mexico oil well — a desperate and iffy attempt to capture the leaking oil and funnel it to a ship on the surface.
It was not an elegant operation. Furious clouds of oil escaped the “top hat.” Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander for the spill, called the development a positive step but said, “It will be sometime before we can confirm that this method will work and to what extent it will mitigate the release of oil into the environment.”
Federal regulators found the toxic metal in the paint after an anonymous tip to a California congresswoman.
By Peter Nicholas, Tribune Washington Bureau
June 4, 2010
Reporting from Washington – McDonald’s will recall about 12 million “Shrek” drinking glasses because federal regulators found they contain the toxic metal cadmium, which poses health risks.The glasses have been sold for $2 apiece at McDonald’s restaurants across the country as a promotional tie-in with the movie “Shrek Forever After.” Purchasers will be advised to keep them away from children and to return them to McDonald’s for a refund.
Europe
What are the Bilderberg Group really doing in Spain?
Security is so tight at the annual cabal of the world’s elite that conspiracy theories about what is discussed – and who’s invited – are rife
By Anita Brooks in Sitges Friday, 4 June 2010
If the conspiracy theorists are on to something, they could be plotting the invasion of Iran, planning the funeral of the Euro or scheming to wipe out French poodles in pink sweaters at this very minute.Or perhaps the world’s financial and political leaders are simply schmoozing about their golf game as they enjoy a “chocolate massage” followed by the “honey body scrub” and the “spectacular oxygen Echo2 facial” at the Dolce Hotel’s spa in Sitges.
Eric Zemmour provokes France’s elite with claims of national decline
From The Times
June 4, 2010
Charles Bremner, Paris
France has been thwarted in its destiny of greatness by the English and is now doomed to collapse into civil war between Christians and Muslim “barbarians”.You might think that such a prophecy – articulated by one of the country’s top thinkers – would banish its author to the lunatic fringe. Yet Eric Zemmour is earning fame and fortune charting his country’s decline, with his latest gloomy book Mélancolie Française flying off the shelves.
Zemmour, 51, has emerged this spring as the hero of the ordinary bloke, and a villain to the left-of-centre Establishment. Millions tune in to radio and television to hear him breaching taboos over race, immigration, abortion and, his pet subject, perfidious Albion. On Saturday night, two million people watched Zemmour clash with Georges-Marc Benamou, a leftish writer and adviser to President Sarkozy, on France 2 television.
Middle East
Gaza flotilla attack: Israel ‘considers easing blockade’
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, could ease the blockade imposed on Gaza following international criticism of the deadly raid on an aid flotilla, according to reports.
Published: 7:00AM BST 04 Jun 2010
The prime minister could allow merchant ships to carry goods to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip but only after an inspection, public television said.
The private Channel 10 television said meanwhile that the prime minister could seek international help to inspect shipments heading for Gaza.
The reports said Mr Netanyahu hopes this would ensure that no arms reach Gaza and that it would help deflect international criticism following Monday’s deadly raid that killed nine foreign aid activists.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon demanded Wednesday that Israel lift the blockade immediately in the wake of the raid.
Mr Ban said the crippling Israeli siege of the impoverished Palestinian coastal enclave was “counter-productive, unsustainable and wrong.”
Another aid ship on way to Gaza
FRIDAY, JUNE 04, 2010
Malaysia’s government has urged Israel not to take any action that could harm people aboard a Malaysian-funded Irish aid ship, now heading to Gaza.The MV Rachel Corrie is carrying 11 activists, including Mairead Corrigan, a Nobel Peace laureate, and eight crew members, just days after another aid vessel was boarded by Israeli soldiers who killed nine activists.
Anifah Aman, Malaysia’s foreign affairs minister, said in a statement issued late on Thursday that the Israeli authorities should ensure a safe passage for the vessel to Gaza to deliver the humanitarian cargo.
Asia
New Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan promises to rebuild country
Fifth leader in four years voted in by ruling Democrats after Yukio Hatoyama’s resignation over economy and US airbase
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 June 2010 08.22 BST
The Japanese finance minister who started his political career as a straight-talking former civic activist today became the country’s fifth prime minister in less than four years.Naoto Kan beat his only rival, the relatively unknown Shinji Tarutoko, in a vote among MPs of the ruling Democratic party. He immediately promised to “rebuild the country” as it confronts economic stagnation, mounting public debt and regional instability.
The leadership election was called after the resignation on Wednesday of Yukio Hatoyama, following his humiliating climbdown over the location of a US airbase and his failure to stamp out sleaze in his own party.
Burmese junta ‘is developing a nuclear threat’
By Jerome Taylor Friday, 4 June 2010
Burma is trying to develop nuclear weapons, according to exiled journalists who claim to have uncovered evidence of a nascent missile programme.Reporters working for the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a respected dissident radio station that broadcasts into South-east Asia out of Oslo, say they have collected files and photographs which suggest that the country’s ruling junta is mining and experimenting with uranium with the aim of one day creating a bomb.
Africa
President Hosni Mubarak’s party tightens its grip on Egypt
President Hosni Mubarak won 74 of 88 seats in elections for the Shura Council, Egypt’s upper house of parliament, amid accusations of fraud and state intimidation. The vote sets the scene for more important upcoming elections.
By Sarah A. Topol, Correspondent / June 3, 2010
Cairo
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s party has tightened its grip on power heading into a tense year of elections that could replace the man who has been a pillar of Middle East politics since 1981.
In the first of three elections to be held over the next 16 months, the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) rolled to victory in elections for the Shura Council, Egypt’s upper house of parliament. The election put up for grabs 88 seats in the 264-seat chamber, which is less powerful than the lower house of parliament. The NDP walked away with 74 of them.Voter turnout was low and there were accusations of fraud and state intimidation at the polls, a familiar pattern in Egyptian elections.