The plight of the pelican is the poignant symbol of this disaster
By Michael McCarthy in Buras, Louisiana Monday, 7 June 2010
You mess at your peril with people’s cherished symbols, and James Harris, the Louisiana wildlife biologist, made the point to me as we looked at the brown pelicans, emblems of his state.Bedraggled wasn’t the word for them. It needed a stronger word. Enslimed came to mind. The birds, acrobatic fish hunters in their normal existence, were covered from their stubby tails to the tips of their improbably long bills in thick goo – a goo which actually had an oil industry name: “Louisiana sweet crude”.
Still Taking to the Streets to Honor Their Saints
By DAVID GONZALEZ
Published: June 6, 2010
For decades, the faithful who lived in the wood-frame houses along the route of an Italian enclave in North Williamsburg, Brooklyn, knew their duty during the area’s many religious processions. As the elaborately carved statues would approach, they darted out to the street to pay their respects or to join the procession.
Today, another ritual has emerged: curious hipsters whipping out cellphones to take a snapshot.“It used to be the whole street was waiting to give money,” recalled Lucy D’Alto, a longtime resident of Devoe Street.
USA
At least $500 million has been spent since 9/11 on renovating Guantanamo Bay
By Scott Higham and Peter Finn
Monday, June 7, 2010
GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA — At the U.S. naval station here, a handsome electronic sign hangs between two concrete pillars. In yellow enamel against a blue metal backdrop is a map of Cuba, the “Pearl of the Antilles,” above flashing time and temperature readings.
“Welcome Aboard,” the sign says.The cost of the marquee, along with a smaller sign positioned near the airfield: $188,000. Among other odd legacies from war-on-terror spending since 2001 for the troops at Guantanamo Bay: an abandoned volleyball court for $249,000, an unused go-kart track for $296,000 and $3.5 million for 27 playgrounds that are often vacant.
Anti-deficit pressures weigh on Democrats
A trimmed version of a jobless benefits bill is a sign that budget anxieties are encroaching on one of the party’s tenets.
By Janet Hook, Tribune Washington Bureau
June 7, 2010
Reporting from Washington –
With voter anger about the federal deficit intensifying in this election year, Democrats in Congress are edging away from one of their long-held articles of faith – government spending on social programs such as education and relief for the jobless.The painful tradeoff comes to center stage this week, when the Senate tries again to pass an extension of unemployment benefits – this time a $54-billion measure that marks an abrupt retreat from a $200-billion bill that Democratic leaders had proposed before the Memorial Day recess.
Europe
World’s best-preserved gladiatorial relics are discovered in the suburbs of York
Eighty skeletons – including one apparently killed by a large carnivore – found close to city centre
By David Keys, Archaeology Correspondent Monday, 7 June 2010
Archaeologists investigating an ancient Roman burial site in Britain have identified what may be the world’s best preserved remains of gladiators and other arena fighters who entertained audiences through bloody confrontations with wild animals.Eighty skeletons have been unearthed at the site in Driffield Terrace, south west of the centre of York, over the past decade. One man appears to have been killed by a large carnivore – almost certainly a lion, tiger or bear. Others have weapon impact damage and many of them have specific features, including marks on their bones, consistent with tough training regimes.
Poll favourite may put anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders in Cabinet
From The Times
June 7, 2010
David Charter, The Hague
Geert Wilders, the far-right Dutch politician who wants to tax Muslim headscarves and ban mosque building, could join the next government, the leader of the country’s biggest party said.Mark Rutte, who is tipped to be the next Prime Minister after Wednesday’s vote, told The Times that he was prepared to share power with the anti-Islamic MP in a new coalition.
Mr Rutte’s right-wing Liberal Party (VVD) is expected to win the largest number of seats in the general election and polls suggest that it could form a majority with the Christian Democrats and Mr Wilders’ Freedom Party.
Middle East
Israeli patrol kills four Palestinian militants
From Times Online
June 7, 2010
Times Online
An Israeli naval patrol killed at least four Palestinian militants in diving gear off the Gaza coast earlier this morning, according to Hamas security officials and the Israeli Army.The Israeli military said its forces prevented an attack on Israeli targets just before dawn, but did not explain further.
Four bodies were retrieved and taken to a hospital in central Gaza, said Moawiya Hassanain, a Palestinian health official. Two of the dead had suffered multiple gunshots to the head.
The incident comes eight days after Israeli marines killed nine people on the deck of a Turkish passenger ship which was part of a six-vessel aid convoy bound for the Gaza Strip.A second attempt by activists to break the blockade on Gaza was stopped on Saturday without incident.
Who’s Afraid of Turkey?
Its next move may favor the West.
Turkey is starting to scare Americans, for good reason. There was the high-profile clash at Davos over the Palestinians, fraying Turkish ties to Israel. Then came the surprise uranium deal with Tehran, undermining Western pressure on Iran to come clean about its nuclear program. Now there’s a new clash with Israel over Turkish support for the convoys challenging Israel’s embargo on Gaza. But just as Turkey is starting to look more assertively pro-Islamist than ever, there are signs that a big internal shift may reshape Turkish politics and redirect its foreign policy back toward the West.
Asia
Seven convicted over 1984 Bhopal gas disaster
Former employees of Union Carbide India Ltd found guilty of causing death by negligence over disaster that killed at least 15,000
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 June 2010 09.26 BST
An Indian court today convicted seven former senior employees of Union Carbide’s Indian subsidiary of causing “death by negligence over their part in the Bhopal gas tragedy in which an estimated 15,000 people died more than 25 years ago.The subsidiary company, Union Carbide India Ltd – which no longer exists – was convicted of the same charge.
The former employees, many now in their 70s, face up to two years in prison. The judge has not yet announced sentences.
China’s ‘cancer villages’ reveal dark side of economic boom
Polluting factories in rural communities are forming a deadly toxic cocktail for villagers, leading to surging rates of cancer
Jonathan Watts, Xinglong
The Guardian, Monday 7 June 2010
Zheng Gumei thought she was down with a cold until the doctor told her to wait outside the room so he could talk to her son alone.“I knew then that I must have a serious illness,” the 47-year-old farmer recalled, wiping away the tears and then staring into the distance. “I’m having treatment now. See, my hair has fallen out,” she said, taking off her hat to show the side-effects of chemotherapy.
Like many other residents of Xinglong, a small rural community next to an industrial park in China’s Yunnan province, she had little doubt about the source of her cancer. “The pollution in this village is bad, people get sick.”
Africa
Will foreign workers flocking to World Cup face xenophobic attacks?
With less than a week before the opening of the South Africa World Cup, an influx of foreigners in search of work has raised ethnic tensions. Some fear a repeat of the 2008 xenophobic riots that killed 67 foreign migrants.
By Scott Baldauf, Staff writer, Savious Kwinika, Correspondent / June 6, 2010
Johannesburg, South Africa
Well before dawn every day, Phinius Mawira takes a crate of oranges, apples, bananas, peanuts, and other snacks to one of the busiest street corners in the township of Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg.
Customers are happy with his service, the Zimbabwean migrant says, because most other shops in the area don’t open until well after most commuters have already left Diepsloot on minibus taxis for their jobs in Johannesburg. But some customers whisper the warning: “After the World Cup is over, you’d better run back to your country. People will come for you.”
Latin America
Learning Chinese in Mexico: Children prepare for the future
As China swiftly expands its reach across Latin America, a pilot program in Aguascalientes aims to introduce students to the Mandarin language and make them more competitive in the job market.
By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times
June 7, 2010
Reporting from Aguascalientes, Mexico –
Wo jiao Alberto.Wo jiao Maribel. Ni ji sui?
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Alberto and Maribel, sixth-graders at the Pedro Garcia Rojas elementary school here in central Mexico, introduce themselves to each other in Mandarin Chinese.
Their class also recites numbers, clothing items and weather conditions in a language that, to them, is about as foreign as it gets.
Some, like Damaris De Luna Sanchez, 11, move their hands the way a conductor directs an orchestra, slicing through the air to help them reach the proper intonations, the staccato flats and singsong vowelish sounds.