Pakistanis Say Taliban Arrest Was Meant to Hurt Peace Bid
By DEXTER FILKINS
Published: August 22, 2010
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – When American and Pakistani agents captured Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s operational commander, in the chaotic port city of Karachi last January, both countries hailed the arrest as a breakthrough in their often difficult partnership in fighting terrorism.But the arrest of Mr. Baradar, the second-ranking Taliban leader after Mullah Muhammad Omar, came with a beguiling twist: both American and Pakistani officials claimed that Mr. Baradar’s capture had been a lucky break. It was only days later, the officials said, that they finally figured out who they had.
Another news flash from Jupiter
msnbc.com
A Japanese amateur astronomer witnessed a flash on Jupiter over the weekend – less than three months after similar blip, apparently caused by a meteor fall, created a sensation among astronomers. The event suggests that the giant planet may be experiencing shooting stars more frequently than scientists thought, and that it’s just a case of looking in the right place at the right time.
That’s what Masayuki Tashikawa was doing early Saturday morning Japan time (around 18:22 GMT or 2:22 p.m. ET Friday), when he had his video-equipped telescope pointed in Jupiter’s direction from Kumamoto city on the island of Kyushu. In the 4-second video clip above, the second-long flash can be seen toward the lower left, about halfway through the clip.
USA
Far from Ground Zero, other plans for mosques run into vehement opposition
By Annie Gowen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 23, 2010
MURFREESBORO, TENN. — For more than 30 years, the Muslim community in this Nashville suburb has worshipped quietly in a variety of makeshift spaces — a one-bedroom apartment, an office behind a Lube Express — attracting little notice even after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.But when the community’s leaders proposed a 52,900-square-foot Islamic center with a school and a swimming pool this year, the vehement backlash from their neighbors caught them by surprise. Opponents crowded county meetings and held a noisy protest in the town square that drew hundreds, some carrying signs such as “Keep Tennessee Terror Free.”
Growth puts pressure on California’s state parks
By Marjie Lundstrom and Matt Weiser | Sacramento Bee
At the Riverwood Inn in rural Humboldt County, where a Harley-Davidson flag flaps on a light pole beneath the Stars and Stripes, the proprietor is steaming mad.Some 15 miles south of Loreen Eliason’s roadhouse, the California Department of Transportation is planning to widen a twisty stretch of Highway 101 through Richardson Grove State Park, home to one of the world’s last old-growth redwood forests. Although Caltrans has assured the public the ancient giants won’t be harmed, some residents and activists are alarmed by the very prospect of disturbing the trees’ shallow root systems.
Europe
Rock-star critic takes new swipe at Putin
By Shaun Walker in Moscow Monday, 23 August 2010
Hundreds of Russian police surrounded a central Moscow square yesterday as a prominent critic of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin led a protest concert against a road-building scheme that is becoming a focal point for demonstrations against the Kremlin. More than 1,000 people gathered at Pushkin Square to protest against a new road that will go through Khimki Forest just outside the capital, part of a new highway between Moscow and St Petersburg.Organisers of yesterday’s meeting had planned a protest concert by Yuri Shevchuk, one of Russia’s best-known rock musicians, who confronted Mr Putin about democratic freedoms this year during a televised meeting.
Half of French voters prefer Left candidate to Nicolas Sarkozy
More than half of France’s voters would prefer a candidate from the political left to conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy for the 2012 election, according to a new survey.
Published: 10:39PM BST 22 Aug 2010
The survey to be published by Liberation newspaper on Monday, said 55 per cent preferred either Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund and a favourite of the centre-left, or Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry to any from the right.
When it came to personalities, 44 per cent of those asked said they preferred Mr Strauss-Kahn as president, while 24 per cent said they preferred Mr Sarkozy. Ms Aubry was chosen by 31 per cent.
The poll highlights voters’ growing discontent as Mr Sarkozy struggles to deal with France’s economic woes and political scandals that have mired his government in recent months.
Middle East
The families waiting for Iran to free their children
Three American hikers held by Tehran for more than a year are pawns in a diplomatic game, their families tell David Usborne
Monday, 23 August 2010
For Laura Fattal, one of the mothers of the three American hikers held in an Iranian prison without trial for more than a year, the hardest thing is the silence. She writes to him daily, and believes the letters get through. But her son, Josh Fattal, isn’t allowed to write back.“We are sick to our stomachs worrying about them,” she explains on a muggy afternoon in the back garden of her brick home in Elkins Park, a northern suburb of Philadelphia. “We don’t know if they have a cold. We don’t know if they have a toothache, or what treatment they are getting. We have no idea.”
US troops ‘would only return to Iraq because of complete failure of security’
A “complete failure” of the Iraqi security forces would be the only situation where the US would resume combat operations there, according to the top American commander in Iraq.
Published: 10:44PM BST 22 Aug 2010
Gen Ray Odierno’s comments came as an American soldier was killed in a rocket attack in southern Iraq, marking the first American fatality since the last combat unit pulled out of the country.
The Iraqi security forces have been doing “so well for so long now that we really believe we’re beyond that point,” Gen Odierno said.
On Thursday, the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division began crossing the border from Iraq into Kuwait, becoming the last combat brigade to leave Iraq. Its exodus, along with that of the approximately 2,000 remaining US combat forces destined to leave in the coming days, fulfils Mr Obama’s pledge to end combat operations in Iraq by Aug. 31.
Asia
China may drop death penalty for economic crimes
China is considering dropping the use of the death penalty to punish several economic crimes, Xinhua has reported.
The BBC
A draft amendment to the country’s criminal code suggests that 13 “economy-related, non-violent offences” be dropped from the death penalty list.China currently sentences to death people found guilty of 68 specified crimes.
China executes more people every year than any other country, and has drawn criticism for its record.
Amendments
China’s state news agency, Xinhua, said the amendment was submitted for a first reading to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.
Ex-policeman hijacks bus in Manila
MONDAY, AUGUST 23, 2010A dismissed policeman armed with an automatic rifle has seized a bus in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, in a bid to demand his reinstatement, police said.
Eight of the 25 hostages, including three children, were subsequently released, and appeared to be unhurt, Jorge Carino, a journalist from ABS-CBN, a Philippine TV-network, told Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, police sharpshooters took positions around the bus, which was parked near a downtown Manila park, and negotiations to free the hostages were under way, Alex Gutierrez, deputy director of Manila police, said.
Africa
Boys hoping to gain their manhood lose it – forever
In Eastern Cape, South Africa, circumcisions performed to make youths into men are often botched. Some are too young to understand the extent of the damage.
By Robyn Dixon and Kylé Pienaar, Los Angeles Times
August 23, 2010
Reporting from Libode, South Africa –
In the windblown hills of the Eastern Cape, boys from the Xhosa tribe are in a hurry to be men.At 20, Siphelele Zweni was ridiculed in his village. They called him nofontyela, a non-man, who’d gone too long without his coming-of-age circumcision.
But when it did take place, Zweni’s circumcision and initiation was like a sadistic scene from “Lord of the Flies.” It cost him, literally, the very thing he yearned for: his manhood.
Latin America
Trapped miners in Chile are alive
MONDAY, AUGUST 23, 2010
Sebastian Pinera, the Chilean president, has said that all 33 miners trapped underground for the past 17 days are still alive.Pinera announced on Sunday that the trapped miners had made contact through a written note attached to a drill that signalled the good news.
“All 33 of us are well inside the shelter,” Pinera read, waving a message scribbled in red pencil sent by the miners 700 meters (2,300 feet) below the ground.
“This came out of the ground. It’s a message from our miners telling us they are alive, that they are together.”