Docudharma Times Thursday December 25

MERRY  

CHRISTMAS

Coal Ash Spill Revives Issue of Its Hazards



By SHAILA DEWAN

Published: December 24, 2008

KINGSTON, Tenn. – What may be the nation’s largest spill of coal ash lay thick and largely untouched over hundreds of acres of land and waterways Wednesday after a dam broke this week, as officials and environmentalists argued over its potential toxicity.

Federal studies have long shown coal ash to contain significant quantities of heavy metals like arsenic, lead and selenium, which can cause cancer and neurological problems. But with no official word on the dangers of the sludge in Tennessee, displaced residents spent Christmas Eve worried about their health and their property, and wondering what to do.

Thousands of candidates may complicate Iraq’s provincial elections



By Mohammed al Dulaimy | McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD – Iraqi voters next month will see 14,500 candidates vie for 440 open seats on provincial councils, an outpouring of interest in a new phase of Iraqi self-government that could make for a baffling ballot.

The Jan. 31 poll will be the first in a series of votes in Iraq next year that include elections in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, a national referendum on the new U.S.-Iraq security pact and nationwide parliamentary elections.

The provincial council elections will bring new blood into local governing bodies that were filled by political blocs in Iraq’s 2005 elections. They’ll also give national parties a local toehold to advance their agendas

USA

Army Officials Say Many More Active-Duty Troops Are Needed



By Ann Scott Tyson

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, December 25, 2008; Page A04

The Army needs to add at least 30,000 active-duty soldiers to its ranks to fulfill its responsibilities around the world without becoming stretched dangerously thin, senior Army officials warn.

“You can’t do what we’ve been tasked to do with the number of people we have,” Undersecretary of the Army Nelson Ford said in an interview last week. “You can see a point where it’s going to be very difficult to cope.”

Already, the Army lacks a strategic reserve of brigades trained and ready for major combat, officials said, and units being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are receiving new soldiers at the last minute, meaning they have insufficient time to train together before crossing into the war zone.

Planning for Obama’s inaugural bash is no party

Donor fatigue and contribution limits mean more givers are needed. That has made preparations more difficult.

By Peter Wallsten and Tom Hamburger

December 25, 2008

Reporting from Washington — From the announcement of Barack Obama’s longshot candidacy to the management of his presidential transition, his organization — including the biggest fundraising operation in U.S. political history — has rolled forward with seemingly flawless precision.

But for the team trying to pull in more than $40 million to pay for the festivities at next month’s historic inauguration, the process has had some uncharacteristically bumpy moments. Officials expect to meet their budget and underwrite a colossal celebration that they say will be open to more people than ever.

Still, with less than a month to go, organizers are adding elements to the master calendar. They’ve told some supporters that they might not get all the goodies they’d expected in exchange for big donations.

Europe

Pope greets Christmas with appeal for children

Festive atmosphere in West Bank’s Bethlehem, violence in Gaza

msnbc.com news services

Vatican City – Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Christmas Midnight Mass early Thursday by sending out an appeal for children who are abused, forced to live on the street or serve as soldiers.

In the splendor of St. Peter’s Basilica, Benedict marked the birth of Jesus with a call to the faithful to help children who are denied the love of their parents and those who are exploited across the world.

“The Child of Bethlehem summons us once again to do everything in our power to put an end to the suffering of these children,” he said.

Eight killed in Ukraine explosion

Rescue teams are working in the rubble of an apartment building in southern Ukraine, where an explosion has killed at least eight people.

The BBC

Local officials in Yevpatoria, in Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, say as many as 30 other people may have been buried under the debris.

Two entrances to the five-storey building were blocked by falling concrete following the explosion.

The cause of the blast is thought to have been a gas leak.

A spokesman for Ukraine’s emergency ministry said 19 people had been rescued, with four of them being treated in hospital.

Middle East

Saudi women’s group assails judge over 8-year-old’s marriage



(CNN)

A group fighting for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia condemned a judge Wednesday for refusing to annul the marriage of an 8-year-old girl to a 47-year-old man.

The group’s co-founder, Wajeha al-Huwaider, told CNN that achieving human rights in the kingdom means standing against those who want to “keep us backward and in the dark ages.”

The Society of Defending Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia, in a statement published on its Web site, called on the “minister of justice and human rights groups to interfere now in this case” by divorcing the girl from the man. “They must end this marriage deal which was made by the father of the girl and the husband.”

On Saturday, the judge, Sheikh Habib Abdallah al-Habib, dismissed a petition brought by the girl’s mother.  Watch CNN’s Mohammed Jamjoom report on the case »

The mother’s lawyer, Abdullah al-Jutaili, said the judge found that the mother — who is separated from the girl’s father — is not the legal guardian, and therefore cannot represent her daughter.

Bethlehem Enjoys A Festive Christmas



Associated Press

Thursday, December 25, 2008; Page A16

BETHLEHEM, West Bank, Dec. 24 — Christians celebrated Bethlehem’s merriest Christmas in eight years Wednesday, with hotels booked solid, Manger Square bustling with families and Israeli and Palestinian forces cooperating to make things run smoothly.

The festivities in the West Bank town contrasted sharply with Hamas-run Gaza. While revelers in Bethlehem launched pink fireworks from a rooftop, fighters fired more than 80 rockets and mortar shells at Israeli towns and villages, sending people scrambling for bomb shelters.

Asia

Amid Taliban Rule, a NATO Supply Line Is Choked



By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH

Published: December 24, 2008

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – This frontier city boasts a major air base and Pakistani Army and paramilitary garrisons. But the 200 Taliban guerrillas were in no rush as they methodically ransacked depots with NATO supplies here two weeks ago.

The militants began by blocking off a long stretch of the main road, giving them plenty of time to burn everything inside, said one guard, Haroon Khan, who was standing next to a row of charred trucks.

After assuring the overmatched guards they would not be killed – if they agreed never to work there again – the militants shouted “God is great” through bullhorns.

Mass grave plundered at site of Taleban prisoners’ massacre>



From The Times

December 24, 2008

Tom Coghlan in Kabul

The Afghan Government has called on Nato troops to guard an alleged war crimes site that has been plundered and as many as 2,000 bodies apparently removed.

The mass grave at Dasht-e-Leili in northern Afghanistan is thought to contain the remains of between 1,000 and 2,000 Taleban prisoners massacred by fighters loyal to the Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum in November 2001. The killings occurred in the remote Leili desert as General Dostum’s forces fought alongside US special forces.

Prisoners were packed into sealed shipping containers and left to suffocate. Others are alleged to have died when fighters riddled other containers full of prisoners with bullets before burning and burying the bodies.

Africa

Somalia president expected to resign

The departure of Abdullahi Yusuf, long seen as a stabilizing force, could reignite clan warfare — or pave the path toward peace.

By Edmund Sanders

December 25, 2008

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya — Somalia’s aging president is expected to resign in the coming days, aides said Wednesday, succumbing to threats of impeachment and international sanctions over his refusal to support a national reconciliation plan.

Abdullahi Yusuf, a warlord-turned-statesman, was once widely viewed as the linchpin of Somalia’s transitional government. But in recent months, Yusuf, 74, has repeatedly clashed with the prime minister and has come to be regarded as an obstacle to peace.

Yusuf’s departure would mark a turning point for the Horn of Africa nation. It could reignite clan warfare, but it also could clear the way for a new power-sharing government that includes a key Islamist opposition faction.

“Yusuf was always a liability to Somalia and to the peace process,” said Ali Said Omar Ibrahim, head of the Center for Peace and Democracy, a Somali peace advocacy group.

Guinea coup leaders tighten grip

Leaders of a military coup in Guinea appear to have tightened their grip on power following the death of the country’s president, Lansana Conte.

The BBC

The junior army officer who led the coup, Capt Moussa Dadis Camara, said he was now “president of the republic”.

Members of the ousted government have been ordered to give themselves up at an army camp in the capital Conakry.

A regional delegation is due in Guinea later to try to encourage a return to constitutional rule.

The group, Ecowas, has condemned the coup, as has the African Union.

“Ecowas cannot accept military imposition on the people of Guinea,” said Mohammed Ibn Chambers, one of the delegation’s members.

Latin America

O holy fiesta! A Mexican Christmas Eve

Gustavo Arellano and his extended family celebrate Christmas Eve at his Tía Maria’s house with a feast of epic proportions.

By Gustavo Arellano > > >

December 24, 2008

My parents remain the only ones of their respective siblings who have no grandchildren, so we — Mom, Dad, me, a brother and two sisters — spend most of our Christmas Eves with the family of my Tía Maria.

Eight of her 11 children live on the same street in Anaheim where she has resided for nearly 20 years, one street over from where I grew up.

For the holidays, her home is transformed into a throbbing hub of Mexican Catholicism — wailing grandkids, a 10-foot-long Nativity scene with votives, saints and Magi mixed in with statues of various Marian apparitions, as well as action figures placed by grandkids.