Docudharma Times Sunday July 26

U.S. mulling private security in Afghanistan

More American troops means more protection needed on bases, convoys

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan may hire a private contractor to provide around-the-clock security at dozens of bases and protect vehicle convoys moving throughout the country.

The possibility of awarding a security contract comes as the Obama administration is sending thousands of more troops into Afghanistan to quell rising violence fueled by a resurgent Taliban. As the number of American forces grow over the next several months, so too does the demand to guard their outposts.

The last of the noblest generation

Harry Patch died yesterday aged 111. He was the nation’s final living link to the horrors of the Western Front. David Randall, the last journalist to meet Private Patch, reports

Sunday, 26 July 2009

Harry Patch, the last survivor of the Western Front, and the man who reminded the modern world of its filthy slaughter, died yesterday at the age of 111.

His life ended on a fine summer’s morning in his native Somerset, many miles and 92 years from the Passchendaele mud where so many of his comrades fell, and where he, but for the aim of a German artillery officer, so nearly joined them. For decades he kept the sights and sounds of that butcher’s yard to himself. But then, beginning at the age of 100, he began to talk of them. In so doing, he became the very voice of history: the last Tommy, still fighting. But now, his campaign is over.

As the news of Harry’s death filtered out from his residential home in Wells, the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, paid tribute, not only to Harry, but to all the men who fought beside him. “The noblest of all generations has left us,” he said. “But they will never be forgotten. We say today with still greater force, ‘We will remember them’.”

USA

Antitrust Chief Hits Resistance in Crackdown



By STEPHEN LABATON

Published: July 25, 2009

WASHINGTON – President Obama’s top antitrust official and some senior Democratic lawmakers are preparing to rein in a host of major industries, including airline and railroad giants, moving so aggressively that they are finding some resistance from officials within the administration.The official, Christine A. Varney, the antitrust chief at the Justice Department, has begun examining complaints by the phone companies Verizon and AT&T that their rivals – major cable operators like Cablevision and Cox Communications – improperly prevent them from buying sports shows and other programs that the cable companies produce, industry lawyers said.

At the request of some lawmakers, notably Senator Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, Ms. Varney is examining whether small agricultural operations are being hampered unfairly by large food processors, particularly in the milk industry, congressional aides said.

After Arrest, Cambridge Reflects on Racial Rift

Forum to Explore Deep-Seated Issues

By Krissah Thompson and Cheryl W. Thompson

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, July 26, 2009

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The town where a white police officer and a black scholar ignited a national conversation on race and law enforcement has begun to open the dialogue that President Obama invited.

Before summer’s end, the mayor, district attorney and police officials will convene a forum to grapple with the controversy over the arrest of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. by Sgt. James Crowley — which exploded into a divisive debate that drew in the president.

Europe

Fears of an Islamic revolt in Europe begin to fade

Five years ago bombings and riots fuelled anxiety that Europe’s Muslims were on the verge of mass radicalisation. Those predictions have not been borne out.

Jason Burke in Paris and Ian Traynor in Brussels

The Observer, Sunday 26 July 2009

A district of derelict warehouses, red-brick terraces, and vibrant street life on the canals near the centre of Brussels, Molenbeek was once known as Belgium’s “Little Manchester”. These days it is better known as “Little Morocco” since the population is overwhelmingly Muslim and of North African origin.

By day, the scene is one of children kicking balls on busy streets, of very fast, very small cars with very large sound systems. By night, the cafes and tea houses are no strangers to drug-dealers and mafia from the Maghreb.

Forest wildfires rage across southern Europe

At least eight dead and thousands evacuated as soaring temperatures and high winds feed flames around the Mediterranean

By Crispian Balmer

Sunday, 26 July 2009

Forest and brush fires raged across southern Europe yesterday, with a prolonged spell of hot weather turning woodland around the Mediterranean coastline tinder dry.

Hundreds of fires in Spain, France, Italy and Greece have killed at least eight people this week, destroying thousands of acres of forest and gutting dozens of homes.

Spain has been the worst hit, and authorities said thousands of villagers have had to be rescued from wildfires that have killed six people, five of them firefighters. Two people died in flash fires on Sardinia.

Middle East

Kurdish voters rebel against corrupt elite

As the Iraqi region goes to the polls, many are blaming the growth in inequality on an entrenched political establishment. Patrick Cockburn reports

Sunday, 26 July 2009

Every suitable flat surface in Iraqi Kurdistan is covered in election posters or banners, some so vast that they have been shredded by the desert wind. In this part of the country most of the flags are dark blue, the colour of Goran, or Change, party which in the general election yesterday was challenging the Kurdish political establishment for the first time.

It has been a surprising campaign. Goran leaders appear a little bemused by the surge in vociferous support for them and the extent of the openly expressed dissatisfaction with the powers that be. This hunger for reform is very evident in Sulaymaniyah, the most heavily populated province in Kurdistan. Driving in the high hills close to the Iranian border, I saw a young man riding a bicycle made unwieldy by two blue flags tied to the handlebars. At a nearby picnic spot in a grove of trees, a family had spread a blanket on the ground from which to eat as a Goran flag waved over their heads.

Israel’s defiance threatens US peace drive

 From The Sunday Times

July 26, 2009

Uzi Mahnaimi in Tel Aviv, and Tony Allen-Mills in Washington

BARACK OBAMA’S aggressive approach to Middle East diplomacy faces a key test in Israel this week amid mounting resentment in Jerusalem over US policies towards Iran and the Arab world.

After months of conciliatory gestures towards Israel’s neighbours – culminating in his visit to Cairo last month – Obama is dispatching advisers to Jerusalem to press for a breakthrough in the long-stalled Middle East peace process.

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, and General Jim Jones, Obama’s national security adviser, will address concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme while the former senator George Mitchell, the US president’s Middle East envoy, is already pressing for a freeze on construction of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian-dominated West Bank.

Asia

Afghan suicide attack increases pressure on Pakistan

From The Sunday Times

July 26, 2009  

 Christina Lamb

TALIBAN militants struck at government buildings in the city of Khost in southeastern Afghanistan yesterday with suicide bombs, AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, wounding 14 people, including two police officers, and provoking fears of a bloody election campaign.

At least three suicide bombers blew themselves up during the onslaught, which began in the early afternoon near a US military base. General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a defence ministry spokesman, said later that Afghan forces had surrounded the attackers.

The raid came as the United States asked Pakistan for help in ensuring a peaceful election campaign. Islamabad has been asked to send troops to key points along its border with Helmand to stop Taliban militia crossing back and forth.

Asia’s Jarawa tribesmen under threat as tourism comes calling

For centuries the Jarawa tribe were notorious for using bows and arrows to kill any intruder into their jungle home, deep in the interior of a tropical island.  

By Nick Meo

Published: 7:45AM BST 26 Jul 2009

Now, however, their days as feared warriors are over and the Jarawa – until recently one of Asia’s last isolated tribes of hunter-gatherers – are more likely to be found waiting by a roadside to beg biscuits and cakes from tourists.

Over the last decade, the number of tourist trips into their jungle reserve has grown so rapidly that critics say it increasingly resembles a human safari park. An array of notices at the entrance to the forest instructs visitors not to stop or allow the Jarawa into their vehicles, not to take photographs – and not to feed the tribesmen or to give them clothing.

Yet visitors to the Jarawas’ home in the Andaman Islands seem unable to resist the temptation to offer snacks, drinks and other inducements to men, women and children to pose for photographs and show off their exotic tribal costumes.

Africa

Zuma plea as protests sweep the townships

South Africa’s president calls for an end to the anti-poverty violence as he admits that he needs time to end corruption and improve services

Alex Duval Smith in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal

The Observer, Sunday 26 July 2009

After two weeks of vandalism and running battles between township residents and police, President Jacob Zuma asked South Africans yesterday to desist from violence and give him more time to improve their living conditions.

Speaking at a township stadium rally on his home turf in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma acknowledged that the government had fallen short in the past 15 years. He told the audience: “The troubles we are seeing in our townships prove to us that there is much work to do and much to repair. But there must not be violence between us. Let us work together!”

The response to his speech was muted, and the African National Congress organisers seemed disappointed at the turn-out of about 3,000 people.

Latin America

Brazil and Paraguay in power deal

Brazil has agreed to triple its payments to Paraguay for energy from a massive hydro-electric dam on their border, ending a long-running dispute.

 The BBC

Under the accord, Brazil will pay Paraguay $360m (£220m) a year for energy from the jointly-operated Itaipu plant, one of the biggest in the world.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called it a “historic agreement” after talks in Paraguay.

The deal is a political victory for Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo.

His left-wing government had campaigned on an election promise to gain more revenue from the plant.

Under the deal, Paraguay has also won the right to sell excess energy directly to the Brazilian market, rather than exclusively through the state-owned power utility Eletrobras.

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