Docudharma Times Tuesday October 6

As Job Loss Rises, Obama Aides Act to Fix Safety Net



By JACKIE CALMES

Published: October 5, 2009

WASHINGTON – With unemployment expected to rise well into next year even as the economy slowly recovers, the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress are discussing extending several safety net programs as well as proposing new tax incentives for businesses to renew hiring.President Obama’s economic team discussed a wide range of ideas at a meeting on Monday, following his Saturday radio address in which he said it would “explore additional options to promote job creation.” But officials emphasized that a decision was still far off and that in any event the effort would not add up to a second economic stimulus package, only an extension of the first.

“We’re thinking through all additional potential strategies for accelerating job creation,” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod.

Kim Jong-il: nuclear talks depend on direct negotiations with US

North Korean leader quoted as saying he’s prepared to revive six-party talks if progress is made in dialogue with Washington

Jonathan Watts in Beijing and agencies

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 6 October 2009 07.37 BST

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il, said his country is prepared to return to international nuclear disarmament talks if it can first make progress in bilateral negotiations with the US.

His comments to the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, lifted hopes for a revival of six-party talks, which Pyongyang declared “dead” earlier this year after being punished with UN sanctions for long-range rocket and nuclear tests.

The remarks were carried today by the North Korean and Chinese state news agencies during the second day of Wen’s visit to Pyongyang.

USA

Obama Team Says Zazi Case Illustrates Balanced Approach to Terror Threat



By Anne E. Kornblut

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

President Obama will make his first visit to the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean on Tuesday morning, telling intelligence officials that their recent successes have proved how effectively multiple agencies can perform when they work in concert.The White House has been charting a delicate course as it attempts to turn the page on Bush-era anti-terrorism policies. Even as Obama wages a war in Afghanistan that he has called critical to curbing terrorism, his administration is trying to defend itself from criticism by former vice president Richard B. Cheney and other Republicans for casting aside what they say are critical tools for protecting the United States.

‘They are the unappreciated patriots’

In Iraq and Afghanistan, contractors like Reggie Lane often face the same dangers as U.S. troops. And make the same terrible sacrifices.

By T. Christian Miller

October 6, 2009

Reporting from Central Point, Ore. – A nurse rocked him awake as pale dawn light crept into the room. “C’mon now, c’mon,” the nurse murmured. “Time to get up.”

Reggie Lane was once a hulking man of 260 pounds. Friends called him “Big Dad.” Now, he weighed less than 200 pounds and his brain was severely damaged. He groaned angry, wordless cries.

The nurse moved fast. Two bursts of deodorant spray under each useless arm. Then he dressed Lane and used a mechanical arm to hoist him into a wheelchair.

Middle East

Fatah-led security officers accused of torturing Hamas suspect to death

Palestinian authorities begin military trial over death of Haitham Amr, fourth Hamas suspect to die in custody this year

Rory McCarthy in Beit ar-Rush al-Fauqa

guardian.co.uk, Monday 5 October 2009 14.50 BST

Palestinian authorities have begun a rare military trial of security officers accused of torturing a Hamas suspect to death at a time of an intensifying crackdown in the West Bank against the Islamist movement.

Haitham Amr, 33, a nurse, was arrested by the Palestinian intelligence services, led by the Fatah political faction, at his home near Hebron, in the occupied West Bank in June. Four days later he was dead, his body showing extensive bruising and swelling, including near the kidneys. He had been suspected of membership of the armed wing of Hamas, the rival Palestinian faction.

He was the fourth prisoner to die in Palestinian custody in the West Bank this year.

Palestinians outraged over Abbas bowing to Israel, US

The Palestinian Authority’s decision to postpone a vote on the Goldstone report last week is the last straw for many, sparking protests in the West Bank and Gaza.

By Ilene R. Prusher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 5, 2009 edition

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK – Demonstrators descended Monday on this city’s most famous traffic circle, Manara Square, which for years was a launching point of Palestinian protests against the Israeli occupation.

This time, however, the demonstrators were directing their ire against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Local leaders bellowed into the flag-waving crowd, accusing Mr. Abbas of capitulating to US and Israeli pressure. While frustration has been building for several weeks, the catalyst was the PA’s decision late last week to delay a vote on the Goldstone report, the most comprehensive international investigation to date of Israeli conduct in the devastating Gaza war.

“This report was an opportunity to expose Israel’s behavior,” says protestor Omar Mansour, who traveled from Jenin to participate. “This postponement is embarrassing not just for Palestinians, but for everyone in the world who tried to help us attain justice. Even worse, the PA leadership put itself in this position at a time when there are no negotiations to save.”

Asia

Pakistan readies for new assault on Bin Laden lair

Suicide bombers show their resilience with daring attack on UN offices in Islamabad as 28,000 troops mass for imminent strike in the mountains of South Waziristan

By Omar Waraich in Islamabad and Andrew Buncombe

Tuesday, 6 October 2009

IN WHAT is likely to be its sternest challenge yet, Pakistan’s military is poised to launch a major offensive in the coming days against militants in the remote mountainous terrain of South Waziristan, long rumoured to be the hiding place of Osama bin Laden.

After months of preparation that has involved massing 28,000 troops near the tribal area on the Afghan border, and after weeks of air strikes designed to soften up militant positions, senior military sources in Islamabad told The Independent that the long-awaited operation was imminent. The US has also increased drone strikes in the region to target key figures.

Indonesia calls off search for Padang earthquake survivors

From The Times

October 6, 2009

Anne Barrowclough in Padang

All hope of any more survivors being pulled from the wreckage of Padang, the earthquake-devastated Sumatra city, disappeared yesterday after the Government ordered that seriously damaged buildings be demolished.

The diggers moved in as rescue workers frantically tried to find any last survivors.

At the International Finance Centre building, where a woman’s screams had been heard coming from the ruins in the early morning,  an Australian rescue worker told The Times that his team had been given one hour to pull her out befor

Europe

President Tony: the ghost at the Tories’ feast

Behind the party’s debate on Europe lies the spectre of their former nemesis becoming the EU’s first president. Andrew Grice reports

Tuesday, 6 October 2009

“You are the guy for this job; you should do it,” Nicolas Sarkozy told Tony Blair. The job was “president of Europe”. But the former prime minister was non-committal; his reply was a shrug of the shoulders and that cheeky smile.

According to friends of Mr Blair, the French President has said something like this to him on several occasions. Mr Sarkozy also believes he is the perfect cheerleader: a centre-right leader promoting a man from the centre-left, a Frenchman promoting a Briton. His support causes convulsions among French diplomats, who feel they owe Britain no favours.

Berlusconi immunity case begins as leader faced with £690 million corruption payout

From Times Online

October 6, 2009

 Lucy Bannerman in Rome

Fifteen judges will start their deliberations today to determine whether Silvio Berlusconi can be immune from prosecution in a decision that has the potential to cripple the Italian Government.

The Constitutional Court will debate a controversial law passed by the Italian Prime Minister that gives legal immunity to himself and three other top state positions. If the so-called Lodo Alfano, named after Angelino Alfano, the country’s Justice Minister, is rejected as legally invalid Mr Berlusconi could be back on trial. He is charged with paying the British lawyer David Mills $600,000 in 1997 to withhold incriminating details of his business dealings.

Mills was convicted of taking bribes to give false testimony to protect the Prime Minister. The case against Mr Berlusconi, a co-defendant, froze when the law was passed.

Africa

A model home to rebuild Rwanda

Cassandra Jardine reports on how villagers aided by the Telegraph’s Christmas Appeal are benefiting from eco-houses

By Cassandra Jardine

Published: 7:00AM BST 06 Oct 2009

‘I am angry,” says a boy plucking at my arm as I walk through the dusty streets of Nkombo Island. Angry? He doesn’t look it, as he grins from ear to ear and tries to give me a hug – the standard Rwandan greeting. Then I realise what this boy with little English is really trying to say: he’s hungry.

Of course he is. Before the autumn rains arrive, vegetable patches in the village are bare. Lake Kivu, which separates Rwanda from Congo, is so over-fished that it yields the islanders only a few minnows. He and the 17,000 others who inhabit these eight square miles of deceptively fertile-looking earth have little to eat except bananas and cassava.

Some of them don’t even have homes. Since an earthquake in February 2008, many families have been living – if you can call it that – under tarpaulins. Around 150 families are still in that position: people like Colette, who sits outside the pitifully tiny improvised shack she shares with her six children. When their house was destroyed, her husband left her for another woman whose home was still standing.

Latin America

Lula, Brazil’s president, is focus of upcoming film

‘Lula, Son of Brazil’ will dramatize President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s early years. Bruno Barreto, the brother of the director, likens it to a ‘Rocky Balboa story.’

By Chris Kraul

October 6, 2009

Reporting from Rio De Janeiro – Rio de Janeiro’s landing of the 2016 Olympics last week gave Brazilians reason to cheer for Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, their popular president who lobbied heavily on behalf of the city’s bid.

Soon, they’ll be able to applaud his image on the big screen.

The $10-million film “Lula, Son of Brazil” will be released across the country in January.

According to producers at LC Barreto Productions, the film will dramatize the president’s early years, which they describe with Hollywood-worthy hyperbole as “mythic” and “heroic.”

Ignoring Asia A Blog