Scientists offer varied estimates, all high, on size of BP oil leak
By Joel Achenbach and Juliet Eilperin
Friday, June 11, 2010
Pick a number: 12,600 barrels . . . 20,000 . . . 21,500 . . . 25,000 . . . 30,000 . . . 40,000 . . . 50,000. Scientists put every one of those numbers in play Thursday as they struggled to come up with a solid estimate of how much oil is gushing each day from the black geyser at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.The one scientific certainty: It’s a lot — and more than some of the same scientists thought just a couple of weeks ago.
Global spotlight shines on South Africa as 2010 World Cup set to kick off
By Liz Clarke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 11, 2010JOHANNESBURG — From the moment South Africa was awarded the 2010 World Cup five years ago, there has been far more at stake than soccer. In being chosen to host the world’s biggest sporting event, South Africa seized the global spotlight for good reasons rather than bad.
It won an opportunity, for four weeks this summer, to showcase its young democracy and the bonds that bind this improbable Rainbow Nation together.And it won the chance to prove doubters wrong and change perceptions of a country that less than 20 years ago was deemed a global pariah, banned from the World Cup and Olympic Games because of its policy of racial discrimination known as apartheid.
USA
Outreach program to encourage citizenship for immigrants
L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joins a federal official in announcing partnership offering information at libraries and recreation centers.
By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times
June 11, 2010
Immigrants who are interested in learning English and becoming citizens can now access information at libraries and recreation centers throughout Los Angeles under a new partnership between local and federal officials.The goal of the program – the first in the nation – is to promote citizenship and strengthen integration through education, outreach and civic participation.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas announced the partnership Thursday during a citizenship class at Evans Community Adult School near downtown. The class, which began with the Pledge of Allegiance and the “Star-Spangled Banner,” included students from 13 different countries.
Federal judge calls Guantanamo inmate’s detention ‘unlawful’
By Michael Doyle | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON – A federal judge has forcefully put Yemeni citizen Mohammed Mohammed Hassan Odaini on the path to freedom after eight years of incarceration at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.In a 36-page opinion formally released Thursday, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. called Odaini’s continued detention “unlawful” and said he’d “emphatically” grant Odaini’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
The ruling issued secretly last month but published Thursday sets the 26-year-old Odaini up for potential release, though when and where he’ll go remains unclear. The ruling also represents the latest defeat for U.S. officials in their efforts to keep Guantanamo detainees behind bars.
Europe
Officers guilty of 1995 massacre in Srebrenica
Friday, 11 June 2010
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade
Two high-ranking military enforcers of ethnic cleansing for the wartime Bosnian Serb leadership were yesterday convicted of genocide for the 1995 murders of almost 8,000 men and boys after their troops overran the safe enclave of Srebrenica.The men were jailed for life, the most severe sentences ever handed down by the international war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, for a massacre considered the worst act of violence in Europe since the Second World War.
Debt crisis exposes the euro’s flaws but divorce is not an option
Like marriage partners, eurozone nations fight about money. Germany grumbles about paying for the profligacy of others, but pays, since sticking together is the lesser of evils, says Die Zeit’s Josef Joffe.
EUROPEAN UNION | 11.06.2010
The euro is, above all, a political currency that owes its existence to a compromise forged after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. Then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl gave up his country’s deutschmark, the emblem of German identity and postwar stability, to appease France and other neighbours anxious about the resurgence of a mighty, unified state at the geographical heart of Europe. The idea was to tie an enlarged Germany down to a “softer” currency shared by all Europeans. But Kohl made sure the euro was modelled on the strong D-mark. The low inflation and low deficit fiscal criteria spelled out in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty meant that less competitive euro-zone members, infamously called “PIIGS” (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain), couldn’t devalue their way out of trouble.
Middle East
Former elite officers reveal tensions in Iran regime
Men describe measures taken to crush popular protests that erupted in the wake of last year’s presidential elections
Angus Stickler and Maggie O’Kane
The Guardian, Friday 11 June 2010
A remarkable series of interviews with former members of the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard today offer a rare insight into one of the world’s most oppressive regimes.The four men, who have fled Iran and are in hiding in Turkey and Thailand, speak out in a documentary produced by Guardian Films and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
In testimony provided by the men, at least one of whom was part of last year’s crackdown on opposition to the Iranian regime, the film reveals:
• Deep divisions within the Revolutionary Guard, the powerful military organisation at the heart of the Iranian state, which have widened since last year’s repression of the so-called green opposition.
A year on, the Green revolution in Iran has failed to take root
A crackdown and poor leadership have seen off the government’s opponents, writes Con Coughlin.
Published: 8:00AM BST 11 Jun 2010
It says something about the chaotic state of Iran’s ruling elite that the grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the regime’s founding father, should find himself being booed and jeered by the government’s supporters.
After all the suffering that followers of Iran’s opposition Green Movement have experienced since they had the temerity to challenge the outcome of last June’s presidential election, it would be perfectly understandable if they had decided to vent their feelings on Hassan Khomeini as he addressed a rally to mark the 21st anniversary of his grandfather’s death in Tehran earlier this week.
Asia
Workers at Chinese Honda Plant March in Protest
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/keith_bradsher/index.html?inline=nyt-per
ZHONGSHAN, China – Striking workers at a Honda auto parts plant here are demanding the right to form their own labor union, something officially forbidden in China, and held a protest march Friday morning.
Meanwhile, other scattered strikes have begun to ripple into Chinese provinces previously untouched by the labor unrest.A near doubling of wages is the primary goal of the approximately 1,700 Honda workers on strike here in this southeastern China city, at the third Honda auto parts factory to face a work stoppage in the last two weeks.
Deadly clashes in Kyrgyzstan’s southern city of Osh
At least 17 people have been killed in clashes in Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city of Osh, health ministry officials say.
The BBC Friday, 11 June 2010
At least 200 people were also injured when hundreds of youths fought in the streets of the southern city.Officials say a state of emergency has been declared and armoured vehicles have been sent to the city.
The interim government has been struggling to restore order after a violent uprising in April.
Since then, there have been fears of an upsurge in violence between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks in the south.
Africa
Nelson Mandela’s great-granddaughter killed in car crash
Former president to miss World Cup opener after death of Zenani, 13, as police charge driver of car with drink-driving
Staff and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Friday 11 June 2010 08.44 BST
Former South African president Nelson Mandela will not attend the opening match of the World Cup today after his great-granddaughter was killed in a car crash, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said. They will be looking into representation (similar to that you can find here) to help with this difficult time.The foundation said in a statement that Mandela, 91, learned of the death of Zenani this morning. Car crashes happen all the time, to the famous and powerful to the poor and unknown. No matter where in society you fall you should always seek out a car accident law firm if you or a loved one is involved in such an accident. It is highly possible Mr. Mandela will be doing the same once he has managed to process this tragedy.
“It would therefore be inappropriate for him to personally attend the 2010 Fifa World Cup opening celebrations,” the statement said.
Africa Rising: A big day for football. A giant leap for a continent
With its vast resources and growing stability, Africa’s moment may be about to come
By Paul Vallely Friday, 11 June 2010
Not far from Soccer City, the stadium which will today house the opening ceremonies of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, stands the Maponya shopping mall. There you can buy Versace sunglasses, eat sushi, smoke a £20 Havana cigar and even purchase a car from the resident Audi dealer. But this is no smart up-town white suburb of Johannesburg. This is black Soweto.It is as potent a symbol of a changing African continent as the stadium itself, which was built in the apartheid era as a football venue for South Africa’s black population. This was where Nelson Mandela addressed 100,000 ecstatic supporters soon after his release from prison as apartheid crumbled.
Latin America
El Salvador children are the killers in ruthless ‘game’ with guns
From The Times
June 11, 2010
Ramita Navai
The skinny boy pulled up his red T-shirt and patted the gun tucked into his jeans as he reminisced about the first time that he killed.“I sprayed the bastard’s head with bullets. Man, it was completely mashed up,” he said, throwing his head back and laughing.
“That was two years ago. Since then I’ve killed so many, I don’t even know the exact number,” he said.
His friends call him Small, a nickname acquired because he was 12 years old when he began his murderous career. He is a child hitman for the notorious 18 street gang and most of his victims are from the rival Mara Salva-trucha 13 gang, also known as MS 13. They compete for territory where they rob, sell drugs and run extortion rackets, threatening businesses large and small.