Are Barack Obama And John McCain
Running For President
Or To Make Conservative Religious
Leaders Feel Good About Themselves
Musharraf Announces His Resignation
By JANE PERLEZ and TOM RACHMAN
Published: August 18, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Facing the threat of impeachment, President Pervez Musharraf announced Monday that he would resign, saying the charges against him were false but that he would step down for the sake of his nation.
“In the future, I put myself to the people of Pakistan to decide about my future and they will do justice,” he said, in a televised address to the country. “I am very satisfied with whatever I could do for this country.”Pakistan has been plagued by political uncertainty ever since the four-month-old civilian government announced 11 days ago that it would bring impeachment charges on the grounds that Mr. Musharraf violated the Constitution when he declared a state of emergency in November, firing 60 judges under the decree.
Russia Vows Pullout as Troops Dig In
Occupied Georgian City Struggles With Aftermath
By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 18, 2008; Page A01
GORI, Georgia, Aug. 17 — Russia pledged Sunday to begin removing its troops from Georgia on Monday, but the streets of this occupied city reflected a broadening, not a waning, of Russia’s military incursion. President Dmitry Medvedev vowed to “begin the withdrawal of the military contingent” starting Monday. Russian leaders have made contradictory and at times clearly false statements about their troops’ plans and positions ever since the Georgia operation began. On Saturday, a top Russian general told reporters that his country had no troops in Gori.
USA
DNC plan: Portray Obama as all-American
Speakers will seek to define Democratic candidate on his own terms
By Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg
WASHINGTON – One of the first images prime-time viewers will see of the Democratic National Convention next week is that of Michelle Obama, who will begin the four-day introduction of her husband, and her family, on her terms.Like everything else at the orchestrated gala, that is by design.
Democrats face a number of imperatives at their convention, none trickier than making more voters comfortable with the prospect of putting a candidate with a most unusual background – the son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother, who grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia – and his family in the White House.
Accordions are not just a punch line anymore
Squeezboxes rule at the American Accordionists’ Assn. festival in Arlington, Va., where the once-popular instrument is part of a revival.
By Cynthia Dizikes, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 18, 2008
ARLINGTON, VA — . — When he was 5, John Moceo announced that he wanted to play the accordion. Chalking it up to childhood whimsy, his mother pushed him to play something else, anything else — guitar, piano, even baseball.“He came home from school, shoving this paper in my face, saying that a music teacher was offering lessons,” Deanna Moceo said. “He had already checked off ‘accordion,’ and I said, ‘No. What’s an accordion?’ ”
But Moceo persisted, his kindergarten tenacity besting his mother’s uncertainty. Now, a decade later, he is a rising star in a fringe group of young Americans who are trying to revive a part of musical history.
Europe
Tour of Tskhinvali undercuts Russian version of fighting
By Tom Lasseter | McClatchy Newspapers
TSKHINVALI, Georgia_ As Russian troops pounded through Georgia last week, the Kremlin and its allies repeatedly pointed to one justification above all others: The Georgian military had destroyed the city of Tskhinvali.Russian politicians and their partners in Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region South Ossetia, said that when Georgian forces tried to seize control of the city and the surrounding area, the physical damage was comparable to Stalingrad and the killings similar to the Holocaust.
Environment: Europe’s pine may be wiped out, say experts
Barry Hatton, Associated Press
The Guardian,
Monday August 18 2008
Europe’s pine forests are at risk from a killer bug that has already caused ecological catastrophes in east Asia, experts believe. Tens of thousands of trees have already died in Portugal and officials fear that pine wilt disease, which has become out of control in the south-west corner of the continent, could spread further.Two species of pine are susceptible: maritime pine, which makes up almost a quarter of Portugal’s forests, and Scots pine, the most widespread pine species in Europe, often used for Christmas trees.
The European commission has already imposed tight restrictions on the export of Portuguese pine, which must be disinfected and given a clean bill of health before leaving the country
Africa
Internet: Last piece of fibre-optic jigsaw falls into place as cable links east Africa to grid
Leap in capacity will allow cheap internet access and knowledge at speed of light
Xan Rice in Nairobi
The Guardian,
Monday August 18 2008
They are the arteries of the modern world. Stretching for tens of thousands of miles over the ocean beds, the vast web of intercontinental submarine cables have brought the possibility of cheap high-speed internet and clear long-distance telephone calls to all major parts of the globe. Except one.East Africa remains the only large, inhabited coastline cut off from the global fibre-optic network. Reliant entirely on expensive satellite connections, people on the world’s poorest continent pay some of the highest rates for logging on or phoning. Local universities are charged up to 50 times more for bandwidth than a typical American college, making online research slow or impossible.
Zimbabwe crisis talks end in failure as power-sharing deal is rejected
By Basildon Peta in Johannesburg and Daniel Howden
Monday, 18 August 2008
Efforts by southern African leaders to end the Zimbabwe crisis by breaking the deadlock between President Robert Mugabe and his arch rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, failed last night.The stalemate was a personal defeat for Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s President, who assumed the chairmanship of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Saturday vowing to get a deal during the summit.
Mr Mbeki, who faces criticism at home and abroad for his handling of the crisis, said that talks would continue.
Asia
The Afghan women jailed for being victims of rape
In Lashkar Gah, the majority of female prisoners are serving 20-year sentences for being forced to have sex. Terri Judd visited them and heard their extraordinary stories
Monday, 18 August 2008
Beneath the anonymity of the sky-blue burqa, Saliha’s slender frame and voice betray her young age.Asked why she was serving seven years in jail alongside hardened insurgents and criminals, the 15-year-old giggled and buried her head in her friend’s shoulder.“She is shy,” apologised fellow inmate Zirdana, explaining that the teenager had been married at a young age to an abusive husband and ran away with a boy from her neighbourhood.
Asked whether she had loved the boy, Saliha squirmed with childish embarrassment as her friend replied: “Yes.”
Christians stage sit-in at airport after Chinese police confiscate bibles >
From Times Online
August 18, 2008
Hannah Fletcher in Beijing
Four American Christians who arrived in China with more than 300 Bibles in their suitcases have refused to leave the airport after the books were confiscated by customs officials.Pat Klein, the leader of the group and founder of the Christian outreach programme, Vision Beyond Borders, said the group had spent the night in the customs area of Kunming Airport, in China’s southwestern Yunnan province, and would not leave until the Bibles were returned to them.
“They said it’s illegal to bring more than one Bible per person into China, but they can’t show us the law that says that,” he told The Times today in a telephone interview from the airport.
Middle East
Resilient Sunni Stronghold Tests the Iraqi Army’s Best
Bombs, Booby Traps Require U.S. Assistance
By Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 18, 2008; Page A01
SOUTH BUHRIZ, Iraq — Two Iraqi soldiers stumbled out of the thick, black smoke, their faces bathed in blood that glistened in the sun. They clutched their heads, mumbling “Hamdullah” — “Thanks to God.” They had survived the explosion. A third Iraqi soldier was being carried on an olive-green stretcher. He was unconscious, curled like a baby
From the haze, Capt. Adil Muhammed also appeared, holding his long yellow bomb detector. He had just swept this section of road. But then an American armored bulldozer had rolled over the patch, detonating the deeply buried bomb. As the smell of explosives wafted across the scene on a recent Saturday, American and Iraqi soldiers shouted to others to fall back, fearing a second blast. Muhammed stared, struggling for an explanation.
Shin Bet upset over prisoner release
By YAAKOV LAPPIN
The government’s decision to release some 200 security prisoners – mainly from Fatah and including two with “blood on their hands” – to help Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is opposed by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), a senior defense official told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
News of the impending release was received negatively among Shin Bet handlers and agents, the source said.“You have to hear the responses inside the Shin Bet to the release. They work day and night to capture and neutralize terrorists, and all of it is gone in an instant,” he said.