Docudharma Times Tuesday Nov. 20

This is an Open Thread: Free Thinking Zone

U.N. steeply lowers its AIDS estimates ,A gap in GOP candidates’ healthcare proposals ,Audit Finds Misuse of $34 Million student Loan Subsidy,  Radiation Detectors for Border Are Delayed Again, US plans case against AP photographer

U.N. steeply lowers its AIDS estimates

By Jia-Rui Chong and Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

November 20, 2007

The United Nations on Monday radically lowered years of estimates of the number of people worldwide infected by the AIDS virus, revealing that the growth of the AIDS pandemic is waning for the first time since HIV was discovered 26 years ago.

The revised figures, which were the result of much more sophisticated sampling techniques, indicate that the number of new infections peaked in 1998 and the number of deaths peaked in 2005.

USA

A gap in GOP candidates’ healthcare proposals

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

November 20, 2007

WASHINGTON — When Rudolph W. Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the spring of 2000, one thing he did not have to worry about was a lack of medical insurance.

Today, the former New York mayor joins two other cancer survivors in seeking the Republican presidential nomination: Arizona Sen. John McCain has been treated for melanoma, the most serious type of skin malignancy, and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson had lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system.

Audit Finds Misuse of $34 Million Student Loan Subsidy

By JONATHAN D. GLATER

Published: November 20, 2007

The student loan corporation in Pennsylvania improperly exploited a subsidy program to collect $34 million from the government, said a report released yesterday by the inspector general of the federal Education Department.

The audit called on the department to recover the payments to the corporation, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, a state-owned company that makes and guarantees student loans.

The chief executive of the agency, James Preston, defended its conduct.

Radiation Detectors for Border Are Delayed Again

By Robert O’Harrow Jr.

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, November 20, 2007; Page A01

A $1.2 billion plan by the Department of Homeland Security to buy a new kind of radiation-detection machine for the nation’s borders has been put on hold again, a blow to one of the Bush administration’s top security goals.

At the same time, federal authorities are investigating whether Homeland Security officials urged an analyst to destroy information about the performance of the machines during testing, according to interviews and a document.

Harlem takes on university in battle of town versus gown

Residents object to plans to turn black neighbourhood into ‘Manhattanville’

Ed Pilkington in New York

Tuesday November 20, 2007

The Guardian

It looked like a battle of the slogans. On either side of the campus square stood imposing library buildings bearing the names of Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles, Plato and the boast “By royal charter in the reign of George II”.

Gathered in the middle was a group of 200 protesters carrying their own competing signs: “Stop Columbia!”, “Harlem not for sale!”, “Say no to eminent domain!”

Middle East

US denies Americans detained in shooting

BAGHDAD – Iraqi troops detained 43 people, most Sri Lankans and other foreigners, in a convoy run by a U.S.-contracted firm after an Iraqi woman was wounded in a Baghdad shooting involving their vehicles, the U.S. military said. It denied reports that two Americans were also arrested.

The incident follows a series of recent shootings in which foreign security guards have allegedly killed Iraqis. Last month, the Iraqi Cabinet sent parliament a bill to lift immunity for foreign private security companies that has been in effect since the U.S. occupation began in 2003.

US plans case against AP photographer

NEW YORK – The U.S. military plans to seek a criminal case in an Iraqi court against an award-winning Associated Press photographer but is refusing to disclose what evidence or accusations would be presented.

An AP attorney on Monday strongly protested the decision, calling the U.S. military plans a “sham of due process.” The journalist, Bilal Hussein, has already been imprisoned without charges for more than 19 months.

Europe

Combined strikes test nerve of France’s Sarkozy

PARIS (AFP) – Hundreds of thousands of French civil servants and students went on strike Tuesday, joining a week-long stoppage by transport workers and ramping up the pressure on French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

State employees, including teachers, postal workers and air traffic controllers, launched their one-day strike in support of demands for pay increases and an end to job cuts.

Their scheduled action coincided with the seventh straight day of a nationwide transport strike that has disrupted rail services across France and left Paris commuters with a daily battle to get to and from work.

EU warns Kosovo on independence

EU foreign ministers have urged Kosovo’s Albanians not to rush into any unilateral declaration of independence following Saturday’s election.

The UK’s Europe minister said any declaration ought to be “co-ordinated with the international community”.

Hashim Thaci, whose party claimed victory in the election, has said a declaration will be made immediately after talks with the Serb minority.

Africa

Yar’Adua against US African military command in Nigeria says official

LAGOS (AFP) – Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua will not allow his country to be used as a base for the proposed US African military command AFRICOM, officials said.

“The president restated the position of Nigeria not permitting a US base in our country or sub-region but to work towards the establishment of an African standby force,” Governor Bukola Saraki of the north central state of Kwara told reporters after YarÂ?adua met with top past and present Nigerian leaders.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte visited Nigeria last week to outline his country’s plan to set up AFRICOM, saying it was in line with US defence policy.

Niger raids leaves ‘ghost town’

The entire population of northern Niger’s remote desert town of Iferouane has fled as a result of insecurity, the deputy mayor has told the BBC.

Mohammed Oumma says an insurrection by Tuareg nomads, food shortages and army harassment have forced a wholesale exodus of the town’s 5,000 residents.

Asia

Imran begins hunger strike to seek return of judiciary

By Omar Waraich in Islamabad and Andrew Buncombe

Published: 20 November 2007

Imran Khan, Pakistan’s cricketing idol-turned-politician, declared yesterday that he was beginning a hunger strike in protest at the state of emergency imposed in his country and the regime’s seizure of the judiciary.

Hours after a panel of judges imposed by General Pervez Musharraf announced that a legal challenge to his election as the country’s leader had failed, Mr Khan let it be known he was giving up food until an independent judiciary was restored. “He was in high spirits,” his spokesman, Saifullah Niazi, said after visiting him. “He has decided to go on hunger strike, because he’s in jail and there’s nothing else he can do to protest. The only thing he has control over is his body.”

Tokyo is Michelin’s biggest star

Tokyo, the neon-clad home of the pickled sea-slug and horseradish chocolate, has eclipsed Paris, London and New York to become, officially, the most delicious city on earth.

The Japanese capital was handed the coveted crown yesterday by Michelin, the French tyre company whose Guides Rouges have been every bon vivant’s bible for more than a century.

Eight restaurants, including two high-end sushi joints – one of them with fewer than a dozen seats – were awarded three-star status in the first Michelin Guide for Tokyoafter a selection process shrouded in almost obsessive secrecy.