Docudharma Times Monday February 4

This is an Open Thread:Take him up to the top where the mountains stop

Monday’s Headlines: Park Police Rebuked For Weak Security: Kenya mediation efforts to resume: New NATO intelligence chief was trained by KGB: Chinese hold talks in Tokyo on tainted ‘gyoza’: Hamas seen as gaining as Egypt reseals border with Gaza

Late and Lame on Warming

Editorial

Even allowing for the low expectations we bring to any lame-duck president’s final State of the Union address, President Bush’s brief discussion of climate change seemed especially disconnected from reality: from the seriousness and urgency of the problem and from his own responsibility for obstructing progress.

His call for a new international agreement to address global warming was disingenuous, coming as it did from a president who rejected the Kyoto Protocol as soon as he moved into the White House. His promise to work with other nations on new, low-carbon technologies is one he has been unveiling for the last seven years.

USA

Park Police Rebuked For Weak Security

Widespread Flaws Put U.S. Landmarks At Risk, Report Says

The U.S. Park Police have failed to adequately protect such national landmarks as the Statue of Liberty, the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument and are plagued by low morale, poor leadership and bad organization, according to a new government report.

The force is understaffed, insufficiently trained and woefully equipped, the report by the Interior Department’s inspector general concludes.

Hallowed sites on the Mall are weakly guarded and vulnerable to terrorist attack, the inspector general’s office found.

Endowments Widen a Higher Education Gap

Allan T. Demaree, a retired executive editor of Fortune magazine, gladly makes donations to Princeton University, his alma mater, even though he knows it has become one of the wealthiest educational institutions in the world. His son, who also went to Princeton, points to its endowment of $15.8 billion, and will not give it a penny.

“Why give money to an institution that can seemingly live off its interest when other very deserving entities need money to function tomorrow?” asked the son, Heath Demaree, a professor at Case Western Reserve University who instead donates to Virginia Tech, where he was a graduate student.

Africa

Kenya mediation efforts to resume

Talks aimed at resolving Kenya’s post-election crisis are expected to begin in the capital Nairobi.

Scores of people have been killed in the last two days despite an agreement signed by President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Mr Odinga called on Sunday for foreign peacekeepers, saying he does not trust national security forces.

Weeks of political and ethnic violence have left hundreds dead and driven many thousands from their homes.

Chad rebels besiege presidential palace

· Déby caught unprepared for swift move on capital

· EU delays deployment of Darfur troops as UN leaves

Chris McGreal, Africa correspondent

Monday February 4, 2008

The Guardian

Rebel forces cut Chad’s capital in two yesterday and laid siege to the palace where President Idriss Déby was overseeing a last effort to save his authoritarian 18-year rule.

Reports said bodies littered the streets of N’Djamena and looters were ransacking shops while government forces resisted the rebel assault with helicopter gunships and tanks.

But the government was evidently caught unprepared by the speed of the rebels’ move on the city after several thousand fighters in about 250 vehicles swept across the country in three days. Chad’s army chief of staff, Daoud Soumain, was killed defending the capital.

Europe

Narrow victory for Boris Tadic despite continued tensions over Kosovo

Crowds waving Serbian and EU flags celebrated in Belgrade’s central square last night after the pro-European President beat off a tough challenge from an ultranationalist rival to keep the troubled Balkan country facing West rather than turning towards Moscow.

Boris Tadic, President since 2004, benefited from a high turnout of 67 per cent after a campaign that highlighted deep divisions in Serbia and was overshadowed by the impending declaration of independence from the province of Kosovo.

Preliminary results gave Mr Tadic a narrow win, with 51 per cent of the vote, although the final tally will not be known until later today.

New NATO intelligence chief was trained by KGB

BERLIN: The new chief of the Hungarian secret services, who spent six years at the KGB’s academy in Moscow during the 1980s, has become chairman of NATO’s intelligence committee, a development that diplomats said could compromise the security of the alliance.

Sandor Laborc, 49, was personally chosen by Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany of Hungary as director of the country’s counterintelligence National Security Office in December, after a bitter dispute between the governing coalition led by the Socialists – the former Communists – and the main opposition party, Fidesz

Asia

Confusion hamstrings Chinese authorities’ storm response

SHANGHAI: For two weeks, much of China, which was long known for its capacity for mass mobilization, has been tied in knots by a series of major snowstorms. Although large, in most places the snowfall – described as having been the worst in 50 years – has been nothing like the deep cover that other parts of the world often experience in winter.

Instead, its crippling effects – which have included knocking out electricity and water supplies, threatening the coal supply that fuels the country’s power plants and stranding millions of Chinese on the eve of the year’s most important holiday – seem mostly a result of surprise.

Many of the worst effects have been seen in parts of east-central and southern China, which are largely unaccustomed to serious snowfall. For the victims, however – and as many as 100 million people have been directly affected – surprise on such a massive scale equates with lack of preparation.

Chinese hold talks in Tokyo on tainted ‘gyoza’

A group of Chinese experts expressed hope Sunday of coming to “a scientific conclusion” on pesticide-tainted frozen “gyoza” dumplings imported from China as they arrived in Tokyo for talks with Japanese officials.

Li Chunfeng, head of the five-member team, said after arriving at Narita International Airport that the Chinese government understands the feelings of Japanese consumers over the incident.

“By cooperating closely with the Japanese side, we would like to swiftly reach a scientific conclusion,” Li said. “I believe that the mass media will carry out objective and fair reporting.”

Middle East

Hamas seen as gaining as Egypt reseals border with Gaza

The standoff over the boundary breach strengthened the militant Palestinian group, analysts say.

JERUSALEM — Egypt resealed its besieged gateway to the Gaza Strip on Sunday after rebuffing Hamas’ bid for a hand in controlling the crossing. But analysts said the militant Palestinian group emerged strengthened from the standoff over its breach of the border wall last month.

As barbed wire and metal barricades went up across the Rafah crossing’s only remaining gap, Hamas made a show of cooperating with Egypt’s border guards rather than trying to thwart them. Hamas police beat back Palestinians trying to jump the barrier and arrested others for throwing stones at the guards.

For the 11 days the border was open, the beleaguered Hamas government reaped huge political benefits at home. Its cooped-up constituents poured into Egypt by the hundreds of thousands to unwind, visit relatives and shop for goods made scarce by an Israeli blockade of their coastal enclave.

US: 9 Iraq civilians accidentally killed

BAGHDAD – The U.S. military said Monday that it had accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians during an operation targeting al-Qaida in Iraq – the deadliest known case of mistaken identity in recent months.

The civilians were killed Saturday near Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of the Iraqi capital, U.S. Navy Lt. Patrick Evans told The Associated Press. Three wounded civilians were taken to U.S. military hospitals nearby, he said.

Evans did not give details about exactly how the people died, but said the killings occurred as U.S. forces pursued suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militants. The incident is under investigation, he said.

Latin America

American neighbors would like some attention

Many hope the next president will focus more with the Western Hemisphere, while Mexicans fume over immigration rhetoric.

BUENOS AIRES — The perceived immigrant-bashing of GOP presidential hopefuls has drawn fury in neighboring Mexico, where U.S. policies may resonate more than anywhere else.

President Felipe Calderon complained recently that the candidates have competed to be “the most loudmouth, the most macho and the most anti-Mexican.”

The next U.S. president could champion changes in immigration affecting, for better or worse, the lives of millions of apprehensive Mexicans.

Many Mexicans are able to watch U.S. television, and so are exposed to the unfolding political spectacle to the north. And the Obama phenomenon has spurred interest among the huge populations of African ancestry in the Caribbean, Brazil and elsewhere.