Docudharma Times Tuesday August 12

These are dangerous days

To say what you feel is to dig your own grave

Russia Steps Up Its Push; West Faces Tough Choices



By HELENE COOPER

Published: August 11, 2008  

WASHINGTON – Russian troops stepped up their advance into Georgian territory on Monday, attempting to turn back the clock to the days when Moscow held uncontested sway over what it considers its “near abroad,” and arousing increasing alarm among Western leaders.

Even as they prepared to convene an emergency meeting of NATO on Tuesday and President Bush denounced the Russian actions in the strongest terms to date, the United States and its European allies faced tough choices over how to push back. They seemed uncertain how to adjust to a new geopolitical game that threatened to undermine two decades of democratic gains in countries that were once part of the Soviet sphere.

Endangered Species Act Changes Give Agencies More Say



By Juliet Eilperin

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 12, 2008; Page A01

The Bush administration yesterday proposed a regulatory overhaul of the Endangered Species Act to allow federal agencies to decide whether protected species would be imperiled by agency projects, eliminating the independent scientific reviews that have been required for more than three decades.

The new rules, which will be subject to a 30-day per comment period, would use administrative powers to make broad changes in the law that Congress has resisted for years. Under current law, agencies must subject any plans that potentially affect endangered animals and plants to an independent review by the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service.

USA

Some Web Firms Say They Track Behavior Without Explicit Consent



By Ellen Nakashima

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 12, 2008; Page D01  

Several Internet and broadband companies have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers, according to letters released yesterday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

And Google, the leading online advertiser, stated that it has begun using Internet tracking technology that enables it to more precisely follow Web-surfing behavior across affiliated sites.

Clinton refused to cast Obama as un-American

She rejected advice of top campaign strategist, magazine reports

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top campaign strategist advised her to cast presidential rival Barack Obama as having questionable “roots to basic American values and culture” and use the theme to counter the image that his background is diverse and multicultural.

“I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values,” Mark Penn wrote in a March 2007 memo to Clinton.

Asia

China’s ‘protest pens’ unused amid arrests, permit denials



By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers

BEIJING – China late last month announced that individuals or groups wanting to demonstrate during the Olympics could go to “protest pens” in three public parks around Beijing.

What China didn’t announce was the Catch-22: Protests are allowed but permits aren’t available. Getting one would be as likely as beating gold medalist Michael Phelps in a swimming race or outrunning record-holder Tyson Gay in a short sprint.

Al-Qaida video calls for war on Pakistan and Musharraf

· Zawahiri attacks president as a stooge of Americans

· Tape emerges as MPs meet to debate impeachment

Saeed Shah in Islamabad

The Guardian,

Tuesday August 12 2008  

Pakistan’s beleaguered president, Pervez Musharraf, faced a direct challenge from al-Qaida yesterday, after the terrorist group lambasted his record in a video.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida’s deputy leader, whose voice apparently appeared on the tape, spoke in English and called for an uprising against Musharraf and the Pakistan state, which he said was “virtually ruled from the American embassy”.

The video came as Pakistan’s parliament convened yesterday for the start of a special session on impeachment proceedings against Musharraf.

Middle East

The curse of Yemen

Yemenis’ long-held fondness for chewing qat it is doing real damage to a very poor country, reports Ian Black from Sana’a

Ian Black in Sana’a

guardian.co.uk,

Tuesday August 12 2008 00:03 BST  

It is only mid-afternoon in Sana’a’s picturesque old city, a maze of tall gingerbread houses, braying animals and colourful markets. But is is strangely quiet as shopkeepers lounge behind their wares, many of them chewing away furiously at a green wad the size of a golfball. Drivers with bulging cheeks negotiate the narrow streets picking at plastic bags of leaves, sipping water to combat dehydration or sweet fizzy drinks to take away the bitter taste of qat – a national pastime and part of the landscape of this beautiful country.

But as consumption increases and the effects of the global food crisis kick in, attention is starting to focus on the huge damage this habit is doing to a desperately poor people with limited resources of land and water. Seventy percent of all households report at least one user; one in seven of the workforce is involved in production, transport or sale. Qat makes up a third of all Yemeni agriculture.

In dog-walking, Saudi virtue police see vice

In Riyadh, theories that the practice can encourage flirting revives a ban on buying and selling cats and dogs.

By Caryle Murphy  | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the August 12, 2008 edition

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – A complaint about the “phenomenon” of dog-walking recently landed on the desk of Prince Sattam bin Abdul Aziz.

This practice was “becoming more and more acceptable and … being taken advantage of by some young men in a way that conflicts with the rules and regulations of Islam,” according to the protest from Othman al-Othman, head of Riyadh’s religious police.

The young men, it seems, were being young men. They were “using cats and dogs to make passes at women and pester families,” Mr. Othman told Al Hayat newspaper.

Prince Sattam, acting governor of Riyadh Province, responded by ordering city officials to begin enforcing a 1994 religious edict banning the sale of dogs and cats, because the prophet Muhammad had encouraged Muslims to refrain from trading in the animals, according to an officially circulated memo.

Europe

Russian leadership: Putin in his element as successor is left in back seat



By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor

Tuesday, 12 August 2008  

As the Georgian conflict has widened, the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, has looked positively uncomfortable in his public appearances since last Friday. Not so his Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, the architect of the Chechnya war, who is clearly back in the driving seat – if he ever vacated it.

Mr Putin was seated only a few feet from George Bush at Friday’s lavish opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing, while the Russian Prime Minister’s boss was minding the shop in Moscow.

Sun, sea and a cell: more Britons held abroad >



From The Times

August 12, 2008

Fran Yeoman

Drunken tourists and expanding expatriate communities are fuelling a large rise in the number of Britons arrested in popular holiday destinations such as Spain, France and Cyprus

An increasing number of Britons are also falling foul of local laws and strict policing in more distant countries such as Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, new figures show.

Thailand remained the deadliest destination for British nationals, with proportionately more deaths there than anywhere else in the world.

Figures being released by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office today list the countries where Britons are most likely to seek embassies’ help.

Africa

Former refugees launch university in Somaliland

Drawn by better governance and investment opportunities, Africans across the diaspora are increasingly returning to their home countries.

By Hussein Ali Nur and Guled Mohamed  | Reuters

from the August 12, 2008 edition

HARGEISA, Somalia – Almis Yahye Ibrahim remembers when he and his friends hit on the idea of building a university in one of the world’s most neglected corners, the breakaway republic of Somaliland.

It was the winter of 1997, and they were hanging out in Helsinki’s cafes, keeping the Finnish winter at bay. That’s when they dreamt up the International Horn University.

Four years ago, armed with diplomas and savings and driven by a desire to make a difference, the three men and another friend who had been in Malaysia returned home to build their dream. The towering university now stands in Somaliland’s hilly capital Hargeisa.

“We had better lives and jobs in Europe,” said soft-spoken Mr. Ibrahim, the university’s president.

“It was not an easy decision to leave all that and return to a totally destroyed country wrecked by civil war.”

Zimbabwe rivals set for make-or-break talks to end crisis



by Godfrey Marawanyika  

(AFP)

Zimbabwe’s rivals will resume make or break power-sharing talks on Tuesday after two days of negotiations failed to produce a deal following Robert Mugabe’s widely condemned re-election

The talks mediated by South African President Thabo Mbeki were planned to start after a speech by President Mugabe to mark national Armed Forces Day, a government official said.

“It’s unknowable when a deal will be reached but the president is due back from Zimbabwe later today,” Mbeki spokesman Mukoni Ratshitanga told AFP.

Latin America

Rival camps in Bolivia both see victory

A national referendum endorses socialist President Evo Morales but it also buttresses the positions of governors in states seeking autonomy.

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 12, 2008

LA PAZ, BOLIVIA — Both sides in Bolivia’s bitter political standoff came out of a weekend recall referendum Monday with reason to declare victory. The big loser appeared to be national unity.

President Evo Morales won a renewed mandate for his socialist vision, garnering more than 60% of the vote, according to preliminary results that won’t be official for a week or so.

But his chief antagonists in the rebellious, resource-rich crescent of lowland states known as the “half moon” also savored their triumph. All four opposition governors in the region easily survived the plebiscite in an explicit endorsement of their march toward regional autonomy — a move that Morales decries as a treasonous splitting of the nation.