Obama Administration Official Publicly Defends Drone Attacks
Mark Hosenball
A noted human-rights expert who is serving as the State Department’s top lawyer issued an unusually full-throated public defense of drone missile attacks on terrorists.Harold Koh left his position as dean of Yale Law School to become State Department legal adviser when Barack Obama took office. As an academic, he had harshly criticized Bush administration policies on intelligence issues.
But in a speech Thursday to the American Society of International Law, Koh vigorously defended the legality of CIA drone missile strikes against targets in Pakistan, which were begun under President Bush and have now become a prominent part of the Obama administration’s antiterror efforts.
Panning for gold, Mumbai streetsweepers watch for all that glitters
In India’s wealthiest city of Mumbai, streetsweepers can be found panning for gold amid the sewage pipes in front of goldsmiths’ houses. It’s one of many informal recycling enterprises in India.
By Amana Fontanella-Khan, Contributor / March 26, 2010
Mumbai, India
Walk beyond Mumbai’s Zaveri bazaar, the gold hub of India’s wealthiest city (formerly known as Bombay), and you might catch street sweepers panning for gold amid the sewage pipes in front of goldsmiths’ homes.Samir Sheikh is a young sweeper in the market who hunts down roughly 2 grams of gold every week – about .07 ounces, worth about $74. He explains that “when the goldsmiths shower, the gold dust on their hands and body comes off and flows out of the drain. We then collect the mud in the gutter and look for the gold.”
This improbable job is one of the many informal recycling enterprises in India. Finding the valuable gold dust is like searching for a needle in a haystack, so the sweepers do meticulous research. They find out where the goldsmiths live and then follow their trail.
USA
For Years, Deaf Boys Tried to Tell of Priest’s Abuse
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and DAVID CALLENDER
Published: March 26, 2010
They were deaf, but they were not silent. For decades, a group of men who were sexually abused as children by the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy at a school for the deaf in Wisconsin reported to every type of official they could think of that he was a danger, according to the victims and church documents.
They told other priests. They told three archbishops of Milwaukee. They told two police departments and the district attorney. They used sign language, written affidavits and graphic gestures to show what exactly Father Murphy had done to them. But their reports fell on the deaf ears of hearing people.
U.S. take if it sells its Citi stake to settle cost of bailout: $8 billion
By David Cho
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Among the banks that rule Wall Street, Citigroup got a bailout that was bigger than the rest. Now the company is about to pay a king’s ransom for its federal rescue.
The Obama administration is making final preparations to sell its stake in the New York bank, according to industry and federal sources. At today’s prices, the sale would net more than $8 billion, by far the largest profit returned from any firm that accepted bailout funds, and the transaction would be the second-largest stock sale in history.
Europe
Vatican goes into battle for Benedict as sexual abuse crisis deepens
Spokesman says Pope knew nothing about reassigning paedophile priest
By Michael Day in Milan Saturday, 27 March 2010
The Vatican yesterday fought a desperate battle to defend Pope Benedict from the latest child abuse scandal after reports linked him directly to a decision to allow a paedophile priest to take up a pastoral role in his former diocese.Officials launched their second strident defence of the Pope in two days over separate episodes in Germany and the US as the tide of allegations moved closer to the pontiff himself. Senior Italian politicians also stepped in to defend the Pope over claims that he had failed to act strongly enough against child abuse by the clergy before he took on leadership of the church.
Middle East
Secular bloc wins most seats in Iraq
Premier Maliki, whose alliance narrowly loses to Iyad Allawi’s, vows to challenge the results in court.
By Ned Parker and Caesar Ahmed
March 26, 2010 | 6:25 p.m.
Reporting from Baghdad – A secular rival edged Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s Shiite alliance in final election results announced Friday, but instead of deciding who will govern Iraq as tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers head home, the virtual dead heat set up a test of raw power in the courts, in parliament and on the streets.Despite declarations from U.S. and United Nations officials that the elections had been fair, Maliki said he would go to court to demand a manual recount in parts of Baghdad and northern Iraq.
Israeli tanks roll into Gaza after two soldiers killed in worst clashes for 14 months
From The Times
March 27, 2010
James Hider, Jerusalem
Israeli tanks advanced into the Gaza Strip yesterday as the worst clashes in 14 months erupted between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters.Both sides blamed each other for triggering the violence, in which two Israeli soldiers and several Palestinians were killed.
After the initial fighting, five Israeli tanks and two armoured bulldozers advanced from the east firing shells at targets near the town of Khan Younis.
Asia
Fatima Bhutto: living by the bullet
With her father, aunt, uncle and grandfather all murdered, Fatima Bhutto has written the story of the ill-starred dynasty whose name once epitomised Pakistan’s political turmoil. Interview by Janine di Giovanni.
By Janine di Giovanni
Published: 8:00AM GMT 27 Mar 2010
When Fatima Bhutto was a little girl, she would sit with her father as he shaved in the morning and pretend to be him. Together, they would wash their faces, brush their teeth, then her father, the political activist Mir Murtaza Bhutto, would gently smooth his tiny daughter’s face with shaving cream. And she imitated his movements, stroke by stroke. What Fatima loves the most about that memory, she says now, was that her father never scolded her, never told her that this was something she should not do because she was a girl. ‘Lathering up and shaving,’ she says, ‘was just our little routine.’
When Fatima was 14, she cowered in the dressing-room of her parents’ bedroom in Karachi, her back against the locked door.
Burma stages landmark army parade
Thousands of soldiers have taken part in Burma’s annual Armed Forces Day parade in the capital Nay Pyi Taw.
The BBC Saturday, 27 March 2010
The parade was the last before elections later this year which should replace Burma’s military government.
Military ruler General Than Shwe inspected the troops and gave an address to the crowds at this rare public appearance.
However, critics say the military is aiming to keep power even after the elections.
No date for the poll has yet been set.
Future role
There has been speculation that Than Shwe will want to remain as army chief or may try to become president.
In his speech, Than Shwe referred to the elections, which he said would be free and fair.
Africa
Zimbabwe’s leaders unite to dismiss gay rights
Saturday, 27 March 2010
By Paul Peachey
During the years of struggles for power in their ailing country, Zimbabwe’s feuding leaders have rarely found a topic on which they have been of the same mind.But in uttering the words “I totally agree with the President,” Morgan Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister, and Robert Mugabe were as one on the issue of refusing to consider gay rights for the country’s constitution.
The pair – the heads of an uneasy unity government since disputed elections in 2008 – yesterday faced down demands to include gay rights in constitutional reforms.
Same-sex relations are illegal in Zimbabwe, as in many other African nations, where gays are subject to intimidation and harassment. Only South Africa has legalised same-sex marriage on the continent, and even there, there can be wide differences between the liberal constitution and social attitudes.
Jack Mubiru builds skatepark instead of house in poor Kampala neighbourhood
From The Times
March 27, 2010
Tristan McConnell, Kampala
When, in accordance with tradition, Jackson “Jack” Mubiru was given a family plot he was expected to build a home for himself. He had other ideas: “You are supposed to construct a house but I was in love with a skatepark,” he said.Jack had first seen skateboarding on an extreme sports channel and was awestruck. “I saw them flying and thought, is this magic or what?”
At the end of a sloping mud road running between tin-roofed shacks through the heart of in the working-class suburb of Kitintale is the skatepark that Jack built. It is surrounded by chicken wire, banana trees and long grass.
Latin America
Mexico arrests alleged major heroin trafficker
Jose Antonio Medina, called ‘the king of heroin,’ was arrested in the state of Michoacan. He is suspected of heading a smuggling network that brought the drug to Southern California.
By Ken Ellingwood
Reporting from Mexico City – Mexican authorities Thursday announced the arrest of a man dubbed “the king of heroin,” who allegedly was one of the biggest smugglers of the drug into the United States.Jose Antonio Medina was captured by Mexican police a day earlier in the western state of Michoacan, where he allegedly operated a trafficking network that smuggled 440 pounds of heroin a month across the border into Southern California, federal police said.
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