Docudharma Times Friday June 25

Pakistan Is Said to Pursue a Foothold in Afghanistan

 

By JANE PERLEZ, ERIC SCHMITT and CARLOTTA GALL.

Published: June 24, 2010

 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan is exploiting the troubled United States military effort in Afghanistan to drive home a political settlement with Afghanistan that would give Pakistan important influence there but is likely to undermine United States interests, Pakistani and American officials said.

The dismissal of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal will almost certainly embolden the Pakistanis in their plan as they detect increasing American uncertainty, Pakistani officials said.

Where are the women to rock the music industry?

Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and Florence Welch have towered over pop music in recent years. So why, asks Fiona Sturges, does the backstage arena remain almost entirely dominated by men?

Friday, 25 June 2010

One of the biggest talking points in music over the past few years has been how well the girls are doing. Since the rise of Lily, Amy, Florence and co, women have, we are told, been wiping the floor with men when it comes to making clever, catchy, too-cool-for-school pop music.

Putting aside for a moment the myriad females who continue to be signed as little more than eye candy, and who are objectified on album covers and in music videos in a manner that sets the cause of feminism back 40 years, then of course one has to concede that this is good news.

Here is a bunch of apparently independent, innovative and firmly in-the-driving-seat ladies who have found a new level of success on their own terms. But does a handful of successful women topping the charts really point to a new equality in the music business?

USA

House-Senate panel works to move financial regulation bill to Obama



By Brady Dennis

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, June 25, 2010

Lawmakers pressed deep into the night Thursday, trying to solidify a series of political deals in an effort to get a bill that would overhaul the nation’s financial regulation to President Obama by July 4.

Despite vows of an open process, Democrats and administration officials spent much of the day negotiating behind closed doors over a pair of contentious issues — bank trading and derivatives — in a bid to secure crucial votes for the final legislation in both houses of Congress.  

Q&A: Did U.S. reject foreign help on gulf oil spill cleanup?

What role does a maritime law play in criticisms that the Obama administration initially refused offers from the Netherlands?

By Kathleen Hennessey, Tribune Washington bureau

June 25, 2010

Reporting from Washington – A handful of critics, led by Republicans in Congress and conservative commentators, has recently blasted the administration as slow to accept equipment and other assistance from foreign countries offering to help with the gulf oil spill cleanup.

They’ve focused their critique on an offer from the Netherlands of oil-skimming booms. Some contend that the administration initially refused that offer and others out of a resistance to waive the Jones Act of 1920 – a law that bars foreign vessels from carrying cargo between points in the U.S. – as President George W. Bush did briefly after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Europe

Parcel bomb kills Greek security minister’s aide

Device disguised as gift-wrapped sweets box; as yet, no claim of responsibility for devastating explosion

Helena Smith in Athens

The Guardian, Friday 25 June 2010

A parcel bomb disguised as a gift exploded last night inside the offices of the minister in charge of security in Greece, killing a senior aide who tried to open the box.

The explosion was meters away from where the minister, Michalis Chrysohoidis, was sat at his desk on the seventh floor of the heavily-guarded building in Athens.

Giorgos Vassilakis, 52, head of the minister’s security team, died instantly when the device, thought to have been gift-wrapped as a box of sweets, went off in his hands. So strong was the blast that employees in the building thought it had been struck by an earthquake.

Visibly shaken, Chrysohoidis vowed the “cowardly murderers will be brought to justice”.  

Revealed: How ‘zero-grazing’ is set to bring US-style factory farming to Britain

Plans to rear thousands of pigs and cows in huge new industrial units condemned by animal welfare charities  

By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent  Friday, 25 June 2010

A battle is under way in the British countryside to fight off plans for massive factory farms that would house thousands of animals in industrialised units without access to traditional grazing or foraging.

Plans for three large-scale units in England have encountered fierce resistance from campaigners who say they would cause extra noise, smell and disruption and cause more stress and disease for animals.  

Middle East

Egypt’s denial of police brutality in Khalid Said death spurs fresh protest

More than 11,000 Egyptians have responded to a Facebook call for a Friday protest of police brutality in the death of Egyptian businessman Khalid Said. After a second autopsy, Egypt today upheld the original finding that the man had choked on a bag on drugs.

By Kristen Chick, Correspondent / June 24, 2010

Cairo

Egypt’s general prosecutor said Wednesday that the results of a second autopsy uphold the conclusion that a young Egyptian businessman whose death has incited anger and protests died from choking on a bag of drugs – not from a police beating.

Witnesses say that police dragged Mr. Said out of an Internet cafe in Alexandria June 6 and beat him to death in the street. Graphic photos of his facial injuries, circulated on the Internet, support their account. Said was reportedly targeted because he was planning to make public a video that shows police officers dividing the spoils of a drug bust.

Dubai’s ambitions soar with new airport



By ADAM SCHRECK

AP Business Writer

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – In the desert beyond the skeletons of villas unfinished because of Dubai’s economic slump, the home of the tallest building is preparing to open what could become another record-setter: an airport aiming to become the world’s busiest.

Civic boosters envision Dubai World Central-Al Maktoum International, set to open Sunday, as one day growing into a mammoth transit hub of five parallel runways that could trump Atlanta’s airport for the No. 1 spot. Where camels now graze, they see up to four terminals handling more travelers than the world’s No. 2 and 3 airports – Chicago’s O’Hare and London’s Heathrow – combined.  

Asia

Korean war 60 years on: Haven in South for young defectors from North

A government-funded school near Seoul prepares youths who have fled poverty and repression for a new life without family



Justin McCurry in Anseong

The Guardian, Friday 25 June 2010

Perched nervously on the edge of a chair in the principal’s office, a hole visible in one knee of his uniform, Kim Yong-hee visibly relaxes when he talks about his recently discovered talent for table tennis and love of martial arts films.

An interest in sport and movies, however, is perhaps all he has in common with other teenage boys in South Korea.

He is 17, but looks 12 – a physical toll exacted by years of under-nourishment and hardship that two years ago prompted his escape, alone and under cover of darkness, from the country of his birth: North Korea.

Campaigners dismiss Bhopal compensation as insufficient

A $280m compensation package announced by the Indian government for victims of the Bhopal gas disaster has been denounced by campaigners.

The BBC Friday, 25 June 2010

The compensation announced late on Thursday is the latest is a series of pay-offs made by the authorities to victims of the disaster.

The money will go into cleaning up the polluted factory site and improving medical treatment of surviving victims.

Some 3,500 people died within days and more than 15,000 in the years since.

The move follows public outrage after seven former managers at the plant were given two-year jail sentences.

The convictions are the first since the disaster at the Union Carbide plant – considered to be the world’s worst industrial accident.

Africa

The African paradox: Big players, shame about the teams

The Continent’s first World Cup has been a disappointment for all but one of its national sides. Their failure has more to do with politics and corruption than lack of talent

By Daniel Howden Friday, 25 June 2010

Three giants stand guard over the arrivals hall at Oliver Tambo airport in Johannesburg. Dressed in yellow and playing for a team called “Africa United” they are Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel and Salomon Kalou.

They are the heroes who were supposed to drive the continent’s arrival at football’s top table. These were meant to be three of the biggest stars of the African World Cup given pride of place in one of the most expensive display adverts in the country. The message which has been deafeningly communicated – in this case by a mobile telephone operator – to a billion Africans in more than 50 countries has been clear: success for one African country will be success for all Africans.

Deadlock over Zimbabwe ‘blood diamond’ trade

The organisation that controls the international diamond trade has failed to agree whether Zimbabwe should be allowed to resume diamond sales.

The BBC Friday, 25 June 2010

Following talks in Israel, members of the Kimberley Process said discussions had been “clouded” by the arrest in Zimbabwe of a human rights activist.

Farai Maguwu had alleged that forced labour was being used to develop Zimbabwe’s new Marange diamond field.

Zimbabwe has accused the West of trying to hold back its economic development.

The diamonds from the Marange field could see the country become one of the world’s top six exporters and generate $1.7bn a year.

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