Owner of Exploded Rig Exploits Offshore Status
By BARRY MEIER
Published: July 7, 2010
Transocean is the world’s largest offshore drilling company, but until its Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April, few Americans outside the energy business had heard of it. It is well known, however, in a number of other countries – for testing local laws and regulations.
Human rights advocates have called for an investigation into Transocean’s recent dealings in Myanmar. They cite its involvement in a drilling project that apparently included a company that is suspected of having ties to two men accused of laundering money for Myanmar’s repressive government, which is under United States trade sanctions.
Six years in jail, no charge: war on terror’s forgotten victim speaks
Babar Ahmad, 35, is the longest-serving prisoner held without charge or trial in the UK. In his first media interview since his arrest on a US extradition warrant in 2004, Mr Ahmad tells Robert Verkaik that he is the forgotten victim of the ‘war on terror’.
Thursday, 8 July 2010
Can you describe your life in the UK before your arrest?I was born in the UK and have spent all my life living in south London in the Balham/Tooting area. At the time of my first arrest in December 2003, I was employed full-time as an ICT Support Analystat Imperial College London. My job entailed supporting the software needs of undergraduate academic teaching and postgraduate research. I have always been a devout Muslim and others would describe me as adhering to mainstream Islamic teachings. I have never been charged with or convicted of any criminal offence.
USA
Federal Reserve weighs steps to offset slowdown in economic recovery
By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 8, 2010Federal Reserve officials, increasingly concerned over signs the economic recovery is faltering, are considering new steps to bolster growth.
With Congress tied in political knots over whether to take further action to boost the economy, Fed leaders are weighing modest steps that could offer more support for economic activity at a time when their target for short-term interest rates is already near zero. They are still resistant to calls to pull out their big guns — massive infusions of cash, such as those undertaken during the depths of the financial crisis — but would reconsider if conditions worsen.
West Virginia governor holds off on successor for Byrd
Gov. Joe Manchin III is waiting for state clarification on whether and how soon a special election can be held to fill the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd’s seat.
Michael A. Memoli, Tribune Washington Bureau
July 7, 2010 | 7:12 p.m.
Reporting from Washington – West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III has postponed the appointment of a replacement for the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd until state officials clarify how soon a special election can be held, a move that leaves Senate Democrats short a potentially crucial vote at least until next week.Manchin said Wednesday that he would prefer to allow voters to choose someone to complete Byrd’s unexpired term in an election this fall. Until the state attorney general determines whether he is empowered to call for such a vote, however, Manchin said he would not name a temporary replacement.
Europe
Italian government to tackle Chinese mafia
The Italian government, synonymous with dealing with the mafia, has announced plans to combat the “considerable” dangers posed by Chinese organised crime.
By Nick Squires in Rome
Published: 12:54AM BST 08 Jul 2010
Roberto Marconi, the interior minister, will convene a summit in Rome to tackle Chinese gangs, which thrive on prostitution, money laundering, smuggling illegal immigrants into Italy and producing clothes, hand bags and other goods with fake brand names.
One of the largest Chinese communities is in the town of Prato in Tuscany, where an estimated 30,000 Chinese work in textile factories and workshops, often under sweatshop conditions.
“The difficulty we have with the Chinese community stems from the fact that we still do not have an accord to repatriate illegal aliens to China and this is because the Chinese government has refused to sign one,” Mr Maroni said.
French court sentences Manuel Noriega to 7 years in prison
The former Panamanian dictator is convicted of laundering drug-trafficking profits. He is also ordered to pay $2.88 million in French duty and $1.26 million in damages to Panama.
By Kim Willsher, Special to the Los Angeles Times
July 8, 2010
Reporting from Paris – A Paris court on Wednesday convicted former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega of laundering the profits from drug trafficking and ordered him to be imprisoned for seven years.The three-judge panel also ordered him to pay $2.88 million in French import duties from his frozen bank accounts and $1.26 million to the Panamanian government in damages.
The 76-year-old former general, who argued to be sent back to Panama, looked shocked as the verdict was translated into Spanish. He was led from the court by gendarmes.
Middle East
Change is in the wind
ISRAEL, PALESTINE AFTER THE FLOTILLA, Part 1
By Jack A Smith
There are times in world politics when a relatively small incident can trigger a major chain of events, depending on circumstances. Another way of expressing this is contained in the ancient Chinese proverb, “A single spark can start a prairie fire” – particularly when conditions include a warm gusty wind and the grassland is dry.This analogy comes to mind in the aftermath of the violent illegal interdiction by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) of the six ships and nearly 700 people in the humanitarian Gaza Freedom flotilla in the Mediterranean Sea over a month ago, killing nine Turkish supporters of Palestinian national rights and wounding about 50 other voyagers.
CNN Fires Middle East Affairs Editor
By BRIAN STELTER
Published: July 7, 2010
CNN on Wednesday removed its senior editor of Middle Eastern affairs, Octavia Nasr, after she published a Twitter message saying that she respected the Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.
Parisa Khosravi, the senior vice president of international newsgathering for CNN Worldwide, said in an internal memorandum that she “had a conversation” with Ms. Nasr on Wednesday morning and that “we have decided that she will be leaving the company.”
Asia
Richard Nixon planned nuclear strike on North Korea
The United States drew up plans for a tactical nuclear strike against North Korea in 1969, but quickly stepped back from the brink fearing it would trigger an all-out war, newly declassified documents in Washington have shown.
By Peter Foster in Beijing
Published: 7:09AM BST 08 Jul 2010
The planned strike saw US bomber pilots being put on high alert following the North’s shooting down of a US spy plane over the Sea of Japan in April 1969, killing all 31 Americans on board.
Documents released by the National Security Archive in Washington detail plans for Operation Freedom Drop which included conventional war and a nuclear attack using bombs 20 times the size of that dropped on Hiroshima.
A memo dated June 1969 to Richard Nixon’s national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, listed “pre-co-ordinated options for the selective use of tactical nuclear weapons against North Korea” to knock out 12 key command centres, airfields and naval bases
Every day is laundry day for Mumbai’s dhobis
More than 5,000 laundrymen clean and iron thousands of clothing and textiles each day at Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, one of many laundering sites in Mumbai (Bombay). Manual labor here is still cheaper than machinery.
By Ben Arnoldy, Staff / July 7, 2010
Mumbai
Rajkumar Kanodjia swings a pair of wet pants over his head and sends them crashing against a cement slab. Water flies off all along the arc – then with a smack comes an explosion of soapsuds on the stone.
Mr. Kanodjia’s spin cycle is now largely done by washing machines in the developed world. But in India, many ancient professions persist because labor is still cheaper than machinery and electricity.With roughly six workers in each of the 826 washing cubicles, Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat offers space to thousands of dhobis – laundrymen – who clean, dry, iron, and deliver hundreds of thousands of articles of clothing and textiles each day. The work site is just one of many around the teeming city of Mumbai (Bombay), home to 14 million.
Latin America
Cleric battling to save rainforest from loggers fights expulsion
Hero to Amazon tribes is ordered out after 20 years of campaigning against oil giants
By Jerome Taylor, Religious Affairs Correspondent Thursday, 8 July 2010
To the indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon, Paul McAuley is a hero who has helped them stand up to the legions of rapacious mining, oil and logging companies operating in their jungle homeland.His enemies have a different opinion of the Catholic missionary. They have branded him a “Tarzan agitator”, a “white terrorist” and an “incendiary gringo priest”.
Last night Mr McAuley, 62, was desperately trying to launch a last minute legal appeal to stop his expulsion from Peru after the government revoked his residency status.