Docudharma Times Tuesday July 6

War zone drone crashes add up

The unmanned craft were rushed into use in 2001 and some design and system problems were never fully addressed. Losses don’t involve lives but are expensive.

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

July 6, 2010

Reporting from Kandahar, Afghanistan – The U.S. military often portrays its drone aircraft as high-tech marvels that can be operated seamlessly from thousands of miles away. But Pentagon accident reports reveal that the pilotless aircraft suffer from frequent system failures, computer glitches and human error.

Design and system problems were never fully addressed in the haste to push the fragile plane into combat over Afghanistan shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks more than eight years ago. Air Force investigators continue to cite pilot mistakes, coordination snafus, software failures, outdated technology and inadequate flight manuals.

A wash in the simile

The use of good metaphors is slowly dying – like good fiction at local bookshops.

JASON NORWOOD-YOUNG | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

Douglas Adams said: “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” Adams, the master of subtle humour, used the metaphor as a fine foil to make his point and would have preferred to listen to Vogon poetry rather than use a crass simile in place of a fine metaphor. The only time he really used similes was, in fact, for Vogon poetry (described by Adams as “the third-worst poetry in the universe”). “Oh freddled gruntbuggly/ thy micturations are to me/ As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee.”

But were he to be influenced by today’s comedic writers he’d be swinging similes like a sabre, cutting down what’s left of the art of the English language and leaving it bleeding in the Olympic arena.

USA

Recovery effort falls vastly short of BP’s promises



By Kimberly Kindy

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

In the 77 days since oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon began to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has skimmed or burned about 60 percent of the amount it promised regulators it could remove in a single day.

The disparity between what BP promised in its March 24 filing with federal regulators and the amount of oil recovered since the April 20 explosion underscores what some officials and environmental groups call a misleading numbers game that has led to widespread confusion about the extent of the spill and the progress of the recovery.

Utah’s Gun Permit Popular With Nonresidents



By DAN FROSCH

Published: July 5, 2010

James Roe, a 64-year-old computer consultant from rural Pennsylvania, spent a recent Saturday in a Pittsburgh suburb learning about riflings, hangfires and powder charges. The gun safety class was for people seeking a concealed-firearm permit in Utah, some 1,500 miles away. Never mind that Mr. Roe has not been to Utah in 20 years and has no plans to visit anytime soon.

Like thousands of other gun owners who will most likely never set foot in Utah, Mr. Roe wants a permit there for one reason: It allows him to carry his semiautomatic .45-caliber pistol in 32 other states that recognize or have formal reciprocity with  Utah’s gun regulations.

Europe

Horrors of Bosnian War relived in British court



By Cahal Milmom Chief Reporter Tuesday, 6 July 2010

An engineering professor masterminded a series of war crimes, including ordering the execution of wounded Yugoslav soldiers, when he briefly became President of Bosnia at the outbreak of war 18 years ago, a court in London heard yesterday.

Ejup Ganic, 65, was arrested at Heathrow in March this year on an arrest warrant issued by the Serbian authorities which he and his family claim is a politically-motivated attempt by Belgrade to rewrite the history of the Bosnian War which broke out in 1992, eventually claiming more than 10,000 lives.

EU expresses grave doubts over State’s survival plan for Anglo



ARTHUR BEESLEY, European Correspondent, in Brussels

THE EU Commission approved the Government’s €8.3 billion recapitalisation of Anglo Irish Bank, despite having grave reservations about the survival plan put forward for the nationalised lender.

It felt the survival plan was still excessively exposed to the property market and was based on assumptions that could not be supported.

In March, competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia raised fundamental questions about the viability of the original plan to separate Anglo into “good” and “bad” banks to manage its performing and non-performing businesses respectively. He called for revised restructuring proposals.

Middle East

The razor and the damage done: female genital mutilation in Kurdish Iraq

Mixture of motives persuades villages to maintain practice that often leaves lasting effects on young girls

Martin Chulov in Sulaymaniyah

guardian.co.uk  

The old Kurdish midwife’s hands trembled alongside a bowl that she positions to catch dripping blood. She picked up a razor blade and sliced through a corner of paper, mimicking the ritual cut she has performed at least 500 times, on young girls’ genitals.

“In the name of God, the most compassionate and merciful,” Naksheen Moustafa said. “That’s it! It’s simple. I have never had a problem with this procedure in all the time I have done it.”

But in a small home on the outskirts of the same village in northern Iraq, Jiana Ali Mohammed sat on the floor, her wide eyes staring into the middle distance.

Blockade on Gaza eased – but diplomatic fallout from flotilla attack grows



By Catrina Stewart In Jerusalem Tuesday, 6 July 2010

Turkey has threatened to sever ties with Israel over the deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, undermining Israeli efforts to end its deepening international isolation by launching a new policy in the Gaza Strip.

The brewing diplomatic crisis came as Israel unveiled new rules to allow more goods into the besieged Gaza Strip, a carefully-timed move that Israel will hope shields it from US pressure to further ease its much-criticised blockade.

But as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to meet President Barack Obama in Washington today, it was unclear if Israel had gone far enough to allow reconstruction in the Gaza Strip, critical to regenerating its shattered economy and easing humanitarian pressures.

Asia

U.S. ‘dismayed’ by 8-year sentence for American in China

 

By the CNN Wire Staff July 6, 2010

The U.S. Embassy here says it is “dismayed” by a Chinese court decision sentencing a U.S. citizen to eight years in prison for violating state secrets law.

In a written statement Monday, U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman called for the release of Dr. Xue Feng, a naturalized U.S. citizen, who in addition to the prison sentence was fined about $29,500 for allegedly providing intelligence abroad.

“I was at the courthouse this morning when Dr. Xue Feng was sentenced to eight years and fined 200,000 RMB. I am disappointed, ” Huntsman said in a written statement.

Protests Over Fuel Costs Idle Much of India



By HEATHER TIMMONS and HARI KUMAR

Published: July 5, 2010    

NEW DELHI – Protests against a recent increase in fuel prices shut down markets, schools, airports and businesses across India on Monday, and thousands of people were arrested as violence flared in some cities.

The effect of the demonstrations – led by political parties that oppose the governing coalition led by the Indian National Congress – far exceeded expectations, although no official estimates of crowds were available. Some people affected by the one-day strike said the sizable opposition would force the government to address protesters’ concerns.

Africa

Ghana gives Black Stars heroes’ welcome after World Cup

Ghana’s national football team has arrived back home from the World Cup in South Africa to a rapturous welcome

The BBC Tuesday, 6 July 2010

Thousands of dancing and singing fans welcomed the players – known as the Black Stars – at Accra’s airport.

“You’ve really held high the flag of Ghana and the entire African continent,” Deputy Sports Minister Nii Nortey Duah told the players.

Ghana, the only African team to progress beyond the group stage, went out to Uruguay in the quarter-final.

It is the first time the World Cup has been played in Africa, and many had hoped an African squad would progress to the semi-finals.

Ghana were drawing 1-1 with Uruguay when in the final moments of extra time striker Asamoah Gyan missed a penalty kick awarded after Uruguay’s Luis Suarez blocked a goal-bound shot with his hand.

Netherlands’ World Cup team gets Dutch Treat from South Africa’s Afrikaners

The success of the Netherlands’ World Cup soccer team is cause for celebration for the many South Africans with Dutch ancestry, but that dynamic leaves a bad taste in the mouths of some blacks.  

By Savious Kwinika and Ian Evans, Correspondents / July 5, 2010

Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa

There is an orange army in South Africa that watches every Netherlands World Cup game, that cheers every shot on goal, that boos every bad referee call, and that is convinced that Holland will win the 2010 FIFA World Cup after Tuesday’s Netherlands vs. Uruguay semifinal.

Ranked No. 4 in the world, The Netherlands edged out the world’s best team, Brazil, with a score of 2-1 on Friday, courtesy of a goal by Wesley Sneijder and an own goal from Brazil’s Felipe Melo.

Here in South Africa, a country that was once controlled by Dutch settlers and where the majority of white citizens speak a Dutch dialect called Afrikaans, the success of the Dutch team is big news indeed.

Latin America

Vote shows Mexicans have little faith in any party

 

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and ALEXANDRA OLSON, Associated Press Writers

CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico – After a Super Sunday of elections across Mexico that was widely seen as a test for the 2012 presidential race and the nation’s future, the winner turns out to be – well, not really anyone.

President Felipe Calderon’s party is weak, the left is in collapse and the Institutional Revolutionary Party that is on a tentative path to recapture the presidency it held for 71 years was shown to be vulnerable. Drug cartel intimidation dissuaded many from voting at all.

The mixed outcome in elections across 15 states showed no party has won the faith of Mexicans desperate to bring their country out of a quagmire of economic stagnation and relentless gang wars that have killed more than 23,000 people since Calderon took office three years ago.

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