Tag: Docudharma Times

 It’s Time To Stop

Making Workers Pay

For The Mistakes Of

Company CEO’s

For U.S. and Carmakers, a Path Strewn With Pitfalls

NEWS ANALYSIS

By DAVID E. SANGER

Published: March 30, 2009

As an assertion of government control over a huge swath of the industrial landscape, President Obama’s decision to reshape the automobile industry has few precedents.

In essentially taking command of General Motors and telling Chrysler to merge with a foreign competitor or cease to exist, Mr. Obama was saying that economic conditions were sufficiently dire to justify a new level of government involvement in the management of corporate America.

His message amounted to an inversion of the relationship that had helped define the rise of American manufacturing might in the 20th century; now, Mr. Obama seemed to be saying, what is good for America will have to be good enough for General Motors.

Sarkozy and Merkel Try to Shape European Unity

 

?By STEVEN ERLANGER and NICHOLAS KULISH

Published: March 30, 2009

PARIS – They are an extremely odd couple – he is short and hyperactive, she is dour and shy. He believes in the power of the state and big interventions; she believes in a softer role for the state, guiding and prodding the market. Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel don’t even get along very well, aides to both leaders say. He has made fun of her accent in private meetings, the aides say, and she says he is self-centered and impetuous.

But the French president and the German chancellor find themselves in a forced marriage in these days of economic crisis. Responsible for the two largest economies among nations that use the euro, known as the euro zone, they are trying to shape European unity in the days before the Group of 20 economic summit meeting this week.

They also are bearing the brunt of criticism, especially from the left and from Washington, that they are not responding forcefully enough to the recession and the collapse of world trade.

USA

For This Health System, Less Is More

Program That Guarantees Doing Things Right the First Time, for Flat Fee, Pays Off

By Ceci Connolly

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, March 31, 2009; Page A01

In an industry that makes its money by selling more — more tests, more surgeries, more drugs — Geisinger Health System officials gambled three years ago that they could succeed by doing less, but doing it better.

Mimicking the appliance company that advertised its products’ reliability, the health system devised a 90-day warranty on elective heart surgery, promising to get it right the first time, for a flat fee. If complications arise or the patient returns to the hospital, Geisinger bears the additional cost.

The venture has paid off. Heart patients have fared measurably better, and the health system has cut its bypass surgery costs by 15 percent.

Why Is That Rick Wagner

Is Forced To Resign

But Not A Single Wall Street Executive  

GM Chief to Resign at White House’s Behest

Obama Pushes General Motors and Chrysler to Slim Down, Make More Concessions

By Peter Whoriskey

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, March 30, 2009; Page A01

The Obama administration has forced the longtime head of General Motors to resign and said yesterday that it would withhold additional federal aid to the auto industry unless the ailing companies undertake changes they so far have been unwilling or unable to make.

The administration effectively rejected as untenable the business plans that GM and Chrysler had submitted to restructure their companies, saying that neither had fulfilled the terms of the federal loans the companies received in December.

The president is expected to announce today that both companies may still win additional federal aid but under stricter terms.

Gunmen storm Pakistan police academy

• At least 10 police officers killed at Lahore training centre

• Gunmen hold hundreds of officers and cadets hostage

?Saeed Shah in Islamabad and James Sturcke

guardian.co.uk, Monday 30 March 2009 08.49 BST

At least 10 police officers were killed when gunmen stormed a police training facility in Lahore this morning, the second major terrorist attack in the Pakistani city within a month.

Hundreds of police officers and cadets were being held hostage by at least 10 attackers, according to reports, as exchanges of gunfire took place with troops and police surrounding the Manawan police centre.

The interior ministry chief, Rehman Malik, said 52 officers were wounded in the attack but gave no word on the number killed, while Geo News television channel said the toll was 20.

Armoured personnel carriers were manoeuvring into place around the site, in an apparent attempt to seal the exits. Army marksmen took up position on surrounding rooftops and surveillance helicopters hovered above the complex.

USA

AIG crisis could be the tip of an insurance iceberg

The company’s situation reflects problems throughout the life insurance industry as investments suffer. Further strain could bring about a second financial crisis.

By Ralph Vartabedian and Tom Hamburger

March 30, 2009

Reporting from Washington and Los Angeles — When insurance giant American International Group Inc. imploded last fall, the firm’s problems were quickly blamed not on its core insurance business but on an obscure operation that traded exotic mortgage securities.

But as the economic crisis deepens, it has become clear that AIG’s problems extend across most of its business lines, including its massive life insurance and retirement services operations, which reported a staggering $18-billion quarterly loss this month.

The company’s situation is emblematic of problems across the life insurance industry, which is suffering deep losses on investments that underlie policies for millions of American families.

So far, some of the biggest companies have suffered sharp drops in their stock prices, and many of them are asking for federal assistance.

Industry conditions last year were the worst in memory and are expected to grow deeper this year amid credit rating downgrades, declining revenue and investment losses, according to credit rating firm A.M. Best Co.

 The Courts Are

Coming For You

Alberto

Obama Will Face a Defiant World on Foreign Visit



By HELENE COOPER

Published: March 28, 2009

WASHINGTON – President Obama is facing challenges to American power on multiple fronts as he prepares for his first trip overseas since taking office, with the nation’s economic woes emboldening allies and adversaries alike.

Despite his immense popularity around the world, Mr. Obama will confront resentment over American-style capitalism and resistance to his economic prescriptions when he lands in London on Tuesday for the Group of 20 summit meeting of industrial and emerging market nations plus the European Union.

The president will not even try to overcome NATO’s unwillingness to provide more troops in Afghanistan when he goes on later in the week to meet with the military alliance.

Spanish judge accuses six top Bush officials of torture

 Legal moves may force Obama’s government into starting a new inquiry into abuses at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib

?Julian Borger and Dale Fuchs in Madrid

The Observer, Sunday 29 March 2009

Criminal proceedings have begun in Spain against six senior officials in the Bush administration for the use of torture against detainees in Guantánamo Bay. Baltasar Garzón, the counter-terrorism judge whose prosecution of General Augusto Pinochet led to his arrest in Britain in 1998, has referred the case to the chief prosecutor before deciding whether to proceed.

The case is bound to threaten Spain’s relations with the new administration in Washington, but Gonzalo Boyé, one of the four lawyers who wrote the lawsuit, said the prosecutor would have little choice under Spanish law but to approve the prosecution.

“The only route of escape the prosecutor might have is to ask whether there is ongoing process in the US against these people,” Boyé told the Observer.

USA

Confederate holiday provokes a war between the Souths

Confederate defenders seek to honor their history. Many who cherish the modern New South decry the campaign as reminder of slavery’s legacy. ‘This is a new day,’ a Georgia legislator says.

By Dahleen Glanton

6:18 PM PDT, March 28, 2009

Reporting from Atlanta — In a cultural war that has pitted Old South against New, defenders of the Confederate legacy have opened a fresh front in their campaign to polish an image tarnished, they say, by people who do not respect Southern values.

With the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War coming up in 2011, efforts are underway in statehouses, small towns and counties across the South to push for proclamations or legislation promoting Confederate history.

Alabama, Virginia, Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana and Florida observe Confederate History Month in April. Georgia has recognized it by proclamation since 1995, and the state Senate recently passed a bill that would make it official — assuming the measure passes muster in the state House, which could be problematic.

Most Southern states recognize Confederate Memorial Day as a legal holiday. Some celebrate it on the June birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, but Texas and Arkansas observe it on Jan. 19, the federal holiday for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

  Michelle “We Need A Revolution” Bachmann(M)Mars

Your Foreign Corespondent Behind

Enemy Lines

White House Debate Led to Plan to Widen Afghan Effort



By HELENE COOPER and ERIC SCHMITT

Published: March 27, 2009

WASHINGTON – President Obama’s plan to widen United States involvement in Afghanistan came after an internal debate in which Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. warned against getting into a political and military quagmire, while military advisers argued that the Afghanistan war effort could be imperiled without even more troops.

All of the president’s advisers agreed that the primary goal in the region should be narrow – taking aim at Al Qaeda, as opposed to the vast attempt at nation-building the Bush administration had sought in Iraq. The question was how to get there.

The commanders in the field wanted a firmer and long-term commitment of more combat troops beyond the 17,000 that Mr. Obama had already promised to send, and a pledge that billions of dollars would be found to significantly expand the number of Afghan security forces.

Grieving Parents Gain Clout In China

 Party Steps Lightly In Wake of Disasters

?By Ariana Eunjung Cha

Washington Post Foreign Service

Saturday, March 28, 2009; Page A01

BEIJING — When Zhao Lianhai created a Web site for parents of children hurt or killed by contaminated milk, he did not set out to challenge the Communist Party. He did it because his son was sick. The 3-year-old had been diagnosed with kidney stones and Zhao was scared. He needed advice.

Within days, more than 4,000 families signed up, and soon the discussion evolved from technical questions and answers about medical care to demands for punishment and compensation. It wasn’t long before the 37-year-old former advertising salesman became the de facto spokesman, organizer and lobbyist for thousands of parents across the country whose children had suffered after drinking infant formula or milk that had been illegally doctored with the industrial chemical melamine.

USA

Thousands flee Fargo as floodwaters threaten

Says one resident: ‘The only thing now is divine intervention’

NBC News and news services

FARGO, N.D. – Thousands of shivering, tired residents got out while they could and others prayed that miles of sandbagged levees would hold Friday as the surging Red River threatened to unleash the biggest flood North Dakota’s largest city has ever seen.

The agonizing decision to stay or go came as the final hours ticked down before an expected crest Sunday, when the ice-laden river could climb as high as 43 feet, nearly 3 feet higher than the record set 112 years ago.

The city got a one-day reprieve Friday night when the National Weather Service pushed its crest projection back from Saturday to Sunday afternoon, saying frigid temperatures had slowed the river’s rise.

Republicans Give America

A Pretty Blue Book

Newt Declares Obama

Creating A Dictatorship

What About George W. Bush

And His Authoritarian Policies?

   

Pakistani and Afghan Taliban Unify in Face of U.S. Influx



By CARLOTTA GALL

Published: March 26, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – After agreeing to bury their differences and unite forces, Taliban leaders based in Pakistan have closed ranks with their Afghan comrades to ready a new offensive in Afghanistan as the United States prepares to send 17,000 more troops there this year.

In interviews, several Taliban fighters based in the border region said preparations for the anticipated influx of American troops were already being made. A number of new, younger commanders have been preparing to step up a campaign of roadside bombings and suicide attacks to greet the Americans, the fighters said.

The refortified alliance was forged after the reclusive Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, sent emissaries to persuade Pakistani Taliban leaders to join forces and turn their attention to Afghanistan, Pakistani officials and Taliban members said.

How the West lost its way in the East

Kabul was taken in days, but then the ‘liberation of Afghanistan’ became a slow-motion disaster. Patrick Cockburn, who has reported on the conflict since 2001, charts the fatal mistakes

Friday, 27 March 2009

After seven long years in which it seemed a sideshow to the bigger conflict in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan has reached a critical point. The US must now choose how far it will become further embroiled in a messy conflict which affects its relations with Pakistan, India and the wider Middle East including Iran. At a moment when the world is convulsed by the worst economic disaster since 1929, Washington will have to decide if it really wants to invest time, money, military and political resources in beating back the ragged bands of Taliban who increasingly control southern Afghanistan.

At the end of last year, the White House was talking about repeating what was deemed to have been the success of the “surge” in Iraq. Some 30,000 extra US troops were sent to Iraq pursuing more aggressive tactics and the Sunni Arab insurgency seemed to wind down soon after. But the real turning point in Iraq was probably the defeat of the Sunni Arabs by the Shia. Nothing of this sort is likely to undermine the Taliban in Afghanistan just as their guerrilla attacks are inflicting more casualties than ever.

USA

Evacuations ordered as Fargo levee cracks form

Red River could crest at 43 feet on Saturday; sandbaggers try to go higher

Associated Press

FARGO, N.D. – Officials ordered the evacuation of one neighborhood and a nursing home late Thursday after authorities found cracks in an earthen levee built to protect the area from the threat of the rising Red River.

Residents were not in immediate danger, and floodwaters were not flowing over the levee, Mayor Dennis Walaker said Thursday night. The evacuation was being enforced as a precaution.

Officers were going door to door to the roughly 40 homes in the River Vili neighborhood and were evacuating Riverview Estates nursing home. Authorities also called for the voluntary evacuation of about 1,000 people who live between the main dikes and backups in various parts of the city. That evacuation could become mandatory, officials said.

President Obama

Should Join The Mainstream

Eric Cantor Needs To

Find The Mainstream

President Obama Is Already There

   

Afghan Strikes by Taliban Get Pakistan Help, U.S. Aides Say



By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT

Published: March 25, 2009

WASHINGTON – The Taliban’s widening campaign in southern Afghanistan is made possible in part by direct support from operatives in Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, despite Pakistani government promises to sever ties to militant groups fighting in Afghanistan, according to American government officials.

The support consists of money, military supplies and strategic planning guidance to Taliban commanders who are gearing up to confront the international force in Afghanistan that will soon include some 17,000 American reinforcements.

Support for the Taliban, as well as other militant groups, is coordinated by operatives inside the shadowy S Wing of Pakistan’s spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, the officials said. There is even evidence that ISI operatives meet regularly with Taliban commanders to discuss whether to intensify or scale back violence before the Afghan elections.

North Korea ‘days away’ from launching missile

Hillary Clinton says firing missile would be ‘provocative’

Tania Branigan in Beijing

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 March 2009 06.36 GMT

North Korea is days away from the launch of a long-range missile, United States officials have said, heightening concerns about the risks to regional stability.

Counter-proliferation and intelligence officials said the country had mounted a rocket onto a launch pad and placed together two stages of what will probably be a three-stage device, Reuters reported today. It could be ready to fire as early as the weekend, sooner than expected.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that firing a long-range rocket would be a “provocative act” that would have consequences, while South Korea said it would be “a serious challenge and provocation” threatening regional stability.

Pyongyang has said it plans to launch a communications satellite between 4 and 8 April.

USA

Geithner to Propose Vast Expansion Of U.S. Oversight of Financial System



By Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho

Washington Post Staff Writers

Thursday, March 26, 2009; Page A01

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner plans to propose today a sweeping expansion of federal authority over the financial system, breaking from an era in which the government stood back from financial markets and allowed participants to decide how much risk to take in the pursuit of profit.

The Obama administration’s plan, described by several sources, would extend federal regulation for the first time to all trading in financial derivatives and to companies including large hedge funds and major insurers such as American International Group. The administration also will seek to impose uniform standards on all large financial firms, including banks, an unprecedented step that would place significant limits on the scope and risk of their activities.

Bill O’Reilly Is

Morally And Ethically Challenged

Is Not A Journalist And

Never Was

He Wouldn’t Know Fact

If It Bit Him

   

U.S. Seeks Expanded Power to Seize Firms

Goal Is to Limit Risk to Broader Economy

By Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho

Washington Post Staff Writers

Tuesday, March 24, 2009; Page A01

The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to an administration document.

The government at present has the authority to seize only banks.

Giving the Treasury secretary authority over a broader range of companies would mark a significant shift from the existing model of financial regulation, which relies on independent agencies that are shielded from the political process. The Treasury secretary, a member of the president’s Cabinet, would exercise the new powers in consultation with the White House, the Federal Reserve and other regulators, according to the document.

An Ancient Culture, Bulldozed Away

China’s Attempts to Modernize Ethnic Uighurs’ Housing Creates Discord

By Maureen Fan

Washington Post Foreign Service

Tuesday, March 24, 2009; Page A08

KASHGAR, China — For hundreds of years, Uighur shopkeepers have been selling bread and firewood along the edges of Kashgar’s old town to families whose ancestors bought their traditional mud-brick homes with gold coin and handed them down through the generations.

Now, this labyrinth of ancient courtyard homes and narrow, winding streets is endangered by the latest government plan to modernize a way of life that officials consider dangerous and backward.

Left behind are piles of brick and rubble, houses without roofs and hurt feelings.

USA

Latinos, blacks losing jobs at a faster rate

‘We don’t have those older roots to anchor us in the professional world’

Associated Press

The ax fell without sound or shadow: Tatiana Gallego was suddenly called into human resources and laid off from her job as an admissions counselor for a fashion college.

“The way people tried to explain it to me was, I was the last one hired so I was the first one out,” said Gallego, 25, who had worked there for 17 months.

Last hired, first fired: This generations-old cliche rings bitterly true for millions of Latinos and blacks who are losing jobs at a faster rate than the general population during this punishing recession.

Much of the disparity is due to a concentration of Latinos and blacks in construction, blue-collar or service-industry jobs that have been decimated by the economic meltdown.

GOP Lawmakers:

Hate The Stimulus In Washington

Love It In Their Districts

Hypocrites

   

U.S. Rounding Up Investors to Buy Bad Assets

This article is by Andrew Ross Sorkin, Eric Dash and Rachel L. Swarns.

By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, ERIC DASH and RACHEL L. SWARNS

Published: March 22, 2009

WASHINGTON – Obama administration officials worked Sunday to persuade reluctant private investors to buy as much as $1 trillion in troubled mortgages and related assets from banks, with government help.

The talks came a day before the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, planned to unveil the details of the administration’s long-awaited plan to purchase troubled assets, meant to remove them from the balance sheets of banks and, in turn, spur banks to lend more money to consumers and companies.

The plan relies on private investors to team up with the government to relieve banks of assets tied to loans and mortgage-linked securities of unknown value. There have been virtually no buyers of these assets because of their uncertain risk.

As part of the program, the government plans to offer subsidies, in the form of low-interest loans, to coax private funds to form partnerships with the government to buy troubled assets from banks.

Tibetan monks arrested over police station attack



Tania Branigan in Beijing

The Guardian, Monday 23 March 2009

Almost 100 monks are being held in detention after hundreds of people attacked a police station and government officials in a Tibetan area of north-western China, state media reported.

The unrest broke out in Qinghai province on Saturday when a Buddhist lama vanished after escaping police custody. He was under investigation “on suspicion of Tibetan independence activities”.

The official news agency, Xinhua, said monks from the local monastery attacked the police station in Ragya, a township in the Tibetan prefecture of Golog. Some officials were slightly injured. It added that six people were arrested for involvement in the attack, while 89 others surrendered. All but two were monks.

USA

As Cuts Loom, Will Working From Home Lead to a Layoff?

Recession Pushes Some to Eschew Flexible Job Policies

By Annys Shin

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, March 23, 2009; Page A01

With the recession forcing businesses to cut back on workers, employees are increasingly doing all they can to hang onto their jobs and are forgoing many of the benefits that once allowed them to balance the demands of work and family life.

In good times, workers frequently seized the opportunity to use “flex time” and family leave, to telecommute and to take paid sick days. But, according to workplace consultants, human resources specialists and employees themselves, those days are slipping away. More workers are giving up those arrangements, or resisting asking about them in the first place, out of fears that doing so will make them appear less committed to their work and therefore more expendable.

What Does Being

A Fox News Presenter Mean?

LIE LIE LIE

   

Administration Seeks Increase in Oversight of Executive Pay



By STEPHEN LABATON

Published: March 21, 2009

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a sweeping plan to overhaul financial regulation, government officials said.

The outlines of the plan are expected to be unveiled this week in preparation for President Obama’s first foreign summit meeting in early April.

Officials said the proposal would seek a broad new role for the Federal Reserve to oversee large companies, including major hedge funds, whose problems could pose risks to the entire financial system.

It will propose that many kinds of derivatives and other exotic financial instruments that contributed to the crisis be traded on exchanges or through clearinghouses so they are more transparent and can be more tightly regulated.

Gaza war crime claims gather pace as more troops speak out

Fresh allegations have come to light that gung-ho leadership inculcated a culture of disregard for Palestinian casualties

Peter Beaumont

The Observer, Sunday 22 March 2009

An investigation by a group of former Israeli soldiers has uncovered new evidence of the military’s conduct during the assault on Gaza two months ago. According to the group Breaking the Silence, the witness statements of the 15 soldiers who have come forward to describe their concerns over Operation Cast Lead appear to corroborate claims of random killings and vandalism carried out during the operation made by a separate group of anonymous servicemen during a seminar at a military college.

Although Breaking the Silence’s report is not due to be published for several months, the testimony it has received already suggests widespread abuses stemming from orders originating with the Israeli military chain of command.

USA

Native Americans find their voice

The Comanche and Arapaho are just two of the tribes fighting to ensure their languages are passed down to future generations

Paul Harris in Walters, Oklahoma

The Observer, Sunday 22 March 2009

In the unlikely surroundings of a cluttered art room in a rural Oklahoma high school, a dying language was being given the kiss of life.

Bud Yackeshi got to his feet in front of 20 or so fellow members of his Comanche tribe and recited a blessing. “We ask you to be here, Lord, for us and the people who speak here tonight,” he said in the language of his ancestors. Then the Comanche lesson began.

Across America, similar scenes are being played out as Native American tribes try to revive their languages, many of which are on the edge of extinction. Efforts range from college courses and immersion schools for young people to simply recording the languages before the last native speakers die.

You will be shocked to know, Keith,

that Franklin Delano Roosevelt appeared on radio.

   

Toxic Asset Plan Foresees Big Subsidies for Investors



This article is by Edmund L. Andrews, Eric Dash and Graham Bowley.

WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department is expected to unveil early next week its long-delayed plan to buy as much as $1 trillion in troubled mortgages and related assets from financial institutions, according to people close to the talks.

The plan is likely to offer generous subsidies, in the form of low-interest loans, to coax investors to form partnerships with the government to buy toxic assets from banks.

To help protect taxpayers, who would pay for the bulk of the purchases, the plan calls for auctioning assets to the highest bidders.

The Calais ‘Guantanamo’

French and British ministers in talks to open dockside holding centre for illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers

By John Lichfield in Paris and Ben Russell

Saturday, 21 March 2009

The British and French governments are discussing the creation of a new immigrant holding centre within the Calais docks which would be “inside Britain” under immigration law and allow cross-Channel asylum-seekers to be shipped back to their home countries easily.

Although no details have yet been agreed, the idea is to exploit the ambiguous legal status of a British “control zone” of the Calais port, created in 2003, to cut through the mesh of legal difficulties which prevent asylum-seekers from being expelled to their countries of origin.

The idea – discussed by the British and French immigration ministers last month – seeks to turn the tables on the asylum-seekers and the gangs who smuggle them into northern France. At present, the immigrants gathered in Calais, mostly from Afghanistan, Kurdistan and the Horn of Africa, can exploit contradictions and grey areas in European and international law on immigration and asylum to evade expulsion from France. They can be arrested repeatedly only to be freed to try to enter Britain illegally again.

USA

Minn. Senate Race Is In Judges’ Hands Now

Decision Could Come Within Days

By Peter Slevin

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, March 21, 2009; Page A03

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Nearly five months after 2.9 million voters cast ballots, the Senate race between Al Franken (D) and  Norm Coleman (R) is in the hands of a three-judge panel here after first one candidate and then the other declared victory.

Until the judges rule, perhaps within days, Franken officially has a 225-vote lead, the U.S. Senate has 99 members and Minnesota has a reality show that feels as though it’s already in reruns.

“It’s way too drawn out,” property appraiser Kurt Ophus, 48, said this week. “The people of Minnesota are just really tired of listening to it.”

Republican Hypocrisy

They Were Against It Before?

They Were For It

   

Barack Obama issues surprise video offering ‘new beginning’ to Iran



From Times Online

March 20, 2009

Anne Barrowclough

President Barack Obama issued an unprecedented video appeal to Iran today offering a ‘new beginning’ of diplomatic engagement to reverse decades of distrust and animosity between the two nations.

In an extraordinary videotape, which was aired early today on selected networks in the Middle East, Mr Obama said Washington was committed to pursuing “constructive ties” with Iran. He promised that Tehran could take its ‘rightful place’ in the world if it renounced terror and embraced peace.

“My administration is now committed to diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us, and to pursuing constructive ties among the United States, Iran and the international community,” Mr Obama said in the message marking the start of Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, which is planned to appeal direct to the Iranian people.

Israeli soldiers report abuses in Gaza

Some rights groups have claimed Israel violated the rules of war in its recent killing of Palestinians. Now accounts from Israel’s own ranks seem to support the claims. An investigation is ordered.

By Richard Boudreaux

March 20, 2009

Reporting from Jerusalem — Two months after ending its assault on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army was confronted Thursday by the first public allegations from within its ranks of unwarranted killings and other abuses of Palestinian civilians.

The reports in a military institute’s newsletter resembled accounts given by many Palestinians during and after the winter offensive. In gripping language cited by two Israeli newspapers, they appeared to support contentions by some human rights groups that Israel had violated the laws of war.

One squad leader said he argued with his commander over rules of engagement that allowed the army to clear out houses by shooting the residents without warning.

“When we entered a house, we were supposed to bust down the door and start shooting inside and just go up story by story,” he was quoted as saying. “Each story, if we identify a person, we shoot them. I asked myself: ‘How is this reasonable?’ “

Bag a polar bear for $35,000: the new threat to the species

The latest challenge for fans of extreme hunting is an expedition to the Arctic Circle. Jerome Taylor reports

Friday, 20 March 2009

Boyd Warner treasures the memory of killing his first polar bear. It was 2003. For days he had stalked his prey on the frozen wastelands north of Pond Inlet, one of Canada’s most isolated Inuit communities deep inside the Arctic Circle. His dog team picked up the scent of an eight-foot adult male and they hurtled over the ice: the hunt was on.

“It was one of those beautiful Arctic days,” recalled Mr Warner. “We’d had about 14 hours of sunlight and were completely surrounded by nature. The moment of death comes quickly for the bear. You might track one for days through the ice but a single shot to the heart kills it instantly.”

For wealthy modern-day trophy hunters, bagging a polar bear is the ultimate kill. Fourteen days in harsh conditions, requiring dog-sleds, Inuit guides and a heated tent camp, does not come cheap: the minimum bill comes to $35,000 (£24,000).

USA

Scorn Trails A.I.G. Executives, Even in Their Driveways



By JAMES BARRON and RUSS BUETTNER

Published: March 19, 2009

The A.I.G. executive who was nicknamed “Jackpot Jimmy” by a New York tabloid walked up the driveway toward his bay-windowed house in Fairfield, Conn., on Thursday afternoon. “How do I feel?” said the executive, James Haas, repeating the question he had just been asked. “I feel horrible. This has been a complete invasion of privacy.”

Mr. Haas walked on, his pink shirt a burst of color on a slate-gray afternoon. The words came haltingly. “You have to understand,” he said, “there are kids involved, there have been death threats. …” His voice trailed off. It looked as if he was fighting back tears.

“I didn’t have anything to do with those credit problems,” said Mr. Haas, 47. “I told Mr. Liddy” – Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G., the insurance giant – “I would rescind my retention contract.”

He ended the conversation with a request: “Leave my neighbors alone.”

George W. Bush Wants

To Write An

“Authoritarian” Book  

A Defining Moment for Treasury Secretary



By JACKIE CALMES

Published: March 18, 2009

WASHINGTON – All three of President Obama’s top economic advisers were on message when they appeared Sunday on separate television talk shows. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, they said, had concluded, based on lawyers’ advice, that he could not stop the $165 million in bonuses that the American International Group was even then doling out to hundreds of employees.

But when Mr. Geithner and other officials met at the White House that night, the president’s political advisers – who had agreed to the day’s message – decided the growing outcry left Mr. Obama no choice but to publicly second-guess his Treasury secretary.

The next morning on camera, the president said he had directed Mr. Geithner to find a legal way “to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole.”

MI5 faces new rules on terror interrogations

PM orders code on questioning abroad

Richard Norton-Taylor

The Guardian, Thursday 19 March 2009

The government yesterday bowed to growing pressure over allegations of Britain’s complicity in torture by promising to draw up and publish new guidelines for the security and intelligence agencies when they are involved in interrogating detainees abroad.

Announcing the unexpected move to MPs, Gordon Brown said he condemned torture “absolutely” but had asked the intelligence and security committee (ISC) to help draw up new guidelines “in order to have systems that are robust”.

In a separate move, the prime minister told MPs that compliance with the new guidelines would be monitored by intelligence services commissioner Sir Peter Gibson, a former appeal court judge, who will report annually.

Brown’s announcement, which follows a succession of revelations in the Guardian about the ill-treatment and torture of UK nationals and residents abroad, appeared to be a tacit admission that existing guidelines were open to abuse.

USA

Fed to Pump $1.2 Trillion Into Markets

Greatly Expanded Purchases Are Designed to Lower Interest Rates, Stimulate Borrowing

By Neil Irwin

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, March 19, 2009; Page A01

The Federal Reserve yesterday escalated its massive campaign to stabilize the economy, saying it would flood the financial system with an additional $1.2 trillion.

The decision by the Fed to buy government bonds and mortgage-related securities is designed to lower borrowing costs for home mortgages and other types of loans, thereby stimulating economic activity. The central bank, effectively, will print more money to pay for the purchases.

Combined with the billions already deployed by the Fed, the new money dwarfs even the biggest government bailouts of financial companies.Yesterday’s announcement amounts to a recognition by Fed leaders that the economy has gotten much worse than they had forecast at their last policymaking meeting, in January. It also is their attempt to show market participants that, three months after cutting short-term interest rates to zero, they still have more tools to try to bolster the economy.