Special Leading Body Story: Canadian Broadcast Corporation: The Law Goes Crazy Again You're a Canadian citizen in JFK Airport (New York City). You're kidnapped by US FBI agents and end up in Syrian prison. You have no legal standing to use US courts because . . . according to the latest federal ruling anyway. We may have more of a right to own a gun than to vote (heard on NPR today I think). I feel like Alice in "w"onderland, in a rather black version thereof anyway.
Arar Background
The Australian: War in Philippines 'more likely than not' Or, Islamic fundamentalists all over the globe are up to no good.
RAPIDLY worsening relations between Manila and southern Philippines insurgents could see a reactivation of Jemaah Islamiah attacks on "soft-targets" in Philippines cities and in Indonesia, an analyst warns.
JI "freelancers" - including Bali bombmakers Dulmatin and Umar Patek - are thought to be involved in continuing assaults in The Philippines, and International Crisis Group analyst Kit Collier said it was now "more likely than not" that full-scale war would erupt in the south.
According to Dr Collier, this would probably mean the unleashing of a band of at least two dozen Indonesian terrorists now ensconced in secret jungle camps deep in Mindanao island, for a co-ordinated series of deadly assaults. "Dulmatin and Patek only represent one factor in the JI-Mindanao relationship," Dr Collier, from the Australian National University, said.
The Age: Israel's Archie Bunker took on sacred cows
YOSEF "TOMMY" LAPID, JOURNALIST, BROADCASTER, POLITICIAN
27-12-1931 — 1-6-2008
THE death, at 76, of the journalist, broadcaster and politician Yosef "Tommy" Lapid has cost Israel one of its most colourful and controversial figures.
At the height of his popularity during the 1990s, as co-host of the weekly Popolitica current affairs program, he was known as Archie Bunker, after the cantankerous patriarch of the American TV comedy, All in the Family. Whether or not people agreed with him, they could not ignore him. Even his enemies were wont to quote the ancient rabbinic maxim that "his mouth spoke what his heart felt".
Der Spiegel (Berlin): German Test Facility to Start CO2 Sequestration
A power plant just outside of Berlin is expected to test carbon sequestration for the first time this week. The technology, which would see coal-fired power plants pumping CO2 underground, could help reverse climate change. But it could also be dangerous.
Der Spiegel: 'Both Sides Were in the Grips of Insanity ... Things Have Not Changed'
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the start of the Cold War. In an interview with SPIEGEL, former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, 89, discusses the policy of nuclear deterrence during the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the stationing of nuclear weapons in Germany and the reasons behind the collapse of the Soviet Union.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Schmidt, you were released from a British POW camp in August, 1945. The Potsdam Conference of the victorious Allied Powers had just been concluded. At the time, did you think that deep divisions would soon divide East and West?
Schmidt: You know, after eight years in the armed forced, in times of peace and war, my overriding feeling was: "Thank God, it is over." I was 26 when the war ended and I knew nothing about the world. I had grown up during the Nazi period and, until I was made a prisoner of war, I had never heard the word democracy. I recall that during the last months of the war I said to my commander: "What we are doing here is utter nonsense. We should be trying to hold back the Soviets and allowing the Americans to advance as far as possible." He then replied: "Lil' Schmidt, I will pretend I did not hear that."
SPIEGEL: You already preferred the Americans back then.
Schmidt: Yes, of course. But I did not suspect that it would soon come to an East-West conflict.
Der Spiegel: The Shrinking Influence of the US Federal Reserve This looks like kind of big news?
Humiliation for Mr. Dollar: Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Bank, faces a general investigation by the International Monetary Fund. Just one more example of the Fed losing its power.
Officials with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have informed Bernanke about a plan that would have been unheard-of in the past: a general examination of the US financial system. The IMF's board of directors has ruled that a so-called Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) is to be carried out in the United States. It is nothing less than an X-ray of the entire US financial system.
As part of the assessment, the Fed, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the major investment banks, mortgage banks and hedge funds will be asked to hand over confidential documents to the IMF team. They will be required to answer the questions they are asked during interviews.
The Guardian (London): Iran convicts man for spying for Israel
An Iranian military supplier faces a death sentence after being found guilty of spying for Israel.
State TV reported that Ali Ashtari, 45, a trader in electronic devices, had been supplying equipment to military facilities in Iran.
He was accused of relaying sensitive information from groups such as Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation to Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.
Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, said Israel had "no knowledge whatsoever of this case".
The Guardian: Behind masks or out and loud: gay marchers break new ground
Delhi holds first parade as campaigners seek to overturn 19th-century law. Yesterday was the biggest day in the life of one 26-year-old insurance agent in Delhi, yet he came to the city's long-awaited first gay parade hiding behind a mask.
"I have to remain invisible," he said. "If my parents see me on TV, I won't be able to go home. And if my colleagues recognise me, there'll be hell to pay in the office."
via Google, IHT: Shootings in France
On a sunny Sunday afternoon, young boys ate ice cream and looked on with pride as they watched their fathers perform mock hostage liberations and antiterrorist operations, sweating in their camouflage outfits and firing blanks from smoking machine guns as if it were for real.
And then it became tragically real.
During the last of six military show exercises at the Laperrine military barracks in southern France, one soldier used live ammunition and wounded 17 people, most of them members of families of the military staff, said Colonel Philippe Tanguy, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry.
The Australian: Sodomy charge a political spoiler: Ibrahim Anwar
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said last night that he had been about to announce plans to contest a by-election when he was hit with a sodomy accusation.
Mr Anwar said he had planned to announce the details today, but that would have to be put off while he dealt with the complaint to police by a male aide, made onSaturday.
The 23-year-old aide says Mr Anwar sodomised him last week.
The Age (Melbourne): 12 million bees freed in truck accident Those bees, always hogging the news. Next they'll strike for higher pay/benefits.
Twelve million honey bees were released along Canada's largest highway in northwest New Brunswick today after a transport truck overturned.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police said a truck carrying 330 crates of bees was negotiating a ramp when the load shifted and the truck overturned.
Flood News
Des Moines Register: Responses differ on easing mortgage pressure after flood
Government regulators have asked mortgage lenders to ease up on Iowans whose attention to financial affairs has been disrupted by recent floods and tornadoes.
Most lenders have agreed with authorities and have allowed borrowers to defer or skip payments. But the guidance is voluntary and some lenders are not as agreeable.
Iraq & Afghanistan
The Guardian: UN figures reveal 62% rise in Afghan civilian deaths
The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan has risen by almost two-thirds in the first half of the year compared with 2007, UN figures showed today.
The figures, which reveal that almost 700 civilians have died, show that the instability and violence afflicting the country are taking an increasing toll on ordinary Afghans.
The Guardian: Helmand claims 12 Britons in 19 days
British forces killed a prominent Taliban leader in Helmand province as yet another British soldier lost his life in Afghanistan - the 12th to die in the past 19 days. The soldier, from 13 (Air Assault) Support Regiment Royal Logistic Corps in Essex, was killed when his patrol vehicle rolled over on Friday. Two other soldiers were injured.
Corporal Sarah Bryant, 26, from Cumbria became the first British female soldier killed in Afghanistan when she died alongside three men after their vehicle hit a mine east of Lashkar Gah while they were manning a vehicle checkpoint on 17 June.
NYTimes: U.S. Advised Iraqi Ministry on Oil Deals Hell, even McCain says it was about oil. Your State Department tax dollars at work.
A group of American advisers led by a small State Department team played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of the largest fields in Iraq, American officials say.
In their role as advisers to the Iraqi Oil Ministry, American government lawyers and private-sector consultants provided template contracts and detailed suggestions on drafting the contracts, advisers and a senior State Department official said.
The Guardian: Iraqi MPs stall deals on Bush benchmarks
Three key US-backed measures on oil, provincial elections and the future of US troops are mired in the Iraqi parliament, raising doubts as to whether they can come into effect before George Bush leaves office.
Once listed as a crucial "benchmark" allowing the US president to claim success in Iraq, the provincial elections look likely to be delayed until next year. The oil law, which nationalist MPs blocked last summer over fears that foreign companies would take over Iraq's major resource, is facing the same problem again.
Political Cartoons
Des Moines Register: Brian Duffy
The Guardian: Chris Riddell
SL Trib: Pat Bagley This one is a few months old, I chose it because Iran war is in the news again.
Sports
Tennis in England: Many top seeds losing
Some soccer in Europe: Spain wins
NBA finishes draft and starts on free agents.
Floyd Landis is probably through.
Utah News
A 6-term Utah representative was defeated in the Republican primary. Chris Cannon lost to Jason Chaffetz for UT-03. Chaffetz is even more batshit crazy conservative than Cannon. I am not sure if this really forecasts a national trend of any kind, or if Utah County is really that anti-immigrant.
Salt Lake Tribune: Incumbent fear: Cannon loss sets off wave of worry
"I think the Republicans are in for a tough ride anyway, and I think the ennui that is being felt here in Utah is going on around the country," Cannon said in an interview on Wednesday. "This is a plague nationwide."
Kelly Patterson, director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University, said polling showed a strong desire for change in Cannon's district, and dwindling support for President Bush in one of the most conservative areas in the country.
Those same trends will affect every congressional race in the country to varying degrees, he predicts.
SL Trib Blog: "GOP buzz: Mitt's the one"
Politico reports:In a surprise to many Republican insiders, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is at the top of the vice presidential prospect list for John McCain. But lack of personal chemistry could derail the pick.
Money can, indeed, buy friends.
City Weekly (Salt Lake): Out of the Closet This local blog entry describes an amazingly restrained and thoughtful correspondence on gay rights issues.
The Sutherland Institute, Utah's conservative think tank famously known for explaining to conservatives what a conservative actually is, has just posted on their website a fascinating document.
The document is a compilation of correspondence between think tank captain Paul Mero and former legal director of the ACLU Stephen Clark, the discussions were during the summer of 2003, private correspondence, but the two have agreed now to publish them.
Blog of the Week
This was a spontaneous thought - I thought this was the best blog title of the moment:
Countdown to Crawford
Bush thinks polls about him are wrong Of course, we can probably guess why w doesn't "see" any protests. Barfity barf barf.
