BBC
Afghanistan sees violence upsurge
Hundreds of UK troops are leading security operations in Helmand
Up to 100 people have died in some of Afghanistan's fiercest fighting since US-led forces ousted the Taleban regime in 2001.
Taleban fighters are battling police in Helmand province where officials say 50 militants and 13 police died.
Coalition and Afghan troops conducted more operations in Kandahar, and say at least 25 militants died in two separate clashes there.
A US national was killed by a suicide bomber in Herat.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4992462.stm
Fighting a strengthening Taleban
By Alastair Leithead
BBC News, Afghanistan
Taleban fighters are able to attack, then melt away into communities
Southern Afghanistan was the birthplace of the Taleban and over the past few months it seems the remnants of the former government are still determined to fight.
The attacks have taken the form of confrontations, like that seen in Helmand and Kandahar over the last 24 hours; suicide attacks - there were two on Thursday - or roadside bombs targeting military convoys.
There is no doubt the strength of the insurgents has been increasing and the thousands of British and international troops moving into the south of the country will have their hands full.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4994448.stm
Pakistan's Taleban gamble
By Aamer Ahmed Khan
BBC News, Peshawar
Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters escaped the Tora Bora assault
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says his country's battle against al-Qaeda in the lawless tribal region has almost been won.
He says he is more worried about the rise of Taleban-like extremism in the tribal area of Waziristan.
But those watching the current conflict in Waziristan say it is unrealistic to separate the two entities.
They argue that al-Qaeda and the Taleban are in fact locked in a symbiotic relationship in which a crackdown on the former automatically galvanises the latter.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4972390.stm
Afghan history's warning to UK troops
The British have made some disastrous decisions in Afghanistan - one led to one of the worst massacres in the UK's military history.
Next month the British army will make its biggest deployment in southern Afghanistan in more than a century.
The plan is to help the newly-formed Afghan National Army (ANA) fight the increasingly violent militant groups based around the Pakistan border and curb the drugs trade that funds them.
More than 3,000 British troops will be based in the southern province of Helmand which alone produces nearly 20% of the world's opium.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4926628.stm
Canada's Afghan mission extended
Prime Minister Harper fought hard to get his motion through
Canadian legislators have narrowly voted to extend the country's combat mission in Afghanistan by two years, until February 2009.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's motion passed by 149 votes to 145, despite opposition complaints of being rushed.
Canada currently has 2,300 soldiers in Afghanistan, mainly in the south where the Taleban-led resistance is strong.
The vote came after news that a female Canadian soldier had been killed in combat in the war-torn country.
Public opinion polls suggest that popular backing for the deployment, which had been due to expire in February 2007, is slipping.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4992380.stm
Nigerian president will step down
Mr Obasanjo said he had been maligned in the press
Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo says his party accepts the Senate's rejection of a bill that would have allowed him to seek a third term.
He said the People's Democratic Party needed to put the acrimony behind it and prepare for next year's election as the constitution currently stands.
Confirmation that Mr Obasanjo will not stand again leaves Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as a strong candidate.
The two fell out over the issue that also deeply divided the country.
Two former military rulers, Ibrahim Babangida and Muhammadu Buhari, have also emerged as likely candidates
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4994298.stm
Vote to curb Nepal king's powers
Nepal's king reinstated parliament after mass protests
MPs in Nepal have unanimously approved a landmark plan to drastically curtail the powers of King Gyanendra, including stripping him of control of the army.
Under the plans, the royal family will pay tax and parliament will control the army and name the heir to the throne.
The proclamation has been described as a Nepalese Magna Carta, effectively making the king a ceremonial figure.
The move follows mass street protests in April which led the king to recall parliament and end direct palace rule.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4992508.stm
Zimbabwe voices: Mary
Mary is one of the thousands whose homes were demolished last year
Zimbabwe is in economic meltdown, with the world's highest rate of inflation of 1,000% and chronic unemployment. Here Mary, 41, an HIV-positive widow, whose home was demolished by the authorities last year, reflects on her life.
My husband passed away in 2000. He was a soldier, he was HIV-positive. My baby was born and then passed away.
My husband, my three sons, they passed away - I'm the only one.
In time I was tested and [when] the result was out, I just laughed - I'm HIV positive, then what can I do?
"A loaf of bread used to be about 70 cents - Now we don't even have cents
The doctors said: "No, here we just test you, we don't have anything to give you."
Then I said: "Why have you tested me - you have just put me on a death sentence because I'm scared now because I know I am HIV positive. If you test me, it was to give me tablets."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4989930.stm
Violence mars Cairo court hearing
Judges found themselves at the forefront of the reform debate
An Egyptian judge has been reprimanded for speaking out about election fraud in last year's presidential elections.
In a case that has become a rallying point for the pro-reform movement, Hesham Bastawisi avoided being sacked as a senior appeals court judge.
Another judge in the same case was acquitted at the disciplinary hearing.
Police attacked demonstrators in streets outside the High Court, where the case was heard, arresting dozens and beating protesters to the ground.
In another room at the same courthouse, a judge rejected the appeal of jailed opposition leader Ayman Nour.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4992502.stm
Trial brings no solace to Beslan
By Artyom Liss
BBC News, Beslan, Russia
The school gym has become a monument to the dead
Almost two years on from the tragedy of Beslan in the gym of School Number 1, there are still fresh flowers everywhere you look.
Their sweet smell is so overwhelming, so strong, that at times it almost feels that you could touch it.
On the walls are 331 photographs of those who died here. The pictures flutter in the wind, faces of the dead coming in and out of view.
Outside, water runs down two marble blocks - a reminder of the unbearable thirst that tormented more than 1,000 people. The hostage-takers did not even allow the captive children to wet their lips.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4992622.stm
Communicating with Vietnam's war dead
By Joe Phua
Producer, Psychic Vietnam
Although the Vietnam War ended in 1975, some families are still searching for loved ones missing in action and are turning to psychics for help.
Every day Vietnamese army units hack through malarial jungles. Their single aim is to bring back the dead.
Even by conservative estimates, the war claimed the lives of more than three million Vietnamese, among them a million North Vietnamese soldiers.
Thirty years on, more than half are still missing.
As time passes, memories are fading and leads are running cold.
Meaningless numbers
On this occasion one group of veterans have been lucky.
In Chu Chi, ex-soldier Tran Van Ban gently wraps the remains of the missing men from the Cat Bi unit he served in.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/4989480.stm
Cannes film hit by legal tussle
Gus Van Sant directed one segment of Paris Je T'Aime
A film showing at the Cannes festival has been blighted by a legal wrangle between its producers.
Emmanuel Benbihy has obtained a court order blocking the distribution of Paris Je T'Aime after rejecting the final cut of the film.
He is unhappy that two segments have been dropped by co-producer Claudie Ossard and says he will not attend Thursday night's gala screening.
The film is a series of shorts made by 20 directors including Gus Van Sant.
'Cut out'
But contributions from film-makers Raphael Nadjari and Christoffer Boffe ended up on the cutting room floor.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4992902.stm
'New York Times' Researcher Faces Further Charges
By Benjamin Robertson
Beijing
15 May 2006
Chinese prosecutors have issued new indictments against New York Times researcher Zhao Yan, less than two months after the original charges against were dropped.
Hopes for the release of journalist Zhao Yan faded Monday after his lawyer announced that prosecutors had recently referred the case back to Beijing's court system. Unclear what charges the new indictment included, Zhao's lawyer, Mo Shaoping said the authorities had told him they were "resuming a criminal investigation."
Zhao, a researcher for the Beijing bureau of the New York Times, was charged in October 2004 with divulging state secrets and has been in police custody ever since. Officials appeared to blame him for a newspaper story correctly predicting that former President Jiang Zemin's would resign as the head of the country's armed forces. The charges carried the maximum penalty of death.
However, the charges were suddenly dropped in March prior to Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to the United States, leading to expectations Zhao would be freed. Mo says he is now struggling to understand what the new charges may be.
"There is no regulation in Chinese law that provides for another appeal. So, if they do not have any new evidence and they make another appeal on Zhao Yan's case, it is illegal," he said.
The New York Times has repeatedly denied that Zhao did anything improper and has appealed for his release.
Zhao's case has received repeated attention from U.S. officials, including President Bush, who has raised the issue in meetings with Chinese leaders.
Chinese authorities have very broad and vague definitions of what is a state secret, and the law is used frequently against journalists who publicize bad news about the government. In addition, some journalists and academics have been jailed for printing information in foreign publications that had already been printed in Chinese documents.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-05-15-voa14.cfm
Former editor sentenced to 18 months in prison on years-old defamation charge
(CPJ/IFEX) - The following is a 12 May 2006 CPJ press release:
ETHIOPIA: Another journalist jailed on years-old defamation charge
New York, May 12, 2006 - Another Ethiopian journalist has been sentenced to jail under the country's draconian press law, in a case that dates back at least seven years, the Committee to Protect Journalists has confirmed. Tesehalene Mengesha, a former editor at the defunct Amharic-language weekly Mebruk, was convicted of criminal defamation over a week ago and sentenced to 18 months in prison, CPJ sources said.
Mengesha is currently in Kality Prison on the outskirts of the capital, Addis Ababa, the same detention center where 14 journalists are being held along with opposition leaders while facing trial on antistate charges. Mengesha's imprisonment brings the number of journalists jailed for their work in Ethiopia to at least 17.
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/74409/
Liberia: More Questions than Answers as Press Union Debate Heats Up
May 15, 2006
by Ralph Geeplay / Contributing Writer
The Press Union of Liberia (PUL), constitute the most respected, astute and benign organization over the years that has stood for press freedom, while strongly seeking the rights and general well being of the Liberian journalist. Inviting Joe Mulbah, therefore, the erstwhile notorious former Liberian president Charles Taylor Information Minister under whose leadership the media was crushed, to address the Liberia press crops on World Press freedom Day came as a total shock.
As a first hand observer to the many abuses perpetrated against the media while Joseph Mulbah was Information Minister, I am baffled, stupefied and totally annoyed that the Press Union of Liberia could not find a better candidate to address the Liberian press crops on such an important occasion. The crimes that were committed against the Liberian people while Charles Taylor led the Liberia state were not his doing alone. For every sector of the Liberian of the state that was abused, Taylor had a partner in crime: forestry, maritime, finance, banking, foreign affairs, security etc. Joe Mulbah was one of Taylor point men on information as he muscled; censored and castrated the Liberian media in what international observers say was one of the darkest periods in Liberia’s long and turbulent media history. Joseph Mulbah was not just your ordinary Charles Taylor aide. While he served Taylor in their “Greater Liberia,” he was the main architect on misinformation while the rebel led National Patriotic Reconstruction Government (NPARG) waged massive propaganda on the state and the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) peacekeepers, in their bid to capture state power. What drove Mr. Mulbah while he served as Liberia’s Information Minister were greed and the interest of Charles Taylor and not the ordinary Liberian people or the press. His feud with Milton Teajay are well known: two self-aggrandizing individuals who lost their pride as they fought and destroyed government property while wrestling with each other to assert influence and to gain the favor of the Liberia presidency, during the heydays of the Taylor administration. This fact is well noted and can be remembered by a lot of Liberians.
http://www.theliberiantimes.com/article_2006_05_15_1301.html
Cynical, sick cowardly journalists
Grant Gordon
Abu Dhabi, UAE
May 15, 2006
-- When are we going to stand up to newspaper people who abuse their self-proclaimed "rights of free speech"? First came the Danish Mohammed cartoons that riled millions of Muslims, and now the Bulgarian cartoons that put the lives of Bulgarian nurses in jeopardy ("Bulgaria cartoons may harm jailed nurses", May 12).
When are we in the West going to say enough is enough and reign in the cynical, sick cowardly journalists who push their choice of news and views on us?
The cartoons published in a Bulgarian newspaper attacking Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi are as criminal as we claim the Libyans are for their politicized murder trial of the nurses. They've been in jail for six years. They're surely psychologically wrecked by now.
Rather than irresponsibly inflaming Qadhafi and Libyans and make a fair trial even less possible than it is now why don't those journalists offer themselves in place of the nurses until the trial is done.
The one condition that they can make is that they're permitted from within their Libyan jail cells to draw cartoons and write articles.
I wonder how brave they will be then.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060515-052420-7590r
Journalism at Risk
BUSH URGED TO HIGHLIGHT FREE EXPRESSION AT SUMMIT TALKS
Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) have called on U.S. President George W. Bush to put freedom of expression on the agenda when he meets with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington, D.C. for bilateral talks on 20 April 2006.
In letters to President Bush, Human Rights Watch and CPJ have highlighted China's poor record on free expression and press freedom, and called for the release of jailed dissidents.
Human Rights Watch says Chinese authorities have intensified efforts to restrict information within China in the past year. "The vaguely defined crimes of subversion, endangering state security, leaking state secrets, and endangering public order enable Chinese authorities to arbitrarily detain, indict, try, and sentence opinion-makers, journalists, bloggers, activists, and dissidents," the group says.
Often the so-called crimes involve criticisms of government or Communist Party policy or dissemination of opinion and news that authorities want to keep hidden from the public.
Human Rights Watch also called attention to the complicity of U.S. companies in the Chinese government's efforts to censor information on the Internet.
It cited the case of Yahoo's involvement in helping Chinese authorities jail journalist Shi Tao. Yahoo identified Shi Tao as the sender of an e-mail to an overseas news website that divulged information about press censorship in China.
CPJ says since taking office in 2003, President Hu has overseen the most severe crackdown on the media since the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
"Propaganda authorities have increased the number of topics off limits for media coverage, tightened official censorship rules, and intensified restrictions on the Internet. They have also continued their policy of jailing journalists who offend government officials or cross lines set by censors," the group says.
At the end of 2005, CPJ documented at least 32 journalists imprisoned for their work in China, more than any other country. CPJ urged President Bush to raise three of the most recent cases - Li Jianping, Wu Hao and Li Changqing.
RSF raised concerns about censorship in China in an open letter to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who met President Hu on 18 April in Seattle at the start of Hu's visit to the United States.
RSF said it disapproved of Miscrosoft's decision to censor the Chinese version of its blog software MSN Spaces. The software automatically rejects search strings such as "4 June" (the date of the Tiananmen Square massacre) or "human rights in China." Microsoft also shut down the blog of a popular Chinese blogger, Michael Anti, following pressure from the Chinese authorities.
In recent weeks, Beijing has imposed measures to tighten its control over state media. The General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) has launched a crackdown on "illegal foreign publications" and ordered a freeze on the granting of publishing licences to joint ventures in the media sector. The GAPP's new policy aims both to boost the foreign sales of Chinese magazines and to reduce the influx of foreign publications, reflecting a concern about their impact on the Chinese public.
In a further restriction, on 11 April, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) ordered Chinese television stations not to use footage offered by international news agencies. Local TV stations were told to use only images produced or approved by authorised Chinese agencies. The SARFT accused "certain international news agencies of selling images with clearly political intentions" and called for more "political discipline."
The SARFT also announced that local authorities would be required to verify the content of TV series. Scripts will have to be approved every month to prevent "errors" of a political and historical nature.
RSF notes that the new directive follows a ban on a programme called "Supergirl" on Hunan provincial television, which was inspired by the U.S. pop music talent show "Star Academy" and allowed viewers to vote for the candidate of their choice. The state-owned "China Daily" said the programme illustrated "the perversions of an unprepared democracy."
Visit these links:
- Human Rights Watch: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/04/05/china13132.htm
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/protests/06ltrs/asia/china17apr06pl.html
- RSF Letter to Gates: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=17113
- Freedom House Report: http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/special_report/33.pdf
- IPI World Press Freedom Review: http://tinyurl.com/lt556
- U.S. Congressional Committee Hearing on Internet Censorship in China:
http://boss.streamos.com/real/hir/56_af021506.smi
- Internet Filtering in China: http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/china/
- Where's Hu Now? http://www.ir2008.org/whereshu/
- Human Rights in China: http://www.hrichina.org
- China Digital Times: http://chinadigitaltimes.net/
China begins probe of detained researcher
JOE McDONALD
Associated Press
BEIJING - Prosecutors have launched a new investigation of a detained Chinese researcher for The New York Times after a court dropped state secrets charges against him last month, his defense lawyer said Tuesday.
The investigation could lead to prosecutors filing new charges against Zhao Yan, said his lawyer, Mo Shaoping.
The disclosure came as Chinese President Hu Jintao left Tuesday for the United States on a high-profile trip that includes a White House meeting with President Bush.
Zhao was detained in 2004. His family was told he was accused of leaking state secrets to foreigners, but the government has not released details of the case.
The case is believed to stem from a Times report about former Chinese President Jiang Zemin's plans to step down from a key military post.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/14368225.htm
Saudi press told to stop printing pictures of women
11.20am Thursday May 18, 2006
By Daniel Howden
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has told the country's newspapers to stop publishing pictures of women as the could lead young men astray.
The move surprised some observers as the absolute monarch has sought to portray himself as a quiet reformer since taking the throne last year in the ultraconservative country.
All media in the kingdom is either owned by the state or run by it, but in recent months some Saudi newspapers have published pictures of women, always with the hair covered and only their face showing.
The images of women wearing the traditional Muslim headscarf were used to illustrate stories connected to women's issues, including the right to vote and drive, both of which are withheld in Saudi.
The Saudi Embassy in London declined to comment on the apparent ban.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382411
Chinese Writer Faces Subversion Charges
BEIJING — A Chinese journalist who posted essays on overseas Web sites about political issues was tried this week on subversion charges but insisted he is innocent, his lawyer said Saturday.
Li Yuanlong, a 45-year-old writer for the newspaper Bijie Daily in the poor southern province of Guizhou, was indicted on Feb. 9, five months after he was detained.
Li pleaded innocent at his trial Thursday in the southern city of Bijie, which lasted 2 1/2 hours, lawyer Li Jianqiang said. A verdict was expected within about 15 days.
An earlier statement on his case from the New York-based group Human Rights in China said Li's essays, written under the pen name Ye Lang or "Night Wolf," included "On Becoming an American in Spirit" and "The Banal Nature of Life and the Lamentable Nature of Death."
They were published on Web sites that are banned in China, including Boxun News, the Falun Gong-affiliated Epoch Times, ChinaEWeekly, and New Century Net, the group said.
Press freedom and human rights groups say China has jailed dozens of people for writings posted online.
The press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists appealed Friday for Li's release.
"Like many committed reporters in China, Li Yuanlong began posting his articles online after facing censorship at his newspaper," Ann Cooper, executive director of the New York-based group, said in a statement. "He is guilty of nothing more than expressing his criticism of official actions and should never have been brought to trial."
Li could face between one and three years in jail, his lawyer said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3861326.html
Chinese internet writer sentenced to 12 years
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese internet writer was jailed for 12 years on Tuesday for "subversion of state power" after backing a movement by exiled dissidents to hold free elections, his lawyer said.
Yang Tianshui, 45, who has been in custody since last December, did not plan to appeal, a protest against a trial he felt was illegal, his lawyer, Li Jianqiang, said.
"We expected the result, but we are still dissatisfied because he is innocent," Li told Reuters.
http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=32665
Anniversary of elections evokes worldwide complaint
Region :None
Country :Ethiopia
Topic :Press Freedom
17/05/2006
Press freedom watchdogs marked the first anniversary of Ethiopia’s legislative elections by calling on Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to free 21 jailed journalists, some of whom face the death penalty.
Last year's May 15, 2005, elections were troubled by violence and allegations of electoral fraud. Security forces opened fire on demonstrations in June and again in November, killing about 80 people, according to Amnesty International.
Those elections gave the ruling party two-thirds of Parliament, which international observers say has granted Zenawi nearly absolute control of the country. Meanwhile, press freedom watchdogs like Reporters Without Borders (RSF) say that since those elections, the government has used threats, arrests and incarcerations in a crackdown on the news media.
RSF sent Zenawi a May 12 letter denouncing the crackdown and calling for amnesty for those currently imprisoned.
East African journalists at a May 5 meeting in Tanzania condemned the crackdown in Ethiopia. "We find it shameful that Ethiopia is emerging as a pariah state on the African continent,” the participants of the African Media Conference said in a signed statement.
http://www.ijnet.org/Director.aspx?P=Article&ID=304986&LID=1
Blogger jailed for backing elections
By Jane Macartney
China is cracking down on dissidents who promote democracy by using the internet
CHINA sentenced a veteran dissident writer to 12 years in jail for subversion yesterday, after he posted essays on the internet supporting a movement by exiles to hold free elections.
The sentence on Yang Tianshui, 45, is one of the harshest to be handed down to a political dissident since the trials that came after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on students demanding greater democracy. It underscores the determination of the ruling Communist Party to brook no opposition and to maintain a tight grip on the internet.
Yang is one of several writers and dissidents to be tried over the content of internet postings. He has no plans to appeal because he regards his trial as illegal. Li Jianqiang, his lawyer, said: “He is most dissatisfied but he had expected such a sentence. He refused to answer questions because he does not recognise the legality of the court.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25689-2183839,00.html
Amnesty International Urges Release of Jailed Ethiopian Protesters
By VOA News
16 May 2006
A leading human rights group has called on Ethiopia to release 76 people accused of treason and other charges for protesting national elections last year.
In a statement, Amnesty International said the detainees were "prisoners of conscience" and included opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists.
The London-based group also expressed doubt about the government's promise that the accused would receive fair trials.
The Ethiopian government has charged 129 people with treason and plotting to overthrow the government in connection with election protests.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-05-16-voa55.cfm
Journalists Jailed for Filming Da Vinci Code Protest
Posted Tuesday, May 16 2006 @ 06:41 AM PDT by
Apparently, a private television channel, Mega, aired a segment showing how the cameraman and journalist were filming the leaflet distribution at a cathedral in Athens when a priest ordered the police to arrest them. "You are disturbing the adoration of God," he told them, Mega reported. "This is a holy place.
However, the Archbishop of Athens later intervened on their behalf and they were freed.
"The Greek Orthodox Church has taken the position that the film 'attacks and undermines' religious faith and that the thesis of the novel is 'completely false.' About 200,000 copies of the Greek translation of the novel have been sold in Greece, where 97 percent of the population is Orthodox Christian," reports the New York Times.
http://www.slashfilm.com/article.php/20060515104151153
Jean pledges Canada's support during Haitian homecoming
Governor General to attend swearing-in of troubled country's new president
Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean is presented with flowers as she arrives at the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, under tight security yesterday. Ms. Jean said the Haiti of today is a far cry from the country her family fled when she was only 11 years old. 'There was no freedom. You could be jailed for a word,' she said.
Photograph by : Fred Chartrand, The Canadian Press
Elizabeth Thompson, The Montreal Gazette
Published: Sunday, May 14, 2006
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean arrived in the land of her birth yesterday, bearing a message of hope and a pledge that Canada will help rebuild this troubled country.
"Haiti cannot get out (of misery) alone. Happily, there are countries, including Canada, that are prepared to support Haiti, and who knows, maybe this time will be the good one," an enthusiastic Ms. Jean told reporters.
However, it will take time, she warned.
"People expected Haiti to change from one day to another. It is not possible. You cannot come out of decades of dictatorship and expect that things will change from one day to another. It takes time and we have to support Haiti with a real will to see things change in this country. This country really deserves it. The people do deserve it."
Today, Ms. Jean will represent Canada at the swearing-in of Haiti's new president, Rene Preval, an event that many hope will signal a new start for a country that has lurched from dictatorships to anarchy for much of its history and where 80 per cent of the population live in abject poverty that is unimaginable for most Canadians.
Speaking to reporters a couple of hours after being formally welcomed to the country with dignitaries and a band playing the Haitian and Canadian national anthems, Ms. Jean said the Haiti of today is a far cry from the country her family fled when she was only 11 years old.
"There was no freedom. You could be jailed for a word."
Since 1986, there has been more freedom of speech in the country, largely through the efforts of Haitian journalists.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=03987a67-2595-47d4-908d-b0932364b350
An infection that spreads at terrifying speed
By Dana Robbins
The Hamilton Spectator
More articles by this columnist
(May 13, 2006)
It's a debilitating affliction that strikes people in their prime, and for reasons that scientists have not been able to determine, politicians and journalists are its usual victims.
It's called Outrage Creep (OC), and it's highly contagious, often spreading with terrifying speed between politicos and the people who chronicle their foibles.
Like many infections, OC outbreaks can be traced to a single spore-producing bacillus, specifically, an act or statement of sufficient stupidity to generate broad public censure.
That's how the infection starts.
What distinguishes OC from a garden-variety, people-say-stupid-things pathogen is the explosive growth of indignation that is symptomatic of this illness.
Take the example of Tory MP Colin Mayes, whose faux pas -- a French expression meaning "to accidentally blurt out what you're really thinking" -- landed him in trouble a few weeks back. You'll recall that Mayes was excoriated after publicly offering up some instances under which he'd like to see Canadian journalists jailed.
By any fair measure, Mayes' I-wish-we-had-our-own-gulag rant was high on the goofy scale. And, as his critics were quick to point out, it certainly did little to reassure anyone that he appreciates or values a free press.
What's received less attention, though, is that, as bizarre as Mayes' remarks may have been, they have grown ever more bizarre in the reporting of them.
Let's start with what he did say: "Boy, would the public get accurate and true information if a few reporters were hauled away to jail!'" Mayes mused in a column to a local newspaper. "Maybe it is time that we hauled off in handcuffs reporters that fabricate stories or twist information and even falsely accuse citizens."
One Toronto newspaper translated that to mean that Mayes was suggesting reporters be jailed if they "distort news stories." Not an absolutely literal translation of Mayes' remarks, perhaps, but at least in the same neighbourhood. Other newspapers said Mayes wanted to jail scribes who wrote "misleading stories." Still close, if not exactly a bull's eye.
Yet another newspaper, though, said Mayes would put behind bars any journalists guilty of "poor reporting." Hmm. Probably even Mayes would find that an unworkable, albeit delicious, proposition.
Our colleagues in broadcast, whose proficiency with short-hand is unmatched in the media world, helped take Mayes' cement-headed philosophy over the top. One anchor had Mayes jailing reporters whose work is "critical" of the government.
My favourite by far, though, was the report that had Mayes advocating incarceration of reporters who pen any stories "the government doesn't like."
Outrageous! He ought to be locked up. And did you hear the one about the MP who said Supreme Court judges hate Mother Teresa?
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=hamilton/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1147470613693&call_pageid=1020420665036&col=1014656511815
Subpoenas may help effort to shield sources
Some lawmakers decry feds' demand on Chronicle writers
Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Hearst Newspapers
Friday, May 12, 2006
Washington -- A congressional drive to protect journalists from revealing sources got a boost when the Justice Department issued subpoenas to Chronicle reporters to identify who leaked grand jury information on steroid use by baseball slugger Barry Bonds and other athletes.
In this most recent attempt by the government to pry into reporters' notebooks, a U.S. attorney in Los Angeles wants to learn who gave reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada transcripts of closed-door grand jury testimony by professional athletes. Subpoenas were issued May 5.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/05/12/MNGO3IQNB41.DTL
Mozambique: Three Journalists Released After Being Detained On Criminal Libel Charges
PRESS RELEASE
May 12, 2006
Posted to the web May 12, 2006
Editor Sebastiao Canjera, news editor Joao Mascarenhas, and reporter Pateque Francisco, of the community newspaper "Mabarwe", all of whom had been detained on criminal libel charges since 3 May 2006, were released on 10 May.
The journalists were jailed on the orders of the Manica provincial deputy attorney, Jose Abede, and charged with libel following their publishing of a news item on the arrest of a local businessman, Tiago Pangaia. Pangaia was accused of stealing 70 head of cattle and spent three months in jail. However, he was released when prosecutors determined there was insufficient evidence to bring the case to trial. Pangaia sued the paper for libel soon after his release.
Since their arrest, MISA-Mozambique has actively sought to secure the release of the journalists through a public campaign, including audiences with the Manica chief attorney, Tomas Zandamela, and the Attorney General's office. In the end, the Attorney General's office gave the order to set the journalists free.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200605120718.html
Iraq: New Kurdish Administration Comes Under Scrutiny
By Kathleen Ridolfo
The parliament of Iraq's Kurdish region unanimously approved the 42-member cabinet of the Kurdish region government on May 7, installing the first post-Saddam Hussein unified Kurdish administration. While reunification has been hailed as a step forward for the region's two major parties -- the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which fought a bitter civil war in the 1990s -- the new government faces tough demands from its electorate.
PRAGUE, May 12, 2006 (RFE/RL)--- Iraqi Kurds have become increasingly vocal in their demands in recent months for free speech and press rights, greater administrative transparency, and an end to corruption. They have also called on the KDP, led by Mas'ud Barzani, and the PUK, led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, to allow for greater political pluralism.
Facing Some Daunting Tasks
The new government's response to such issues will demonstrate whether the Kurdish autonomous region is, as its leaders bill it, an model of democracy and stability for the rest of Iraq to emulate or, as its detractors claim, a region whose two main parties have entrenched their hold on power.
One of the most urgent issues facing the unified government is the demand for free speech and press, particularly following a crackdown by both parties on demonstrators, intellectuals, and journalists over the past seven months. Kurdish intellectual Kamal Sayyid Qadir, who holds Austrian citizenship, was jailed by the KDP last year for articles he wrote criticizing Kurdish Region President Mas'ud Barzani's administration. He was sentenced in December to 30 years in prison for "defamation of the Kurdish leadership."
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/05/4b58e7a7-5456-4d67-a1f1-b5df2e2ad5b4.html
EGYPT: Nobel laureate Mahfouz calls for release of jailed Arab journalists
New York, May 5, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists joins acclaimed Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz in calling on Arab governments to free jailed journalists including two Egyptian reporters detained last week while covering demonstrations in Cairo. Mahfouz, who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for literature, launched his appeal in an interview with the semi-official Egyptian daily Al-Ahram on Wednesday, World Press Freedom day.
“I am calling on this day, World Press Freedom day, for the release of all the journalists imprisoned in the Arab world in cases related to freedom of opinion and for the need to drop all sentences issued against journalists involved in publication cases,” Mahfouz said.
Dozens of journalists face criminal prosecution and the threat of imprisonment in the Arab world under repressive press laws and penal codes that criminalize free speech. At least four journalists are behind bars today for their journalistic work, according to CPJ research.
Egyptian newspaper journalists Saher al Gad of Al-Geel and Ibrahim Sahari of Al-Alam Al-Youm were detained by security agents in Cairo last week.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/mideast/egypt05may06na.html
The Revolt of Journalists: Can It happen in Canada?
by Wahida C. Valiante
(Friday May 05 2006)
"...we are fed what the publishers and editors think will sell the most, and preserve their own status quo. In doing so, these media barons not only curtail the freedom of journalists to carry out their jobs, but ultimately deny the public's right to know. This should not be tolerated in any free society. It is an abuse of everyone's hard-earned freedom -- the freedom to be informed and the journalist’s freedom to inform. Real democracy depends on the free flow of ideas, of debate and disagreement, and newspapers are the best forum for those debates."
In his book The Power to Inform, Servan-Schreiber writes that the very first journalists’ revolt began in France with the founding of the Journalist Association of Le Monde in 1951. What triggered this revolt was the resignation of Hubert Beuve Mery after a policy disagreement over articles printed in Le Monde questioning the "validity of NATO and the Atlantic pact."
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/29990
Sri Lanka fails to guarantee media freedom- IFJ
May 5, 2006, 19:02 [TNS]
By Sophia Anton
This week, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) released their Fourth Annual South Asia Press Freedom Report detailing issues related to state-owned media and acts of injustice taken against journalists in various countries in South Asia including Sri Lanka. With poor security for journalists and pressure from the government to not report critically on their approach to the peace process, Sri Lanka has generated a high level of media self-censorship, the IFJ report said
According to the report, “four media workers – all Tamil – were killed and many were assaulted during the past 12 months in Sri Lanka. Tamil language media in particular was targeted both by extremists and by rival Tamil groups.”
http://www.tamileelamnews.com/news/publish/tns_5265.shtml
Ethiopia: CPJ Demands Justice for Journalists as Treason Trial Resumes
May 5, 2006
Posted to the web May 5, 2006
Initial proceedings in the treason trial of 14 Ethiopian journalists have reinforced concerns that the defendants may not get a fair trial, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Prosecutors are due to start presenting evidence on May 8 against the journalists and dozens of opposition leaders accused of conspiring to overthrow the government.
''CPJ has analyzed a sample of the journalists' writing which prosecutors have collected and found no merit to the charges,'' said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. ''We will be watching the proceedings very closely, and call again for these journalists to be released immediately and unconditionally.''
http://allafrica.com/stories/200605050858.html
Egypt's Copts Speak Up
By YOUSSEF IBRAHIM
April 24, 2006
This morning, in front of the United Nations, demonstrators will gather in support of the Coptic Christians of Egypt, and the action is coming none too soon, if you ask me. For the better part of 20 centuries, Alexandria, the grand port built by Alexander the Great, stood as a bastion of culture, a melting pot of Roman, Macedonian, Greek, Italian, Egyptian, Muslim, and Christian Levantine tolerance. As recently as 1958, the English author Lawrence Durrell celebrated the city's luminous diversity in his enchanting "Alexandria Quartet" books.
Last week, however, Alexandria's churches and Christian neighborhoods burned with fires of sectarian strife as the dark shadows of ignorant, fundamentalist frenzy reached a pearl of the Mediterranean.
http://www.nysun.com/article/31487
IN DEFENSE OF VENEZUELA
Justice describes 'profound change' in MIIS speech
By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Salinas Bureau
As tension mounts between the administrations of George W. Bush and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a supreme court justice from that South American country brought the message of Venezuela's constitutional revolution to Monterey on Monday.
Justice Fernando Ramon Vegas Torrealba told a crowd of more than 100 at the Monterey Institute of International Studies that "deep and profound changes" are happening in Venezuela since the inception of the new constitution, an "instrument of empowerment" written since the 1998 election of Hugo Chavez.
For the first time, in a country where the majority of people lived in extreme poverty, he said, all are guaranteed housing and free health care and education. Many have been able to see doctors for the first time in their lives.
"The people feel very united around this constitution," Vegas said. "They feel they have something of their own, that they have their rights in their hands and can exercise them."
Other changes in the constitution include a reorganization of the very structure of the government, which now includes not only the traditional legislative, executive and judicial branches of government, he said, but also an electoral branch and the "moral republic power," which monitors the ethical activities of the other branches.
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/14367342.htm
Press Freedom Awards Honor Chinese, Brazilian, Uzbek Journalists, Zimbabwean Lawyer
By Barbara Schoetzau
New York
22 November 2005
The recipients of the 2005 Independent Press Freedom awards include a jailed Chinese Internet journalist, an exiled Uzbek correspondent and a pioneering Brazilian editor. And for the first time, the independent Committee to Protect Journalists is also honoring a lawyer with its annual award in New York Tuesday.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, gives its annual awards to journalists who put their lives at risk in order to do their jobs. An increasing number of journalists are doing just that, according to the group's director, Ann Cooper. She says media freedom is deteriorating, partly due to the war on terrorism.
"Increasingly, governments see that they can crack down on the press and use the excuse of fighting terrorism to justify their crackdowns," said Ms. Cooper. "Some of them even occasionally accuse journalists themselves of being terrorists or of aiding and abetting terrorism just because they're reporting on terrorist groups or perhaps doing an interview with a leader who the government doesn't want shown on TV or heard on the radio."
Ms. Cooper says the Philippines tops the group's list of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, followed by Iraq, Bangladesh, Russia and Colombia.
"The cycle of violence against journalists in those countries just continues year after year and we've got to break that, not only to save journalists' lives, but to make all journalists in those countries feel that they can go out and report the news without fear of death threats or violent attack," she said.
Shi Tao
The New York-based group is honoring Chinese freelance journalist Shi Tao, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for posting notes on an overseas Web site from a government directive on how journalists should cover the 15th anniversary of the Tianamen Square crackdown. The government charged him with "leaking state secrets abroad."
Mr. Shi's case has become an international cause celebre because Internet giant Yahoo helped the Chinese government identify him through his e-mail account.
Uzbek journalist Galima Bukharbaeva faces criminal charges because of her reporting on the killing of hundreds of anti-government protesters in May in the northeastern Uzbek city of Andijan. She is accused of conducting "open warfare against the state."
Ann Cooper says Ms. Bukharbaeva typifies the award winners.
"What we are looking at is journalists who are working in extremely difficult conditions," explained Ms. Cooper. "These are people who we have worked to defend -- are defending -- their right to report the news independently, and that's precisely what Galima has done."
Galima Bukharbaeva
Ms. Bukharbaeva now lives in New York, where she is attending Columbia University's School of Journalism. She says the award shows her jailed colleagues that people care about their plight.
"It is not just recognition of my work as a journalist but also it is recognition of the very hard situation, political and economic situation, in Uzbekistan and also a recognition of the conditions in which journalists in Uzbekistan have to work," she commented.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says the third honorere, Brazilian publisher and editor Lucio Flavio Pinto, faces a constant barrage of civil and criminal lawsuits designed to silence his reporting on corruption, drug trafficking and environmental disaster.
This year the CPJ is also honoring a media lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, for her efforts to defend journalists and press freedom in Zimbabwe. Ms. Mtetwa says she was stunned to find herself so honored, but pleased that the award will help keep the Zimbabwe story in the news.
Beatrice Mtetwa at VOA
"There is so much going on in the world now that when you hear nothing from Zimbabwe, because journalists have fled, newspapers have been shut down, people tend to think that things are okay," said Ms. Mtetwa. "But an award like this for me, personally, means that the Zimbabwean story continues to remain at least in the limelight for debate."
CPJ says Beatrice Mtetwa has been arrested, assaulted and threatened as part of a government campaign to intimidate her. Ms. Mtetwa says her motivation is simple.
"I believe very, very strongly that without media freedom it is really impossible to enjoy any of the other fundamental freedoms and that to enjoy those other freedoms people must have a free flow of information," she said. "People should be able to debate issues without restriction."
The press freedom group also honored Peter Jennings, the U.S. television correspondent and anchor who died in August, with a lifetime achievement award. Mr. Jennings was particularly well known for his foreign reporting.
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-11/2005-11-22-voa58.cfm?CFID=9289356&CFTOKEN=26017032
The Boston Globe
For flooded, a fearful cost
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/>
For flooded, a fearful cost
Romney urges Bush to send disaster aid
By Brian MacQuarrie and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff May 18, 2006
As thousands of residents returned to flood-ravaged homes, many began to grapple with another big problem: Nearly all of them lack flood insurance.
Governor Mitt Romney officially asked President Bush yesterday to declare Massachusetts a disaster area and send financial help immediately. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency can offer short-term rental subsidies and help pay for minor repairs within days, more substantial help, in the form of low-interest loans for extensive repairs or replacement of property, is expected to take longer from a government already strained from last year's hurricanes.
http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2006/05/18/for_flooded_a_fearful_cost/
Massachusetts court strikes a blow to tobacco defense
By Denise Lavoie, AP Legal Affairs Writer May 18, 2006
BOSTON --The state's highest court on Thursday rejected one of the tobacco industry's most successful defenses in wrongful death lawsuits, ruling the companies cannot shield themselves from liability simply by claiming that smokers should know cigarettes are dangerous.
The court's ruling came in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Philip Morris Inc. by Brenda Haglund, a former Douglas woman whose husband died of lung cancer in May 2000.
The lawsuit was dismissed by a lower court judge.
But the state Supreme Judicial Court reinstated Haglund's lawsuit, ruling that the so-called "personal choice defense" often used by tobacco companies cannot be used by Philip Morris in Haglund's case. The court ruled that type of defense can only be used if a reasonably safe product was used in an unreasonable way.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/05/18/massachusetts_court_strikes_a_blow_to_tobacco_defense/
Cervical cancer vaccine may get OK
FDA panel also to decide if young girls to have shots
By Diedtra Henderson, Globe Staff May 18, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Federal advisers are expected to recommend today whether the Food and Drug Administration should approve a vaccine against a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, and whether it should be given to girls as young as 9 years old.
A Mayo Clinic doctor said the vaccine, Gardasil, is the most important advance in the fight against cervical cancer in 50 years. Merck & Co., its maker, says Gardasil offers optimum protection when girls are inoculated before they become sexually active.
Prevention is ''the ultimate goal in the war on cancer," said Dr. Bobbie Gostout, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the Mayo Clinic. ''While Pap smears are wonderful, this is the first time we can talk about prevention before any disease is established."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/05/18/cervical_cancer_vaccine_may_get_ok/
6 candidates, 6 plans to curb Mass. exodus
By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff May 18, 2006
The candidates agree that the situation is dire: Thousands of residents -- college graduates, retirees, and families -- leave Massachusetts every year, sapping the state of taxpayers, workers, and wisdom.
But six candidates for governor offer sharply divergent plans -- ranging from hiking the minimum wage by $2 an hour to slashing the personal income tax rate -- to keep more residents in the state and possibly even lure some back.
Their ideas reveal philosophical differences about what makes Massachusetts attractive and about what has changed over the past half-decade to push a quarter-million residents to other states, in one of the biggest population losses by any state in the nation.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/05/18/6_candidates_6_plans_to_curb_mass_exodus/
Answering the call of duty, again
Veterans salute returning troops
By Tom Long, Globe Correspondent May 18, 2006
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- Charles Nichols never went to bed Tuesday night. The twice-wounded 80-year-old veteran of World War II sat in his home in Eliot, Maine, afraid he might sleep too late.
Nichols wanted to make sure he was on hand to greet a Marine Corps detachment when it first set foot on American soil after a six-month deployment to Afghanistan.
So shortly after 3 a.m. he hopped into his Mazda and drove the 20 minutes to Pease International Tradeport, a former Air Force base that is now the site of several returning military flights.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/05/18/answering_the_call_of_duty_again_veterans_salute_returning_troops/
Tactics honed as debate nears on banning gay marriage
On both sides, activists prepare
By Scott Helman, Globe Staff May 18, 2006
As state lawmakers gird for the upcoming debate on a proposed ban on same-sex marriage, activists on both sides are busy honing their tactics, some of them overt, some of them below the radar.
Married same-sex couples and their supporters, for example, showed up at legislators' State House offices yesterday to hand out bouquets of hydrangea, roses, and buplerum to mark the two-year anniversary of the day gay weddings became legal. The bouquets are as much a lobbying tool as they are a celebratory gift.
Lawmakers are scheduled to vote July 12 on whether to advance a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex weddings in 2008. At least 50 lawmakers each in this legislative session and the 2007-2008 session have to approve the amendment before it goes on the ballot.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/05/18/tactics_honed_as_debate_nears_on_banning_gay_marriage/
Defying Abbas, Hamas deploys police
Palestinian rivals battle for control of security forces
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times May 18, 2006
GAZA CITY -- In a sharp challenge to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Hamas-led government yesterday deployed a newly created police force made up mainly of members of Palestinian militant groups.
Israeli soldiers protect Palestinian schoolchildren on way past settlers. A17.
Clutching Kalashnikov assault rifles, the gunmen fanned out across the Gaza Strip, moving in twos and threes along city streets and in refugee-camp alleyways. On a grassy traffic median, small groups of them shouldered their weapons and spread prayer rugs when the afternoon call to prayer wafted across the car-choked streets.
Abbas vetoed the creation of the 3,000-member force last month when it was announced by Interior Minister Said Siyam, a Hamas loyalist.
Hamas ignored the presidential decree, although it stayed quiet about the role of a well-known Palestinian militant, Jamal abu Samhadana, who had been named as the new force's commander.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/05/18/defying_abbas_hamas_deploys_police/
Iran's leader scoffs at accepting incentives to halt nuclear activity
Europeans seek way to coax cooperation
By Karl Vick, Washington Post May 18, 2006
TEHRAN -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday swept aside the notion of Iran accepting incentives in exchange for halting uranium enrichment, dismissing an offer that European powers had yet to actually extend.
''Do you think you are dealing with a 4-year-old child to whom you can give some walnuts and chocolates and get gold in return?" Ahmadinejad told a cheering crowd in Arak, where Iran is building a heavy-water nuclear facility. A reactor that uses light water, a technology less likely to produce fuel suitable for nuclear weapons, is expected to be the centerpiece of a package three European governments are preparing in hopes of revitalizing negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.
''They say they want to offer us incentives," Ahmadinejad said. ''We tell them: Keep the incentives as a gift for yourself. We have no hope of anything good from you."
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2006/05/18/irans_leader_scoffs_at_accepting_incentives_to_halt_nuclear_activity/
Taliban mount attacks across two provinces
May 18, 2006
KANDAHAR -- Heavy fighting involving hundreds of Taliban fighters and Afghan and coalition forces broke out in two provinces of volatile southern Afghanistan, killing about a dozen police, a Canadian soldier, and more than 30 militants, officials said today. A large-scale attack on a police and government headquarters in Helmand province involved several hundred militants and lasted about eight hours, an Afghan official said. The Canadian soldier was killed in an attack in Kandahar province. At least a dozen militants died there as US and British forces provided air support. Meanwhile, Canadian lawmakers approved a two-year extension of Canada's military mission in the country. Approval came despite increasing criticism over the deployment since four Canadian soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb last month, the deadliest attack against the 2,300-person strong Canadian contingent. The House of Commons voted 149-145 to support Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to extend the mission in Kandahar to 2009.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/05/18/taliban_mount_attacks_across_two_provinces/
Gunman kills judge and hurts 4 in Turkey
By Associated Press May 18, 2006
ANKARA, Turkey -- A gunman opened fire yesterday in Turkey's highest administrative court, killing a prominent judge and wounding four others in an attack the suspect called retaliation for a ruling against a teacher who wore an Islamic head scarf.
Four of the justices, including Judge Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin, who died of gunshot wounds to the head, had voted in February against the promotion of an elementary school teacher who wore an Islamic-style head scarf outside of work.
The judges' photos were published by the pro-Islamic Vakit newspaper.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/05/18/gunman_kills_judge_and_hurts_4_in_turkey/
Soldier, spy
Some see a troubling 'militarization' of American intelligence. What that means for national security may have less to do with bureaucratic turf wars than with what the military thinks intelligence is for.
A satellite image of Hilla, Iraq, overlaid with information from Army engineers. Images such as these have provided tactical intelligence to soldiers on the ground. (The New York Times)
By Drake Bennett May 14, 2006
THE CIA WAS CREATED in 1947 in response to what was at the time the greatest intelligence failure in American history: the inability to foresee, despite myriad clues, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The military had little interest in the creation of a competitor to its own intelligence services. But, according to Thomas Powers, a historian of intelligence and author of ''The Man Who Kept the Secrets" (1979), a biography of the CIA director Richard Helms, the decision to put the new intelligence agency under civilian rather than military control grew partly out of the disdain with which the military officer corps regarded intelligence work.
''Serious military officers didn't want intelligence assignments, they wanted to control troops in the field," Powers says. ''Intelligence assignments took one off the track for a general's star."
Today, the Defense Department can safely be said to take intelligence more seriously. Eighty percent of the national intelligence budget goes to the Pentagon, which contains the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, and the intelligence branches of each of the armed services. Traditionally, though, the CIA, because it coordinated all of the other intelligence agencies and packaged the resulting information into the president's daily intelligence briefing, was preeminent.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/05/14/soldier_spy/
Boston Scientific aims to end Guidant brand
Firm seeks to distance itself from bad press after defibrillator woes
By Stephen Heuser, Globe Staff May 18, 2006
When Boston Scientific Corp. closed its $27 billion deal for Guidant Corp. last month, the Natick medical device maker planted its flag in the multibillion-dollar business of implantable defibrillators, the tiny and highly profitable machines that keep the heart from suddenly stopping.
It also ended up with a challenge: How to deal with the Guidant name.
The Indiana company was the second largest maker of implantable defibrillators in the country, but its reputation and sales took a sharp dive last year after malfunctions were reported in its devices. Thousands were recalled, and several patients died.
Now, as Boston Scientific folds Guidant into an expanding empire, it is launching a campaign to make the Guidant brand disappear, and to win over doctors who implant the $30,000 devices Guidant manufactures.
http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2006/05/18/boston_scientific_aims_to_end_guidant_brand/
'Da Vinci's' imaginary world
By Ethan Gilsdorf May 18, 2006
THE WORLD is bracing for tomorrow's opening of ''The Da Vinci Code" film, based on the massively selling novel by Dan Brown and directed by Ron Howard.
Think what you will of the novel: Some say work of literature, others say trashy read. But remember: It is a work of fiction. So is the film. Brown and Howard are entitled to twist the reality of both past and present -- geography, physics, theology -- to suit the needs of their narratives. They aren't the first novelists or directors to do so.
The problem is not with Brown's book. It's with his readership and, soon, the audience of the film. The real danger is that some fans take the events of ''The Da Vinci Code" as truth, not as a work of fiction. They mistake a compelling if formulaic page-turner for actual history.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/05/18/da_vincis_imaginary_world/
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