Three politicians – including 2007 challenger Ségolène Royal – vie for nomination to run against president The French Socialist party will test its reputation for inflated egos and in-fighting on Tuesday when it opens its primary race to chose a presidential candidate to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012. Recent polls have shown the Socialists would trounce the unpopular Sarkozy if an election was held now. But the French left – which has not won a presidential vote since François Mitterrand in 1988 – is painfully aware of how poll leads can evaporate at the ballot box. Its choice of candidate is crucial if it is to run a personalised campaign attacking Sarkozy as unprincipled, ineffective and power-obsessed. The left is still reeling from the forced exit from political life of its one-time favourite, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, after he was charged with the attempted rape of a New York hotel maid last month. If the party is to win the moral fight against Sarkozy, it must now have a candidate whose track record and behaviour is irreproachable. European politics in general have shifted firmly to the right. To buck this trend and get elected, the party needs to field a broad-church candidate whose appeal reaches centrists and the right. The selection contest, which begins on Tuesday and ends with a vote in October, boils down to two key characters. François Hollande, 56, the current favourite, is a former Socialist party leader and MP in rural central France who drives a moped and styles himself as an “ordinary guy”. Hollande was once seen as a portly, jovial joker before going on a crash diet and radically smartening up his look after splitting from his long-term partner, former presidential runner Ségolène Royal. His policy ideas are centre-left. His supporters argue that he is down to earth and the polar opposite of Sarkozy. His detractors say he has never held a ministerial post and lacks international experience. Hollande declared his fierce ambition to be president last March and has criss-crossed France in old-fashioned campaign meetings that won over the media and saw him ranked the most “presidential” politician in France in the latest poll for Le Monde. The party’s current leader, Martine Aubry, is expected to enter the race to challenge him. The 60-year-old mayor of Lille and staunchly leftwing architect of France’s 35-hour week, will run a campaign to be France’s first female president. One ally told the French newspaper Liberation that she would style herself as a kind of “Angela Merkel of the left”: stern, serious and slightly authoritarian. Her team thinks that in a “macho country like France”, unless she pushed herself as hard and domineering, she would be dismissed as incapable of running the country. Aubry’s first task is to convince France of her “presidential standing” and that she is genuinely ambitious. Before the Strauss-Kahn sex attack case, she had been happy to let him run instead of her and has seemed reticent about being pushed into the front line. “We know that she’s totally opposed to Hollande being the Socialist candidate, but does she actually want to be president herself?” asked one diplomat. The third main candidate is Royal, still running despite her defeat by Sarkozy in 2007. Sarkozy has seen a modest rise in his approval ratings in recent weeks, due to a slight improvement of France’s economic growth forecast and minimal drop in unemployment. speech on Monday to showcase his ideas for kick-starting the economy. But he remains widely disliked, and international efforts such as the Libya intervention have not had a significant impact on his ratings at home. France Nicolas Sarkozy Dominique Strauss-Kahn Europe Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
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Afghanistan’s interior ministry says girl died in blast after insurgents gave her a bag containing explosives Taliban insurgents used an eight-year-old girl carrying a bag of explosives to attack a police checkpost in central Afghanistan, the Afghan government said on Sunday, making her one of the youngest child bombers of the decade-old conflict. The incident took place in Char Chino district of central Uruzgan province, the interior ministry said. “The insurgents handed over a bag with a homemade bomb to an eight-year-old girl and asked her to take it to police forces,” it added. “As the girl was getting close to the police, it exploded and killed the girl.” It was the latest in a string of unusual attacks on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. On Saturday a Taliban car bomber attacked a hospital in a remote district of eastern Logar province, damaging the maternity ward and killing between 20 and 35 people, according to reports. Around the same time in north-western Pakistan, the Pakistani Taliban deployed a married couple who attacked a police station by blowing themselves up. Two burqa-clad figures made their way into a police station in Kolachi, near the Taliban hub of South Waziristan, pretending to want to lodge a complaint, police said. Once inside they opened fire with guns and grenades, capturing hostages and triggering a five-hour siege that left 10 people dead. “This shows how much we hate Pakistani security institutions,” Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told Associated Press by telephone. Both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban have frequently used men disguised under burqas to mount suicide attacks but the use of women is rare. The first genuine instance in Pakistan is believed to have occurred in Bajaur tribal agency late last year, when a female suicide bomber wearing a burqa attacked a UN food distribution centre, killing 45 people. Last week in Dir district in north-western Pakistan, police defused a bomb strapped to a nine-year-old girl who said she had been kidnapped in Peshawar then set off walking towards a checkpost. “They told me: ‘You keep on reciting Qu’ranic verses till you push the button’,” she said afterwards. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have denied using child bombers, suggesting increased sensitivity to public opinion as peace talks with the US government loom. The insurgency’s conventional attacks are proving deadlier than ever. Four Nato soldiers were killed at the weekend, including two from Spain, while civilian casualties reached a decade-long high last May. The violence comes days after Barack Obama announced plans to withdraw 33,000 American troops by September 2012, and undermines his claims to have militants “on the run”. The relentless Taliban assaults are fraying nerves among ordinary Afghans as Nato prepares to transfer control of five urban centres, including most of Kabul, and two provinces next month. Afghanistan Taliban Global terrorism Pakistan Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …ABC’s Muir: Will ‘Deeply Felt Criticism in Africa Melt Under the Glow Cast By Mrs. Obama and Her Girls?’
June 26, 2011 No Comment
As the First Lady and her daughters toured Africa last week, Americans were treated to puff piece after piece from their adoring fans in the press. One such aired on ABC's “This Week” Sunday with David Muir actually saying, “Will some of that deeply felt criticism in Africa melt under the glow cast by Mrs. Obama and her girls?” (video follows with transcript and commentary): DAVID MUIR, ABC NEWS: There are many who wonder if Mrs. Obama’s visit will help soothe criticism that her husband has not done enough to reach out to Africa. Critics point out just one visit while in office. Some argue the HIV/AIDS effort was stronger under the Bush administration. But the Obama White House argues it has laid out a plan for Africa combating hunger and widening public health outreach beyond HIV. The question now: will some of that deeply felt criticism in Africa melt under the glow cast by Mrs. Obama and her girls who came here to spread their own message that there is still work to be done. Yes, that's all ailing and starving Africans need to make their troubles go away: a little of Michelle's glow. After all, the Obamas are a magic elixir that wash all of the world's problems away – except, of course, rising unemployment, ballooning gas prices, spiraling food costs, and plummeting home prices. But other than that…
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I have a facebook page connected with this blog. It is called Why I’m Not A Democrat. Please join it and invite your friends to join as well now that you see what we are up against. My reasons for not being a Democrat are: (1) The dominance of Liberalism in the Party (2) Ethical Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Blue Collar Philosophy Discovery Date : 26/06/2011 05:13 Number of articles : 3
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Authorities delay giving go-ahead to talks between more than 150 intellectuals and activists in Damascus Plans for the first open opposition meeting in Damascus for more than a decade are in jeopardy, with Syrian authorities yet to give permission for the gathering to go ahead. More than 150 intellectuals and activists were planning to meet in a hotel in downtown Damascus on Monday in what had initially been seen as a sign that the troubled regime was prepared to cede part of its absolute control in the country’s affairs and allow some organised political dissent. Some opposition figures refused to attend, fearing that any sanctioned meeting in the midst of a brutal crackdown on the four-month uprising would be used by the government to establish new credentials for openness without actually committing to widespread reform. International pressure on the regime to give ground to demonstrators who continue to take to the streets of Syria’s towns and cities remains intense, despite Damascus insisting at the weekend that frequent outbursts of deadly violence across the country were being caused by a large foreign-backed gang that is outmanoeuvring its formidable military. Some foreign reporters have been allowed to enter Syria, although most are working with government minders and do not have freedom to move around the country. President Bashar al-Assad said last week he had met some opposition members and citizens who had presented grievances he described as “legitimate”. Maan Abdul Salam, an activist in Damascus, said: “The street has opened a space for us and we plan to claim back political life, which has been underground for years. We need to have an open discussion about what is happening in the country and not focus on what the government is saying.” Monday’s scheduled meeting is due to involve veteran figures including Michel Kilo and Aref Dalila, both of whom met government emissaries last month but have refused further meetings while the killing continues. Those who are refusing to attend cite the possible presence of pro-regime intellectuals, the lack of young activists and the ongoing denial of the crisis by Syrian officials. They fear the government will present the conference as a dialogue or tosuggest that it is allowing freedom of association. “This is not the environment to hold a conference,” said veteran intellectual Fawaz Tello. “The government still won’t admit there is a conflict going on.” Tensions with Turkey continue to run high after reports said Syrian troops moved into Najia on the northern border late on Saturday night. Almost 12,000 Syrians have crossed into Turkey but state media agency Sana reported 730 people had returned to the town of Jisr al-Shughour. Activists reported: • Arrests were continuing in Barzeh, close to Damascus, Idleb and Homs, • Students have protested in the northern town of Deir Ezzor. • Refugees were heading to Lebanon as troops moved into the town of Kseer, close to the Lebanese border. • Kisweh, close to Damascus, had a heavy security and army presence around it. • Five people were killed at funerals in Homs on Saturday. Small demonstrations now take place every day, in defiance of the regime’s call for people to stay at home, but most are peaceful. However, there are rising fears of sectarianism, protesters fighting back and of groups taking advantage of the protests, all of which would play into the government’s narrative that the uprising is being manipulated by outsiders. Other activists said they backed the conference, even if they would not be attending. “Any future opposition must include the local co-ordination committees,” said one young activist, referring to a grassroots network that is becoming increasingly organised. “But they are trying to break a taboo that the opposition can meet in Syria and that is positive.” In an interview this weekend with CNN, which has been allowed into Damascus, deputy foreign minister Faisal Mikdad again denied there was a crackdown and blamed violence on gangs. The “national dialogue” talked about by Assad in last Monday’s speech has not yet been convened. Most opposition figures have rejected the dialogue, in which 100 people will be picked by the government to participate, insisting the crackdown must end first. Nidaa Hassan is the pseudonym of a reporter working in Damascus Syria Middle East Bashar Al-Assad Nidaa Hassan Martin Chulov guardian.co.uk
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US raid on bin Laden compound thought to be reason for expulsion of team of military advisers Pakistan has expelled a team of British military trainers sent to help with the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida, as the fallout from the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden continues to rock relations between Islamabad and its western allies. The Ministry of Defence confirmed that at least 18 military advisers, deployed as part of a £15m programme to train the paramilitary Frontier Corps, have been withdrawn from Pakistan. Most are already back in the UK. Their removal is seen as an indirect casualty of worsening relations between Pakistan and the US over the 2 May Navy Seal raid in Abbottabad, which was conducted without Pakistani consent. Although British relations with Pakistan are warmer, the embattled army, stung by a barrage of public criticism, is keen to demonstrate its independence from all western allies. Since Bin Laden’s death, Pakistan has sent home at least 120 US military trainers, most of whom were engaged in training the FC. The British team, a mix of seasoned officers and NCOs, had been stationed at a British-funded FC base near the capital of Balochistan, Quetta. The training scheme began last August and was scheduled to run until at least summer 2013. The MoD hopes to redeploy the team once the tensions abate. In an email statement, a spokeswoman said the trainers had been withdrawn “on a temporary basis” at the request of the Pakistani government in response to “security concerns”. “The training teams will continue their own training and will be ready to redeploy at the first possible opportunity,” she told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism . The 60,000-strong FC, which is deployed along the length of the 1,600-mile border with Afghanistan, has long been in the frontline of Pakistani efforts to combat Taliban militancy and flush al-Qaida from its tribal havens. But its troops are considered under-trained and ill-equipped, and Pakistan’s western allies have in recent years prioritised a multimillion pound effort to bolster their skills and equipment. That programme has now virtually collapsed as US-Pakistani relations fall to their lowest point in a decade. The trouble began in January after a CIA contractor, Raymond Davis, shot dead two men in Lahore, prompting the withdrawal of a quarter of the US training force. The reductions accelerated following the Bin Laden raid, as the military sought to signal its displeasure with its western allies – in particular the CIA – and to boost its faltering public support. After a 9 June meeting to discuss the crisis, the military leadership issued a statement in which it disputed American claims of $15bn (£9.4bn) in aid over the past decade, and suggested that future US military assistance should be diverted to civilian economic programmes. CIA drone strikes were “not acceptable under any circumstances,” the military said. The US says it wants to rebuild the relationship, deemed “too important to fail” but tensions have erupted at ground level. Last week the Pakistani media reported that US trainers had clashed with base guards when prevented from retrieving personal effects after being ordered to leave. The US embassy in Islamabad denied the incident. The FC, which draws its recruits from the Pashtun tribes along the Afghan border, has suffered heavy losses in recent years. Its paramilitary troops have led assaults on mountainous Taliban strongholds and been targeted in numerous suicide bombings. In May, a large attack on a training centre of the related Frontier Constabulary killed 100 young recruits. But the FC has also been accused of numerous human rights violations, particularly in Balochistan where the British base is located. Human rights groups say the FC has played a central role in a vicious crackdown on Baloch nationalist insurgents, who are unrelated to the Taliban, that has resulted in hundreds of illegal abductions and extra-judicial executions. Dawn newspaper has reported that at least 170 suspected nationalists, many abducted by FC personnel, had been killed since July 2010. Most bore the marks of severe torture. A furore erupted last month after video footage showed FC troops shooting dead five unarmed Chechens, including a pregnant woman, at a checkpost in Quetta. The government says it is investigating the incident. The British team at the Quetta camp was reportedly working alongside six US advisers, helping to train 360 recruits at a time on 12-week courses. The US has funded a much larger FC training centre on the outskirts of Peshawar. A military spokesman in Islamabad said between 200 and 300 US military personnel remain in the country. Pakistan al-Qaida Taliban Osama bin Laden Terrorism policy US foreign policy US military US national security CIA Military Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann (R-MN) said Sunday that it was “insulting” for a Fox News host to ask if she was a “flake.” “I am very serious about what I want to do,” Bachmann told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “People recognize that I’m serious.” “You say that people saw in the debate, saw you as a serious person,” Wallace noted. “I don’t have to tell you that you have — that the rap on you in Washington is you have a history of questionable statements, some would say gaffes — talking about anti-America members of Congress, to on this show a couple of months ago when you suggested that NATO airstrikes have killed up to 30,000 civilians. Are you a flake?” “Well, I think that would be insulting to say something like that because I’m a serious person,” Bachmann replied. “What I would say is that I am 55 years old. I’ve been married 33 years. I’m not only a lawyer, I have a post doctorate degree in federal tax law from William and Mary. I worked in serious scholarship and in work in federal tax court. We raised five kids. We’ve raised 23 foster children. We applied ourselves to education reform. We started a charter school for at-risk kids. I’ve also been a state senator and member of the United states Congress for five years. I’ve been very active in our business, as a job creator. I understand job creation. But also I’ve been leading actively the movement in Washington D.C., with those who are affiliated with fiscal reform.” “Do you recognize that now that you are in the spotlight in a way that you weren’t before, you have to be careful and not say what some regard as flaky things?” Wallace asked. “Well, of course, a person has to be careful with statements that they make. I think that is true. I think now that there will be an opportunity to speak fully on the issues. I look forward to that,” Bachmann concluded. “This doesn’t really get at the issue of Bachmann’s zero major legislative accomplishments,” Politico’s Alexander Burns observed , “but it does offer at least a hint of how she’ll parry some of the more obviously skeptical, process-oriented questions about her preparedness for the campaign.” Update: Wallace has caved under the pressure of letters from angry viewers and apologized for suggesting Bachmann was a “flake.” “I messed up. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any disrespect,” he said. Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
Continue reading …Amanda Knox Trial: Rudy Hermann Guede, Convicted Ivorian, To Testify At Appeal
June 26, 2011 No Comment
ROME — The appeal hearing of American student Amanda Knox against her murder conviction in Italy resumes Monday with all eyes on an Ivorian man also convicted in the slaying, who will testify as a witness for the prosecution. Rudy Hermann Guede is serving a 16-year-prison sentence for the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, a British student who was stabbed to death in the apartment she shared with Knox. Knox and her co-defendant, Raffaele Sollecito, have also been convicted in the murder and are appealing. Guede, who sought a fast-track procedure, was tried separately and has already exhausted all levels of appeals, with Italy’s top criminal court upholding his conviction. He will testify before the court hearing Knox and Sollecito’s appeal at the opening of Monday’s session, lawyers say. Guede, 24, was called by the prosecution to counter testimony by a fellow inmate who testified for the defense and claimed he had information clearing Knox and Sollecito. Convicted child killer Mario Alessi told the court that Guede had confided in him during recreation time at the Viterbo prison that Knox and Sollecito had nothing to do with the killing. Guede in the past has denied talking to Alessi about the case, and he is expected to repeat that when he takes the stand. Whether his testimony will go beyond that remains to be seen. His lawyer Valter Biscotti stressed that Guede’s testimony was admitted in reference to that particular claim, and might be limited to that alone. But he said the presiding judge has some leeway to allow some broader questioning. “He’s got nothing to hide and nothing to be afraid of,” Biscotti said of his client. However, when Guede took the stand during the pair’s first trial, he declined to answer prosecutors’ questions or offer any spontaneous testimony. Knox and Sollecito – the American’s boyfriend at the time of the killing – have been convicted of sexual assault and murder. She was sentenced to 26 years in prison, he to 25. Like Knox and Sollecito, Guede has denied killing Kercher. But unlike them, he has admitted being at the crime scene the night of the murder, Nov. 1, 2007. Speaking at the opening of his appeals trial, Guede claimed that he had heard Kercher and Knox argue minutes before the Briton was slain. He said he was at the house with Kercher when he fell ill and went to the bathroom with his iPod. He heard Knox and Kercher argue over money, then heard a “very loud scream” coming from Kercher’s bedroom, and rushed to it. There, he said, he saw an unidentified man who tried to attack him. Backing down into the hallway, Guede said he heard the man say “‘Let’s go, there’s a black man in the house.’” Guede said he heard footsteps leaving the house and looked out of the window, where he saw a silhouette that he later identified as Knox’s. He said he then tried to rescue Kercher, who was lying in a pool of blood after her throat was slit, taking her in his arms and trying to mop up the blood with towels. But he panicked and left the house. Guede fled Italy, and was found and arrested in Germany about a month after the killing. His DNA confirms there was sexual intercourse with Kercher, while fingerprints and other traces attest to his presence in the house. Knox and Sollecito have maintained they were at Sollecito’s house the night of the murder. Their defense lawyers claim Guede was the killer and acted alone. “We are getting ready for a ferocious cross-examination, though it may not be needed,” said Luca Maori, a lawyer for Sollecito.
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ATLANTA — Nick Charles, the former taxi driver who became CNN’s first sports anchor and served in that role for nearly two decades, died Saturday after a two-year struggle with bladder cancer, the cable network reported. He was 64. He died peacefully at his New Mexico home, wife Cory told the network. Nicholas Charles Nickeas grew up in Chicago, working late-night jobs in high school to help his family, according to CNN. He eventually went to Columbia College Chicago to study communications and drove a taxi to help pay his tuition. He was still driving taxis in 1970 when he landed his first gig with WICS in Springfield, Ill. That’s when he adopted the name Nick Charles at the urging of his news director, the network said. Charles later left Springfield to work at local stations in Baltimore and Washington and then began at Atlanta-based CNN on the network’s first day on June 1, 1980. He made his name before a national audience teaming with Fred Hickman for almost 20 years on “Sports Tonight,” a daily highlight show that battled with ESPN for viewers. Charles became such a popular TV personality that Topps put his face on a trading card, CNN reported. “We just clicked from the very beginning,” Hickman told CNN. “In television, you always have personality conflicts. Nick and I never had one. Nick and I have always had a tremendous relationship.” Hickman said Charles was a “great inspiration” to him, and described his former colleague as a “tremendous storyteller.” “He could literally do a story about a horse and make you think this horse was like a person,” Hickman said. “He could take boxing and turn it into something poetic.” Charles told CNN recently that boxing was “one of my loves,” whether reporting on Muhammad Ali’s later years or covering the ear-biting incident involving Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. With his well-coiffed, curly black hair and sharp-looking suits, Charles brought GQ-like style to CNN’s broadcasts. But he also was known as a skilled interviewer who related easily to subjects while not being shy about asking tough questions. “I think when people look back on Nick in years to come, they’re going to remember – the hair,” former CNN sports anchor Jim Huber quipped to the network. “He loved that hair. It used to just drive us crazy. But in all seriousness, I think they’re going to look back on one of the great sports journalists of all time.” CNN Worldwide president Jim Walton said Saturday that Charles helped put CNN on the map. “He brought intelligence, style and heart to his work – qualities that translated to our company and inspired those of us who were fortunate to work alongside him,” Walton said. “His passing is a loss to CNN, to the sports world and to the fans and friends everywhere who were with him to the end of his extraordinary life. In recent months, Charles served as an inspiration to many as he openly discussed his battle with cancer, with which he was diagnosed in August 2009. He made video diaries for his five-year-old daughter Giovanna to see in years to come. “I’m a forward looking person but also a living-in-the-moment person,” Charles recently told CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, whose special report “Nick Charles: No Regrets, Lessons from the Fight” will re-air at 7:30 a.m. Sunday. “So I wake up every day expecting to have a good day. It may sound trite, Sanjay, but life as you get older is about 20 percent of what happens to you and about 80 percent how you react to it.” Charles also is survived by three grown children from two previous marriages In an interview in March, he told the network his message was to “never give up on life” even though it’s imperfect and filled with huge adversities. “People won’t remember who you are or what you said. It’s really about: Are you going to be remembered as a good person?” he said. “That’s victory to me. That’s success.”
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Despite the accumulated reportage and commentary available to the Associated Press this morning, the wire service, at 9:58 a.m
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