Morning Shinbun Tuesday November 16

Europe Fears That Debt Crisis Is Ready to Spread  

 

By LANDON THOMAS Jr. and JAMES KANTER

Published: November 15, 2010

LONDON – European officials, increasingly concerned that the Continent’s debt crisis will spread, are warning that any new rescue plans may need to cover Portugal as well as Ireland to contain the problem they tried to resolve six months ago.

Any such plan would have to be preceded by a formal request for assistance from each country before it would be put in place. And for months now, Ireland has insisted that it has enough funds to keep it going until spring. Portugal says it, too, needs no help and emphasizes that it is in a stronger position than Ireland.

Edward Wedbush’s roof leaks, but his wallet doesn’t  

He kept his investment firm going in the recession. He drives a 1992 Town Car and brings lunch from home. The office carpet is patched with duct tape. One worker calls him ‘the cheapest man alive.’

By Walter Hamilton, Los Angeles Times

November 16, 2010

He built the largest stock brokerage in Los Angeles, and his name adorns one of the city’s most distinctive high-rises. He’s worth tens of millions of dollars.

So why can’t Edward Wedbush manage to fix his roof?

The peeling shingles atop his one-story stucco house in Ladera Heights are covered in blue and black tarpaulin. The bandaged roof has been an eyesore for years in a neighborhood of carefully tended mid-century homes.

USA

Access to General Motors stock offering won’t include many of its rescuers

Most Americans won’t have access to the automaker’s IPO shares, and many of those who will are likely to be well-heeled customers at big Wall Street firms.

By Walter Hamilton and Nathaniel Popper, Los Angeles Times

November 16, 2010  

Reporting from Los Angeles and New York –

General Motors Co. is set to reemerge as a public company this week in one of the year’s hottest initial public stock offerings, but many American taxpayers who helped rescue the company won’t be going along for the ride.

That’s because most Americans won’t have access to the new shares of the Detroit automaker. And many of those who do are likely to be well-heeled customers at big Wall Street firms.

Erin Brockovich prepares for a real-life sequel

Her campaign became a Hollywood hit. Now the same pollution is back – and so is she

By David Usborne, US Editor Tuesday, 16 November 2010

The film version ended well enough – chased down by the unlikely crusader Erin Brockovich, played by Julia Roberts, the giant California power company PG&E settled with residents in the high desert town of Hinkley over claims it had poisoned their water supply and exposed them to life-threatening illnesses.

Regrettably, a sequel may now have to be ordered. Thirteen years after the company paid $333m (£207m) to settle the class-action suit against it spearheaded by Ms Brockovich, the silent scourge in the soil may be back.

Europe

Nato eyes ‘fresh start’ with Russia

Nato will launch a “fresh start” with Russia this week with a deal to step up collaboration on Afghanistan and efforts to end suspicion over a European missile shield, the alliance’s chief said on Monday

1:07AM GMT 16 Nov 2010  

Nato leaders meeting in Lisbon on Friday and Saturday are expected to endorse a plan to mount a missile shield that will defend Europe from ballistic missiles and invite Russia to join the system.

At a separate summit in the Portuguese capital, Nato and Russia are also expected to reach an agreement on their first ever joint review of common security threats and deepen their co-operation on Afghanistan.

“I think we are witnessing a fresh start in the relationship between Nato and Russia and maybe I could go further and say a fresh start in the relationship between Russia and the West,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference.

 Battling Merkel calls for stability to end euro zone crisis

The Irish Times – Tuesday, November 16, 2010

DEREK SCALLY in Karlsruhe

A FEISTY Angela Merkel insisted yesterday that change to European treaties was the only way to create a “new culture of stability” in the EU and prevent another euro zone crisis.

She delivered an assured performance at yesterday’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) conference, leaving her critics in no doubt that, after a decade as party leader and five years as chancellor, Angela Merkel is at the peak of her political powers.

“I’ve heard we won’t manage to get the necessary changes to European treaties and that it’s utopian to think we’ll get agreement of all countries,” she said. “But faint-heartedness is a poor adviser. This is about everything: if the euro fails, Europe fails and, with it, the European idea of shared values and unification.”

Middle East

Woman sentenced to death by stoning confesses ‘sin of adultery’ to Iran TV

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani also blamed activist Mina Ahadi for spreading story around world

Saeed Kamali Dehghan

The Guardian, Tuesday 16 November 2010

Iranian state TV broadcast a statement last night by the woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, in which she described herself as a “sinner”.

Appearing on TV for the third time since her case caught the world’s attention, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, 43, also accused Mina Ahadi, an activist of the German-based International Committee Against Stoning (Icas), of spreading her story around the world.

The report also broadcast purported statements by two men whose faces were blurred. State TV identified them as Ashtiani’s son, Sajjad Qaderzadeh, 22, and her lawyer, Houtan Kian, both of whom were arrested last month.

Israel blames Egypt for Hamas rearm



 

TEL AVIV has accused Cairo of not doing nearly enough to clamp down on arms smuggling into Gaza, allowing the Palestinian militant group Hamas to build up a potent arsenal of rockets.

A top Israeli intelligence official who declined to be named, said Egypt could easily halt the clandestine weapons trade, but corruption and a fear of straining Arab relations were holding Cairo back.

“This is one of the biggest problems we have,” the official told a briefing for foreign journalists, adding that Hamas had recovered from the killing of one of its commanders in Dubai earlier this year and was receiving a steady flow of arms.

Asia

Family leads outcry at blasphemy death penalty

Anger at Pakistan’s ‘discriminatory’ laws grows as the Christian Asia Bibi appeals against sentence for insulting Mohamed

By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent Tuesday, 16 November 2010

Campaigners in Pakistan say the case of Asia Bibi – the first woman to be sentenced to death for blasphemy – highlights the need for urgent reform of laws that are routinely used to persecute minorities and settle grudges.

The 45-year-old Christian, who has at least two children, was sentenced to death by a court in Sheikhupura, near Lahore, after prosecutors accused her of insulting the Prophet Mohamed and promoting her own faith. Her family have rejected the allegations and launched an appeal. “We have never ever insulted the Prophet or Islamic scripture, and we will contest the charges,” said her husband Ashiq Masih..

Delhi building collapse: 51 dead



November 16, 2010  

At least 51 people died when a four-storey building collapsed in a crowded area of New Delhi, officials say, as rescuers continued searching on Tuesday for more victims feared trapped in the rubble.

Officials said the building in eastern Delhi may have been weakened by heavy flooding brought on by some of the strongest monsoon rains in decades, which burst the banks of the nearby river Yamuna that runs through Delhi.

Rescue workers and residents worked through the night trying to remove debris after the building caved in late Monday in the congested working-class Lalita Park area of Laxmi Nagar, where narrow lanes made it difficult for rescue services to bring in heavy lifting equipment.

Africa

Senegal to open inquiry into deadly 2002 ferry sinking



By Sapa-AFP  

President Abdoulaye Wade had ordered the inquiry into the capsizing of the government-owned ferry Joola off the coast of Gambia in September 26, 2002, a justice ministry official said.

“A decision has been made by the highest authority to open a judicial enquiry on the Joola,” the official said, confirming an earlier statement by Justice Minister Cheikh Tidiane Sy cited by media.

Southern Sudan begins registration for independence vote



TUESDAY, 16 NOVEMBER 2010  

VOTERS’ registration has begun in Sudan for a January referendum that would allow the country’s autonomous southern region, which holds a majority of the nation’s oil, to secede from the north.

The move came as northern and southern leaders agreed they would form a “soft border” allowing the free movement of trade and nomads between their territories in the event of a separation, as part of a framework agreement to resolve a list of disputes between the two sides.

The Cable News Network (CNN) said a United Nations panel has arrived in Sudan to monitor the 17-day registration effort, which will take place at 3,000 sites across the country and in eight countries abroad, , the UN said.

Latin America

Rory Carroll in Port-au-Prince

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 November 2010 05.00 GMT

Crowds hurled rocks, set up burning barricades and blocked roads to protest over the foreign troops and the government’s response to the crisis

Protestors in Haiti attack UN peacekeepers in cholera backlash  

Protestors in Haiti have attacked UN peacekeepers over suspicion that Nepalese soldiers brought the cholera epidemic which has swept the country and killed 1,000 people.

Crowds in two northern towns hurled rocks, set up burning barricades and blocked roads to protest the foreign troops and the government’s response to the crisis, rattling authorities and the UN in the run to a November 28 election.

Cap-Haitien, the country’s second city, was this morning cut off from the rest of Haiti after a day of rioting shut its roads and airport and left more than a dozenpeople wounded.

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