Feb 04 2011

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Ruling party candidate out of Haiti race

by Clarens Renois, AFP

1 hr 6 mins ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – Haiti’s fraud-tainted ruling party candidate crashed out of the presidential race on Thursday, as the election commission bowed to weeks of US-led pressure and reversed earlier results.

Ending months of deadlock since disputed polls in November, the decision was met with calm on the streets of the quake-hit Caribbean nation, which has endured decades of political upheaval, dictatorship and bloodshed.

Announcing definitive first round results, the commission said popular singer Michel Martelly — and not the ruling party’s Jude Celestin — would face off against former first lady Mirlande Manigat in a run-off on March 20.

2 World food prices reach record high

by Dario Thuburn, AFP

Thu Feb 3, 12:11 pm ET

ROME (AFP) – World food prices reached their highest level ever in January, the UN food agency said on Thursday, as economists warned chaos in Egypt could push prices up further and foment more unrest in the region.

Rising food prices have been cited among the driving forces behind the recent popular revolts in north Africa, including the uprising in Egypt and the toppling of Tunisia’s long-time president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

And in its latest survey, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said its index, which monitors monthly price changes for a variety of staples, averaged 231 points in January — the highest since records began in 1990.

3 Egypt VP tells protesters to go home, clashes rage

by Samer al-Atrush, AFP

1 hr 1 min ago

CAIRO (AFP) – Deadly clashes between opponents and partisans of Hosni Mubarak raged for a second day on Thursday as Egypt’s vice president urged protesters to go home, criticising their demands for the president’s ouster as a “call for chaos.”

That was echoed by the 82-year-old veteran president himself, who told ABC television he was “very unhappy” about the fighting and that he would like to step down but feared chaos would engulf the country.

On Tuesday night, Mubarak announced that he would not run for election to a sixth term in September, but said he would finish his mandate so he could guarantee an orderly transition.

4 Bloody clashes rock Cairo as regime stands firm

by Samer al-Atrush, AFP

Wed Feb 2, 5:07 pm ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Partisans of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stormed the Cairo stronghold of anti-regime protesters on Wednesday, sparking bloody clashes in which the government said three people were killed.

Washington, which has called for restraint since demonstrations broke out nine days ago, deplored the violence against “peaceful protesters” while UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the attacks on demonstrators were “unacceptable.”

The European Union added its voice to calls from US President Barack Obama for the transition from Mubarak’s three-decade-long rule to begin immediately after the veteran president announced late on Tuesday that he would not seek re-election in September.

5 Protesters spurn talks offer as Cairo battle rages

by Sara Hussein, AFP

Thu Feb 3, 10:18 am ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Angry protesters battling pro-regime militants for control of Cairo’s Tahrir Square insisted Thursday that President Hosni Mubarak step down, spurning a talks offer by the new premier who said he was prepared to go and meet them.

Ahmed Shafiq, who publicly apologised for violence that has raged there for more than 24 hours, said he was “ready to go to Tahrir Square to talk to the protesters,” state news agency MENA reported.

But a coalition of activists rejected what was a break with the regime’s previous insistence that it would not talk with the opposition until protesters went home, and said they would not talk with Shafiq.

6 Tens of thousands of Yemenis demonstrate in Sanaa

by Hammoud Mounassar and Jamal al-Jaberi, AFP

2 hrs 13 mins ago

SANAA (AFP) – Tens of thousands of Yemenis staged a “day of rage” on Thursday calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as a similar number of government loyalists held a counter protest in the capital.

“We are here to bring down a corrupt and tyrannical regime,” Najib Ghanem, a lawmaker from the Islamist Al-Islah party that belongs to the Common Forum alliance of opposition parties, told anti-Saleh protesters at Sanaa University.

“The revolt for justice began in Tunisia. It continues today in Egypt, and Yemen tomorrow will be free from injustice,” he said of the Tunisian president’s fall and protests in Egypt seeking the departure of its president.

7 Under-fire Yemen leader pledges no life term

by Hammoud Mounassar, AFP

Wed Feb 2, 4:52 pm ET

SANAA (AFP) – Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh, under opposition pressure to stand down, said on Wednesday he will freeze plans to change the constitution that would have enabled him to remain president for life.

On the eve of a “day of rage” called by civil society and opposition leaders, Saleh told parliament he had also put off controversial plans to hold elections in April without a promised dialogue on reform, and appealed for an end to street protests.

“I will not extend my mandate and I am against hereditary rule,” said Saleh, who has headed the Arab world’s poorest nation for decades and whose term is due to end in 2013.

8 Filipino furniture designer a Hollywood hit

by Jason Gutierrez, AFP

Thu Feb 3, 10:00 am ET

CEBU, Philippines (AFP) – His designs may be in Hollywood but his heart is at home: renowned Filipino furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue says he still gets his inspiration from the sun-baked shores of Cebu.

The multi-award-winner is regarded by international design magazines as one of the poster boys of Asia’s chic furniture design industry and his unique works have penetrated the luxury market around the world.

They can be found on movie sets, in the home of US movie star Brad Pitt — who bought a Cobonpue bed — and in leading hotels, establishments and resorts in Paris, London and the Caribbean.

9 Google puts iPad in the crosshairs

by Glenn Chapman, AFP

Wed Feb 2, 6:03 pm ET

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (AFP) – Google provided a glimpse Wednesday of tablet computer software crafted to dethrone the iPad and courted developers key to the success of Apple gadgets.

Google showed off a Honeycomb version of its Android operating system that will debut on the upcoming Motorola Xoom tablet that won rave reviews at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month.

“Honeycomb is tailored for the new generation of tablet-sized computers,” Google mobile products director Hugo Barra said while demonstrating software features at the Internet titan’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.

10 News Corp. puts Myspace on the block

by Charlotte Raab, AFP

Wed Feb 2, 7:14 pm ET

NEW YORK (AFP) – News Corp. said Wednesday it was exploring a sale or other “strategic options” for Myspace, the ailing social network which has been eclipsed by Facebook.

“We recognize that the plan to allow Myspace to reach its full potential may be best developed under a new ownership structure and we’re evaluating those strategic alternatives,” News Corp. chief operating officer Chase Carey said.

“With a new content focus and structure in place we believe now is the right time for News Corp. to consider strategic options,” Carey said in a conference call with financial analysts to discuss News Corp’s second quarter earnings.

11 ECB holds key lending rate steady

by William Ickes, AFP

Thu Feb 3, 11:45 am ET

FRANKFURT (AFP) – The European Central Bank held its main interest rate at a record low of 1.0 percent Thursday but the euro fell against the dollar in a sign markets felt the ECB was less afraid of inflation and its first rate hike is thus still months away.

ECB governors will continue to watch inflation closely, they said, but “developments have not so far affected our assessment that price developments will remain in line with price stability” for the foreseeable future.

“Obviously, the ECB did not want to alter market expectations at today’s meeting” or during the subsequent press briefing by president Jean-Claude Trichet, ING senior economist Carsten Brzeski commented.

12 Astronomers discover six planets

by Richard Ingham, AFP

Thu Feb 3, 11:18 am ET

PARIS (AFP) – Astronomers said on Thursday they had found six planets orbiting a distant star in the most exciting but also most challenging find since exploration of other solar systems began 15 years ago.

None of the so-called exoplanets, orbiting the star Kepler-11 2,000 light years away, is remotely comparable to the Earth, but the detection of them is a major technical feat, the scientists said.

Five planets are relatively small, ranging in mass from 2.3 to 13.5 times that of Earth, but orbit Kepler-11 at blistering proximity, encircling it at a distance that is even closer than Mercury to the Sun.

13 Sumo wrestlers admit match-fixing

by Harumi Ozawa, AFP

Thu Feb 3, 8:19 am ET

TOKYO (AFP) – At least three serving sumo fighters have for the first time admitted fixing bouts, Japan’s government said on Thursday, condemning an “act of betrayal” of an ancient sport that is now synonymous with scandal.

Match-rigging claims have long stalked the sport, which has its roots in Japan’s native Shinto religion and dates back some 1,500 years, but there has never previously been any confession from wrestlers still in the sumo world.

Japanese education and sport minister Yoshiaki Takaki, who oversees the sumo industry, said the head of the Japan Sumo Association had informed his ministry that the three wrestlers had confessed to fixing results.

14 Judge finds Feinberg not independent of BP

By Tom Hals, Reuters

Thu Feb 3, 8:29 am ET

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) – The administrator of BP Plc’s $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the Gulf oil spill is not independent and the oil company must refrain from calling him “neutral,” a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

Judge Carl Barbier also ruled that BP must disclose in all communications that the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) and its administrator, Kenneth Feinberg, are acting on behalf of BP in fulfilling its legal obligations under the Oil Pollution Act.

“While BP may have delegated to Mr. Feinberg and the GCCF independence in the evaluation and payment of individual claims, many other facts support a finding that the GCCF and Mr. Feinberg are not completely ‘neutral’ or independent from BP,” said the New Orleans federal judge in his 15-page ruling.

15 Bernanke says growth, inflation still missing Fed goals

By Mark Felsenthal and Pedro da Costa, Reuters

2 hrs 30 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economic recovery still needs help from the Federal Reserve despite signs of improvement, the central bank’s chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday.

The Fed chairman provided a modestly more rosy outlook for the world’s largest economy than he has done in recent appearances, citing gains in household spending, improved confidence, and stepped up bank lending as signs 2011 may bring stronger growth than 2010.

“Although economic growth will probably increase this year, we expect the unemployment rate to remain stubbornly above, and inflation to remain stubbornly below, the levels that Federal Reserve policymakers have judged to be consistent over the longer term with our mandate,” he said in an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington.

16 House Republicans seek $32 billion in spending cuts

By Richard Cowan, Reuters

58 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican leaders in the House of Representatives will seek $32 billion in spending cuts this year as part of an initial bid to shrink record budget deficits forecast to hit $1.5 trillion this year alone.

Aides to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan on Thursday outlined the savings that would become part of a bill to fund a range of federal programs through the current fiscal year that ends on September 30.

The legislation is a warm-up to a much bigger fight over spending priorities — and possibly tax policy — that will intensify on February 14 when President Barack Obama submits his fiscal 2012 budget proposal to Congress.

17 Virginia to ask top court to review health law

By James Vicini and Lisa Lambert, Reuters

Thu Feb 3, 1:06 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Virginia said on Thursday it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its challenge to President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul, bypassing the appeals process in a rarely used move to try to speed up a definitive ruling on the year-old law.

The Obama administration opposed the move and said the case should follow the regular process, which could put off until 2012 a Supreme Court ruling on the sweeping law that aims to provide more than 30 million uninsured Americans with medical coverage and cracks down on unpopular insurance industry practices.

It was unclear whether the Supreme Court, which typically prefers that cases go though the appeals court first, would grant the request. The last time it agreed to such a request was in 2002 in a case on using race in university admissions.

18 Verizon gets some iPhone customer complaints

By Sinead Carew, Reuters

Thu Feb 3, 11:57 am ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Some Verizon Wireless customers complained they were unable to buy its iPhone online, but the company said sales were mostly running smoothly on its first day of Internet orders for the long-awaited phone.

The No. 1 U.S. mobile service started taking online orders for its Apple Inc iPhone at 3 a.m. EST on Thursday, a week before it is due to hit its store shelves. Verizon Wireless had said it was preparing for heavy demand.

Spokeswoman Brenda Raney said the company was pleased with how the online system had performed and that “the majority of customers have been able to process their orders with no problems.” However, this was not the case for everybody.

19 ECB holds rates at 1 percent, inflation message awaited

By Sakari Suoninen, Reuters

Thu Feb 3, 8:06 am ET

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The European Central Bank kept interest rates at 1 percent as forecast on Thursday, ahead of its policy statement where it is expected to repeat its recent inflation warning but signal that a rate rise is not imminent.

The bank’s decision to leave euro zone rates on hold was the 21st month running it kept them at the record low level.

The euro and bond markets did not react to the heavily expected decision.

20 Food costs at records, no let up on prices: FAO

By Svetlana Kovalyova and John Mair, Reuters

Thu Feb 3, 10:07 am ET

MANILA/MILAN (Reuters) – World food prices hit a record in January and recent catastrophic weather around the globe could put yet more pressure on the cost of food, an issue that has already helped spark protests across the Middle East.

Up for the seventh month in a row, the closely watched Food and Agriculture Oganisation Food Price Index on Thursday touched its highest since records began in 1990, and topped the peak of 224.1 in June 2008, during the food crisis of 2007/08.

“The new figures clearly show that the upward pressure on world food prices is not abating. These high prices are likely to persist in the months to come,” FAO economist and grains expert Abdolreza Abbassian said in a statement.

21 News Corp bets on iPad for future of news

By Jennifer Saba and Yinka Adegoke, Reuters

Wed Feb 2, 7:16 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Rupert Murdoch, among the most ardent defenders of the traditional press, has staked his reputation on a risky bet that for just 14 cents a day he can save the news business with tablet devices like Apple’s iPad.

Unlike the News Corp chairman’s other newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal or the Times of London, it was not immediately clear who the Daily, News Corp’s digital newspaper for the iPad unveiled on Wednesday, is intended to reach.

But that has not stopped the 79-year-old media mogul from investing $30 million to start to find an answer.

22 Mubarak supporters try to clear Cairo protest

By Marwa Awad and Jonathan Wright, Reuters

Wed Feb 2, 11:17 am ET

CAIRO (Reuters) – Supporters of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak riding camels and horses and wielding whips and sticks charged at demonstrators in Cairo on Wednesday to try to end their protest demanding an end to his 30-year rule.

Reuters correspondents said the army did not respond to the anti-Mubarak protesters’ calls for intervention to stop violence, in which hundreds of people were injured, dozens of them with wounds to the head.

Demonstrators from the rival camps hurled rocks at each other from behind makeshift cardboard shields throughout the afternoon in Tahrir Square, scene of unprecedented mass protests that have shaken Mubarak’s rule in the last week.

23 Yemen president signals won’t stay beyond 2013

By Mohamed Sudam, Reuters

Wed Feb 2, 11:16 am ET

SANAA (Reuters) – Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, eyeing protests that threaten to topple Egypt’s long-time ruler, indicated on Wednesday he would leave office when his current term ends in 2013, after three decades in power.

Saleh, a key U.S. ally against al Qaeda, also vowed not to pass on the reins of government to his son and appealed to the opposition to call off protests as a large rally loomed.

“I present these concessions in the interests of the country. The interests of the country come before our personal interests,” Saleh told his parliament, Shoura Council and members of the military.

24 Euro zone closer to new anti-crisis package

By Annika Breidthardt and Noah Barkin, Reuters

Wed Feb 2, 11:17 am ET

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany and France have reached a consensus on steps to boost economic coordination within the euro zone as part of a comprehensive anti-crisis package that will also see the scope of Europe’s bailout fund bolstered.

German officials said on Wednesday that Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy would present joint proposals to strengthen policy coordination in the 17-nation bloc at an EU summit in Brussels on Friday.

German Deputy Finance Minister Joerg Asmussen sent the strongest signal yet that Berlin was prepared to give new powers to the euro zone’s rescue fund in exchange for fiscal discipline commitments by other euro members.

25 Cairo square chaos intensifies, violence spreads

By MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press

2 mins ago

CAIRO – Protesters and government supporters fought in a second day of rock-throwing battles at a central Cairo square while more lawlessness spread around the city. New looting and arson erupted, and gangs of thugs supporting President Hosni Mubarak attacked reporters, foreigners and rights workers while the army rounded up foreign journalists.

As bruised and bandaged protesters danced in victory after forcing back Mubarak loyalists attacking Tahrir Square, the government increasingly spread an image that foreigners were fueling the turmoil and supporting the unprecedented wave of demonstrations demanding the ouster of Mubarak, the country’s ruler for nearly three decades.

“When there are demonstrations of this size, there will be foreigners who come and take advantage and they have an agenda to raise the energy of the protesters,” Vice President Omar Suleiman said in an interview on state TV.

26 Journalists attacked by mobs, detained in Cairo

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, Associated Press

3 mins ago

CAIRO – Foreign journalists were beaten with sticks and fists by pro-government mobs on Thursday, and dozens were detained by security forces. The U.S. condemned what it called the “systematic targeting” of the reporters, photographers and film crews who have brought searing images of Egyptian protests to the world.

Foreign photographers reported attacks by supporters of President Hosni Mubarak near Tahrir Square, the scene of vicious battles between Mubarak supporters and protesters demanding he step down after nearly 30 years in power. The Egyptian government has accused media outlets of being sympathetic to protesters who want Mubarak to quit now rather than complete his term as he has pledged.

Among the many detained were correspondents for The New York Times, Washington Post and Al-Jazeera.

27 Cash-starved Egyptians turn on each other

By TAREK EL-TABLAWY, AP Business Writer

53 mins ago

CAIRO – For more than a week, Zaki Abdel-Aziz had been out of work and nearly out of money, joining millions of Egyptians living more on hope than cash as the capital plunged into chaos and the economy ground to a virtual halt.

His wife and three children were hungry, tired and tense. There was just over $17 (100 pounds) in their apartment, and no way to borrow more. Then a chilling call came Tuesday night.

“The guy asked me, ‘Zaki, you haven’t worked for a week, right? You don’t have money?'” Abdel-Aziz, 45, recalled. “He said, ‘Come out tomorrow and you’ll get 100 pounds and a bag of food. All you have to do is join us against those traitors in Tahrir.”

28 US warns of violence to come in Egypt

By BRADLEY KLAPPER and MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press

15 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The United States on Thursday severely criticized what it called systematic attacks on journalists in Egypt and said they appeared to be an attempt to shut out reporting of even bigger anti-government demonstrations to come.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton condemned “in the strongest terms” the pro-government mobs that beat, threatened and intimidated reporters in Cairo.

Attacks as well on peaceful demonstrators, human rights activists, foreigners and diplomats were “unacceptable under any circumstances,” she said.

29 Tens of thousands march against Yemen’s president

By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press

7 mins ago

SANAA, Yemen – Tens of thousands of protesters Thursday staged unprecedented demonstrations against Yemen’s autocratic president, a key U.S. ally in battling Islamic militants, as unrest inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia spread further in the Arab world.

The West is particularly concerned about instability in Yemen, home of the terrorist network al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. U.S. counterterrorism officials are worried that Yemeni security forces will be more focused on protecting the government, allowing al-Qaida to take advantage of any diminished scrutiny.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in office for more than three decades, announced Wednesday he would not seek re-election in 2013 and would not seek to pass power to his son. Saleh’s pledge was seen as an attempt to defuse growing calls for his ouster.

30 GOP divided over Obama response to Egypt

By LIZ ‘Sprinkles’ SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer

5 mins ago

WASHINGTON – As chaos roils Egypt, Republican lawmakers and the GOP’s potential presidential candidates are divided over President Barack Obama’s response though united in concern that an Islamic regime could rise to power in a nation that is an important U.S. ally in the precarious Middle East.

Compared with recent verbal sparring on domestic issues, the debate between Democrats and Republicans on Egypt is somewhat muted. That’s perhaps because the two parties differ little over U.S. policy toward Egypt. Both view the country as a linchpin to a peaceful Middle East. And while supportive of democracy there, both also express concern about the influence of extremists in a post-Mubarak government, a particular worry of Israel.

Trying to set the tone for their party, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the country’s two top elected Republicans, have deferred to the Democratic president. They are signaling an unwillingness among the GOP leadership in Congress to pick a fight, in line, at least on this issue, with the tradition that politics stops at the waters’ edge in the midst of foreign crises.

31 House Republicans move to slash domestic programs

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

4 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Republicans now controlling the House promised Thursday to slash domestic agencies’ budgets by almost 20 percent for the coming year, beginning their drive to cut spending to the level it what before President Barack Obama took office.

“Washington’s spending spree is over,” declared Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman who announced the plan. “The spending limits will restore sanity to a broken budget process,” he said, returning “to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels.”

Republicans won’t get everything they want. Democrats are in charge of the White House and the Senate, and even House Republicans may have second thoughts when the magnitude of the cuts sinks in.

32 Super Bowl ad frenzy stretches far beyond the game

By MAE ANDERSON, Associated Press

15 mins ago

NEW YORK – The Super Bowl commercial blitz is extending beyond the usual talking babies and office chimps to engage viewers online and get more for advertisers’ $3 million-plus investment.

Marketers are using every trick in the playbook to dominate the buzz before the game and long afterward, too. The gimmicks include online contests, a car “race” powered by Twitter mentions, and a secret new level of a hit iPhone game.

The goal is to build buzz, not get lost in the 42 minutes of Super Bowl ad time, and get cheap or free exposure when viewers watch again on YouTube.

33 5 Americans: How health care law affects them

By CARLA K. JOHNSON, AP Medical Writer

2 hrs 43 mins ago

CHICAGO – A couple on Medicare got a rebate check to help with prescription drug costs. A Chicago man with diabetes got health insurance through a new government program. And a Philadelphia businessman is hoping his company will qualify for a tax credit.

At a critical time for the nation’s new health care legislation, The Associated Press revisited several Americans who first shared their health stories a year ago. Reporters asked: How has the law affected their lives, and how do they see the health care debate now roiling Washington?

Many insured Americans have noticed no substantive difference in their lives under the new law. But health care has changed in subtle, and dramatic, ways for others.

34 Auschwitz decays, prompting preservation effort

By VANESSA GERA, Associated Press

Thu Feb 3, 9:47 am ET

OSWIECIM, Poland – The red brick barracks that housed starving inmates are sinking into ruin. Time has warped victims’ leather shoes into strange shapes. Human hair sheared to make cloth is slowly turning to dust.

Auschwitz is crumbling – the world’s most powerful and important testament to Nazi Germany’s crimes falling victim to age and mass tourism. Now guardians of the memorial site are waging an urgent effort to save what they can before it is too late.

Officials last week intensified a global campaign to raise euro120 million ($165 million) to create a “perpetual fund” whose interest can be drawn on indefinitely to repair barracks, watchtowers, crematoria and other structures at the Auschwitz-Birkenau state museum and memorial in southern Poland.

35 Foreign powers praise Haiti election decision

By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press

1 min ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haiti’s decision to eliminate the government-backed candidate from a presidential runoff won praise from foreign powers Thursday, and the U.S. and others signaled they would agree with President Rene Preval staying in office for a few months past the end of his term.

The move ended a weekslong standoff with international donors. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had made a last-minute visit in the midst of the Egypt crisis to reiterate personally to Preval that Washington supported the Organization of American States recommendation that ruling-party candidate Jude Celestin be dropped from the ballot.

The early morning announcement that first-place candidate Mirlande Manigat will face popular singer Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly prompted cheers of relief in the surrounding suburbs of the capital, where residents had feared a repeat of pro-Martelly riots in December after preliminary results showed Celestin as the No. 2 vote-getter.

36 Astronaut’s choice: Fly to space or stay with wife

By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

Thu Feb 3, 10:08 am ET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Will he fly or not?

There are hints that astronaut Mark Kelly will blast into space in April, as commander of Endeavour’s final voyage. That would mean leaving his wounded wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, to continue her rehab without him for at least a few weeks.

She has limited movement on her right side, and no one has said if she can speak. She was shot in the head not quite a month ago in an attack by a gunman.

37 GOP: Repeal defeat is step toward victory in 2012

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press

Thu Feb 3, 10:15 am ET

WASHINGTON – To hear Senate Republicans tell it, the defeat of their attempt to repeal the Democrats’ health care overhaul was really a victory of sorts on the long march to the 2012 congressional and presidential elections.

The repeal effort sank Wednesday along party lines, 51-47, as expected. But in the process, Republicans forced Democrats on the record in favor of President Barack Obama’s signature overhaul and launched what they described as a two-year effort to discredit it in the lead-up to a bid for a second term.

“These are the first steps in a long road that will culminate in 2012, whereby we will expose the flaws and the weaknesses in this legislation,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the party’s campaign chief.

38 Census estimates show big gains for US minorities

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press

11 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Racial and ethnic minorities accounted for roughly 85 percent of the nation’s population growth over the last decade – one of the largest shares ever – with Hispanics accounting for much of the gain in many of the states picking up new House seats.

Preliminary census estimates also suggest the number of multiracial Americans jumped roughly 20 percent since 2000, to over 5 million.

The findings, based on fresh government survey data, offer a glimpse into 2010 census results that are being released on a state-by-state basis beginning this week. New Jersey, Mississippi, Virginia and Louisiana were the first to receive the census redistricting data, which will be used in the often contentious process of redrawing political districts based on population and racial makeup.

39 Rural air subsidies test resolve to cut spending

By JOAN LOWY, Associated Press

Thu Feb 3, 4:53 am ET

WASHINGTON – A program that subsidizes air service to small airports, often in remote communities, is shaping up as an early test in the new Congress of conservatives’ zeal for shrinking the federal government.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has proposed an amendment to an aviation bill pending before the Senate in order to eliminate the $200 million annual essential air service program. The program pays airlines to provide scheduled service to about 150 communities, from Muscle Shoals, Ala., to Pelican, Alaska.

In the House, the Republican Study Committee – a group of conservative lawmakers – has also proposed killing the program.

40 US companies want share of China’s new year sales

By GEORGE TIBBITS, Associated Press

Thu Feb 3, 3:53 am ET

SEATTLE – Producers of American food and drink have discovered an antidote for post-holiday sales blues in the United States: China’s huge, gift-laden celebration of its new year.

The 15-day celebration, known as Chun Jie, or Spring Festival, is China’s biggest holiday and a time to gather with relatives, feast and give gifts. Food, clothing and money are traditional presents, but a growing number of Chinese – especially the booming middle class with more money to spare – are choosing gifts from overseas. And what better present to give in China than a tin of American toffee, a Washington apple or a bottle of Tennessee whiskey?

The new year “is a big thing for everybody here in China,” said Beijing shopper Wu Shitao, 30, as he debated buying a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey. “You can say it’s the ultimate holiday of the year. If you don’t buy presents for your family and friends now, when else do you do that?”

41 Bomb dog finds home with fallen Marine’s family

By PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press

18 mins ago

SAN ANTONIO – When a sniper’s bullet struck Pfc. Colton Rusk, the first to reach his body was his best friend Eli – a bomb-sniffing, black Labrador so loyal he snapped at other Marines who rushed to his fallen handler.

“Eli bit one of them,” said Rusk’s father, Darrell, recalling the story told to him by other Marines.

After Rusk died Dec. 6, his parents decided they wanted to adopt his dog. They picked Eli up Thursday at Lackland Air Force to take him back to their home in rural South Texas. It was only the second time that a U.S. military dog has been adopted by the family of a handler killed in combat.

Feb 03 2011

from firefly-dreaming 3.2.11

Regular Daily Features:

Essays Featured Thursday, February 3rd:

Feb 03 2011

DocuDharma Digest

Regular Features-

Featured Essays for February 3, 2011-

DocuDharma

Feb 03 2011

The Week in the Wild

Headlines from The Wild Wild Left…the last Island on the “LEFT” in a Sea of Wildly Wrong Rightness…a Harbour of Sanity for Liberals, Progressives and Radical Leftists – Get Wild, Get Left – JOIN IN!

~Fake consultant asks Social Security: Where’s Our Tahrir Square?

~Rusty1776 adds his poetic voice to honor the spirit of the Egyptian People in We Gave Each Other Courage

Edger frames a warning, full of linky goodness to WikileaksA Warning To The US Government

~Cassidorus continues his series on THE question of our times, how to envision post-capitalism Envisioning postcapitalism: Joel Kovel, The Enemy of Nature

~Diane Gee weighs the likelihood of Egyptian autonomy and democracy with Imperialist Forces (the US) stacked against them in I Know Where This is Going…

~New member Al Osorio grieves for the children of war in If Tamerlane’s mother cried for him, would Persia have mourned her tears?

~You can also join in on Wild Wild Left Radio every (or nearly every) Friday Night at 6pm Eastern Time. You can catch podcasts there or on our homepage, for interviews with some fairly prestigious guests: Noam Chomsky, Frances Fox Piven, and others….

Feb 03 2011

Punting the Pundits

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”

Richard (RJ) Eskow: Afghanistan’s “Too Big to Fail” Bank Is Failing — Guess Our System Doesn’t Work There, Either

The collapse of Afghanistan’s largest bank will seem familiar to Americans, and so will the upcoming reports of its bailout. We’ve heard the story before: Unheeded warnings. Lax (or nonexistent) law enforcement. An American auditor who said nothing as the books imploded. Sloppy, reckless, and greedy lending. Politicians in bed with banks. And a corporate crime wave led by bankers who can break the law with impunity, knowing they won’t be punished even if they’re caught.

The Kabul Bank story is a sad inversion of nation-building. It might have provided some moments of black humor for the recession-ravaged middle class, if only Americans and Afghans weren’t paying for it with their lives. We promised to teach the Afghans everything we know about running a modern economy.

Apparently we did.

David Sirota: How Money Has Framed the Egypt Debate

The question of why the American government has been so hesitant to push dictator Hosni Mubarak from power is typically answered in our media through the construct of “pragmatism.” If Mubarak leaves, the talking point goes, there could be a new government in Egypt that could threaten “regional stability” with an Iranian-style revolution. This talking point is both bigoted and imperial: It assumes that all Muslims and revolutions are monolithically the same (despite Egypt being Sunni and Arab and Iran being Shiite and Persian), and it assumes that “regional stability” is automatically threatened if a nation exists in the Mideast that isn’t under our thumb.

Nonetheless, the “pragmatism” talking point persists, and thus our government continues to deal with the dictator with kid gloves. But here’s the thing: We’re playing footsie with Mubarak not just because of the self-serving neoconservative construct of “pragmatism” — but also because of cold, hard cash.

Bill McKibben: A Revolution in Our Atmosphere, From Burning Too Many Fossil Fuels

If you were in the space shuttle looking down yesterday, you would have seen a pair of truly awesome, even fearful, sights.

Much of North America was obscured by a 2,000-mile storm dumping vast quantities of snow from Texas to Maine — between the wind and snow, forecasters described it as “probably the worst snowstorm ever to affect” Chicago, and said waves as high as 25 feet were rocking buoys on Lake Michigan.

Meanwhile, along the shore of Queensland in Australia, the vast cyclone Yasi was sweeping ashore; though the storm hit at low tide, the country’s weather service warned that “the impact is likely to be more life threatening than any experienced during recent generations,” especially since its torrential rains are now falling on ground already flooded from earlier storms.

Kristen Breitweiser: Egypt: Skin in the Gam

How absolutely exhilarating to watch the events unfold in Egypt. As I sit with my daughter who has been studying Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia telling her to watch closely since history is unfolding right before our eyes, I can’t help to worry and wonder what impact this will have on our troops that are still fighting in Iraq. Will this affect the complete U.S. troop withdrawal date of December 31, 2011?

Of course the irony is not lost on me.

Nearly 8 long years ago, the Iraq War was wrongfully started under the guise of spreading democracy in the Middle East. And now, I sit and watch real democracy take to the streets of Cairo and Alexandria brought on by — not armies, intelligence officers, and private contractors from misguided nations — but regular, average Egyptian citizens who are simply fed up.

Dick Meister: Ronald Reagan, Enemy of the American Worker

The 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth is coming up in February, and before the inevitable gushing over what a wonderful leader he was begins, let me get in a few words about what sort of a leader he really was.

Ronald Reagan was, above all, one of the most viciously anti-labor presidents in American history, one of the worst enemies the country’s working people ever faced.

Republican presidents never have had much regard for unions, but until Reagan, no Republican president had dared challenge the firm legal standing labor gained through Democratic president Franklin D. Roosevelt in the mid-1930’s.

Reagan’s Republican predecessors treated union leaders much as they treated Democratic members of Congress – at times, as adversaries to be fought with, and, at others, as people to be bargained with. Reagan, however, engaged in precious little bargaining. He waged almost continuous war against organized labor and the country’s workers from the time he assumed office in 1980 until leaving the presidency in 1988.

Laila Lalami: Winter of Discontent

For those of us who have grown up in dictatorship, the protests that have ignited throughout the Arab world feel like the fulfillment of a great promise. This promise was made to our parents and grandparents, to all those who fought for independence: that we would have the right to decide our future. Instead, our leaders delivered us into a world of silence and fear and told us that we must watch what we say and watch what we do. Our institutions were undermined or dismantled, our political parties were stifled or co-opted, their members disappeared or neutralized. And whenever we looked to the West for help, its presidents and prime ministers spoke with forked tongues, one moment lecturing us on democracy and another offering support to our dictators.

John Nichols: Should the US Suspend Egypt’s $1.5 Billion Aid Package? What About Cutting Military Aid Altogether?

Most Republicans in Congress are supporting President Obama’s tepid and uneven response to the pro-democracy protests in Egypt. No surprise there; the mixed signals sent by the current administration’s have about them the familiar incoherence of the Bush-Cheney years.

But not everyone is cheering on White House and State Department attempts to maintain US influence with an authoritarian regime while talking up democracy and freedom.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who broke with Republicans (and many Democrats) to criticize Bush and Cheney, is now breaking with the Washington consensus to object to how Obama is responding. At the root of the maverick congressman and former presidential candidate’s criticism is a broader critique of US policy in the region.

Noting Obama’s maneuvering, Paul complains that “the big fight now is for us to be in charge. If Mubarak survives, we want to be on his side. If they get a new guy, we want to be on [his] side. I just think that doesn’t work because eventually the people rebel. For a while it seemed to be stable, but it’s so artificial.”

Instead of propping up the old dictator or hoping to but influence with the next, Paul argues for cutting aid-particularly the massive military aid packages that pay for a 450,000-man army that “will probably be turned against the people.”

Ari Melber: Malcolm Gladwell Surfaces to Knock Social Media in Egypt

Malcolm Gladwell made many waves — and enemies — with his New Yorker essay doubting the power of social media in political organizing.  “The revolution will not be tweeted,” he declared in October, and the revolutionaries tweeted back, sparking a heated and often predictable debate about the web.  Since then, of course, people in the Middle East have been Doing Things that are more significant than anything one might say to rebut skepticism about web activism and “weak ties.”  On Wednesday, however, Gladwell resurfaced in an apparent response to the idea that digitally networked activists are exceling in Egypt — in contrast to his famous thesis.  Gladwell’s blog post is brief and thin, but it is also important for the ways he gets Egypt wrong.

Feb 03 2011

The Video That Sparked Egypt’s Revolution

(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

“People here are not afraid anymore – and it just may be that a woman helped break that barrier of fear”, writes Mona El-Naggar in her February 01 NYT article Equal Rights Takes to the Barricades: “Asmaa Mahfouz was celebrating her 26th birthday on Tuesday among tens of thousands of Egyptians as they took to the streets, parting with old fears in a bid to end President Hosni Mubarak’s three decades of authoritarian, single-party rule.”

“As long as you say there is no hope, then there will be no hope, but if you go down and take a stance, then there will be hope”, Ms. Mahfouz said bluntly in an impassioned video posted on YouTube January 18. She spoke straight to the camera and held a sign saying she would go out and protest to try to bring down Mr. Mubarak’s regime, noted El-Naggar.

Asmaa “is a member of the April 6 Youth Movement, which has been using the Internet to organize protests against Egypt’s authoritarian government since 2008. As protests against President Mubarak continued to grow, the group called Monday for a ‘march of millions’ and an indefinite general strike. The next day, Mubarak announced he would not seek reelection at the end of his term in September.”, writes Eric Dolan at RawStory Feb 02, who also notes that “Mahfouz made the video after four Egyptian men set themselves on fire. The men were apparently inspired by the example of Tunisia, where a self-immolation triggered protests that eventually led to the ouster of the nation’s president.”

Although Asmaa spoke in her native Egyptian language in her video, an English subtitled version was later posted to YouTube Feb. 02, 2011 by Iyad El-Baghdadi, subbed by Ammara Alavi:

“Four Egyptians have set themselves on fire, thinking maybe we can have a revolution like Tunisia,” she said. “Maybe we can have freedom, justice, honor, and human dignity. Today, one of these four has died.”

“Of course, on all national media, whoever dies in protest is a psychopath,” she continued. “If they were psychopaths, why did they burn themselves at the Parliament building?”

…

“We want to go down to Tahrir Square on January 25th,” she said. “If we still have honor, and want to live in dignity on this land, we have to go down on January 25th. We go down and demand our rights, our fundamental human rights. I won’t even talk about any political rights. We just want our human rights and nothing else.”

…

“This entire government is corrupt – a corrupt president and a corrupt security force,” she continued. “These self-immolators were not afraid of death but were afraid of security forces. I’m going down on January 25th, and from now till then, I’m going to distribute fliers in the street every day. I will not set myself on fire. If the security forces want to set me on fire, let them come and do it.”

…

“Whoever says women shouldn’t go to protests because they will get beaten, let him have some honor and manhood and come with me on January 25th,” Mahfouz continued. “Whoever says its not worth it because there will be only a handful of people, I want to tell him, you are the reason behind this. And you are a traitor, just like the president or any security cop who us in the streets.”

“Sitting at home and just following us on news or Facebook leads to our humiliation. If you have honor and dignity as a man, come. Come and protect me, and other girls in the protest. If you stay at home, then you deserve all that’s being done to you. And you will be guilty, before your nation and your people. And you’ll be responsible for what happens to us on the street while you sit at home.”

“Instead of setting ourselves on fire, let us do something positive,” she added. “God says that He ‘will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. [Quran 13:11]'”

Feb 03 2011

On This Day in History February 3

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 331 days remaining until the end of the year (332 in leap years).

On this day in 1959, “the music died” when rising American rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson are killed when their chartered Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashes in Iowa a few minutes after takeoff from Mason City on a flight headed for Moorehead, Minnesota. Investigators blamed the crash on bad weather and pilot error. Holly and his band, the Crickets, had just scored a No. 1 hit with “That’ll Be the Day.”

After mechanical difficulties with the tour bus, Holly had chartered a plane for his band to fly between stops on the Winter Dance Party Tour. However, Richardson, who had the flu, convinced Holly’s band member Waylon Jennings to give up his seat, and Ritchie Valens won a coin toss for another seat on the plane.

Crash

The plane took off at around 12:55 AM Central Time. Just after 1:00 AM Central Time, Mr. Hubert Dwyer, a commercial pilot and owner of the plane, observing from a platform outside the tower, “saw the tail light of the aircraft gradually descend until out of sight.”

Peterson had told Dwyer he would file a flight plan with Air Traffic Control by radio after departure. When he did not call the Air Traffic Control communicator with his flight plan, Dwyer requested that Air Traffic Control continue to attempt to establish radio contact, but all attempts were unsuccessful.

By 3:30 AM, when Hector Airport in Fargo, North Dakota, had not heard from Peterson, Dwyer contacted authorities and reported the aircraft missing.

Around 9:15 AM, Dwyer took off in another small plane to fly Peterson’s intended route. A short time later, he spotted the wreckage in a cornfield belonging to Albert Juhl, about five miles (8 km) northwest of the airport.

The Bonanza was at a slight downward angle and banked to the right when it struck the ground at around 170 miles per hour (270 km/h). The plane tumbled and skidded another 570 feet (170 m) across the frozen landscape before the crumpled ball of wreckage piled against a wire fence at the edge of Juhl’s property. The bodies of Holly and Valens lay near the plane, Richardson was thrown over the fence and into the cornfield of Juhl’s neighbor Oscar Moffett, and the body of Peterson remained entangled inside the plane’s wreckage. Surf Ballroom manager Carroll Anderson, who drove the musicians to the airport and witnessed the plane’s takeoff, made positive identifications of the musicians.

All four had died instantly from “gross trauma” to the brain, the county coroner Ralph Smiley declared. Holly’s death certificate detailed the multiple injuries which show that he surely died on impact:

The body of Charles H. Holley was clothed in an outer jacket of yellow leather-like material in which four seams in the back were split almost full length. The skull was split medially in the forehead and this extended into the vertex region. Approximately half the brain tissue was absent. There was bleeding from both ears, and the face showed multiple lacerations. The consistency of the chest was soft due to extensive crushing injury to the bony structure.[…] Both thighs and legs showed multiple fractures.

Investigators concluded that the crash was due to a combination of poor weather conditions and pilot error. Peterson, working on his Instrument Rating, was still taking flight instrumentation tests and was not yet rated for flight into weather that would have required operation of the aircraft solely by reference to his instruments rather than by means of his own vision. The final Civil Aeronautics Board report noted that Peterson had taken his instrument training on airplanes equipped with an artificial horizon attitude indicator and not the far-less-common Sperry Attitude Gyro on the Bonanza. Critically, the two instruments display the aircraft pitch attitude in the exact opposite manner; therefore, the board thought that this could have caused Peterson to think he was ascending when he was in fact descending. They also found that Peterson was not given adequate warnings about the weather conditions of his route, which, given his known limitations, might have caused him to postpone the flight.

1112 – Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states.

1377 – More than 2,000 people of the Italian city of Cesena are slaughtered by Papal Troops (Cesena Bloodbath).

1451 – Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire.

1488 – Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, becoming the first known European to travel so far south.

1509 – The Battle of Diu, between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire takes place in Diu, India.

1534 – The Irish rebel Silken Thomas is executed by the order of Henry VIII in London, England.

1637 – Tulip mania collapses in the United Provinces (now the Netherlands) as sellers could no longer find buyers for their bulb contracts.

1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.

1706 – During the Battle of Fraustadt Swedish forces defeat a superior Saxon-Polish-Russian force by deploying a double envelopment.

1781 – American Revolutionary War: British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island Saint Eustatius.

1783 – American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.

1787 – Shays’ Rebellion is crushed.

1807 – A British military force, under Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty captures the city of Montevideo, then part of the Spanish Empire now the capital of Uruguay.

1809 – The Illinois Territory is created.

1813 – The Battle of San Lorenzo takes place. It is the first military action of Jose de San Martin’s cavalry elite unit Granaderos a Caballo at the Argentine War of Independence.

1830 – The sovereignty of Greece is confirmed in a London Protocol.

1834 – Wake Forest University is established.

1852 – The Battle of Caseros marks the end of the hegemony of Buenos Aires Province Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas over the Argentine Confederation.

1867 – Emperor Meiji becomes the 122nd emperor of Japan.

1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to citizens regardless of race.

1900 – Governor of Kentucky William Goebel dies of wound sustained in an assassination attempt three days earlier in Frankfort, Kentucky.

1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.

1916 – Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burn down.

1917 – World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after the latter announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1918 – The Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco, California begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet (3,633 meters) long.

1930 – The Communist Party of Vietnam is established.

1931 – The Hawke’s Bay earthquake, New Zealand’s worst natural disaster, kills 258.

1944 – World War II: During the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, U.S. Army and Marine forces seize Kwajalein Atoll from the defending Japanese garrison.

1945 – World War II: As part of Operation Thunderclap, 1,000 B-17s of the Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, a raid which kills between 2,500 to 3,000 and dehouses another 120,000.

1945 – World War II: The United States and the Philippine Commonwealth begin a month-long battle to retake Manila from Japan.

1947 – The lowest temperature in North America is recorded in Snag, Yukon.

1957 – Senegalese political party Democratic Rally merges into the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action (PSAS).

1958 – Founding of the Benelux Economic Union, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community.

1959 – A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson and the incident becomes known as The Day the Music Died.

1960 – British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of the “a wind of change” of increasing national consciousness blowing through colonial Africa, signalling that his Government was likely to support decolonisation.

1961 – The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, and over the next 30 years, a “Doomsday Plane” was always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States’ bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC’s command post.

1961 – A protest by agricultural workers in Baixa de Cassanje, Portuguese Angola, turns into a revolt, opening the Angolan War of Independence, the first of the Portuguese Colonial Wars.

1966 – The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.

1967 – Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.

1969 – In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.

1971 – New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption. Many believe the incident proves that NYPD officers tried to kill him.

1984 – John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history’s first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.

1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.

1988 – Iran-Contra Affair: The United States House of Representatives rejects President Ronald Reagan’s request for $36.25 million to aid Nicaraguan Contras.

1989 – After a stroke two weeks previous, South African President P. W. Botha resigns as leader of the National Party, but stays on as president for six more months.

1989 – A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.

1995 – Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

1996 – The Lijiang earthquake in Lijiang, Yunnan, China.

1998 – Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.

1998 – Cavalese cable-car disaster: a United States Military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cuts the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.

2007 – A Baghdad market bombing kills at least 135 people and injures a further 339.

2010 – A cast of the sculpture L’Homme qui marche I by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti sells for US$103.7 million, setting the record for most expensive sculpture sold at a public auction.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_3#Holidays_and_observances Holidays and observances

   * Christian Feast Day:

         o Aaron the Illustrious (Syriac Orthodox Church)

         o Ansgar

         o Berlinda of Meerbeke

         o Blaise

         o Celsa and Nona

         o Hadelin

         o Margaret of England

         o Werburgh

         o 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Earliest day on which Shrove Tuesday can fall, while March 9 is the latest; celebrated on Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. (Christianity)

   * Four Chaplains Day (United States)

   * Heroes’ Day (Mozambique)

   * Martyrs’ Day (Sao Tome and Principe)

   * Setsubun (Japan)

   * Veterans’ Day (Thailand)

Feb 03 2011

Prime Time

Almost solid premiers, though the only notable one is NBC’s Community (yes, I DM, thank you for asking).

And as if to prove all I have said, here is one of the first to go! A lad who sat before me on these very benches, who gave up all to serve in the first year of the war. One of the iron youth who have made Germany invincible in the field! Look at him. Sturdy and bronze and clear-eyed! The kind of soldier every one of you should envy! Paul, lad, you must speak to them. You must tell them what it means to serve your fatherland.

We used to think you knew. The first bombardment taught us better. It’s dirty and painful to die for your country. When it comes to dying for your country it’s better not to die at all! There are millions out there dying for their countries, and what good is it?

Later-

We’ve no use talking like this. You won’t know what I mean. Only, it’s been a long while since we enlisted out of this classroom. So long, I thought maybe the whole world had learned by this time. Only now they’re sending babies, and they won’t last a week! I shouldn’t have come on leave. Up at the front you’re alive or you’re dead and that’s all. You can’t fool anybody about that very long. And up there we know we’re lost and done for whether we’re dead or alive. Three years we’ve had of it, four years! And every day a year, and every night a century! And our bodies are earth, and our thoughts are clay, and we sleep and eat with death! And we’re done for because you *can’t* live that way and keep anything inside you! I shouldn’t have come on leave. I’ll go back tomorrow. I’ve got four days more, but I can’t stand it here! I’ll go back tomorrow! I’m sorry.

Dave hosts Howard Stern and Naughty by Nature.  Jon has Michael Mullen (more Michaels), Stephen Jane McGonigal.  Conan hosts Lisa Kudrow, Mike O’Malley, and Interpol.

I’ll tell you how it should all be done. Whenever there’s a big war comin’ on, you should rope off a big field and on the big day, you should take all the kings and their cabinets and their generals, put ’em in the center dressed in their underpants, and let ’em fight it out with clubs. The best country wins.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Feb 03 2011

Six In The Morning

Send In The Thugs Bring In The Thugs, Wait They’re Already Here  

The sky was filled with rocks. The fighting around me was so terrible we could smell the blood

Robert Fisk: Blood and fear in Cairo’s streets as Mubarak’s men crack down on protests

“President” Hosni Mubarak’scounter-revolution smashed into his opponents yesterday in a barrage of stones, cudgels, iron bars and clubs, an all-day battle in the very centre of the capital he claims to rule between tens of thousands of young men, both – and here lies the most dangerous of all weapons – brandishing in each other’s faces the banner of Egypt. It was vicious and ruthless and bloody and well planned, a final vindication of all Mubarak’s critics and a shameful indictment of the Obamas and Clintons who failed to denounce this faithful ally of America and Israel.

Who Do You Hate?

Extract from the Guardian book charting a unique collaboration with WikiLeaks demonstrates how ‘US blood on hands’ of website’s founder got fainter and fainter

WikiLeaks: How US political invective turned on ‘anti-American’ Julian Assange

As the cables rolled out day by day, an ugly, and in many ways deranged, backlash took place in the US. A vengeful chorus came mostly from Republicans. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, darling of the unhinged right, denounced Julian Assange’s “sick, un-American espionage” and came close to inciting his assassination: “Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaida and Taliban leaders? … He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands.”

But it was Senator Joe Lieberman, Senate homeland security committee chairman, a foreign policy hawk and maverick Democrat, who was the most practical attack dog. Lieberman described the leak in apocalyptic terms as “an outrageous, reckless and despicable action that will undermine the ability of our government and our partners to keep our people safe and to work together to defend our vital interests”.

Dumb Ass’s In Space

The United States threatened to take military action against China during a secret “star wars” arms race within the past few years, according to leaked documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph.

WikiLeaks: US and China in military standoff over space missiles

The two nuclearsuperpowers both shot down their own satellites using sophisticated missiles in separate show of strength, the files suggest.

The American Government was so incensed by Chinese actions in space that it privately warned Beijing it would face military action if it did not desist.

The Chinese carried out further tests as recently as last year, however, leading to further protests from Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, secret documents show.

The Womanizer Of Italy

 

Prosecutor to request that Berlusconi be put on trial

THE CONFRONTATION between Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and the judiciary seems headed for further heated controversy, following confirmation yesterday that he may well be summoned to appear in three Milan-based trials over the next six weeks.

Milan chief prosecutor Edmondo Bruti Liberati yesterday confirmed that his office will next week request that the prime minister be summoned in a fast-track trial on charges of “exploitation of underage prostitution” and “abuse of office” in relation to the so-called Rubygate affair.

The preliminary hearing judge, Cristina Di Censo, is expected to make her decision within a matter of days and if she rules that Mr Berlusconi should stand trial, then the trial against him could begin in the next two months.

Just More Ballot Stuffing No Worries

 

Bozize wins fresh term as rivals allege fraud

PRESIDENT Francois Bozize of Central African Republic (CAR) has been comfortably re-elected to a second term as president, according to provisional figures.

However, all four rival candidates have denounced the result as a fraud.

The Agence France Presse (AFP) said Bozize received just over 66 per cent of the vote in the January 23 poll, according to provisional results released late Tuesday by the independent election committee (CEI) after the January 23 legislative and presidential elections.

That meant he had scored an outright victory in the first round.

Government spokesman, Fidele Ngouandjika, declared: “It is a victory of democracy for someone who took power in a (2003) coup d’etat and who was legitimised by the ballot in 2005.”

The Party IN Wonderland



Pairing of religious conservatism with fiscal sets Iowa tea partyers apart

URBANDALE, IOWA– Every other week for the past two years, the Westside Conservative Club has met over breakfast at the Machine Shed restaurant to do what tea party groups do: share worries about President Obama, federal spending and government overreach.

But unlike in many of those other groups, another kind of discussion regularly occurs here, too – the religious kind. Those who come for the conversation and the Shed’s famous cinnamon buns are just as comfortable talking about their opposition to abortion as they are about federal bailouts and debt ceilings.

Feb 03 2011

Reportng the Revolution: Day 7 with Up Date 1800 hrs EST

(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

This is a Live Blog and will be updated as the news is available. You can follow the latest reports from AL Jazeera English and though Mishima’s live blog, our news editor.

class=”BrightcoveExperience”>The Guardian has a Live Blog that refreshes automatically every minute.

Al Jazeera has a Live Blog for Feb 3

As you can see we now have the live feed from Al Jazeera English and I am posting this at early so everyone can watch the events in Egypt as they happen.

Violence erupted yesterday in Cairo and continued through the night on the ninth day of anti-government protests. There are reports of five deaths and countless injuries, some burned by thrown molotov cocktails. The Egyptian army has mostly stood by watching doing little to stop the violence that was begun by the pro-Mubarak supporters. The anti-government protesters stood strong against the “thugs” as they were labeled by most of the news media. They formed a line of protection around the Egyptian Antiquities Museum using sheet metal shields to push back the mob that was intent on getting inside to do more damage.

Sharif Kouddous: Live From Egypt: The True Face of the Mubarak Regime

February 2, Cairo, Egypt-The Mubarak regime launched a brutal and coordinated campaign of violence today to take back the streets of Cairo from Egypt’s mass pro-democracy movement.

Pro-Mubarak mobs began gathering near Tahrir Square shortly after Mubarak’s speech on Tuesday night and held a rally in front of the state TV building on Corniche El Nile Street. In the morning, they began marching around the downtown area in packs of fifty to 100.

These were not the same kinds of protesters that have occupied Tahrir for the last few days. These crowds were made up mostly of men, in between 20 and 45 years old. Many wore thick leather jackets with sweaters underneath. They chanted angrily in support of Mubarak and against the pro-democracy movement. They were hostile and intimidating.

Up Date 1800 hrs EST: Christiane Amanpour had a 30 minute face to face interview with Hosni Mubarak. Here is a short video from ABC News:

Gangs Hunt Journalists and Rights Workers

CAIRO – The Egyptian government broadened its crackdown of a 10-day uprising that has shaken its rule Thursday, arresting journalists and human rights activists, while offering more concessions in a bid to win support from a population growing frustrated with a reeling economy and scenes of chaos in the streets.

With fighting between pro- and antigovernment forces escalating throughout the day, supporters of President Hosni Mubarak attacked foreign journalists, punching them and smashing their equipment, and shut down news media outlets that had operated in buildings overlooking Tahrir Square, which has become the epicenter of the uprising.

In interviews and statements, the government increasingly spread an image that foreigners were inciting the uprising that has prompted tens of thousands to take to the streets to demand the end of Mr. Mubarak’s three decades in power. The suggestions are part of a days-long Egyptian news media campaign that has portrayed the protesters as troublemakers and ignored the scope of an uprising that has captivated the Arab world.

From The Guardian:

10:41 pm GMT: More on the protests spreading to Yemen, where tens of thousands of protesters staged unprecedented demonstrations, with chants of “Down, down, down with the regime” and signs calling on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign.

10:03 pm GMT: NBC’s Richard Engel reports that many journalists have been forced to remain undercover today, making it more difficult for cable news channels to cover the protests in Egypt without cameras and reporters out on the street.

Engel says there are more protesters in Tahrir Square tonight, barricading themselves in to offer protection after last night’s attacks by “goon squads”. Metal shields have been put up around the square, now “turned into a military camp,” according to Engel.

The protesters on Tahrir Square have also set up an “interrogation centre” in the subway under the square, Engel reports.

9:54 pm GMT: More on the raid on the Hisham Mubarak law centre in Cairo, mentioned below. Among those taken away by members of the police and army is Human Rights Watch researcher Daniel Williams.

“Human Rights Watch is currently unaware of the whereabouts of those who were detained,” the organisation said in a statement, adding:

   Williams’s detention is part of a clear campaign against independent eyewitnesses of the violence in Egypt, including journalists and civil society activists. Human Rights Watch condemned the crackdown and called on the Egyptian government to release those detained immediately.

9:41 pm GMT: Egyptian state television, in between showing footage of trees and flowers, has a brief report of the country’s prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, telling the interior ministry “not to obstruct peaceful marches on Friday”.

9:30 pm GMT: White House spokesman Robert Gibbs has called the treatment of journalists “completely and totally unacceptable” during a briefing onboard Air Force One, which is flying President Obama back from Pennsylvania:

   I want to say a word for a second on the systematic targeting of journalists in Egypt. This also is completely and totally unacceptable. Any journalist that has been detained should be released immediately.

   I think we need to be clear that the world is watching the actions that are taking place right now in Egypt. And I’ll reiterate again that the actions of targeting journalists, that is unacceptable, and that those journalists should be, if they are detained, released immediately. I know the President has been briefed on this as part of the daily briefing this morning.

9:11 pm GMT: The US military is starting to get more involved, with the Pentagon announcing that officials are gathering details on the attacks on journalists in Egypt. It held back from censuring the hands-off stance of the Egyptian armed forces.

“To date, we have seen them act professionally and with restraint. Again, it’s a very fluid situation so we are watching every single day,” said Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan.

Up Date 1330 hrs EST:

It has been reported by the media and in statements from the Egytian government that Pres. Mubaraks’s son, Gamal, wound not run for president and has resigned from the ruling party, NDP. Also the new Vice President, Omar Suleiman, said on state television that he would not run.

During 2nd day of bloody clashes in Egypt, foreign journalists arrested

Egypt’s Information Ministry said journalists were rounded up across the capital but that it did not know by whom or where the reporters were being held.

Those detained were believed to include Washington Post Cairo bureau chief Leila Fadel and Post photographer Linda Davidson. The New York Times said two of its reporters were held overnight but had been released, and al-Jazeera said three of its journalists were detained and a fourth was missing.

Human Rights Watch said one of its staffers, American former journalist Dan Williams, was among several rights workers taken into custody when police and army personnel raided the Hisham Mubarak Law Center.

Vodafone Says It Was Instructed to Send Pro-Mubarak Messages to Customers

Vodafone Group Plc was ordered to send mobile-phone text messages by the Egyptian government, urging people to confront “traitors and criminals” as demonstrators demanded the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

The Egyptian authorities can instruct the local mobile network operators, which also include Etisalat and France Telecom SA’s Mobinil service, to send messages under emergency powers provisions, Vodafone said today. The messages were not written by the mobile-phone operators, it said.

“The Armed Forces urge Egypt’s loyal men to confront the traitors and the criminals and to protect our families, our honor and our precious Egypt,” said a Feb. 1 text message sent on Vodafone’s network and obtained by Bloomberg News.

Republican Hopefuls Are Saying Little About Egypt

WASHINGTON – A parade of prospective Republican presidential candidates have been visiting the Middle East in recent months, making pilgrimages that are the first steps in a methodical process of building credibility in foreign policy.

But as the diplomatic crisis in Egypt has intensified this week, elevating foreign affairs above domestic political skirmishes, the potential Republican candidates and the party’s leaders in Congress have, with only a few exceptions, had little to say.

Dueling Protests in Yemen Unfold Peacefully

SANA, YEMEN – Thousands of pro- and antigovernment demonstrators held peaceful protests in this impoverished capital city on Thursday, playing out the themes that have rocked nations across the Arab world as some demanded the president step down while others supported their embattled leader’s announcement that he will leave office when he completes his term.

Jordanian Islamists to meet king but say protests will continue

Amman, Jordan (CNN) — The main Islamist group in Jordan says it plans further street demonstrations Friday here in the capital to protest the appointment of a new prime minister by King Abdullah II.

The Islamic Action Front, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, has rejected talks with new Prime Minister Marouf al Bakhit, who is forming a new government. But several of its representatives will be meeting the king later Thursday.

Analysts in the region say the meeting is significant, because it is the first time on record that the leadership of the Brotherhood has met alone with the monarch.

The Front is demanding reform of the country’s election law, so that the prime minister is elected by the parliament, instead of chosen by the king. IAF Secretary-General Hamza Mansour told CNN in an interview Thursday that changing prime ministers was not the solution Jordanians needed.

Summary of even ts from earlier today from The Guardian:

pm GMT: Here is a mid-afternoon summary.

• Violent clashes have broken out in Cairo again as pro-government supporters have continued their assault against protesters in Tahrir Square opposed to President Hosni Mubarak (see 9.17am). There has been more gunfire but it is unclear who is shooting and whether all the gunfire is just warning shots.

• There have been a number of arrests and/or attacks on journalists reported – including those from al-Jazeera (see 2.41pm) and the Daily News Egypt (see 12.20pm). The violence against journalists came after Egyptian state TV reported there were Israeli spies in Egypt. Some journalists have supposedly been rounded up for their own safety (see 12.37pm). US state department spokesman PJ Crowley said there was “a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists” (see 1.35pm).

• The Egyptian vice-president, Omar Suleiman, is due to make a statement shortly. He has already told state TV that Hosni Mubarak’s son Gamal will not stand in the September elections (see 2.33pm).

• The army, criticised for standing by and watching yesterday’s violence, has shown signs of intervening today, forming lines between the two sides and clearing some areas of Mubarak supporters (see 10.59am). However, there have also been accusations that the military is involved in a crackdown against pro-democracy protesters (see immediately below).

• There have been reports of police/army/military police stopping people getting into Tahrir Square and/or taking away food and medical supplies. Between eight and 12 people at the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre were arrested and beaten (see 1.13pm), eyewitnesses said. The activist blogger Sandmonkey was reportedly arrested and beaten (see 11.59am) but has now apparently escaped.

• The Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Shafiq apologised for the violence in Tahrir Square and said it would not be allowed to recur (see 1.53pm). He said the culprits would be found. Shafiq also said he could not say for certain whether the attacks were organised.

• Five people have been killed and 836 injured since the start of yesterday’s violence, the Egyptian health ministry has said (see 7.34am). A doctor said seven people had been shot dead, including one killed by a sniper in the early hours of this morning.

• Thousands of anti-government protesters have gathered in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, to take part in their own “day of rage” against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime (see 8.01am). His offer to step down in 2013 has not pacified the demonstrators.

• Algeria has lifted its 19-year-old state of emergency law, according to al-Aribaya TV.

Tahrir Square battleground: ‘These people tried to slaughter us last night’

by Peter Beaumont and Jack Shenker in Cairo

Anti-Mubarak protesters in Cairo fight to hold square littered with bricks and burnt-out vehicles after night of bloodshed

They were barely visible at first, a glimmer of tan clothing among the ranks of pro-Mubarak fighters lined on a low overpass above the entrance to Tahrir Square. It was from here that rocks, petrol bombs and bullets had been raining down on the anti-regime opposition defending their barricades below.

At 9am first one, then a second, and then dozens of Egyptian soldiers – the same military forces who had stood back and watched as last night’s bloodshed unfolded – finally appeared at this key strategic flashpoint and began driving back those on the bridge. Before them lay a no-man’s land littered with broken bricks and burnt-out vehicles that spoke of the extraordinary violence that had played out in the darkness.

8:08 AM:”Dramatic developments“, reports Peter Beaumont from Tahrir Square.

   About ten minutes we started seeing soldiers telling the pro-Mubarak demonstrators to leave the bridge [near the entrance to the square]. Within no more than six or seven minutes the entire bridge was cleared with only one warning shot fired…

   I do think it is hopeful, every time we have seen the army intervene in this crisis it has led to a significant lessening of the tension. The problem is we don’t know what the orders are. But they have intervened, and for now at least the battle of Tahrir is Square is over.

8:32 am GMT: A retired Egyptian general told the BBC that the troops stand ready to fire at pro-Mubarak supporters, if they attack protesters today.

This seems to confirm what Peter Beaumont has been seeing on the ground. The general claimed the army could turn on Mubarak as early as tomorrow.

The general told the BBC’s Jon Leyne that Mubarak “would be out of office tomorrow”.

Here are some of the latest news stories this morning.

Mubarak’s Allies and Foes Clash in Egypt

CAIRO – President Hosni Mubarak struck back at his opponents, unleashing waves of his supporters armed with clubs, rocks, knives and firebombs in a concerted assault on thousands of antigovernment protesters in Tahrir Square calling for an end to his authoritarian rule.

Arab World Faces Its Uncertain Future

CAIRO – The future of the Arab world, perched between revolt and the contempt of a crumbling order, was fought for in the streets of downtown Cairo on Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of protesters who have reimagined the very notion of citizenship in a tumultuous week of defiance proclaimed with sticks, home-made bombs and a shower of rocks that they would not surrender their revolution to the full brunt of an authoritarian government that answered their calls for change with violence.

Hackers Shut Down Government Sites

The online group Anonymous said Wednesday that it had paralyzed the Egyptian government’s Web sites in support of the antigovernment protests.

Anonymous, a loosely defined group of hackers from all over the world, gathered about 500 supporters in online forums and used software tools to bring down the sites of the Ministry of Information and President Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party, said Gregg Housh, a member of the group who disavows any illegal activity himself. The sites were unavailable Wednesday afternoon.

Tokyo Shares End Down As Egypt Unrest Worsens, Earnings Disappoint

TOKYO (Dow Jones)–Tokyo stocks fell Thursday on increasingly violent civil unrest in Eqypt as well as on disappointing earnings reports from high-profile firms such as Panasonic and Ricoh, which offset good news from Fast Retailing.

The Nikkei Stock Average fell 26.00 points, or 0.3%, to 10,431.36 following the prior day’s 1.8% rise. The Topix index of all the Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section issues also fell 2.07 points, or 0.2%, to 927.57 with 15 of 33 subindexes ending in negative territory.

Violence flares in Cairo square

Toll mounts as pro-democracy supporters apparently come under attack from Mubarak loyalists in the Egyptian capital.

Heavy gunfire is being heard in Cairo’s Tahrir (Liberation) Square as pro-democracy demonstrators continue to defy curfew in the Egyptian capital.

Ambulances were seen heading to the area on Thursday morning and at least two fatalities were reported.

Protesters from the pro-democracy and pro-government camps fought pitched battles on Wednesday in Tahrir Square, the epicentre of demonstrations against Hosni Mubarak for the past nine days.

At least three people were reported to have died and more than 1,500 others injured in those clashes, according to officials and doctors quoted by the Reuters news agency.

An Al Jazeera correspondent, reporting from just outside Tahrir Square late on Wednesday night, said dozens of pro-Mubarak supporters erected barricades on either side of a road, trapping the pro-democracy supporters. They were gathering stones, breaking streetlights and using balaclavas to cover their faces, apparently in preparation for a fresh standoff with the pro-democracy crowd.

Our correspondent said local residents thought the men preparing for the standoff were police officers but the claim could not be independently confirmed.

Just hours earlier, an Al Jazeera online producer reporting from near Tahrir Square said: “Someone – a few people actually – were dropping homemade bombs into the square from the buildings surrounding it.”

Gunshots were also regularly ringing out of the square.

After Tahrir violence, protesters rule out negotiations with regime

Following violent attacks on protesters in Tahrir Square on Wednesday, activists who were already reluctant to accept the regime’s invitation to negotiate say that such a move is now completely out of the question.

“We might have negotiated a diplomatic solution with the regime, but after today’s developments, the fight will continue; what happened will not weaken it,” said Nasser Abdel Hamid, member of the National Association for Change. “Even if people are forced to leave the square, they will return another day.”

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