Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 239
Palash Biswas
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Masters Of War
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead
| Maya Descendants at Risk of Disappearing | |
Chiapas, Mexico 17 May 2009 | |
The Lacandon are direct descendants of the Maya peoples who live in the jungles of the
 |
| Lacandon priest kneels over a crystal skull at the Mayan ruins of Palenque, Mexico, 10 Mar 2008 M |
state of Chiapas. Until the mid-20th century, they had little contact
with the outside world. As a result, the indigenous group was almost
extinct. Today their population is growing rapidly, but at a price:
Their cultural purity and way of life is being eroded through
Westernization and intermarriage. Many people predict the Lacandon will
disappear as a unique class of Mayan descendants within the next 50
years.
Our helicopter lands in a clearing in the Lacandon
jungle. We are amazed at the sight of three men, who seem to have
emerged from another era. They view the visitors with curiosity. They
have long black, tangled hair. They wear knee-length white tunics. They
are barefoot.
Government officials, local authorities and
traditional leaders arrive to show us the way of life of the Na Ha
people, one of three remaining Lacandon tribes.
MAN:
"Senor Don Antonio Martinez. He is one of the oldest people in the
community. He makes all the rituals. He heals people and all the magic
things."
The Na Ha spiritual leader, Senor Don Antonio
Martinez is 83 years old. Director of Natural Reserves and Wildlife in
Chiapas, Maria Theresa Vasquez describes the ceremony Don Antonio is
performing in the temple.
"Healing," said Maria Theresa Vasquez.
"To wish that people is ill gets better soon. Only two people here in
Na Ha and on the other side is Lacanja can practice…He is the last old
man in this area that can do it. The tradition is getting a little bit
lost because of the new culture."
The Lacandon are one of the most isolated and culturally conservative of Mexico's native peoples.
"The
Lacandonians were the only Indians in Mexico who were never conquered
because the place where they were living-it was very, very big and they
were the only tribes that remained from the Indians, from the
pre-classic, from the Mayans living in that area," said Vasquez.
Maria
Luisa is president of the Board of Na Bolom, a scientific and cultural
institute set up 60 years ago to protect the culture, traditions and
environment of the Lacandon.
In the 1970's, she tells VOA, the Mexican government began paying the Lacandon for rights to log timber in their forests.
She
says the government built roads, which helped expand farming and
logging, but led to severe deforestation. She says Indians from other
communities were brought into the Lacandonian jungle and they
introduced cows and agriculture, which added to the problems.
"So,
what we are trying is to teach them different ways of living in that
area without affecting the jungle, which is at this moment very
difficult because there are not many ways to do it," she said. "As a
matter of fact, one of the projects we developed is the eco-tourism for
people to come and to see this wonderful sight where the Quetzal still
lived and everything."
The Quetzal is the royal bird of the
Maya. Relatively few tourists go to the Lacandon jungle because it is
so remote and difficult to reach. This is a problem because the
indigenous people derive much of their income from selling handicrafts
to tourists. Luisa worries about their future.
"At this moment,
they are at big risk of disappearing because many of them are moving to
another community, which will offer at this moment better opportunities
of living," said Maria Luisa. "We cannot save the jungle if we do not
save the people. So, we have to save the people first and teach them
and work with them for them to learn how to protect the jungle."
The
Lacandonians as an ethnic group is diminishing. There are only 1,100
people in the three communities. They are losing their customs. Many of
the men are shedding their white tunics, cutting their hair and
speaking Spanish instead of Mayan.
Their society is one in which
men have all the rights and women practically none. Some girls get
married as young as nine. They have between two and five children. The
community has problems of domestic abuse, alcohol and drugs.
Jenner
Rodas Trejo is chief of the Department of Wildlife and the
Environment. He says there are genetic problems as well because of
too much inbreeding, which causes mental retardation among other ills.
Trejo
says the Lacandon are aware of this and, increasingly, the men are
marrying women from other ethnic groups. He says that will ensure their
survival as a people, but not as a culture.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-05-17-voa15.cfm
The name Aila for the fierce cyclone that battered Bangladesh and
coastal West Bengal was given by Maldives. The next cyclone to hit
countries in the north Indian Ocean region will be called Phyan - a
name given by Myanmar.
today walked free from jail in Raipur after two years of incarceration
saying he feared threat to his life from the Chhatisgarh government. On the otherhand,Cyclone Aila that lashed West Bengal on Monday has claimed 31 lives,
official sources said here on Tuesday. Unofficially, however, the death
toll was put at 45.Meanwhile.Shares around the world fell Tuesday after North Korea test-fired two
missiles a day after its nuclear test, adding to the uncertainty among
investors worried that the recent rally may be overdone.
A cyclone that hit India and its neighbourhood between April 14 to 17 this year was called 'Bijli', given by India.
Aila has left 27 dead and over 400,000 affected in West Bengal so far.
Cyclones derive their names through a
systematic procedure laid out by the World Meteorological Organisation
(WMO) and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and
the Pacific (ESCAP).
"It's better to give an identity to the
cyclones as the main purpose of naming a cyclone is basically for
people to easily understand and remember it in a region and to
facilitate tropical cyclone disaster risk awareness, preparedness,
management and reduction," D. Chakrabarthi, additional director general
India Meteorological Department (IMD), told IANS.
Met officials in fact have decided the names of cyclones till 2009-end.
Eight north Indian Ocean countries -
Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and
Thailand - have prepared a list of 64 names. When a cyclone hits these
countries, the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre (RSMC),
housed in the IMD office in New Delhi picks up the name next on the
list. The RSMC has been set up in Delhi by the WMO for forecasting
tropical cyclones in the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal.
"It is important to note that tropical
cyclones are not named after any particular person, or with any
alphabetical sequence preference. The names selected are those that are
familiar to the people in each region,” said Mr. Chakrabarthi.
Since 2004, the eight countries have
faced 19 cyclones. The countries take turns in naming the cyclones. The
last six were: Sidr (named by Oman), Nargis (Pakistan), Rashmi (Sri
Lanka), Khai-Muk (Thailand), Nisha (Bangladesh) and Bijli (India).
"All these countries meet once in two
years and review the progress of cyclones and how many cyclones there
were. Every country reports its assessment of the cyclones and then
they arrive at a mutual plan of action, which includes creation of a
database for the names to be given to tropical cyclones," M. Mohapatra,
director Cyclone Division IMD, told IANS.
"We have around 40 names right now. Once a name is used it cannot be used again for another cyclone," said Mr. Mohapatra.
The practice of naming cyclones began
years ago in order to help in the quick identification of storms in
warning messages because names are presumed to be far easier to
remember than numbers and technical terms.
The trend started in the 19th century
in Australia where cyclones were named after corrupt politicians. It
soon caught on in other countries, and met officials in some countries
began naming cyclones after their former girlfriends or divorced wives.
In the 1970s, the WMO in Geneva asked some countries around the Pacific Ocean to prepare a list of names and keep it ready.
However, in the north Indian Ocean
countries the naming of cyclones began in September 2004 following a
meeting of the WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones in 2000.
Sri Lanka has rejected a
call by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to lift restrictions on aid
delivery and unhindered access by humanitarian groups to overcrowded
displacement camps. The Secretary General 's hurriedly planned visit to
Sri Lanka Saturday was designed to keep the spotlight on the plight of
the several hundred thousand civilians displaced by the
recently-concluded civil war there.
An Israeli ultra-nationalist party led by the
country's foreign minister has drafted a law that would require
citizens to pledge loyalty to Israel as a "Jewish, Zionist and
democratic" state.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman
promoted the idea of a loyalty law in his campaign for parliamentary
elections earlier this year.
His Yisrael Beitenu Party grew into
the third largest in parliament after winning votes from Israeli Jews
who perceive the country's Arab citizens to be disloyal. Israeli Arabs
make up about one-fifth of the population.
Lieberman's party
drafted another bill on Sunday that would ban Israeli Arabs from
holding annual commemorations of what they call the "catastrophe" (or
"Naqba" in Arabic) marking Israel's creation.
The proposals have
drawn strong criticism from some opposition lawmakers and rights groups
who call them a violation of democratic rights.
Yisrael Beitenu
says it will seek Cabinet approval for the loyalty bill on Sunday
before presenting it to parliament, where it would have to pass several
votes before becoming law.
The legislation would require all
Israelis to swear allegiance to a "Jewish, Zionist and democratic"
Israel in order to receive an identity card. It also would give
authorities the power to revoke the citizenship of people who refuse to
serve in the military or perform a national service.
The
proposed ban on commemorating the "Naqba" calls for a three-year prison
sentence for violators. The measure also must be approved by lawmakers
in several votes.
A group of Southeast Asian politicians is urging the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations to suspend Burma's membership if
it refuses to release democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Aung San Suu
Kyi testified Tuesday against charges that could put her in prison for
five years.
China says it is firmly opposed to North Korea's
nuclear test, but is repeating its call on the international community
to remain calm in formulating a response.
Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said China firmly opposes the North Korean
nuclear test on Monday. He says Beijing has two main objectives - a
nuclear-free Korean peninsula, as well as safeguarding peace and
stability in Northeast Asia.
Ma says China calls on what he
described as "relevant parties" to respond in a "coolheaded and
appropriate way." He says the Chinese government would like to see all
sides resolve the issue peacefully, through consultation and dialogue.
He
repeated his government's earlier calls for North Korea to return to
its commitment of denuclearization. And said China has directly
expressed its position to North Korea. He also urged Pyongyang to
return to the six party talks, which include the United States, North
Korea, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. The six party process
began in 2003, but has been stalled since the end of last year.
On the other hand,Human Rights Watch says severe shortages of food,
water and medicine are creating a major humanitarian crisis for the
hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in northwestern Pakistan.
The
group's Asia director, Brad Adams, urged the Pakistani military to
immediately lift a curfew that has been in place in the Swat Valley and
surrounding areas for the past week.
He said the civilians in
the conflict zone face a "humanitarian catastrophe" unless Islamabad
lifts the curfew and take all possible measures, including airlifting
supplies, to quickly alleviate large-scale human suffering.
On
Monday, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani met with visiting
U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy, Mark Warner and Sheldon Whitehouse to
discuss the military operations against Taliban insurgents in Swat and
the surrounding areas.
Mr. Gilani thanked the U.S. officials for
the $110 million in humanitarian assistance for the some two million
internally displaced persons in the region. But he said more aid is
needed.
President Asif Ali Zardari also separately briefed the lawmakers.
Meanwhile, the Taliban said it will stop attacking security forces in the main city of Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley.
Taliban
Spokesman Muslim Khan said militants will stop their resistance in
Swat's main town of Mingora out of concern for the safety of civilians
and their property.
Khan did not describe the fighting as a
cease-fire. He says the Taliban will not create any obstacles for
civilians wishing to return to the area.
Pakistan's army said
Monday that it has captured several key sites around Mingora including
Maalam Jabba, a nearby ski resort which militants converted into a
training center.
The army launched the offensive earlier this
month after militants violated a peace deal and advanced within 100
kilometers of the capital, Islamabad.
The Pakistani army says about 1,100 militants and at least 63 soldiers have been killed in the offensive.
 |
| Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (File) |
"The Lady," as she is known by her supporters, is on trial for breaking the terms of her house arrest.
The
trial has been widely condemned as an excuse to keep the Nobel Peace
Prize winner locked up and pressure is growing for her release.
The
ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus on Tuesday called for tougher
actions against Burma, including suspending its membership in the
regional bloc.
Charles Chong, a Singaporean lawmaker and member
of the caucus, told journalists in Bangkok that dealing with Burma has
bogged down ASEAN, making it harder for them to accomplish anything.
"More
and more parliamentarians within ASEAN are beginning to lose their
patience with Burma. And, we are calling upon our governments to do
more than just expressions of dismay, regret, grave concern and so on,
and seriously look at suspending Burma's membership of ASEAN," he said.
Aung
San Suu Kyi is expected to be sentenced to from three to five years in
prison for allowing an eccentric American man, who snuck into her
house, to stay there for two nights without official permission.
 |
| Handout photo taken on 13 May 2009, provided by Myanmar News Agency shows US Citizen John William Yettaw in Rangoon |
Burma's military-run government has kept the democracy icon under house arrest for 13 of the last 19 years.
The detention has long been criticized and was set to expire on Wednesday.
But
a Burmese government spokesman on Tuesday told journalists and
diplomats the house arrest would not expire for another six months.
Also
on Tuesday, Burma rights campaigners say they have collected more than
600,000 signatures from 220 countries calling for the United Nations to
get tough on Burma.
Khin Ohmar is with Forum for Democracy in Burma.
"The
voices are calling Mr. Ban Ki-moon [is] that he must accept nothing,
nothing less than the immediate and unconditional release of Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners including all ethnic
nationalities' leaders," said Khin Ohmar, who is with Forum for
Democracy in Burma.
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won Burma's last elections in 1990 but was never allowed to take power.
The Burmese military then placed the NLD leader under house arrest and has only let her out on rare occasions.
A
new election is scheduled for 2010 as part of Burma's "roadmap to
democracy" but is thought to be a sham to keep the military in power.
The
ASEAN legislators say ASEAN has failed to move Burma and may need to
consider targeted sanctions to pressure them for democratic change.
The group includes lawmakers from ASEAN members Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
| Cyclone Aila Lashes Eastern India, Bangladesh | |
26 May 2009 | |
 |
| Villagers walk with umbrellas made of palm leaves as rain clouds loom over sky on outskirts of Bhubaneswar, India, 25 May 2009 |
Army has been mobilized in the aftermath of a cyclone that has hit West
Bengal and Bangladesh. But the death toll - at least 65 in Bangladesh
and 29 in eastern India - is relatively small compared to past such
powerful storms that have struck the region. Although the number of
casualties appear to be low, the cyclone has stranded or sent to
shelters hundreds of thousands of people.
Cyclone Aila, with
winds speeds up to 100 kilometers per hour, unleashed a four-meter high
tidal surge and flooded low-lying regions. The storm is especially
devastating for farmers in both India and Bangladesh who were preparing
to harvest rice and other crops. In the Indian state of West Bengal,
state officials say several thousand thatched and mud houses have been
destroyed.
Relief camps set up
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee visited a few of the 100 relief camps quickly established.
The
chief minister says the Army has been mobilized to assist with rescue
and relief operations in the worst affected areas of West Bengal. He
adds military helicopters are dropping food packets.
Transportation grinds to stop
The
cyclone came within 50 kilometers of the state capital, Kolkata, where
transportation and utility systems were paralyzed. Official describe it
as the worst storm to hit Kolkata in 20 years. But the city is quickly
getting back to normal with a clean-up under way to remove debris,
including hundreds of uprooted trees and power poles.
Rivers
flowed over mud embankments in the Sundarbans Delta, in which the
world's largest tiger reserve is located. Conservationists are
expressing concern about the fate of 500 tigers which live in the
mangrove forests straddling both sides of the India-Bangladesh border.
Bangladesh reports casualties
Most
of the human casualties reported are across the border in Bangladesh.
Aid agencies say they fear the final death toll will be in the
hundreds. Officials there say a half million residents of coastal areas
were forced by the storm to evacuate their homes.
Bangladesh's
Army, Navy and Coast Guard have joined civil servants and volunteers to
search for the missing and rescue the marooned, some of whom are
standing in water reaching up to their shoulders.
The Bay of
Bengal is frequently devastated by such storms. Cyclone Sidr in
November 2007 left more than 3,000 people dead in Bangladesh. And
Cyclone Nargis, one year ago, is estimated to have killed nearly
150,000 Burmese.
What’s a Liberal Justice Now?
When talking about the Supreme Court, Barack Obama
has resisted the familiar ideological categories that have defined our
judicial battles for the past several decades. He has made clear that
despite his progressive inclinations, he is not a 1960s-style, Warren
Court liberal — someone who believes that the justices should boldly
define constitutional rights in an effort to bring about social change.
It’s true that Obama has cited Chief Justice Earl Warren as a judicial
ideal, emphasizing that Warren, a former governor of California, had a
sensitive understanding of the real-world effects of Supreme Court
decisions. But at the same time, Obama has suggested that liberals in
the Warren Court mold may have placed too much trust in the courts and
not enough in political activism. “I wondered,” he writes in his book
“The Audacity of Hope,” alluding to Senate battles over George W. Bush’s
court appointments, “if in our reliance on the courts to vindicate not
only our rights but also our values, progressives had lost too much
faith in democracy.”
Likewise, Obama has both rejected
and embraced elements of conservative legal doctrine. The ideological
antithesis of Warren Court liberals are Reagan-era conservatives like
Justice Antonin Scalia,
who argue that the Constitution should be “strictly construed” in light
of its original meaning. While expressing respect for aspects of this
method, Obama has rejected it, in the end, as overly rigid and
impractical. “I’m not unsympathetic to Justice Scalia’s position; after
all, in many cases the language of the Constitution is perfectly clear
and can be strictly applied,” he writes in “The Audacity of Hope.”
“Ultimately, though, I have to side with Justice Breyer’s view of the
Constitution — that it is not a static but rather a living document,
and must be read in the context of an ever-changing world.”
By tipping his hat to Breyer, Obama acknowledged one of the two liberal justices appointed to the court during Bill Clinton’s presidency. (The other is Ruth Bader Ginsburg.)
In different ways and to different degrees, each of them has championed
yet another conception of the judiciary: one in which the courts, in
most cases, should play only a “minimalist” role in America’s
democracy, generally preferring deferential and narrow rulings to broad
ones. This doctrine developed in part as a strategic and defensive
response to the fact that conservative activists on the Supreme Court
were aggressively striking down progressive legislation. But minimalism
is also principled. It urges judges to issue opinions that focus
closely on the particular circumstances of the case at hand, steering
clear of sweeping pronouncements about liberty, equality or justice. By
so doing, the theory goes, the courts can avoid getting too far ahead
of the will of the people and their elected representatives, and
preserve judicial legitimacy in the process.
Yet with minimalism too, Obama’s sympathies have been hard to pin down. One leading academic minimalist, Cass Sunstein,
was an informal adviser to Obama during the presidential campaign and
is now the incoming head of the White House’s Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs; he is often said to be someone whom Obama might
someday appoint to the Supreme Court. Sunstein has argued that judges
(as well as government regulators) should “prefer nudges over
earthquakes,” gently influencing political debates without trying to
settle them. But Obama has indicated that he himself isn’t a
wholehearted minimalist. When earlier this month he discussed Justice David Souter’s
pending retirement, Obama said that the “quality of empathy, of
understanding and identifying with people’s hopes and struggles” is “an
essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes.” He
seems sympathetic, in other words, to a more ambitious role for judges
than a jurisprudence of the gentle nudge.
Obama’s ideological
elusiveness has perplexed liberal and conservative court watchers
alike. Critics may see his ambiguity as just another example of his
instincts to swaddle ideological divisions in the soothing rhetoric of
bipartisanship and compromise, to reconcile the irreconcilable. Obama,
however, may be looking to synthesize and transcend the established
legal categories — articulating a genuinely new vision for what it
means to be a liberal justice in the 21st century.
In “The
Audacity of Hope,” Obama calls for “a shift in metaphors, one that sees
our democracy not as a house to be built, but as a conversation to be
had.” As it happens, the same metaphor — of conversation or dialogue —
is now being elaborated and made more concrete in a legal context by
some of the country’s most notable progressive legal scholars. They
call themselves “democratic constitutionalists.” And they and Obama
seem to be arguing along similar lines, suggesting that the courts
should neither issue rarefied edicts from on high nor passively defer
to the political branches but instead participate in a “dialogue” with
Congress, the president and the American public to define and protect
constitutional values. Although this emerging paradigm is not yet fully
developed, it has the potential to transform what we mean when we talk
about liberalism on the Supreme Court.
If this new understanding of legal liberalism
can be traced back to a single moment, it was in April 2005, when the
American Constitution Society and other progressive groups sponsored a
conference at Yale Law School called “The Constitution in 2020.” Taking
as their model a white paper produced by the Reagan Justice Department
in 1988 called “The Constitution in the Year 2000,” the organizers set
out to gather together a group of scholars to define a progressive
constitutional agenda for the coming century. (A book inspired by the
conference, “The Constitution in 2020,” has just been published.) The
conference brought to New Haven many of the leading liberal scholars in
the country, including several who in recent weeks have been mentioned
in connection with Obama: Pam Karlan, a law professor at Stanford;
Harold Koh, of Yale Law School; and Sunstein, then a professor at the University of Chicago Law School.
Like
the Babylonians in exile, the participants at the conference debated
how best to return to the land of political relevance. Their favored
judges had been shut out of consideration not only during Republican
presidencies but also, to some extent, during the Clinton era, when
political realities and the president’s ideological inclinations
resulted in fairly moderate appointees to the federal courts. At the
same time, the conference participants agreed that a return to the
Warren Court liberalism of the ’60s would be politically impractical as
well as doctrinally undesirable. They also viewed Warren Court
liberalism as too backward-looking to galvanize young progressives
today. They sought to nurture a new generation of legal liberals who
would pose an alternative to the conservative strict-constructionist
lawyers who emerged from the Federalist Society to dominate the federal
courts during the Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 eras.
More Articles in
Magazine »
A version of this article appeared in print on May 31, 2009, on page MM50 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/magazine/31court-t.html?ref=global-home
May 26, 2009
Aung San Suu Kyi 'composed and upfront' in witness box at trial
(AFP/Getty Images)
Aung San Suu Kyi being escorted to a car to give evidence at her trial today
The Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi took the witness stand in her
own criminal trial today, and denied any wrongdoing in giving shelter to an
eccentric American well-wisher who swam to her home after he dreamed of her
assassination.
Ms Suu Kyi thanked a group of foreign diplomats who were allowed to attend the
trial for 50 minutes along with Burmese journalists, the second time that
the normally closed court has been opened to foreign scrutiny.
But diplomats attending the trial expressed doubt that she would receive a
fair hearing from a military dictatorship which has locked her up in her own
home for 13 out of the past 19 years.
So far, she has only been allowed to consult with her lawyers in the courtroom
itself, and a request for an opportunity to meet privately with them was
rejected by the court.
Today she denied having any knowledge of the motives of John Yettaw, the
53-year old American who emerged from the waters of Rangoon’s Inya Lake to
enter the grounds of her house.
According to a diplomat who was present in the court, Ms Suu Kyi said that she
had not even met Mr Yettaw when he paid his first clandestine visit to her
house in November last year.
She first encountered him at 5am on 3 May after he had crossed the lake for a
second time, dodging the police who were supposed to be guarding it, by
using an empty plastic bottle as a float.
Appearing healthy and composed, she told the court that she did not know why
he had left behind a bizarre collection of items, including ropes, a head
torch, and two Islamic style abaya dresses, and that she did not even know
his name until after his arrest.
“I allowed him to have temporary shelter,” she said. Her lawyers have
previously said that she did not report him to the authorities because she
did not want Mr Yettaw, or the police who should have detected him, to get
into trouble on her account.
He left shortly before midnight the following day, and was arrested in the
early hours of the next morning. “I only knew that he went to the lakeside,”
she said. “I did not know which way he went because it was dark.”
At one point, when asked about the motives of Mr Yettaw, Ms Suu Kyi said, “Why
don’t you asked him?” and looked across at her co-defendant who was seated a
few feet from her.
After his arrest, Mr Yettaw, described by his family in the US state of
Missouri as an unemployed Vietnam War veteran, reportedly told the police
that he wanted to help Ms Suu Kyi after having a dream of her assassination.
Appearing alongside her were her two friends and housekeepers, a mother and
daughter named Khin Khin Win and Win Ma Ma, who also face a sentence of as
long as five years in prison.
“She was very composed, forceful and upfront,” said Mark Canning, the British
ambassador to Rangoon, who was present at today’s hearing.
“I think they are letting us into the trial for a transparent reason, because
they have been taken aback by the scale of the reaction. No one is under any
illusions that letting us in is going to change the course of the trial.”
Ms Suu Kyi’s detention had been expected to expire tomorrow, and the strange
case of Mr Yettaw provides the junta with a pretext for detaining her for
longer, until after the elections which it is promising to hold next year.
But it may have misjudged the strength of international sympathy for her
provoked by the case.
The subject was discussed today at a meeting of European and Asian foreign
ministers in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. Some participants said that even
the Burmese government's traditional supporters were showing signs of
impatience.
“I sensed that there's actually been a shift on this issue,” the British
junior foreign office minister, Bill Rammell, said. “I think other states
are engaging on this in a way that wasn't the case in the past. … If I'm
honest I think the Burmese regime has miscalculated and has been somewhat
taken aback by the force of international reaction.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6365278.ece
SCENARIOS - What outcome for Pakistan's battle in Swat?
 |
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Hundreds of
thousands of Pakistani civilians trapped by an offensive against the
Taliban in Swat face catastrophe, a rights group said on Tuesday, as
fighting flared in another militant-plagued region.
The offensive in the Taliban bastion of Swat, about 120 km (80
miles) northwest of Islamabad, is the military's most concerted effort
to roll back a spreading Taliban insurgency that has thrown the
nuclear-armed country's future into question.
Here are some possible outcomes of the fighting in Swat where the
military says about 15,000 members of the security forces face
4,000-5,000 militants.
QUICK SUCCESS
A quick victory in Swat would allow the army to tackle militant
strongholds on the Afghan border, such as North and South Waziristan,
part of a region from where the Taliban orchestrate their Afghan war
and where al Qaeda plots violence. The government and army retain
public support for the Swat offensive. If they can deal a significant
blow to the Taliban, stocks, which have dipped in recent sessions
because of worry about the fighting, could see strong gains.
Quick success in Swat would also allow the 2.3 million people
displaced by the fighting, according to government figures, to go home
faster. Their plight, and civilian casualties in fighting, will
determine how fast opposition to the offensive crystallises.
Given public backing and the authorities' resolve, the army is
expected to push the militants out of Swat's main areas though it
remains to be seen how long it takes. A decisive campaign and the
speedy return of the displaced would be a boost for the unpopular
President Asif Ali Zardari.
Continued...
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Log on to 
'Rahul Gandhi, the boxer, is extremely fit'
| Font Size |
Agencies
Posted: May 26, 2009 at 1559 hrs IST
New Delhi
Rahul Gandhi landed some hard punches on his opponents during the recent elections. Now we know where he learnt it.
India's first Dronacharya awardee Om Prakash Bharadwaj
taught him techniques of boxing for two months last year. The
yesteryear boxer and renowned coach said that Rahul learnt the
techniques with the objective of keeping himself physically and
psychologically fit for a busy political life.
"It was a great opportunity for me to train Rahul Gandhi in boxing for two months last year," said Bharadwaj.
"In the beginning I was also surprised why he
wanted to learn boxing because I was sure that he was not going to box
in the ring. But later I realised that he was keen to have some
knowledge about the art of self defence," he added.
The 70-year-old coach-cum-commentator said Rahul
had great interest in sports and he was also a good shooter, swimmer
and horse-rider.
"I observed that he likes sports. He is a good
swimmer, shooter and horse rider. He is interested to have elementary
knowledge in various activities and keep himself busy. He believes in
making efforts and does not waste a single minute," Bharadwaj said.
The former boxer rated 39-year-old Rahul as a
great learner, who is physically very fit. "You won't believe but he
was too good and had prior knowledge of a few boxing techniques. He
would also discuss about the game's various techniques. I found him
physically quite fit. For instance, knowing his busy schedule I kept
for him light training and for the warm-up would ask him to run one
round of his residence ground. But he would ask me if the drill was
enough and run two more rounds.”
"During the strenuous work-outs on punching pad also I never saw him tired," Bharadwaj said.
The coach was all praise for Rahul's humility and
was completely bowled over by his manners and etiquettes. "One day when
I wanted some water to drink, instead of asking any attendant he
himself rushed to the kitchen to fetch me water. On another occasion,
when he was escorting me to their gate, Soniaji called him but he
replied 'let me see sir up to the gate and then I will come'. What
better behaviour and etiquette I can expect from such a top youngster
of the country?" he said.
Bharadwaj also recalled when Priyanka Gandhi
Vadhra also tried her hand at boxing during one of their practice
session. "One day Priyankaji showed her interest in working on the
punching pad, saying 'main bhi boxing karungi'. I went to Soniaji, who
was sitting nearby, and requested her to allow Priyankaji and told her
Indian women were already world champions in boxing," said Bharadwaj,
heavily impressed by the top family of the country.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Rahul-Gandhi-the-boxer-is-extremely-fit/466253/
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