Daily Kos

Overnight News 新聞

by Mishima

Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 08:57:18 PM PDT

Overnight News Digest is powered by: Mike "Who needs the Constitution" Huckabee.

Pentagon Weighs Top Iraq General as Chief of NATO
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is considering Gen. David H. Petraeus for the top NATO command later this year, a move that would give the general, the top American commander in Iraq, a high-level post during the next administration but that has raised concerns about the practice of rotating war commanders.
A senior Pentagon official said that it was weighing "a next assignment for Petraeus" and that the NATO post was a possibility. "He deserves one and that has also always been a highly prestigious position," the official said. "So he is a candidate for that job, but there have been no final decisions and nothing on the timing."

USA

Bacteria race ahead of drugs
Falling behind: Deadly infections increasingly able to beat antibiotics
At a busy microbiology lab in San Francisco, bad bugs are brewing inside vials of human blood, or sprouting inside petri dishes, all in preparation for a battery of tests.

These tests will tell doctors at UCSF Medical Center which kinds of bacteria are infecting their patients, and which antibiotics have the best chance to knock those infections down.

With disturbing regularity, the list of available options is short, and it is getting shorter.

Dr. Jeff Brooks has been director of the UCSF lab for 29 years, and has watched with a mixture of fascination and dread how bacteria once tamed by antibiotics evolve rapidly into forms that practically no drug can treat.

New generation of homeless vets emerges
LEEDS, Mass. --
Peter Mohan traces the path from the Iraqi battlefield to this lifeless conference room, where he sits in a kilt and a Camp Kill Yourself T-shirt and calmly describes how he became a sad cliche: a homeless veteran.

There was a happy homecoming, but then an accident - car crash, broken collarbone. And then a move east, close to his wife's new job but away from his best friends.
And then self-destruction: He would gun his motorcycle to 100 mph and try to stand on the seat. He would wait for his wife to leave in the morning, draw the blinds and open up whatever bottle of booze was closest.

Middle East

'International Oil Companies Are the Real Dinosaurs'

In an exlusive SPIEGEL interview, OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla Salem el-Badri discusses the dangers of a further dramatic rise in the oil price, the failures of multinational oil companies and considerations within the cartel of oil-exporting nations to trade in euros rather than dollars.

Gaza cuts electricity after Israel closes borders
Gaza City was plunged into darkness Sunday as Gaza's only electricity plant was shut down because of a shortage of imported fuel, with Israel's closure of all its border crossings with the Hamas-controlled area still in effect.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak of Israel ordered a temporary halt to all exports to the Gaza Strip late last week. The measure, along with stepped-up military operations in Gaza, was meant to dissuade Palestinian militants there from firing rockets at Israel.

A spokeswoman for Barak said his decision would probably be re-evaluated in a few days.

Asia

Japan's best sellers go cellular
Until recently, cellphone novels — composed on phone keypads by young women wielding dexterous thumbs and read by fans on their tiny screens — had been dismissed in Japan as a subgenre unworthy of the country that gave the world its first novel, "The Tale of Genji," a millennium ago. Then last month, the year-end best-seller tally showed that cellphone novels, republished in book form, have not only infiltrated the mainstream but have come to dominate it.

Of last year's 10 best-selling novels, five were originally cellphone novels, mostly love stories written in the short sentences characteristic of text messaging but containing little of the plotting or character development found in traditional novels. What is more, the top three spots were occupied by first-time cellphone novelists, touching off debates in the news media and blogosphere.

"Will cellphone novels kill 'the author'?" a famous literary journal, Bungaku-kai, asked on the cover of its January issue. Fans praised the novels as a new literary genre created and consumed by a generation whose reading habits had consisted mostly of manga, or comic books. Critics said the dominance of cellphone novels, with their poor literary quality, would hasten the decline of Japanese literature.

Japanese mobile phones are called Ketai's.

India's "Untouchables Queen" gains power, enemies
LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - For a leader dubbed the "Untouchables Queen" who runs one of India's poorest states, it was indeed a birthday bash fit for royalty.

Dressed in a diamond necklace and matching earrings Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati stood as her mostly higher-caste party aides and the state police chief each scooped up slops of her 52nd birthday cake in their hands and finger-fed their boss.

"This is her revolution," said Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh, one of her closest aides who participated in the birthday ceremony.

Since culminating an astonishing rise from "untouchable" or Dalit caste school teacher to head of India's most populous state by winning last year's election outright, Mayawati has stamped her presence in Uttar Pradesh with eyes on being the next prime minister.

Europe

Britain 'as inept as US' in failing to foresee postwar Iraq insurgency
· Revelation undermines British blaming Rumsfeld
· Experts stressed danger of tribalism to Blair in 2002
The government's top foreign policy advisers were as inept as their US counterparts in failing to see that removing Saddam Hussein in 2003 was likely to lead to a nationalist insurgency by Sunnis and Shias and an Islamist government in Baghdad, run by allies of Iran, the Guardian has learned.

None of Whitehall's "Arabists" warned Tony Blair of the difficulties which have plagued the occupation. The revelation undermines the British claim that it was US myopia which was to blame for the failure to foresee what would happen in postwar Iraq.

Tales of student prostitutes shock France
France's education minister has vowed to improve student financial support after a series of accounts by undergraduates working as prostitutes.

A memoir by a 19-year-old language student and a book of interviews with undergraduate sex workers has shocked France, lifting the lid on a practice which appears to be increasingly common. A new study showed a large online market for student prostitutes, describing how male clients, who are often rich, married executives, advertise online for young, undergraduate "escorts" whom they prefer to street prostitutes. These clients pay on average €400 (£300) for a two hour meeting with a student, including sex and "time to talk".

Africa

'Janjaweed leader' is Sudan aide
The Sudanese authorities have given a senior government position to a man accused of co-ordinating the Janjaweed Arab militia in Darfur.

The minister of federal affairs, Abdel Basit Sabderat, said clan leader Musa Hilal had been named as his adviser.

The US State Department and human rights groups say Mr Hilal is a leader of the Janjaweed, which is accused of committing war crimes in Darfur.

There have been repeated delays in deploying a joint UN-AU force there.

Deal close in east DR Congo talks
Talks on the future of eastern DR Congo are coming to a head, with a peace agreement now close to being signed.

The deal has been sponsored by the US, the EU and the African Union.

It is designed to end months of bloody conflict around the town of Goma, which has driven over 450,000 people from their homes in the last year.

Talks involving the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and more than 20 rebel groups have been under way for more than two weeks.

Latin America

Change may be brewing in Cuba
MIAMI -- Cubans waited hours in line for tickets, packed Havana's cinemas and watched with rapt attention as "The Lives of Others," a chilling account of East German secret-police repression of communism's doubters, arrived in the Cuban capital last month.

Was the debut of the Academy Award-winning film two years after its release another signal that Cuba's Communist leaders are open to reform? Or was the cinematic snapshot of life two decades ago and half a world away more reflective of their confidence that Cubans wouldn't see themselves in the picture?

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  •  U.S Politics is Japan (24+ / 0-)

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    There has been regular coverage of the US primary elections in the Japanese press.

    by Mishima on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 08:58:51 PM PDT

  •  Fabulous round-up, Mishima (15+ / 0-)

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    Thank you.  I am weeping about the homeless vets, and, indeed, all the homeless in this richest country on earth on this bitterly cold night.  

    1-20-09 The Darkness Ends "Where cruelty exists, law does not." ~ Alberto Mora

    by noweasels on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 09:00:59 PM PDT

  •  Asia Pac Markets down (8+ / 0-)

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    http://money.cnn.com/...
    Australia ASX 100 - 108.40 - 2.33% 4,545.60 1/21 3:42pm
    Australia ASX All Ords - 134.60 - 2.32% 5,664.80 1/21 3:42pm
    Australia ASX Mid-cap 50 - 121.80 - 2.06% 5,783.80 1/21 3:42pm
    Hong Kong Hang Seng - 714.60 - 2.84% 24,487.27 1/21 12:47pm
    Hong Kong HSCC Red Chip - 125.99 - 2.31% 5,331.80 1/21 12:47pm
    Japan Nikkei 225 - 321.39 - 2.32% 13,539.90 1/21 12:45pm

    h/t mem from somerville

    Saying the Iraq "Surge" worked is like saying Thelma & Louise had a flying car.

    by JML9999 on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 09:06:55 PM PDT

  •  Eco-bullshit in Montana (10+ / 0-)

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    Yahoo!Malaysia

    Mont. High School Cancels Climate Speech
    By MATTHEW BROWN,Associated Press Writer AP - Friday, January 18

    BILLINGS, Mont. - A climate scientist's speech to high school students was canceled because members of the rural community were concerned the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's message on climate change would be "anti-agriculture," the superintentent said Thursday.

    Choteau schools Superintendent Kevin St. John said school board members pressured him to bring in someone with an opposing viewpoint to speak to the school's 130 students, and he thought canceling the speech was the reasonable and neutral option.

    I haven't been able to find a statement from Nate Achenbach, the high school principal, about this.

    St. John may or may not be a fugitive from a hitherto undiscovered planet in a galaxy far, far away. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Choteau Chamber of Commerce, in addition to his duties as school district superintendent. The only information I can tell you about this controversy is what I find in the news, but I wonder - is this really about agriculture? Might there possibly, just possibly, have been pressure from mighty coal and oil interests? How the hell can a discussion about global warming be anti-agriculture? Am I too suspicious?

    The "climate scientist" mentioned in the article isn't just any eco-geek. He's Steve Running, the UMont Nobel laureate who shared the 2007 Peace Prize. Running was chief author of the North American section of the 2007 IPCC report.

    University of Montana scientist Steve Running said he had never before been canceled in any venue, by any organization. "I think there's a faction of society that is willfully ignorant, that they just don't want to know the facts about this," he said.

    Billings Gazette

    Steve Running, an ecology professor and global climate scientist at the University of Montana, was scheduled to give two speeches at Choteau High School on Jan. 10. The first to students was canceled, while the second, scheduled for that night, went as planned.

    "The thing that's ironic is that I wasn't even going to talk about global warming to the kids," Running said. "I was just going to try to give an inspirational speech for young people about the jobs of science. But I guess that's pretty scary stuff."

    Not only was the cancelled speech not about global warming, few students heard the evening speech that was about global warming because the Choteau High Bulldogs basketball team played a game in Shelby that day.

    Running's speech was sponsored by the Sonoran Institute, whose Choteau representaive is Corlene Martin.

    She said an incident during Running's albeit serious presentation made her smile. When Running was explaining how, during the past summer, the Arctic ice pack shrunk to an unprecedented size, she overheard a kindergarten student say to a first grader, "Santa Claus is in trouble."

    Cancellation of Running's speech was mentioned at a January 10 school board meeting, after St. John already had cancelled the speech. According to a newspaper report,

    {Corlene} Martin contacted the school to see whether Running could give a speech on being a climate scientist to high school students during the day on Jan. 10.
    ...

    The board did not discuss the situation, but St. John did tell board members that he "made the decision to cancel that for better or for worse." Because of the timing of the speech, he said, he was not able to bring the issue before the full board.

    According to The Missoulian, St. John said

    ...I didn't want all the controversy at the school, because that takes away from what we're trying to do here."

    And that's the real question, isn't it? Regardless of what anyone thinks of Running or his speeches, my question is, what are they trying to do there? What is being taught to Choteau students in the name of science?

    From the Choteau Schools website,

    Our Mission Statement: Choteau Schools provides a safe, optimal learning environment, offering all students a well-rounded education.

    and

    Mr. St. Johns email is " ksj at montana.com "

    So here we are:

    ksj@montana.com

    -6.13/-6.31

    by count on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 09:10:45 PM PDT

  •  From TP:General P and his backup Singers (7+ / 0-)

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    http://thinkprogress.org/...


    Surge Architects Tout ‘Success’ Of De-Baathification Bill As Reason To Stay ‘Heavily Engaged In Iraq’

    Today in a Washington Post op-ed, surge advocates retired general Jack Keane, AEI scholar Frederick Kagan, and the Brookings Institution’s Michael O’Hanlon trumpet Iraq’s new de-Baathification legislation as a first step in the surge’s "remarkable" success:

       The full surge has been in place and operating for just over six months, and already violence has fallen dramatically across the country. The achievement in such a short time of significant legislation that requires all sides to accept risk and compromise with people they had been fighting only a few months ago is remarkable. It would have been unattainable without the change in strategy and addition of American forces that helped bring the violence down.

    The authors pass off the bill’s problems by noting that the "legislation is imperfect, of course." But many Sunni and Shiite officials have stated that the bill "could actually exclude more former Baathists than it lets back in, particularly in the crucial security ministries." In fact, as Middle East expert Juan Cole has noted, the legislation was actually spearheaded by the most anti-Baathist groups and opposed by former Baathists.

    Saying the Iraq "Surge" worked is like saying Thelma & Louise had a flying car.

    by JML9999 on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 09:13:14 PM PDT

  •  Japan Offshores Wind Power (11+ / 0-)

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    Japan follows Europe by tapping offshore wind for power
    By Risa Maeda, Reuters

    Overlooking a mountain lake a few hours drive from Tokyo, dozens of tall wind turbines spin in the breeze creating carbon-free power for the world's fifth-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

    A sudden change in breeze spins the turbines in a different direction, an apt symbol of Japan's efforts to shift away from fossil fuels for renewable energy such as wind power to help cut its greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.

    Wind farms such as the Nunobiki Plateau Wind Farm on a hill north of Tokyo, which generates enough electricity to power some 35,000 homes a year, have failed to make a dent in Japan's obligations to cut carbon gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.

    But Japan is now looking towards the sea, following in the footsteps of Europe which is the world's leader in wind energy, by planning a network of offshore wind farms to tap into the gales of the Pacific

    by Magnifico on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 09:14:17 PM PDT

  •  Kenyan violence possibly premeditated (10+ / 0-)

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    Kenyan violence possibly premeditated
    By Jeffrey Gettleman, The New York Times

    At first the violence seemed as spontaneous as it was shocking, with machete-wielding mobs hacking people to death and burning women and children alive in a country that was celebrated as one of Africa’s most stable.

    But a closer look at what has unfolded in the past three weeks, since a deeply flawed election plunged Kenya into chaos, shows that some of the bloodletting that has left more than 650 people dead may have been premeditated and organized.

    Leaflets calling for ethnic killings mysteriously appeared before the voting. Politicians with both the government and opposition parties gave speeches that stoked long-standing hatred among ethnic groups. And local tribal chiefs held meetings to plot attacks on rivals, according to some of them and their followers.

    As soon as the election results were announced, handing a suspiciously thin margin of victory to Kenya’s president, Mwai Kibaki — whose policies of favoring his own ethnic group have marginalized about half the country — all the elements lined up for the violence to explode.

    by Magnifico on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 09:17:57 PM PDT

  •  Cellphone novels ..how interesting.. (7+ / 0-)

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    "Love Sky," a debut novel by a young woman named Mika, was read by 20 million people on cellphones or on computers, according to Maho no i-rando, where it was first uploaded. A tear-jerker featuring adolescent sex, rape, pregnancy and a fatal disease — the genre's sine qua non — the novel nevertheless captured the young generation's attitude, its verbal tics and the cellphone's omnipresence. Republished in book form, it became the No. 1 selling novel last year and was made into a movie.

    20 million readers and a movie deal...wow!

    John McCain
    is bought and paid for.

    by jnhobbs on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 09:19:01 PM PDT

  •  Monkey Business (8+ / 0-)

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    Delhi's troublesome monkeys roughed up by bounty-hunters
    By Andrew Buncombe, The Independent

    When the order went out to round up Delhi's trouble-making monkeys, little thought was given to the methods that might be used. Now it appears that some bounty-hunters drawn to the task have been more than a little rough with the miscreants in their custody.

    Animal rights campaigners say more and more of the monkeys captured and brought to the Asola-Bhatti sanctuary on the edge of the city are showing signs of serious injury. This week, one monkey had to be taken to a charitable animal clinic for treatment to a wound in its shoulder.

    "The monkeys are being caught in a horrible way," said Dr Gautman Borat, a vet and founder of the Friendicoes animal charity, which treated the injured animal. "They are caught with ropes and tongs and the nets are not used properly. There is no proper training."

    The Indian capital's 20,000 monkeys have been blamed for damage to buildings and attacks on people. The real problem is not the monkeys, but that as Delhi has expanded, so have clashes between animals and humans. Efforts to capture the animals and move them to the sanctuary gathered pace last year after the death of the city's deputy mayor, Sawinder Singh Bajwa, in a fall from his balcony while trying to ward off a monkey.

    by Magnifico on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 09:23:25 PM PDT

  •  Inept British. (3+ / 0-)

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    I don't understand one thing about the Guardian article. A subhead says

    · Experts stressed danger of tribalism to Blair in 2002

    but this is totally unsubstantiated in the article. The final paragraph does say

    Blair held a brief meeting with six British academic specialists in November 2002.

    But that's all.

    Will the Guardian either delete that subhead, or expand the article?

    -6.13/-6.31

    by count on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 09:36:46 PM PDT

  •  Eco-prices (3+ / 0-)

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    KiaRioGrl79, cfk, MTmofo

    Looking around the inet this afternoon, I saw this:

    Gold        Ounces $884.20
    Palladium Ounces $367.50
    Platinum Ounces $1,556.50
    Silver       Ounces $16.15

    Ouch! Have any of you replaced a catalytic converter recently?

    -6.13/-6.31

    by count on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 09:45:40 PM PDT

  •  thanks for the diary / spelling fix for you (0+ / 0-)

    "Asis" -> Asia

    That aside, good to see you in action.

    "It's only in books that the officers of the detective force are superior to the weakness of making a mistake." (Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone)

    by chingchongchinaman on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 10:03:24 PM PDT

  •  thanks for a good diary! (5+ / 0-)

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    It is cold here.  That is all I have to say.

    brrrrr

    Join us at Bookflurries: Bookchat on Wednesday nights 8:00 PM EST

    by cfk on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 10:14:33 PM PDT

  •  The article about the (5+ / 0-)

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    count, KiaRioGrl79, MTmofo, Mishima, Carib and Ting

    decreasing effectiveness of antibiotics to combat "evolving" bacteria is alarming.  But I wonder how Mike Huckabee and his anti-evolution crowd respond to this?  If they admit medical research is necessary, because drugs that worked for years don't work any more, it seems to me they implicitly are recognizing that evolution in fact exists.

    by trivium on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 10:46:06 PM PDT

    •  I don't know the details of the Huck's (1+ / 0-)

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      trivium

      ideology, but a typical response is, well yes, DNA exists, and mutation and evolution happen now, but that didn't begin until the species as we know them were created by the ZAP! SHAZAM! methodology.

      The thing I find really strange about anti-evolution ideology is that every Christian I know, without exception professes belief in a god able to create the universe in any manner, including a way that anti-creationists don't understand. Insistence that god must have created life (and the universe) in a way that the simplest anti-evolutionist can understand is not only hypocritical but arrogant, in my opinion.

      -6.13/-6.31

      by count on Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 11:00:23 PM PDT

      [ Parent ]

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