September 28, 2007 1:14

Burma Troops Continue Crackdown

Photo: REUTERS/

This single image, as iconic as the lone demonstrator confronting a tank in Tiannanmen Square , and as shocking as TV cameraman Leonardo Henrichsen filming his own death during the 1973 Chile coup, dominates today's coverage of Burma.

Japanese video journalist Kenji Naga kept filming after he was shot on the streets of Rangoon yesterday, just one of an unconfirmed number of fatalities as the Burmese military junta attacked mass protesters.

This morning, even as the influential Chinese government calls for calm , Burmese troop continued the crackdown, sealing off Buddhist monasteries and charging small groups of protesters who are trying to gather in Rangoon.

With a media clampdown in place across Burma, it has been left to expatriate bloggers and citizen journalists to help tell the real story says CNN. One London-based blogger, Ko Htike , is providing breaking news updates sent to him by contacts back home in Burma.

In other world news, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad headed to Bolivia and Venezuela, confident of getting a better reception than he did in New York.

Could Saudi women win the right to drive ? At last, a place where Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan wouldn't run the risk of DUI.

Iraq - Blackwater's Baghdad Bedlam

Just how out of control were Blackwater USA guards during the Baghdad "bedlam" some 10 days ago? Participants in the firefight that killed eight civilians have told investigators "at least one guard continued firing on civilians while colleagues urgently called for a cease-fire," reports the NYT.

Of course they did stop shooting eventually. But only after "at least one of the Blackwater guards drew a weapon on his colleagues and screamed for them to 'stop shooting,'" says the Washington Post.

Reports all this week have suggested Blackwater personnel might be just a tiny bit trigger happy. Well the State Department has been doing some counting and reports that the company's hired-guns have been involved in 56 shooting incidents while protected U.S. diplomats just this year.

Politics - Climate Change Tops White House Agenda....For One More Day

Climate change was top of the agenda at the White House yesterday....how often do you get to say that sentence?

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was the star turn at President Bush's climate change meeting of the top 16 polluting nations.

You can trust us with the planet, look how well we're doing with the war on terror - Photo: Gerald Herbert / AP

Rice called for nations to work together on tackling the "growing problem" of climate change as they would in fighting global terror, but she also said: "Though united by common goals and collective responsibility, all nations should tackle climate change in the ways they deem best ." Translation? Forget the U.S. agreeing to the UN call for binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions .

The campaign cash crunch has hit John Edwards. Despite raising $23 million during the first six months of the year, Edwards lags far behind rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the Democratic fundraising stakes and so has agreed to accept public financing in his bid for the Presidency.

Oops....apparently Edwards's move hasn't got anything to do with needing short-term cash. "This is about taking a stand, a principled stand, and I believe in public financing," Edwards told CNN . Glad we cleared that up.

National - Bush Orders End to Flight Gridlock

President Bush has ordered transportation officials to get the planes running on time . After what the NYT says is "the worst summer of airline delays on record," the White House is considering "capping the number of flights and allowing airports to charge higher fees to airlines for landing at the busiest times of the day," says the paper.

Plane crazy - Photo Jeff Kowalsky / Bloomberg News

Oh, and don't bank on avoiding a case of the Jet Blues this winter either. Airlines still haven't agreed on how many hours confined passengers must wait "before they can demand to be released from a plane," says the NYT in an accompanying story.

At least NASA got its latest mission off on schedule. The Dawn spacecraft will spend the next eight years exploring the origins of the solar system...and any interplanetary watering holes along the way.

Back to earth with news that one of the Jena 6 defendants has been released on bail. Teenager Mychal Bell is free for the first time in 10 months after prosecutors decided to abandon attempts to charge the 17-year old as an adult in the assault case he faces.

Celebrity - Coppola Script Stolen

Francis Ford Coppola 's script for his new Matt Damon movie, Tetro, has been stolen from a house in Buenos Aires. Armed robbers broke in to the home where the director has been living for the last few months as he researches the project based on an Italian immigrant family in the city.

Phil Spector's legal ordeal isn't over . Prosecutors are planning a retrial.

No fear factor here - Photo: Seth Wenig / AP

Just who was that elegant young lady falling off George Clooney' s motorbike earlier this week? The Sun has the skinny on Sarah Larson, former Fear Factor contestant and "the envy of women everywhere".

Finally, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will both be in Liverpool (though not performing together) to celebrate the city's year as European Capital of Culture 2008.

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September 27, 2007 5:27

Burma Junta Shoot Protesters

Soldiers fired on protesters in Burma and launched dawn raids on two Buddhist monasteries in strong-arm attempt to quell the growing public rebellion against the 45-year military regime .

Here's the latest user-generated video posted on Live Leak:

At least three monks were killed in yesterday's violence while one more person is reported to have been shot today as new protests take place . No-one has a clear idea of what is going on today but CNN suggests that the junta broke up demonstrations today by ordering protesters to "disperse within ten minutes or face extreme action".

Now here's a shock - Pakistan leader General Pervez Musharraf has registered to run for president in next month's elections.

There's about as much chance of Musharraf losing that election as there is President Bush announcing a radical plan to cut global CO2 emissions at his not-the-United Nations climate change summit today.

Outraged despot quote of the day comes from Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe : ""He kills in Iraq. He kills in Afghanistan. And this is supposed to be our master on human rights?" he retorted to criticism from President Bush.

Credit: Justin Lane / EPA

Iraq - Pentagon Requests $190 Billion for 2008

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates would like $190 billion to keep fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for 2008 - "the largest single-year total for the wars so far," says the Washington Post.

That will tee up another almighty fight with the House and the Senate. Sen. Robert Byrd, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, vowed that Congress would not rubber-stamp the request says USA Today.

And don't be fooled by any talk of a full pullout, Gates says he envisions at least five combat brigades (some 17,500 troops) staying in Iraq as a "long-term presence".

Blackwater's gentle diplomacy - Credit: Chris Curry /The Virginian-Pilot / ZUMA

As the IHT/NYT reports that Blackwater USA has been involved in far more shootings while "guarding American diplomats in Iraq than other security firms providing similar services to the State Department," Secretary Gates ordered U.S. military commanders in Iraq "to crack down on any abuses they uncover by private security contractors," says the LA Times.

Finally in Iraq, sectarian bloodshed is back on the rise - 50 people died in a wave of bombings and shootings yesterday.

Politics - Senate Agrees Iran is a Problem

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's New York circus seems to have a political impact no American leader has been able to achieve- namely building consensus in the Senate. Yesterday the lawmakers approved a resolution "urging the Bush administration to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization," says the NYT.

The Senate also hit on a compromise idea for bringing political stability to Iraq.... partition it into decentralized zones run by the Kurds, Sunnis and Shi'ites. But that would leave the Sunnis without control of oil fields....that wouldn't be a sticking point would it?

Fellow Dems may have stuck it to Hillary Clinton on Iraq, social security and her health care past failings during last night's New Hampshire debate but that doesn't mean they had any better answers on the hot-button issue: getting troops out of Iraq. Not one of the leading candidates could promise a full withdrawal by the end of what they hope would be their first presidential term in 2013.

Don't bet against Larry Craig still being in the Senate then. He started his court challenge to withdraw his guilty plea in that bathroom incident.

National - Judge Rules Against Patriot Act

Crucial sections of the USA Patriot Act are not constitutional because they allow the use of search warrants without demonstrating probable cause , a federal judge on Portland, Oregon ruled yesterday.

Perhaps America's protectors should transfer their efforts to the growing threat of serious cyber attacks. CNN reports that a Department of Homeland Security experimental cyber attack on an energy generator proved so successful that it has the federal government and electrical industry scared stiff "about what might happen if such an attack were carried out on a larger scale".

New York police arrested a student carrying a rifle and wearing a Halloween George Bush mask on the campus of St. John's University yesterday. The student's father suggested the incident was a big "misunderstanding". Of course, Halloween is still weeks away.

What was the architect thinking? After decades of hoping the public wouldn't notice, the Navy is going to spend $600,000 adjusting the look of a San Diego barracks that, when viewed from the air, looks like a Nazi swastika . No-one had noticed until Google Earth's satellites flew over.

Celebrity - Spector Mistrial

Hopelessly deadlocked: That's the verdict of the Phil Spector murder case jury. With two holdouts against 10 in favor of convicting the music man, Judge Larry Paul Fidler declared a mistrial.

Phil Spector - Credit: Gus Ruelas / Reuters

To crimes against humanitarian causes now and news that Paris Hilton is heading to Rwanda to "bring more attention" to the problem of child poverty.

British police seem to think a Nan Goldin photograph owned by Elton John might be criminal. The photo of "two young girls, one of them sitting with her legs apart," was removed from a UK gallery prior to a new exhibition of the Goldin's work. Elton John said he is surprised seeing that the installation has been exhibited in galleries around the world without incident.

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September 26, 2007 4:47

Burma Military Crackdown Begins

And so the inevitable crackdown begins. Burmese police beat and arrested demonstrators at Rangoon's Shwedagon Pagoda and warning shots were fired at another site reports the BBC this morning. About 300 monks and activists were arrested according to CNN and "reporters saw a number of monks - who are highly revered in Myanmar - being dragged into trucks," it says. Latest reports are that new marches have begun.

Over the United Nations now where a certain Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Tehran had a few pointed words for the assembled nations. Striking a "defiant" tone, the Iranian President declared the debate over his nation's nuclear program "closed" and lambasted the U.S. et al saying: "In the last two years, abusing the security council, the arrogant powers have repeatedly accused Iran and even made military threats and imposed illegal sanctions against it".

"Freedom, democracy...yadda yadda yadda." A rapt listener to President Bush's speech. AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

Next up to the plate is French President Nicolas Sarkozy who warned of a possible war if Iran was allowed to get nuclear weapons. Has Bush found himself a new (French) poodle , asks Pravda?

Former Sandanista and current Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega accused the U.S. of imposing a " worldwide dictatorship ". Ah Danny, it's good to have you back.

Politics - Bush Cries Liberty at UN

President George W. Bush used his time at the UN podium to urge a global push for democracy and freedom. The President also announced tighter sanctions on the Burma military junta and criticized Syria, Iran, North Korea, Belarus, Venezuela, Cuba, Sudan and Zimbabwe as "nations where freedom has failed to flourish," says CNN.

Bush seemed keen not give Iranian President Ahmadinejad any more time in the spotlight. While he singled out leaders like Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe , Bush didn't highlight the on-going nuclear squabble with Iran. And neither was there any mention of Iraq or Afghanistan.

"Hey Sarky, make sure you something nice about me okay" (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

It was left to Congress to issue a public rebuke of the Iranian President in the form of a new bill "aimed at blocking foreign investment in Iran, in particular its lucrative energy sector," says the WPost.

Where do they find the time to debate the important issues of the day like rap lyrics ?

Iraq - Insurgents Target Interior Ministry Officials

Sunni insurgents have begun a " systematic campaign to assassinate police chiefs, police officers, other Interior Ministry officials and tribal leaders throughout Iraq," writes the NYT. The 10 attacks in the last 48 hours seem intended to rebut U.S. claims that the Surge has brought stability across the nation.

U.S. troops arrest insurgents in Baqubah - Photo by Yuri Kozyrev for Time

A House panel investigating corruption in Iraq accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of interfering in its inquiry and of running interference for beleaguered security firm Blackwater USA . Rice's State Department, which has authority over Blackwater, is also taking flak from the U.S. Military which fears the latest Blackwater shooting incident is ruining the relationship that "they've built with the Iraqis," says the WPost. Mmmm...Wonder what the Iraqis think of that sniper/bait military strategy then?

Finally in Iraq news, just what the country really needs - a cholera epidemic .

National - UAW Strike Breakthrough

Breaking News Watch - The AP reports the UAW has come to a tentative deal to end the GM strike. Last last night the Wall Street Journal said the two sides were working on the final details of a new four-year contract. One central clause is the creation of a multi-billion-dollar union-run retiree health-care fund.

Polygamist Warren Jeffs - "hailed by his followers as a prophet but denounced by critics as a tyrannical cult leader" says the NYT - was convicted yesterday of being an accomplice to rape of a 14-year old member of his church.

Following emergency meetings in New Orleans, Episcopalian church leaders have agreed to halt gay ordinations in order to prevent a split in the greater Anglican church. Many African Anglicans had threatened to breakaway if the U.S. church continued to ordain gay clergy.

There was air chaos in Memphis yesterday when both the radar and phone system failed. Controllers were forced to divert hundreds of flights using their cell phones says CNN. We can only imagine what life was like in the control tower.....

Celebrity - Keifer's DUI Bust

Keifer Sutherland is busted again for driving under the influence in Los Angeles. That must be about the 20th celeb caught drinking and driving in the last six months. Have none of these stars ever considered calling a cab?

How credible is OJ Simpson 's main accuser in the armed robbery case? Alfred Beardsley, a convicted felon, was "once so mentally unstable that he was jailed in a prison psychiatric ward," says the Smoking Gun.

Angelina Jolie is set to meet the young British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in her role as UN Goodwill Ambassador. Given how hard her handlers tried to control media interviews for her film A Might Heart , someone might tell her that Miliband has his own blog .

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September 25, 2007 5:03

GM Workers Strike

The United Auto Workers called its 73,000 GM workers out on strike yesterday for the first national industrial action at the company since 1970. GM and the UAW are at loggerheads over wages and job security for U.S. workers worried about jobs moving overseas says the Washington Post.

All out - AP Photo/Al Goldis

With GM already playing second fiddle to Toyota, and with the auto industry facing unprecedented challenges from fast looming new emissions legislation, the strike represents " a defining moment from GM ," reports the New York Times.

"Grinning madman" is how the NY Daily News described Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his visit to Columbia University. Greeted by protesters carrying signs saying " Hitler lives ," Ahmadinejad "squirmed uncomfortably for some 90 minutes while trying to put a loving face on a message of hate," the paper writes. Ahmadinejad was visibly thrown off his stride by the "welcoming" remarks of Columbia University's president Lee Bolinger who described him as " a petty and cruel dictator ".

Still the Iranian leader recovered enough to dispatch such zingers as "there were no homosexuals in Iran ? not one ? and that the Nazi slaughter of six million Jews should not be treated as fact, but theory, and therefore open to debate and more research," writes the New York Times.

Finally in surprisingly honest national news, the Homeland Security Department deputy director is quitting, not to spend "more time with this family" but to earn more money in the private sector. Hopefully not advising on computer network security .

World - Burma Monks Defy Junta

The protests grow - Photo: AP

Thousands of Burmese monks are on the streets of Rangoon again today, defying what the Guardian terms "ominous threats from Burma's military regime". The monks "have been handing out pictures of Burmese independence hero Aung San, the deceased father of detained opposition leader Aung," reports the BBC but their every move today is shadowed by army trucks.

Here's YouTube footage of some of the earlier protests

United Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon urged some 80 world leaders to take decisive action to combat global warming at yesterday's climate change summit. "I am convinced that climate change, and what we do about it, will define us, our era, and ultimately the global legacy we leave for future generations," he told the audience.

Of course as the world heats up so does the race to claim the Arctic's natural resources booty. Not content to see Russia, the U.S., Canada et al muscle in, the region's native Inuit people also " want a say in how territorial claims unfold ," reports the Christian Science Monitor. Good luck.

Politics - Go Ahead for Gitmo Military Trials

Military trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees could be a legal option for the Bush administration once again after a special military appeals court overturned a lower court ruling blocking the trials on the grounds that the detainees had not been classified as “alien unlawful enemy combatants.”

Talking of political trials, the prosecutor in the Larry Craig restroom-gate says the senator "should not be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea to charges of disorderly conduct because he fully understood the legal process leading up to the deal," reports the Washington Post.

As President Bush prepares to grasp the mantle of climate change leader with this week's major polluter summit, the San Jose Mercury News reports how the "U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, with the knowledge of the White House," tried to pull the political equivalent of putting a banana in the tailpipe of California's attempts to pass new stringent auto emissions standards .

Who's the President picking in the 08' race? Well Hillary Clinton is a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination says Bush. But guess what, she'll be beaten to the White House by the Republican nominee.

Iraq - Deadly Blow to Reconciliation Feast

A suicide bomber killed 25 Sunni and Shi'ite leaders in Baqubah yesterday. The tribal leaders had gathered for an end of Ramadan reconciliation feast - part of the U.S. efforts to "forge an alliance against Sunni extremists" in Diyala province says the LA Times.

Wanna know how the Pentagon can tell sectarian violence is on the wane ? They have a team of soldiers "sifting through data on the day's civilian victims for clues to the motivations of killers," says the Washington Post. "Signs of torture or a single shot to the head, corpses left in a 'known body dump' - as the body of the Sunni man found on Sept. 3 was - spell sectarian violence," says the paper.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki reckons his country is " the tip of the bayonet" in the global fight against terror. Maliki's decision to sing from the same song sheet as the Bush administration suggests he "appears to have won a reprieve from American talk of pushing him aside," writes the New York Times.

Celebrity - Hard Time for Die Hard Director

Hollywood's infatuation with the clandestino techniques of disgraced private dick to the stars Anthony Pellicano has claimed a victim. Yesterday, Die-Hard director John McTiernan was convicted of lying about using Pellicano to spy on a business associate.

Still on the crime beat, Mike Tyson pleaded guilty in Arizona yesterday to charges of drug possession and driving under the influence. He faces up to four years in prison.

To celebrity politics now and Kevin Spacey , following in the footsteps of Sean Penn and Danny Glover, had an audience with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Explain the Usual Suspects plot to me again: Photo: AP

George Clooney and girlfriend Sarah Larson are back on their feet after a car knocked them off their motorbike while riding in New Jersey (the state's great driving reputation continues!). The couple - she on crutches - still managed to hobble down the red carpet at the premiere of Michael Clayton.

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September 24, 2007 4:27

No War Says Ahmadinejad

The Mahmoud Ahmadinejad road show rolled into New York yesterday with a prime time interview on CBS' 60 Minutes . "You have to appreciate we don't need a nuclear bomb. We don't need that. What need do we have for a bomb?" the Iranian President said before playing down any talk of war with the U.S.: "Why should we go to war? There is no war in the offing."

November's Middle East Summit is shaping up to be one big tent with even Syria is being invited. But is Hamas planning a major terrorist attack against an Israeli city to derail the talks, asks the Jerusalem Post.

Is the Burmese military junta losing control or just waiting to crack down on the growing civil unrest? Some 30,000 people marched through Rangoon today, one day after 5 ,000 monks and nuns rallied against the regime .

But perhaps the most poignant signal of the growing discontent against Burma's repressive regime was the brief appearance on Saturday of Aung San Suu Kyi , the first time supporters of the under-house-arrest Nobel Laureate have seen her since 2003.

Politics - Hillary Does the Rounds

Hillary Clinton also had a spell on the telly yesterday - hitting five political talk shows in a single morning and "demonstrating a particularly senatorial skill: the art of the filibuster."

Hillary talks up a storm: Steve Helber / AP

She was direct on one point at least. Clinton told CNN she " won't vote for any more money to support the four-year-old war in Iraq without a plan to start bringing U.S. troops home".

Rudy Giuliani talks a tough game about terrorists. "They want to kill us," the WPost says he recently told a Virginia luncheon. But as GOP donors choke on their soup, the paper reports that Rudy's latter-day pit-bull bark is significantly worse than his previous prosecutorial bite.

While other presidential hopefuls sound the outrage over the recent Blackwater USA debacle, Mitt Romney is keeping mum . Could the fact that one of his top advisers serves as a Blackwater vice chairman have anything to do with Romney's reticence asks the Politico?

Iraq - Military Men Behaving Badly

You thought the Vietnam War was messed up? Get a load of the nefarious goings-on in Iraq as reported in this morning's dispatches.

Blackwater USA (who else) staff are likely to face criminal charges in Iraq for last weekend's civilian shooting incident. At the same time the company denied allegations that employees smuggled "unlicensed automatic weapons and military equipment into Iraq". In it defense, why bother when there's so much unaccounted for U.S. weaponry in the country already?

Talking of accounting, check out the case of Major John Lee Cockerham, an enterprising officer who is accused of "orchestrating the largest single bribery scheme against the military since the start of the Iraq war," (and that's up against some pretty stiff competition by the sounds of things. Cockerham's alleged $10 millions in bribes is the standout corruption scam in some $10 billion of dodgy military contracts being investigated by the Pentagon.

Oh, and apparently a Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to "bait" insurgents by leaving plastic explosives and ammunition in open spaces and then shooting any Iraqis who pick up the items.

Talk about winning the war of hearts and minds.

National - UAW and GM Stuck in Reverse

Are we the only ones who forgot about the United Auto Workers-GM contract negotiations? Last week when we checked they seemed close to an agreement but last night the union set a strike deadline of this morning, saying "G.M. had failed to address job security," among other issues says the NYT.

Florida Democrats have thumbed their noses at a Democratic National Committee directive by sticking with a decision to move forward the state primary to January 29th. The DNC has threatened to strip Florida of its 210 nominating delegates if the state party held a primary before Feb. 5. Good to see the Dems uniting over a state that has real election clout.

Best headline of the day from the Chicago Tribune: Despite deaths, officials call Tasers effective tool .

Good for your health? Credit: PA

Still on the subject of questionable law and order methods, it appears that all that talk of Gitmo 's imminent closure was premature. "The [Guantanamo Bay] detention facility has been embraced by many Republicans as a potent political symbol in their quest to seize the terrorism issue ahead of next year's elections," says the LA Times.

As the FBI investigates a white supremacist "anti Jena 6" website , it's sobering to reflect that it was 50 years ago that the Little Rock Nine struck a blow against racial segregation. Slow progress, no?

Celebrity - West Side Story at 50

Old Timer special this morning.

West Side Story turns 50 this week. The Romeo and Juliet reinvention highlighted the urban ethnic tensions on the tough Upper West Side of Manhattan. Yes...that Upper West Side.

We'd show you some of the original clips on YouTube but this Zombie/West Side Story mash up seems well, just as appropriate...

Lawrence Olivier 's 100th anniversary has been belatedly celebrated with the unveiling outside London's National Theatre of a life-size statue of the great actor playing Hamlet.

As silent as a statue was the trademark of legendary French mime artist Marcel Marceau . He has died aged 84.

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