World History Timeline

"Basque Separatists Declare End To Armed Attacks"

First Meetings Leave Palestinian and Israeli Leaders Hopeful

Rains, Floods, Landslides Devastate Guatemala

German Police See Threat In Growing Number Of Islamists

North Korea Ruler Said To Be Rushing Power Transfer

Following Aftershocks New Zealand Begins Cleanup

Snapshot 05 September 2010

• Spain Current Events
  Basque Separatists Declare End To Armed Attacks The Basque rebel group ETA called a halt to armed attacks on Sunday but the government said the declaration was not enough and urged the weakened organization to renounce violence once and for all.
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  The group, which has killed more than 850 people in half a century of armed struggle for an independent state in northern Spain and southwest France, has been crippled by arrests of its members and a rise in support among Basques for legal politics.
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  In the video, which appeared on the website of the Basque newspaper Gara, three masked and black-clad figures appeared seated under the ETA emblem depicting an axe and snake, and flanked by the Basque flag.
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  The central figure read a statement in the Basque language, then all three raised their right fists in the air.
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  "ETA makes it known that for several months now it has taken the decision not to carry out armed attacks," said a transcript of the statement posted on the site, translated into Spanish.   Read More| |

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• Middle East Current Events
  First Meetings Leave Palestinian and Israeli Leaders Hopeful Palestinian and Israeli leaders expressed satisfaction and hope on Sunday in their first public utterances following the opening round of Middle East peace talks in Washington last week.
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  “The structure that has been agreed to is a good one,” the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said in a telephone interview. Mr. Erekat, who has accused the Israelis of bad faith in the past, said the two sides had agreed to build a framework within a year for a comprehensive deal. “We have started a process and have every hope that it will succeed. This is the time for decisions.”
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  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said that Israel was ready for a historic compromise with the Palestinians and that he thought the Arab world would follow.
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  In his regular televised appearance before his weekly cabinet meeting, Mr. Netanyahu said the fact that King Abdullah II of Jordan and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt went to Washington for the start of the negotiations “reflects a sense of readiness that exists in the Arab world, that this is the time to try and complete a peace settlement between us and the Palestinians and to expand it into a broader circle of peace.”
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  Aides to Mr. Netanyahu said that his 90-minute meeting on Thursday with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, had gone well and had set the tone for their next meeting on Sept. 14th in Egypt.   Read More| |

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• Guatemala Current Events
  Rains, Floods, Landslides Devastate Guatemala At least 40 people were missing in Guatemala on Sunday after a massive landslide buried up to 100 trying to dig out a bus caught in deep mud as torrential rains battered the country.
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  The weekend death toll from slides and flooding caused by the rains has already reached 36 and the fire department said on Sunday that up to another 100 people may have been buried overnight by a second slide on a major highway outside the capital.
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  "A wall of earth fell on a bus and around 100 local people organized themselves to dig out the victims," said fire department spokesman Sergio Vasquez. "Then another landslide came along and buried them."
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  President Alvaro Colom said around 40 people had officially been reported missing and nearly 12,000 had been evacuated to emergency shelters.
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  "It's a national tragedy," Colom told a news conference. "It's painful that poor people are paying the price of natural disasters".   Read More| |

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  German Current Events
  German Police See Threat In Growing Number Of Islamists The threat of Islamist attacks in Germany is growing as numbers of people returning from militant camps on the Afghan-Pakistan border rise, a senior police official said.
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  Joerg Ziercke, head of the BKA Federal Crime Office, was also quoted Sunday as saying that curbs on storing telecoms data were hurting efforts to track militant suspects.
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  More than 400 Islamists were living in Germany, some of whom had trained in camps, including a hard core with combat experience in Afghanistan, he told Tagespiegel newspaper.
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  Police had spotted a rise in German residents moving to and from the camps, he said in extracts of an interview to be published in Monday's edition.
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  "Since the beginning of 2009 we have registered an increase in travel and attempted travel from members of violence-prone Islamist circles," he said.   Read More| |

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• North Korea Current Events
  North Korea Ruler Said To Be Rushing Power Transfer North Korean leader Kim Jong Il will probably use an upcoming meeting of party elites to introduce his heir apparent, initiating the Stalinist dictatorship's second hereditary power transfer, U.S. and South Korean experts and officials say.
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  Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong Eun, is widely expected to be given at least one high-level leadership position - the first step to claiming absolute power on a par with his father's.
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  Experts differ on whether the younger Kim's rise will be publicly heralded. But in any case, moves made in coming days could lend the first real insight into Kim Jong Il's strategy for maintaining his family's power as his country deals with a frail economy, severe food shortages and international pressure to denuclearize.
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  North Korea has not announced dates for the party delegates meeting in Pyongyang, a rare forum reserved for landmark decision-making. Good Friends, a Seoul-based humanitarian group with ties to the North, said the forum would begin Saturday. Other experts predicted it would open Monday, with Kim Jong Eun being promoted on the final day. North Korea celebrates the anniversary of its founding Thursday.
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  Observers say that the elder Kim, who suffered a stroke in 2008, is rushing the power transfer because of health problems. Kim Jong Eun is thought to be in his mid- or late 20s.   Read More | |

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• New Zealand Current Events
  Following Aftershocks New Zealand Begins Cleanup New Zealand's second-biggest city, Christchurch, is facing an enormous clean-up after being struck by the country's worst earthquake in 80 years. The magnitude 7 quake devastated parts of Christchurch early Saturday.
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  Christchurch awoke Sunday to another grim day as shell-shocked residents assess the damage inflicted by one of the country's most powerful earthquakes.
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  Mayor Bob Parker is urging residents to stay indoors.
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  "This is not a good time to go out, as curious as you may be, and have a look around if it means driving out onto the streets because we need to keep them free for emergency services," Parker advised. "Use common sense; emergency services are flat out at the moment. The assessment is underway. Take sensible precautions, but don't go out sightseeing. Check on your neighbors. Do the things that communities do so well at times like this."
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  Authorities say it is a miracle no one was killed after disaster struck Saturday before dawn, when most people were still asleep. A small number of serious injuries have been reported.   Read More| |

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• Afghanistan Current Events
  Afghan Government Tries To Stabilize Kabul Bank With crowds again besieging Afghanistan's largest private bank after a day's respite for Friday prayer, Afghan authorities on Saturday grasped for a plan to shore up tottering Kabul Bank and avoid potential economic and political turmoil.
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  One option, according to a person familiar with discussions between President Hamid Karzai and key protagonists in the drama, is that the state take possession of a substantial part of the bank's shares. This would allow the government to inject money into a bank that, although entirely privately owned, plays a key role in the functioning of the state because it handles payments for soldiers, police and teachers.
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  In a sign of his determination to stabilize Kabul Bank, Karzai ordered Afghan police to take over guard duties at bank branches from a private security company, said Sherkhan Farnood, the bank's founder and ousted chairman.
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  Kabul Bank depositors on Saturday yanked out about $69 million, less than on Wednesday and Thursday. But this was largely because the bank ran out of cash at many branches when the Central Bank had trouble delivering funds. Kabul Bank began the week with $500 million in liquid assets, most of it stashed with the Central Bank, but now has less than half that amount.
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  Saturday's renewed stampede by depositors represented a blunt vote of no confidence in Karzai, who had assured Afghans that Kabul Bank would not collapse and accused Western news media of overstating its problems.   Read More | |

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World History Timeline

Clinton Takes Hands-on Role In Mideast Peace Making

Italy To Close Roma Camps

NZ Earthquake Leaves Heavy Damage, No Fatalities

Hamas Committed To More Violent Attacks

Karzai Forms Council For Peace Talks With Taliban

Israeli MK Works On One-State Backup Plan

Snapshot 04 September 2010

• US - Middle East Current Events
  Clinton Takes Hands-on Role In Mideast Peace Making For much of her tenure as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton has been less an architect than an advocate for the Obama administration’s Middle East policy. With the resumption of direct talks last week, she now has no choice but to plunge into the rough and tumble of peacemaking.
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  Mrs. Clinton will be in the thick of the negotiations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, when they meet on Sept. 14 in Egypt. Her role, several officials say, will be to take over from the administration’s special envoy, George J. Mitchell, when the two sides run into serious obstacles.
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  It may prove the greatest test yet for Mrs. Clinton, one that could cement her legacy as a diplomat if she solves the riddle that foiled even her husband, former President Bill Clinton. But it could also pose considerable risks to any political ambitions she may harbor.
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  “I understand very well the disappointments of the past; I share them,” she said in convening the talks, an allusion to Mr. Clinton’s failed effort to broker a deal, most vividly at Camp David in 2000, when peace seemed tantalizingly close only to vanish amid recriminations in the Maryland mountains.   Read More| |

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• Israel Current Events
  Hamas Committed To More Violent Attacks Deadly drive-by shootings by Hamas gunmen this week proved that the Palestinian militant group can still operate in the West Bank when its leadership demands, despite a sustained crackdown by Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
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  Hamas has pledged to follow up on the attacks, which appeared timed to the re-launch in Washington of direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
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  For more than two years, Israelis and Palestinians have celebrated the relative quiet that has prevailed in the West Bank and applauded the U.S.-trained Palestinian security services, which have fought, arrested and disarmed Hamas and other militants in coordination with Israel.
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  Palestinian officials have described the establishment of a credible security service and rule of law as an important precursor to statehood and have voiced pride in their successes.
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  The three attacks Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, which left four Israelis dead and two wounded, seemed like an anomaly amid the recent calm.   Read More| |

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• Italy Current Events
  Italy To Close Roma Camps Some 20 years ago, Marco Deragna, a Roma whose family has been in Italy for generations, moved to a field on the outskirts of metropolitan Milan and made his home there.
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  Today, his prefab house on wheels — painted bright yellow with dark green shutters — is part of a sizable nucleus of mostly well-kept dwellings that house about 120 Roma, along with their horses, dogs, chickens, turkeys and even peacocks. But the camp’s days are numbered.
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  The Milan government plans to shut several of the city’s 12 authorized camps. The settlement where Mr. Deragna lives is set to become a transitory encampment for evicted Roma, with a maximum stay of three years.
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  Mr. Deragna says that he and the other families who have lived there for nearly two decades were not given many viable alternatives after being told they would have to leave. “These homes are the fruit of years of work here, and now the city wants to send us away without offering a solution,” Mr. Deragna said. “We have nothing. Where will we go?”
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  The treatment of the Roma, also known as Gypsies, became a major issue this summer in France, where the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy has expelled hundreds of people. But the conflict has prompted a similar, if more subdued, debate in Italy. Some critics even say Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government has led the way on this issue in the European Union.   Read More| |

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  New Zealand Current Events
  NZ Earthquake Leaves Heavy Damage, No Fatalities Authorities declared an overnight curfew for Saturday after a major earthquake hit New Zealand's second biggest city, Christchurch, bringing down power lines and bridges and wrecking roads and building facades.
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  "The damages are incredibly frightening. The only thing you can say it's a miracle that no one lost their life," Prime Minister John Key told Television NZ after the quake struck with a magnitude of 7.1 from a depth of 10 kms (6 miles) at around 4.35 a.m. local time (12:35 p.m. EDT Friday).
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  He said early estimates for the cost of repairs were around NZ$2 billion ($1.4 billion).
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  A curfew was slapped on the central business district of Christchurch between 1900 and 0700 (3:00 a.m. EDT and 3:00 p.m. EDT). Earlier, a formal civil defense state of emergency was imposed in the city of around 350,000 to coordinate recovery operations.
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  The last time authorities declared a local emergency was in late December 2007 when a 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit Gisborne on New Zealand's North Island. The earthquake caused damage to some buildings but also caused no casualties.
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  Christchurch city and the neighboring small towns bore the full force of the quake, which did considerable damage to infrastructure.  Read More| |

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• Afghanistan Current Events
  Karzai Forms Council For Peace Talks With Taliban Afghan President Hamid Karzai has announced the formation of an Afghan council to pursue peace talks with the Taliban.
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  A statement from Mr. Karzai's office Saturday said the creation of the High Peace Council was a "significant step toward peace talks." It said members of the council would be named later, but would include jihadi leaders, influential figures and women.
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  The idea for the panel was approved last June at a national peace conference, or jirga, in Kabul attended by Afghan leaders and tribal elders. The plan involves offering money and job incentives to insurgents who are willing to renounce violence and sever all ties to terrorist networks.
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  So far the Taliban has shown little interest in the talks, which Mr. Karzai has billed as the best strategy for reconciliation.
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  The announcement came amid more insurgent violence, as 10 people were killed in attacks across the country.
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  Officials say four Afghan policemen and three civilians were killed when a bomb mounted on a motorcycle exploded in Afghanistan's northern province of Kunduz.   Read More | |

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• Pakistan Current Events
  Suicide Bomber Kills 54 At Pakistan Rally A suicide bomber struck a rally in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Friday, killing at least 54 people in the second major attack this week and piling pressure on a U.S.-backed government overwhelmed by a flood crisis.
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  Pakistan's Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast and said it would launch attacks in the United States and Europe "very soon" -- repeating a threat to strike Western targets in response to drone attacks that have targeted its leadership.
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  In Washington, the White House condemned the Quetta attack on a Shi'ite rally and expressed solidarity with the Pakistani people, saying it was "even more reprehensible" because it came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as Pakistan reels from disastrous flooding.
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  A U.S. counterterrorism official said the threat by the al Qaeda-linked Taliban against the United States and Europe could not be discounted.
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  The attack came just two days after Washington added the Pakistani Taliban to its list of "foreign terrorist organizations" and charged its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, with plotting a bombing that killed seven CIA agents at a U.S. base in Afghanistan last December.   Read More| |

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• Israel Current Events
  Israeli MK Works On One-State Backup Plan Hawkish Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely is surprisingly putting the finishing touches to a plan for "one state for two peoples."
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  While Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was in Washington meeting with US President Barack Obama on Wednesday, ahead of Thursday’s summit with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely was in Ariel talking to Likud central committee members about her plan to annex the West Bank and give full Israeli citizenship to all its residents, Jewish and Arab.
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  The fact that Hotovely is starting to make her plan public now is not coincidental. She wants Netanyahu and the world to know that there is a viable alternative to the creation of a Palestinian state, so it will be on the table when – as she and many others expect – yet another effort to reach an agreement with the Palestinians fails.
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  To that end, Hotovely has spent her summer vacation not relaxing on European beaches like many of her Knesset colleagues but meeting with top experts on demography and security and drafting an in-depth initiative for what she calls “one state for two peoples.”
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  She intends to complete the draft by the time the Knesset’s extended summer recess ends in October and publish it in hopes of having the same impact on Netanyahu from the Right that the Geneva Initiative did from the Left on former prime minister Ariel Sharon, who, some say, was pressured to withdraw from Gaza by that plan.   Read More | |

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World History Timeline

"15 Year Old Goes To Cambridge"

7.4 Quake Hits New Zealand

"Netanyahu, Abbas Agree To Continue Talks"

Commentators Show Pessimism Re: The Peace Talks

Taliban Bombs Pakistan Again

Chinese Finish Visit to Burma

Snapshot 03 September 2010

• UK Current Events
  15 Year Old Goes To Cambridge A 15-year-old mathematics prodigy is set to become the youngest undergraduate at the University of Cambridge for more than two centuries.
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  Arran Fernandez, who was home-educated in Surrey, will start studying at the university next month.
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  The teenager has taken a place at Fitzwilliam College to become the youngest Cambridge student since 1773.
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  Arran, who was tutored by his father Dr Neil Fernandez, 45, will be 15 and three months when he starts lectures.
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  Cambridge has not accepted anyone his age since the 14-year-old William Pitt the Younger was offered a place in 1773.   Read More| |

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• New Zealand Current Events
  7.4 Quake Hits New Zealand A major earthquake of 7.4 magnitude hit New Zealand, 30 km (20 miles) west of Christchurch early on Saturday morning, causing no immediate reports of casualties but widespread damage, authorities said.
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  The quake, which had a depth of 33 kms (20.5 miles), struck around 4.35 a.m. local time (12:35 p.m. EDT Friday) and was felt throughout much of the South Island and southern parts of the North Island, but did not trigger a tsunami.
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  Police in Christchurch, New Zealand's second-largest city with a population of about 350,000 people, closed the central business district of the city, with building facades falling into streets, crushing cars and blocking roads.
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  "There's a lot of damage that I've been able to observe in the central city area, mainly of the old brick and masonry buildings, a number of those have got walls that have fallen into the street," Christchurch mayor Bob Parker told Radio New Zealand.
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  Police said there were widespread reports of houses being affected with broken windows, items thrown off shelves, toppled chimneys, with power and water services disrupted.
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  Officials were checking how severe the damage was in rural areas, closer to the epicenter, west of the city.   Read More| |

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• International Current Events
  Netanyahu, Abbas Agree To Continue Talks Israeli and Palestinian negotiators cleared the first hurdle on Thursday in their elusive quest for Middle East peace: they agreed to keep talking, two weeks from now in Egypt.
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  But on a richly choreographed day of diplomacy, filled with solemn promises to tackle the tough issues dividing them, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders did not confront the one issue that could sink these talks in three weeks: whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will extend a moratorium on the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
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  The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, has threatened to walk out of the negotiations if Israel does not extend the moratorium beyond September. But officials said the two leaders barely broached the topic during three hours of talks, which covered the gamut of issues that have divided Israel and the Palestinians for decades.
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  Instead, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas focused on mechanics, agreeing to aim for a “framework agreement” that resolves the core issues in carving out a Palestinian state from the Israeli-occupied territory on the West Bank. The fine points of a treaty would be worked out after that.   Read More| |

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  Mexico Current Events
  Drug Trafficking Is Greatest Threat In Mexico President Felipe Calderon acknowledged Thursday that an increasingly bloody war with powerful drug trafficking organizations continues to pose "the central threat" to Mexico.
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  "As we all know, we face unscrupulous criminals with enormous economic capacity and great firepower," Calderon said in his fourth state of the nation speech since taking office in December 2006.
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  "I am fully aware that in the past year the problem of violence has risen," Calderon said before an audience of generals, cabinet secretaries, legislators and dignitaries at the National Palace, just two weeks before Mexico celebrates its bicentennial.
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  The Calderon administration submitted its annual report to congress Wednesday night. In the past year, authorities made 34,515 drug-related arrests and confiscated more than 34,000 weapons, 2,500 grenades, 12,000 vehicles, 76 aircraft and 60 boats from criminal groups.
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  Drug lords and their troops are increasingly using grenades in attacks against the state.   Read More| |

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• Middle East Current Events
  Commentators Show Pessimism Re: The Peace Talks Palestinian and Israeli commentators were mostly pessimistic on Friday in assessing this week’s meeting of their leaders in Washington. Many described it as political theater — dark suits, cordial handshakes and lofty speeches — offering little chance to end the conflict.
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  Some Israelis focused on the rise in shootings of Jewish settlers by Hamas and the political weakness of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas; Palestinians worried that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has little intention of granting them what they consider their due — all of the occupied lands in a truly sovereign state.
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  “The heart yearns for the success of this latest attempt at peacemaking,” wrote David Horovitz, editor of The Jerusalem Post. But the head “fears that this week’s return to terror attacks was only the first murderous consequence.”
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  Sam Bahour, a businessman in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, said in a telephone interview that the Palestinian business community was mostly divided between those predicting failed talks and those expecting an agreement so lopsided in Israel’s favor as to make a sham of peace.   Read More | |

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• Pakistan Current Events
  Taliban Bombs Pakistan Again A suicide bomber struck a rally in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Friday, killing at least 54 people in the second major attack this week, piling pressure on a U.S.-backed government overwhelmed by a flood crisis.
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  Pakistan's Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast and said it would launch attacks in the United States and Europe "very soon," repeating a threat to strike Western targets in response to drone attacks that have targeted its leadership.
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  The Quetta attack on a Shi'ite rally expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people came as the United States said the devastating floods were likely to hold up army offensives against Taliban insurgents.
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  "Unfortunately the flooding in Pakistan is probably going to delay any operations by the Pakistani army in North Waziristan for some period of time," U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Afghanistan where he is visiting U.S. troops.
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  Senior police official Hamid Shakeel told Reuters that at least 54 people were killed and about 160 wounded in Quetta.   Read More| |

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• Burma - China Current Events
  Chinese Finish Visit to Burma Two Chinese warships have completed a first ever trip to Burma.
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  The five-day visit, by two ships in China's anti-piracy taskforce, highlighted China's growing naval reach and its close ties with Rangoon.
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  China also says it will receive a visit next week from the head of Burma's military government, Than Shwe.
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  He is to meet the Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, during a four-day trip which will take him to Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Continue reading the main story Related stories
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  The announcement highlights the growing relationship between China and its southern neighbour, which is shunned by Western countries and viewed with suspicion by many Asian governments.
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  General Than Shwe has also visited India in recent weeks.
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  A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the general's visit would take place between 7-11 September.   Read More | |

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World History Timeline

Chilean Miners Get First Hot Meal

Positive Side Of Africa Not Shown In US Mainstream Media

Australia's Labor Party Leads Opposition 74-73

Israeli & Palestinian Leaders To Meet In Washington

US Prosecuters Charge Pakistani Taliban Leader With Killing CIA Employees

Rare Roman Lantern Found in Field

Snapshot 02 September 2010

• Chile Current Events
  Chilean Miners Get First Hot Meal Chilean miners trapped underground after a rock collapse have received their first hot meal in 26 days.
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  Meatballs, chicken and rice were piped through a tube to the 33 miners, who are stuck 700m (2,300ft) below the surface.
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  Previously the miners have received only glucose tablets and high-protein milk.
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  A team from the US space agency Nasa has arrived at the mine to offer their advice on keeping the miners healthy. Continue reading the main story Chile's Trapped Miners
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  The team of four experts was requested by the Chilean government to share their experience of coping in confined spaces.
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  A nutritionist from the team helped put together the menu.   Read More| |

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• Africa Current Events
  Positive Side Of Africa Not Shown In US Mainstream Media Africa Society president Bernadette Paolo says many Africa-related events continue to feature less prominently in mainstream US media
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  The president and CEO of the Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa says that important stories about Africa continue to feature less prominently in mainstream American media outlets.
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  The Africa Society is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that strives to educate Americans about the richness and diversity of Africa, as well as the economic opportunities that the continent offers.
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  Bernadette Paolo said, despite the fact that the month of August featured many Africa-related events in Washington, those events did not make the mainstream American media.
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  She said there is a need to demand positive coverage of Africa by providing the media with information that contrasts with the usual negative stories.   Read More| |

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• International Current Events
  Israeli & Palestinian Leaders To Meet In Washington The Israeli and Palestinian leaders were to open direct peace negotiations Thursday after committing to work to end the conflict that has endured for six decades.
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  The talks are to be held at the State Department, where they will take place under the eye of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The negotiations follow a remarkable tableau at the White House Wednesday night, where President Obama, flanked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, vowed to do everything within his power in the next year to achieve the comprehensive agreement that has eluded negotiators since Israel was established.
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  “We are but five men,” Mr. Obama said Wednesday night. “But when we come together, we will not be alone. We will be joined by the generations of those who have gone before.”
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  In somber, emotional tones at the White House Wednesday night, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas expressed their own determination to make peace.
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  Mr. Netanyahu, turning toward to Mr. Abbas, called him his “partner in peace.” He said he came to find a “historic compromise” but warned that any deal must be anchored in ensuring Israel’s security.   Read More| |

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  Middle East Current Events
  Can Netanyahu Bring Peace David Rubinger, one of Israel’s best-known photojournalists and a man firmly on the political left, cast his ballot last year for Benjamin Netanyahu for prime minister, the first time he had ever voted for the right-leaning Likud Party.
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  “The left wants to make peace but cannot, while the right doesn’t want to but, if forced to, can do it,” he said in an interview. “So last year I decided to vote not with my heart but with my head.”
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  As Mr. Netanyahu joins Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, at the State Department on Thursday to start direct peace negotiations, Mr. Rubinger’s theory — and it is not his alone — will be tested. Will the Israeli leader who built a career opposing a Palestinian state be the one to help bring it into being?
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  In some fashion, that is Mr. Netanyahu’s own claim — that only someone like himself, with hawkish credentials, can and will produce lasting peace because only such a leader can bring his people with him.
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  “I intend to confound the critics and the skeptics,” Mr. Netanyahu said in July at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. At age 60 and in his second tour as prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu, who grew up partly outside Philadelphia and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says he did not return to power for the pleasure of it. It is not that pleasurable, he notes, and he aims to get something important done.   Read More| |

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• Australa Current Events
  Australia's Labor Party Leads Opposition 74-73 Seats Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard inched closer to a return to power on Thursday after one of four independent lawmakers holding the balance of power threw his support behind her Labor Party.
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  Labor has promised to introduce a new tax on mining profits tax and a $38 billion telecoms project if it wins a second term after an indecisive August 21 election.
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  Independent Andrew Wilkie's decision to back Gillard means Labor can now claim 74 seats in the 150-member lower house of parliament, still two short of the number required to rule.
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  The conservative opposition has 73 seats, but it could still win the race to form a government if the three remaining rural-based independents line up behind its leader, Tony Abbott. Their decision may not come until early next week.   Read More | |

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• UK Current Events
  Rare Roman Lantern Found in Field A metal detecting enthusiast has found what is believed to be the only intact Roman lantern made out of bronze ever discovered in Britain.
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  Danny Mills, 21, made the find in a field near Sudbury in Suffolk.
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  The area was dotted with plush Roman villas and country estates in the second century.
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  The object, described as a rare example of Roman craftsmanship, has been donated to Ipswich Museum where is it now on display.
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  In the autumn of 2009, Mr Mills, a metal detector user, found a large bronze object whilst metal detecting in a field near Sudbury.
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  He immediately reported the discovery to Suffolk Archaeological Unit.   Read More| |

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• International Current Events
  US Prosecuters Charge Pakistani Taliban Leader With Killing CIA Employees U.S. prosecutors have charged the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, in the plot that killed seven CIA employees at an American base in Afghanistan last December, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.
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  Mehsud, believed to be hiding in the tribal areas of Pakistan and head of the group known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, was charged with conspiracy to kill Americans overseas and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.
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  On December 30, a Jordanian doctor who had gained the trust of the CIA employees as a source detonated a bomb hidden under his clothing after entering a heavily fortified compound outside Khost. It was the second-most deadly attack in CIA history.
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  "Criminal charges are meant to deal with Hakimullah if he's captured," said a U.S. official who declined to be identified. "He can face justice in other ways, too. That hasn't changed."
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  U.S. military forces have tried to kill Mehsud since the attack with strikes by unmanned aerial drones. The State Department is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his location.   Read More | |

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World History Timeline

US Begins New Era In Iraq

Lackluster Beginning to Mideast Peace Talks

S.Africa Unions Reject Government Pay Raise Offer

How Israelis & Palestinians Feel About "Peace"

Crossing Irish Sea In A Bathtub

Lahore Rattled By Bombs

Snapshot 01 September 2010

• US - Iraq Current Events
  US Begins New Era In Iraq The United States began a fragile new era in its turbulent history with Iraq on Wednesday as American political and military leaders marked the official end of combat operations but acknowledged that a difficult milestone, the creation of a new coalition Iraqi government, was not yet in reach.
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  In the marble rotunda of Al Faw Palace, one of the lavish former palaces of Saddam Hussein that serves as the American military headquarters in Baghdad, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Gen. Ray Odierno sounded the same theme in a made-for-television ceremony to inaugurate Operation New Dawn, as the post-combat phase has been named. The United States military, they said, was moving toward an exit after seven years of war but the Obama administration would not abandon the country.
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  “We stood together in difficult times, we fought together, we laughed together and sometimes died together,” General Odierno, who formally ended more than four years of service in Iraq, including two as the top American commander, said during the ceremony. He said the change in mission, which still leaves 50,000 American troops in the country, “in no way signals the end of our commitment to the people of Iraq.”
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  He ended his remarks with his military sign-off. “Lion 6 — Out,” he said.   Read More| |

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• Iraq Current Events
  Iraqis Are Not Impressed With Obama's Speech In Mosul, a city dominated by Sunni Arabs that served as Saddam Hussein’s northern command post and a place to launch operations against the nearby Kurds, many people told our Iraqi correspondent that they did not even know about the speech. Others said they had no electricity, so were unable to watch it.
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  Ahmed Ibrahim, 33 Teacher
  “I have not heard the speech. It’s an American matter between President Obama and the people of the United States. We do not care if they withdraw or not. The important thing is that security is improved and we can live an ordinary life.”
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  Karim Hussein, 46
  “It would have been better for Obama to talk about the U.S. victory in Iraq, as they achieved everything they planned — from the change of regime to turning Iraq into a weak country, putting Saddam on trial, killing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Omar al-Baghdadi and holding democratic elections despite the human and material losses inflicted on the U.S. military and the Iraqis. … It is Iraq and its people who have lost and will keep losing.”
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  Raed Mohammed Bashir, 35
  “I heard the speech. It was a speech for domestic consumption in the U.S. It is good for the upcoming American election. For Iraqis, it meant nothing. We are suffering in bad conditions, with loss of security, corruption and no government. The Americans lost nothing, whether they completed their mission or not. What more will happen to Iraq? They destroyed Iraq and surrendered it. We cannot even form a government so how come they are leaving Iraq? They will leave us to whom?”   Read More| |

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• Middle East Current Events
  Lackluster Beginning to Peace Talks President Barack Obama urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday not to let the chance for peace slip away as he opened a Washington summit shadowed by Middle East violence.
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  But with a fresh West Bank shooting attack and a persistent deadlock over Jewish settlements, Obama acknowledged skepticism in some quarters about his prospects for success and said he was under no illusions about challenges he faced.
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  Wading into Middle East peacemaking on the eve of the relaunch of face-to-face Israeli-Palestinian negotiations after a 20-month hiatus, Obama said leaders from both sides shared Washington's conviction that a deal on Palestinian statehood could be reached within a year.
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  "As I told each of them today, this moment of opportunity may not soon come again. They cannot afford to let it slip away," Obama said after one-on-one talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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  But the talks already faced a major stumbling block with Israel resisting any formal extension of a partial freeze on construction in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Abbas has threatened to pull out of the revived peace process if building resumes after the September 26 expiration of the moratorium.   Read More| |

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  S Africa Current Events
  S.Africa Unions Reject Government Pay Raise Offer South Africa's public sector unions rejected a new pay offer from the government on Wednesday to end a three-week strike but asked for more time to consult their 1.3 million members in Africa's biggest economy.
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  "The majority of unions under a coalition, which included South Africa's largest labor federation COSATU, voted against the new offer, although some smaller unions in the grouping were split in their vote.
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  "The unions met this afternoon and COSATU rejected the offer. The strikes will continue and we will continue to consult our members," COSATU Secretary General Zwelinzima Vavi told Reuters.
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  Members of the smaller Independent Labor Caucus (ILC) union umbrella group said there was a split in their vote, although the group would go with the coalition majority.
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  "Irrespective of what we say, the majority rejected it. But we must still go to our members and get their mandate," said Manie de Clercq, a spokesman for the Public Servants Association, the biggest union affiliated to the ILC.   Read More| |

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• Israel Current Events
  How Israelis & Palestinians Feel About "Peace" As Israelis and Palestinians head into U.S.-brokered negotiations, both sides are drawing lessons from Israel's unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip, five years ago. By removing thousands of Jewish settlers and Israeli troops, Israel hoped to ease tensions. Israelis wanted security. The Palestinians hoped greater autonomy would bring peace and prosperity. Since the withdrawal, neither side has achieved its goals. For Israelis, the violence of the last five years gave a lesson that has hardened their reluctance to agree to a total pullout from the West Bank - a key issue in the talks.
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  Aziz Aziz owns a clothing factory in the northern Gaza Strip. Five years ago, he was full of hope that the end of the Israeli occupation was going to mean more business opportunity.
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  Aziz says that five years after the Jews left Gaza, he expected his situation to be better than it is. He believed that life would be better and that the economy would grow. But he says he has seen the opposite happen. He says that, for the last five years, everything has gone backward.
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  Aziz had secured lucrative export contracts, but his dreams faded when fighting erupted between rival factions -- President Mahmoud Abbas' moderate Fatah and the militant Islamist group, Hamas.
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  Gaza descended into chaos, with members of both factions fighting in the streets.   Read More | |

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• Pakistan Current Events
  Lahore Rattled By Bombs Three bombs exploded at a Shi'ite procession in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people and wounding over 170, piling pressure on a government already overwhelmed by floods.
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  Police said two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowd, after a lull in violence during the floods, the type of attack that Pakistani Taliban militants have claimed in the past.
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  Sajjad Bhutta, a senior Lahore official, told Reuters the death toll had climbed to 20, with at least 170 wounded. Rescue services said 25 were killed.
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  Separately, the U.S. Justice Department said prosecutors had charged the leader of the al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, for the plot that killed seven CIA employees at an American base in Afghanistan last December.
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  Mehsud, believed to be in the tribal areas of Pakistan, was accused of conspiracy to kill Americans overseas and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, the Justice Department said. The charges confirm Pakistan's Taliban insurgents have extended their reach overseas.   Read More| |

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• UK Current Events
  Crossing Irish Sea In A Bathtub At an age when many people are thinking about how to get in and out of the bath, Mervyn Kinkead has put his own tub to a use which belies his advancing years.
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  The 65-year-old from Lisburn has become the first man to cross the Irish Sea in a bath.
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  With only a relatively minor hiccup along the way, Mervyn covered the 19 nautical miles from Donaghadee across to Portpatrick in about eight hours.
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  The problem arose when the bath, probably used to being filled, began to take in water about three miles out of Portpatrick.
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  However it was soon righted, and Mervyn made it across to Scotland shortly before nightfall.
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  "It all began as a bit of a joke," Mervyn told BBC district reporter Claire Savage.
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  "Then someone said about doing it for charity so I thought I had better do it."   Read More | |

Daily Snapshot Timeline:Look at the events of any day. Each daily snapshot is a page in our World History Timeline.

Trace day to day movements. Patterns emerge. Follow the trajectories to see where we are headed

previous day     next day

The Friendly Universe - Law of Attraction in Action  | |

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