ASSOCIATED PRESS OF PAKISTAN
Bangladesh and Nepal will finalize the much-discussed transit agreement early next year, allowing transportation of goods between the two countries, according to a decision reached here Thursday.
But operation of the deal will depend on a go-ahead from New Delhi, officials said.
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(Submitted by Pritam Rohila)
by JOSEPH SHANSKY
Tensions are high in Costa Rica following the announcement of the impending arrival of US military vessels. In the past year alone, a sudden expansion of United States military presence around Latin America has alarmed many in the region. Now it is spreading to the one nation which had previously been known for the absence of any standing permanent army, foreign or national.
Upside Down World for more
by JAMES ABOUREZK
I picked up a copy of a memoir written by the long-gone CIA Director, George Tenet. On the first page of the book’s preface, Mr. Tenet described what it was like on the day after the World Trade Towers had exploded as a result of the terrorists’ actions on 9-11-01.
I quote Mr. Tenet here:
“All this weighed heavy on my mind as I walked beneath the awning that leads to the West Wing and saw Richard Perle exiting the building just as I was about to enter. Perle is one of the godfathers of the neoconservative movement and, at the time, was head of the Defense Policy Board, an independent advisory group attached to the Secretary of Defense. Ours was little more than a passing acquaintance. As the doors closed behind him, we made eye contact and nodded. I had just reached the door myself when Perle turned to me and said, ‘Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday. ‘They bear responsibility.’ (Italics added).
“I was stunned but said nothing. Eighteen hours earlier, I had scanned passenger manifests for the four hijacked airplanes that showed beyond a doubt that al-Qa’ida was behind the attacks. Over the months and years to follow, we would carefully examine the potential of a collaborative role for state sponsors. The intelligence then and now, however, showed no evidence of Iraqi complicity.”
Counterpunch for more
EAST SOUTH WEST NORTH
PHOTO/East South West North
The Jinda Company is a Hong Kong-Macau-Taiwan capital company located in Shuiping village, Dalang town, Dongguan city, Guangdong province. Its main products are metal accessory parts, chemical industrial pipes, etc. It is not a big factory. It has fewer than 100 employees. Its factory space is relatively small, with only 5 restrooms for employees.
As of July 5, the restrooms were padlocked. When the employees asked the security guard, they were told about the new regulations. According to these new regulations, each employee cannot accumulate more than 260 minutes in restroom usage over the course of a month. Any usage over this limit will be deducted from the number of hours worked.
East South West North for more
by JULIAN JACKSON
Kenneth Mouré’s new book extends and develops the analysis of his previous study of Bank of France policy between 1928 and 1936. This time he looks at French gold policy from 1914 until 1939. The book is an important addition to the literature on French economic policy between the wars. It is a fairly technical study which will not always be easy-going for those unfamiliar with economic and monetary history. Nonetheless Mouré writes with clarity and elegance, and his book deserves to be read by anyone interested in understanding the economic background to the turbulence of the inter-war years in France. This was a period when politicians, whose backgrounds had prepared them for entirely different problems, found themselves confronting the most intractable financial and economic situation. The fate of governments in the mid-1920s fluctuated much of the time according to the exchange rate of the franc.
Monthly Review Zine for more
by BEHROZ KHAN
“Sons of this soil Awara Raj Kapoor was born in this 60-room, five-storey house.” PHOTO/Outlook India
It was from Peshawar that the Kapoors migrated to India, settling down in Bombay to storm the Hindi film industry and rule it for decades. The house Raj Kapoor was born in has defied time’s merciless bulldozer, and Feryal is keen that it is declared a national heritage building. Dilip Kumar’s house in the city has survived likewise. A branch of Shahrukh’s family is still in Peshawar, taking immense pride in his worldwide stardom. Anil Kapoor’s father, Surinder, had migrated to India at the time of Partition, and though his house has been pulled down, Anil’s maternal hearth has survived.
Outlook India for more
MS. MAGAZINE
A Missouri bill instituting new abortion restrictions became law on Wednesday under the leadership of Governor Jay Nixon, but without his direct signature. According to the Associated Press, Nixon cited a provision in the Missouri constitution that allows a bill to become law without the governor’s signature, thereby avoiding a direct endorsement of the law. A spokesperson for the Democratic governor said, “Governor Nixon believes that given the legislative deliberations … the appropriate action is to allow the bill to go into effect.” No comment was made on the Governor’s personal opinion about the law.
Ms. Magazine for more
by RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN
Not everyone is going to turn out to be brilliant — any more than everyone will turn out nice and loving. And that is not necessarily because of parental failure or an impoverished environment. It is because everyday character traits, like all human behavior, have hard-wired and genetic components that cannot be molded entirely by the best environment, let alone the best psychotherapists.
The New York Times for more
by MWAURA KAARA
In his speech, addressed directly to Belgium’s monarch and ministers, Lumumba reclaimed the history and dignity of the Congolese people in their decades-long struggle for independence:
‘For this independence of the Congo … no Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that it was by fighting that it has been won, a day-to-day fight, an ardent and idealistic fight, a fight in which we were spared neither privation nor suffering, and for which we gave our strength and our blood … We are proud of this struggle, of tears, of fire, and of blood, to the depths of our being, for it was a noble and just struggle, and indispensable to put an end to the humiliating slavery which was imposed upon us by force.’
Lumumba was prime minister for only about two months before he was removed illegally from office and eventually killed. This occurred under the auspices and coordination of a section of the United Nations loyal to the Belgian government, the Belgian authorities and the US Central Intelligence Agency.
PAMBAZUKA for more