Another Angle 21 - May - 2007

ANOTHER ANGLE
News others won't tell you



History was made on - May 21
Pianist Thomas "Fats" Waller, who will write such popular hits as "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose," is born in New York City


NATIONAL:



Racism goes on trial again in America's Deep South
In the cool and beflagged small courtroom in Jena, Louisiana, three black schoolboys - Robert Bailey, Theodore Shaw and Mychal Bell - are about to go on trial for a playground fight that could see them jailed for between 30 and 50 years.



Army Recruiters Caught on Hidden Camera
The United States Army insists that it's not so desperate that it would recruit the mentally ill to serve on the front lines.
But now an exclusive NewsChannel 5 (Nashville) investigation has the Army investigating three Middle Tennessee recruiters, along with their Dishonorable Deceptions.



Michelle Obama's sacrifice
Michelle Obama has quit her $215,000 dream job and demoted herself to queen. Though the party line is that she's only "scaled back" to a 20 percent workload, I doubt her former co-workers will bother alerting her to many staff meetings. She's traded in her solid gold résumé, high-octane talent and role as vice president of community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals to be a professional wife and hostess.



Jimmy Carter Put Down By Fox & Friends
Instead of focusing on the good that Jimmy Carter has done when he was president, (brokering the Middle East peace talks) and all the good he's done after his presidency, saving literally millions of African children from Guinea worm disease which is down from 3.5 million cases to fewer than 11,000 by Dec. 31, 2005, and winning a Nobel Peace Prize, Fox went after Jimmy Carter's economic record in order to put him down because of the remarks he made about the Bush Administration.


INTERNATIONAL:



Economic success in Somaliland
Somaliland booms.
On the dusty streets of the market place in the Hargeisa, the capital, goods are displayed.
Money-changers also do a brisk trade, converting between shillings, dollars and euros.
They are cashing in on relative stability in the enclave to build solid businesses.



Who owns the land in Nigeria?
Prince Wegwu and his family own land in the Niger Delta with 31 oil wells on it. Oil companies pump out thousands of barrels of oil a day and yet he says neither he nor his family have benefited.



Cameraman captures Afghan bomb footage 21 May 07



Africa to form new syndicate for global diamond market
The founder members, who include six African countries that produce over half of the world’s diamonds by value, have already agreed on the terms of reference for the new body and were recently in the Angolan capital of Luanda to agree on a framework for ADPA’s funding and secretariat.


IRAQ:



Exclusive: Secret US plot to kill Al-Sadr
The US Army tried to kill or capture Muqtada al-Sadr, the widely revered Shia cleric, after luring him to peace negotiations at a house in the holy city of Najaf, which it then attacked, according to a senior Iraqi government official. The revelation of this extraordinary plot, which would probably have provoked an uprising by outraged Shia if it had succeeded, has left a legacy of bitter distrust in the mind of Mr Sadr for which the US and its allies in Iraq may still be paying. "I believe that particular incident made Muqtada lose any confidence or trust in the [US-led] coalition and made him really wild," the Iraqi National Security Adviser Dr Mowaffaq Rubai'e told The Independent in an interview.



Iraq's hidden casualties: 13,000 working for contractors
Casualties among private contractors in Iraq have soared to record levels this year, setting a pace that seems certain to turn 2007 into the bloodiest year yet for the civilians who work alongside the U.S. military in the war zone, according to new government numbers.


OP-ED:



Who's Afraid of Jimmy Carter? George Bush
It is difficult to argue with Carter, not just on the basis of his stature but on the basis of his astute read of the current circumstance. And that's what scares the Bush White House. When a well regarded former president gets specific about the current president's dramatic failures -- and about the damage that is done when foreign leaders align with Bush -- this embattled White House gets tense.



The Progressive Daily Beacon: "The Bleeding Heart Liberal ..."
Every American that actually tried to make the world and his or her country a better place for all "God's children", as Martin Luther King JR had so eloquently said; eventually those Americans bought into the extremist Republican's perversions and came to view themselves as being somehow "un-American" and ashamed for daring to care about someone and something other than themselves. Nearly every American who believed in something greater than themselves came to surrender their very real and Christ-like morality and instead, latched onto the radicalized and extremist Republican Party's perverted and greed-based "Christian" morality of hate and intolerance.



The Democrats’ Misleading Iraq Funding Provisions: They’re Not Really Benchmarks
Democratic congressional leadership has effectively taken ownership of the Iraq war waging political theater battles over phony “benchmarks” that the Bush administration doesn’t actually oppose. In reality, Democratic “benchmarks” for Iraqi government behavior require the handover of the country’s oil resources to mainly U.S. corporations; a demand that Iraqis spend their own money to rebuild infrastructure systematically destroyed by the Americans, who also looted billions in oil revenues; and reform of “de-Baathification” laws that were instituted by - the Americans!



ECONOMY:



Kuwait drops dollar peg in blow to Gulf currency union
The move stunned Gulf currency markets and volumes dried up. The impact would be clearer on Monday when global markets open, said Steve Brice, chief Middle East economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai. Oman and Bahrain, the two smallest Gulf economies, and Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy, said they planned to stand by their pegs.



SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY:



New and improved version of Gozi Trojan horse on the loose



Japanese use bacteria to store data
While ink may fade and computers may crash, bacterial information lasts as long as a species stays alive - possibly a mind-boggling million years - according to Professor Masaru Tomita, who heads the team of researchers at Keio University.



HEALTH&FITNESS:



Vitamin-prostate puzzle
Much of the old wisdom seems to be falling by the wayside. NCI scientists and those at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found last week that lycopene apparently does not prevent prostate cancer. "Our study adds an important piece to the puzzle," said Dr. Ulrike Peters, lead author of the study. "It's disappointing because lycopene might have offered a simple way to lower risk."



FOOD&DRINK:



Open-Face Bacon-and-Egg Sandwiches with Arugula
So easy and delicious, we enjoyed for a quick and satisfying dinner with fresh fruit and oven-baked fries.


ENTERTAINMENT:



Venezuela to give Danny Glover $18m to direct film
Venezuela is to give the American actor Danny Glover almost $18m (£9m) to make a film about a slave uprising in Haiti, with President Hugo Chávez hoping the historical epic will sprinkle Hollywood stardust on his effort to mobilise world public opinion against imperialism and western oppression.



Fats back after Hurricane Katrina
The 79-year-old New Orleans icon was crisp and energetic as he sang and played the piano, and the crowd of hundreds jumped and screamed when he belted out "Blueberry Hill". Domino, whose real name is Antoine, lost his home and much of the city he loves during Katrina. He was rescued by boat from his flooded 9th Ward home after the storm struck on August 29 2005.



HUMOR?:



SNL: Presidential Candidates Come Clean to Oprah