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As a warlord removed evidence of mass graves in Afghanistatn, U.S. stayed silent
DASHT-E LEILI, Afghanistan – Seven years ago, a convoy of container trucks rumbled across northern Afghanistan loaded with the human cargo of suspected Taliban and al-Qaida members who’d surrendered to Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Afghan warlord and a key U.S. ally in ousting the Taliban regime.
When the trucks arrived at a prison in the town of Sheberghan, near Dostum’s headquarters, they were filled with corpses. Most of the prisoners had suffocated, others had been killed by bullets that Dostum’s militiamen had fired into the metal containers.
Dostum’s men hauled the bodies into the nearby desert and buried them in mass graves, according to Afghan human rights officials. By some estimates, 2,000 men were buried there.
Earlier this year, bulldozers and backhoes returned to the scene, reportedly exhumed the bones of many of the dead men and removed evidence of the atrocity to sites unknown. In the area where the mass graves once were, there now are gaping pits in the sands of the Dasht-e Leili desert.
International community becoming more active in climate change mitigation
POZNAN, Poland – If one message has emerged from the long and often tortuous hours of climate negotiations in recent years, it is this: In the end, progress is being made.
The level of international ambition to deal with climate change is growing, as was evident at the latest round of United Nations climate talks, which ended Friday, Dec. 12, in Poland.
The looming economic crisis has raised widespread fears that the costs of achieving deep greenhouse gas cuts might be intolerable, at least in the short term, as families struggle to pay mortgages and heat their homes. But nations including the United States, under President-elect Barack Obama, have responded by promising to use economic stimulus packages to push green technology and create green jobs.
Under what U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is calling a green New Deal, laid-off employees are expected to be put to work insulating houses rather than building dams, and companies manufacturing solar panels and efficient cars will get
government investment.
Nation
Vatican bioethics edict draws mixed reactions
HACKENSACK, N.J. – New Jersey Catholics expressed mixed feelings about a new Vatican document that opposes in-vitro fertilization, embryonic stem cell research and other medical procedures.
The document, Dignitas Personae, “The Dignity of a Person,” is the most sweeping church statement on bioethical issues in 20 years.
“This will change the way I teach the next generation of priests,” said Rev. John Grimm, an assistant professor of Christian ethics at Seton Hall University’s Immaculate Conception Seminary.
Similar to the church’s anti-abortion teachings, the new document asserts that human life begins at the moment of conception. Procedures like in-vitro fertilization, in which egg and sperm cells are joined outside the womb, result in the destruction of 80 percent of the embryos created in the process, the document said.
Stimulus ‘is like chum in the water for lobbyists,’ critics claim
WASHINGTON – Since President-elect Barack Obama laid out plans for the largest injection of federal spending into the economy since the New Deal, just about everyone has started angling for a piece of the action.
With estimates of the package that will be considered by the new Congress starting in January topping out at anywhere between $500 billion and $1 trillion, ailing sectors such as home builders and sellers, the airlines, railroads, and, yes, the auto industry view the stimulus as a means to get healthy again. That includes the air conditioning industry, America’s libraries and catfish farmers. All of them, and many more, have deployed lobbyists on Capitol Hill in hope of benefiting from the spending spree.
Local/BSU
Idaho ranks 40th in income
TREASURE VALLEY – Idaho stayed close to its recent rankings by coming in 40th in the nation in median family income in a newly released U.S. Census Bureau survey.
From 2005 to 2006 the state’s median annual family income rose from $55,832 to $58,526, ranking 40th among other states in those years, too. It ranked 39th in 2007.
In the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which uses figures from 2005 to 2007, Idaho’s median family income is estimated at $53,186.
The American Community Survey showed Idaho tied with California at 28th in the nation with 13 percent of people living below the poverty line.
“Income and wage levels are low in Idaho and they always have been,” Idaho Department of Labor spokesman Bob Fick said. “It’s the way businesses and labor have gotten together on wages, I guess.”
Selland College instructor wins international award
Mikel R. Douglas, electronics technician instructor in the Selland College at Boise State University, has been named the Wallace Medeiros 2008 Educator of The Year by the Electronics Technician Association.
The award is for “outstanding dedication and devotion in the education of those pursuing a career in electronics, fiber and related fields.”
Douglas is in his 14th year at Boise State.
He worked in the electronics industry for many years, including at Hewlett-Packard. Douglas is a test administrator for ETA International.
He also designed a class that is used to prepare electronics technicians to take the ETA certification exam.
The course has been used by technicians across the country, including technicians employed at large companies such as Micron and Motorola, as well as the U.S. military.
What The?
Two point seven! We have a winner!
Breathalyzers, which have been installed in bars to help patrons determine whether they are OK to drive, are being misused by young men staging drinking contests. They use the devices to keep score.
Gee, why is everyone so mad at us?
Two members of the staff at a nursing home in Frankfort, Ky., playing a prank on the staff of the next shift, gave laxatives to the elderly patients. Both of the employees have been fired.
COMPILED ARBITER STAFF