. . .Headlines . . .

" Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Threatens To Undo Peace Treaty With Israel If Relations With U.S. Deteriorate" . . . . .

" Pakistani President Zardari Hosts Afghani And Iranian Leaders At "Friendship" Summit" . . . . .

" Times Reporter Dies In Syria" . . . . .

. . .Today's Story . . .

• Current Events
  Times Reporter Dies In Syria

  (*NY TIMES*) Anthony Shadid, a gifted foreign correspondent whose graceful dispatches for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Associated Press covered nearly two decades of Middle East conflict and turmoil, died, apparently of an asthma attack, on Thursday while on a reporting assignment in Syria. Tyler Hicks, a Times photographer who was with Mr. Shadid, carried his body across the border to Turkey.

  Mr. Shadid, 43, had been reporting inside Syria for a week, gathering information on the Free Syrian Army and other armed elements of the resistance to the government of President Bashar al-Assad, whose military forces have been engaged in a harsh repression of the political opposition in a conflict that is now nearly a year old.

  The Syrian government, which tightly controls foreign journalists’ activities in the country, had not been informed of his assignment by The Times.

  Jill Abramson, the executive editor, informed the newspaper’s staff Thursday evening in an e-mail. “Anthony died as he lived — determined to bear witness to the transformation sweeping the Middle East and to testify to the suffering of people caught between government oppression and opposition forces,” she wrote.
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• Current Events In Italy
  Fictitious $1 Billion U.S. Bonds Seized In Italy - Suspected Attempt To Defraud Swiss Banks Of $6 Trillion (*NY TIMES*) The Italian police on Friday arrested eight people on charges related to the seizure of $6 trillion in fake United States Treasury bonds, in a mysterious scheme that stretched from Hong Kong to Switzerland to the southern Italian region of Basilicata.

  The value of the seized bonds is in the neighborhood of half of the United States’ entire public debt of $15.36 trillion, but only the uninitiated would have accepted them as real securities. Rather than counterfeit, they were what law enforcement officials call fictitious, printed in 6,000 units of $1 billion each, a denomination that does not exist and the bond equivalent of $3 bills, American officials said.

  In a statement on Friday, the United States Embassy in Rome said its experts had examined the bonds, which bore the date 1934, and determined that they were fictitious and apparently part of a scheme intended to defraud Swiss banks. It was unclear whether the bonds were ever used for that purpose.
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• Current Events In Egypt
  Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Threatens To Undo Peace Treaty With Israel If Relations With U.S. Deteriorate

  (*NY TIMES*) CAIRO — The Islamist party that leads the new Egyptian Parliament is threatening to review the 1979 peace treaty with Israel if the United States cuts off aid to the country over a crackdown on American-backed nonprofit groups here.

  The pact is considered a linchpin of regional stability, and the statements, from at least two senior leaders of the party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, represent the first time that Egyptians have explicitly raised it during an escalating standoff over the crackdown.

  The Obama administration and Congressional leaders have already warned Egypt that the United States might cut off its annual aid to the country, which in the most recent budget came to $1.3 billion in military supplies and about $250 million in other subsidies, including some money directed to the nonprofit groups under investigation. At least two senators have introduced legislation that could curtail the aid, and the Brotherhood released its statements on Thursday as the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on the matter.

  Leaders of the Brotherhood have said that they would respect the American-brokered 1979 treaty, and the seriousness of their new threats is hard to assess. Many analysts, as well as some Brotherhood leaders here, have cited internal domestic reasons to respect the treaty, mainly because it ensures peaceful borders at a time when Egypt can ill afford the cost of a military buildup and its economy teeters on the brink of collapse.

  But at the same time, Egyptians have long considered American aid as a kind of payment for preserving the peace despite the popular resentment of Israel over its policies toward the Palestinians, widely seen here as a violation of the treaty.
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• Current Events In Germany
  Germany's President Resigns Over Alleged Political Favors (*REUTERS*) Angela Merkel's hand-picked choice for the ceremonial post of president resigned Friday in a scandal over political favors, dealing a blow to the German chancellor in the midst of the euro zone debt crisis.

  In a curt five-minute statement at the Bellevue presidential palace, Christian Wulff acknowledged that he had lost the trust of the German people, making it impossible to continue in a role that is meant to serve as a moral compass for the nation.

  "For this reason it is no longer possible for me to exercise the office of president at home and abroad as required," said Wulff, standing next to his wife Bettina.

  The search for a successor to Wulff could become a distraction for Merkel at a time when her government is embroiled in tough talks on a second bailout package for Greece, although analysts said they expected any impact on the negotiations to be limited.
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• Current Events In Persian Gulf
  Pakistani President Zardari Hosts Afghani And Iranian Leaders At "Friendship" Summit

  (*WASHINGTON POST*) ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — At one end of the flower-festooned table sat the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, perhaps the world’s most relentless America basher.

  At the other end sat Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s leader, who owes his government’s survival to the United States.

  And in the middle was Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, whose country’s complex relationship with Washington swings from pole to pole.

  If any conflict exists among the chief executives of the three neighboring Islamic nations, it certainly was not apparent Friday at the close of a two-day trilateral summit in Pakistan’s capital. At a news conference that Zardari hosted in his splendid official residence, the theme was fraternal unity as the trio pledged to work for peace and prosperity in a region racked by war and terrorism.

  “When brothers join their hands together, certainly the hands of God will assist them,” Ahmadinejad said at the news conference, which he dominated with windy disquisitions against “outside powers,” the United States presumably among them.
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Stressed Out? - - - Don't Worry - Take a Vacation! 

WorldsWays Living History In Progress
Current Events in the World

"Of Solar Storms, Fresh Water, And Free Speech"

What we can do nothing about; What we can do something about; What we shouldn't have to do anything about We probably don't know how our lives are affected by solar storms. In fact, most people on the planet are probably unaware of the sun's eleven year cycle. And we are mostly unaware when there is an eruption on the sun, though we may experience the effects. The recently reported solar storm, which was to reach it's peak today, undoubtedly caused some spectacular auroras. But do we know what effect it has on life on this planet? The answer is,"It is not in our control."

Earth's supply of fresh water is also something that we cannot control. But we can moderate how much of the water we keep potable. We can modify its distribution so that people the world over have water to drink. We can regulate the human factors that contaminate the waters, and thereby reduce the consumable supply. Some countries have tried to do just that, lawfully regulate the rate of water pollution. Moreover, there are agencies at work right now that want to distribute water evenly around the planet.

Speech -- language -- is a uniquely human property. Humans didn't care much about how they used language until they formed governments - centralized bodies that made and enforced the rules by which people would live. Leaders and kings emerged who made rules solely for purposes of protecting themselves. Such governments often become oppressive in many ways. Suppression of speech is a prime indicator of an oppressive government.

. . .Headlines . . .

" Massive Solar Storm Accounts For Auroras We've Seen Lately - Maybe." . . . . .

" What We Can Do To Have Water For Everyone" . . . . .

" In Ecuador, Freedom Of Press Is Challenged" . . . . .

. . .Today's Story . . .

• Science Current Events
  Massive Solar Storm Accounts For Auroras We've Seen Lately - Maybe. (*VOA NEWS*) The biggest solar storm in seven years currently is hitting the Earth, but does not pose a threat to life on the planet.

  The U.S. National Weather Service says the blast of solar radiation, known as a Coronal Mass Ejection, or CME, may disrupt some satellite and electric ground communications as it peaks on Tuesday. The inclement space weather is expected to last until Wednesday.

  When the storm’s plasma and particles strike the Earth’s protective magnetic field, the interaction produces colorful auroras - the beautiful, harmless light displays that are seen shimmering across the night skies near North and South poles.

  
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• Community Current Events About Water
  What We Can Do To Have Water For Everyone (*VOA NEWS*) The United Nations says there is enough fresh water for everyone on earth. Yet nearly 1.6 billion people still face water shortages, due to inadequate infrastructure, uneven distribution and wasteful practices. There’s an organization in California, called Well Done, that is working to lessen this global water crisis, by implementing new approaches to an old problem.

  Much of the work goes on in Well Done’s headquarters building south of San Francisco. Designers work to create compelling logos and user-friendly web layouts to spread the word on global water shortages. The goal: to help thousands of families gain access to clean water. Josh To is co-founder and head of development at Well Done, ”A lot of times people say you need education, you need sanitation infrastructure, roads schools, but without access to clean water like how can you do any of the other things?” To questioned.

  Experts say having clean water can lead to greater economic and educational opportunities particularly for women who take on most of the burden of fetching water from distant sources. Well Done promotes well-building in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The non-profit organization serves as a conduit -- raising awareness and money, then channeling the proceeds to water development organizations that do the actual work.
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• Current Events In Ecuador
  In Ecuador, Freedom Of Press Is Challenged (*WASHINGTON POST*) Reporters are frequently assassinated in Mexico, and a populist government in Venezuela has driven some journalists into exile. But press freedom advocates say that no other country in Latin America is moving so fast and on so many fronts to restrain the media as tiny, banana-producing Ecuador.

  President Rafael Correa, an American-educated leftist economist who has forged close alliances with Cuba and Iran, has filed a defamation lawsuit that might put the three directors of the country’s largest newspaper in jail and shutter their 90-year-old paper. The government has cobbled together a framework of laws and constitutional reforms to limit press independence, free expression groups say, while building a media conglomerate to disparage critics and counter independent media reports.

  The increasingly bitter quarrel between journalists and Correa would have gotten little notice beyond the country of just 14 million people on South America’s northern cone. But Correa has also become an increasingly outspoken and active foe of the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an autonomous branch of the Organization of American States that he accuses of being in lockstep with U.S. policy.

  The 48-year-old president has been particularly infuriated by the work of the commission’s free expression advocate, Colombian constitutional lawyer Catalina Botero. Her office has documented Correa administration aggressions against the press and participated in a public hearing in Washington in which Ecuadorean journalists aired their grievances.
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• Current Events In Turkey And France
  Turkey Ballistically Threatens Sanctions Against France Over Armenian Genocide Law (*NY TIMES*) The Turkish government and press castigated France on Tuesday, accusing the parliament of racism and a breach of France’s own free speech principles after the French Senate passed a bill late Monday effectively criminalizing the denial that the slaughter of some 1.5 million Armenians in the early 20th century under the Ottoman Turks was a genocide.

  The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, will sign the bill into law within two weeks, an aide confirmed on Tuesday.

  The bill has infuriated Turkey, which vigorously rejects that the killings were a planned campaign. Indeed, recognizing them as genocide is criminal under Turkish law, as an insult to Turkish identity.

  In a speech in Ankara, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said French bill represented “evident discrimination, racism and massacre of free speech.” Mr. Erdogan reiterated Turkey’s intention to add penalties against France, though he did not specify what those sanctions might bear upon and also signaled that the government would wait to see the result of possible legal challenges to the bill in France.

  “We are going to impose our sanctions step by step with certainty, without hesitations,” he said. “However, for now, we are still in the phase of patience as we watch how this process would shape up.”
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• Current Events In Cambodia
  Higher Education Comes To Cambodia Thanks To Tourism (*NY TIMES*) SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA — Millions of tourists come here every year to visit the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat, an influx that has helped transform what once resembled a small, laid-back village into a thriving and cosmopolitan town with thumping nightlife and more than 10,000 hotel rooms.

  But the explosion of the tourism industry here has also done something less predictable. Siem Reap, which had no universities a decade ago, is now Cambodia’s second-largest hub for higher education, after the capital, Phnom Penh.

  The sons and daughters of impoverished rice farmers flock here to work as tour guides, receptionists, bartenders and waitresses. When their shifts are over, they study finance, English and accounting.

  “I never imagined that I could go to university,” said Hem Sophoan, a 31-year-old tour guide who is now studying for his second master’s degree. “There’s been so much change and opportunities for young people.”

  The establishment of five private universities here is helping to transform the work force in this part of Cambodia, one of Asia’s poorest countries and a society still living in the shadow of the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge. Employers say that English proficiency is rising and that workers who attend universities stand out for their ability to express themselves and make decisions. A generation of students who would otherwise have had little hope to study beyond high school are enduring grueling schedules to get a degree and pursue their dreams.
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Stressed Out? - - - Don't Worry - Take a Vacation!