] Let us now praise Paul Wolfowitz. Let us now take another
] look at the man who has pursued - longer and more
] forcefully than almost anyone else - the supposedly
] utopian notion that people across the Muslim world might
] actually hunger for freedom.

interesting article even for an old leftie like me

David Brooks | Credit where it's due: To Paul Wolfowitz

] Chechen leader and resistance commander Aslan Maskhadov
] was killed on 8 March in a special operation in
] Tolstoi-Yurt, north of Grozny, Russian agencies reported,
] citing Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the Russian
] federal forces in the North Caucasus. Maskhadov's envoy
] in London, Akhmed Zakaev, confirmed Maskhadov's death in
] a telephone call to RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service later
] on 8 March.
]
]
] The Chechen State Defense Committee of which Maskhadov
] was chairman has issued a statement, posted on
] chechenpress.co.uk, saying that it assumes full executive
] and legislative power in accordance with the Chechen
] Constitution. AFP on 8 March quoted Zakaev as saying that
] the committee will meet within days to name a new
] chairman. Kavkazweb.net quoted Zakaev as explicitly
] excluding the transfer of power to radical field
] commander Shamil Basaev, the next in seniority and
] experience after Maskhadov, and the commander most
] qualified and able to coordinate and control future
] resistance activities in the North Caucasus. Zakaev
] pointed out that Basaev is no longer a member of the
] State Defense Committee, but he added that it is
] essential to take into account Basaev's authority with
] the various resistance detachments, which are capable of
] operating autonomously for months at a time. Zakaev
] denied that any split in the ranks of the resistance is
] imminent, pointing out that a similar situation arose in
] 1996 following the death of then Chechen President
] Djokhar Dudaev.
]

RADIO FREE EUROPE/ RADIO LIBERTY

] Suppose you lived in a world where there were two kinds
] of truth: a public truth, which everyone professed but
] nobody really believed, and a private truth, representing
] your real inner convictions which could never be said
] openly for fear of giving offense.
]
] .
]
] Put crudely like this, such a world could seem an
] Orwellian nightmare, recalling the last years of Soviet
] Russia with its dull conformity to discredited beliefs.
] But in practice, social and linguistic constructions of
] this kind are universal. Mostly, in our own societies, we
] take them for granted and don't question them. What we
] find differing between cultures, and even between social
] levels of a culture, is the degree of formality and
] importance given to these conventions.
]
] .
]
] At one extreme, in Japanese culture, the words tatamae
] and honne - often translated as appearance and reality -
] distinguish precisely two such "truths," the one formal
] and public, the other unspoken and private. That such a
] distinction can actually be labeled tells us much about
] the formality of Japanese life and the corresponding
] difficulty for outsiders in reading what linguists call
] the "register" - the meaningful context for an utterance
] - and therefore in understanding what is really being
] said. Many a Western business executive must have left a
] meeting sure of a positive outcome, on the basis of the
] Japanese assurance "Zensho shimasu" (I will do my best).
] Unfortunately this phrase is merely a polite way of
] saying no.
]
] .

Meanwhile: Yours sincerely (if that's all right with you)

] The strange case of the homosexual necrophiliac duck
] pushed out the boundaries of knowledge in a rather
] improbable way when it was recorded by Dutch researcher
] Kees Moeliker.

EducationGuardian.co.uk | Research | Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers

] The IRA says it has ordered anyone involved to come
] forward over the brutal stabbing of a Northern Ireland
] Catholic man that has plunged the group and its political
] ally Sinn Fein into crisis.
]
]
] The IRA said in a statement it had met the family of
] murdered forklift truck driver Robert McCartney and
] offered to shoot the men responsible for his death, but
] added the family wanted the killers dealt with by the
] courts.

Top News Article | Reuters.co.uk

] The director of the U.S. Agency for International
] Development, Andrew Natsios, has warned that the Chinese
] government faces "serious internal strains" as a result
] of a combination of growing income disparities, ethnic
] tension and authoritarian rule.
]
] .
]
] In an interview ahead of meeting other senior development
] officials in Paris this week, Natsios stopped short of
] referring to China as a "fragile state," a term used for
] countries close to or in crisis, and most recently
] associated with such nations as Afghanistan, Iraq and the
] Sudan.

'Internal strains' forecast for China

] For once the European Union and George W. Bush have found
] an issue on which they can be on the same side. The wrong
] side. The unifying theme is their attitude toward Russia.
]
] .
]
] Bush lost no opportunity during his recent European tour,
] including his Bratislava meeting with President Vladimir
] Putin, to lecture the Russians about the virtues of
] democracy, human rights and the rule of law, clearly
] implying that in his view the Russian Federation is
] drifting back toward authoritarian rule.
]
] .
]
] From the higher reaches of the EU comes the same story.
] Putin's latest moves to centralize power in Moscow and
] apparently weaken the regions have been roundly condemned
] by the EU.
]
] .
]
] Unsurprisingly this is having a highly negative effect in
] Moscow. Russian policy makers increasingly feel that they
] are under attack from uncomprehending ideologues in
] Washington and arrogant zealots in Brussels. The
] Americans, they say, do not begin to understand Russia's
] problems, whether in Chechnya or elsewhere in the vast
] "post-Soviet space."
]
] .

In defense of Vladimir Putin

] In one of the most intriguing stories of the day, the
] Financial Times reports that Paul Wolfowitz, the US
] deputy secretary of defence and one of the chief hawks in
] the Bush administration, is on the short list to succeed
] James Wolfensohn as president of the World Bank.

Guardian Unlimited | Newsblog | Wolfowitz's world

] China could open the door to biotech rice within two
] years, paving the way for the GMO crop to enter the food
] stream across Asia, the head of a trade group said
] Monday.
]
]
] "Rice is likely to be approved in China in the near term,
] maybe in two years," said Clive James, chairman and
] founder of ISAAA, a group with industry and public
] foundation support that promotes biotech as a way to halt
] global hunger.
]
]
] "And once China approves rice, this will move through the
] rice countries of Asia -- like India, Pakistan and the
] Philippines -- where rice is king," he said in an
] interview.
]
]
] Knocking down the barriers to using GMO (genetically
] modified organism) rice would be a major coup for
] industry and other backers of GMO crops.
]
]
] Rice is the staple of half the world's more than six
] billion people. China has long been seen as the pioneer
] in GMO rice, and is the world's top producer and consumer
] of the commodity.

Science News Article | Reuters.co.uk

] Halle Berry thanked the makers of Catwoman for "putting
] me in a God-awful movie" when she turned up to collect
] her worst actress Razzie award.
]
]
] The actress, whose surprise appearance got her a standing
] ovation from a packed house, made a lengthy speech,
] parodying her 2002 Oscar win.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Film | Berry gets worst actress Razzie