This stuff has happened before. And it’ll happen again. Happy Fourth of July.

THE WORLD FROM BERLIN

‘Nature Has Dealt the Burmese Junta a Devastating Blow’
The cyclone that hit Burma over the weekend has killed tens of thousands and made more than a million homeless. The Burmese government has asked for international help — and the consequences could be remarkable.

Days after Cyclone Nargis devastated the southeast Asian nation of Burma, aid agencies are rushing to help millions of people affected by the storm. The death toll is already more than 22,000, and as towns and villages isolated by the storm are contacted the number of confirmed deaths is expected to rise. The Burmese government says more than a million people are homeless.

Aid officials fear the situation could go from bad to nightmarish if something isn’t done soon. But the aid effort is coming up against one of the most secretive, isolationist regimes in the world. Burma is ruled by a military dictatorship that has regularly used force to suppress democracy activists and monks. Foreign reporters are banned from the country, and aid workers are having a hard time getting in as well.

Burmese government officials have offered an unprecedented level of cooperation, perhaps an indication of the disaster’s scope. “The task is very wide and extensive,” Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told Reuters on Tuesday. “The government needs the co-operation of the people and well-wishers from at home and abroad. We will not hide anything.”

Iran offers nuclear deal but refuses to stop enrichment

• British officials say plan is a ’spoiler’ to west’s proposal
• Breakthrough in deadlock thought to be unlikely

Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
The Guardian,
Thursday May 8 2008

Iran said yesterday that it is to present the international community with a new package of proposals aimed at breaking the diplomatic deadlock over the country’s nuclear programme.

Rasoul Movahedian, Iran’s ambassador in London, told the Guardian: “My government has worked out a new package, a new initiative, which is going to be put forward in the near future to deal with all aspects of our relationship [with the international community].”

He said he was not permitted to give details before the initiative is presented “before the end of next week” to the five permanent members of the UN security council - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China - as well as Germany, who together constitute the “5+1″ group leading nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

However, Movahedian said the initiative would cover the nuclear programme, the security of energy supplies in the Middle East, counter-terrorism and joint efforts to control the drugs trade.

The ambassador said Iran’s proposal would address western concerns that the rapidly developing nuclear project could be used to make weapons, hinting that his government would agree to extensive safeguards required by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

But he insisted that Iran would not surrender the right to enrich uranium, as the security council has demanded.

“My government is going to continue along the enrichment path. We do not accept any preconditions for negotiations,” he said. That continued refusal suggests that the new initiative is unlikely to break the deadlock but may simply add to the war of words over Iran’s programme.

Israel marks its 60th anniversary
Celebrations are under way across Israel to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state.

Israelis thronged Jerusalem’s streets as fireworks opened the celebrations on Wednesday, while an aerial display is planned over Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Israel declared itself an independent state on 14 May 1948, three years after the end of World War II and the death of six million Jews in the Holocaust.

But Palestinians know the foundation day as al-Nakba, or “the Catastrophe”.

The anniversary is calculated according to the Jewish lunar calendar.

The celebrations began at sunset on Wednesday at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl memorial, named after the founder of modern Zionism, where soldiers raised the Israeli flag from half to full mast amid tight security.

China may be hoping to present itself in a postive light when it hosts the Olympic Games in August (more…), but it is increasingly having to defend itself against international criticism of its human rights record, pollution and presence in Tibet.

On Wednesday, Beijing lashed out at US criticism of its human rights record — despite the fact that an annual US State Department report published Tuesday had actually removed China from its blacklist of worst human rights abusers.

China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi described the 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices as having a “Cold War mentality,” and said that China was ready to have a dialogue on human rights with the US based on “equality and mutual respect.” He also lashed out at groups who sought to “politicize” the forthcoming Beijing Olympics, which kick off on Aug. 8.

“We welcome suggestions and criticisms offered out of goodwill,” Yang said, but added that those “who want to tarnish the image of China … will never get their way.”

Chinese police teargas protesting monks in Tibet
Rosalind Ryan and agencies
Wednesday March 12 2008

New Delhi police officers arrest female activists during a pro-Tibet demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in the Indian capital. Photographer: Manish Swarup/AP

Chinese police fired teargas into crowds of monks who took to the streets of Lhasa yesterday for a second day of protests in the Tibetan capital.

Around 500 monks were marching near a police station to demand the release of fellow monks who had been held after protests on Monday. Eyewitnesses told Radio Free Asia they were chanting “we want freedom” and “free our people or we won’t go back”.

The monks from the Sera monastery were surrounded by more than 1,000 armed police who fired tear gas into the crowd and used electric prods to disperse the protesters.

U.S. drops China from list of top 10 violators of rights
By Helene Cooper
Published: March 12, 2008

WASHINGTON: The State Department no longer considers China one of the world’s worst human rights violators, according to its annual human rights report released Tuesday, a decision that immediately earned the ire of human rights groups.

In the annual report on more than 190 countries, the State Department did say that China’s “overall human rights record remained poor” in 2007. China, the report said, tightened media and Internet curbs and increased controls on religious freedom in Tibet and the Xinjiang region. The report said China’s abuses also included “extrajudicial killings, torture and coerced confessions of prisoners, and the use of forced labor.”

But the report dropped China from a list of 10 countries that it deemed the worst offenders: North Korea, Myanmar, Iran, Syria, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Eritrea and Sudan.

Interesting sequence…

In this image provided by NBC former Presidential Candidate Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (right) appears on ‘Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update’ with Seth Meyers (left) Saturday March 1, 2008 to explain the collapse of his campaign — blaming his 1997 hosting appearance during which he donned a dress. It was the third consecutive ‘SNL’ episode featuring a presidential contender. Republican candidate Mike Huckabee appeared on ‘Weekend Update’ last week. On a November episode of ‘SNL,’ the last before the Writers Guild of America strike, Obama played himself as a guest at a party thrown by Hillary and Bill Clinton.
(AP Photo/Dana Edelson - NBC)

• Iranian President Ahmadinejad arrives in Iraq
• Israel pledges to press on with Gaza offensive
• It’s Time To Demilitarize US Policy in Africa
• Scorched-Earth Strategy Returns to Darfur
• Kremlin planning to rig election

-That’s right Mr. 911, it was the dress, not your rampant sense of American Exceptionalism.