Morning News Roundup (06 September)

Top Story

• The government of Pakistan signed a peace accord Tuesday with pro-Taliban forces in the volatile tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, agreeing to withdraw its troops from the region in return for the fighters' pledge to stop attacks inside Pakistan and across the border. Under the pact, foreign fighters would have to leave North Waziristan or live peaceable lives if they remained. The militias would not set up a "parallel" government administration. [WaPo]
  
  
• But it gets worse.
  

  Osama bin Laden, America's most wanted man, will not face capture in Pakistan if he agrees to lead a "peaceful life," Pakistani officials tell ABC News.
  [...]
  If he is in Pakistan, bin Laden "would not be taken into custody," Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan told ABC News in a telephone interview, "as long as one is being like a peaceful citizen."
  [...]
  In addition to the pullout of Pakistani troops, the "peace agreement" between Pakistan and the Taliban also provides for the Pakistani army to return captured Taliban weapons and prisoners. [ABC News' The Blotter]

Middle Eastern and Asian Relations

• Pakistan's growing nuclear energy needs and its leaders' determination to look to China for investment and know-how in the field are proving an important incentive for the latter's ambitions of becoming a global player in the nuclear power industry. Pakistan had earlier invited the United States to set up nuclear power plants in the country but Washington's response has been tepid. Although Islamabad has pledged cooperation in the U.S.-led global fight against terrorism, Washington has chosen to reward Pakistan's archrival, India, with a deal to supply nuclear fuel and technology. [IPS]
  
  
• “On the eve of his first trip to Washington, former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami warned that U.S. military action in the Middle East has backfired, producing greater terrorism, imperiling the future of Iraq and damaging America’s long-term interests.” [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]

Domestic Potpourri

• Ha! U.S. Senator George Allen today stole a Department of Defense appropriations amendment written, printed and prepared by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill), and then announced the amendment as his own, moments before Durbin was prepared to introduce the amendment on the Senate floor. [Raising Kaine]
  
  
• Hooray! Shunned by party leaders and battered by repeated campaign controversies, Rep. Katherine Harris nonetheless held on to enough support from the state's Republican voters Tuesday to win Florida's Senate primary convincingly over three little-known candidates. Harris now faces Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in a race that strategists have said may be impossible for her to win. Polls have shown Nelson with a lead as wide as 30 percentage points. [WaPo]

Going Green

• Global solar power generation is expected to increase by 25% this year, a European conference on solar energy was told at its opening session on Monday. Germany is the world leader in the field, generating enough power from the sun's rays to meet the needs of households in a city of 590,000. Last week, a solar electric power plant, billed by its operators as the world's biggest, went into service in the southern German state of Bavaria. [Energy Refuge]
  
  
• World Changing reports that Japanese electronic company Sharp is banking on the end of fossil fuels and the exponential rise in solar power use over the next five years. By 2010, they plan to have cut the cost of solar generation by half, and by half again a decade later. According to a Reuters article:

  "By 2030 the cost will be comparable to electricity produced by a nuclear power plant," said [Katsuhiko] Machida (president of Sharp. Asked how the costs were likely to compare with those for producing electricity from fossil fuels such as coal, Machida replied: "Fossil fuel resources will be totally out by then."

• The most efficient clothes washer available today is the Bosch Nexxt Washer. It earned the highest Energy Star rating for washers, which based on water and energy use. The specs are pretty impressive: the washer uses an average of 13 gallons of water per load (5345 gallons per year), and 178 kWh of energy per year. An average top-loading washing machine uses 50 gallons of water per load, and 933 kWh of electricity per year. [Treehugger]
  

Climate Crisis

• Despite recent indications that Antarctica cooled considerably during the 1990s, new research suggests that the world's iciest continent has been getting gradually warmer for the last 150 years, a trend not identifiable in the short meteorological records and masked at the end of the 20th century by large temperature variations. [TerraDaily]

Big Blue Marble

• Police raided homes in a largely immigrant suburb of this city before dawn Tuesday, detaining nine men for allegedly preparing explosives for a terrorist attack in Denmark. Officials in Odense, the country's third-largest city, did not name a planned target and said it was hard to evaluate how far the alleged plot had progressed. The suspects had acquired material "to build explosives in connection with the preparation of a terror act." [WaPo]
  
  
• The world is set to enjoy a fifth record year of high growth next year, says the International Monetary Fund, but it warns that the risks of a sharp slowdown have significantly increased. The IMF warns slower growth could be triggered by a sharp US housing market slowdown or by surging inflationary expectations that forced central banks to raise interest rates. [Financial Times]

Misc.

• The NYTimes covers the growing furor over The Path to 9/11, ABC's "docudrama" that purportedly is based on the 9/11 Commission report. (I'll try to do a rundown of that furor a little later today.)
  

  In particular, some critics — including Richard A. Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar — questioned a scene that depicts several American military officers on the ground in Afghanistan. In it, the officers, working with leaders of the Northern Alliance, the Afghan rebel group, move in to capture Osama bin Laden, only to allow him to escape after the mission is canceled by Clinton officials in Washington.
  
  In a posting on ThinkProgress.org, and in a phone interview, Mr. Clarke said no military personnel or C.I.A. agents were ever in position to capture Mr. bin Laden in Afghanistan, nor did the leader of the Northern Alliance get that near to his camp.
  
  “It didn’t happen,” Mr. Clarke said. “There were no troops in Afghanistan about to snatch bin Laden. There were no C.I.A. personnel about to snatch bin Laden. It’s utterly invented.”
  
  Mr. Clarke, an on-air consultant to ABC News, said he was particularly shocked by a scene in which it seemed Clinton officials simply hung up the phone on an agent awaiting orders in the field. “It’s 180 degrees from what happened,” he said. “So, yeah, I think you would have to describe that as deeply flawed.”

• Arctic Monkeys capped a year in which they released the fastest selling debut ever, reinvigorated the music industry and lost a founder member, by winning the annual prize which is designed to reward the best release of the year regardless of genre or sales. [Guardian; available via iTunes and Amazon]

And finally... Lynn Swann doesn’t take trash talk from clowns. At an Allentown Fair dunk tank, the former Pittsburgh Steelers star — and candidate for Pennsylvania governor — failed to send a “mouthy” clown into the water. “I hope you do better at the polls, buddy,” the clown joked. “That did it. Swann, who had turned to leave, went back to the tank, throwing ball after ball until he hit the target. As the clown dropped into the water, Swann stuck his fists in the air, beaming in triumph.” [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]

[ posted with ecto | ]