Ben's last Myanmar update

Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The party of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is ``very concerned'' about her health after she failed to show up yesterday for a meeting with a United Nations envoy, said National League for Democracy spokesman Nyan Win.

Like any enemy of the Myanmar state, she apparently doesn't get much health care...

The junta stopped allowing her physician to visit her home for monthly medical checkups earlier this year, NLD member Soe Aung said by telephone today from Thailand.

``It's been quite a long time since her doctor visited her,'' said Soe Aung, who was elected as a lawmaker in 1990 elections that were rejected by the junta when the NLD won. ``She's not getting proper care.''

Bolt breaks record

And now, a success story.

BEIJING -- There will always be another. This is the eternal lesson of track and field. On a sweltering August night 12 years ago, Michael Johnson lashed the 200-meter world record to his back and seemed to drag it deep into the future. He ran 19.32 seconds, so fast that young men accepted that they would not see the record broken again in their lifetimes.

Usain Bolt was 9 years old on that night, growing up tall and skinny -- "I was tall when I was little,'' says Bolt -- in Trelawny Parish on the north shore of Jamaica, an hour's drive from the vacation resorts of Montego Bay and Ocho Rios. He loved to play cricket with his friends, and if he was talented, he was also a little lazy.

But one afternoon two years later, he ran too fast at a school field day and found himself on the track team, because Jamaica will compel a sprinter to sprint. Somewhere a clock began ticking, counting down the life of Johnson's record, unseen and unknown, but inexorable.

At the age of 12, Bolt ran 52 seconds flat for 400 meters on a grass track in Manchester, Jamaica. He won the world junior 400-meter title at age 16, beating athletes who were four years older. He was impossibly precocious. "We knew what was coming,'' said Bert Cameron, a Jamaican national coach who was also the 400-meter world champion in 1983.

On Wednesday night in the Olympic Stadium called the Bird's Nest, Bolt ran 19.30 seconds to take down Johnson's world record.

Olympics update

"Because it is my name!"

BEIJING -- American women were the face of heartbreak at National Stadium on Tuesday night.

Twice in the span of 20 minutes, they were flying down the straightaway with a gold medal within reach. Two strong favorites were close enough to feel it. Years of unstinting effort were about to pay off.

Lolo Jones failed to clear her next-to-last hurdle in the 100-meter hurdle final, falling from first to seventh in the race.

Twice they crossed the finish line beaten, shocked and devastated.

Two athletic moments of a lifetime ended in bitter tears.

First, Sanya Richards in the 400-meter dash. She was well clear of the field with a mere 80 meters to run when she suddenly lost her momentum, shortening up and finishing third. She was shaking her head in obvious dismay at the finish and complained afterward of a tweaked hamstring.

Richards was the saddest bronze medalist in Beijing, describing herself as "more than snakebit."

"I don't even want to tell you what I'm thinking right now because it's not positive," she said. "I feel so betrayed right now by my body. It's so discouraging."

At least Richards got a bronze, there's an achievement. Jones can take pride in how far she got and hope for a better turnout four years from now.

To Quote Fallon, Just Watch

Phelps breaks medal-winning record

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a sports fan, but I've been watching the Olympics like crazy. Mainly because Phelps is making history.

BEIJING - The US lead in the men's 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay today was almost comical. And that was when Michael Phelps finished his leadoff leg in 1 minute 43.31 seconds. Not only was Phelps more than two seconds ahead of his nearest competitor, but he also put the Americans well ahead of world-record pace.

Phelps earned his fifth gold medal and his fifth world record of the Beijing Games when the US won the race in 6:58.56, smashing the previous record by 4.68 seconds. The gold represented the 13th Olympic medal of Phelps's career, surpassing swimmer Jenny Thompson for the most won by an American athlete. Between Phelps and the team's record-setting effort, runner-up Russia was an afterthought, touching the wall more than five seconds back for the silver medal.

"It's everything I ever dreamed about," said Phelps, whose victory earlier in the day in the 200-meter butterfly earned him his 10th gold medal, the most ever by an Olympian.

Female American, Chinese gymnasts face off

BEIJING (AP) - Nastia Liukin is bringing the toughest uneven bars routine in the world, and Shawn Johnson will be strutting some of the strongest stuff on vault, floor and balance beam. When it comes to sauce and sass, no one comes close to Alicia Sacramone.

C'mon, China, think you can top that?

Actually, yes.

For every dazzling routine the Americans throw out there in Wednesday's gymnastics team final, the Chinese can come right back with one of their own. And then some, in some cases.

Three years in the making, the showdown between China and the United States is finally here and it's as good as advertised. The world's two powerhouses, going one after another in the same rotation, one last meet to show, once and for all, who really is the best of the best.

Swimming loses its excitement when Phelps leaves the pool, but gymnastics is always worth watching - especially when you're rooting for Team USA! USA! USA! Sorry. But of course, the best sport of them all - you guessed it - ladies' beach volleyball.

Myanmar update

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Thousands of sapphires, rubies, diamonds, emeralds, jade and other gems glitter in long glass display cases as merchants haggle with professional buyers — most of them foreigners — and tourists.

Business is good here at the sales center of the Myanmar Gems Museum, despite legislation signed by President Bush last month to ban the import of rubies and jade into America. Yangon gem sellers dismissed the sanction against their government as a symbolic gesture unlikely to have much impact on their lucrative trade.

Well, so much for THAT declaration of support for human rights.

Myanmar update

House arrest sucks, especially if it's because the dictatorship that governs your nation imprisoned you for your call for democracy.

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has met with her lawyer for the first time in five years, one of her colleagues said Sunday.

Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, said she consulted her lawyer about the detention law under which she has been confined without trial for more than 12 of the past 19 years. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been detained continuously since May 2003, most of the time under house arrest.

Nyan Win quoted the lawyer as saying that Suu Kyi appeared to be in very good health when they met Friday. She was last seen by her doctor in May.

Her house arrest was extended by one year in May, even though the action seemed to defy a law that stipulates that no one can be held longer than five years without being released or put on trial.

But a commentary in June in the state-owned New Light of Myanmar newspaper, which closely reflects government opinion, said detentions are permissible for as long as six years under a 1975 "Law Safeguarding the State from Dangers of Subversive Elements."

The conditions under which the meeting with lawyer Kyi Win was arranged were unclear, since Suu Kyi is allowed virtually no contact with outsiders, aside from occasional meetings with fellow party executives.

Iraq update

Aug 11 (Reuters) - Jordan's King Abdullah on Monday became the first Arab leader to visit Iraq since Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003, meeting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad.

Violence in Iraq is at a four-year low and countries in the region, especially Sunni Arab states like Jordan, are starting to re-engage with the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad.

I have one word for the American military, and it rhymes with "myth claw".

Darfur update

US President George W. Bush said yesterday he had used talks with Chinese leaders during the Olympic Games to press them to use their influence with Sudan to help end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

One problem: where's China gonna get her oil?

Leave Afghan Go To Paki

KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that airstrikes carried out in Afghan villages by U.S. and NATO troops are only killing civilians and that the international community should instead go after terror centers in Pakistan.

International forces serving under NATO and the separate U.S.-led coalition insist that the vast majority of those killed in air raids are militants. However, they also acknowledge that civilians are sometimes killed in bombing runs, though they accuse militants of firing on international troops from civilian homes they have commandeered.

Speaking under a tree on the grounds of the presidential palace, Karzai said the international community should take its fight across the border into Pakistan, where militants find safe havens in Pakistan's tribal region. - Yahoo! News

How about no fighting at all? If that can't happen, withdraw from Afghanistan anyway.

Government clears migrants from Beijing

BEIJING — Li Tianchao is an itinerant worker who has spent his adult life toiling long hours, living in bleak worksite dormitories and chasing the next construction job from boom town to boom town. A no-nonsense, weatherworn man, he is not quick to grouse.

But as he waited for a train to take him back to his hometown north of the capital, Mr. Li, 50, could not help but feel wistful.

“The Olympics have finally come to China, and I won’t even be here,” he said, lounging on a woven plastic sack stuffed with his possessions. He glanced up at the “Participate in the Olympics, Enjoy the Fun” banner above his head and shrugged.

Like thousands of others who packed Beijing’s main train station on Thursday, Mr. Li was prompted to leave town by a lack of work and an unwritten government policy encouraging migrant workers to clear out until the dignitaries and journalists have gone home.

China may be a superpower, but, like our nation, it has plenty of problems. I'm a bit glad that the Olympics are there, because the world can now learn what China is really like.

Bush arrives in Beijing

BEIJING — President Bush arrived here on Thursday eager to shift his focus to Olympic sports, only hours after China pointedly rebuffed his criticism of the country’s record on human rights.

Bush...surprisingly...has the right idea here.

Darfur update

CAIRO, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- A senior Egyptian official on Tuesday reiterated his country's stance to support a political settlement to the crisis in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, the official MENA news agency reported.

Right on, Egypt. We're just waiting for it to happen.

Hamas Son Converts

JERUSALEM – The son of one of the most popular leaders in the Hamas terrorist organization has moved to the U.S. and converted to Christianity, it has emerged.

In an exclusive interview with Israel's Haaretz newspaper, Masab Yousuf, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheik Hassan Yousef, slammed Hamas, praised Israel and said he hoped his terrorist father will open his eyes to Jesus and to Christianity.

"I know that I'm endangering my life and am even liable to lose my father, but I hope that he'll understand this and that God will give him and my family patience and willingness to open their eyes to Jesus and to Christianity. Maybe one day I'll be able to return to Palestine and to Ramallah with Jesus, in the Kingdom of God," Masab said.

Masab said he previously aided his father with Hamas activities, but he now has affection for Israel and laments Hamas. - World Net Daily

Welcome home, Masab.

Iraq update

Good news!

George Bush opened the way for US troop cuts in Iraq today when he said security gains in the country were durable and cut the length of deployments.

Darfur update

CAIRO, July 29 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Cairo-based Arab League (AL) on Tuesday welcomed the efforts of the Sudanese government exerted to solve the crisis in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported.

Huh?

Sudan is committed to enacting new laws soon "to guarantee thatcrimes of genocide, ethnic purging and war crimes be enumerated in the Sudanese civilian penal code so that their perpetrators could be punished by law," Hosni said.

Darfur update

CAIRO, July 22 (Reuters) - Sudan has agreed to try anyone it suspects of crimes in Darfur in Sudanese courts and will allow the United Nations, African Union and Arab League to follow the proceedings, an Arab League official said on Tuesday.

Check.  Step two...

Obama garners support in Iraq

BAGHDAD --Face to face with Iraq's leaders, Barack Obama gained fresh support Monday for the idea of pulling all U.S. combat forces out of the war zone by 2010. But the Iraqis stopped short of actual timetables or endorsement of Obama's pledge to withdraw American troops within 16 months if he wins the presidency.

Full withdrawal by 2010? I can support that.

Israel mourns soldiers

Did you know that the people of Israel and Hezbollah have spent the last month killing each other? Neither did I, because to today's media, Angelina's new babies are more important. Perhaps I should start reading The New York Times more often, since they've put together an excellent piece on two Israeli soldiers who died.

JERUSALEM — With solemn speeches and military salutes, thousands of mourners on Thursday buried the two Israeli soldiers whose remains were returned in a long-awaited exchange with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah on Wednesday.

The funeral of Sgt. First Class Ehud Goldwasser took place in Nahariya, the soldier’s hometown on the northern coast, within view of the Lebanese border crossing where the exchange took place.

Later in the afternoon, the remains of the second soldier, Staff Sgt. Eldad Regev, were interred at the military cemetery in Haifa.

Mourners gathered in the morning heat for the Goldwasser funeral, with the soldier’s family and others taking shelter from the sun under a broad cloth canopy.

Speaking at the ceremony, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said: “This is not the way we wanted to welcome you. We all dreamed — the families and the state of Israel — to hug Udi and Eldad around the necks and surround them with warmth, and to see the smile on their faces.”

And here's some info about a war that journalists ignored.

The two Israeli soldiers were seized by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid on July 12, 2006, an attack that set off a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah that left some 160 Israelis and more than 1,000 Lebanese dead.

In return for the soldiers’ bodies, Israel handed over five Lebanese prisoners, including Samir Kuntar, who had been held for nearly three decades after being convicted in connection with a deadly and notorious attack that also took place in Nahariya.

As part of the exchange on Wednesday, Israel also handed over the bodies of 199 combatants and infiltrators from Lebanon.