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World News Once a Week |
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| Published Thursday, October 23, 2008 |
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| Reuters/Pilar Olivares: Believers celebrate the Purple Christ in Lima, Peru. |
Issue 122
If you're an American voting on November 4, recent news might force you to consider the following question: Will you make it through an army of lawyers to actually pull the lever?
Election fraud is all the rage right now — and depending on whom you ask, its vilest perpetrator is either a vast right-wing
conspiracy or a community organization. Speaking of gathering the locals: save the date! (Like you were going to forget it
anyway.) Activate is hosting an election-night party at Tom and Jerry's 288 Bar in New York City. If you're in the Big Apple, come watch the returns on a big screen and celebrate our beloved democracy
with that great boozy equalizer: cleverly named drink specials.
America may be hot on the conspiracy tip, but when you're talking shadowy networks, Turkey is your country. There, a
trial of 86 alleged coup plotters began chaotically. One thing no courtroom can stop: financial panic. Iceland — that Wall Street of
the North Sea — is the latest victim of towering debt. Does this mean Björk can't afford another swan dress? Possibly maybe.
- Benjamin Hart |
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 A Note on Our Sources |
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| Top Stories |
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Lenders help thaw Icelandic bank freeze
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Iceland is preparing to join the bailout club this week, after its banking system collapsed under the weight of $61 billion in debt. The country's lack of sufficient foreign-cash reserves to cover the losses has prompted
the International Monetary Fund, along with several Nordic central banks and Japan, to spearhead a $6 billion rescue plan.
As the economic crisis hit home across Europe, French president Nicholas Sarkozy — who is facing his own national bailout — called for an EU-wide scheme to invest in devalued companies. Although some in the private sector railed against the proposal as forced nationalization,
others appeared receptive to the plan — as long as enforceable rules are enacted first.
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US troop deal hits snag
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Top US and Iraqi officials have voiced concerns over a provisional security accord that would leave coalition forces in Iraq for another three years and subject some off-duty
soldiers and contractors to Iraqi legal jurisdiction. According to the Status of Forces Agreement (SoFA), the US would remove
ground troops from Iraqi cities by July 2009, and would leave the county altogether by 2012.
Government leaders have been scrambling to reach a deal before the end of the year, when the UN mandate allowing foreign troops
in Iraq expires. The proposal has met with resistance from the ruling Shi'a bloc prior to calling for a vote, although the option to amend the SoFA currently remains off the table.
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Block the vote
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Voter fraud and suppression have become hot-button issues in the final days before the US presidential election. Last week,
the Supreme Court handed down a decision that effectively stayed the Ohio GOP's controversial effort to challenge voters whose
registration information conflicts with other government records. Ohio's Secretary of State, a Democrat, has received death threats from opponents of the ruling, and her office's website was hacked.
Then there's ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now): the McCain campaign has accused the group's volunteers of logging
false voter registrations (Mickey Mouse, for example). However, many commentators have debunked those charges, noting the lack of any actionable evidence. They've also charged Republicans with using voting-fraud concerns
to disenfranchise minorities and the poor.
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| Newswire |
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| Politics |
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Turkey, stuffed with intrigue
86 men are on trial in Turkey for their alleged membership in an ultra-right shadow network. The nationalist group, known as Ergenekon, is suspected of plotting violent acts against figures it deems anti-Turkish, such as Nobel-winning author Orhan Pamuk.
| TIME | Turkish Daily News |
Liberal leader to step down
Canadian Liberal leader Stéphane Dion will soon bid adieu to politics, after voters dealt his party a historic loss at the polls. Last week's early elections preserved a Conservative-led minority government under incumbent prime minister Stephen Harper, although the center-left NDP gained seven seats.
| Globe and Mail | National Post |
Azerbaijan election rife with corruption
European observers declared Azerbaijan's election undemocratic, after incumbent Ilham Aliyev recaptured the presidency last
week with around 90% of the vote. Although some monitors thought the election signaled "considerable progress" for Azerbaijani
democracy, restrictions on the media and opposition parties remained intact.
| New York Times | Al Jazeera |
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| Science & Technology |
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Website posts volunteer genomes
Harvard's Personal Genome Project hit the web this week, granting open access to genetic maps of ten volunteers. Scientists hope that the public database will
speed the search for the causes of hereditary diseases, although the project renews fears over genetic discrimination.
| New York Times | Scientific American |
The eBay and the ivory
eBay announced a ban on all ivory listings beginning in 2009, heading off a critical report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Over 4,000 auctions involving ivory went live on the site last year — most in the United States.
| MarketWatch | International Herald Tribute |
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Colin Powell casts his vote
Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama for president on Sunday. Several commentators remarked on
the significance of Powell, a Republican and life-long military man, supporting the Democratic candidate, although at least
one blogger finds endorsements a snooze.
| Stumper (Newsweek) | Fresh Intelligence (Radar) |
Amid financial turmoil, homeless populations rise
Tough economic times appear to be behind a significant spike in urban homeless populations across the US. Irregular Times wishes people would pay more attention to the growing problem,
while NRDC spotlights tent cities popping up on the outskirts of metropolitan areas.
| Irregular Times | Kaid Benfield, NRDC |
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| The Week in Pictures |
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Click to see the full-size image and caption.
 Reuters/Daniel Munoz
 Reuters/Madame Tussauds
 Reuters/Jorge Silva
 Reuters/Ajay Verma
 Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
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*Unless otherwise noted, all photos are courtesy of Reuters.
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| Below the Fold |
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Supreme Court to hear identity-theft case
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| Reuters/Rick Wilking |
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The Supreme Court will rule whether illegal immigrants can be convicted of "aggravated" identity theft for using social-security numbers belonging to others. A conviction could add two years behind bars to the typical several-month
sentence for gaining employment with false papers.
| CNN | Washington Post |
China's boom on the wane
The record-setting Chinese economy lost a step this third quarter, disappointing some analysts who hoped that the country would help regional markets weather the current economic storm. Officials in Beijing attribute
the recent downturn to the flagging global demand for Chinese exports.
| Guardian | Los Angeles Times |
Terrorists communicating through child porn
An investigation by the Times, UK revealed that Islamic fundamentalist groups are using child-pornography images and websites to pass encoded information among
operatives. The discovery complicates the psychological profile of the extremists, while providing insight into their web-based
tactics.
| Times, UK | Telegraph |
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| Masthead |
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Managing Editor
Benjamin Hart
Deputy Editor
Eli Dvorkin
Contributing Editors
Jennifer Chen
Natalya Krimgold
Doug Levy
Jessica Loudis
Production
Axel Anderson
Adda Birnir
Tom Starkweather
Publishers
Mark Mangan
Sascha Lewis
Design
Groundwave Design Corp.
Production Design
Jonathan Rahmani
Cultural Partner
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A Note on Our Sources
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Activate is an independent-thinking weekly news round-up produced by Flavorpill, a digital publishing company that filters cultural stimuli of all kinds.
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