Lawlessness threatens to turn heart of Athens into no-go zone

Scientists look at a computer screen at the CERN control center in Geneva. [AP]
Scientists beaming after
test of big atom smasher
Lavrov: S. Ossetia has no
intention of joining Russia
MOSCOW – Russia’s foreign minister says
South Ossetia, once part of Georgia, does
not want to become part of Russia. Sergey
Lavrov’s comments Thursday follow a
series of reports of contradictory
statements by South Ossetian leader
Eduard Kokoity.
Kokoity was quoted by news agencies as
telling a group of foreign policy experts
that South Ossetia would join Russia. But
he later retracted those comments in a
subsequent interview with Interfax.
Lavrov later said during a visit to Warsaw
that “South Ossetia doesn’t wish to join up
with anyone.” [AP]
Killing of Lebanon politician
a blow to reconciliation
BEIRUT – The killing of a Lebanese
politician, in the first such attack against a
pro-Syrian figure, jeopardizes national
reconciliation efforts already undermined
by deep rifts between rival factions.
Saleh Aridi, a senior member of the
Lebanese Democratic Party, was
assassinated in a car bombing late on
Wednesday in his hometown of Baysur,
southeast of Beirut.
A security official said the bomb, made of
700 grams (about 1.5 pounds) of
explosives, had been placed under his car.
There was no immediate claim of
responsibility. [AFP]
ATHENSPLUS • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2008
INTERNATIONAL
Corks pop after flawless start for world’s mightiest particle collider
GENEVA – A small blip on a computer
screen sent champagne corks
popping among physicists in Switzerland.
Near Chicago, researchers at a
“pajama party” who watched via
satellite let out an early morning
cheer. The blip was literally of cosmic
proportions, representing a new tool
to probe the birth of the universe.
The world’s largest atom smasher
passed its first test Wednesday as
scientists said their powerful tool is
almost ready to reveal how the tiniest
particles were first created after
the “Big Bang,” which many theorize
was the massive explosion that
formed the stars, planets and everything
else.
Rivals and friends turned up in the
wee hours at Fermilab in Batavia, Ill.
in pajamas to watch the event by a
special satellite connection. Joining
in from around the world were other
physicists – many of whom may
one day work on the new Large
6
Hadron Collider.
Tension mounted in the five control
rooms at CERN, the European Organization
for Nuclear Research, as
scientists huddled around computer
screens. After a few trial runs, they
fired a beam of protons clockwise
Wanted: answers
‘Here we’re looking at essential
questions for mankind’
around the 17-mile (27-kilometer)
tunnel of the collider deep under the
rolling fields along the Swiss-French
border. Then they succeeded in sending
another beam in the opposite,
counterclockwise direction.
The physicists celebrated with
champagne when the white dots
flashed on the blue screens of the control
room, showing a successful
crossing of the finish line on the
US$10 billion machine under planning
since 1984.
“The first technical challenge has
been met,” said a jubilant Robert Aymar,
director-general of CERN. “What
you have just seen is the result of 20
years of effort. It all went like clockwork.
Now it’s for the physicists to
show us what they can do.
“Man has always shown he wants
to know where he comes from and
where he will go, where the universe
comes from and where it will go. So
here we’re looking at essential questions
for mankind.” The beams will
gradually be filled with more protons
and fired at nearly the speed of light
in opposite directions around the tunnel,
making 11,000 circuits a second.
They will travel down the middle of
two tubes about the width of fire
hoses, speeding through a vacuum
that is colder than outer space. At four
points in the tunnel, the scientists will
use giant magnets to cross the beams
and cause protons to collide. It is likely
to be several weeks before the first
significant collisions. [AP]
ROUNDUP
A Lebanese forensic policeman on
Thursday gathers evidence from the site
of an explosion which killed a member of
Lebanon’s opposition Democratic party
in Baisur. [AFP]
Thai ruling party
renominates Samak
BANGKOK – Thailand’s ruling party on
Thursday endorsed ousted leader Samak
Sundaravej to return as prime minister,
despite misgivings by some of its coalition
partners, intensifying the country’s
political deadlock.
Even some of his own party members
said they would not support his bid to be
re-elected in a vote in parliament on
Friday.
Samak was forced out of office Tuesday
by a Constitutional Court ruling that
found he had violated the constitution by
being paid to host television cooking
shows while in office. [AP]
COMMENTARY
BY HARRY VAN VERSENDAAL
Bridge to nowhere
Ed Rooney of Vermont believes he
is more qualified than Sarah Palin
to be vice president of the United
States.
“I recently ate Chinese food
which makes me an expert on US-
China relations,” Rooney said in a
message posted on the “I have more
foreign policy experience than
Sarah Palin” group on Facebook, the
social networking website.
God’s pipeline
Apart from making the world
in seven days, God has
apparently also sanctioned
the construction of a $30
billion gas pipeline
Rooney is not the only one who
thinks so. The Facebook group already
numbers more than 65,000
members.
Palin’s foreign policy inexperience
would be comical if it were not
so dangerous. And it’s all the more
frightening because, like the outgoing
US president, George W.
Bush, John McCain’s running mate
believes herself to be on a mission
from God.
During an address to young
graduates of a ministry program at
the Wasilla Assembly of God, Palin’s
former and notoriously anti-
“choice” church, in June, the beau-
ty queen turned gun-toting hockey
mom suggested that her policies
are sanctioned by God.
“Pray for our military men and
women who are striving to do
what is right for this country – that
our leaders, our national leaders are
sending them out on a task that is
from God,” the Alaska governor said
of the Iraq war. “There is a plan, and
that plan is God’s plan,” she added.
Palin’s religious conservatism
goes too far even by Republican
standards. Party spin doctors have
tried to water down her roots in
Pentecostalism, a controversial
movement based on a literal interpretation
of the Bible. Asked
whether evolution or creation
should be taught in public schools,
Palin said, “Teach both.”
So apart from making the world
in seven days, God has apparently
also sanctioned the construction of
a $30 billion gas pipeline for the
state of Alaska. At that same June
gathering, Palin urged her audience
to pray for the project because it
was “God’s will to get that gas line
built.”
Palin went on to say that she has
no problem doing her job, such as
getting the roads paved and making
sure public schools are funded,
“but really all of that stuff doesn’t
do any good if the people of Alaska’s
heart isn’t right with God.”
To be sure, Americans are lucky
to have a vice-presidential nominee
who enjoys the grace and guidance
of God on foreign policy matters given
Palin’s self-professed ignorance.
“I’ve been so focused on state government,
I haven’t really focused
much on the war in Iraq,” said Palin,
who only got a passport last year,
when asked about the government’s
Iraq troop surge.
As governor, Palin controversially
claims to have stood up
against the infamous “Bridge to
Nowhere.” Her policy ideas seem
to come from that very place.
Pakistan and US clash
over al-Qaida hunt
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan and the United
States were drawn into a dispute
Thursday over the right military strategy
to hunt down al-Qaida, seven years after
the September 11 attacks stunned the
world. With tens of thousands of US and
other international troops locked down in
Afghanistan, US Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen said he
had ordered a new strategy covering both
sides of its border with Pakistan. “I’m not
convinced we’re winning it in
Afghanistan. I am convinced we can,”
Mullen told a congressional committee in
Washington. [AFP]