The Lede is continuing to follow Hurricane Isaac, which is expected to continue pushing through Louisiana on Wednesday. Updates will mix breaking news from our correspondents in the region with eyewitness accounts, photos and videos of the storm posted online
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Smoothing the Path From Foreign Lips to American Ears
Foreign graduate students at Ohio University “are spending up to two hours a day learning how to speak so that their American colleagues and students will understand them,†Richard Perez-Pena wrote in The New York Times.
“It is a complaint familiar to millions of alumni of research universities: the master's or doctoral candidate from overseas, employed as a teaching assistant, whose accent is too thick for undergraduate students to penetrate,†he wrote. “And it is an issue that many universities are addressing more seriously, using a better set of tools, than in years past.â€
At American universities, one in every six graduate students hail s from another country - about 300,000 of them, almost half from China and India, according to the Institute of International Education. In science and technology fields, foreigners make up nearly half of the graduate students.
Those from China and other East Asian countries are often like Xingbo Liu, a graduate student in nutrition here, who said she had taken English classes nearly all her life. “But we only learn how to write and read,†she said, “how to choose the right answer on a written test.†Many Indian or African students have done most of their formal education in English and are comfortable speaking it, but with accents that challenge American ears.
Read the full article.
Witness to Rachel Corrie\'s Death Responds to Israeli Court Ruling Absolving Soldier
By ROBERT MACKEY
As my colleagues Jodi Rudoren and Danielle Ziri report, an Israeli judge ruled on Tuesday that the state bore no responsibility for the death of Rachel Corrie, an American activist who was crushed to death by a military bulldozer in 2003 as she attempted to block the demolition of a Palestinian home in Gaza.
Ms. Corrie, who was a student at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., joined the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement in January, 2003, and was killed two months later in the Gazan town of Rafah, which straddles the border with Egypt.
Photographs published by The Electronic Intifada on March 16, 2003, the day she died, showed that Ms. Corrie confronted the heavily armored bulldozer wearing a bright orange vest and holding a bullhorn. The same Web site also published sworn affidavits recorded within days of the deadly incident by three other international activists who were present when Ms. Corrie was killed. One of those witnesses, a Briton named Tom Dale, sent the following statement to The Lede on Tuesday from Cairo, where he now works as a journalist:
The verdict in Rachel's case is saddening for all those who knew Rachel, and for all who believe in what she stood for. It should be disappointing for all those who want to see justice done in Israel and Palestine.
On March 16, 2003, Rachel could not have been more visible: standing, on a clear day, in the open ground, wearing a high visibility vest. On that day, she had been in the presence of the Caterpillar D9 bulldozers used by the Israeli army for some hours.
She was standing in front of the home of a young family which was under threat of demolition by a bulldozer. Many homes were demolished in such a way at that time, and Rachel was seeking to protect her friends, with whom she had lived.
Whatever one thinks about the visibility from a D9 b ulldozer, it is inconceivable that at some point the driver did not see her, given the distance from which he approached, while she stood, unmoving, in front of it. As I told the court, just before she was crushed, Rachel briefly stood on top of the rolling mound of earth which had gathered in front of the bulldozer: her head was above the level of the blade, and just a few meters from the driver.
Those of us who are familiar with events under occupation in Palestine are may not be surprised by this verdict, which reflects a long-standing culture of impunity for the Israeli military, but we should be outraged.
I didn't have a chance to get to know Rachel as well as I would have liked, since we spent just a few weeks together, but I do know that she is a tremendous loss to us all.
Later on Tuesday, Mr. Dale elaborated on his statement in a BBC radio interview and a Skype interview with The Telegraph in London.
A video interview with Tom Dale, a British journalist and activist, posted online by The Telegraph.
Mr. Dale, who is now the news editor of The Egypt Independent, the English edition of the Cairene daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, noted in an e-mail on Tuesday that video he recorded late last year, documenting in vivid detail the use of force against Egyptian protesters, helped draw global attention to the use of violence against activists in Tahrir Square. “I was behind the camera filming the Egyptian army as it rampaged across Tahrir Square in December,†he recalled. “None of us had a video camera when Rachel was killed. I can't help but wonder now how much difference it would have made to the court case.â€
While there is no footage of the moment Ms. Corrie was dealt a fatal blow by the bulldozer, the trailer for a documentary on her life and death does include Israeli military audio of the soldier who struck her reporting the incident, a nd images of her and other activists trying to prevent home demolitions on a previous day in 2003.
The trailer for “Rachel,†a documentary about Rachel Corrie.
The Israeli military's destruction of homes in Rafah was part of an effort to seal the border between Gaza and Egypt by destroying the tunnels underneath it used by smugglers to move goods and arms into the Palestinian territory.
Four months after Ms. Corrie was killed, the comic-book journalist Joe Sacco published “The Underground War in Gaza,†a New York Times Magazine report on the Israeli military's anti-tunnel operations in Rafah. That report from can be viewed elsewhere on this Web site as a slideshow or a .pdf.
In an interview with the Arab satellite network MBC, conducted just days before she was killed, Ms. Corrie herself spoke about the effort by international activists to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes in Rafah .
A television interview with Rachel Corrie, an American activist, conducted by the Arab satellite network MBC in March, 2003, days before she was killed by an Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza.
Latest Updates on Hurricane Isaac
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
The Lede is following Hurricane Isaac on Tuesday, which is expected to make landfall along the Gulf Coast. Updates will mix breaking news from our correspondents in the region with eyewitness accounts, photos and videos of the storm posted online.
Latest Updates on Hurricane Isaac
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
The Lede is following Hurricane Isaac on Tuesday, which is expected to make landfall along the Gulf Coast. Updates will mix breaking news from our correspondents in the region with eyewitness accounts, photos and videos of the storm posted online.
Speaking Urdu or Bengali a Cause for Police Suspicion in NYC
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Earlier this summer, Thomas P. Galati, commanding officer of the New York Police Department's elite intelligence division, sat for an unusual legal interrogation, during which he talked of his keen interest in Urdu-speaking New Yorkers,†Michael Powell wrote in The New York Times.
“ ‘I'm seeing Urdu,' Assistant Chief Galati said of the data generated by his eight-person demographics unit,†Mr. Powell wrote, “which has eavesdropped on thousands of conversations between Muslims in restaurants and stores in New York City and New Jersey and on Long Island.†The officer told Mr. Powell: “I'm using that information for me to determine that this would be a kind of place that a terrorist would be comfortable in.â€
Assistant Chief Galati expressed similar sentiments about Bengali speakers:
“The fact that they are speaking Bengali is a factor I would want t o know,†he said, adding that the information was used solely to be able to determine where “I should face a threat of a terrorist and that terrorist is Bengali.â€
But here is the problem for those eager spies among us. Asked if all of this compiling of Urdu- and Bengali- and Arabic-language hangouts, and all of this listening in on the chatter, had resulted in tips about potential terrorist plots, Chief Galati conceded it had not.
Read the full article.
Sonia Gandhi Accuses Opposition of \'Blackmail\'
By JIM YARDLEY
With Parliament paralyzed for a sixth consecutive day, Sonia Gandhi, president of the Congress party, launched an attack Tuesday against the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, blaming it for holding Parliament to “ransom by blackmail,†even as she tried to rally her party to fight back against criticism over the coal scandal that is now shaking Indian politics.
Mrs. Gandhi's remarks were part of a coordinated public relations effort by Congress to put the B.J.P. on the defensive over its obstructionist tactics in Parliament. Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram and Coal Minister Prakash Jaiswal held news briefings on Monday night, hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was shouted down in Parliament by B.J.P. lawmakers as he submitted his official response on the coal scandal.
“It is a matter of regret, of even shame, that at a time when serious issues are affecting our people an d our country, Parliament is not being allowed to function and fulfill its proper constitutional role and duty,†Mrs. Gandhi said on Tuesday morning, according to a transcript of her remarks. “This is the handiwork of just one party â€" the B.J.P. This once again shows up the scant respect it has for democratic values.â€
Mrs. Gandhi, speaking to a gathering of Congress party lawmakers in New Delhi, accused the B.J.P. of “false propaganda†and characterized the attacks against the prime minister as “politically motivated.†Mr. Singh on Monday said he assumed full responsibility for the actions of the coal ministry and denied any wrongdoing â€" a position that was blistered by B.J.P. lawmakers.
“We don't need a certificate of responsibility from Congress,†the B.J.P. spokesman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said Tuesday on NDTV. “We need conduct of accountability from them.â€
Earlier this month, India's comptroller and auditor general released a re port estimating that favorable government policies had led to sweetheart deals for power companies, enabling them to obtain rights to coal concessions at losses to the treasury estimated at $34 billion. B.J.P. lawmakers have called for Mr. Singh to resign.
For days, as the B.J.P. has hammered the prime minister over the scandal, opposition lawmakers have blocked any action in Parliament. In response, Congress lawmakers have offered to hold a full debate on the coal scandal in Parliament if the opposition will allow the body to function.
But the standoff seems to be hardening, and as yet there does not seem to be space for compromise. Some analysts say the situation could, in the most extreme case, lead to early elections. Or if the impasse continues, it may mean that the current “monsoon†session of Parliament will end without accomplishing anything.
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