Studio Job

Wax model for flower pyramid.

Britain Puts Troop Drawdown on Hold

Photo: Alaa Al-Marjani/AP
Iraqi security forces display a picture of Salim Qassim, a secretary aide to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, during a funeral in Najaf on Tuesday. Qassim was killed in Basra on Sunday.
NYTimes:

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Britain froze plans Tuesday to withdraw about 1,500 soldiers this spring after the faltering effort to drive Shiite militias from Basra raised doubts whether the Iraqis are capable of maintaining security in oil-rich southern Iraq. The British decision was announced in London one week before the top U.S. commander in Iraq appears before Congress to offer his recommendation on how fast America should draw down its own forces. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday in Copenhagen, Denmark that last week's violence in Shiite areas had not changed American plans to withdraw more combat forces by July.

But second thoughts about Iraqi security capabilities emerged as Iraq's government reported a 50 percent rise in the number of people killed in March over the previous month. Much of the increase was a result of the fighting between Iraqi government forces and Shiite militiamen in the southern city of Basra. The conflict quickly spread, engulfing Baghdad and major cities throughout the Shiite south.
...
The recent carnage threatened to reverse the security gains achieved in Iraq since President Bush ordered 30,000 U.S. reinforcements to Iraq early last year. Figures compiled by the ministries of health, interior and defense showed that at least 1,720 people were killed in politically motivated violence in March. That was up sharply from the 953 figure for February. Figures tabulated by The Associated Press from police and U.S. military reports put the March death toll as of Monday at 1,247 -- nearly double the February figure and the biggest monthly toll since August, when 1,956 people died violently.

Burberry Prorsum Winter 2008

Documentary

Photo: Los Angeles Times Collection, UCLA Library Department of Special Collections

Director Roman Polanksi in a Los Angeles courthouse in 1977. Soon after, he fled the country and has never returned.

"Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired"
Dir: Marina Zenovich
NYTimes:
The story of what happened between the initial charges and his flight has been sketchily told before, including by his victim, Samantha Geimer, who in 2003 wrote a commentary for The Los Angeles Times in which she stated that she believed that he and his most recent film at the time, “The Pianist,” should be honored on their own merits. She added, “Who wouldn’t think about running when facing a 50-year sentence from a judge who was clearly more interested in his own reputation than a fair judgment or even the well-being of the victim?”

“Wanted and Desired” answers Ms. Geimer’s bombshell question with shocks of its own, notably corroborating interviews from Douglas Dalton, Mr. Polanski’s lawyer, and Roger Gunson, the assistant district attorney who led the prosecution. Together these two former opponents pin the blame for Polanski’s flight directly on the presiding judge, Laurence J. Rittenband (who stepped down in 1989 and died in 1994). Aided and abetted by an avalanche of fluidly organized visual material, the lawyers fill in the appalling details of what was effectively a second crime, one largely perpetrated by a celebrity-dazzled judge and the equally gaga news media he courted. This crime left two victims, Mr. Polanski, who was denied a fair trial, and Ms. Geimer, who was denied justice. As she wrote, “Sometimes I feel like we both got a life sentence.”

William Pope.L

Photo: Paul Fortin/Pope.L
The cover of the catalogue to his 2003 exhibition, "eRacism."

Jordan Crane

http://www.reddingk.com/prints.html

Tentacles

It Came From Beneath the Sea
1955: Columbia Pictures

Frédéric Bazille

Musée D'Orsay
The Improvised Field Hospital: 1865

Stop Loss

Photo: Frank Masi/Paramount Pictures
Ryan Phillippe and Channing Tatum

Economy booster?

Sadr City, Baghdad

Photo: Joao Silva/NYTimes
Thousands in Baghdad Protest Basra Assault
NYTimes:
Thousands of supporters of the powerful Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia took to the streets of Baghdad on Thursday to protest the Iraqi Army’s assault on the southern port city of Basra, as intense fighting continued there for a third day. The Iraqi Army’s offensive in Basra is an important political test for the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and for American strategy in Iraq. President Bush sought to portray the fighting in a positive light on Thursday, declaring the offensive by Mr. Maliki’s government a “bold decision.”

But if the army’s assault in Basra leads the Mahdi Army to break completely with its current cease-fire, which has helped to tamp down attacks in Iraq during the past year, there is a risk of escalating violence and of replaying 2004. That year, the militia fought intense battles with American forces that destabilized the entire country.

Illustrator: Leif Parsons

Baghdad

Photo: Thaler al-Sudnal/Reuters
Iraqi and US Forces Battle Shiite Militia
Supporters of Moktada al-Sadr protested in Baghdad's Amil district on Tuesday. The signs read: "No, No to governmental militias," "No, No, America," and "Yes, Yes, Iraq."
NYTimes:

Serious fighting broke out Tuesday in Basra and Baghdad, Iraq largest cities, between restive members of Iraq’s biggest Shiite militia and Iraqi Army forces backed by American troops. The scale and intensity of the clashes kept many residents home in Baghdad. Barrages of what appeared to be rockets hit the fortified Green Zone area for the second time in three days. In Basra, Iraq’s most important oil-exporting center, thousands of Iraqi government soldiers and police officers moved to drive out Shiite militia members who have taken over big swaths of that city.

San Francisco

Sunrise

Easter weekend