Docudharma Times Thursday April 17

We’ve come so far so fast from what they call the past

Laying down foundations and we know they’re gonna last

Present and the future we will never fall

Realise united we stand and divided we fall

Thursday’s Headlines: Moratorium on Lethal Injection Is Over, but Hardly the Challenges: Obama Pressed in Pa. Debate: Torch reaches locked-down Delhi: US offers Pakistan government $7bn in non-military aid to fight terrorism: Reuters cameraman ‘killed by Israeli tank’: Report reveals Iran seized British sailors in disputed waters: Mugabe has stolen poll win, Brown tells UN: Odinga sworn in as Kenyan premier: Boycott call as Gibraltar decides to cull monkeys: Seven police hurt in Spanish bomb: Colombia trade pact dispute spills into Californians’ laps

A Drought in Australia, a Global Shortage of Rice

DENILIQUIN, Australia – Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of this dusty southern Australian town, remembers the constant whir of the rice mill. “It was our little heartbeat out there, tickety-tick-tickety,” he said, imitating the giant fans that dried the rice, “and now it has stopped.”

The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere, once processed enough grain to meet the needs of 20 million people around the world. But six long years of drought have taken a toll, reducing Australia’s rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December.

USA

Executions in Texas, Alabama and other Southern states with large death rows are likely to resume shortly in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision Wednesday upholding Kentucky’s method of putting condemned prisoners to death.

But the fractured decision may actually slow executions elsewhere, legal experts said, as lawyers for death row inmates undertake fresh challenges based on its newly announced legal standards.

Obama Pressed in Pa. Debate

Gaffes Are a Focus as He Spars With Clinton

PHILADELPHIA, April 16 — Sen. Barack Obama repeatedly found himself on the defensive here Wednesday night as he sought to bat away criticism of his remarks about small-town values, questions about his patriotism and the incendiary sermons of his former pastor in a potentially pivotal debate six days before Pennsylvania’s presidential primary.

In their first head-to-head encounter in nearly two months, Obama (Ill.) and his opponent for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), sparred over gaffes, missteps and past statements that could leave them vulnerable in the general election against Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican nominee.

Asia

Torch reaches locked-down Delhi

A huge security operation is under way in India’s capital, Delhi, to protect the Olympic torch from protests on the latest leg of its troubled world tour.

Some 15,000 police and commandos have secured the heart of the city along the truncated route of the torch relay.

India is home to the largest community of Tibetan exiles, as well as its government-in-exile and the Dalai Lama.

Earlier, Tibetan exile groups organised an alternative torch relay involving Indian politicians and celebrities.

That torch arrived at end of its journey, the Jantar Mantar, surrounded by Tibetan flags, cameras and young Tibetan men wearing headbands with “Free Tibet” on them, says the BBC’s Chris Morris.

US offers Pakistan government $7bn in non-military aid to fight terrorism

· Civilian cabinet told drone air strikes will be curbed

· New strategy marks break with Musharraf and army

The US has promised to curb air strikes by drones against suspected militants in Pakistan, as part of a joint counter-terrorism strategy agreed with the new civilian government in Islamabad, the Guardian has learned. That strategy will be supported by an aid package potentially worth more than $7bn (£3.55bn), which is due to go before Congress for approval in the next few months.

The package would triple the amount of American non-military aid to Pakistan, and is aimed at “redefining” the bilateral relationship, US officials say.

Pakistan will also be given a “democracy dividend” of up to $1bn, a reward for holding peaceful elections and forming a coalition government. Of that, $200m could be approved in the next few days.

Middle East

Reuters cameraman ‘killed by Israeli tank’

Medical examination of the body of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana confirms that he was killed by an Israeli tank shell in Gaza yesterday, according to the news agency.

Shana, the 23-year-old Reuters cameraman killed in an explosion in Gaza, also appears to have captured footage of a tank opening fire on the vehicle in which he was travelling.

The cameraman, who died along with two youths who were nearby, had stepped away from his vehicle to film an Israeli tank dug in several hundred metres away, according to a report filed by Reuters.

Video from Shana’s camera shows the tank opening fire, and two seconds after the recoil from the gun raises dust around the Israeli armoured vehicle the tape goes blank.

Report reveals Iran seized British sailors in disputed waters

Fifteen British sailors and Marines were seized by Iran in internationally disputed waters and not in Iraq’s maritime territory as Parliament was told, according to new official documents released to The Times.

The Britons were seized because the US-led coalition designated a sea boundary for Iran’s territorial waters without telling the Iranians where it was, internal Ministry of Defence briefing papers reveal.

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act detail for the first time the blunders last spring that led to what an all-party committee of MPs came to describe as a “national embarrassment”.

Africa

Mugabe has stolen poll win, Brown tells UN

Gordon Brown directly accused Robert Mugabe yesterday of stealing the presidential election, as Britain abandoned its softly, softly approach to Zimbabwe.

In a hardening of British rhetoric, the prime minister used an address to the UN security council to say Mugabe was thwarting the will of the Zimbabwean people. “No one thinks, having seen the results at the polling stations, that President Mugabe has won this election,” Brown told a special UN debate on Africa. “A stolen election would not be a democratic election at all.

“So let a single clear message go out from here that we are and will be vigilant for democratic rights, that we stand solidly behind democracy and human rights for Zimbabwe, and we stand ready to support Zimbabweans build a better future.”

Odinga sworn in as Kenyan premier

Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga has officially become prime minister at a swearing-in ceremony for a new coalition government.

Mr Odinga’s cabinet post is a key new element of the power-sharing deal with President Mwai Kibaki, aimed at ending post-election violence.

The agreement, signed in February, prescribed an equal share of power.

Some 1,500 people died and 600,000 fled their homes in violence after a disputed presidential poll in December.

Mr Odinga, whose Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is the largest party in parliament, said the presidential election was rigged in favour of Mr Kibaki.

Europe

Boycott call as Gibraltar decides to cull monkeys

Gibraltar is to cull 25 of the monkeys that form arguably the Rock’s biggest tourist attraction, because they are becoming a public nuisance and carry a health risk for tourists.

The decision, described by Gibraltar’s tourism minister, Ernest Britto, as a “last resort”, has prompted opposition from the International Primate Protection League, which is considering urging tourists to boycott the British colony.

For centuries a symbol of Britain’s presence in Gibraltar, the Barbary macaques have lived on the Rock’s upper reaches where they roam free, but are fed and looked after. But recently, around two dozen have come down to the tourist areas of Catalan Bay and Sandy Bay and caused disruption there.

Seven police hurt in Spanish bomb

A bomb has exploded outside an office of the ruling Socialist party in Spain, lightly wounding seven police officers.

Police said the blast, in the northern Basque city of Bilbao, happened at 0600 (0400 GMT), after a telephone warning.

The separatist group Eta has been blamed for the attack, which seriously damaged the building.

Latin America

Colombia trade pact dispute spills into Californians’ laps

A visiting delegation to Washington that includes L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa hears dueling, accusatory speeches by Pelosi, U.S. trade envoy over stalled free trade agreement.

WASHINGTON — A morning breakfast briefing for a delegation of Southern California business and government officials in town to lobby Congress turned nasty this morning with a bitter war of words over the proposed Colombian free trade agreement.

Some 200 guests — including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — found themselves caught in the middle of the high-level trade dispute that has exposed a deep rift between the administration and the Democratic congressional leadership.

Last week, President Bush said he was sending the trade agreement to Congress for its consideration. The House voted April 8 to delay consideration, likely until after the November elections, effectively blocking the measure because the Senate cannot act until after the House does.