Docudharma Times Friday May 9

Growing up it all seems so one-sided

Opinions all provided

The future pre-decided

Detached and subdivided

In the mass production zone

Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone

Friday’s Headlines: McCain Pushed Land Swap That Benefits Backer: Bush set to veto $300 billion farm bill: An Arab veteran of 1948 recalls Palestinian ‘catastrophe’: Lebanon on the brink as violence erupts: Berlusconi imposes his authority with cabinet of cronies and beautiful women: Spain launches legal war on US ‘pirates’: Effort to control HIV in Africa ‘badly targeted’: Zimbabwe army denies attacks, Mbeki to hold talks: North Korea Gives U.S. Files on Plutonium Efforts: Japan to allow military use of space: lawmakers: President Morales agrees to Bolivian recall vote  

U.N. Pressures Myanmar to Allow Aid

With up to 1.5 million people in Myanmar now believed to be facing the threat of starvation and disease and with relief efforts still largely stymied by the country’s isolationist military rulers, frustrated United Nations officials all but demanded Thursday that the government open its doors to supplies and aid workers.

“The situation is profoundly worrying,” said the United Nations official in charge of the relief effort, John Holmes, speaking in unusually candid language for a diplomat. “They have simply not facilitated access in the way we have a right to expect.”

Support disaster relief in Myanmar (Burma)

From the BBC: Burma impounds UN aid deliveries

The World Food Programme has halted aid shipments to Burma after the contents of its first delivery were impounded on arrival in the military-ruled country.

The UN body says the Burmese government seized aid material flown in to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, which has killed tens of thousands.

The WFP said it had no choice but to halt aid until the matter was resolved.

Burma’s ruling generals have faced mounting criticism over their handling of the crisis.

The UN fears more than 1.5 million people have been affected by the cyclone, with tens of thousands made homeless and vulnerable to disease.

Burmese state media say 22,980 people were killed, but there are fears the figure could rise to 100,000.

USA

McCain Pushed Land Swap That Benefits Backer

PRESCOTT, Ariz. — Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.

Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain’s 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.

Bush set to veto $300 billion farm bill

Administration officials have dashed hopes among farm-state lawmakers from both parties that President Bush will sign a nearly $300 billion farm bill that they finished Thursday.

The veto warning sets up an effort by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, joined by many farm-state Republicans, to override a veto and defend government payments to farmers earning record incomes even as food prices soar.

Administration officials said the bill, which would set U.S. food policy for the next five years, is loaded with budget gimmicks that disguise a $20 billion increase in spending.

“At a time of record farm income, Congress decided to further increase farm subsidy rates, qualify more people for taxpayer support, and move programs toward more government control,” Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said.

Middle East

An Arab veteran of 1948 recalls Palestinian ‘catastrophe’

While Israelis are celebrate on Thursday their Independence Day, Palestinians prepare to mark what they call the ‘nakba.’

erusalem – Mahmoud Jadallah recalls the 1948 Arab-Israeli war as if it were yesterday. As he guides a visitor through the village he once defended against Israeli forces, the names of outposts and passwords his Arab fighters used trip off his tongue.

But the day that the Jordanians told them to stop fighting is clearest. The war was over – for the moment, at least – and an armistice had been reached between Israel and Jordan. “The Jordanians came along with us and said, ‘OK, we don’t need you anymore. You can go home. We’re in charge now. They’re a state, and we’re a state.’

Lebanon on the brink as violence erupts

· Government has declared war, says Hizbullah

· At least 10 killed and 20 hurt as clashes spread

Fighting erupted across Beirut yesterday after Hizbullah accused the Lebanese government of issuing a “declaration of war” by demanding the Shia militia shut down its private communications network.

Beirut’s streets echoed to the sound of machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades as masked Hizbullah fighters clashed with supporters of the western-backed government, evoking bitter memories of the country’s civil war and sharpening fears of a new one.

Sources reported at least 10 dead and 20 wounded, with violence spreading from Beirut to the Beqaa valley. The UN urged restraint, while government coalition leader Saad al-Hariri issued a televised appeal to Hizbullah “to stop the slide towards civil war, to stop the language of arms and lawlessness”. Hizbullah officials later rejected the overture, according to the group’s al-Manar television.

Europe

Berlusconi imposes his authority with cabinet of cronies and beautiful women

By Peter Popham in Rome

Friday, 9 May 2008

Silvio Berlusconi’s new government was sworn in yesterday afternoon, completing a changing of the guard from the government of Romano Prodi transacted at blinding speed by Italian standards.

Mr Berlusconi left opponents, allies and media observers gasping as he breezed into the head of state’s office on Wednesday with a full list of ministers already prepared. Such a thing has never happened before in messy, snail-pace, fudge-happy post-war Italy, where allocating portfolios among a baffling variety of parties often takes weeks.

Spain launches legal war on US ‘pirates’

Spain demanded the return of sunken treasure worth an estimated half a billion dollars yesterday, accusing Odyssey, the deep-sea exploration company that discovered it, of looting its shipwrecks.

Spanish archaeologists said that they had determined “with complete certainty” that the record haul had come from the Spanish colonial-era galleon Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, sunk by a British fleet off the southern coast of Portugal in 1804.

“The mystery is over,” said James Goold, a Washington-based lawyer for the Spanish Government. The treasure “belongs to the Spanish Armada”. Since announcing in May 2007 that it had found 500,000 gold and silver coins somewhere “in international waters in the Atlantic Ocean”, Odyssey has fought hard to keep details of the haul under wraps.

Africa

Effort to control HIV in Africa ‘badly targeted’

The fight against the Aids epidemic in Africa is founded on ineffective strategies and should focus on male circumcision and reducing promiscuity, according to leading scientists in the field.

HIV containment is generally based on the “three pillars” – promotion and provision of condoms, HIV status testing and treatment of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that can increase the risk of becoming infected. There is little evidence, however, that any of these methods works well in sub-Saharan Africa, where two thirds of the 33.2 million people who carry the virus live, a review for the journal Science has found. It was published in a special issue to mark the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes Aids.

Zimbabwe army denies attacks, Mbeki to hold talks

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s army distanced itself from post-election violence and sought to calm tensions ahead of a possible run-off vote, state media reported on Friday ahead of a visit by regional mediator President Thabo Mbeki.

The South African leader, whose “soft diplomacy” approach towards the crisis in Zimbabwe has triggered criticism at home and abroad, is due to travel to his country’s northern neighbor on Friday for talks with veteran President Robert Mugabe about the disputed poll.

The head of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, says he won the March 29 presidential election outright and his party says it is not planning to participate in a run-off. Tsvangirai has yet to give a final answer on whether he will contest.

Asia

North Korea Gives U.S. Files on Plutonium Efforts

North Korea has turned over to the United States 18,000 pages of documents related to its plutonium program dating from 1990, in an effort to resolve remaining differences in a pending agreement meant to begin the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Bush administration officials said Thursday.

The documents contain information about North Korea’s three major campaigns to reprocess plutonium for nuclear weapons, in 1990, 2003 and 2005, a senior official said. The official, like some others who agreed to discuss the documents, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic considerations.

Japan to allow military use of space: lawmakers

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese lawmakers voted Friday to allow the military use of space, breaking a decades-old taboo in the officially pacifist country which has an increasingly ambitious space programme.

The move came during a rare fence-mending visit to Japan by President Hu Jintao of China, which alarmed Japan last year by conducting a test to shoot down a satellite.

A lower house committee voted to reverse a 1969 parliamentary resolution that limited Japan’s use of space to non-military applications.

The bill is certain to pass in parliament as both Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda’s Liberal Democratic Party and the main opposition Democratic Party, which controls the upper house, support it.

Lawmakers said that Japan still opposed putting weapons into space but that the 1969 restrictions had stifled innovation, hurting Japanese companies.

Latin America

President Morales agrees to Bolivian recall vote

LA PAZ, Bolivia – President Evo Morales agreed Thursday to stand for election in a nationwide recall vote, gambling that Bolivians will re-elect him after just two years in office and shore up support for his pending reforms.

Morales first proposed a nationwide recall referendum last December amid a fierce political battle over his draft constitution, which would give Bolivia’s long-oppressed indigenous population greater power.

The idea seemed to have been forgotten until Thursday, when an opposition-controlled Senate passed a bill ordering a referendum be held within 90 days. Morales pledged to sign the measure.

“If we politicians can’t agree, it’s best that the population decide our destiny,” Morales said in a nationally televised address.