Docudharma Times Thursday May 22

Who Won America Idol?

I Don’t Know

Nor Do I Care To Know

As It Is Unimportant

Thursday’s Headlines:   Skyrocketing Oil Prices Stump Experts   Different goals take Clinton and Obama to Florida   UN head tours cyclone-hit Burma   Pakistan makes peace deal to end pro-Taliban violence   Mbeki deploys troops as xenophobic violence spreads to Zulu   Uganda: Implementing Tax Amendments   Berlusconi clamps down on Gypsies   The Big Question: Is Iceland the happiest place on the planet, and what can we learn from it?     Israel contemplates giving up Golan Heights to Syria    Lebanon rivals agree crisis deal    Mexico boosts police ethics to fight drugs

Senate reaches deal on Iraq war funding

Tentative $165 billion fund backs Pentagon operations in Iraq, Afghanistan

WASHINGTON – The Senate plans to vote Thursday on providing $165 billion to fund Pentagon operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, under a deal that likely would doom billions of dollars in domestic programs.

A plan announced Wednesday night by Senate leaders would pay for the wars until a new administration take over.

But it would likely kill money for 13 weeks of additional unemployment benefits for the jobless, heating subsidies, fighting Western wildfires and aid to rural schools, among many programs backed by senators in both parties despite a promised veto from President Bush.

USA

Skyrocketing Oil Prices Stump Experts

Confused about oil prices? So are the experts.

Executives from the giant oil companies say it’s partly the fault of “speculators” or financial players. Key financial players say it’s really a question of limited supply and expanding global demand. Some members of Congress accuse the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries for bottling up some of its production capacity. And OPEC blames speculators, wasteful U.S. consumers and feckless U.S. policy.

Almost everyone points at China’s growing appetite for fuel.

Different goals take Clinton and

Obama to Florida

She focuses on seating the state’s delegates at the Democratic convention while he looks to the fall election and the GOP’s McCain.

SUNRISE, FLA. — The battle of attrition for the Democratic presidential nomination diverted to the Sunshine State on Wednesday, with Hillary Rodham Clinton fighting to seat delegates barred from the convention and Barack Obama looking ahead to the November election.

With the candidates focused on different goals in a state that voted in its unsanctioned Democratic primary four months ago, the day of campaigning underscored the historic nature of the drawn-out primary season that ends June 3.

And it coincided with word that presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain will meet this weekend with Florida’s popular governor, Charlie Crist, a potential running mate who could make the state more difficult for the Democrats to win.

Clinton, who has pinned her fading ambitions largely on seating delegations from Florida and Michigan at the Democratic National Convention, invoked the 2000 presidential election that ended with a Supreme Court order to stop a recount of Florida’s votes.

Asia

UN head tours cyclone-hit Burma

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has arrived in cyclone-hit Burma to tour the devastated Irrawaddy Delta and meet military ruler Gen Than Shwe.

Mr Ban said he had “a message of hope” for cyclone victims.

Burma’s rulers have blocked large-scale international aid, and foreign agencies say they are delivering just 30% of what they would like to give.

A BBC reporter in Burma says people are extremely angry about the way the government has dealt with the disaster.

‘Critical moment’

The death toll from Cyclone Nargis currently stands at 78,000 dead, with another 56,000 missing.

Pakistan makes peace deal to end pro-Taliban violence

Declan Walsh in Islamabad

The Guardian,

Thursday May 22 2008

The Pakistani government has agreed to withdraw troops and introduce Sharia law in the conflict-ravaged Swat valley in return for an end to Taliban suicide bombings and attacks on government buildings.

The peace deal was signed yesterday by the newly elected government of North-West Frontier Province and representatives of the extremist cleric Maulvi Fazlullah, whose fighters battled the army last year.

The breakthrough represents a coup for the government, which is eager to end militant violence, but will be warily regarded by the US, which advocates a strong hand against the Taliban.

The US deputy secretary of state, John Negroponte, told senators in Washington on Tuesday that any agreement was “something we’re going to have to watch very carefully”.

Africa

Mbeki deploys troops as xenophobic violence spreads to Zulu heartland

Xenophobic violence in South Africa, which has caused 24 deaths and forced 13,000 people to flee their homes, has spread from Johannesburg to the volatile Zulu heartland, prompting President Thabo Mbeki to deploy the army on the streets for the first time since the end of apartheid.

The presidential decision was announced after police said a mob of up to 150 armed men attacked a bar owned by Nigerians in the suburb of Umbilo on Tuesday night, injuring six people, one of whom was hit with an axe. Yesterday 100 people returned to Umbilo, demanding foreigners leave the KwaZulu-Natal province. Police said most protesters lived at a men’s hostel and were armed with stones and bottles.

Uganda: Implementing Tax Amendments

Ezra Wanzira

Kampala

At a time when the country is holding its breath in anticipation of the upcoming national Budget, the question that everyone is pondering is: What are the changes that will affect the way I live or run my business?

That question is largely about new taxes that are likely to be introduced and changes to the existing ones. Keen watchers will have noticed in recent press reports that the President has hinted at tax waivers for milk products and the Minister of Finance has also made hints about what to expect.

We are anxiously anticipating the Budget speech, but more importantly the amendment bills to the current tax laws.Last year saw an increase in excise duty on petroleum products followed shortly by the Kenyan crisis that saw an increase in fuel prices.

Europe

Berlusconi clamps down on Gypsies

· Tough measures on Roma and illegal immigrants

· Rules make it easier for Italy to expel foreigners

Silvio Berlusconi’s new rightwing cabinet, at its first meeting in Naples yesterday, endorsed a package of tough measures aimed at Gypsies and clandestine immigrants. In a move that appeared certain to cause controversy, the interior minister, Roberto Maroni, said local authorities would be empowered to check on the living conditions of citizens from other EU nations before granting them right of residence.

The measure appeared to be aimed at Roma living in encampments, and particularly at the estimated 50,000 Romanian Gypsies who have entered Italy in recent years and who are being blamed for much of the recent rise in crime rates.

The cabinet also decided to make unauthorised entry into Italy a crime.

The Big Question: Is Iceland the happiest place on the planet, and what can we learn from it?

Because Iceland has just been named the world’s most peaceful place by the Economist Intelligence Unit, which has compiled an index based on 24 indicators of external and internal measures of peace – including the fact that it has no army and has the lowest ratio of citizens in jail of all the 140 countries surveyed.

Peaceful? What about the Cod Wars?

It’s true that Iceland came into conflict with the rest of the world – well, with the UK at any rate – on a number of occasions in the second half of the 20th century when it unilaterally extended its exclusive fishing rights within its territorial waters from three to four nautical miles in the 1950s, and then to 12 miles in 1958, 50 miles in 1972 and 200 miles in 1976.

Middle East

Israel contemplates giving up Golan Heights to Syria

Israel and Syria are making their first attempt for more than seven years to reach a comprehensive peace which, if successful, would mean Israel giving up the Golan Heights, seized in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Both governments confirmed in closely similar terms yesterday that they were taking part in “indirect” negotiations brokered by Turkey. The office of the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, said: “The two sides have declared their intent to conduct these… talks without prejudice and with openness.”

The talks are likely to be detailed and protracted – assuming that they do not break down – and an Israeli official predicted it would be a “very long process”, adding: “The direct talks have not yet started.”

Lebanon rivals agree crisis deal

Rival Lebanese leaders have agreed on steps to end the political deadlock that has led to the country’s worst violence since the 1975-90 civil war.

The Western-backed government and the pro-Syrian opposition arrived at the deal after days of talks in Qatar.

Under the deal, the opposition – led by the Hezbollah political and militant group – will have the power of veto in a new cabinet of national unity.

It also paves the way for parliament to elect a new president.

The post has been empty since November.

Correspondents say the agreement is a major triumph for Hezbollah, whose key demands have been met.

Latin America

Mexico boosts police ethics to fight drugs

Local groups are battling police corruption – which fuels drug-trafficking – with programs such as ethics training at Mexico City’s police academy.

Mexico City – Angel Augusto Nuñez, a police cadet, knows that cops have a bad rap in Mexico.

And as fresh violence has swept the nation’s police force into the center of the drug war – with the unprecedented slaying of at least four high-ranking officers this month – new questions about how many officers are colluding with drug dealers and how effective police efforts are have battered its reputation once more.

At least one slaying was allegedly coordinated by a federal police officer working for drug traffickers. Many local police have resigned. Some have reportedly even sought asylum in the United States.

But Mr. Nuñez is determined to do his part to rebuild confidence in an institution that ranks among society’s least trusted. On a recent day, in a hardscrabble neighborhood of Mexico City, he is one of 142 students in a yearlong program at a police academy called the Professional Training Institute (PTI) established to raise the standards of the city’s judicial police.