Docudharma Times Thursday April 16

The Tea Party

Of Disappointment  

Deals Help China Expand Its Sway in Latin America



By SIMON ROMERO and ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

Published: April 15, 2009

CARACAS, Venezuela – As Washington tries to rebuild its strained relationships in Latin America, China is stepping in vigorously, offering countries across the region large amounts of money while they struggle with sharply slowing economies, a plunge in commodity prices and restricted access to credit.

In recent weeks, China has been negotiating deals to double a development fund in Venezuela to $12 billion, lend Ecuador at least $1 billion to build a hydroelectric plant, provide Argentina with access to more than $10 billion in Chinese currency and lend Brazil’s national oil company $10 billion. The deals largely focus on China locking in natural resources like oil for years to come.

The pain from Hillsborough tragedy remains

A crowd of 30,000 gathers at Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium on the 20th anniversary of the disaster that killed 96 and injured hundreds.

By Chuck Culpepper

April 16, 2009

Reporting from Liverpool, England — Even 7,305 days on, city buses stilled. Trains paused. Subways rested. Taxis pulled over and idled. Ferries shut off and let the river nudge them. Pubs held two-minute silences. Radio stations hushed.

At precisely 3:06 p.m. on Wednesday, a metropolitan area of 800,000 strived to sound like a small town, even inside a stadium renowned as one of the loudest on Earth, where organizers of a memorial for the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough soccer tragedy expected about 10,000 for tribute.

An astonishing 30,000 filed from long, snaking queues into Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium in a bracing wind that rippled the organist’s sheet music, and they continued to file in at 3:06 when they, too, forged a vast quiet broken only by babies and toddlers and church bells ringing 96 times in the distance.

USA

Bank Test Results May Strain Limits Of Bailout Funding

Much Rides on Size of Capital Needs

 By David Cho

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, April 16, 2009

As the Obama administration works to complete its stress tests for gauging the health of major banks, it could confront another problem: how to pay for shoring up any weaknesses the tests reveal.

No one yet knows the extent of the banks’ needs. But a senior administration official said yesterday this will be clear once tests on the nation’s 19 major banks are done and the results are released early next month.

The administration would be hard-pressed to ask Congress for more rescue funds to plug the holes. Anger on Capitol Hill is high, especially after the furor over bonuses paid to employees at American International Group. The troubled insurer had earlier received more than $170 billion in bailout funds.

Maersk Alabama crew has a joyous homecoming

Seamen from the cargo ship attacked by Somali pirates are met by family as they arrive back in the U.S. The captain, who was held hostage for five days, is still aboard the Navy ship that rescued him.

Associated Press

10:45 PM PDT, April 15, 2009

Andrews Air Force Base, Md. — The saga of the American merchant seamen who clashed with Somali pirates on the high seas off Africa ended early today with a big “welcome home” banner and the warm embrace of families.

A charter flight from Kenya brought the crew of the Maersk Alabama to Andrews Air Force Base, where they had a private reunion with loved ones.

Missing was the Alabama’s skipper, Capt. Richard Phillips, who was still aboard the U.S. Navy destroyer that had saved him. The ship was chasing pirates off the eastern coast of Africa.

The crewmen were greeted about 1 a.m. EDT by several dozen family members who waved small flags in the cool air. A bevy of reporters and cameras captured the scene, which included a banner hung by the shipping company that was adorned with yellow ribbons and read, “Welcome Home Maersk Alabama.”

The crowd erupted in cheers, whistles and applause as the crewmen, carrying bags and belongings, climbed down a ramp from the plane.

Asia

In the Indian election, 700m voters, 28 days, 250,000 police: world’s biggest democratic poll begins

• Gandhi’s ruling Congress party remains favourite in Indian election

• Big players expected to seek coalition partners

Randeep Ramesh in New Delhi

The Guardian, Thursday 16 April 2009

When voters in parts of central and eastern India go to the polls today it will mark the start of the largest democratic ballot in history, a rolling wave of voting in five phases that will stretch over a month and demand formidable security measures, given the twin threats posed by Maoist rebels and jihadi terrorists.

To get some idea of the scale consider this: 43 million citizens, more than the adult population of England, have been added to the electoral roll since 2004. More than a million electronic voting machines are to be deployed at 828,000 polling stations. No voter will be more than 2km from a ballot box.

The casualties of Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war

Civilians are the casualties in Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war. In a rare report from inside former rebel-held areas, SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda meets fleeing refugees and ex-fighters

Thursday, 16 April 2009

From Paranthan, the road to Vallipuram is rich and green. Great expanses of paddy stretch out before you, clumps of palmyrah dot the land and little streams of water trickle by. As we near the fighting, paddy fields give way to broken buildings and blasted vehicles. Twisted trees and uprooted trunks line the way. Here, in an area formerly controlled by the Tamil Tigers but now in the hands of the Sri Lankan army as they besiege the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a last assault to end a 25-year-old civil war, everything is covered with a layer of brown dust. An occasional boat lies stranded on either side of the road, reminders of a last desperate attempt by the Tamil Tigers to hold back the tide. Blasting a reservoir in the path of the advancing Sri Lankan army, Tiger cadres counterattacked in boats, riding upon a wall of water. The water however, has receded and the Tigers have retreated.

Europe

‘Twitter revolution’ Moldovan activist goes into hiding

Woman fears arrest after Moldova protests force election recount

Graham Stack in Chisinau

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 April 2009 22.28 BST

The woman behind the mass protests which rocked the capital of Moldova last week has gone into hiding after the so-called “Twitter revolution” forced a recount of the general election.

Natalia Morar, 25, a Moldovan who has already been banned from Russia for opposing the Kremlin, told the Guardian she feared arrest after organising a flash mob which ended with 20,000 people storming the parliament building.

Morar, who was tonight reported to be under house arrest, said she had not slept for two nights and was shuttling from one apartment to the next to outwit the police. “They have staked out my house and my mother’s,” she said. “They entered my apartment without a search warrant. If they find me they will arrest me – and what happens then, no one knows. I haven’t spoken on the phone or gone online for two days for fear of being traced.”

Fishermen’s blockades bring chaos to land and sea

From The Times

April 16, 2009

Charles Bremner in Paris and Will Pavia

Thousands of cross-Channel travellers face a third day of chaos today caused by fishermen blockading French ports.

There was a brief respite last night when the protesters began allowing some ferries into Calais. Boulogne and Dunkirk remained blocked.

A line of lorries stretching deep into Kent has been forming since Tuesday when 100 fishing boats manoeuvred into position across the entrances to the ports, paralysing ferry traffic. As hauliers, holidaymakers and business travellers waited, P&O cancelled sailings to all three ports.

On the French side traffic was delayed further by a “snail operation” on the A16 autoroute as the fishermen adopted the tactics of striking farmers and lorry owners by driving slowly in formation across all lanes.

Middle East

Iraq air raids hit mostly women and children

Report urges review of military strategy when targeting urban areas

By Kim Sengupta, Defence correspondent

Thursday, 16 April 2009

Air strikes and artillery barrages have taken a heavy toll among the most vulnerable of the Iraqi people, with children and women forming a disproportionate number of the dead.

Analysis carried out for the research group Iraq Body Count (IBC) found that 39 per cent of those killed in air raids by the US-led coalition were children and 46 per cent were women. Fatalities caused by mortars, used by American and Iraqi government forces as well as insurgents, were 42 per cent children and 44 per cent women.

Twelve per cent of those killed by suicide bombings, mainly the tool of militant Sunni groups, were children and 16 per cent were females. One in five (21 per cent) of those killed by car bombs, used by both Shia and Sunni fighters, was a child; one in four (28 per cent) was a woman.

Africa

Egyptians hope to find Cleopatra’s tomb  

From The Times

April 16, 2009

Sheera Frenkel

Cleopatra and Mark Antony were immortalised as two of history’s greatest lovers, but their final resting place has always been a mystery. Now archaeologists in Egypt are about to start excavating a site that they believe could conceal their tombs.

Zahi Hawass, director of Egypt’s Superior Council for Antiquities, said yesterday that there was evidence to suggest that Cleopatra and Mark Antony were buried together in the complex tunnel system underlying the Tabusiris Magna temple, 17 miles from the city of Alexandria.

Kenya cabinet fresh crisis talks

Kenya’s coalition government is holding fresh crisis talks a day after the premier said he would boycott cabinet meetings in a letter to the president.

The BBC

Prime Minister Raila Odinga still feels his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is being sidelined by President Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU).

The pair agreed to work together last year to end clashes over disputed polls which left some 1,500 people dead.

The ODM says the national accord that formed the coalition is being ignored.

Mr Odinga wrote to Mr Kibaki on Wednesday saying that his ODM would boycott the cabinet until their power-sharing grievances were addressed.

A cabinet meeting scheduled for Thursday morning was postponed and the coalition are instead gathering at Harambee House, the president’s office in Nairobi, to hear the former opposition party’s list of concerns.

Latin America

Mexico, awaiting Obama, hopes for change

President Barack Obama is to arrive today for a quick visit to Mexico, where officials look for signs of a commitment to partnership in addressing issues such as drug violence and immigration reform.

By Tracy Wilkinson

April 16, 2009

Reporting from Mexico City — With a veritable war swirling through the nation and seeping from its borders, Mexico has arisen as a foreign policy emergency for President Obama, and a test of his ability to bring fundamental change to one of Washington’s most important relationships.

Like much of the rest of Latin America, the Mexico that receives a visit from Obama today yearns for the kind of new partnership that the president espouses. U.S.-Latin American relations are at their lowest point in years and Obama’s pledge to “re-order” the agenda is welcome.But beyond spoken commitments, Mexico is looking for concrete assistance in several areas. Powerful drug-trafficking organizations have unleashed a wave of violence that has claimed more than 10,000 lives in just over two years and could threaten the very ability of President Felipe Calderon to govern. Calderon has repeatedly called on Washington to do more to stop the flow of weapons and drug money from the U.S. and to curb the demand for the tons of cocaine and marijuana that Mexican traffickers send northward.

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