Docudharma Times Thursday April 3

In the mornin you go gunnin

For the man who stole your water

And you fire till he is done in

But they catch you at the border

Thursday’s Headlines: In Economic Drama, Bush Is Largely Offstage: Contracts for Body Armor Filled Without Initial Tests:  Going undercover in North Korea: Karzai seeks bigger role for larger Afghan army: Reporters on Berlin paper admit they were Stasi informers: EU allies unite against Bush over Nato membership for Georgia and Ukraine:  Zimbabwe’s slums pay fitting testimony to Mugabe’s misrule: Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe is ready for last-ditch fight to hang on to presidency:  Intellectuals condemn fatwa against writers: Iraqi army shows force in Basra:  

Alliance Invites In Croatia, Albania

Bush Is Rebuffed In Bid for Support Of Ex-Soviet States

BUCHAREST, Romania, April 2 — NATO’s political leaders agreed Wednesday night to admit Croatia and Albania into the military alliance, but after a vigorous debate they effectively rejected President Bush’s bid to put two former Soviet republics on the path to membership.

The invitations to Croatia and Albania will bring NATO membership to 28 countries, the organization’s first expansion in six years as it renews its push to integrate Europe under a common security umbrella. The alliance will not, however, accept a third Balkan state, Macedonia, because Greece decided to veto its application because of a long-standing dispute over the former Yugoslav republic’s name.

USA

In Economic Drama, Bush Is Largely Offstage>

The first hint that President Bush might be detached from the nation’s economic woes was in February, when he conceded that he had not heard about predictions of $4-a-gallon gasoline.

Then Mr. Bush went to Wall Street to warn against “massive government intervention in the housing markets,” two days before his administration helped broker the takeover of the investment bank Bear Stearns.

Now Mr. Bush is in Eastern Europe, one of eight foreign trips he is taking this year. As he delivered his farewell address to NATO on Wednesday, Senate Democrats and Republicans were holed up in the Capitol, scrambling to produce a bill to help struggling homeowners, the kind of government intervention Mr. Bush had cautioned against.

Contracts for Body Armor Filled Without Initial Tests

Inspections Skipped in 13 Of 28 Deals, Report Finds

Government auditors said yesterday that nearly half of 28 contracts to manufacture body armor for Army soldiers were completed without the gear ever going through an initial test.

Nearly $3 billion worth of body armor did not go through early inspections known as “first article testing,” or FAT, that are performed before major production to ensure that a company can meet the contract’s requirements and to catch any defects, according to a report by the Defense Department’s inspector general. Contracting officials say the initial testing is done to save time and money.

Asia

Going undercover in North Korea

In the Chinese city of Yanji, just a few kilometres from the North Korean border, one of the most risky journalistic endeavours ever undertaken is taking shape.

A North Korean citizen is being trained in the techniques of using a hidden camera.

His identity is a closely guarded secret, so he chooses to use the name Lee Jun.

Mr Lee is one of a group of citizen journalists that has begun working inside North Korea, producing written reports and video footage which are then smuggled to the outside world.

He has crossed the border on numerous occasions, bringing hours of material showing everyday life in the street, on trains, even in police stations.

Karzai seeks bigger role for larger Afghan army

· Move cheers Nato leaders split over new members

· French troop pledge falls short of partners’ hopes

Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, is expected to propose a radical expansion of the Afghan army today and call for his troops to take over security responsibilities in Kabul from Nato, according to officials at the alliance’s summit in Bucharest. The news came after dismal day for Nato leaders, with the alliance unable to agree on new members. The summit was split on whether to offer membership prospects to Georgia or Ukraine, while Greece was able to block Macedonian membership single-handed. Croatia and Albania were invited to join the alliance.

Karzai’s proposal is an attempt to compensate for a shortfall in international troop contributions to Afghanistan. Under the plan, the Afghan army would assume security responsibilities in the capital before the end of the year. It would eventually expand its strength from 55,000 to 120,000, well above the ceiling of 86,000 agreed earlier this year with the Afghan government’s international backers

Europe

Reporters on Berlin paper admit they were Stasi informers

The editorial team of a Berlin newspaper is to be investigated by historians after two of its senior journalists were identified as former Stasi informants.

The editor of the Berliner Zeitung, Joseph Depenbrock, called for an independent inquiry into the backgrounds of 120 editorial staff to “preserve the credibility of the newspaper”.

In a commentary in the paper, Depenbrock said that journalists had been shocked by the revelations. Firstly Thomas Leinkauf, editor of the Berliner’s magazine and a prominent page three news feature slot, admitted he had worked for the Stasi as an informant after a file detailing his activities surfaced at the paper. Leinkauf worked for the Stasi for two years as a student in the 1970s informing on fellow students.

EU allies unite against Bush over Nato membership for Georgia and Ukraine

By Colin Brown in Bucharest

Thursday, 3 April 2008

Gordon Brown has sided with more cautious EU allies against President George Bush over US support for the admission of the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine being admitted to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

The rift threatens to dominate the Nato summit in Romania and the US pressure risks provoking a crisis later in the week with the outgoing Russian President, Vladimir Putin, who has made it clear he will oppose Nato membership for the two states on Russia’s borders.

Africa

Zimbabwe’s slums pay fitting testimony to Mugabe’s misrule

By Daniel Howden in Harare

Thursday, 3 April 2008

Beyond the wealthy suburb of Borrowdale, past the high walls of the Mugabe estate with its mansion whose lavish furnishings make for urban legends, live the people who are truly at the bottom of the heap.

The first sight of them comes after driving through the gates of the city dump. People caked in filth and dressed in rags crowd around the car pressing their faces against the windows, trying to see what the rubbish bags in the back might hold. They are part of a growing army of scavengers who have come to the last place in this collapsing country where they might find something for nothing.

Harassed officials wave our car down a bumpy track of churned earth and flattened garbage that winds its way between the mighty mounds of detritus.

Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe is ready for last-ditch fight to hang on to presidency

Robert Mugabe lost control of Zimbabwe’s parliament yesterday for the first time since taking power 28 years ago, but as the Opposition also claimed victory in the presidential poll, speculation mounted that he would make a last desperate attempt to cling on.

According to the final results of Saturday’s elections announced last night, the opposition led by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has secured an absolute majority, winning 109 of parliament’s 210 seats.

Middle East

Intellectuals condemn fatwa against writers

Arab human rights activists have condemned a Saudi religious edict calling for the execution of two writers for apostasy – giving a rare glimpse of tensions over Islam inside the conservative kingdom.

The ruling by Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Barrak was called “intellectual terrorism” by “clerics of darkness” in a statement obtained by Reuters and signed by 100 human rights groups and intellectuals from the region. Last month Barrak issued a fatwa against two Saudi writers he denounced as “infidels”.

Writing in al-Riyadh newspaper, Yousef Aba Al-Khail and Abdullah bin Bejad had questioned the Sunni Muslim view standard in Saudi Arabia that adherents of other faiths should be considered unbelievers.

Iraqi army shows force in Basra

An Iraqi commander has led a convoy through the stronghold of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr in Basra.

Correspondents say the convoy was intended as a show of force and that it met no significant resistance.

It went through the Hayaniya district – the scene of heavy fighting last week between troops and Shia militia.

Meanwhile, a senior American military spokesman said that some of the Iraqi security forces had not been “up to the job” during the fighting.

Latin America

Divided by death and the Mexican border

Illegal immigrant families are torn apart when someone dies. Survivors are afraid to follow a loved one home for burial.

Alberta Trujillo felt the baby coming. She woke her fiance, Margarito Garcia, and told him they needed to get to a hospital.

Neither had a car or a driver’s license. So they bundled up and started walking to East Los Angeles Doctors Hospital a block away.

Trujillo had to stop across the street from the emergency room as Garcia ran to get help. He returned with a wheelchair and an attendant, and the couple headed into the hospital.

They knew they were having a girl and had already chosen a name: Nicole.

But now the baby’s heartbeat was dropping, so as soon as the doctor arrived, Trujillo started pushing.

“I was worried,” Garcia said. “I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

Nicole was born at 4:22 a.m on Jan. 25. But she wasn’t breathing, and her heart had stopped. Doctors were unable to save her.