Docudharma Times Thursday August 21

Joe Lieberman

Republican Sock Puppet Or Is

That Concern Troll

A True Party Of One

Russia to keep soldiers in Georgia

Moscow plans to set up 18 checkpoints, some in Georgia proper, a Kremlin official says. The plan appears to violate the terms of a cease-fire.

By Sergei L. Loiko and Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

August 21, 2008  

MOSCOW — Russia plans to establish a long-term presence in Georgia and one of its breakaway republics by adding 18 checkpoints, including at least eight within undisputed Georgian territory outside the pro-Russian enclave of South Ossetia, a ranking Russian military official told reporters Wednesday.

The checkpoints will be staffed by hundreds of Russian troops, the official said, and those within Georgia proper will have supplies ferried to them from breakaway South Ossetia.

If implemented, the plan would in effect put under Russian control the border between Georgia and the South Ossetia region, which is seeking independence, as well as a small chunk of Georgia proper.

“This is the essence of it,” Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the army general staff, told reporters at a briefing. He showed maps detailing the proposed Russian positions, one just outside the Georgian city of Gori, which lies along a crucial juncture of the country’s main east-west highway.

Report Rejects Medicare Boast of Paring Fraud  



By CHARLES DUHIGG

Published: August 20, 2008

Medicare’s top officials said in 2006 that they had reduced the number of fraudulent and improper claims paid by the agency, keeping billions of dollars out of the hands of people trying to game the system.But according to a confidential draft of a federal inspector general’s report, those claims of success, which earned Medicare wide praise from lawmakers, were misleading.

In calculating the agency’s rate of improper payments, Medicare officials told outside auditors to ignore government policies that would have accurately measured fraud, according to the report.

USA

A Few Speculators Dominate Vast Market for Oil Trading



 By David Cho

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, August 21, 2008; Page A01  

Regulators had long classified a private Swiss energy conglomerate called Vitol as a trader that primarily helped industrial firms that needed oil to run their businesses.

But when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission examined Vitol’s books last month, it found that the firm was in fact more of a speculator, holding oil contracts as a profit-making investment rather than a means of lining up the actual delivery of fuel. Even more surprising to the commodities markets was the massive size of Vitol’s portfolio — at one point in July, the firm held 11 percent of all the oil contracts on the regulated New York Mercantile Exchange.

In the Nevada desert, there’s something out there — the Black Mailbox

Near Area 51, a solitary mailbox — white — is the only landmark for miles around. It has become the subject of UFO lore and a magnet for true believers on the state-christened Extraterrestrial Highw?

By Ashley Powers, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 21, 2008

TIKABOO VALLEY, NEV. — The only landmark for about 40 miles on a barren stretch of highway is a mailbox battered by time and desert gusts. It’s known as the Black Mailbox, though it’s actually a faded white.

Over the years, hundreds of people have converged here in south-central Nevada to photograph the box — the size of a small television, held up by a chipped metal pole. They camp next to it. They try to break into it. They debate its significance, or simply huddle by it for hours, staring into the night.

Some think the mailbox is linked to nearby Area 51, a military installation and purported hotbed of extraterrestrial activity. At the very least, they consider the box a prime magnet for flying saucers.

Middle East

Key U.S. Iraq strategy in danger of collapse



By Leila Fadel | McClatchy Newspapers  

BAGHDAD – A key pillar of the U.S. strategy to pacify Iraq is in danger of collapsing because the Iraqi government is failing to absorb tens of thousands of former Sunni Muslim insurgents who’d joined U.S.-allied militia groups into the country’s security forces.

American officials have credited the militias, known as the Sons of Iraq or Awakening councils, with undercutting support for the group al Qaida in Iraq and bringing peace to large swaths of the country, including Anbar province and parts of Baghdad. Under the program, the United States pays each militia member a stipend of about $300 a month and promised that they’d get jobs with the Iraqi government.

Religion: Saudi mosques open 24 hours for Ramadan



Riazat Butt, Religious affairs correspondent

The Guardian,

Thursday August 21 2008

Mosques across Saudi Arabia will open 24 hours a day under new plans to allow Muslims to pray at their convenience during Ramadan, the month of fasting which begins in September.

Under the proposals, unveiled yesterday by the Islamic affairs ministry, extra imams are to be drafted in to accommodate the annual increase in worshippers who spend longer hours at their local mosque. In Ramadan, Muslims lengthen the fifth and final prayer of the day and more time is given over to religious practices, such as reading the Qur’an and repeating phrases glorifying Allah.

A ministry official, Tawfik al-Sedairi, said that worshipping Allah was a priority for many during Ramadan.

Afirca

Farewell my beautiful Zimbabwe: how paradise turned to poverty

Last year, Justine Shaw was forced to flee her beloved Zimbabwe. Like millions of others, she had suffered years of threats, poverty and intimidation at the hands of Robert Mugabe’s men. Here, she recounts how paradise turned to poverty – and her fears for the elderly parents she left behind

Thursday, 21 August 2008

The cursor hovers over the “send and receive” icon and I hesitate before pressing enter. I haven’t heard from my parents for a week. Although I know the telephone line had been faulty, I desperately hope that it has been fixed – however temporarily – simply so they can reassure me they’re OK.

I have three new emails. The first informs that I have enough FlyBuys points to purchase free electronic products online. It has been 19 months since my husband, two children and I settled in Australia, and yet, I’m still amazed by the giveaways, promotions, sales and bonus offers.

Nigeria military chiefs dismissed

Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua has dismissed the country’s chief of the defence staff, together with the heads of the army and navy.

The BBC  

Mr Yar’Adua made the announcement before going on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

No reason has yet been given for the surprise dismissals, but correspondents say it is not unusual for a new president to change military chiefs.

Nigeria has been plagued by military coups since independence but has had civilian rule since 1999.

Last year, Mr Yar’Adua became the first Nigerian civilian leader to succeed another.

This is the first time he has replaced his military heads since taking power in May 2007.

Asia

Kim Jong-il: School days of a tyrant

n exiled teacher of Kim Jong-il has revealed how he first met an ‘ordinary’ student who turned into the monster that rid Pyongyang of the disabled – and ordered his entire family killed. By David McNeill

Thursday, 21 August 2008

It seemed an ordinary moment, repeated in thousands of schools worldwide. On one side, a shy boy “with puffy, red cheeks” who stammered through a translation test in the principal’s office. On the other, a tutor hired by the boy’s father to put him through his paces.

But the school was in North Korea, the father was the country’s legendary founder, Kim Il Sung, and the boy was his son and future leader, Kim Jong-il. And the relationship between student and tutor would climax in a horrific denouement: the boy grew up to order the execution of the teacher’s entire family.

Nepal’s ex-guerrillas take on civilian rule>

Former rebel leader Prachanda – or ‘the fierce one’ – now leads the assembly rewriting the Constitution.

By Bikash Sangraula  | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the August 21, 2008 edition

Katmandu, Nepal –  In the past four months, Nepal has seen its longtime Maoist rebels come to power and its 240-year-old monarchy abolished.

But even bigger changes loom now that former rebel leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal – whose nom de guerre, Prachanda, means “the fierce one” – holds high civilian office, after being sworn in as prime minister Monday.

That means the man who led a violent, decade-long insurgency that killed some 13,000 people is now tasked with healing the country’s deep divisions and strengthening the rule of law, not to mention addressing rising food and fuel prices and integrating its 20,000 guerrillas into the Army.

Though the Maoists rightfully took power after winning the most seats in an April election, plenty of Nepalis worry about how the ex-rebels – who have no real track record of governance – will lead.

Europe

153 killed after Spanish holiday jet crashes during takeoff

· Only 19 survive fireball crash, many badly injured

· Reports that airliner had technical hitches earlier

Paul Lewis and Graham Keeley in Barcelona

The Guardian,

Thursday August 21 2008

At least 153 people were dead last night after a plane departing from Madrid’s Barajas airport swerved off the runway and burst into flames. The Spanair aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 carrying 172 passengers and crew to the Canary Islands, was attempting to take off when it developed a fault. One of its engines was said to have been in flames shortly before the incident.

More than 300 firefighters, paramedics and police called to the crash were confronted by a grim scene. “The plane was completely broken and full of bodies,” one airport worker told El Pais.

Fury in the Kremlin as US and Poland sign missile deal in Warsaw



From The Times

August 21, 2008

Michael Evans, Defence Editor and Tony Halpin in Tbilisi

The West’s deteriorating relations with Moscow were plunged into deep freeze yesterday when the United States and Poland sealed a deal that will place a key part of Washington’s “Son of Star Wars” anti-missile system on Polish soil. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, flew to Poland from the Nato meeting that condemned Russia’s military presence in Georgia to sign the agreement with Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish Foreign Minister.

It will lead to the installation of ten interceptors in silos capable of destroying hostile ballistic missiles.

Russia reacted with fury, saying that the missile shield was aimed at weakening its defences. “Russia in this case will have to react, and not only through diplomatic protests,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Latin America

Peru’s army on standby as jungle unrest grows



By Daniel Howden, Deputy Foreign Editor

Thursday, 21 August 2008  

Peru is considering sending in the army to break up protests by Amazonian Indians who claim the government is preparing a massive land grab in the country’s remote jungles.

Indigenous groups have blockaded roads and a river and set up pickets at energy installations to protest changes in the law which would make it easier for commercial interests to buy up collectively owned tribal lands in the northern regions of Peru.

The government has responded to an appeal for talks by declaring a state of emergency in three states and threatening protesters with military action.