Weekly Daily Brickbats Archive 2008 April 29-31

Apparently, all the man identified as Gholam Ghaus Z wanted was to buy an electric razor. But the German man of Afghan origin tried to do it in store in a military base near Kabul. American authorities arrested him and have held him for four months although intensive investigations have uncovered no ties to terrorists. German authorities have urged the man's release, but they fear his case could follow the pattern of Murat Kurnaz, a German resident of Turkish origin the Americans held for five years despite finding by both countries he had no ties to terrorism.

Rumors of a romance between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Alina Kabaeva, a former gymnast more than 30 years his junior, had been circulating in Moscow for months. But Moskovski Korrespondent was the first, and still the only Russian, newspaper to report the alleged affair. The newspaper's owner immediately closed the paper and forced its editor to resign.