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  It's the right thing to do. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Hub health board to restaurants: Hold the trans fat,Now banned in Boston: artery-clogging trans fat.,The city's health board gave final, unanimous approval yesterday to a ban on the artificial substance in french fries, doughnuts, and other dishes made in restaurants and grocery stores.
"It's the right thing to do," said Harold Cox, a member of the Boston Public Health Commission.
Boston joins a growing number of cities, including New York and Philadelphia, and the town of Brookline in banning the ingredient. Trans fat has been linked to heart disease in humans and to diabetes in experimental animals.
The first phase of the ban goes into effect in September and will apply to the use of cooking oils, shortening, and margarine containing artificial trans fat. The makers of baked goods will have a year to eliminate trans fat from their products.
Packaged goods clearly labeled as containing the substance can still be sold, although most major manufacturers have already removed it.
The Boston prohibition would cover all restaurants, including school and hospital cafeterias, as well as fresh food prepared in groceries and delis.
City inspectors will visit businesses to make sure they comply with the ban, and scofflaws could face fines of up to $1,000 for each violation.
The prohibition faced only scant opposition. Of more than 90 written comments, only three were antagonistic. And when the Health Commission held a public hearing yesterday on the ban, only four people showed up.
Janine M. Harrod, director of government affairs for the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, said members of the trade group were worried they could roll up multiple fines if an inspector found, say, several products containing artificial trans fat. But a commission attorney stressed that regulators do not intend to be punitive and promised instead to work with chefs to cook up dishes free of trans fats.
| March 16, 2008 | 19:33:47 |
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Public purse takes hit. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Egyptians hit by rising food prices, As the BBC looks at the impact of rising food prices around the world, Heba Saleh reports from Cairo where soaring costs hit the country's poor - and the government that subsidises their bread.
Many families are having to cut back on meat
Battle for bread
A crowd of people jostle each other as they wait for subsidised bread outside a small bakery on a narrow unpaved back street in Imbaba, a poor suburb of Cairo.
A worker comes to the counter with a tray of hot bread just out from the oven and starts handing out stacks of loaves of round, flat bread to the people at the front of the queue.
It is nine o'clock in the morning, and the queue is full of housewives and government employees who have signed in at their offices, then come to line up for cheap bread to take home to their families later in the day.
Everyone here complains they are being squeezed by the latest wave of price rises.
"Speak about the famine that's taking place now," says Karima Mohamed, a mother of five.
I buy as many loaves as they allow me, 40 to 60 loaves.
Woman shopper
"A bottle of oil has now reached 10 (Egyptian) pounds (90p; $1.80). The government should not make things expensive for the Egyptian people, because we are the poorest of the world. Salaries here have not increased, but prices have gone up threefold and fourfold."
Family budgets, already under pressure in this mainly poor country, are being further strained by the international increases in the prices of staples such as wheat, rice, cooking oil and dairy products.
Some poor families say they have had to reduce their food intake to two meals a day.
They are eating meat even more infrequently than usual - or not at all.
Public purse takes hit
But one commodity which has not gone up is the subsidised baladi bread for which millions of Egyptian queue up patiently every day.
At less than one US cent a loaf, it is a key element of the national diet.
"This bread is very important for me," says Wafaa, a mother of five who works for the tax authority.
"I buy as many loaves as they allow me, 40 to 60 loaves. But I only take it for our daily food, and when tomorrow comes God will take care of it."
Baladi bread of a slightly better quality sold at market prices in the wealthier suburbs of Cairo can go up to 13 cents a loaf.
To keep the price of subsidised bread low for Egypt's 80 million people, the national budget has had to take a big hit this year.
The world's largest importer of wheat, Egypt has spent an extra $850m on wheat for subsidised bread. The total bill is expected to reach $2.67bn.
According to figures cited by the World Bank in a 2005 study, a fifth of the country's population live below the poverty line. Another 13% are just above it and for them, any wobble in consumer prices means they go under.
No-one has yet worked out the impact of the latest price rises on poverty, but it is clear the government believes it needs to intervene to absorb some of the increases.
So it is allowing up to 15 million new names to be added to the register of people eligible to receive subsidised oil, sugar, rice and tea.
Strikes wave
In a country with so many people struggling to make ends meet, the authorities are also well aware of the potential for social unrest should prices continue to soar.
In 1977 there were massive riots when it was announced that the government would allow the prices of a list of essential goods to go up.
So now the authorities are promising big salary increases and the state press carries almost daily assurances from the president that meeting the basic needs of citizens is a government priority.
In the last two years Egypt has been swept by an unprecedented wave of strikes in both public and privately-owned factories and even in some government departments.
In almost all cases, improved pay was the main demand, and nearly always the workers got much of what they wanted.
Many commentators are now noting that it is not just people in traditionally low-paid jobs who are complaining.
Even those who have always been seen as part of the middle class say they are suffering from the erosion of any buying power their salaries may have formerly had.
Indeed, doctors have become the latest group threatening to go on strike unless their pay is increased.
| March 13, 2008 | 18:51:32 |
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He's an excellent speaker. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Clinton says wife will repair economy,Former president in Cleveland area
Former President Clinton yesterday tried to conjure up warm memories of the 1990s when he served two terms as president.
He spoke about jobs, the economy, and the cost of gasoline - painting a picture of better times a decade ago.
He promised crowds in the Cleveland suburbs of Kirtland and Lakewood that good times will be back again - if Ohio voters make his wife the Democratic nominee for president and put a Clinton back in the White House.
On Tuesday, Mr. Clinton's wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, will face off with U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in Ohio's Democratic presidential primary. Up for grabs will be 162 delegates at the Democratic National Convention, which will play a pivotal role in the race for the party's nomination for president.
Mr. Clinton, speaking in front of a packed gym at Kirtland High School yesterday morning, outlined what's changed since he left office eight years ago, explaining the impact of manufacturing job losses, declining wages, and the rising costs of health care and oil.
"Nobody is getting a raise, the cost of health care is up, the cost of education is up 75 percent, the cost of gas is through the roof," Mr. Clinton said. "In this decade, over 90 percent of the economic benefit has gone to the top 10 percent, and about half of that to the top 1 percent."
He promised that his wife would bring solutions to the economic problems facing the country, saying she would create jobs, end the war in Iraq, and provide leadership on issues like education, health care, and energy policy
His visit to Lakewood High School concluded a nine-city, three day tour across the state which began in Dayton on Thursday. Mr. Clinton, who ran behind schedule by about 90 minutes at his two appearances in Ohio yesterday, was joined by other political leaders, including Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a strong supporter of his wife.
Introducing the former president to the gymnasium at Kirtland High School, Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, a Clinton supporter since Mr. Clinton's first presidential election 16 years ago, tapped into the Clinton nostalgia.
"Bill and Hillary Clinton for eight years set this nation on a new course and we have now the best chance we have since then, not only to take that course and set it right again, but to take it to new heights," Mr. Fisher said.
John Valentic, a 36-year-old social studies teacher at Kirtland High School, said he is still deciding between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama.
He came out yesterday in part to experience the "pageantry" that accompanied the visit of the former president.
"There is a definite aura about the Clintons that some criticize because they don't want a two-for-one package ... but they know how to get stuff done," Mr. Valentic said.
Tom Yanks, 54, of Lakewood, left yesterday's speech at Lakewood High School in awe of the former president's oratory skills.
"He's an excellent speaker," said Mr. Yates, who decided to vote for Mrs. Clinton after hearing her husband speak.
"He is the best. No one can deliver a message better than he can."
He added, "When you look back at the Clinton White House, we had a good economy and we weren't fighting with anyone. [Mrs. Clinton] was there with him and she has the same philosophy."
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Mysterious Haze Found on Venus. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Mysterious Haze Found on Venus.Bright hazes that mysteriously appear and then disappear on Venus in a matter of days have revealed a new dynamic feature of the planet's cloudy atmosphere that is unlike anything on Earth.
The European Space Agency's Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) captured a series of images showing the development of a bright haze over the southern latitudes of the planet in July 2007. Over a period of days, the high-altitude veil continually brightened and dimmed, moving towards equatorial latitudes and then back towards the south pole.
These transient dark and bright markings indicate regions on the cloud-covered world where solar ultraviolet radiation is being absorbed and reflected by sulfuric acid particles, mission scientists said this week.
Gaseous sulfur dioxide and small amounts of water vapor are usually found below altitudes of about 43 miles (70 kilometers) in Venus' carbon-dioxide rich atmosphere. These molecules are usually shrouded from view by cloud layers above that block our view to the surface at visible wavelengths.
ESA scientists think the sulfuric acid particles that make up the bright haze are created when some atmospheric process lifts the gaseous sulfur dioxide and water vapor high up above the cloud tops where they are exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
The UV radiation breaks up the molecules, making them highly reactive. The fragments of the molecules eagerly seek each other out and combine to form the sulfuric acid particles.
"The process is a bit similar to what happens with urban smog over cities," said mission team member Dmitri Titov of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany.
Exactly what causes the sulfur dioxide and water vapor to well up is not known, but Titov says it is likely some internal process of Venus' atmosphere.
The transient dark markings on the VMC images are even more of a mystery. They are caused by something that absorbs UV radiation, but scientists don't yet know what the chemical is.
The Wildest Weather in the Galaxy Images: Beneath the Clouds of Venus All About Venus Original Story: Mysterious Haze Found on Venus
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| February 22, 2008 | 15:07:09 |
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Diana murdered, Al Fayed claims. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Diana murdered, Al Fayed claims,Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed were murdered, Mohamed Al Fayed has told the inquest into their deaths in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.
Mr Al Fayed, Harrods owner and father of Dodi, told the Royal Courts of Justice he would "make no allegations".
However, he said Princess Diana "knew Prince Philip and Prince Charles were trying to get rid of her".
The Harrods boss also said Diana had told him she was pregnant. "I am the only person they told," he said.
'Crocodile wife'
Asked by Ian Burnett QC, counsel to the inquest, if he stood by his claim that Diana and Dodi were "murdered by the British security services on the orders of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh", Mr Al Fayed replied: "Yes."
He pinpointed driver Henri Paul, alleged security forces in the ambulance crew, the then British Ambassador to France Sir Michael Jay, the princess's brother-in-law Sir Robert Fellowes and former Prime Minister Tony Blair as all being involved in the plot.
And he said Prince Charles was complicit, hoping to make way so he could marry his "crocodile wife" Camilla Parker Bowles.
My belief (they) were murdered was confirmed when I learned Lord Condon and Lord Stevens did not show the coroner the note
Mohamed Al Fayed
The Harrods boss also raised concerns about a note written by Diana's divorce lawyer, Lord Mishcon, after an October 1995 meeting. It outlined her fears there was a plot to kill her in a car crash.
Lord Mishcon passed it on to police when the princess died in 1997, and after a meeting with the then Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon.
The police agreed to hand it to the coroner only after Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, produced a note from the Princess making similar allegations in the Daily Mirror in October 2003. By that time, Sir John Stevens led the Met.
Mr Al Fayed said this delay confirmed his "belief that my son and Princess Diana were murdered".
In his evidence, Mr Al Fayed branded Prince Philip a "Nazi" and a "racist" and said: "It's time to send him back to Germany from where he comes."
"You want to know his original name - it ends with Frankenstein," he added.
Wooden box
Mr Al Fayed also told the jury that Diana told him in a telephone call that she was pregnant, and that the couple said they were engaged.
He read out a statement detailing his main concerns about the crash, and the points he felt the inquest should address.
Diana had told him she kept a wooden box and if anything happened to her, the contents should be made public, he said. But it had not been kept safe by Diana's butler Paul Burrell, or her sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale.
He also said blood samples apparently taken from driver Henri Paul - who was also killed in the crash - did not belong to the Frenchman.
Mr Al Fayed felt the murder was likely to have been carried out by photographer James Andanson, who has since died, on the orders of the security services.
Tape investigation
During his evidence, Mr Al Fayed held up a copy of Monday's Sun newspaper, which claims Paul Burrell said he had not told the whole truth to the inquest.
He said of Mr Burrell: "He's been sitting here in the witness box talking about baloney things. It's important to bring him back."
Lord Justice Scott Baker later told the court: "This is something that's certainly being investigated."
The coroner said he had called for the Sun's tape and would want to know the circumstances under which it was obtained.
Mr Horwell put it to Mr Al Fayed that he had denied Diana "dignity in death" by raising the question of her pregnancy.
The barrister added that "witness after witness" had been asked about her method of contraception and her menstrual cycle, "and the evidence shows she could not have been pregnant".
Mr Al Fayed replied: "All the witnesses who have been saying this are part of the cover-up and have been told what to say."
The Harrods owner broke down when asked about the moment he was told Dodi was dead.
He said someone from security told him, but when asked if he remembered a call from Ritz hotel president Frank Klein, he answered: "It's difficult. I'd like to know why you are asking me things like that."
Mr Klein has told the inquest he telephoned Mr Al Fayed to break the news and he replied: "This is not an accident."
| February 18, 2008 | 12:15:34 |
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ran Launches Rocket to Commemorate New Space Center. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Iran Launches Rocket to Commemorate New Space Center, Iran fired a research rocket into space on Monday to mark the opening of its space center, a move that was immediately condemned by the United States.
Iran’s state news media reported that a rocket for research purposes was fired from a newly built space center in the deserts of Semnan Province, southeast of Tehran, the capital. The rocket, called Kavoshgar-1, meaning Researcher-1, was fired in preparation for the planned launching in June of Iran’s first domestically made satellite, the semiofficial Fars News Agency said.
The United States criticized Iran’s action. Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said the launching “is just another troubling development, in that the kinds of technologies and capabilities that are needed in order to launch a space vehicle for orbit are the same kinds of capabilities and technologies that one would employ for long-range ballistic missiles.”
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, though, said on state-run television: “We need to have an active presence in space. We witness today that Iran has taken its first step in space very firmly, precisely and with awareness.”
Iran has said that it wants to put satellites into orbit to monitor natural disasters and to improve telecommunications, as well as for security reasons.
Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najar said Iran would launch its domestically made satellite, called Omid, meaning Hope, in June, Fars News reported.
The launching of the rocket came during the 10-day celebration for the 29th anniversary of the country’s Islamic Revolution of Feb. 11, 1979. The altitude of the rocket was not announced, although the state media said it was fired into space, which is considered to be about 60 miles from the earth.
Iran put its first satellite, a Russian-made one, into orbit in 2005, using a Russian rocket. The state-run media said it was for research and telecommunication purposes. The authorities announced last February that the country had launched a suborbital rocket, bringing it closer to putting its own satellites into space.
| February 5, 2008 | 01:34:35 |
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Clinton-Obama race divides some couples along gender lines≥ - Posted By: NaBeeel
Clinton-Obama race divides some couples along gender lines- The historic presidential race in the Democratic Party will produce either the first female or the first black nominee. But it has some couples finding themselves split down gender lines and it's producing some animated household discussions.
For example 50-year-old Jerry Kohn of Skokie, Illinois, says it doesn't bother him that Illinois senator Barack Obama may lack in experience. Kohn says he likes Obama's charisma and leadership abilities.
Meanwhile, Kohn's wife Michelle supports New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, saying Clinton's emotional moment in New Hampshire made a difference.
| February 2, 2008 | 19:55:27 |
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Feeling the 'Billary' effect. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Feeling the 'Billary' effect,He was supposed to be her greatest asset - but in the view of many, he has now turned into a liability.,Last summer, New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton rolled out her charismatic husband, former President Bill Clinton, to campaign alongside her and build support for her bid to win the Democrat nomination and hopefully move back into the White House.
Sometimes he has even aggressively campaigned instead of her, as in South Carolina last week, where he went on to deliver her concession speech after she lost to Illinois Senator Barack Obama.
The US magazine Newsweek wrote then that they had to look at their calendar "to check it's not really 1992".
This was a state that the then-governor of Arkansas won during his own 1992 bid for the presidency and, at the time, Mr Clinton had bragged that by electing him president, voters would get "two for the price of one".
With his wife, the brainy lawyer, they were a power couple from day one - but then, as now, the "two for one" bargain is not appealing to everybody.
Bad cop
Initially Mr Clinton's charm and clout were a crowd pleaser and, in an op-ed titled "Hobbled by Hubby", the Washington Post's EJ Dionne wrote that initially "even as her husband's positive campaigning reminded Democrats of why they liked him, Hillary Clinton came across as her own person".
But soon, the Hill'n'Bill show appeared to be unravelling.
He upstaged her on several occasions and played the bad cop, attracting unflattering comments about his bulging eyes and red neck veins, as he responded angrily sometimes to questions by the media on the campaign trail.
"Her campaign underestimated the bitterness that would be created by Bill Clinton's role as a bad cop against Obama" and his campaigning "created a backlash among his own loyalists", wrote Mr Dionne.
Hillary was also perceived to be using her husband to deflect criticism or avoid answering tough questions.
I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes
Barack Obama
For her detractors and rivals, there was simply one candidate too many on stage.
During a debate in South Carolina ahead of the primary there, when Mr Obama complained about Bill Clinton's attacks on him, Mrs Clinton snapped: "I'm here. He's not."
Mr Obama was quick to snap back: "I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes."
Clearly, what was meant to be a shoo-in had turned into a war of attrition with the new kid on the block.
"The Clintons realised that Barack Obama was a very serious challenge and they felt they had to do everything to try to block him, they overdid it," said Jim Barnes, a political writer for the non-partisan National Journal.
"They basically went out and tried to nuke him."
More of the same?
Anyone with fond memories of the prosperous 1990s was reminded of the polarising, scandal-plagued presidency and Hillary was faced with the negative impact of her husband's legacy.
Those hoping for change also worried they were just getting an updated version of the old Clinton administration as she gave her concession speech in Iowa, surrounded by her husband and daughter Chelsea - but also former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and retired army general and former Nato commander Wesley Clark, who commanded the Allied operations in Kosovo during president Clinton's time in office.
But during Thursday's debate, Mrs Clinton tried to make a point that electing her was not "more of the same", if only because she was a woman.
There has now been 20 years of presidents from the Clinton and Bush families, raising concerns about new dynasties in the making.
The Bush family has been in the White House even longer if the counting starts from the day that George Bush Senior became vice president in 1981.
"It took a Clinton to clean after the first Bush, it might take another Clinton to clean after the second Bush," Mrs Clinton said with a smile, when challenged on the dynasty question.
Damage control
While she is still leading in national polls for the Democratic nominee, Mr Obama is fast closing in on her, with a difference of only six points.
Part of it may well be due to the negative impact of the "Billary" component of the campaign, particularly after Ted and Caroline Kennedy decided to endorse the young Illinois senator, despite their friendship with the Clintons.
It was widely seen as a reaction by the Kennedys to Mr Clinton's divisive comments, un-befitting of an elder statesman.
In the lead-up to Super Tuesday on 5 February, with more than 1,600 delegates up for grabs in some 22 states across the US, Mrs Clinton has some damage control to do to retain her lead and get the results she wants.
"If Senator Clinton is able to get voters to focus on her and not her husband, she will have a chance to do well on Super Tuesday. She cannot rely on him to help her win this election," said Jim Barnes.
So, over the next few days, voters will see less of Bill and more of Hill as the New York senator tries to convince voters she is the only Clinton running for office.
| February 1, 2008 | 15:40:53 |
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THATS IS TO SAY . - Posted By: NaBeeel
CONFLICT BEYOND BELIEF,SO MANEY
<> CONFLICT BEYOND BELIEF THOSE SAYS
IT WAS ZEALOT OF FIRE
Where the act of creation took place
As a celebration of the beauty and terror of life.
More to life in the Promised Land,quest for fire
WHAT A SAD THING
and Meaning as to what happing to the of terror of life. :-
[1] "otto vass"who died by cold squared in the parking lot of 9/11 Store
For haven a BBQ party and went for Baying TABASCO and
His daughter Anne,18 and Katherine,17
said to "Cold Squared".
ITS BEYOND BELIEF
[2] To subway jumper shocking tragedy Act
Dr. Suzan Killinger Johnson,is unspeakable
The truth of her final conflict
Beyond Belief to the most critical time
in mother "Baby Blue's" and child life "cuyler/
it's shocking tragedy, (Cuyler Killinger Johnson"
who died Friday Morning Aug.ll, 2000
at his mother's suicide bid
and she died Aug. 19, 2000, 8:00 pm.
ITS HERE FINAL CONFLICT
BEYOND BELIEF
The Doctor who Jumped in
front of the subway train
Holding her infant son cuyles (has died Aug .11, 2000)
and the mother injured in the subway tragedy
died as well: so how a successful,
professional woman who had helped others
cope with depression had not been able
to get the help she needed.
It is a question about what happened, why ?
what is to say. .
[3] THE FAMILY OF THE LOST RUSSIAN
KURSK SUB CATASTROPHE
As there son are dying Inside a
Tin cans its ocean tomb.
The grief is immeasurable as
Russia mourns the Sailor and
Nobody seems to know what happened,
Thats the saddest thing.
"That is to say":
WHAT A SAD THING,
THAT HAD TO HAPPENED !
[4] AS TURKS BOMB lRAQUI KURDS
and they say
we do not know
why they bombed us.
WHAT A SAD THING,
THAT HAD TO HAPPENED AGINE !
[5] September 11, 2001
I am as I feel above me the sky- blind stars,
Waiting for their light as the brilliantly,
Funny thing that had happened so far,
It's a wild thing everything ~@ a puree with a lot's of grief.
It draws rally, cry grief, trouble, anger,
Fear, and heart break, full of sadness.
Full of question, disappointment, disbelief,
Mourning, devastation to the World and national disaster,
Whose affair is this? Requiring concern,
Attention and effort of that particular event.
Where is the hidden hand behind that cover story?
It’s horrendous, the day of September 11th, 2001,
Whose Affair is this Anyhow?
It's a bad day’s wild thing,
With a lot of grief and sadness.
WHAT A SAD THING
[6] Deep Space Voyage of Rediscovery,
Star Trek Generation, in deep space,
Its a New Day, to the Ray's of light
Which fell from the sun,
That man and women are
The "offspring of light", to
The Rays of light
Which fell from the sun as
"The act of creation took place",
"That's to say"
Dream on Skylight
Even after with Guiding Light".
To the Ray"s of light which fell from the sun,
That men and women are the "off spring " of light"to
The ray"s of light falling from the sun as
The act of creation "took place in Primeval time.
THAT'S TO SAY"
AND YOU WILL BE FIRST ON THE MOON
that could be dangerous moonlight
"Hello, Hello -
Any life out there,
it could also explain
Why in the World all all this has to happened.
WHAT A SAD THING
That had to happened,
With a fire in the eyes,
It was a Zealot of fire,
To the third rock from the sun,
R a b b a Amen El k h e p e r a
From into the beginning of becoming
In primeval time, in primeval matters.
Where the act of creation "took place to as,
The work of a lifetime is the process of returning to light and life.
THATS IS TO SAY
For a time I rest In the grace of the world peace and I am free but nothing noteworthy has happened so far to the final day of the end of the World. That is to say ¡¡¡Ù
»XXXXXXXX>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
| January 29, 2008 | 17:17:42 |
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Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. - Posted By: NaBeeel
White House missing CIA, Iraq e-mails
Apparent gaps in White House e-mail archives coincide with dates in late 2003 and early 2004 when the administration was struggling to deal with the CIA leak investigation and the possibility of a congressional probe into Iraq intelligence failures.
The gaps — 473 days over a period of 20 months — are cited in a chart prepared by White House computer technicians and shared in September with the House Reform and Government Oversight Committee, which has been looking into reports of missing e-mail.
Among the times for which e-mail may not have been archived from Vice President Dick Cheney's office are four days in early October 2003, just as a federal probe was beginning into the leak of Valerie Plame's CIA identity, an inquiry that eventually ensnared Cheney's chief of staff.
Contents of the chart — which the White House now disputes — were disclosed Thursday by Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who chairs the House committee, as he announced plans for a Feb. 15 hearing.
Waxman said he decided to release details from the White House-prepared chart after presidential spokesman Tony Fratto declared "we have absolutely no reason to believe that any e-mails are missing."
Among the periods of time for which the chart indicates e-mail is missing is a five-day span starting on Jan. 29, 2004, when the White House was dealing with the possibility of an election-year probe by Congress into Iraq intelligence failures.
Not archived by the office of the vice president is e-mail for Jan. 29-31, 2004, according to chart information released by Waxman. In addition, all e-mail from the White House Office in the Executive Office of the President was listed as missing for one of those days.
The chart indicates that e-mail also was not archived by the White House on the following Monday — Feb. 2, 2004 — the day President Bush took a big step in averting what could have been a politically troublesome congressional inquiry. He ordered an independent investigation into intelligence failures in Iraq.
The president conferred that day with former chief weapons inspector David Kay, declaring, "I want to know all the facts."
The commission named by Bush reached a harsh verdict about the U.S. intelligence community's performance, but the panel stopped short of addressing the White House's use of the intelligence data to support the idea of war with Iraq.
The White House says computer back-up tapes should contain substantially all e-mails between 2003 and 2005. However, the White House recycled backup tapes until sometime in October 2003, taping over existing data. That could mean some e-mail is gone forever if it is also missing from archives.
An example might be any missing e-mail from Cheney's office in the early days of the CIA leak probe. The White House has not said when in October 2003 it halted the recycling of backup tapes.
E-mails in early October 2003 could reveal key discussions between White House personnel in the week after the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the leak of Plame's CIA identity. The White House denied that Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby or top presidential adviser Karl Rove were involved in the leak, an assertion that turned out to be false.
"Can it be a mere coincidence that some of the missing e-mail correspond to a key period during the Valerie Plame investigation?" asked Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Given everything else we know, that is nearly impossible to believe."
Her organization is one of two private advocacy groups suing the White House in the e-mail controversy.
At issue on Oct. 1, 2003, was the push by congressional Democrats for Attorney General John Ashcroft to step aside and appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate the White House.
Ashcroft eventually recused himself, and at the end of 2003 U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed by a Justice Department official to head the probe. Two years later, Libby was indicted, and he was later convicted of obstructing the investigation. His 30-month prison sentence was commuted by Bush. Rove was questioned by a federal grand jury five times but was never charged.
In January 2006, shortly after Libby was indicted, a letter from Fitzgerald to Libby's lawyers was the first public disclosure that the White House was having a problem with its e-mail system.
Fitzgerald wrote: "We have learned that not all e-mail of the Office of Vice President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system."
The White House says the e-mail matter arose in October 2005 in connection with the Justice Department's CIA leak probe, in which Fitzgerald later that month obtained a grand jury indictment against Libby for perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI.
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| January 19, 2008 | 14:23:35 |
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Mid-East talks ahead of Bush trip. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Mid-East talks ahead of Bush trip, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have met to discuss a framework for peace talks ahead of US President George W Bush's visit to the region.
The two sides are trying to agree on how to conduct negotiations over the key issues that divide them.
Mr Bush arrives on Wednesday on a three-day mission meant to boost the recently restarted peace process.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it had killed three militants in Gaza and the West Bank on Monday.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, also known as Abu Ala, held talks in Jerusalem on Monday.
Sensitive issues
Both say they hope to announce an agreement on how they will hold negotiations on the sensitive issues of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees before Mr Bush's arrival.
Their meeting is to be followed up by talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday.
At a peace conference in the US in November, Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas set the goal of trying to negotiate a statehood agreement before Mr Bush leaves office in January 2009.
The meeting between Ms Livni and Mr Qurei did not get off to a good start when Mr Qurei was held up at a checkpoint for over an hour by Israeli authorities on his way to the meeting.
A statement by Mr Quire's office said that the delay had been politically motivated.
Israel apologised for a similar incident in November, when the delay so enraged the Palestinians that they cancelled the meeting.
Violence
The Israeli military said on Monday that two armed Palestinians - a woman and a man - were killed near the Erez border crossing in northern Gaza.
The militant group Islamic Jihad was quoted as saying that a woman militant blew herself up in northern Gaza, but gave no further details.
A Palestinian militant was killed near the town of Jenin in the northern West Bank, the Israeli military said.
On Sunday Israeli forces killed four people in Gaza, including a woman and two teenagers.
The Palestinian Authority has accused Israel of stepping up raids in the occupied territories ahead of Mr Bush's visit, saying that they threaten the peace process.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Sunday that Mr Abbas would demand that they be immediately stopped in his talks with Mr Olmert on Tuesday.
But speaking with army chief in the West Bank on Monday, Ms Livni said Israel had no intention of halting its operations against militants "even during peace negotiations with the Palestinians".
| January 7, 2008 | 23:12:20 |
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Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bush faces Mideast obstacles, President Bush heads to Israel and the West Bank this week, hoping his first visit as U.S. leader will open the throttle on Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.
But in the six weeks since Bush declared at an international gathering in Annapolis, Md., that "the time is right" to make peace, two perennial obstacles to Mideast peacemaking have already reared up: Israeli settlements and violence.
Even before formal talks began on Dec. 12, Israel announced plans to build homes in areas claimed by the Palestinians. Two Israeli hikers were killed later by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank, and Israeli attacks have killed dozens of militants in the Gaza Strip in response to ongoing rocket fire. Israeli troops also kept the West Bank militant hotbed of Nablus under siege for several days.
Bush's three-day visit, which begins Wednesday, is part of his stepped-up effort to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement before he leaves office in January 2009.
"When an American president comes and tries to encourage the sides to overcome the obstacles and try to solve them ... that always helps the Palestinians and helps us move forward with the process," Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon said recently.
In an interview broadcast on Israel's Channel 2 TV on Sunday, Bush said he's a known quantity, while his successor might not agree with his approach. Still, he did not predict a full peace accord before he leaves office.
"There'll be an agreement on what a state would look like, in my judgment," he said. "I am not going to try to force the issue because of my own timetable, but I do believe that Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert and President (Mahmoud) Abbas do want to get this done."
During the trip, Bush is to meet with Olmert and other top Israeli officials in Jerusalem, and with Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Bush also is expected to visit Christian holy sites and Israel's Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem.
Al-Qaida's American spokesman called on the terror network's fighters to greet Bush with "bombs and booby-trapped vehicles," according to a video posted Sunday.
In his weekly radio address Saturday, Bush said he would encourage Israelis and Palestinians to make "tough decisions on complex questions" and pronounced himself "optimistic about the prospects." But Bush aides indicated they didn't expect any major breakthroughs.
"Just his going there is going to advance the prospects," said National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. "We're not looking for headline announcements."
What have been making headlines are the deadly clashes and tussles over Israeli construction in disputed territory.
Palestinian officials said they would press Bush to support their demand for a total Israeli construction freeze in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. Palestinians claim both areas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War, as part of their future state. They have complained bitterly about plans to build new housing for Israelis there.
The standoff has sidetracked negotiating teams from tackling the core issues of their conflict — final borders between Israel and a future Palestine, sovereignty over disputed Jerusalem, and a solution for Palestinian refugees.
Although the Palestinians have agreed to get on with the talks, they will focus on Israeli settlements during the Bush visit, said Nabil Shaath, a Palestinian official.
Hoping to defuse tensions, Olmert has said Israel will not build any new settlements, and he ordered Cabinet ministers to seek his approval before authorizing new West Bank construction. He did not halt projects in progress, however, and his order did not extend to east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed shortly after capturing it.
But Olmert did take the extraordinary step of acknowledging that West Bank construction was a breach of the "road map" — the U.S.-backed peace plan that is the foundation for the newly resumed talks.
"There is a certain contradiction in this between what we're actually seeing and what we ourselves promised," Olmert told The Jerusalem Post daily.
The road map, first introduced in June 2003, requires Israel to halt all settlement construction and the Palestinians to dismantle militant groups.
Neither Israel nor the Palestinians said they expected any diplomatic breakthroughs from the visit. Instead, they hope to get high-power backing for their often conflicting claims.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians expect Bush to reiterate his commitment to ending the Israeli occupation, to call for a total freeze on settlement activity, and to identify Jerusalem as the capital of two states.
What's more, he said, "We expect him to say if Israel and the Palestinians reach a treaty, the world will stand shoulder to shoulder with them to implement it."
Olmert has warned repeatedly that he wouldn't implement any treaty until the Palestinians reined in militants, including armed groups in Gaza that fire rockets and mortars at Israel each day.
Abbas controls only the West Bank, after losing Gaza in June to the militant Islamic Hamas.
But Abbas' lack of control there has raised questions about his ability to carry out a peace deal.
Bush told the Yediot Ahronot daily he would reassure Israeli leaders that Israel would not have to live beside a Palestinian neighbor dedicated to its destruction.
"I'm going to promise the Israelis that under no circumstances will Israeli democracy be forced to live with a terror state on its border," Bush said.
On Saturday, Hamas declared Bush's visit to be unwelcome. Hamas, branded a terrorist group by Israel and the U.S., is not a party to the negotiations.
While Israeli-Palestinian talks will dominate Bush's visit, Israel will also press its concerns about a U.S. intelligence assessment that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons development program in 2003. Israel, which sees Tehran as the greatest threat to its survival, says Iran has since resumed the program.
| January 6, 2008 | 17:37:41 |
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Bhutto sent Blitzer security e-mail. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bhutto sent Blitzer security e-mail, It was a story CNN's Wolf Blitzer hoped he'd never have to report — an e-mail sent to him through an intermediary by Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto complaining about her security. Conditions of use: only if she were killed.
Bhutto, who was assassinated on Thursday, wrote to Blitzer that if anything happened to her, "I would hold (Pakistani President Pervez) Musharraf responsible."
Blitzer received the e-mail on Oct. 26 from Mark Siegel, a friend and longtime Washington spokesman for Bhutto. That was eight days after she narrowly escaped another attempt at her life.
Bhutto wrote to Blitzer that "I have been made to feel insecure by his (Musharraf's) minions," that specific improvements had not been made to her security arrangements, and that the Pakistani leader was responsible.
Blitzer agreed to the conditions before receiving the e-mail. He said Friday that he called Siegel shortly after seeing it to see if there was any way he could use it on CNN, but was told firmly it could only be used if she were killed. Siegel couldn't say why she had insisted on those conditions.
Blitzer reported on the e-mail late Thursday.
He noted that Bhutto had written a piece for CNN.com that mentioned her security concerns and that American politicians had tried to intervene on her behalf to make her feel safer.
"I didn't really think that it was a story we were missing out on," he said. "I don't think the viewers were done any disservice by my trying to hold on to this."
Blitzer was the only journalist sent such a message, Siegel said. He also sent the e-mail to U.S. Rep. Steve Israel, a New York Democrat.
Siegel said he did not believe Bhutto's opinions had changed since she wrote the e-mail. Her message specifically mentioned she had requested four police vehicles surrounding her vehicle when traveling; Siegel said it seemed evident from pictures taken at the assassination scene that the request wasn't fulfilled.
Bhutto did not necessarily believe that Musharraf wanted her dead, but felt many people around him did, he said.
Her husband contacted Siegel on Thursday to remind him about the e-mail message and to make sure it got out, he said.
Blitzer said he had no regrets about the way he handled the story. To report about it while she was still alive would have meant going back on his word, he said.
"I don't think there is a clear black-and-white in this situation," he said. "I did what I think was right."
| December 28, 2007 | 17:02:45 |
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Mr Bush will also visit Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states during his nine-day tour. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bush set for tour of Middle East
George W Bush will make his first visit as US president to Israel and the West Bank in January, in an attempt to revive the Middle East peace process.
He plans to build on progress made at the Annapolis talks in November and help the sides work towards peace and reconciliation, a spokeswoman said.
Mr Bush will also visit Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states during his nine-day tour.
Developments in Iraq and Iran are also due to feature high on his agenda.
In Jerusalem, Mr Bush will meet Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
He will hold talks in the West Bank with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad.
However, there are no plans for a meeting bringing together all three parties.
Mr Bush did visit Israel when he was governor of Texas but has not been there since taking office as president in January 2001.
| December 20, 2007 | 17:54:27 |
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Egypt's Christians and their heritage . - Posted By: NaBeeel
Egypt's Christians and their heritage, The Churches of Egypt -- From the Journey of the Holy Family to the Present Day,The Churches of Egypt -- From the Journey of the Holy Family to the Present Day was launched at an American University in Cairo Press "Book and Author Reception" in mid- November. This was a bumper affair which took place in the small central garden of the Old Wing in the Coptic Museum. On display round one part of the enclosed area were a dozen and more mounted enlargements of some of the most beautiful photographs in the book. A buffet dinner was set out on the other side of the garden, and seating at small high tables with bar-height stools was provided. A wide range of AUC Publications on Coptic heritage was stacked for sale; they ranged from such large publications as Be Thou There, Monastic Visions, and Coptic Life in Egypt, to regular books on The Early Coptic Papacy, Monks and Monasteries of the Egyptian Deserts, and my own Christianity in the Land of the Pharaohs.
The Churches of Egypt is the brainchild of Carolyn Ludwig. Addressing the invited guests, Ludwig explained how the book came about. During her travels to Egypt over the last 25 years, she said, she had come to appreciate the rich Christian heritage that is woven through the country's history "along with the threads of its more famous Pharaonic past." She noted that the brief reference to the Flight of the Holy Family in the Gospel of Matthew "offers a glimpse into the three-and-a-half years they spent in Egypt", but that most of the stories about this important episode in Jesus's life "are recorded only in the various infancy narratives". When, in 2000, the Coptic Orthodox Church defined the route of the Holy Family's journey, she said she was determined to follow in their footsteps. She did so, sand was deeply moved by the humanity of the stories "that are told, until this day, about the few years in the life of Christ spent in Egypt," as well as by the humble simplicity of Egypt's early churches which stand "in stark contrast to the granite and marble, the gold inlays and bronze statues of churches in Rome..."
Ludwig travelled in the company of photographer Sherif Sonbol, whose photographs, she wrote in the introduction to her book, "reveal the beauty of Egypt's ancient and modern churches and monasteries, all of which testify to the determination of the Coptic Church for nearly two millennia to keep the Christian faith alive in Egypt -- often in the face of adversity."
I can only describe the book as a hefty publication. It weighs all of two kilogrammes, and I use that adjective advisedly because it is not only large in size, but substantial in content. It covers churches of all denominations -- from the Delta and Sinai to Cairo and its suburbs; it includes Fayoum and Upper Egypt, and even the most remote of monasteries, some of which I have never visited. As I flip through the pages of the publication to get a feel for its contents, my eye falls on page after page of impressive photographs: images of churches, ancient and modern, domed monasteries, altars, sanctuaries and icons.
More than 300 original photographs enhance the volume, and all are brilliant. Sonbol has captured religious buildings in their environmental setting, focussing on details in their interiors -- whether details of the decoration of a dome, a layer of a painting flaking off an ancient church wall to reveal earlier images beneath, or altar screens constructed of reused sculpture. This book thus presents an opportunity to appreciate details that can rarely be seen on site. One eye-catching image is followed by another to remind us of details that we may have missed, or that introduce us to images we have never seen, and, I may add, are unlikely to see because they are in churches located in little-known and difficult-to-reach areas of Egypt.
Sonbol says they had trouble in locating many of the distant monasteries. "Even when we got there, we faced some problems," he says. "In rock churches like the Monastery of Al-Ganadla south of Assiut, for example, extremely heavy benches had to be removed in order to photograph the interior of the church. I must add that the monks were courteous and only too willing to be of help. Unfortunately, I can't say the same of some of the better-known monasteries!"
The Churches of Egypt is a quality production, laid out with taste and beautifully bound. It might be heavy but is not too burdensome to handle, largely because the images are so captivating that they encourage the viewer to turn to the next page. One photograph in particular caught my fancy. It shows the tip of a dome with a cross silhouetted against a blue sky, rising above a desert strewn with rocks. It captures the essence of monasticism, and it took an artist to capture it.
The concept of the book was later expanded from churches associated with the Holy Family to include a historical overview of Christianity in Egypt from ancient to modern, including all denominations: Egypt's Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Armenian churches. Coptologist Gawdat Gabra wrote the historical introduction; Gertrud J.M. van Loon wrote about art; while Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom covered Christian architecture.
| December 13, 2007 | 16:00:28 |
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Conrad Black sentenced to 6 1/2 years in jail on fraud. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Conrad Black sentenced to 6 1/2 years in jail on fraud, obstruction convictions,CHICAGO - Conrad Black has been sentenced to 6 1/2 years in jail for fraud and obstruction of justice and fined US$125,000.
The former newspaper magnate apologized to shareholders of the now-defunct Hollinger newspaper empire in a brief statement before his sentence was read in a Chicago court.
Black was convicted of three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice in July after an almost four-month trial and 12 days of jury deliberations.
He plans to appeal.
Black has been outspoken in his claims that he is innocent and has been wrongfully convicted of the crimes.
Because he gave up his Canadian citizenship to become a British Lord, Black cannot opt to serve his sentence in Canada, nor is he eligible for a minimum-security prison in the U.S.
| December 10, 2007 | 14:28:32 |
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Should US policy on Iran change? - Posted By: NaBeeel
Should US policy on Iran change?Democrats in the United States have called for a re-think on policy towards Iran following a major new intelligence assessment.
The National Intelligence Estimate, which sums up the views of American intelligence agencies, now suggests that Tehran is not trying to develop nuclear weapons at present.
The document says it is believed Iran stopped its weapons programme in 2003. But that if Tehran decided to return to weapons research, it might be able to develop a nuclear bomb within three to eight years.
The party's leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, said what was now needed was a surge of diplomacy with Iran. A senior adviser to President Bush said the report was "positive" but the risk of a nuclear Iran remained "serious".
What do you think about the report's findings? Should American policy change? How should the rest of the international community react?
| December 4, 2007 | 09:15:24 |
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OPEC's lost sway over oil prices. - Posted By: NaBeeel
OPEC's lost sway over oil prices,This weekend's summit focused mostly on poor nations, climate change, and the euro vs. the dollar.,Cairo,A rare meeting of the heads of state of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Saudi Arabia this weekend was predictably focused on prices. But the price most often discussed wasn't the cost of oil, but rather the plummeting US dollar.
As oil hovers near $100 a barrel, it's causing global jitters. Some economists worry that price, which depending on whose math you use is either near or above an inflation-adjusted record, could push many world economies into recession.
But the organization that was created in 1960 to stabilize prices, today wields less clout than it once did over the cost of crude. The 13-nation cartel once controlled prices often by just talking about pumping more or less oil. But now its leaders say booming world demand – largely from India and China – and concern over a possible US attack on Iran are driving prices.
"OPEC is still a major force, but it's certainly far less influential that it was in the 70s or 80s," says Mustafa Alani, at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. "What we saw at this conference is that the leaders of OPEC were giving assurances that they'll do all they can to maintain the stability of the oil supply. But can they do it? We don't know."
OPEC's biggest producers – Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors – say they'd like prices to be a little lower but are pumping near capacity now. After all, their currencies are pegged to the dollar, so a weak US economy hurts them, too. Analysts say that while Saudi Arabia and others might be able to squeeze out an extra 1 million barrels a day, that's only 3 percent more than estimated current OPEC production of 31 million barrels a day.
The new reality facing OPEC left the ministers over the weekend discussing once peripheral issues: pricing oil in US dollars, climate change, and developing nations. Political opponents of the US – Iran and Venezuela – have been pushing for the market to be moved from the US dollar into stronger Euros. While analysts say that is unlikely to happen anytime soon, the fact that such issues – not oil prices – got so much attention reflects changing times.
US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said earlier this week that he did ask OPEC members to increase supply, though he said that the request seemed to have fallen on deaf ears.
Anyone hoping that the OPEC Summit – the first meeting of the leaders of its member states since 2000 – would bring relief from gas prices that have jumped 25 percent this year to above $3 a gallon in the US, is going to be disappointed.
On Friday, crude oil traded in the US rose $1 to over $95 a barrel after Venezuela's Oil Minister Rafael Ramírez said, "OPEC can't do anything about the price ... there is enough oil in the market."
Venezuela – whose leftist President Hugo Chávez appears to revel in tweaking the nose of the US, which he alleges backed a failed coup against him five years ago – has been pushing for higher oil prices in tandem with Iran, as well as a move away from the US dollar.
In this, both countries failed. Saudi Arabia – which accounts for about 30 percent of OPEC production – clearly signaling its opposition to what it views as the politicization of the commodity.
After Mr. Chávez urged OPEC's leaders to use their oil wealth to become an "active political agent" and warned that oil prices would rise above $200 a barrel if the US takes military action against his ally, Iran, Saudi King Abdullah dismissed his arguments.
"Oil ... should not become a tool for conflict and emotions," he said. "Those who want OPEC to become an organization of monopoly and exploitation ignore the truth."
The joint OPEC statement released at the end of the summit said that the "stability of the oil market is essential," which oil analysts said was a repudiation of Venezuela's and Iran's aims.
Chávez also called on oil producers to sell to poor countries at prices at about one-fifth of the current market price, an idea that gained no traction and appeared designed to bolster his populist credentials. The only support for this idea came from Ecuador's leftist president, Rafael Correa. Even Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who Chávez was scheduled to meet later Sunday in Tehran, failed to back to him on this suggestion.
Mr. Ahmadinejad has portrayed himself as a man of the people and the promise of his 2005 election campaign to spread Iran's oil wealth to every dinner table struck a chord with voters. During a visit to Venezuela last January, Ahmadinejad kept that populist touch, announcing with Chávez the creation of a $2 billion anti-US fund. And on Sunday, after meeting with President Correa, Ahmadinejad promised to use his country's oil wealth to fight "imperialism."
But his promises remain unfulfilled for most Iranians, though Iran has seen its oil revenues surge in the past five years. Despite the cash boom, Iran's economy is struggling under the weight of high unemployment and rising inflation, not to mention US sanctions. He simply isn't in a position to back up his rhetoric, analysts say.
"Iran can't even think about this case [of cut-rate sales to poor countries], because the oil price works in the market economy," says Abbas Maleki, a former deputy foreign minister of Iran, and chair of the International Institute for Caspian Studies.
"The best way for Iran is to establish a fund for development, to support development projects," says Mr. Maleki, who was recently a fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. "OPEC already has a development fund for Africa and Third World countries … Iran wants to spend all oil revenues in Iran."
Indeed, though OPEC made it clear it isn't in a position to lower prices, a silver-lining for the US is that Chávez's efforts to build a populist bloc within OPEC fizzled.
"There are basically two camps, Iran and Venezuela and one led by Saudi Arabia," says Mr. Alani, the oil analyst. "What happened at this conference was that the leaders of OPEC – Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states – made it clear they oppose the use of oil as a weapon, so the radicals within OPEC were isolated.
"What's going to happen now is the leaders will do everything they can to maintain supply. But there's very little they can do if there's an attack on Iran or something of that nature. In that case, prices will double, perhaps go to $300 a barrel."
| November 18, 2007 | 17:44:09 |
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Egypt 'denies minority beliefs'. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Egypt 'denies minority beliefs',Rights groups have criticised Egypt for forcing converts from Islam and members of some minority faiths to lie about their true beliefs in official papers.
Egyptians over 16 must carry ID cards showing religious affiliation. Muslim, Christian and Jew are the only choices.
Human Rights Watch says the requirement particularly hits members of the small Bahai community, and Coptic Christians who became Muslims but want to go back.
It says there are about 200 such people who converted for reasons like divorce.
The BBC's Heba Saleh in Cairo says that without the all-important IDs, members of minorities face enormous problems in education and employment.
Ministry of interior officials apparently believe that they have the right to choose someone's religion
Joe Stork, Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) also highlights the plight of other Egyptians who complain that they have been designated as Muslims against their will.
These are mostly members of Christian families whose fathers converted to Islam and left them.
When the children get their ID cards they find they have been listed as Muslims whether they like it or not.
'Arbitrary refusal'
The report is jointly issued by HRW and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
"Ministry of interior officials apparently believe that they have the right to choose someone's religion when they don't happen to like the religion that person, him or herself, has chosen," said Human Rights Watch's Joe Stork.
"So we are asking the government today to end this arbitrary refusal to recognise someone's actual religious beliefs," he said.
Egypt is a predominantly Sunni Muslim state. Conversions from Islam are viewed as apostasy, although Muslim scholars differ on the what action should be taken.
Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court is shortly to rule on whether seven Christian-to-Muslim converts who converted back can be recognised as Christians.
A ruling is also expected on whether the government must recognise minority Bahais.
| November 14, 2007 | 21:02:43 |
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Hiroshima bomb pilot dies aged 92 . - Posted By: NaBeeel
Hiroshima bomb pilot dies aged 92,Gen Tibbets (centre) always said he had no regrets
Tibbets on Hiroshima,The commander of the B-29 plane that dropped the first atomic bomb, on Hiroshima in Japan, has died.,Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr died at his home in Columbus, Ohio, aged 92.The five-ton "Little Boy" bomb was dropped on the morning of 6 August 1945, killing about 140,000 Japanese, with many of them dying later.
On the 60th anniversary of the bombing, the three surviving crew members of the Enola Gay - named after Tibbet's mother - said they had "no regrets".
'No headstone'
A friend of the retired brigadier-general told AP news agency that Paul Tibbets had died after a two-month decline in health.
Gen Tibbets had asked for no funeral nor headstone as he feared opponents of the bombing may use it as a place of protest, the friend, Gerry Newhouse, said.
The bombing of Hiroshima marked the beginning of the end of the war in the Pacific.
Japan surrendered shortly after a second bomb was dropped, on Nagasaki, three days later.
On the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima, the surviving members of the Enola Gay crew - Gen Tibbets, Theodore J "Dutch" Van Kirk (the navigator) and Morris R Jeppson (weapon test officer) said: "The use of the atomic weapon was a necessary moment in history. We have no regrets".
Gen Tibbets said then: "Thousands of former soldiers and military family members have expressed a particularly touching and personal gratitude suggesting that they might not be alive today had it been necessary to resort to an invasion of the Japanese home islands to end the fighting."
Air show
Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr was born in Quincy, Illinois, in 1915 and spent most of his youth in Miami.
He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1937 and led bombing operations in Europe before returning to test the Superfortress.
He retired from the forces in 1966.
In a 1975 interview he said: "I'm proud that I was able to start with nothing, plan it and have it work as perfectly as it did... I sleep clearly every night."
In 1976, Gen Tibbets was criticised for re-enacting the bombing at an air show in Texas.
A mushroom cloud was set off as he over flew in a B-29 Superfortress in a stunt that outraged Japan. Gen Tibbets said it was not meant as an insult but the US government formally apologised.
In 1995, Gen Tibbets denounced as a "damn big insult" a planned 50th anniversary exhibition of the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian Institution that put the bombing in context of the suffering it caused.
He and veterans groups said too much attention was being paid to Japan's suffering and not enough to its military brutality.
| November 1, 2007 | 17:13:28 |
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I thought it was going to be easy. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Saudi King sharp-minded as ever,Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz became king of Saudi Arabia in 2005
Saudi king interview,Interviewing the leader of a country for TV is rarely easy.
Some try to get you to tell them the questions in advance. Others insist that you must leave your equipment with them for 24 hours beforehand, or search you rigorously.
When you saw Saddam Hussein you had to wash your hands in a special solution first, in case you might infect him.
But when I went to interview King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in Jeddah, a couple of days before his state visit to Britain, we did not even have to put our gear through an X-ray machine nor go through a metal detector.
I thought it was going to be easy.
King Abdullah's palace is tasteful, modern and charming. The white marble is cool and pleasant after the heat outside. The offices are wood-panelled, and there are some attractive paintings.
Off-limits
I was just running through my questions in my head when the difficult part began.
A few minutes before we thought the interview was going to begin, someone came to speak to us.
I have not spoken about some subjects because I did not want either to be dishonest or evasive with you
King Abdullah
The king would not, it seemed, be prepared to talk about Iraq, or the possibility that the Americans might bomb Iran.
Nor would he speak about the BAE arms contract between the UK and Saudi Arabia, with its attendant allegations of corrupt payments.
The Saudis knew I wanted to talk about these subjects because although I had refused to hand over the questions in advance, I thought it was not unreasonable to tell them the general areas I wanted to cover.
I have never been told so close to an interview that some of the main questions are off limits.
And so I heard myself saying that, unfortunately, it looked as though we would not be having an interview after all.
Negotiations
But I did not quite walk out. That would have been rude, and the Saudis had treated us with kindness and courtesy.
The minister said he would call the Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, and ask him to give us an interview about the subjects the king did not want to speak about
Instead, we had a polite but firm argument. There were two ministers and an ambassador on the Saudi side, and I called in our producer, Oggy Boytchev, to back me up.
Cups of tea came in, and little sweets, and glasses of water. Two hours passed.
Then the minister who had been leading the discussion spoke to the other minister, and made a new suggestion.
He would, he said, call the Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, and ask him to give us an interview about the subjects the king did not want to speak about.
I have interviewed Prince Saud before. In fact, he gave me one of the best exclusives I have had, shortly before the US-led invasion of Iraq, when he showed how bitterly opposed the Saudis were to it.
In his quiet way, Prince Saud can be ferocious.
Frank
Something else had become clear to me by now. The king was not refusing to talk about Iran and Iraq because he was not interested in them.
On the contrary, I now realised he felt so strongly about what the US had done in Iraq, and the thought that they might soon bomb Iran, that he felt he might upset his relations with Washington if he spoke openly to me.
So I agreed.
Within five minutes of agreeing to the deal, I was sitting opposite the king. He was shrewd and pleasant and surprisingly frank, and at 82 still as sharp-minded as ever.
He said enough things to me about terrorism and the failure of other countries, including the UK, to act against terrorist activities, to get headlines around the world.
At the end, he said he wanted to say something personally to me.
"I have not spoken about some subjects," he said, "Because I did not want either to be dishonest or evasive with you."
Maybe he wanted to demonstrate how independent-minded Saudi Arabia has become during his rule.
But it was certainly one of the most complicated and interesting interviews I have ever done.
| October 30, 2007 | 17:21:11 |
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He’s a leader of a large nation and what he says is important . - Posted By: NaBeeel
NYC set to shield Iran prez, Columbia talk still on, Columbia University plans to go forward with a speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the city is mobilizing security to protect him.,Ahmadinejad, scheduled to arrive Sunday to address the United Nation, will speak at a Columbia on Monday. His request to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site was denied.
Even though they plan to rally against him, some Columbia students said they support his appearance.
“He’s a leader of a large nation and what he says is important, even if it’s wrong,” said Dmitry Zakharov, 25, a graduate student.
Ahmadinejad has called the Holocaust “a myth” and called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” The White House says Iran sponsors terrorism.
Rallies are planned outside Columbia and at the United Nations. The city police and the Secret Service are charged with protecting Ahmadinejad along with dozens of heads of state at the assembly.
Leaders voiced mixed opinions.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he wouldn’t go listen to him.
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said, “Anyone who supports terror, pledges to destroy a sovereign nation, punishes by death anyone who ‘insults’ religion . . . denies the Holocaust and thumbs his nose at the international community, has no legitimate role to play at a university.”
The governor took a different approach. “His comments defy logic, history and reason,” Gov. Eliot Spitzer said. “He is someone whose views we scorn. But that said, he is here in the state and will be protected by the NYPD and state police and everyone else.”
| September 22, 2007 | 20:17:18 |
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Major Toronto highway closed as police dispose of explosive devices. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Major Toronto highway closed as police dispose of explosive devices, Toronto police temporarily shut down two major highways Friday as they gingerly removed several letter bombs from an east-end neighbourhood and ferried them across town to be detonated at an isolated site near the waterfront.
The devices in question were plucked from the trunk of a car during the arrest Thursday night of a man police allege is connected to a string of attempted letter bombings earlier this month in Toronto and Guelph, Ont., an hour's drive west.
"We don't have a motive at this point," said Const. Wendy Drummond. "We do know that the three victims - the two in Toronto and the one in Guelph - were not chosen at random."
Drummond wouldn't elaborate further, except to say that the victims were all linked and that the rest was still part of an ongoing investigation.
Earlier Friday, television news channels showed overhead footage of a convoy of police vehicles, their lights ablaze, with a police SUV in the middle, towing an armoured, cylindrical bomb-disposal unit.
Traffic was at a standstill as the convoy slowly made its way south to the Leslie Street Spit, a deserted peninsula of land that juts out into Lake Ontario at the edge of the city's harbourfront district, where all three devices were detonated in one controlled "fireball-type" blast, police said.
Police boats patrolled the waters about 450 metres offshore to keep marine traffic away from the blast site.
The unexpected discovery of the bombs late Thursday follows three separate letter-bomb incidents, including one in Toronto that caused minor injuries to the recipient. Similar packages mailed to addresses in Toronto and Guelph did not explode.
Adel Arnaout, 37, is facing several charges, including three counts of attempted murder. He appeared in court Friday and is expected back in court Sept. 5.
Deputy police Chief Tony Warr wouldn't discuss the makeup of the devices, saying further examination may show what type of material was used.
"We'll have to send it to the laboratory and analyze what's left," he said.
The arrest was made at a gas station, which prompted police to make the rare move of shutting down the city's major arteries while they transported the bombs to a safer place for disposal.
Parts of the Gardiner Expressway, Don Valley Parkway and Lakeshore Boulevard were closed temporarily to accommodate the convoy, which arrived at its destination in the early afternoon.
Even bridges had to be cleared because the trailer containing the bombs could only control a potential explosion sideways, Warr said. If the bombs went off in mid-transport, the explosion would be directed upwards.
"This is the best place to do it," Warr said.
"It's the safest place to do it. Nobody's in any danger down there, and just for a little bit of traffic inconvenience I think it was worthwhile for everybody's safety."
Investigators were also searching a basement apartment linked to the case, Drummond said.
Police are warning residents to remain vigilant about any suspicious packages.
On Aug. 19, an explosive package smelling of petroleum was found at the home of a Toronto lawyer. On Aug. 11, a Toronto man suffered minor injuries to his hands when he opened a package that exploded.
Both packages were bubble-wrapped envelopes, had properly addressed courier receipts, and contained petroleum-type fluid.
A third letter bomb was also sent to a Guelph residence earlier this month. John Becker, a contractor who received the package, reported it to police, who called in a explosives disposal unit.
Becker said the detonation blew a hole about the size of a large book in his backyard deck and shot unidentified projectiles deep into the wood, splintering it.
On Friday, he expressed relief that Toronto police had made an arrest in the case.
"I've been basically hiding under the house for the last longest while, you know, not sure what's going on," Becker reported.
"Like, is someone trying to kill me or is someone just doing this randomly?"
Canada Post said following the incident it would step up efforts to identify suspicious packages.
| August 31, 2007 | 22:17:16 |
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Maliki received warmly in Syria. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Maliki received warmly in Syria,Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's trip to Syria has been hailed as historic by both countries.,With diplomatic ties between Syria and Iraq only restored last year, the two governments are keen to stress their growing co-operation.
Syria was opposed to the American-led invasion of Iraq, and both the American and Iraqi administrations have accused the Syrian government of helping to fuel the Sunni insurgency.
But Iraqi officials told the BBC that Syria had agreed to tighten security on the border to prevent more insurgents slipping into Iraq.
There are to be increased economic ties between the two countries, and Iraqi officials have agreed to help contribute the cost of accommodating 1.4 million Iraqi refugees in Syria.
Mutual respect
For the two countries, this trip represents an acknowledgement that their futures are closely intertwined.
During the days of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the relationship between the two countries was often poisonous.
We are all - Iraq, Syria, Iran, Turkey and the other Arab countries neighbouring Iraq - concerned with controlling security, with stability and with protecting the region from rifts
Nouri Maliki
Syria used to issue passports bearing the stamp: "All Arab countries except Iraq."
But since last year, there has been a concerted push to improve their bilateral relations. Mr Maliki got the full diplomatic red carpet during his visit.
He met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the presidential palace in Damascus where the two men were filmed sitting on ornate, pearl-inlaid chairs - an acknowledgement of how seriously Syria was taking this visit.
The full diplomatic niceties also amounted to official Syrian support for the Iraqi government, something Damascus had withheld.
Many Syrians regarded - and some still do - the Iraqi government as American stooges.
At a press conference, the Iraqi prime minister was asked whether he had arrived with a message from the Americans.
He replied curtly that he was representing the Iraqi government.
Beleaguered
Mr Maliki's trip to Syria comes after similar visit to Iran, which was publicly criticised by US President George W Bush.
The American government is trying to isolate both Iran and Syria.
But officials in the Iraqi delegation stressed that these two neighbouring countries are too important for Iraq to ignore, regardless of American objections.
Mr Maliki's visit was also aimed at shoring up support for his beleaguered government at home. Almost half of his cabinet has resigned.
Syria has a degree of influence over some Iraqi Sunni politicians and Mr Maliki will be hoping that they can persuade them to join is government.
For now, Mr Maliki and his delegation are buoyant about what they regard as a successful outing.
But the Iraqi prime minister will be expecting a tougher ride at home as he tries to save his government.
| August 23, 2007 | 20:23:28 |
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What alternative? Wearing thin. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Why the US is unhappy with Maliki, The Bush administration is not hiding its frustration with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki. AS President Bush is using blunter language than in the past.
"Will the [Maliki] government respond to the demands of the people?" he asked on Tuesday, during a visit to Canada.
If it does not, he added pointedly, the people will replace it.
Reinforcing the message, the US ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, said the Baghdad government's efforts to promote national reconciliation had been "extremely disappointing".
US support, he warned, was "not a blank cheque".
Clearly stung, Mr Maliki has hit back, declaring he is the elected Iraqi prime minister and others should not interfere.
Wearing thin
The comments of senior US officials do not go as far as those of Senator Carl Levin, a senior Democrat, who said this week that Mr Maliki had to go. But they indicate the administration's patience is wearing very thin.
The purpose of the current US strategy - the so-called "surge" launched in February - is to buy time for the Iraqi government to make political progress. It is a military means to a political end.
But far from making progress, Mr Maliki's government is visibly falling apart. Virtually all of the Sunni ministers have either resigned or are boycotting cabinet meetings.
Its claim to be a government of national unity, never very convincing, is now threadbare.
Efforts to convene a crisis "summit" of leaders of the Iraqi political factions have so far come to nothing.
Many Sunnis have lost faith in a Shia-dominated government they regard as wholly unsympathetic to their needs. Some go further and see it as an Iranian-backed government deeply biased against the Sunni Arab minority.
What alternative?
The Iraqi rumour mill is, as usual, churning out a variety of conspiracy theories.
Some Sunnis suspect America and Iran will do a deal at their expense.
Some Shia think neighbouring Sunni Arab states are ganging up to replace the Maliki government with one more to their liking.
But it is possible Mr Maliki will stagger on, albeit with his credibility diminished.
Parliament is in recess until early September. Some reports suggest the much-delayed "summit" will not take place before then.
That will be perilously close to the mid-September deadline when Ambassador Crocker and the top US general in Iraq, David Petraeus, are to appear before Congress to give their considered assessment of the "surge".
Two other names are regularly mentioned as possible replacements for Mr Maliki.
They are Adel Abdul Mahdi - of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, one of the main Shia factions - and the former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who is a secular nationalist.
The first would be opposed by the Shia faction of Moqtada Sadr, a bitter rival of the Supreme Council. The second would be opposed by all the Shia Islamists.
In any case, it is far from clear that in current conditions any other Iraqi leader could do better. Changing horses is not a realistic US option.
Grumbling about Mr Maliki seems designed to step up the pressure on him rather than force him out.
| August 22, 2007 | 17:26:35 |
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Moderates and radicals Mideast strategy. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Doubts over US Mideast strategy,Moderates and radicals,As two senior US officials tour the Middle East, the BBC's Roger Hardy finds experts are downbeat about the prospects for reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In a speech in mid-July, President George Bush reaffirmed his commitment to a two-state solution, with a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel.
Now, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates are trying to give some substance to this pledge.
The aim of their visit to the region is, first, to create an alliance of "moderates" to counter the influence of Iran and Syria and the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
And, second, they are trying to breathe life into the peace process.
Few optimists
They want to persuade the Arab states to attend a proposed regional meeting - the White House is avoiding the word "conference" - which Ms Rice will host in the autumn
There is no sign they are really going to make (a) deep investment in peace-making
This will bring together Israel, the Palestinians and some of the Arab states.
Egypt and Jordan already have diplomatic relations with Israel. The hope is to draw in the Saudis, who do not.
But visit the foreign-policy think-tanks in Washington and you will not find many optimists.
Ellen Laipson, a former senior official in the National Security Council who now runs the Henry Stimson Center, reflects the general scepticism.
"I think the Bush administration has created a myth about itself," she says, "that it believes more deeply in a Palestinian state than previous presidents."
"Yet there is no sign they are really going to make the deep investment in peace-making that it would require."
Moderates and radicals
It appears the Bush initiative is still a work in progress.
It is not wise... to build up Hamas by making their opponents the favourite sons, if I can put it this way, of the West
Ambassador Thomas Pickering
It is not clear where or when the proposed regional "meeting" will take place - or, crucially, who will attend.
What inducements might persuade the Saudis to turn up?
Will Syria even be invited, given the current frostiness between Washington and Damascus?
No less fundamental, who can speak for the Palestinians at a time when they are governed by two rival administrations?
The Americans and the Israelis want to strengthen what they regard as the moderate government appointed by President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank - and isolate and weaken the Hamas administration in Gaza.
David Makovsky, of the pro-Israeli Washington Institute for Near East Policy, thinks it is vital to support President Abbas and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad.
"Hey, we got a moderate on the Palestinian side, we got a moderate on the Israeli side - and we still do nothing?"
That would simply guarantee, he says, that the radicals would prevail.
Will and staying power
But one of Washington's foreign-policy veterans, Thomas Pickering, is not convinced this approach will work.
"It is not wise for us, in a back-handed way, to build up Hamas by making their opponents the favourite sons, if I can put it this way, of the West."
Ambassador Pickering was under-secretary of state in the Clinton administration.
He thinks the two key figures - President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - may be politically too weak to carry the burden of peace-making.
The Bush administration is having its work cut out convincing the doubters that - with less than 18 months left to run - it really does have the will and the staying power to revive hopes for peace.
| August 19, 2007 | 19:39:53 |
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Dean kills one in D.R., heading to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Dean kills one in D.R., heading to Jamaica, Galvanized by a catastrophe just over the horizon and rushing toward them, residents of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands fortified themselves Saturday night for the 150-mph onslaught of Hurricane Dean.
''Let us band together and unite in the threat of this hurricane,'' said Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, who ordered shelters opened across an island growing grimly aware of the horror that could arrive today.
Dean was predicted to pound Jamaica with sustained winds as high as 155 mph -- and gusts even more explosive. Twenty inches of rain and a nine-foot storm surge could inundate parts of the island. It could be the most destructive storm to strike Jamaica in more than a century.
Just one of many indicators of the mayhem to come: Dean swept a 16-year-old boy out to sea and to his death Saturday as he watched 16-foot swells break over a road in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic. He was the storm's fourth victim -- and probably not the last.
''This is not a movie, this is reality,'' Santo Domingo police officers hollered as the aroused Caribbean flung rocks toward the city's usually picturesque boardwalk.
Forecasters said Dean evolved into a ferocious threat as it roared through the warm Caribbean, already striking glancing -- but powerful -- blows at Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
At one point Saturday, the wind around Dean's core built to 150 mph, just 6 mph below the threshold of a Category 5 storm, the highest on the scale.
''I just want to get anywhere in the U.S.,'' said Barb Kebbler of Maryland, one of the hundreds of tourists who jammed into Montego Bay's airport, hoping to catch a last flight out of Jamaica.
In Haiti, residents of the hillside neighborhood of Martissant took it upon themselves to dig out the trash that plugged the area's open sewers.
Still, many felt helpless. Rain-generated landslides are frequent mass killers in the deforested nation. Now, all these Haitians could do was watch the sky darken and the rain blow in.
''The mountain can fall at any time,'' said Luckson Deshomme, 23. ``We're just waiting since there's nothing we can do. Nothing is in our hands.''
Dean was passing south of South Florida, though its secondary effects will elevate offshore seas through Monday and pump some rain and wind into the region.
The storm will reach the Gulf of Mexico this week -- and then strike the Gulf Coast, possibly near the Texas-Mexico border.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry called the storm an ''imminent threat,'' and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco declared a state of emergency.
NASA announced that it will bring shuttle Endeavour and its crew home a day early on Tuesday, in case Dean veers toward its control center in Houston.
Early this week, Cancún, Cozumel and neighboring areas on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula also could be in grave danger.
But it was Jamaica and the Caymans that shuddered most immediately and directly in the line of fire. Dean's core could drill directly through those islands.
In Jamaica, gas stations ran out of fuel, markets ran out of groceries, tourists ran out of patience at the airport and residents began running out of time to prepare -- or flee.
''I can't stay,'' said John Massey, a resident of Caribbean Terrace, a low-lying waterfront community in Kingston. Six homes still stand empty there, three years after Hurricane Ivan crashed through the seawall that was supposed to protect them.
''You have to batten up, secure your place and leave,'' he said.
Other residents of the area, with homes only slightly more inland, vowed to stay. They were more worried about looters than about Dean.
''You want to know you are almost in charge of your things,'' Vasco Carney said.
The usual pre-storm scenes of shortage and chaos prevailed at supermarkets.
''I have been standing in here for the past two hours and have not been able to get a cart,'' said Marcia Scarlett of Montego Bay.
At Norman Manley Airport in Kingston, Ian Lynch, 28, and many others competed for a seat on the last flight to Miami. The line extended 30 yards from the departure terminal.
''I don't want to be here stranded,'' Lynch said.
At Sanger International Airport in Montego Bay, many Jamaicans complained that they had been waiting since Thursday for flights while Americans seemed to have an easier time.
Next on Dean's hit list: the tiny Cayman Islands, still struggling to recover from the bulldozer that was Ivan.
By Monday, those islands could absorb an even stronger version of Dean -- with Category 5, 160-mph winds.
All hotel guests were being evacuated from Little Cayman, officials said. A representative of Cayman Airways said the airline would continue to fly until at least this afternoon.
''Everyone should now be taking very seriously the possibility that we could be severely impacted by Hurricane Dean,'' said Donovan Ebanks, a government official. ``I urge everyone to remain calm and to hold high our traditions for considerateness and helpfulness to others.''
There no longer was any doubt that Dean should be taken seriously, and many residents of the Caribbean were reminded that a hurricane is much more than just its central core.
Dean's powerful outer squalls whipped Saturday through Hispaniola, shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Officials at the Dominican Republic's Emergency Operation Center monitored low-lying slums and tourist hotspots, making sure post-storm aid would be available.
Forecasters predicted four to 10 inches of rain in portions of Haiti, a place that is highly vulnerable to disastrous floods and mudslides.
Slum dwellers whose cinder-block hovels sit along the Bois de Chene ravine, an open sewer that carries water and debris from the hills above Port-au-Prince to the sea, piled rocks along the edges.
''It won't stop the water, but it will slow it down -- we hope,'' said Eliphete Therosmy, 34, a mechanic. ``Even if it just rains in the hills, the water still comes through here.''
Miami Herald special correspondent Conrad McLeod contributed to this report from Montego Bay, Jamaica.
| August 18, 2007 | 22:04:25 |
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Year of living dangerously ,Year of living dangerously. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Year of living dangerouslyYear of living dangerously,My Year in Iraq: the Struggle to Build a Future of Hope, L. Paul Bremer IIIYear of living dangerously,My Year in Iraq: the Struggle to Build a Future of Hope, L. Paul Bremer III with Malcolm McConnell, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. pp417,Bremer's departure was stage-managed for the press. He and his team waited inside a military C-130 plane on the tarmac before scrambling out and into a waiting helicopter... This bluff was necessary because of attacks on C-130s flying into and out of Baghdad: at the end of Bremer's year in Iraq, there were concerns that the US government might not be able "to get me out of the country alive."
Paul Bremer, until recently a diplomat at the US State Department, achieved international fame in May 2003 when he was appointed administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and US presidential envoy in Iraq following the US-led invasion, posts he retained until June 2004. In his memoir My Year in Iraq : the Struggle to Build a Future of Hope, written with Malcolm McConnell, he sets out the record of this year as he sees it, taking in major events such as the bombing of the UN mission in Baghdad in August 2003, the capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in December, the breaking of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in January 2004 and the transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government in June 2004, followed by the dissolution of the CPA and Bremer's own departure from Iraq.
When it was published earlier this year Bremer's book was searched through by all those eager to learn from one of the story's leading actors what really happened during this eventful year both in Iraq, and, just as importantly for the country's future, in Washington. Type Paul Bremer and "My Year in Iraq" into an Internet search engine and in excess of 500,000 results come up, not bad for a title published just a month or two ago. Yet, does Bremer's memoir greatly add to our knowledge of what happened in Iraq during this fateful year, or what went on behind the scenes in Washington? If the answer is that on the whole it does not contain any major revelations, the book nevertheless contains some intriguing nuggets, and these have contributed both to the extensive discussions of it and to what one must suppose have been its whacking sales.
One such nugget concerns Bremer's views on the troop numbers required for any successful US-led occupation of Iraq. The invasion of the country having proved "a cakewalk", the Saddam regime swiftly collapsing in the face of the invading Coalition forces, there seems to have been a view in Washington that the subsequent occupation of the country could be achieved just as easily. However, if Bremer ever shared this view he was quickly disabused of it by the "reality of occupying a large Muslim nation in the heart of the volatile Middle East."
Arriving in Baghdad on 12 May 2003 a few days after receiving instructions from US President George W. Bush, Bremer says that "we could have been in a sci-fi movie about post-apocalyptic Los Angeles," with Coalition forces apparently powerless to stop armed militiamen roaming the streets and continuing arson and looting.
Bremer's remit was to get the Iraqi state up and running again following its collapse in the final days of the Saddam regime, and his thoughts turn to the reconstruction carried out in Germany and Japan after the Second World War under the watchful eyes of the Allies. For reconstruction to take place, however, it was essential that order be restored, and there were no local forces able to do this, he says. Members of the former Iraqi police were "at home guarding their families," and the Iraqi army had "disappeared" or "self-demobilized" on contact with Coalition forces, melting away "under relentless bombardment from precision-guided weapons."
When Bremer arrived to take control of the CPA, set up to replace the US Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (OHRA) led by US General Jay Garner, at the time the de facto government in Iraq, he found "not a single Iraqi military unit standing intact anywhere in the country." Having been given "all executive, legislative, and judicial functions in Iraq," one of Bremer's first actions was to draw the attention of US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to a study showing that 500,000 Coalition troops would be needed to stabilise the situation, more than three times the number then deployed. However, "I never heard back from him," Bremer says, and troop numbers were not increased.
A second nugget from Bremer's book is the impression it gives both of extraordinary energy on his part, perhaps, in a memoir, an inevitable form of special pleading, and the lack of planning that apparently reigned elsewhere, made worse by multiple lines of accountability. As a civilian, Bremer did not have authority over the Coalition troops stationed in Iraq. However, he was a "tough guy for a tough job," at least according to President Bush in an example of the macho language employed throughout this book, and "the US Central Command (CENTCOM) -- the Coalition's military arm...had orders from the president and Rumsfeld to coordinate their operations with the CPA and me."
It is easy to see that "coordinate" can mean as much, or as little, as those involved want it to mean, and there are points in Bremer's narrative where US policy in Iraq, as expressed through the CPA, was either ambiguous or uncertain, reflecting disagreements in Washington or tensions between Bremer and his political bosses.
Bremer presents himself as a realist and a field man, impatient with the lack of knowledge and political maneuverings of his desk-bound Washington superiors. Rumsfeld, in particular, is presented as being guilty not only of ignorance of the situation in the field and deaf to requests for additional US forces to cope with the deteriorating security situation, but also of being ready to apply pressure in order to achieve the kind of positive media coverage that, following the toppling of symbols of the regime after the US-led invasion, was getting harder and harder to come by. "Ceaseless negativism" is how Bremer describes the international coverage of CPA actions in Iraq, and by the end of his book he is complaining of an "incessant barrage of Arab propaganda."
In the face of this situation Rumsfeld pushed for cuts in the US military presence, to be made up for by newly trained Iraqi units and the increased deployment of Coalition (i.e. non-US) forces, and for greater progress in the handing over of sovereignty to an Iraqi government, which could then be billed as having replaced the US-led occupation.
On both counts Bremer was obliged to argue for slower progress than Rumsfeld and others in Washington would have liked. The CPA's failure to dent the popularity of the Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, identified by Bremer as a threat to the country's security, culminated in the debacle at Falluja in April 2004 and demonstrated problems with the new Iraqi forces: "total failure" is how Bremer evaluates their performance. Pressure from Washington to speed up the handing over of sovereignty to an Iraqi government also irritates Bremer, who moves from disbelief at the timetable initially proposed to a strategy of prodding an apparently reluctant Iraqi Governing Council (IGC), appointed by Bremer, into coming up with an interim constitution before Washington finally lost patience: for the members of the IGC it was a case of "shape up or be shipped out," as he puts it.
While Bremer presents himself as resisting demands from Washington for greater speed, he does not hide his irritation at what he describes as the incompetence and motivated delays of the Iraqi politicians with whom he has to deal. He is sceptical of the claims made by Iraqi exiles brought back to the country in the wake of the US- led invasion, worrying that these people, at first named the Iraqi Leadership Council (ILC), were not representative of internal Iraqi opinion. He decides that the ILC should expand to form a larger, more representative group, later named the IGC, which should draft an interim constitution for the country and form a government.
However, this proves almost endlessly difficult to achieve: having decided that no elections should take place in Iraq until the technical means are in place to do so, Bremer is left with a strategy of "identifying" likely characters for the IGC from the various religious and ethnic groups making up the country, this process becoming an increasingly American affair as the Kurdish, Shia and Sunni representatives on the IGC, suspicious of each other and jockeying for position with the CPA, prove incapable of reaching agreement.
"Inertia," "lax work habits," and "paralysis" are charges Bremer lays against the IGC, and having reached a "crisis point on the Governing Council's ineffectiveness" he decides to rename it a "Provisional Government" if this will help make progress on an interim constitution and government. Bremer presents this important decision in the form of a conversation with a member of the CPA's Governance Team, and this gives a fair idea of the style of the book as a whole: "When we get the GC convened, we could take some Governing Council members, throw them together with the ministers, and call the resulting body the 'Provisional Government'..."
"Sunni outreach" is a significant problem, Iraq's Sunni community apparently being reluctant to cooperate with a Shia- and Kurdish-dominated IGC, and Bremer is obliged to fall back on Adnan Pachachi, Iraqi foreign minister in the 1960s and a prominent Sunni, for a position on what is now being called the Iraqi Interim Government. Pachachi is considered for the position of president, but is then sidelined ("I had been concerned by Pachachi's overly emotional reaction to the crisis in Falluja"). Once viewed as a potential leader of a post-Saddam Iraq, the Shia politician Ahmed Chalabi also falls from favour, and another Shia candidate, Hussein al-Shahristani, is canvassed for the post of prime minister. Bremer is unhappy with al-Shahristani ("the more we talked, the clearer became his ambivalence about Coalition forces"), but more importantly so is President Bush: "It's important to have someone who's willing to stand up and thank the American people for their sacrifice in liberating Iraq....I want someone who will be grateful."
A further Shia candidate, Ayad Allawi, a "tough guy" and someone who "had worked closely with Western and Arab intelligence organizations," emerges as a candidate for prime minister, and at the end of this fascinating process of haggling, described in the second half of Bremer's book, an Interim Iraqi Government finally emerges, to which sovereignty is transferred on June 28 2004.
Bremer left Iraq on the same afternoon, his departure stage-managed for the press. Having taken leave of an Iraqi government delegation at Baghdad airport, Bremer and his team wait inside a military C-130 plane on the tarmac before scrambling out and into a waiting helicopter and then another plane waiting to take them to Jordan. This elaborate bluff was necessary because of attacks on C-130s flying into and out of Baghdad: at the end of Bremer's year in Iraq, there were concerns that the US government might not be able "to get me out of the country alive."
Reviews of My Year in Iraq have emphasised Bremer's defense of two controversial decisions made while he was CPA administrator: the decision to bar former members of the Iraqi Baath Party from playing a part in the new Iraq (the so-called "de-Baathification" order, more formally CPA Order No. 1 of 16 May 2003), and the decision to disband the Iraqi armed forces (CPA Order No. 2 of 23 May). Bremer insists that de- Baathification of the type set out under CPA Order No. 1 was the right step forward, referring to what he says was the parallel de-Nazification of Hitler's Germany after World War II. Barring members of the Iraqi Baath from playing a part in post-Saddam Iraq was among the most popular of the CPA's actions, he says, some members of the IGC, such as Ahmed Chalabi, demanding even "more aggressive de- Baathification."
Disbanding the Iraqi armed forces, including the "Defense Ministry, all related national security ministries and offices, and all military formations, including the Republican Guard, Special Republican Guard, Baath Party militia, and the Fedayeen Saddam," was also necessary to reassure the Iraqi Shia, he says, and most Iraqi forces had in any case already "self-demobilized".
Finally, while Bremer reiterates the need for the new Iraqi institutions to be representative of all shades of opinion, not least because of the danger of alienating sections of the population before the reconstructed state had even got off the ground, some people seem more representative than others. Bremer responds sceptically to a "British idea" that a member of the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) be appointed to the IGC, for example, only giving the go-ahead if "we could find someone who had cast off communism's misbegotten ideas about how to run an economy." A free- market communist was eventually found, but Bremer's reluctance to appoint one is telling in view of the important role the IPC has played in the history of Iraq. If all the country's ethnic and religious groups are to be represented, why not make arrangements for the representation of political ones?
Linked to Bremer's desire to see Iraq in ethnic and religious, but not necessarily political, terms is his discussion of the future shape of the Iraqi economy, again supported by a plastic view of Iraqi history. While Bremer emphasises the disastrous shape of Iraq's economy in the 1990s, he puts this down to "socialist" mismanagement by the Saddam regime rather than to crippling UN sanctions. He says that "thirty-five years of mismanagement and outright theft ... had crippled the nation's economy," the damaging presence of "cockeyed socialist economic theory" starting with the Baath Party coup in 1968. Not only does Bremer seem unaware of Iraq's earlier history, but bizarrely he also points out that Iraq was once one of the most prosperous countries in the region, "per capita income [peaking] at over $7,500 in 1980, which, with free education and subsidized health care, made Iraq a respectable middle-income country."
Though Bremer, ever the good American, does not seem to notice it, this would have been during the devastating period of socialism. with Malcolm McConnell, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. pp417
Click to view caption
Bremer's departure was stage-managed for the press. He and his team waited inside a military C-130 plane on the tarmac before scrambling out and into a waiting helicopter... This bluff was necessary because of attacks on C-130s flying into and out of Baghdad: at the end of Bremer's year in Iraq, there were concerns that the US government might not be able "to get me out of the country alive."
Paul Bremer, until recently a diplomat at the US State Department, achieved international fame in May 2003 when he was appointed administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and US presidential envoy in Iraq following the US-led invasion, posts he retained until June 2004. In his memoir My Year in Iraq : the Struggle to Build a Future of Hope, written with Malcolm McConnell, he sets out the record of this year as he sees it, taking in major events such as the bombing of the UN mission in Baghdad in August 2003, the capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in December, the breaking of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in January 2004 and the transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government in June 2004, followed by the dissolution of the CPA and Bremer's own departure from Iraq.
When it was published earlier this year Bremer's book was searched through by all those eager to learn from one of the story's leading actors what really happened during this eventful year both in Iraq, and, just as importantly for the country's future, in Washington. Type Paul Bremer and "My Year in Iraq" into an Internet search engine and in excess of 500,000 results come up, not bad for a title published just a month or two ago. Yet, does Bremer's memoir greatly add to our knowledge of what happened in Iraq during this fateful year, or what went on behind the scenes in Washington? If the answer is that on the whole it does not contain any major revelations, the book nevertheless contains some intriguing nuggets, and these have contributed both to the extensive discussions of it and to what one must suppose have been its whacking sales.
One such nugget concerns Bremer's views on the troop numbers required for any successful US-led occupation of Iraq. The invasion of the country having proved "a cakewalk", the Saddam regime swiftly collapsing in the face of the invading Coalition forces, there seems to have been a view in Washington that the subsequent occupation of the country could be achieved just as easily. However, if Bremer ever shared this view he was quickly disabused of it by the "reality of occupying a large Muslim nation in the heart of the volatile Middle East."
Arriving in Baghdad on 12 May 2003 a few days after receiving instructions from US President George W. Bush, Bremer says that "we could have been in a sci-fi movie about post-apocalyptic Los Angeles," with Coalition forces apparently powerless to stop armed militiamen roaming the streets and continuing arson and looting.
Bremer's remit was to get the Iraqi state up and running again following its collapse in the final days of the Saddam regime, and his thoughts turn to the reconstruction carried out in Germany and Japan after the Second World War under the watchful eyes of the Allies. For reconstruction to take place, however, it was essential that order be restored, and there were no local forces able to do this, he says. Members of the former Iraqi police were "at home guarding their families," and the Iraqi army had "disappeared" or "self-demobilized" on contact with Coalition forces, melting away "under relentless bombardment from precision-guided weapons."
When Bremer arrived to take control of the CPA, set up to replace the US Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (OHRA) led by US General Jay Garner, at the time the de facto government in Iraq, he found "not a single Iraqi military unit standing intact anywhere in the country." Having been given "all executive, legislative, and judicial functions in Iraq," one of Bremer's first actions was to draw the attention of US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to a study showing that 500,000 Coalition troops would be needed to stabilise the situation, more than three times the number then deployed. However, "I never heard back from him," Bremer says, and troop numbers were not increased.
A second nugget from Bremer's book is the impression it gives both of extraordinary energy on his part, perhaps, in a memoir, an inevitable form of special pleading, and the lack of planning that apparently reigned elsewhere, made worse by multiple lines of accountability. As a civilian, Bremer did not have authority over the Coalition troops stationed in Iraq. However, he was a "tough guy for a tough job," at least according to President Bush in an example of the macho language employed throughout this book, and "the US Central Command (CENTCOM) -- the Coalition's military arm...had orders from the president and Rumsfeld to coordinate their operations with the CPA and me."
It is easy to see that "coordinate" can mean as much, or as little, as those involved want it to mean, and there are points in Bremer's narrative where US policy in Iraq, as expressed through the CPA, was either ambiguous or uncertain, reflecting disagreements in Washington or tensions between Bremer and his political bosses.
Bremer presents himself as a realist and a field man, impatient with the lack of knowledge and political maneuverings of his desk-bound Washington superiors. Rumsfeld, in particular, is presented as being guilty not only of ignorance of the situation in the field and deaf to requests for additional US forces to cope with the deteriorating security situation, but also of being ready to apply pressure in order to achieve the kind of positive media coverage that, following the toppling of symbols of the regime after the US-led invasion, was getting harder and harder to come by. "Ceaseless negativism" is how Bremer describes the international coverage of CPA actions in Iraq, and by the end of his book he is complaining of an "incessant barrage of Arab propaganda."
In the face of this situation Rumsfeld pushed for cuts in the US military presence, to be made up for by newly trained Iraqi units and the increased deployment of Coalition (i.e. non-US) forces, and for greater progress in the handing over of sovereignty to an Iraqi government, which could then be billed as having replaced the US-led occupation.
On both counts Bremer was obliged to argue for slower progress than Rumsfeld and others in Washington would have liked. The CPA's failure to dent the popularity of the Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, identified by Bremer as a threat to the country's security, culminated in the debacle at Falluja in April 2004 and demonstrated problems with the new Iraqi forces: "total failure" is how Bremer evaluates their performance. Pressure from Washington to speed up the handing over of sovereignty to an Iraqi government also irritates Bremer, who moves from disbelief at the timetable initially proposed to a strategy of prodding an apparently reluctant Iraqi Governing Council (IGC), appointed by Bremer, into coming up with an interim constitution before Washington finally lost patience: for the members of the IGC it was a case of "shape up or be shipped out," as he puts it.
While Bremer presents himself as resisting demands from Washington for greater speed, he does not hide his irritation at what he describes as the incompetence and motivated delays of the Iraqi politicians with whom he has to deal. He is sceptical of the claims made by Iraqi exiles brought back to the country in the wake of the US- led invasion, worrying that these people, at first named the Iraqi Leadership Council (ILC), were not representative of internal Iraqi opinion. He decides that the ILC should expand to form a larger, more representative group, later named the IGC, which should draft an interim constitution for the country and form a government.
However, this proves almost endlessly difficult to achieve: having decided that no elections should take place in Iraq until the technical means are in place to do so, Bremer is left with a strategy of "identifying" likely characters for the IGC from the various religious and ethnic groups making up the country, this process becoming an increasingly American affair as the Kurdish, Shia and Sunni representatives on the IGC, suspicious of each other and jockeying for position with the CPA, prove incapable of reaching agreement.
"Inertia," "lax work habits," and "paralysis" are charges Bremer lays against the IGC, and having reached a "crisis point on the Governing Council's ineffectiveness" he decides to rename it a "Provisional Government" if this will help make progress on an interim constitution and government. Bremer presents this important decision in the form of a conversation with a member of the CPA's Governance Team, and this gives a fair idea of the style of the book as a whole: "When we get the GC convened, we could take some Governing Council members, throw them together with the ministers, and call the resulting body the 'Provisional Government'..."
"Sunni outreach" is a significant problem, Iraq's Sunni community apparently being reluctant to cooperate with a Shia- and Kurdish-dominated IGC, and Bremer is obliged to fall back on Adnan Pachachi, Iraqi foreign minister in the 1960s and a prominent Sunni, for a position on what is now being called the Iraqi Interim Government. Pachachi is considered for the position of president, but is then sidelined ("I had been concerned by Pachachi's overly emotional reaction to the crisis in Falluja"). Once viewed as a potential leader of a post-Saddam Iraq, the Shia politician Ahmed Chalabi also falls from favour, and another Shia candidate, Hussein al-Shahristani, is canvassed for the post of prime minister. Bremer is unhappy with al-Shahristani ("the more we talked, the clearer became his ambivalence about Coalition forces"), but more importantly so is President Bush: "It's important to have someone who's willing to stand up and thank the American people for their sacrifice in liberating Iraq....I want someone who will be grateful."
A further Shia candidate, Ayad Allawi, a "tough guy" and someone who "had worked closely with Western and Arab intelligence organizations," emerges as a candidate for prime minister, and at the end of this fascinating process of haggling, described in the second half of Bremer's book, an Interim Iraqi Government finally emerges, to which sovereignty is transferred on June 28 2004.
Bremer left Iraq on the same afternoon, his departure stage-managed for the press. Having taken leave of an Iraqi government delegation at Baghdad airport, Bremer and his team wait inside a military C-130 plane on the tarmac before scrambling out and into a waiting helicopter and then another plane waiting to take them to Jordan. This elaborate bluff was necessary because of attacks on C-130s flying into and out of Baghdad: at the end of Bremer's year in Iraq, there were concerns that the US government might not be able "to get me out of the country alive."
Reviews of My Year in Iraq have emphasised Bremer's defense of two controversial decisions made while he was CPA administrator: the decision to bar former members of the Iraqi Baath Party from playing a part in the new Iraq (the so-called "de-Baathification" order, more formally CPA Order No. 1 of 16 May 2003), and the decision to disband the Iraqi armed forces (CPA Order No. 2 of 23 May). Bremer insists that de- Baathification of the type set out under CPA Order No. 1 was the right step forward, referring to what he says was the parallel de-Nazification of Hitler's Germany after World War II. Barring members of the Iraqi Baath from playing a part in post-Saddam Iraq was among the most popular of the CPA's actions, he says, some members of the IGC, such as Ahmed Chalabi, demanding even "more aggressive de- Baathification."
Disbanding the Iraqi armed forces, including the "Defense Ministry, all related national security ministries and offices, and all military formations, including the Republican Guard, Special Republican Guard, Baath Party militia, and the Fedayeen Saddam," was also necessary to reassure the Iraqi Shia, he says, and most Iraqi forces had in any case already "self-demobilized".
Finally, while Bremer reiterates the need for the new Iraqi institutions to be representative of all shades of opinion, not least because of the danger of alienating sections of the population before the reconstructed state had even got off the ground, some people seem more representative than others. Bremer responds sceptically to a "British idea" that a member of the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) be appointed to the IGC, for example, only giving the go-ahead if "we could find someone who had cast off communism's misbegotten ideas about how to run an economy." A free- market communist was eventually found, but Bremer's reluctance to appoint one is telling in view of the important role the IPC has played in the history of Iraq. If all the country's ethnic and religious groups are to be represented, why not make arrangements for the representation of political ones?
Linked to Bremer's desire to see Iraq in ethnic and religious, but not necessarily political, terms is his discussion of the future shape of the Iraqi economy, again supported by a plastic view of Iraqi history. While Bremer emphasises the disastrous shape of Iraq's economy in the 1990s, he puts this down to "socialist" mismanagement by the Saddam regime rather than to crippling UN sanctions. He says that "thirty-five years of mismanagement and outright theft ... had crippled the nation's economy," the damaging presence of "cockeyed socialist economic theory" starting with the Baath Party coup in 1968. Not only does Bremer seem unaware of Iraq's earlier history, but bizarrely he also points out that Iraq was once one of the most prosperous countries in the region, "per capita income [peaking] at over $7,500 in 1980, which, with free education and subsidized health care, made Iraq a respectable middle-income country."
Though Bremer, ever the good American, does not seem to notice it, this would have been during the devastating period of socialism.
My Year in Iraq: the Struggle to Build a Future of Hope, L. Paul Bremer III with Malcolm McConnell, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. pp417
Click to view caption
Bremer's departure was stage-managed for the press. He and his team waited inside a military C-130 plane on the tarmac before scrambling out and into a waiting helicopter... This bluff was necessary because of attacks on C-130s flying into and out of Baghdad: at the end of Bremer's year in Iraq, there were concerns that the US government might not be able "to get me out of the country alive."
Paul Bremer, until recently a diplomat at the US State Department, achieved international fame in May 2003 when he was appointed administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and US presidential envoy in Iraq following the US-led invasion, posts he retained until June 2004. In his memoir My Year in Iraq : the Struggle to Build a Future of Hope, written with Malcolm McConnell, he sets out the record of this year as he sees it, taking in major events such as the bombing of the UN mission in Baghdad in August 2003, the capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in December, the breaking of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in January 2004 and the transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government in June 2004, followed by the dissolution of the CPA and Bremer's own departure from Iraq.
When it was published earlier this year Bremer's book was searched through by all those eager to learn from one of the story's leading actors what really happened during this eventful year both in Iraq, and, just as importantly for the country's future, in Washington. Type Paul Bremer and "My Year in Iraq" into an Internet search engine and in excess of 500,000 results come up, not bad for a title published just a month or two ago. Yet, does Bremer's memoir greatly add to our knowledge of what happened in Iraq during this fateful year, or what went on behind the scenes in Washington? If the answer is that on the whole it does not contain any major revelations, the book nevertheless contains some intriguing nuggets, and these have contributed both to the extensive discussions of it and to what one must suppose have been its whacking sales.
One such nugget concerns Bremer's views on the troop numbers required for any successful US-led occupation of Iraq. The invasion of the country having proved "a cakewalk", the Saddam regime swiftly collapsing in the face of the invading Coalition forces, there seems to have been a view in Washington that the subsequent occupation of the country could be achieved just as easily. However, if Bremer ever shared this view he was quickly disabused of it by the "reality of occupying a large Muslim nation in the heart of the volatile Middle East."
Arriving in Baghdad on 12 May 2003 a few days after receiving instructions from US President George W. Bush, Bremer says that "we could have been in a sci-fi movie about post-apocalyptic Los Angeles," with Coalition forces apparently powerless to stop armed militiamen roaming the streets and continuing arson and looting.
Bremer's remit was to get the Iraqi state up and running again following its collapse in the final days of the Saddam regime, and his thoughts turn to the reconstruction carried out in Germany and Japan after the Second World War under the watchful eyes of the Allies. For reconstruction to take place, however, it was essential that order be restored, and there were no local forces able to do this, he says. Members of the former Iraqi police were "at home guarding their families," and the Iraqi army had "disappeared" or "self-demobilized" on contact with Coalition forces, melting away "under relentless bombardment from precision-guided weapons."
When Bremer arrived to take control of the CPA, set up to replace the US Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (OHRA) led by US General Jay Garner, at the time the de facto government in Iraq, he found "not a single Iraqi military unit standing intact anywhere in the country." Having been given "all executive, legislative, and judicial functions in Iraq," one of Bremer's first actions was to draw the attention of US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to a study showing that 500,000 Coalition troops would be needed to stabilise the situation, more than three times the number then deployed. However, "I never heard back from him," Bremer says, and troop numbers were not increased.
A second nugget from Bremer's book is the impression it gives both of extraordinary energy on his part, perhaps, in a memoir, an inevitable form of special pleading, and the lack of planning that apparently reigned elsewhere, made worse by multiple lines of accountability. As a civilian, Bremer did not have authority over the Coalition troops stationed in Iraq. However, he was a "tough guy for a tough job," at least according to President Bush in an example of the macho language employed throughout this book, and "the US Central Command (CENTCOM) -- the Coalition's military arm...had orders from the president and Rumsfeld to coordinate their operations with the CPA and me."
It is easy to see that "coordinate" can mean as much, or as little, as those involved want it to mean, and there are points in Bremer's narrative where US policy in Iraq, as expressed through the CPA, was either ambiguous or uncertain, reflecting disagreements in Washington or tensions between Bremer and his political bosses.
Bremer presents himself as a realist and a field man, impatient with the lack of knowledge and political maneuverings of his desk-bound Washington superiors. Rumsfeld, in particular, is presented as being guilty not only of ignorance of the situation in the field and deaf to requests for additional US forces to cope with the deteriorating security situation, but also of being ready to apply pressure in order to achieve the kind of positive media coverage that, following the toppling of symbols of the regime after the US-led invasion, was getting harder and harder to come by. "Ceaseless negativism" is how Bremer describes the international coverage of CPA actions in Iraq, and by the end of his book he is complaining of an "incessant barrage of Arab propaganda."
In the face of this situation Rumsfeld pushed for cuts in the US military presence, to be made up for by newly trained Iraqi units and the increased deployment of Coalition (i.e. non-US) forces, and for greater progress in the handing over of sovereignty to an Iraqi government, which could then be billed as having replaced the US-led occupation.
On both counts Bremer was obliged to argue for slower progress than Rumsfeld and others in Washington would have liked. The CPA's failure to dent the popularity of the Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, identified by Bremer as a threat to the country's security, culminated in the debacle at Falluja in April 2004 and demonstrated problems with the new Iraqi forces: "total failure" is how Bremer evaluates their performance. Pressure from Washington to speed up the handing over of sovereignty to an Iraqi government also irritates Bremer, who moves from disbelief at the timetable initially proposed to a strategy of prodding an apparently reluctant Iraqi Governing Council (IGC), appointed by Bremer, into coming up with an interim constitution before Washington finally lost patience: for the members of the IGC it was a case of "shape up or be shipped out," as he puts it.
While Bremer presents himself as resisting demands from Washington for greater speed, he does not hide his irritation at what he describes as the incompetence and motivated delays of the Iraqi politicians with whom he has to deal. He is sceptical of the claims made by Iraqi exiles brought back to the country in the wake of the US- led invasion, worrying that these people, at first named the Iraqi Leadership Council (ILC), were not representative of internal Iraqi opinion. He decides that the ILC should expand to form a larger, more representative group, later named the IGC, which should draft an interim constitution for the country and form a government.
However, this proves almost endlessly difficult to achieve: having decided that no elections should take place in Iraq until the technical means are in place to do so, Bremer is left with a strategy of "identifying" likely characters for the IGC from the various religious and ethnic groups making up the country, this process becoming an increasingly American affair as the Kurdish, Shia and Sunni representatives on the IGC, suspicious of each other and jockeying for position with the CPA, prove incapable of reaching agreement.
"Inertia," "lax work habits," and "paralysis" are charges Bremer lays against the IGC, and having reached a "crisis point on the Governing Council's ineffectiveness" he decides to rename it a "Provisional Government" if this will help make progress on an interim constitution and government. Bremer presents this important decision in the form of a conversation with a member of the CPA's Governance Team, and this gives a fair idea of the style of the book as a whole: "When we get the GC convened, we could take some Governing Council members, throw them together with the ministers, and call the resulting body the 'Provisional Government'..."
"Sunni outreach" is a significant problem, Iraq's Sunni community apparently being reluctant to cooperate with a Shia- and Kurdish-dominated IGC, and Bremer is obliged to fall back on Adnan Pachachi, Iraqi foreign minister in the 1960s and a prominent Sunni, for a position on what is now being called the Iraqi Interim Government. Pachachi is considered for the position of president, but is then sidelined ("I had been concerned by Pachachi's overly emotional reaction to the crisis in Falluja"). Once viewed as a potential leader of a post-Saddam Iraq, the Shia politician Ahmed Chalabi also falls from favour, and another Shia candidate, Hussein al-Shahristani, is canvassed for the post of prime minister. Bremer is unhappy with al-Shahristani ("the more we talked, the clearer became his ambivalence about Coalition forces"), but more importantly so is President Bush: "It's important to have someone who's willing to stand up and thank the American people for their sacrifice in liberating Iraq....I want someone who will be grateful."
A further Shia candidate, Ayad Allawi, a "tough guy" and someone who "had worked closely with Western and Arab intelligence organizations," emerges as a candidate for prime minister, and at the end of this fascinating process of haggling, described in the second half of Bremer's book, an Interim Iraqi Government finally emerges, to which sovereignty is transferred on June 28 2004.
Bremer left Iraq on the same afternoon, his departure stage-managed for the press. Having taken leave of an Iraqi government delegation at Baghdad airport, Bremer and his team wait inside a military C-130 plane on the tarmac before scrambling out and into a waiting helicopter and then another plane waiting to take them to Jordan. This elaborate bluff was necessary because of attacks on C-130s flying into and out of Baghdad: at the end of Bremer's year in Iraq, there were concerns that the US government might not be able "to get me out of the country alive."
Reviews of My Year in Iraq have emphasised Bremer's defense of two controversial decisions made while he was CPA administrator: the decision to bar former members of the Iraqi Baath Party from playing a part in the new Iraq (the so-called "de-Baathification" order, more formally CPA Order No. 1 of 16 May 2003), and the decision to disband the Iraqi armed forces (CPA Order No. 2 of 23 May). Bremer insists that de- Baathification of the type set out under CPA Order No. 1 was the right step forward, referring to what he says was the parallel de-Nazification of Hitler's Germany after World War II. Barring members of the Iraqi Baath from playing a part in post-Saddam Iraq was among the most popular of the CPA's actions, he says, some members of the IGC, such as Ahmed Chalabi, demanding even "more aggressive de- Baathification."
Disbanding the Iraqi armed forces, including the "Defense Ministry, all related national security ministries and offices, and all military formations, including the Republican Guard, Special Republican Guard, Baath Party militia, and the Fedayeen Saddam," was also necessary to reassure the Iraqi Shia, he says, and most Iraqi forces had in any case already "self-demobilized".
Finally, while Bremer reiterates the need for the new Iraqi institutions to be representative of all shades of opinion, not least because of the danger of alienating sections of the population before the reconstructed state had even got off the ground, some people seem more representative than others. Bremer responds sceptically to a "British idea" that a member of the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) be appointed to the IGC, for example, only giving the go-ahead if "we could find someone who had cast off communism's misbegotten ideas about how to run an economy." A free- market communist was eventually found, but Bremer's reluctance to appoint one is telling in view of the important role the IPC has played in the history of Iraq. If all the country's ethnic and religious groups are to be represented, why not make arrangements for the representation of political ones?
Linked to Bremer's desire to see Iraq in ethnic and religious, but not necessarily political, terms is his discussion of the future shape of the Iraqi economy, again supported by a plastic view of Iraqi history. While Bremer emphasises the disastrous shape of Iraq's economy in the 1990s, he puts this down to "socialist" mismanagement by the Saddam regime rather than to crippling UN sanctions. He says that "thirty-five years of mismanagement and outright theft ... had crippled the nation's economy," the damaging presence of "cockeyed socialist economic theory" starting with the Baath Party coup in 1968. Not only does Bremer seem unaware of Iraq's earlier history, but bizarrely he also points out that Iraq was once one of the most prosperous countries in the region, "per capita income [peaking] at over $7,500 in 1980, which, with free education and subsidized health care, made Iraq a respectable middle-income country."
Though Bremer, ever the good American, does not seem to notice it, this would have been during the devastating period of socialism.
| August 17, 2007 | 22:24:44 |
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Scores die' in Iraq bomb attacks. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Scores die' in Iraq bomb attacks, Members of the Yazidi sect had been targeted before the blasts
At least 175 people have been killed in a series of suicide bomb attacks in northern Iraq, Iraq's military says., The blasts apparently targeted a Kurdish religious minority, the Yazidi sect, near Mosul. At least four blasts hit areas which house the community.
A Mosul police source told the BBC that there had been "large loss of life".
Tensions between the sect and local Muslims have grown since a Yazidi girl was reportedly stoned by her community in April for converting to Islam.
Officials said at least one of the attacks near Mosul involved a fuel tanker.
MAJOR ATTACKS IN 2007
14 August: At least 175 reported dead in attacks on Yazidi sect near Mosul
16 July: At least 85 die in twin bombings in Kirkuk
7 July: 130 killed in Amirli market bombing
19 June: At least 78 die in Baghdad mosque blast
18 April: Up to 200 killed in car bombings in Baghdad
6 March: At least 90 killed in double suicide bombing in Hilla
3 Feb: At least 130 die in suicide lorry blast in Baghdad
22 Jan: 88 killed by Baghdad car bombs
Up to 200 other people were hurt in the blasts, which destroyed or set fire to a number of buildings.
The attacks are among the worst carried out in Iraq during the insurgency.
Members of the Yazidi community worship an archangel, sometimes represented by a peacock figure. Some Christians and Muslims believe the angel they revere to be the devil.
Helicopter crash
Elsewhere, five US service personnel were killed when their helicopter came down near Falluja, west of Baghdad.
The US said it was still investigating the cause of the crash, but the CH-47 Chinook had been on a test flight after routine maintenance.
The US had already announced the deaths of four other soldiers in two separate incidents in Nineveh province and Baghdad.
A separate suicide bomb attack on a Baghdad bridge, meanwhile, sent cars plunging into the water and killed at least 10 people, Iraqi police said.
The Thiraa Dijla bridge in Taji lies on the main road from Baghdad to Mosul.
Fresh attacks
In another insurgent attack in the capital, some 50 gunmen in uniform were reported to have kidnapped a deputy oil minister and several other officials.
Reports said the men stormed an oil ministry compound in the capital in 17 official vehicles.
The US military also said on Tuesday that its troops had killed four gunmen in Baghdad's Sadr City. But local officials said three civilians died in the raid.
They said one of the victims was a young girl sleeping with her family on the roof.
The US military denied killing any civilians in the raid.
Political move
Separately, three Iraqi ministers from the mixed Sunni-Shia Iraqi National List of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi unexpectedly attended a government session.
They were among five ministers who last week began the boycott of Nouri Maliki's government over what they said was its failure to end sectarian violence.
The move comes as politicians from some of Iraq's main political parties are holding informal talks ahead of a summit called this week by Mr Maliki to try to resolve their differences.
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| August 14, 2007 | 20:31:47 |
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I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts. - Posted By: NaBeeel
TV Legend Merv Griffin Dies at , Merv Griffin, the big band-era crooner turned impresario who parlayed his "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" game shows into a multimillion-dollar empire, died Sunday. He was 82.,Talk show host Merv Griffin turned success with his game shows 'Jeopardy!' and 'Wheel of Fortune' game into a multimillion-dollar empire. He loses his second battle with prostate cancer at 82.
Griffin died of prostate cancer, according to a statement from his family that was released by Marcia Newberger, spokeswoman for The Griffin Group/Merv Griffin Entertainment.
From his beginning as a $100-a-week San Francisco radio singer, Griffin moved on as vocalist for Freddy Martin's band, sometime film actor in films and TV game and talk show host, and made Forbes' list of richest Americans several times.
His "The Merv Griffin Show" lasted more than 20 years, and Griffin's said his capacity to listen contributed to his success.
"If the host is sitting there thinking about his next joke, he isn't listening," Griffin reasoned in a recent interview.
But his biggest break financially came from inventing and producing "Jeopardy" in the 1960s and "Wheel of Fortune" in the 1970s. After they had become the hottest game shows on television, Griffin sold the rights to Coca Cola's Columbia Pictures Television Unit for $250 million in 1986, retaining a share of the profits.
"My father was a visionary," Griffin's son, Tony Griffin, said in a statement issued Sunday. "He loved business and continued his many projects and holdings even while hospitalized."
When Griffin entered a hospital a month ago, he was working on the first week of production of a new syndicated game show, "Merv Griffin's Crosswords," his son said.
In recent years, Griffin also rated frequent mentions in the sports pages as a successful race horse owner. His colt Stevie Wonderboy, named for entertainer Stevie Wonder, won the $1.5 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile in 2005.
Griffin started putting the proceeds from selling "Jeopardy" and "Wheel" in treasury bonds, stocks and other investments, but went into real estate and other ventures because "I was never so bored in my life."
"I said `I'm not going to sit around and clip coupons for the rest of my life,"' he recalled in 1989. "That's when Barron Hilton said `Merv, do you want to buy the Beverly Hilton?' I couldn't believe it."
A Star in Front of and Behind the TV Camera
Griffin bought the slightly passe hotel for $100.2 million and completely refurbished it for $25 million. Then he made a move for control of Resorts International, which operated hotels and casinos from Atlantic City to the Caribbean.
That touched off a feud with real estate tycoon Donald Trump. Griffin eventually acquired Resorts for $240 million, even though Trump had held 80 percent of the voting stock.
"I love the gamesmanship," he told Life magazine in 1988. "This may sound strange, but it parallels the game shows I've been involved in."
In 1948, Freddy Martin hired Griffin to join his band at Los Angeles' Coconut Grove at $150 a week. With Griffin doing the singing, the band had a smash hit with "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts," a 1949 novelty song sung in a cockney accent.
Doris Day and her producer husband, Marty Melcher, saw the band in Las Vegas and recommended Griffin to Warner Bros., which offered a contract. After a bit in "By the Light of the Silvery Moon," starring Day and Gordon MacRae, he had a bigger role with Kathryn Grayson in "So This Is Love." But after a few more trivial roles, he asked out of his contract.
In 1954, Griffin went to New York where he appeared in a summer replacement musical show on CBS-TV, a revival of "Finian's Rainbow," and a music show on CBS radio. He followed with a few TV game show hosting jobs, notably "Play Your Hunch," which premiered in 1958 and ran through the early 1960s. His glibness led to stints as substitute for Jack Paar on "Tonight."
When Paar retired in 1962, Griffin was considered a prime candidate to replace him. Johnny Carson was chosen instead. NBC gave Griffin a daytime version of "Tonight," but he was canceled for being "too sophisticated" for the housewife audience.
Westinghouse Broadcasting introduced "The Merv Griffin Show" in 1965 on syndicated TV. Griffin never underestimated the intelligence of his audience, offering such figures as philosopher Bertrand Russell, cellist Pablo Casals and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer-philosopher-historians Will and Ariel Durant as well as movie stars and entertainers.
He was also a longtime friend of former President Reagan and his wife, Nancy. When the Reagans returned to California in 1988 after eight years in the White House, Griffin and Hilton threw a $25,000-a-table homecoming gala for the couple.
With Carson ruling the late-night roost on NBC in the late 1960s, the two other networks challenged him with competing shows, Griffin on CBS and Joey Bishop (later Dick Cavett) on ABC. Nothing stopped Carson, and Griffin returned to Westinghouse.
A lifelong crossword puzzle fan, Griffin devised a game show, "Word for Word," in 1963. It faded after one season, then his wife, Julann, suggested another show.
"Julann's idea was a twist on the usual question-answer format of the quiz shows of the Fifties," he wrote in his autobiography "Merv." "Her idea was to give the contestants the answer, and they had to come up with the appropriate question."
"Jeopardy" started in 1964 and the more conventional game show "Wheel of Fortune" was begun in 1975.
Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. was born in San Mateo, south of San Francisco on July 6, 1925, the son of a stockbroker. An aunt, Claudia Robinson, taught him to play piano at age 4, and he soon was staging shows on the back porch.
"Every Saturday I had a show, recruiting all the kids in the block as either stagehands, actors and audience, or sometimes all three," he wrote in his 1980 autobiography. "I was the producer, always the producer."
After studying at San Mateo Junior College and the University of San Francisco, Griffin quit school to apply for a job as pianist at KFRC radio in San Francisco. The station needed a vocalist instead. He auditioned and was hired.
Griffin attracted the interest of RKO studio boss William Dozier, who was visiting San Francisco with his wife, Joan Fontaine.
"As soon as I walked in their hotel room, I could see their faces fall," the singer recalled. He weighed 235 pounds. Shortly afterward, singer Joan Edwards told him: "Your voice is terrific, but the blubber has got to go." Griffin slimmed down, and he spent the rest of his life adding and taking off weight.
Griffin and Julann Elizabeth Wright were married in 1958, and their son, Anthony, was born the following year. They divorced in 1973 because of "irreconcilable differences."
"It was a pivotal time in my career, one of uncertainty and constant doubt," he wrote in the autobiography. "So much attention was being focused on me that my marriage felt the strain." He never remarried.
Besides his son, Griffin is survived by his daughter-in-law, Tricia, and two grandchildren.
The family said an invitation-only funeral Mass will be held at a later date at The Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills.
Associated Press writers Beth Harris and Jeff Wilson contributed to this story.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
| August 12, 2007 | 16:10:15 |
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Egypt anger over US rights report. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Egypt anger over US rights report
Egypt has reacted angrily to criticism of its human rights record by the United States - one of its main allies. Foreign Minister Ahmad Aboul-Gheit accused the US of interfering in its affairs in the state department's annual human rights report.
The report mentioned several cases in Egypt including torture of prisoners and allegations of arbitrary arrests.
Mr Aboul-Gheit told the BBC that Egypt had a strong commitment to respecting human rights.
He accused some Western governments of trying to persuade Egyptians to make false allegations.
The state department report also detailed restrictions on the judiciary and on civil liberties.
"The government's respect for human rights remained poor, and serious abuses continued in many areas," the report said.
Egypt was one of several other countries friendly to the US where there were poor human rights conditions, the report said, others being China, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
| August 8, 2007 | 15:27:13 |
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And you got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever. - Posted By: NaBeeel
And you got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever. ,Testy Fox interview, Clinton defends handling of bin Laden threat,In a combative interview on "Fox News Sunday," former President Clinton defended his handling of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden, saying he had tried to put bin Laden out of business and that he had been attacked for his efforts by the same people who criticize him now for not doing enough.
"That's the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now," Clinton said in the interview broadcast Sunday. "They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried."
Clinton accused host Chris Wallace of a "conservative hit job on me" and asked, "I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked, 'Why didn't you do anything about the Cole?' I want to know how many people you asked, 'Why did you fire Dick Clarke?'"
He was referring to the USS Cole, attacked by terrorists in Yemen in 2000, and former White House anti-terrorism chief Richard A. Clarke.
Wallace said Sunday that he was surprised by Clinton's response to "a very non-confrontational question, 'Did you do enough to connect the dots and go after Al Qaida?'"
"I was stunned by this kind of conspiratorial view of all this," Wallace said in a telephone interview. "All I did was ask him a question, and I think it was a legitimate news question. I was surprised that he would conjure up that this was a hit job."
Clinton said he "worked hard" to try to kill bin Laden. "I authorized the findings of the CIA to kill him," he said. "We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody's gotten since. And if I were still president, we'd have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him."
He told Wallace, "And you got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever, but I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get bin Laden. I regret it, but I did try and I did everything I thought I responsibly could."
Clinton also criticized the ABC miniseries, "The Path to 9/11," which critics accused of distorting his record on fighting terror.
"ABC just had a right-wing conservative running their little 'Pathway to 9/11,' falsely claiming it was based on the 9/11 Commission Report with three things asserted against me directly contradictory to the 9/11 Commission Report," he said.
The interview was taped Friday following Clinton's three-day Global Initiative conference, and Clinton said Wallace was to have devoted half his questions to the conference.
Clinton told Wallace, "You set this meeting up because you're going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers because (Fox chief) Rupert Murdoch is supporting my work on climate change. And you came here under false pretenses and said that you'd spend half the time talking about _ you said you'd spend half the time talking about what we did out there to raise $7 billion-plus in three days from 215 different commitments, and you don't care."
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Planning for the withdrawal of U.S forces from Iraq. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Gates seeks to calm feud with Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton that a top Pentagon official did not intend to impugn her patriotism by suggesting that her questions about U.S. planning in Iraq boosts enemy propaganda.
At the same time, Gates defended his aide and the author of the letter, Undersecretary for Policy Eric Edelman, calling him "a valued member" who provides "wise counsel and years of experience (that) are critically important to the many pressing policy issues facing the military."
The letter also contains the most explicit admission to date that the Pentagon is in fact planning for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces, with Gates telling Clinton: "You may rest assured that such planning is indeed taking place with my active involvement."
In the three-page missive obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday, Gates sought to calm a politically stoked exchange between the Pentagon and the Democratic presidential front-runner over planning for the withdrawal of U.S forces from Iraq.
The feud burst into the open last week when Edelman sent a stinging letter to Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who had sought answers in May about how troops, equipment and vehicles would leave Iraq.
Edelman wrote that public discussion of withdrawal "reinforces enemy propaganda that the U.S. will abandon its allies in Iraq" and exacerbates sectarian tensions there. The New York senator said Edelman's answer impugned her patriotism while avoiding serious questions about troop withdrawal plans.
Gates' letter, dated Wednesday, insisted that was not the point of Edelman's missive.
"I emphatically assure you that we do not claim, suggest, or otherwise believe that congressional oversight emboldens our enemies, nor do we question anyone's motives in this regard," Gates wrote.
The Defense secretary both agreed with Clinton that congressional oversight of military planning is needed and at the same time defended Edelman.
"I truly regret that this important discussion went astray and I also regret any misunderstanding of intention," Gates wrote.
"I agree with you that planning concerning the future of U.S. forces in Iraq — including the drawdown of those forces at the right time — is not only appropriate but essential," Gates wrote, adding that Edelman also agrees with that point.
The weeklong back-and-forth underscored the escalating animosity between the Bush administration and the Democratically controlled Congress in the standoff over Iraq policy, and the center seat the divide holds in the 2008 presidential race.
Clinton's spokesman Philippe Reines said the senator was "disappointed that Secretary Gates does not repudiate Undersecretary Edelman's unacceptable political attack."
Reines added that Clinton welcomes Gates statement that congressional oversight of the Iraq war is essential.
"She continues to believe strongly that there is absolutely no room for impugning the patriotism of those who rightfully engage in congressional oversight," Reines said.
The public feud between the Edelman and Clinton could win her points among anti-war voters and liberal Democrats, a critical constituency in primary voting that has challenged her 2002 vote to authorize the Iraq war.
Facing questions about the war during Monday night's debate, Clinton mentioned the letter and the feud.
Among her top Democratic rivals, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has argued that he opposed the war from the start when he was serving in the Illinois legislature. John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, has disavowed his 2002 vote giving President Bush the authority to oust Saddam Hussein's regime.
Clinton, in a call Friday with reporters, said in response to Edelman's letter that she was "shocked by the timeworn tactic of once again impugning the patriotism of any of us who raise serious questions" about the Iraq war.
She was joined in the call by 2004 Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who accused the Bush administration of making "planning a dirty word and an alien concept."
She also complained directly to Gates in writing, asking if he agreed with Edelman's comments. Edelman is a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, and served as an ambassador during the Bush and Clinton administrations.
Military leaders have long acknowledged that they have plans for all contingencies in the Iraq war — more recently saying they have looked at adding troops, pulling troops out and maintaining current levels.
They have provided no details, and insisted that decisions hinge on the report from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, which is due in September. Both men are to testify before Congress on how the current strategy is working and whether it needs to be revised.
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Worst of Hurricane Season Still to Come. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Worst of Hurricane Season Still to Come, Nearly eight weeks have passed since the last tropical storm in the Atlantic-Caribbean region faded away, but banish any notion the 2007 hurricane season has been unusually slow and beware the coming months, experts say.Tropical Storm Barry, the second Atlantic storm this hurricane season, brought heavy rain to Florida in early June. No named storm has formed since, but forecasters warn that the season will likely get much more active this year.
Heading for Peak Time
Historically, the Atlantic hurricane season peaks Sept. 10. The greatest number of storms form from Aug. 20 until Oct. 14.
More on Hurricanes
The peak of the six-month season is just around the corner and forecasters are still predicting a busy one.
"There's absolutely nothing out of the ordinary," Gerry Bell, a hurricane forecaster for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said of the Atlantic season's first two months. "It's not slow. It's not fast."
On average, June and July produce zero to two named storms or hurricanes. So far this year there have been two. Andrea formed in early May, Barry on June 1.
There's plenty of evidence the first two months are meaningless as an indicator for the rest of the season.
In 2004, the first storm didn't form until August 1. It ultimately became Hurricane Alex and kicked off one of the worst Atlantic seasons in decades.
By mid-August that year, there had been five storms. The entire 2004 season saw 15 storms, including nine hurricanes.
Four of them, Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, hit Florida. Each caused more than $6 billion damage and all four rank among the top 10 costliest storms in U.S. history.
In 1998, the first storm didn't form until July 29. That season produced 10 hurricanes, including 155-mph Georges, which battered Key West, and 180-mph Mitch, which killed more than 9,000 people in Central America.
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew, the first storm of the season, didn't form until August 17. It devastated southern Florida to the tune of $25 billion and until Katrina in 2005 was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history.
Stormy September
Historically, the Atlantic hurricane season peaks on September 10 and the period from August 20 until October 14 produces the greatest number of storms.
From 1851 to 2006, September was the top storm-producing month, with 459, followed by August with 344 and October with 280, according to NOAA records.
Forecasters have predicted 2007 will see an above-average number of storms. The averages for the past 40 years are 10.9 storms, 6.1 hurricanes and 2.3 intense hurricanes with winds above 110 mph.
A Colorado State University team led by forecasting pioneer Bill Gray has predicted 17 Atlantic storms, with nine becoming hurricanes and five reaching intense strength.
NOAA's forecast calls for a range of 13 to 17 storms, seven to 10 hurricanes and three to five intense hurricanes. London-based Tropical Storm Risk predicts 14.7 storms, 7.9 hurricanes and 3.5 intense hurricanes.
Private forecaster WSI Corp. on Tuesday lowered its forecast to 14 storms from 15 and to six hurricanes from eight.
Others may do likewise because sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic have cooled 1-2 degrees Fahrenheit after running well above normal for the last few years.
"We're near average for sea surface temperatures," said Jeff Masters of online weather company Weather Underground. He says heavy Saharan dust has kept sunlight from heating the ocean, depriving potential storms of fuel.
Gray's CSU team is scheduled to update its forecast on August 3. NOAA's mid-season update will be released on August 9.
Researchers say the El Nino warm water phenomenon in the eastern Pacific, which strengthened unexpectedly and dampened Atlantic hurricane activity last year, is neutral and should have little or no impact this year.
Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
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$100 Laptop's energy saving innovations. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Factfile: XO laptop
The One Laptop Per Child project is one step closer to releasing the completed machine to millions of schoolchildren in the developing world. But what makes the computer so unique?
INTERNAL HARDWARE
$100 Laptop's energy saving innovations
To ensure the laptop is robust and can be maintained as easily as possible it omits all moving parts. It has no hard drive, CD or DVD drive. As it also packs a low power processor it has no cooling fans.
Storage : Instead of a large hard drive the laptop has 1GB of flash memory, similar to that used in some digital cameras.
The memory can be expanded using an SD memory card slot underneath the screen or by plugging in peripheral devices through the USB ports.
Files can also be backed up on to a "school server" - a larger computer installed in a classroom - or via an online system provided by search giant Google.
HARDWARE OVERVIEW
Processor: AMD 433 MHz
Memory: 256MB SDRAM
Storage: 1GB Flash
Processor : The chip, made by AMD, is much slower than most in today's PCs, operating at a speed of just 433Mhz. In comparison , some of today's high performance machines have multiple chips with speeds of up to 3GHz.
The off-the-shelf processor is designed to be energy efficient. Unlike a standard chip, which remains active even when nothing changes on screen, the AMD processor is able to shut itself down, only waking when it is needed. It has an inbuilt graphics card.
Wi-fi: To conserve as much battery power as possible the wi-fi adapter can operate even when the main processor is switched off or asleep. It is able to do this by having its own in-built low power chip. The adapter supports standard wireless protocols used in most homes and offices.
SOFTWARE
The laptop has a bespoke Linux operating system (OS) developed by leading open source software company Red Hat.
In contrast to sometimes costly proprietary software, open source software is free and allows users to access and alter the code. OLPC hopes some children will tinker with the code to develop new programs.
In comparison to standard operating systems (OS), it is very small when compressed, taking up just 130MB of space. By comparison, Windows XP takes up around ten times that amount, requiring 1.5GB of hard drive space.
Its user interface is known as Sugar. At the centre of the screen is a customised icon surrounded by a white circle known as the "doughnut". As different programs are opened icons appear in the doughnut.
Different programs take up different amounts of space on the ring depending on their size and system requirements. Because of the machine's limited memory, when the doughnut is full, no more programs can be opened.
It includes standard programs such as a web browser based on Firefox; a word processor able to handle most common document types, including Microsoft formats; a PDF reader and media player. In addition, it comes with games, a music creation tool and drawing programs.
WI-FI
One of the most recognisable features of the laptop is the dual wi-fi antennas, known affectionately as "rabbit ears". These boost the range of the wireless connection by between two-and three-times the normal range.
A test done in the outback of Australia under ideal conditions showed that two laptops could communicate more than 2km (1.2 miles) apart. In reality, the range will be much shorter than this.
Using standard wireless protocols, the laptops are automatically able to form a "mesh network" where each machine acts as both laptop and router, able to pass information between computers.
If one laptop is switched on in range of an internet connection (usually at a local school) all other laptops on the network can share the access.
Those computers furthest from the connection will have the lowest internet speeds. If there is no internet access, the laptops can still share data, video and information through the mesh.
It does not have an Ethernet port for use with wired internet connections .
SCREEN
The laptop has a low power dual-mode display, allowing children to toggle between colour and black-and-white screens.
Designed for use in outdoor classrooms, the full-colour transmissive mode is similar to any other Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), but in ultra low-power black-and-white mode the screen is readable in direct sunlight.
Many companies are interested in using the technology in standard laptop displays.
SCREEN OVERVIEW
19cm (7.5 inches) LCD display
Colour mode: Resolution 800x600 (133dpi); power consumption 1 watt
Black and white mode: Resolution 1200x900 (200dpi); power consumption 0.2 watt; sunlight readable
The screen can also swivel around to convert the laptop into an e-book or a games console.
It is also easily maintained. For example, a faulty backlight - a common complaint on aging laptops - can be replaced by undoing two screws.
POWER SUPPLY
A range of power supplies are available to countries buying the laptop. Two choices of rechargeable battery are offered with different chemistries. Both cost $10 (£5) to replace and hold their charge for at least four-times the amount of time as a normal laptop battery, according to OLPC.
For areas with an electricity supply, the computer can be used with an 18W power adapter.
In areas without access to the grid, various contraptions have been designed to plug directly into the laptop including a solar panel, a hand crank (similar to those used on wind-up radios), a foot pedal and a pull-string recharger, similar to a starter chord on a lawnmower.
The pull-string gives 10 minutes of charge for every minute of pulling. Group recharging stations can also be bought for schools where multiple batteries can be hooked up to solar panels or car batteries.
KEYBOARD
The sealed green rubber keyboard is waterproof and its size is designed for a child's hands. As well as being offered in a standard QWERTY layout it has various configurations for different languages such as Thai, Arabic, Spanish, and Urdu.
In addition, the keyboard does away with low-use keys such as Caps Lock. In their place are new buttons such as the "geek key" or "view source", which allows children to quickly see the underlying code used to write the program running on screen.
A "grab" key allows children to pan and scroll around the screen while a slider key on the top left-hand-side of the keyboard allows users to quickly see who else is part of the mesh network, who they are working with on collaborative projects and which of their friends are online.
Keys either side of the screen below the inbuilt speakers are used for gaming and reading e-books. A touchpad allows children to control the cursor and can be used as a drawing tablet using a stylus or the back of a pen.
PLASTIC CASE
The hard-wearing green and white plastic case is designed to be as waterproof and dustproof as possible for children walking to and from school.
When it is closed the wi-fi antennas lock the laptop and cover the only external openings, the data ports.
The laptop has been dropped from 1.6m (5ft), with the antennas up, with no breakages. According to OLPC, the laptop keyboard has also been dunked in water for 10 minutes with no effect.
The entire package is approximately half the weight and size of a standard laptop. Holes either side of the carry handle allow children to tie a scarf or string to the laptop so it can be carried over the shoulder.
It also features a coloured XO on the back cover. There are 400 different colour combinations so that children can easily distinguish their laptop.
In the future, the plastic case may be swapped for durable rubber.
VIDEO CAMERA
Situated on the right hand side of the screen, the still and motion capture camera allows video chat across the mesh network and the internet.
With a resolution of 640x480, the colour camera can also be used to take photographs or as a light meter for school projects.
DATA PORTS
Three USB ports will make it possible to connect a variety of peripherals including a mouse or larger keyboard. A microphone input and a line output will allow children to play music through external speakers and record sounds.
All of the ports are covered by the wi-fi antennas when the laptop is closed, preventing water and dust getting inside.
An SD memory card slot, underneath the screen can be used to expand the memory capacity or to load new software.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/6679431.stm
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Serious planning for a U.S. withdrawal of troops. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Clinton Demands Pentagon Plan for Withdrawal,Pentagon Rebukes Clinton Request; 'Outrageous' She Says,Another contentious issue is emerging in the Iraq battle between the White House and Congress as Senators from both parties are beginning to openly question whether the Pentagon has undertaken sufficiently serious planning for a U.S. withdrawal of troops, whenever that is to happen.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has since May requested a briefing from Pentagon officials as to whether they have undertaken any serious planning for a future withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
On Thursday she received a response from the Pentagon that she told ABC News was "outrageous and offensive."
The letter from Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman did not mince words: "Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies," he wrote.
"I deeply resent the administration's continuing effort to impugn the patriotism of those of us who are asking hard questions," Clinton told ABC News.
Clinton said she heard from a former Pentagon official "that there was intense pressure from the Vice President's office and other places that the kind of detailed planning that's necessary to take our troops out safely was just not a priority."
The letter from Edelman, she said, gave the impression "that it's none of my business as to whether or not the Pentagon is doing what needs to be done to secure the safety of our troops."
A spokeswoman for the Vice President said in response to Clinton's charge that "we want to see an Iraq that can sustain, government and defend itself. This is in our national security interest."
Clinton was not the only official expressing concern. At a hearing Thursday, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the Bush administration to prepare for an exit from Iraq, saying that Pentagon officials and others in the government "are not prepared for these contingencies, they may be executed poorly, especially in an atmosphere in which public demands for troop withdrawals could compel action on a political timetable."
Lugar and the former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. John Warner, R-Va, seem to share Clinton's concern, having introduced legislation that would require the president to plan for a withdrawal of U.S. troops and report on those plans to Congress by October.
Clinton said the briefing she requested can be closed-door and classified.
"There are so many questions about how we would withdraw troops," she said. "The only way out -- unless we were able to go North into Turkey, which we were not able to do when the preemptive invasion began -- means we would have to go through some very dangerous territory along roads."
Clinton said she worries "that we will compound the danger to our troops if we don't plan carefully. And there's no reason to have any confidence in the planning of this administration. They have consistently demonstrated a level of incompetence that I find deeply troubling."
Asked in May about plans for troop withdrawal, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace said, "We have published no orders directing the planning for the overall withdrawal of forces. We do have ongoing replacements of forces, and we do change the size of the force over time so that that system is available to either plus-up or draw down, but we have published no orders saying come up with a complete plan for total drawdown."
ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf and Jon Garcia contributed to this report.
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Canada: Sesame seeds recalled for possible Salmonella contamination. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Canada: Sesame seeds recalled for possible Salmonella contamination, The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Johnvince Foods Friday July 13 jointly issued an advisory to warn consumers not to eat certain Quick Kook White Sesame Seeds due to possible contamination of Salmonella.
The sesame seeds were sold from various retails stores in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia in bags of 8 kg. The PUC codes on the packages are 0 58877 16585 8 and lot codes are 71131, 71141 and 71481.
The affected sesame seed product has been sold in bulk in the following locations on or after June 1, 2007:
1. Johnvince Foods, 555 Steeprock Drive , Downsview in Ontario
2. Various banners under Loblaws Inc. in Ontario, except No Frills and Cash & Carry
3. Various banners under Great Atlantic & Pacific Company of Canada Ltd. in Ontario, except Loeb
4. Sobeys Canada Inc in Ontario, only Sobey’s banner
5. Foodland, 6 Arthur Street, Elmira, Ontario
6. Various independent stores in Nova Scotia , Ontario and Quebec
Consumers who have purchased sesame seeds during the period noted above and are not sure if the product is on the list of products being recalled should contact the store from which they purchased the product to determine whether it is affected by the recall.
So far, according to the advisory, no Salmonella illnesses have been reportedly associated with the consumption of the sesame seed product.
Food tainted with Salmonella does not look or smell spoiled. The illness can result in symptoms including diarrhea, headache, vomiting, nausea, stomach cramps and fever. Young children, the elderly and those whose immune systems are compromised are at higher risk of serious illness or even death.
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Keep Food Poisoning Off Summer Menu. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Keep Food Poisoning Off Summer Menu, Don't Forget Food Safety At Festivals And Family Reunions,,Most people recover from salmonella infection within a week. But some cases may be severe and even life-threatening. Food poisoning sent at least 10 people to the hospital and sickened more than 100 others at this year's Taste of Chicago food festival.
All of those people ate at the Pars Cove Persian Cuisine booth at the Taste of Chicago festival, which was held in Chicago from June 29 to July 2. At least nine festival-goers who ate at that booth were infected with salmonella, which are bacteria that typically cause fever, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea, which may be bloody.
Most people recover from salmonella infection within a week. But some cases may be severe and even life-threatening. Babies, the elderly, and people with weak immune systems are more likely to experience severe illness from salmonella infection.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that tahini — a sesame seed paste used to make hummus — may be linked to the salmonella outbreak. The restaurant's owners say their facility is clean and that they practice food safety.
However, food poisoning doesn't just happen at restaurants. Home cooking can also harbor health hazards — even at family reunions, as a new CDC report points out.
Talk about a family reunion gone wrong — so wrong that it's featured in this week's edition of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The family reunion, held last October in West Virginia, included 53 relatives from Florida, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. More than half of the attendees came down with diarrhea or vomiting, and six of them sought medical care for their symptoms. Four other people who weren't at the reunion but live with reunion attendees also got sick.
A norovirus outbreak linked to the family reunion caused the illnesses. Noroviruses are America's leading cause of upset stomachs, according to the CDC.
After interviewing 48 reunion attendees, health officials zeroed in on three menu items that appeared to be related to the outbreak. Those three foods were chicken, scalloped potatoes, and a chocolate cheese ball.
The CDC, which hasn't named the family in question, doesn't mention whether those foods were all made by the same person, whether the foods weren't stored safely, or whether people were passing food around without having washed their hands first.
Even if you're not going to a food festival or family reunion this summer, it never hurts to brush up on your food safety know-how.
Basically, it boils down to four steps:
Clean your hands, cooking surfaces, countertops, and utensils in hot, soapy water before and after preparing each food item. Rinse produce in running water.
Separate raw meat from cooked foods. Clean plates, utensils, and cutting boards that have touched raw meat.
Cook foods thoroughly. Use a (clean!) cooking thermometer to make sure meat and poultry is done.
Refrigerate meat or poultry as it defrosts; don't let it thaw on the countertop. Store foods promptly; don't let them linger on the table.
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Media mogul Black guilty of fraud. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Media mogul Black guilty of fraud, Former media mogul Conrad Black was convicted Friday of swindling the far-flung Hollinger International newspaper empire he once ran out of millions of dollars, becoming the latest in a wave of disgraced corporate executives to face prison time for financial fraud.
Black, 62, who once renounced his Canadian citizenship to become a member of the British House of Lords, was found guilty by a federal jury of three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice for spiriting documents out of his Toronto office in defiance of a court order.
Black was acquitted of nine other counts ranging from tax fraud to the most serious charge — racketeering. He was also acquitted of fleecing Hollinger shareholders through such perks as taking the corporate jet on a two-week vacation to the island of Bora Bora.
The three-month trial drew international media attention, heightened by the silver-haired British lord's posh lifestyle and sometimes haughty comments. When shareholders grumbled about the cost of the Bora Bora trip, he wrote a memo saying: "I'm not prepared to re-enact the French revolutionary renunciation of the rights of the nobility."
Three other former Hollinger executives, John Boultbee, 65, of Victoria, British Columbia, Peter Y. Atkinson, 60, of Oakville, Ontario, and Mark Kipnis, 59, of Northbrook, Ill., were also convicted of fraud charges.
Prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve to have Black jailed immediately, saying he could face approximately 15 years to nearly 20 years in federal prison for the conviction. But defense attorneys said the actual sentence was likely to be much less.
In contrast to the $84 million in fraud prosecutors blamed on Black when he was indicted two years ago, the jurors found him guilty of a fraction of that — defense attorneys put the amount at $3.5 million.
Still, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said the government was "gratified" by the verdict.
"We think the verdict vindicates the serious public interest in making sure that when insiders in a corporation deal with money entrusted to them by the shareholders, that they not engage in self-dealing, that they not break the law to benefit themselves instead of the shareholders," Fitzgerald said.
St. Eve set a Nov. 30 sentencing date, confiscated Black's passport and ordered him to remain in the Chicago area while she considers the government's request that she revoke his $21 million bond, partly secured by a seaside estate in Palm Beach, Fla. A hearing on the bond issue is scheduled for Thursday.
Black defense attorney Edward M. Genson argued that Black had "wanted his day in court and now wants his day on appeal" and would not run away.
"He has had his day in court," countered prosecutor Eric H. Sussman, "and now the question is whether he will have his day of sentencing."
Black was stony faced as he handed over the passport. When St. Eve asked if he would appear for sentencing, he said: "Absolutely."
Black avoided reporters' questions as he left the courthouse Friday afternoon. Edward Greenspan, Black's Canadian defense attorney, promised an appeal on "viable legal issues."
"We came here to face 13 counts and an indictment. Conrad Black was acquitted of all the central charges. They have been dismissed," Greenspan said, reading from a statement and refusing to answer questions.
"We vehemently disagree with the government's position on sentencing," he said, but did not offer what he believes is a proper sentencing range.
Hollinger International, based in Chicago, was at one time one of the world's largest publisher of community newspapers as well as the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Telegraph of London and Israel's Jerusalem Post.
At the core of the charges against Black was a strategy he arrived at starting in 1998 to sell off the bulk of the small community papers, which were published in smaller cities across the United States and Canada.
Black and other Hollinger executives received millions of dollars in payments from the companies that bought the community papers in return for promises that they would not return to compete with the new owners.
Prosecutors said the executives pocketed the money, which they said belonged to shareholders, without telling Hollinger's board of directors.
In the end, jurors convicted Black in connection with two sets of noncompete payments.
One involved $2.6 million in such payments he received in exchange for a noncompete pledge made to the American Publishing Co. The company was a Hollinger subsidiary and thus Black and executives who also got such payments were effectively getting money not to compete with themselves.
The other were "supplemental payments" made in April 2001 after Hollinger executives realized there had been no non-competition money in sales of community newspapers to Horizon Publications Inc. in March 1999 and to Forum Communications Inc. in September 2000.
Realizing that no such non-competition money for them had been included in the deals, the executives ordered up "supplemental payments." Black's share of that money came to $285,000.
The American Publishing money and supplemental payments were covered in three counts of the indictment. The fourth count Black was convicted of involved the removal of documents from his Toronto offices after a court had ordered them frozen unless otherwise permitted by a court monitor.
The government's star witness at the trial was F. David Radler, Black's partner in building the Hollinger empire over three decades. He pleaded guilty to mail fraud and agreed to testify in exchange for a lenient 29-month sentence and a $250,000 fine.
Black had said that he was busy with newspaper interests in Britain and eastern Canada and left most of the sales of community newspapers and noncompete arrangements to Radler. But Radler said that Black was well aware of how and why the money was being paid.
___
Associated Press Writers Don Babwin, Carla K. Johnson, Dave Carpenter and Dan Strumpf in Chicago contributed to this report.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve to have Black jailed immediately, saying he could face approximately 15 years to nearly 20 years in federal prison for the conviction. But defense attorneys said the actual sentence was likely to be much less.
In contrast to the $84 million in fraud prosecutors blamed on Black when he was indicted two years ago, the jurors found him guilty of a fraction of that — defense attorneys put the amount at $3.5 million.
Still, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said the government was "gratified" by the verdict.
"We think the verdict vindicates the serious public interest in making sure that when insiders in a corporation deal with money entrusted to them by the shareholders, that they not engage in self-dealing, that they not break the law to benefit themselves instead of the shareholders," Fitzgerald said.
St. Eve set a Nov. 30 sentencing date, confiscated Black's passport and ordered him to remain in the Chicago area while she considers the government's request that she revoke his $21 million bond, partly secured by a seaside estate in Palm Beach, Fla. A hearing on the bond issue is scheduled for Thursday.
Black defense attorney Edward M. Genson argued that Black had "wanted his day in court and now wants his day on appeal" and would not run away.
"He has had his day in court," countered prosecutor Eric H. Sussman, "and now the question is whether he will have his day of sentencing."
Black was stony faced as he handed over the passport. When St. Eve asked if he would appear for sentencing, he said: "Absolutely."
Black avoided reporters' questions as he left the courthouse Friday afternoon. Edward Greenspan, Black's Canadian defense attorney, promised an appeal on "viable legal issues."
"We came here to face 13 counts and an indictment. Conrad Black was acquitted of all the central charges. They have been dismissed," Greenspan said, reading from a statement and refusing to answer questions.
"We vehemently disagree with the government's position on sentencing," he said, but did not offer what he believes is a proper sentencing range.
Hollinger International, based in Chicago, was at one time one of the world's largest publisher of community newspapers as well as the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Telegraph of London and Israel's Jerusalem Post.
At the core of the charges against Black was a strategy he arrived at starting in 1998 to sell off the bulk of the small community papers, which were published in smaller cities across the United States and Canada.
Black and other Hollinger executives received millions of dollars in payments from the companies that bought the community papers in return for promises that they would not return to compete with the new owners.
Prosecutors said the executives pocketed the money, which they said belonged to shareholders, without telling Hollinger's board of directors.
In the end, jurors convicted Black in connection with two sets of noncompete payments.
One involved $2.6 million in such payments he received in exchange for a noncompete pledge made to the American Publishing Co. The company was a Hollinger subsidiary and thus Black and executives who also got such payments were effectively getting money not to compete with themselves.
The other were "supplemental payments" made in April 2001 after Hollinger executives realized there had been no non-competition money in sales of community newspapers to Horizon Publications Inc. in March 1999 and to Forum Communications Inc. in September 2000.
Realizing that no such non-competition money for them had been included in the deals, the executives ordered up "supplemental payments." Black's share of that money came to $285,000.
The American Publishing money and supplemental payments were covered in three counts of the indictment. The fourth count Black was convicted of involved the removal of documents from his Toronto offices after a court had ordered them frozen unless otherwise permitted by a court monitor.
The government's star witness at the trial was F. David Radler, Black's partner in building the Hollinger empire over three decades. He pleaded guilty to mail fraud and agreed to testify in exchange for a lenient 29-month sentence and a $250,000 fine.
Black had said that he was busy with newspaper interests in Britain and eastern Canada and left most of the sales of community newspapers and noncompete arrangements to Radler. But Radler said that Black was well aware of how and why the money was being paid.
___
Associated Press Writers Don Babwin, Carla K. Johnson, Dave Carpenter and Dan Strumpf in Chicago contributed to this report.
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Chinese food 'made from cardboard'. YAK . - Posted By: NaBeeel
Chinese food 'made from cardboard', Chopped cardboard, softened with an industrial chemical and flavored with fatty pork and powdered seasoning, is a main ingredient in batches of steamed buns sold in one Beijing neighborhood, state television said.
Steamed buns sold in Beijing contain 60 percent cardboard, a report on China Central Television said.
The report, aired late Wednesday on China Central Television, highlights the country's problems with food safety despite government efforts to improve the situation.
Countless small, often illegally run operations exist across China and make money cutting corners by using inexpensive ingredients or unsavory substitutes. They are almost impossible to regulate.
State TV's undercover investigation features the shirtless, shorts-clad maker of the buns, called baozi, explaining the contents of the product sold in Beijing's sprawling Chaoyang district.
Baozi are a common snack in China, with an outer skin made from wheat or rice flour and a filling of sliced pork. Cooked by steaming in immense bamboo baskets, they are similar to but usually much bigger than the dumplings found on dim sum menus familiar to many Americans.
The hidden camera follows the man, whose face is not shown, into a ramshackle building where steamers are filled with the fluffy white buns, traditionally stuffed with minced pork.
The surroundings are filthy, with water puddles and piles of old furniture and cardboard on the ground.
"What's in the recipe?" the reporter asks. "Six to four," the man says.
"You mean 60 percent cardboard? What is the other 40 percent?" asks the reporter. "Fatty meat," the man replies.
The bun maker and his assistants then give a demonstration on how the product is made.
Squares of cardboard picked from the ground are first soaked to a pulp in a plastic basin of caustic soda -- a chemical base commonly used in manufacturing paper and soap -- then chopped into tiny morsels with a cleaver. Fatty pork and powdered seasoning are stirred in.
Soon, steaming servings of the buns appear on the screen. The reporter takes a bite.
"This baozi filling is kind of tough. Not much taste," he says. "Can other people taste the difference?"
"Most people can't. It fools the average person," the maker says. "I don't eat them myself."
The police eventually showed up and shut down the operation.
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US House votes for troop pullout. - Posted By: NaBeeel
US House votes for troop pullout, Some Republicans have broken ranks with the President on Iraq
The United States House of Representatives has voted in favour of pulling most combat troops out of Iraq by April next year.
The new legislation calls for the Pentagon to begin withdrawing combat troops within four months.
The vote comes despite President George W Bush's threat to veto any timetable.
Both the House and the Senate must pass separate legislation and then reconcile their two versions for a measure to be passed to the president.
Correspondents say the House of Representatives, controlled by the Democrats, is hoping to pressure the Senate to approve a similar timeline.
It is the third time this year the House has voted in favour of legislation to end US military involvement in Iraq.
One previous legislative push was vetoed by Mr Bush, while a second failed when the Senate voted twice against imposing a withdrawal timetable.
The latest attempt would allow some US forces to stay in Iraq to train the Iraqi army and carry out counter-terrorism operations.
"It is time for the president to listen to the American people and do what is necessary to protect this nation," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat.
"That means admitting his Iraq policy has failed, working with the Democrats and Republicans in Congress on crafting a new way forward in Iraq and refocusing our collective efforts on defeating al-Qaeda."
Earlier, President Bush presented an interim report on Iraq which said there had been only limited military and political progress following his decision to send troop reinforcements earlier this year.
The security situation remains "complex and extremely challenging", the report said.
It added that the economic picture was "uneven" and political reconciliation lagging.
Mixed results
The report said the Iraqi parliament had failed to debate crucial legislation for the country's oil industry.
It also warned of "tough fighting" during the summer, saying al-Qaeda was likely to "increase its tempo of attacks".
"The report makes clear that not even the White House can conclude there has been significant progress," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat. "We have already waited too long."
But Mr Bush rejected calls for a withdrawal of US forces, saying it would be disastrous.
He said troops would only be withdrawn when conditions were right, "not because pollsters say it'll be good politics".
The Iraqi ambassador to Washington, Samir Sumaidaie, told the BBC that the US had set an unrealistic timescale to solve Iraq's problems.
"The Iraqi government is working under extremely difficult conditions, not all of which were created by them. To say that we have failed and we are doomed to fail is defeatist," he said.
The BBC's James Coomarasamy in Washington says the most eagerly awaited reaction is yet to come - that of wavering Republicans who could determine whether or not Congress will try to force the president's hand.
Three Republicans in the Senate have broken ranks with the president and called for a phased troop withdrawal.
Several others have signed on as supporters of a bipartisan bill to implement a series of changes recommended last December by the Iraqi Study Group.
The Democrats will need support from the Republicans if they are to push the legislation through in a final Senate vote expected next week.
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FIVE RULES FOR MEN TO FOLLOW TO A HAPPY LIFE: - Posted By: NaBeeel
FIVE RULES FOR MEN TO FOLLOW TO A HAPPY LIFE:
1. It's important to have a woman, who helps at home, who cooks from time to time, cleans up
and has a job.
2. It's important to have a woman, who can make you laugh.
3. It's important to have a woman, who you can trust and who doesn't lie to you.
4. It's important to have a woman, who is good in bed and who likes to be with you.
5. It's very, very, very important that to have only one OR these four women
do not know each other.
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Toronto gets serious about air quality. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Toronto gets serious about air quality, Residents in Toronto, Canada will soon have a new way of testing the air quality in their city. The Air Quality Health Index (AQHI), which was unveiled this week will test and rate the current air quality for pollution using a rating system of 1 to 10+ which will forecast the air-related health risk for the coming day.
The AQHI is aimed at those who are most vulnerable to air pollution, children, the elderly and people with heart or breathing problems such as asthma.
The AQHI will in effect give those people the opportunity to modify their activities should pollution levels reach a point were they would be affected.
The AQHI works on a risk scale and is the result of a partnership between the City of Toronto, and provincial and federal government.
It has already been successfully tested in Halifax and Vancouver and the 18-month Toronto pilot is the first in Ontario.
Environment Canada advises those with a moderate risk to reduce outdoor physical exertion or reschedule activities to times when the index is lower than moderate; this would not apply to the general population.
Should the rating reach the top 10+, the advice then suggests that children, the elderly, and people with heart or breathing problems avoid physical exertion outdoors and the general population is advised to reduce or reschedule strenuous outdoor activities.
The AQHI will enable individuals to assess their own health risk based on symptoms they experience, even if they have no known health problems; when they realise which AQHI rating triggers their symptoms they can use it to forecast and plan outdoor activities.
The new index is different from the current Air Quality Index in that it offers separate recommendations for healthy people and those with breathing problems; it is reached by combining readings of ozone at ground level, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter.
The original system looks for six common pollutants and rates them on a scale and the pollutant with the highest level becomes the AQI reading.
Dr. David McKeown, Toronto's medical officer of health, has endorsed the index saying thousands of hospital admissions and an estimated 1,600 premature deaths each year are due to air quality issues.
Dr. McKeown says the AQHI will offer timely and accurate information on air pollution health risks and how to minimize them and will be particularly useful to vulnerable individuals, such as seniors and those with asthma.
It is also hoped the AQHI will encourage people to reduce emissions on days when air quality is poor and lead to a better understanding of the impacts of air pollution.
Toronto is Canada's largest city and the sixth largest government and has a diverse population of around 2.6 million people.
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Organic food 'better' for heart. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Organic food 'better' for heart, Organic fruit and vegetables may be better for you than conventionally grown crops, US research suggests. A ten-year study comparing organic tomatoes with standard produce found almost double the level of flavonoids - a type of antioxidant.
Flavonoids have been shown to reduce high blood pressure, lowering the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Writing in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, the team said nitrogen in the soil may be the key.
Dr Alyson Mitchell, a food chemist at the University of California, and colleagues measured the amount of two flavonoids - quercetin and kaempferol - in dried tomato samples that had been collected as part of a long-term study on agricultural methods.
These findings also confirm recent European research, which showed that organic tomatoes, peaches and processed apples all have higher nutritional quality than non-organic
Peter Melchett, Soil Association
They found that on average they were 79% and 97% higher respectively in the organic tomatoes than in the conventionally grown fruit.
New Scientist magazine reported that the different levels of flavonoids in tomatoes are probably due to the absence of fertilisers in organic farming.
Flavonoids are produced as a defence mechanism that can be triggered by nutrient deficiency, such as a lack of nitrogen in the soil.
The inorganic nitrogen in conventional fertiliser is easily available to plants and so, the researchers suggests, the lower levels of flavonoids are probably caused by over-fertilisation.
Conflicting evidence
Flavonoids have also been linked with reduced rates of some types of cancer and dementia.
The Food Standards Agency says there is some evidence that flavonoids can help to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and they are currently carrying out a study to look at the health benefits in more detail.
However, a spokesperson said there was no evidence that organic food was healthier.
"Our long-standing advice on organic food is there can be some nutrient differences but it doesn't mean it's necessarily better for you."
For example, a recent study found that organic milk had higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, but the FSA points out that these short-chain fatty acids do not seem to have the health promoting benefits offered by long-chain omega-3 oils found in oily fish.
Peter Melchett, Soil Association policy director said: "We welcome the now rapidly growing body of evidence which shows significant differences between the nutritional composition of organic and non-organic food.
"This is the second recent American study to find significant differences between organic and non-organic fruit.
"These findings also confirm recent European research, which showed that organic tomatoes, peaches and processed apples all have higher nutritional quality than non-organic."
"As further scientific evidence emerges from new research looking at differences between organic and non-organic food, the Soil Association will be asking the FSA to keep their nutritional advice to consumers under review."
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The total bill for the war on terror for Iraq reaching $567 billion. - Posted By: NaBeeel
The boost in troop levels in Iraq has increased the cost of war there and in Afghanistan to $12 billion a month, and the total for Iraq alone is nearing a half-trillion dollars, congressional analysts say. All told, Congress has appropriated $610 billion in war-related money since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror assaults, roughly the same as the war in Vietnam. Iraq alone has cost $450 billion.
The figures come from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which provides research and analysis to lawmakers.
For the 2007 budget year, CRS says, the $166 billion appropriated to the Pentagon represents a 40 percent increase over 2006.
The Vietnam War, after accounting for inflation, cost taxpayers $650 billion, according to separate CRS estimates.
The $12 billion a month "burn rate" includes $10 billion for Iraq and almost $2 billion for Afghanistan, plus other minor costs. That's higher than Pentagon estimates earlier this year of $10 billion a month for both operations. Two years ago, the average monthly cost was about $8 billion.
Among the reasons for the higher costs is the cost of repairing and replacing equipment worn out in harsh conditions or destroyed in combat.
But the estimates call into question the Pentagon's estimate that the increase in troop strength and intensifying pace of operations in Baghdad and Anbar province would cost only $5.6 billion through the end of September.
If Congress approves President Bush's pending request for another $147 billion for the budget year starting Oct. 1, the total bill for the war on terror since Sept. 11 would reach more than three-fourths of a trillion dollars, with appropriations for Iraq reaching $567 billion.
Also, if the increase in war tempo continues beyond September, the Pentagon's request "would presumably be inadequate,.
The latest estimates come as support for the war in Iraq among Bush's GOP allies in Congress is beginning to erode. Senior Republicans such as Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Richard Lugar of Indiana have called for a shift in strategy in Iraq and a battle over funding the war will resume in September, when Democrats in Congress begin work on a funding bill for the war.
Congress approved $99 billion in war funding in May after a protracted battle and a Bush veto of an earlier measure over Democrats' attempt to set a timeline for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq.
The report faults the Pentagon for using the Iraq war as a pretext for boosting the Pentagon's non-war budget by costs such as procurement, increasing the size of the military and procurement of replacement aircraft as war-related items.
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Egyptian police seize explosives. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Egyptian police seize explosives
Police in Egypt say they have seized more than a tonne of explosives in the northern Sinai Peninsula, about 100km from the border with Gaza.
Police often seize explosives and weapons in the area, which is used by smugglers bringing weapons into Gaza.
Militants have been active in the area, carrying out a number of bombings.
Reuters news agency says a Bedouin reported finding a sack of explosives in al-Roda, 60km north of al-Arish. A search of the area turned up 28 sacks.
Tension in the area has been high recently.
In April, an Egyptian policeman was seriously wounded by Bedouin gunmen near the border with Israel.
The shooting came as hundreds of Bedouin from the Sinai peninsula gathered at the border.
They were asking for refuge in Israel saying the Egyptian authorities have mistreated their community.
Two Bedouin were killed a few days earlier after they failed to stop at a police checkpoint in central Sinai.
In June, the militant group Hamas took over Gaza by force. Egypt has been coming under heavy pressure from Israel to tighten up security along Gaza's border with Egypt.
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Small doses of dark chocolate lowers blood pressure. - Posted By: NaBeeel
What's good for you? Chocolate and wine, Small doses of dark chocolate lowers blood pressure: study,After years of being told to eat our greens and that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, some good news has finally arrived for gluttons.
European doctors have uncovered evidence that both wine and chocolate have unexpected health benefits.
An Italian study, published in the American Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, found that a regular glass of wine - either red or white - can help put off tooth decay and gum disease, and heal sore throats.
Italian scientists, tested bottles of supermarket Valpolicella and Pinot Nero wine, finding the drink has ingredients that can kill bacteria.
Professor Gabriella Gazzani said wine's antibacterial properties were well-known thousands of years ago.
"Although well-known by the ancient Romans, have been little investigated" in recent times, she told Britain's Daily Mail.
"Overall, our findings seem to indicate that wine can act as an effective anti-microbial agent against streptococci bacteria and upper respiratory tract infections," she said, warning however that no matter how tempting the possibility, wine shouldn't be used as an alternative to toothpaste.
"We should still drink wine because it tastes good, goes well with food and is a pleasure to share with company," she said. "And we should still brush and floss our teeth the accepted way."
Meanwhile there was good and bad news for chocoholics: Dark chocolate seems to lower blood pressure, but it requires barely a mouthful to do it, according to German researchers.
The latest study to look into chocolate's much heralded health benefits added to mounting evidence that cocoa-rich chocolate is good for you. But it found that only a tiny amount is enough.
Volunteers for the study, the results of which were published in yesterday's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, ate just over 6 grams of dark chocolate daily for almost five months - one square from a German chocolate bar called Ritter Sport - equal to about 1 1/2 Hershey's Kisses or perhaps a single square from a bar of Cadbury's Bournville.
People who ate the dark stuff ended up with lower blood pressure readings than those who ate white chocolate.
University of Cologne researcher Dr Dirk Taubert, the study's lead author, said the blood pressure reductions with dark chocolate were small but still substantial enough to potentially reduce cardiovascular disease risks, although study volunteers weren't followed long enough to measure that effect.
The research involved just 44 people aged 56 through 73, but the results echo other small studies of cocoa-containing foods.
The results are interesting but need to be duplicated in larger, more diverse populations, said Dr Laura Svetkey, of Duke University's Hypertension Center. She stressed that the study results should not be viewed as license to gorge on chocolate.
"I would be as happy as the next person if I got to eat more chocolate," she said, but cautioned that weight gain from eating large amounts of dark chocolate would counteract any benefits on blood pressure.
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Subpoena scuffle could play out in court. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Subpoena scuffle could play out in court, Dick Cheney, top left, told Justice Department officials in March 2004 he disagreed with their objections to secret surveillance. The White House dispatched then Chief of Staff Andrew Card, bottom left, and Alberto Gonzales, to get approval disclosed this and that eight Justice officials, including FBI Director Robert Mueller, top center, were ready to resign if the White House pursued the issue
Q&A EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE
It's not in the Constitution and there's no law on the books. But ever since George Washington refused to release his War Department correspondence, presidents have asserted their authority to keep Congress from probing into presidential affairs.
The skirmish is part of a long-standing power struggle between the executive and legislative branches, a fight that the courts have historically tried to avoid joining.
Despite more than a century of wrangling, the line between executive power and congressional oversight remains blurry.
Q: If executive privilege isn't a law, how can the president just refuse to comply with a congressional subpoena?
A: It's a principle rather than a law. It's rooted in the idea that the three branches of government must be independent. The president is basically telling Congress that, to do his job, he needs to be able to have private conversations with his advisers without having those conversations picked apart by Congress.
Q: Didn't the Supreme Court already settle this when it ordered President Nixon to surrender his Watergate tapes?
A: No. The 1974 decision in U.S. v. Nixon held the president could not withhold the tapes from federal prosecutors as part of a criminal investigation. The high court made it clear it wasn't wading into the thorny issue of whether presidents can refuse demands from Congress.
Q: What happens now?
A: As a practical matter, the two sides will likely keep negotiating until they reach a compromise. That's how it normally has worked, because neither side wants this to escalate into a court battle.
Q: But could it?
A: The Judiciary Committee and the full Senate could vote to cite witnesses for contempt and refer the matter to the local U.S. attorney to bring before a grand jury. Since 1975, 10 senior administration officials have been cited but the disputes were all resolved before getting to court. No president has mounted a court fight to keep his aides from testifying on Capitol Hill.
Q: If the line is so murky, why not fight this out and resolve it for good?
A: Nobody wants to lose. The White House knows that the judicial branch has not recently been kind to the presidency in fights over subpoenas, and the privilege they are asserting is not rooted in the Constitution. Lawmakers, meanwhile, risk seeing a judge permanently curtail their power to summon presidential aides to Capitol Hill. That would take away a lot of their power in political disputes.
Q: Is this just a partisan dispute, a Republican/Democrat thing?
A: Presidents of both parties have asserted the privilege. But political gamesmanship usually dictates how these disputes are resolved. Sometimes the president wins, such as when President Eisenhower kept officials from testifying at Sen. Joe McCarthy's hearings. Other times, Congress wins, such when Nixon reluctantly let aides testify about the Watergate break-in.
President Bush moved closer Thursday to a legal showdown with Congress over investigations of the White House.
For only the second time since he's been in office, Bush formally invoked executive privilege, blocking congressional subpoenas for two former top aides involved in the disputed dismissals of U.S. attorneys.
Now Congress must decide whether to take Bush to court or seek contempt citations against former White House counsel Harriet Miers and ex-political director Sara Taylor.
"We will take the necessary steps to enforce our subpoenas," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leahy described the executive privilege claim as "Nixonian stonewalling."
White House counsel Fred Fielding, echoing the arguments of previous presidents, said Congress does not have the right to compel information about internal administration deliberations.
"Presidents must be able to depend upon their advisers and other executive branch officials speaking candidly," Fielding said in a letter to Leahy and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
The White House is still offering Miers and Taylor for private interviews with Congress, provided it withdraw the subpoenas. Leahy and Conyers have called that option unacceptable, in part because the White House has forbidden transcripts of the interviews.
The House and Senate judiciary panels are investigating the White House's role in the dismissals. Leahy and Conyers say those firings were politically motivated. Fielding noted that U.S. attorneys serve at the discretion of presidents.
Bush's executive privilege claim came a day after Leahy's panel said it would subpoena White House documents on Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. White House officials did not say how Bush would respond, but it is likely executive privilege would be invoked again. White House spokesman Tony Fratto called the latest subpoenas a "gross overreach."
This turf war between the executive and legislative branches of government is as old as the presidency. In 1796, George Washington refused to give Congress documents about treaty negotiations with England.
The most famous executive privilege case involved President Nixon's unsuccessful efforts to shield White House tapes from Watergate investigators. The Supreme Court ruled that the needs of a criminal probe outweighed the president's privilege. Similar rulings were made against President Clinton during the investigation into his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.
Vice President Cheney beat back efforts by Congress to get him to disclose information about his energy task force, though he did not specifically invoke executive privilege in that instance.
In 2001, Bush invoked the claim for the first time to keep Congress from reviewing prosecutors' notes from past federal investigations. Bush and Congress eventually cut a deal for some of the information.
Mark Rozell, author of Executive Privilege: Presidential Power, Secrecy and Accountability, said Bush must prove "the necessity of presidential secrecy under these circumstances" if this dispute goes to the courts. Congress, he said, must show the information sought is "absolutely necessary."
White House press secretary Tony Snow said it's too early to discuss potential court action. "It's really up to Congress now," he said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Magical Arabian nights. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Magical Arabian nights,Food lovers in Penang can look forward to trying something new and exotic. Although not as popular locally as Japanese and Italian cuisine, this ‘newcomer’ from West Asia has much to offer with its extensive use of fresh herbs.
Middle Eastern cuisine will give Penangites a taste of Arabian magic and the ‘magicians’ behind it are Egyptian chefs Bassam Mohamed Bastawisi El-Gharbawi and his assistant Hassan Azizeidin.
They are introducing Arabian-themed buffet dinners at Tamarind Brasserie, Parkroyal Penang. “People think that Arabian cuisine is the same all over the region. But every country in the region has its own main dish that is made using dif- ferent ingredients and cooking methods,” says Bassam.
Diners can choose Feast of Middle East Cuisine (Mondays), Taste of the Arabian Nights (Wednesdays) and Premium Barbeque with Middle East and Mediterranean Cuisine (Fridays).
Chicken Pharsih is among the Arabian specialties.
Each buffet, available from 7pm to midnight, offers over 50 dishes, consisting of appetisers, soups, breads, hot dishes, show kitchen items and desserts.
If you like salads, you will not want to miss the Arabian cold salad, fattush, which is a healthy dish of chopped tomatoes, onions, lettuce, parsley, fresh herbs, lemon and toasted bread. Another delicious one is the tabouleh, made of chopped coriander leaves, parsley, tomatoes, spring onion, chives, ground wheat, ground black pepper, dill and herbs.
The Chicken Pharsih is a must-have. The boneless chicken is stuffed with rice, minced lamb, fresh herbs and yogurt, and then baked to perfection with mozzarella cheese on top.
Rice is a main ingredient in Arabian cuisine too. Bassam’s Lamb with Briyani Rice is becoming a favourite. The lamb is roasted and the rice is cooked with vegetables like eggplants, tomatoes, zucchini, onions, capsicums, potatoes and fresh herbs.
Other dishes to try would be the Meatballs with Tomato Sauce, Chicken with Cous-cous, the Middle Eastern mixed grilled items and the Baklava, a dessert made from a mixture of raisins, almonds and nuts.
Middle Eastern food is healthy as herbs and vegetables are widely used. Bassam says that he does not use butter or palm oil - only corn oil and olive oil.
After this Arabian dining experience, you will have something in common with the late King Hussein of Jordan, former French president Jacques Chirac and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who have all tasted Bassam’s food.
Parkroyal Penang marketing communications manager Karen Chee explains that the hotel is the first in Batu Ferringhi to introduce authentic Middle Eastern cuisine.
The Middle Eastern food promotion is on until Aug 31.
Tamarind Brasserie opens daily. For reservations, call 04-8811133.
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Touch me, call me, I am the iPhone. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Touch me, call me, I am the iPhone, Stephen Hutcheon examines the hype surrounding what many regard as the biggest thing since Alexander Graham Bell invented the phone.
It has been dubbed iPerbole and it describes the fascination bordering on pathological obsession with Apple's iPhone that has gripped the United States since the device was dangled in front of the world in January.
"People are going to sell their kids to get this thing," predicts Leander Kahney, the managing editor of high-brow tech magazine Wired. "They are going to go mental for it. You'll be stopped in the street and people will ask to look at it. And you'll be lucky if you don't get mugged."
Kahney, who is also the author of two books about technology culture, is not the only one giving this type of enthusiastic assessment. Many technology pundits, industry analysts, stockbrokers and culture watchers are similarly convinced that this is shaping up to be a big one.
The JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg told the Associated Press this week that this is the "most anticipated phone since Alexander Graham Bell did his", referring to the Scottish-born inventor whose 1876 utterance - "Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you" - launched the age of telephony.
It's raps such as these from respected, impartial observers whose reputation is staked on their sagacity that is making many think that maybe iPhone mania is not all hot air.
Just how big is the buzz on the gadget? A Google search on "iPhone" returns about 80 million references, about the same as a search on Harry Potter. A "Paris Hilton" search gives you a choice of 77 million links to look through. As big as Harry, the franchise which has its climactic book and fifth movie released in July, and bigger than Paris, who emerged from jail this week. That's big.
And six months of pent-up anticipation comes to a head this morning, Australian time. Apple shops and AT&T outlets across the US are opening their doors and ushering in the long lines of Apple fans, early adopters and opportunists who have queued up outside - some since Monday morning. Thousands will walk out clutching a package containing either a $US499 model with four gigabytes of memory or a $US599 model with an eight-gigabyte storage capacity.
As they emerge - especially those from the larger Apple shops around the US - it'll be like hitting the red carpet at the Oscars. Scores of ordinary folk will find fleeting fame for no other reason than they bought a mobile phone. They will be mobbed by reporters, cameramen and photographers and asked: "How does it feel to own an iPhone?"
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Executive privilege. - Posted By: NaBeeel
White House Refuses Congressional Subpoenas, Hear Columbia University law professor Michael Doro,U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is under fire for the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. · The White House on Thursday rejected Congressional subpoenas for documents that could shed light on the administration's role in the firings of eight federal prosecutors, with attorneys for President Bush asserting executive privilege.
In a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, President Bush's attorney claimed executive privilege in denying Congress the documents from former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor.
The White House also made it clear that Miers and Taylor will not testify before Congress next month, as directed in the June 13 subpoenas.
In his letter, White House counsel Fred Fielding said President Bush had "attempted to chart a course of cooperation" by releasing more than 8,500 pages of documents and sending Gonzales and other senior officials to testify before Congress.
However, Fielding said Bush "was not willing to provide your committees with documents revealing internal White House communications or to accede to your desire for senior advisers to testify at public hearings."
The White House also offered a compromise in which Miers, Taylor, White House political strategist Karl Rove and their deputies would be interviewed by Judiciary Committee aides in closed-door sessions, without transcripts. But Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, rejected that offer.
"The reason for these distinctions rests upon a bedrock presidential prerogative: for the President to perform his constitutional duties, it is imperative that he receive candid and unfettered advice and that free and open discussions and deliberations occur among his advisers and between those advisers and others within and outside the Executive Branch," Fielding wrote.
"The doctrine of executive privilege exists, at least in part, to protect such communications from compelled disclosure to Congress, especially where, as here, the president's interests in maintaining confidentiality far outweigh Congress's interests in obtaining deliberative White House communications," he said.
Fielding also said Congress has not demonstrated why the documents are important to any legislative initiatives.
The stalemate could end up with House and Senate contempt citations and a battle in federal court over separation of powers.
It was the second time in his administration that the president has exerted executive privilege, said White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto. The first instance was in December 2001, when he rebuffed Congress' demands for Clinton administration documents in federal court over separation of powers.
Tensions between the administration and the Democratic-run Congress have been building for months as the House and Senate Judiciary panels probe the firings of eight federal prosecutors and the administration's program of warrantless eavesdropping. The investigations are part of the Democrats' efforts to hold the administration to account for the way it has conducted the war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Democrats say the firings of the prosecutors over the winter was an example of improper political influence. The White House says U.S. attorneys are political appointees who can be hired and fired for almost any reason.
Democrats, and even some key Republicans, have said that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should resign over the U.S. attorney dismissals, but he has steadfastly held his ground, and the president has backed him.
On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office, demanding documents pertaining to terrorism-era, warrant-free eavesdropping.
Separately, that panel is also summoning Gonzales to discuss the program and an array of other matters — including the prosecutor firings — that have cost a half-dozen top Justice Department officials their jobs.
Leahy, the committee's chairman, raised questions Wednesday about previous testimony by one of Bush's appeals court nominees and said he wouldn't let such matters pass.
"If there have been lies told to us, we'll refer it to the Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney for whatever legal action they think is appropriate," Leahy told reporters. He did just that Wednesday, referring questions about testimony by former White House aide Brett Kavanaugh, who now sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
President Richard Nixon smiles during a March 1973 White House news conference. He wasn't so happy, though, when the Supreme Court ruled against his claims of executive privilege and forced him to hand over audio tapes during the Watergate investigation. © Bettmann/CORBIS
President Dwight Eisenhower was the first president to coin the phrase "executive privilege," but not the first to invoke its principle: namely, that a president has the right to withhold certain information from Congress, the courts or anyone else — even when faced with a subpoena. Executive privilege, though, is a murky and mysterious concept. Here, an attempt to clarify the murk.
Does the Constitution allow for executive privilege?
Nowhere does the Constitution mention the term or the concept of executive privilege. The belief that it does, the late legal historian Raoul Berger once said, is one of the greatest "constitutional myths."
So how can a president simply withhold information if the Constitution doesn't give him the power to do so?
Presidents have argued that executive privilege is a principle implied in the constitutionally mandated separation of powers. In order to do their job, presidents contend, they need candid advice from their aides — and aides simply won't be willing to give such advice if they know they might be called to testify, under oath, before a congressional committee or in some other forum.
How long have presidents been invoking executive privilege?
For as long as there have been presidents. In 1792, George Washington rebuffed efforts by Congress and the courts to get information about a disastrous expedition against American Indian tribes along the Ohio River. Washington lost that battle, and he handed over all of the papers that Congress had requested. But that hasn't stopped many presidents over the years from invoking executive privilege.
Who usually wins these battles: the president or Congress?
It can go either way. President Eisenhower successfully kept officials from his administration from testifying at the Army's hearings on Sen. Joe McCarthy. (The hearings concerned allegations that McCarthy had pressured the Army to give preferential treatment to a former aide, and McCarthy's counter-charges.)
During the Watergate investigation, though, President Nixon failed in his attempts to withhold White House audio recordings from special prosecutor Leon Jaworski. Nixon handed over the tapes and, four days later, resigned. In his memoirs, Nixon wrote dejectedly, "I was the first president to test the principle of executive privilege in the Supreme Court, and by testing it on such a weak ground, I probably ensured the defeat of my cause."
Didn't the Nixon case settle the issue of executive privilege once and for all?
No. In fact, in its ruling on the Nixon tapes, the Supreme Court noted "the valid need for protection of communications between high government officials and those who advise and assist them in the performance of their manifold duties." In other words, while rejecting Nixon's particular claim of executive privilege, the court left the door open for future claims by future presidents. And there's a key distinction to keep in mind: The Nixon case was part of a criminal investigation; the current case involving the Bush administration is not.
Is executive privilege a partisan issue?
No. Presidents from both parties have invoked executive privilege. And neither side has a clear winning record. In 1998, President Clinton became the fist president since Nixon to invoke executive privilege and lose in the courts, when a federal judge ruled Clinton aides could be called to testify in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Do presidents invoke executive privilege mainly in matters of national security?
No, not at all. Presidents have cited the privilege for all sorts of issues. For instance, the Bush administration invoked the spirit, if the not letter, of executive privilege when it argued that Vice President Dick Cheney need not disclose what was discussed during his Taskforce on Energy meetings. The Supreme Court upheld the administration's claim in 2004. But Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, issued this warning: "Once executive privilege is asserted, coequal branches of the government are set on a collision course."
Could this current case — involving requests for documents from Bush administration officials — end up in the courts?
It's possible, but not likely, legal experts say. Neither side wants to get mired in a protracted legal battle, so the prospect of a negotiated solution is more likely. Since 1975, 10 senior administration officials have been called to testify before Congress, but the disputes were all resolved before getting to court. No president has mounted a court fight to keep his aides from testifying on Capitol Hill.
Why has executive privilege been such a contentious issue?
Because it is at the fulcrum of a very delicate balancing act — between a president's right to candid advice and Congress' right to information. Also, executive privilege is a power that political parties tend to support when they control the White House, but abhor when they're out of power. For that reason, neither party is eager for a definitive ruling from the Supreme Court. For its part, the high court seems to be in no hurry to wade into such contentious constitutional waters.
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Future of Robotic Technology. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Future of Robotic Technology
Brooks Forecasts Future of Robotic Technology
Artificial intelligence and robotics expert Rod Brooks forecasts major changes in the next 50 years. Much in the way that computers have revolutionized society, robots may take on an increasingly significant role in people's lives. As part of the Gerard Salton Lecture Series, Brooks delivered a talk yesterday entitled "Flesh and Machines: Robots and People" to discuss potential applications of intelligent robots.
Brooks, who directs the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT, asserted that we have more in common with robots, and machines in general, than we think.
"Mankind has had a long history of retreat from 'special-ness,'" Brooks said.
Centuries ago, humans discovered that Earth was not, in fact, the center of the universe. Later, humans and animals were found to have common ancestors. DNA as the fundamental mechanism of life means that humans and yeast are somewhat similar.
"Over time men have become less special and more like technology," Brooks said. "We only have 25,000 genes -- even potatoes have more than that!"
Brooks showed videos of several robots designed in his lab. In one scene, Brooks's colleague Cynthia "plays" with a robot she designed, Kismet.
"We see her moving that eraser, then the robot moving it. They're taking turns." At least, Brooks added, that's what the average observer would think. "But when we thought about it, she was doing all the work. She was giving the robot motion cues. That set us off on reading literature on child development."
Like Cynthia, mothers give their infants motion cues. They engage in activities with their children that the children cannot do by themselves, but can be trained to do with their caregiver's help.
"What the robot sees drives what it does," Brooks said.
Inside these robots exists a three-dimensional space; the robot's emotions are a point in that space. The robot uses its emotional state to generate how it reacts to certain objects, and can display emotion through facial expressions.
In another experiment suggestive of robots' similarity to children in their earliest stages of development, the lab called in various people to speak with the robot.
"When a mother interacts with her child, she generates messages through her voice: praise, attention, prohibition,and soothing are the four basic messages," Brooks said.
In the video, when one woman said, "Good job, Kismet! Look at my smile!" in an encouraging voice, the robot smiled proudly. When another said, "No, no, that's not appropriate" in a disparaging tone, Kismet lowered his head, his large ears drooping.
Although robots like Kismet don't actually understand the meanings of words, they are able to vocally replicate phonemes. As people teach various words to Kismet and Cog, another of CSAIL's robots, the robots can repeat them and identify them with their corresponding objects.
Brooks acknowledges that the development of intelligent robots is still in beginning stages, although significant progress has been made in areas like navigation. However, he said, "I think beyond navigation, robots have new possibilities which will be important."
As the world's demographics shift in the next half century, robots can be useful in fields such as manufacturing, agriculture and elderly assistance. Brooks imagines being able to roboticize large agriculture machines for the maintenance of individual plants. Such robots could do menial and time-consuming tasks like pruning and picking.
"Europe and the U.S. import low-cost labor now ... But that labor may not be there in 50 years," Brooks said.
Second, robot arms could be used for fixed automation, which is particularly useful in manufacturing. Such robots would require the dexterity of a six-year-old, said Brooks. Third, he hoped that robots could be developed to provide in-home care to the elderly, who will soon comprise a much larger demographic in places like North America, Europe, Korea and Japan.
The future, however, holds many challenges to realizing certain robotic applications. "Will we accept robots?" Brooks asked the audience.
It may be hard, he explained, for humans to come to grips with machines that may equal or surpass their own capabilities. Few people want to admit that their emotions can exist within a machine.
"I'm not saying current robots have real emotions, but if they did, it would be hard for people to accept ... and there would certainly be legislation against it!" Brooks said as the audience laughed.
"I liked the lecture very much," said Hugo Fierro grad. "I already took some courses on robots, but never thought about the philosophical aspect of it. I liked his predictions, although they're very futuristic."
"It was a lot of fun. I heard some very interesting and provocative ideas," said Prof. Graeme Bailey, computer science.
And as for the possibility of Brooks' vision becoming reality someday? "I hope so," Bailey said. "If one was to answer no to that, we have a somewhat dismal future for ourselves."
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Future of Robotic Technology. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Future of Robotic Technology, Brooks Forecasts Future of Robotic Technology
Artificial intelligence and robotics expert Rod Brooks forecasts major changes in the next 50 years. Much in the way that computers have revolutionized society, robots may take on an increasingly significant role in people's lives. As part of the Gerard Salton Lecture Series, Brooks delivered a talk yesterday entitled "Flesh and Machines: Robots and People" to discuss potential applications of intelligent robots.
Brooks, who directs the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT, asserted that we have more in common with robots, and machines in general, than we think.
"Mankind has had a long history of retreat from 'special-ness,'" Brooks said.
Centuries ago, humans discovered that Earth was not, in fact, the center of the universe. Later, humans and animals were found to have common ancestors. DNA as the fundamental mechanism of life means that humans and yeast are somewhat similar.
"Over time men have become less special and more like technology," Brooks said. "We only have 25,000 genes -- even potatoes have more than that!"
Brooks showed videos of several robots designed in his lab. In one scene, Brooks's colleague Cynthia "plays" with a robot she designed, Kismet.
"We see her moving that eraser, then the robot moving it. They're taking turns." At least, Brooks added, that's what the average observer would think. "But when we thought about it, she was doing all the work. She was giving the robot motion cues. That set us off on reading literature on child development."
Like Cynthia, mothers give their infants motion cues. They engage in activities with their children that the children cannot do by themselves, but can be trained to do with their caregiver's help.
"What the robot sees drives what it does," Brooks said.
Inside these robots exists a three-dimensional space; the robot's emotions are a point in that space. The robot uses its emotional state to generate how it reacts to certain objects, and can display emotion through facial expressions.
In another experiment suggestive of robots' similarity to children in their earliest stages of development, the lab called in various people to speak with the robot.
"When a mother interacts with her child, she generates messages through her voice: praise, attention, prohibition,and soothing are the four basic messages," Brooks said.
In the video, when one woman said, "Good job, Kismet! Look at my smile!" in an encouraging voice, the robot smiled proudly. When another said, "No, no, that's not appropriate" in a disparaging tone, Kismet lowered his head, his large ears drooping.
Although robots like Kismet don't actually understand the meanings of words, they are able to vocally replicate phonemes. As people teach various words to Kismet and Cog, another of CSAIL's robots, the robots can repeat them and identify them with their corresponding objects.
Brooks acknowledges that the development of intelligent robots is still in beginning stages, although significant progress has been made in areas like navigation. However, he said, "I think beyond navigation, robots have new possibilities which will be important."
As the world's demographics shift in the next half century, robots can be useful in fields such as manufacturing, agriculture and elderly assistance. Brooks imagines being able to roboticize large agriculture machines for the maintenance of individual plants. Such robots could do menial and time-consuming tasks like pruning and picking.
"Europe and the U.S. import low-cost labor now ... But that labor may not be there in 50 years," Brooks said.
Second, robot arms could be used for fixed automation, which is particularly useful in manufacturing. Such robots would require the dexterity of a six-year-old, said Brooks. Third, he hoped that robots could be developed to provide in-home care to the elderly, who will soon comprise a much larger demographic in places like North America, Europe, Korea and Japan.
The future, however, holds many challenges to realizing certain robotic applications. "Will we accept robots?" Brooks asked the audience.
It may be hard, he explained, for humans to come to grips with machines that may equal or surpass their own capabilities. Few people want to admit that their emotions can exist within a machine.
"I'm not saying current robots have real emotions, but if they did, it would be hard for people to accept ... and there would certainly be legislation against it!" Brooks said as the audience laughed.
"I liked the lecture very much," said Hugo Fierro grad. "I already took some courses on robots, but never thought about the philosophical aspect of it. I liked his predictions, although they're very futuristic."
"It was a lot of fun. I heard some very interesting and provocative ideas," said Prof. Graeme Bailey, computer science.
And as for the possibility of Brooks' vision becoming reality someday? "I hope so," Bailey said. "If one was to answer no to that, we have a somewhat dismal future for ourselves."
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Tricks to help you eat healthfully on the road. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Tricks to help you eat healthfully on the road
• Substitute fatty, calorie-laden meals with high-fiber foods to ease travel strain
• Stay hydrated and plan ahead by bringing snacks to avoid temptation
• Eat low-fat foods, fresh vegetables, beans, grains and nuts
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Amid the rush and stress of business travel, nutrition is often pushed aside. While worrying about beating traffic, making flights, preparing for meetings and presentations, who has the time or the energy to think about eating healthfully?
But traveling for business is not an excuse to needlessly indulge in sugar and fats, experts say. Trading in cheeseburgers for salads and potato chips for carrot sticks could help ease the strain of traveling and help dodge weight gain.
"It doesn't feel good, first of all, to fly with a bunch of junk food in your stomach, or soda," nutrition expert Susan Levin told CNN. "You want to stay as hydrated as possible, eat as much fiber as possible."
Levin acknowledged that doing so isn't always easy. Rather than depend on airport and roadside eateries, often laden with fast-food options, Levin advises travelers to plan ahead. Bring food with you, she says.
"Make sure you're eating high-fiber foods, those are your plant foods, like fruits and vegetables, beans and grains," Levin said. She said pita bread, nuts and dried fruits are other good choices and are easy to bring on flights. She also advised travelers to buy water once they've passed through security.
For business travelers who are driving, the choices become easier, Levin said. "You can pack a cooler, you can bring plenty of water," she said. "Pull over into towns where there are grocery stores. ... Get fresh produce, get vegetables, get a container of hummus [and] baked tortilla chips."
Dining out
Of course, eating healthfully en route is only half the battle. How does one avoid the pitfalls of restaurants' choices during business dinners?
Fitness expert Brent Brinkmeier of Body Design said business travelers should avoid temptation by ordering without looking at the menu.
"If you're used to eating grilled chicken and steamed vegetables, order grilled chicken and steamed vegetables," Brinkmeier said.
If ordering custom meals seems too fussy and high maintenance, Levin advised travelers to embrace restaurants' vegetarian options. Those are the high-fiber, low-fat, low-calorie meals, she said.
"If you are in a Mexican restaurant, choose a burrito with black beans and rice, and corn and tomatoes, and skip the cheese, skip the sour cream, skip the meat," she said. "Then you have high-fiber, very low-fat, very filling meal."
For American restaurants, Levin said baked potatoes or salads are good choices, as long as they are eaten in a relatively pure form. In other words, steer clear of cheese, heavy dressings and meat. "If you don't get the cheese and oils, you're more likely to get high-fiber, low-fat meals," she said.
Even fast-food restaurants can have healthy choices, Brinkmeier said. "Something grilled, chicken is typically the best. A lot of restaurants now have salads, even fast food places.
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credit, credit score. - Posted By: NaBeeel
credit, credit score. , How to Help Your Score,Unfortunately, some financial missteps do more than ding your credit. Some can ruin it for a long time. Here are some of the more egregious credit mistakes people make and tips for guiding the journey back to good credit.
Top SIX Ways to Help Your Score:-
Building good credit takes patience and persistence. But what about quick fixes?
Many of these tricks are scams. But there are a few sneaky ways to legitimately
give your score a boost when needed.
1. Late payments
Payment history is an important factor both in terms of your credit score and as a deciding factor for lenders and others who check your credit. Lenders may be less likely to lend to you or may charge you a higher rate based on your payment history. Even without your knowledge, in most states, auto insurance rates are determined largely by your credit score.
Poor payment history can also affect your ability to get a job. Employers usually look at your credit report, rather than your credit score, when they look at consumer reports (background checks) to build a picture of you, particularly if you are being considered for financial or higher-level jobs.
The good news: The impact of this negative lessens over time. The formula goes something like this: One year out, late payments count as 93 percent negative, at two years, 60 percent; three years, 33 percent; and by four years it's down to 22 percent negative, Rule Your Finances.
2. Court Action
This is territory in which you never want to tread. You'll see activity here on your credit report if you have judgments against you -- say you skipped out on rent or utility bills. It usually falls under the heading "negative information" and stays on your record for seven years.
Tips: Unsatisfied judgments are worse than those paid off. Reach out to the original creditor and come to an arrangement. Typically, judgments are not reported with the company through which you got your judgment, but rather go through third party agency that deals with courts. They are not quite as quick as with credit card companies in reporting accounts as satisfied. You may want to submit a dispute to the credit reporting agency stating that the account has been satisfied.
Also, you could add a statement to your credit report explaining why this mark is uncharacteristic of you. Perhaps you got in a bad situation with large and unexpected medical bills and that set you back. Adding a comment may help you with lenders who look at full reports, which mortgage lenders do.
3. Bankruptcy
This is something that will work against you longer than most mistakes, lasting 10 years on your credit reports. Bankruptcy is very significant to lenders and has a huge impact on your credit score. Since it's a proxy for measuring how likely you are to pay debts in the future, bankruptcy proves that at one time you were not able to. There is a good chance this information will show up quickly on your report.
What to do: Be proactive and upfront with your bank if you're looking for a mortgage. This isn't something that will slip by them. But if you're looking for a job, let them bring it up first. You don't want to call their attention to information they might not have.
4. Foreclosure
Here's another significant event that is impacting a growing number of Americans right now and one that will have a negative impact on credit scores for years to come. How negative depends on the person or agency looking at it, but by the time you are foreclosed upon, your payment history has already taken a significant blow, so it's a double whammy.
Lenders know that foreclosure is expensive and use it as a solution of last resort. Always be in contact with your lender if you land in dire financial straits. They will usually try to work with you, either setting up a payment schedule or forbearing your loan while you try to sell your house.
You'll know if your employer or potential employer is about to see this information, or has made a decision against you based on it, because you have to permit their check of your credit report.
Tips: Be proactive with your lender before foreclosure and with banks after foreclosure. As with bankruptcy, you can try adding a comment to your report. Only time will heal a foreclosure's impact on your score.
5. Debt collection
Once you're referred to collection it's up to the collection agencies to report that you have a collections account. Being placed in collection is more negative than just being late on payments.
Tip: Pay off past-due accounts. Don't expect the inactive status to make this negative mark fall off your report any faster.
Put a brief "consumer note" on your report explaining this uncharacteristic lapse. It won't change your score, but if an actual human being is reviewing your credit application, he or she will see it and can consider it when making a decision about doing business with you.
6. Carrying too much debt
Thirty percent of your FICO score is based on your debt-to-credit ratio. The higher the utilization of your credit, the greater the negative impact on your score.
Be aware that depending on at what point in the statement cycle your credit card company reports figures to the credit reporting agencies (Equifax, TransUnion, Experian), even if you pay credit card balances in full each month, you may appear to be overextended. The smartest idea in terms of your credit score is to spread charges over several cards so you never use more than 35 percent of your credit limit on any one card at any given time.
Tip: Cut your debt using these proven methods.
More Credit & Debt Advice:
-- Low Interest Rate Credit Cards; Credit Card Debt Management
-- Improve Your Credit Score; Get a Free Report
-- Tips to Reduce and Pay-Off Debt
-- Safeguard Your Money & Credit, Protect Your Ide. <>
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CIA details Cold War skulduggery. - Posted By: NaBeeel
CIA details Cold War skulduggery, The CIA reveals it spied on opponents of the Vietnam war
The CIA has made public the details of its illicit Cold-War-era activities, including spy plots, assassination attempts and experiments with drugs.
Documents declassified on its website include plans to use Mafia help to kill Cuba's Communist leader Fidel Castro.
They reveal the extent to which the CIA spied on US journalists and dissidents and on the Soviet Union.
They are part of a report commissioned by a former CIA chief in 1973 in response to the Watergate scandal.
Press reports from the period had implicated the CIA in a break-in which took place at Democratic Party offices at the Watergate Hotel.
Documents of troubled times
A newspaper investigation into the burglary eventually led to the downfall of the Republican President, Richard Nixon.
The spy agency's former director, James Schlesinger, responded by ordering all "senior operating officials" to report on all activities, past and present, "which might be construed to be outside the legislative charter of this agency".
The CIA is barred by law from conducting spy activities within the US.
'Unflattering history'
CIA officers in service in 1973 largely used their memory to compile the 693-page report for Mr Schlesinger.
Documents relating to Castro [186k]
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The abuses and illicit activities listed within date from the 1950s to the 1970s.
The documents were initially referred to as "skeletons" by Mr Schlesinger's successor at the CIA, William Colby. They were later nicknamed the "family jewels" and have been referred to as such ever since.
Much of the information contained within them was already known.
The CIA tried to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro (left)
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed in the New York Times newspaper in 1974 that the CIA had been spying on anti-war dissidents and civil rights campaigners.
However, the documents declassified on Tuesday provide a more comprehensive account of events.
Last week, CIA chief Michael Hayden announced the decision to declassify the records, saying the documents were "unflattering but part of CIA history".
The documents detail assassination plots, domestic spying, wiretapping, and kidnapping.
The incidents include:
the confinement of a Soviet KGB defector, Yuriy Ivanovich Nosenko, in the mid-1960s
attempts to use a suspected Mafia mobster, Johnny Roselli, in a plot to assassinate Cuba's Fidel Castrothe wiretapping and surveillance of journalists, including in 1972 columnist Jack Anderson who broke a string of scandal ,the testing of hallucinogens such as LSD on unsuspecting citizens
Among the documents is a request in 1972 for someone "who was accomplished at picking locks" who might be retiring or resigning from the agency.
'Soviet succession'
Another set of documents, also just declassified, is known as the CAESAR-POLO-ESAU papers.
This is an 11,000-page analysis, done between 1953 and 1973, on Soviet and Chinese internal politics and Sino-Soviet relations.
Among the papers are an analysis of the Soviet leadership completed some four months after the death of Josef Stalin in 1953.
The CIA's report, stamped "Top Secret", said the Soviets carried out a hasty shake-up of top posts to head off possible "panic and disarray" following Stalin's death.
"It is strongly suggested that the leaders in this moment of crisis had moved swiftly to show their unity and to gird themselves for any battle that might be coming from inside and out," the CIA report said.
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The Trans Fat Task Force. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Health Canada vows to limit trans fat in foods,Health Canada says it has agreed to adopt recent recommendations to limit trans fats in Canadian packaged and restaurant foods.
It is giving the food industry two years to meet the recommended limits. Should foods continue to exceed the targets in two years, Health Canada says it will bring in regulations to ensure that the limits are met.
The limits, proposed last year by the Trans Fat Task Force, require Canada's food industry to cut the total fat content of vegetable oils and soft, spreadable margarines to 2 per cent, and to limit the total fat content for all other foods to 5 per cent, including ingredients sold to restaurants.
"We are giving industry two years to reduce trans fats to the lowest levels possible as recommended by the Trans Fat Task Force. If significant progress has not been made over the next two years, we will regulate to ensure the levels are met," said Health Minister Tony Clement in a release.
Sally Brown, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada who co-chaired the Task Force, says the acceptance of their recommendations "moves us one big step closer to the elimination of processed trans fats from our food."
Countless food chains and manufacturers have announced in recent years that they were voluntarily reformulating their foods to virtually eliminate trans fats from their foods.
But the Heart and Stroke Foundation says it is still concerned about the high amounts of processed trans fats in some fast food, restaurant, and pastry products, noting that those sectors have been slower in changing recipes.
They note, for example, that a McDonald's Happy Baked Apple Pie contains five grams of trans fat -- 7.2 times the recommended limits, while Burger King Hash Browns contain 10 grams of trans fat -- 8.4 times the limit.
"Over the next two years the Heart and Stroke Foundation will work with Health Canada to monitor the situation and inform the public on where trans fats remain in our foods, and how to make healthier choices," says Brown.
"The Foundation's goal is to get rid of processed trans fats in Canadian foods, and today we've moved closer than ever to that objective," notes Brown. "We'll continue to work to achieve that goal and to keep the public informed of Canada's progress."
The Heart and Stroke Foundation says Canadians have one of the highest trans fat intakes worldwide, consuming 4.9 grams of trans fats a day.
Studies show that consuming just five grams of trans fats a day over many years boosts the risk of heart disease by 25 per cent.
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Carter blasts US policy on Palestinians. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Carter blasts US policy on Palestinians, Former President Jimmy Carter accused the U.S., Israel and the European Union on Tuesday of seeking to divide the Palestinian people by reopening aid to President Mahmoud Abbas' new government in the West Bank while denying the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was addressing a human rights conference in Ireland, also said the Bush administration's refusal to accept Hamas' 2006 election victory was "criminal."
Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with Abbas' moderate Fatah movement.
Hamas fighters routed Fatah in their violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last week. The split prompted Abbas to dissolve the power-sharing government with his rivals in Hamas and set up a Fatah-led administration to govern the West Bank.
Carter said the consensus of the U.S., Israel and the EU to start funneling aid to Abbas' new government in the West Bank but continue blocking Hamas in the Gaza Strip represented an "effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples."
"All efforts of the international community should be to reconcile the two, but there's no effort from the outside to bring the two together," he said.
The U.S. and European countries cut off the Hamas-led government last year because of the Islamic militant group's refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel. They have continued to send humanitarian aid to Gaza through the United Nations and other organizations.
In the latest crisis, the U.S., Israel and much of the West have been trying to shore up Abbas in hopes that the West Bank can be made into a democratic example that would bring along Gaza.
During his speech to Ireland's annual Forum on Human Rights, the 83-year-old former president said monitors from his Carter Center observed the 2006 election that Hamas won. He said the vote was "orderly and fair" and Hamas triumphed, in part, because it was "shrewd in selecting candidates," whereas a divided, corrupt Fatah ran multiple candidates for single seats.
Far from encouraging Hamas' move into parliamentary politics, Carter said the U.S. and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, sought to subvert the outcome by shunning Hamas and helping Abbas to keep the reins of political and military power.
"That action was criminal," he said in a news conference after his speech.
"The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah," he said.
Carter said the U.S. and others supplied the Fatah-controlled security forces in Gaza with vastly superior weaponry in hopes they would "conquer Hamas in Gaza" — but Hamas routed Fatah in the fighting last week because of its "superior skills and discipline."
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The Clintons liquidated the trust. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Clintons shed stocks worth millions,Hand jive: Hillary Clinton gestures while speaking during a high school graduation ceremony in Washington.
CONCERNED that their personal finances might become a political liability once again, Bill and Hillary Clinton have sold the millions of dollars of stocks held by their blind trust.
They divested the stock in April after becoming aware that their investments included oil and pharmaceutical companies and military contractors.
The Clintons liquidated the trust — valued at $US5 million to $25 million — and are leaving the proceeds for now in cash in an effort to eliminate any chance of ethical problems or political embarrassment from their holdings as Senator Clinton makes her bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, the couple's advisers said.
By disposing of all their stocks, Senator Clinton was seeking to avoid potential conflicts of interest that might arise from legislation that she votes on in the Senate, as well as avoid holding financial stakes in companies and industries — such as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, the owner of Fox News — that could draw criticism from some Democratic voters.
The decision by the Clintons to sell their stock carried a financial cost, according to their advisers and personal financial documents.
An adviser said the couple would owe "substantial amounts" in capital gains taxes, and were giving up the potentially higher returns from stocks for the safety, but generally lower returns, of holding their money in various forms of savings accounts.
According to the financial disclosure documents, the couple's total net worth falls between $US10 million and $US50 million.
Besides investments, Mr Clinton earned about $US10 million in paid speeches in 2006, continuing a pattern since he left office of earning large sums through speeches and other activities in order to help pay off legal bills and cover the couple's expenses. Senator Clinton earned $US350,025 in royalties for her autobiography, Living History.
The Clintons' decision to cash out their holdings was a reminder of their history with investments that, fairly or not, came back to haunt them politically, most notably the Whitewater real estate affair that dogged them through Mr Clinton's presidency.
In 1993, Mr Clinton complied with federal ethics rules and created a qualified blind trust to hold and invest the family's assets. According to their 1993 financial disclosure form, the Clintons were far less wealthy than they are today: Their estimated net worth at the time was between $US633,015 and $US1.62 million.
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Colombians are proud of your friendship. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Colombia praises President Clinton during NYC ceremony
Colombians touted former President Bill Clinton as the unofficial minister of tourism, lavishing him with praise and honoring the work he's done to reverse the Latin American country's image of violence and drugs. "Colombians are proud of your friendship, Mr. President," Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said as he gave Clinton the "Colombia is passion" award. Uribe said tourism has been up significantly since Clinton visited the country in 2001.
The ceremony Friday evening included a video extolling Clinton as a national hero, thanking him for "never believing the bad things" about Colombia. His quotes about the virtues of Colombia were plastered around the hall, and pictures of the former president wearing a traditional Colombian hat were pasted on staff T-shirts.
Uribe noted that violence is down and the country is safer, but said he was pushing for more positive change.
"We have improved. We need to do much more, but we are on the right way," Uribe said.
Clinton urged Congress to consider the strides Colombia has made, even as fellow Democrats threatened to reduce aid to Washington's closest ally in Latin America.
"So those of us who are trying to help, those of us who want to continue progress, owe it to our friends in Colombia to know what they've been through, and to express a little humility in the face of people who have already lost so much, and who are working so hard to build a better tomorrow," Clinton said.
Clinton shook hands with Uribe, who has struggled to defend himself against charges that members of his family and government supporters collaborated with murderous right-wing militias.
In April, former Vice President Al Gore backed out of an environmental conference in Miami to avoid appearing alongside the Colombian leader.
Clinton acknowledged that he was at the Manhattan event in part because of debate in Congress over free trade and aid to Colombia.
"We need to remember that we are friends," Clinton said. "We need to remember that we want to share a common future. We need to remember that for the first time in over three decades there is a law enforcement presence representing the elected government of Colombia."
Uribe's administration is trying to secure congressional passage of a free trade agreement signed by Uribe and the Bush administration last year, a deal the Colombian president considers his biggest foreign policy achievement.
Earlier Friday, presidential hopeful Sen. Chris Dodd circulated a letter made public May 22 urging Colombia to reverse the "infiltration" of murderous paramilitary groups at high government levels or risk losing $700 million in aid. The missive was signed by eight Democratic senators, including another candidate for president, Barack Obama.
Dodd's office said the letter was made public last month but most Colombians only learned about its existence on Friday, when a copy was published in a front-page story by Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.
Uribe said Friday he had no knowledge of the letter, also signed by Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who froze $55 million in aid to Colombia's military in April as head of the subcommittee overseeing foreign aid.
"(Thursday) I met with Sen. Leahy for about an hour and he didn't tell me anything about this," Uribe said before departing for New York.
Leahy, in an e-mailed statement Friday, said "for several years, U.S. aid to Colombia has been on autopilot. I fully expect the Congress to continue support, because our countries share many interests. But the Congress is not going to be a rubber stamp. Those days are over."
While the guest list for Friday included hip-shaking Colombian pop star Shakira and former Clinton Cabinet member Madeleine Albright, neither attended. Presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was traveling to Iowa, according to her schedule.
According to Justice Department filings, Colombia hired the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller _ whose president, Mark Penn, is a senior adviser to Sen. Clinton _ to help "educate members of the U.S. Congress and other audiences" about the trade deal and secure continued U.S. funding for the $5 billion anti-narcotics program Plan Colombia.
Clinton was responsible for pushing Plan Colombia through Congress when he was in office, and wears a bracelet honoring a Colombian culture minister, Consuelo Araujo, who was kidnapped by leftist rebels and killed during a botched military rescue attempt shortly after they met at the White House in 2000.
Angela Montoya, organizer of the event for the "Colombia is passion" branding campaign, said the idea to honor Bill Clinton came last year, "before President Uribe was re-elected and all of Colombia thought the free trade agreement was a fact, not an issue."
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Associated Press Writer Joshua Goodman in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.
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Bush declassifies al-Qaida intelligence. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bush declassifies al-Qaida intelligence.,President Bush, trying to defend his war strategy, declassified intelligence Tuesday asserting that Osama bin Laden ordered a top lieutenant in early 2005 to form a terrorist cell that would conduct attacks outside Iraq — and that the United States should be the top target.
The information mirrored a classified bulletin from the Homeland Security Department in March 2005, reporting that bin Laden had enlisted Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his senior operative in Iraq, to plan potential strikes in the U.S. The warning was described at the time as credible but not specific and did not prompt the administration to raise its national terror alert level.
The declassification of the intelligence came a day before Bush was scheduled to speak about terrorism at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
Bush, who is battling Democrats in Congress over spending for the unpopular war in Iraq, will argue that the terrorist threat to America is real, said Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser. She said Bush would talk about why Iraq is an important battleground in fighting terrorism abroad to prevent attacks on U.S. soil and highlight previously reported successes in foiling terrorist attacks.
The Bush White House has intermittently declassified and made public sensitive intelligence information to help rebut critics or defend programs or actions against possibly adverse decisions in the Congress or the courts. On a few occasions, the declassified materials were intended as proof that terrorists see Iraq as a critical staging ground for global operations.
Democrats and other critics have accused Bush of selectively declassifying intelligence, including portions of a sensitive National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, to justify the U.S.-led invasion on the ground that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction. That assertion proved false.
Townsend, reading from notes, said the declassified intelligence showed that in January 2005, bin Laden tasked al-Zarqawi with organizing the cell. Al-Zarqawi, the former leader of al-Qaida's Iraq operations, was killed there in June 2006 by a U.S. airstrike.
"We know from the intelligence community that al-Zarqawi welcomed the tasking and claimed he already had some good proposals," Townsend said.
She said that in the spring of 2005, bin Laden instructed Hamza Rabia, a senior operative, to brief al-Zarqawi on al-Qaida planning to attack sites outside Iraq, including the United States. She did not disclose where in the United States those attacks were being plotted.
Around the same time, Abu Fajah al-Libi, a senior al-Qaida manager, suggested that bin Laden send Rabia to Iraq to actually help al-Zarqawi plan the external operations, Townsend said. It is unclear whether Rabia went to Iraq, she said.
She said the information was declassified because the intelligence community has tracked all leads from the information.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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I like the sound of that. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Former Presidents Avoid Politics at UNH, - Former presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton put politics aside Saturday, urging University of New Hampshire graduates to focus on helping others both in their community and around the world. The former rivals have worked together in recent years, raising millions of dollars for the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.
"I can't tell you the selfish pleasure I get out of working with President Clinton," Bush told a chilly, damp crowd of about 17,000 at the outdoor ceremony. "It's a very selfish feeling in my heart to be out there doing something to help others."
Bush, who joked about all the "broke but happy parents" in the audience, told the 2,650 graduates that they don't have to run for office to become leaders.
"All you have to do is care, roll up your sleeves and claim one of society's problems as your own," he said.
He also contrasted the education the new graduates received with the teachings of radical Muslim schools overseas, saying one of the greatest struggles the nation faces is the "battle for young minds around the entire world."
Clinton told students that while they are graduating in a "culturally diverse and creative time," they also face a world marred by "inequality, insecurity, and _ because of climate change and resource depletion _ unsustainability."
"I believe that you are going to be given a great opportunity to change this world of division and divisiveness because it's also a world full of decency and hope," he said.
The former president also made a lighthearted reference to his wife's campaign for president in thanking J. Bonnie Newman, the university's interim president.
"Thank you Madam President Newman," he said. "I like the sound of that. I've decided that women should run everything, and George and I can play more golf."
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FUTURE IMMIGRANTS IN THE U S A > - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bush acknowledges lawmakers' concern on immigration,U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday acknowledged lawmakers' doubts about a U.S. immigration proposal, but argued it will help resolve the status of 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
With the proposal taking fire from both Republicans and Democrats, the Senate is expected to begin debate on immigration next week.
Bush used his weekly radio address to open what is likely to be an intense effort to persuade Americans to support the plan as the answer to long-simmering U.S. immigration problems.
"It will help us resolve the status of millions of illegal immigrants who are here already, without animosity and without amnesty," said Bush, who is spending the weekend at his Texas ranch.
The president, in need of a victory to brighten a second term dominated by the chaos in Iraq, wants to resolve the immigration battle before it gets swept up by the presidential campaign to replace him in 2008.
The immigration deal was reached on Thursday between U.S. senators and backed by both Bush and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) of Nevada.
The legislation will have to navigate some perilous shoals if it is to become law.
Conservative Republicans fear it would lead to an amnesty for illegal immigrants who they say are already weighing heavily on America's social fabric.
At the same time, many Democrats think the elements of the worker program are too tough on immigrants. Labor unions fear the deal will drive down wages.
STRONG WORDS IN NEGOTIATING ROOM
"I realize that many hold strong convictions on this issue, and reaching an agreement was not easy," Bush said.
The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) got into a shouting match with Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record) in the final negotiations that led to the deal.
The Post, citing several unnamed Republican and Democratic sources, said words were exchanged when Cornyn voiced concerns about the number of judicial appeals that illegal immigrants could receive, and that it got really heated when Cornyn accused McCain of being too busy running for president to take part in the immigration negotiations.
"Wait a second here," Cornyn said to McCain, according to The Post. "I've been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You're out of line."
McCain was said to have used an expletive and shouted at Cornyn, "I know more about this than anyone else in the room."
McCain's presidential campaign spokesman Brian Jones denied his boss claimed to know more about the bill, but acknowledged to the Post that "there was a spirited exchange" amid the tense negotiations.
The Republican president sought to reassure conservatives who stymied an immigration push last year by fighting for tougher border security measures.
He said the immigration proposal would require that strong border security and enforcement benchmarks - such as doubling the number of Border Patrol agents on the U.S.-Mexico border -- are met before the temporary worker program and other pieces of the legislation would be implemented.
In another move aimed at conservatives, the White House circulated a "Myth/Fact" document seeking to answer critics who contend the agreement amounts to a reward for the thousands who sneaked into the United States.
Major provisions of the immigration deal
Major provisions of the bipartisan immigration compromise:
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CURRENT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
_They could come forward immediately and receive probationary legal status.
_Bill creates a four-year, renewable "Z" visa for those present within the U.S. unlawfully before Jan. 1, 2007.
_Undocumented immigrants may adjust status to lawful permanent residence once they pay $5,000 in fees and fines and their head of household returns to their home country.
_People under age 30 who were brought to the U.S. as minors could receive their green cards after three years, rather than eight.
_Undocumented farmworkers who can demonstrate they have worked 150 hours or three years in agriculture can apply for green cards.
_No green cards for "Z" visa holders can be processed until "triggers" for border security and workplace enforcement have been met, estimated to take 18 months. Processing of green cards for holders of "Z" visas would begin after clearing an existing backlog, which is expected to take eight years.
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BORDER SECURITY
_Hire 18,000 new border patrol agents.
_Erect 200 miles of vehicle barriers and 370 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
_Erect 70 ground-based radar and camera towers along the southern border.
_Deploy four unmanned aerial vehicles and supporting systems.
_End the program in which illegal immigrants are released upon apprehension.
_Provide for detaining up to 27,500 aliens per day on an annual basis.
_Use secure and effective identification tools to prevent unauthorized work.
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WORKPLACE ENFORCEMENT
_Require employers to electronically verify new employees to prove identity and work eligibility.
_Increase penalties for unlawful hiring, employment and record keeping violations.
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GUEST WORKERS (requires border security measures to be in place first)
_Create a new temporary guest worker program with two-year "Y visas," initially capped at 400,000 per year with annual adjustments based on market fluctuations
_Workers could renew the Y visa up to three times, but would be required to return home for a year in between each time. Those bringing dependents could obtain only one, nonrenewable two-year visa.
_Families could accompany guest workers only if they could show proof of medical insurance and demonstrate that their wages were 150 percent above the poverty level.
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FUTURE IMMIGRANTS
_Spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and permanent residents would be eligible for green cards based purely on their family connections, but other relatives such as adult children and siblings would not.
_380,000 visas a year would be awarded based on a point system, with about 50 percent based on employment criteria, 25 percent based on education, 15 percent on English proficiency and 10 percent on family connections.
_Apply new limits to U.S. citizens seeking to bring foreign-born parents into the country.
_Visas for parents of U.S. citizens would be capped annually at 40,000 and those for spouses and children at 87,000.
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Egypt Militants Detained After Attacks On Christian Homes And Shops\. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Egypt Militants Detained After Attacks On Christian Homes And Shops,Egypt's Coptic Christians pray amid uncertain future. Via BBC News,CAIRO, EGYPT (BosNewsLife)-- Dozens of suspected Muslim militants were said to remain in custody Monday, May 14, after Egyptian security forces arrested them over the weekend on charges of setting fire to Christian homes and shops in clashes over church construction.
At least 59 Muslims were reportedly detained following clashes in which 10 Coptic Christians were injured on Friday, May 11, in the village of Behma, about 60 km (40 miles) south of Cairo. Hundreds of people from both faiths fought with sticks and hurled bricks and firebombs at one another, said Reuters news agency.
Allegations that Christian villagers did not have a permit to build a church reportedly sparked anger among Muslims that turned to violence after Friday prayers when about 300 Muslims clashed with about 200 Christians, reporters said.
Police allegedly did not prevent damage by fire of 27 Christian-owned houses and shops , including 10 homes that were reportedly completely gutted.
NEW LAW
It comes at a time when Coptic and other Christians, including former Muslims, have complained that local authorities do not enough to protect then amid fears that a new controversial law will lead to more tensions.
Earlier this month an Egyptian administrative court upheld a ministry of interior decision to refuse 45 Christians wishing to convert back to Christianity from Islam permission for new identification papers and birth certificates that stated they were Christians, media reported.
The interior ministry reportedly refused to issue the papers saying it didn't see a legal reason for doing so and accused the petitioners of "playing with religion to suit their needs."
CLERGY CONCERNED
Christian clergy have voiced their concern over the new law backing such a move, saying Christians must take "a serious stand" against the law and resist "oppression of the government," the Middle East Times publication reported.
Critics claim the Egyptian government is concerned about spreading Christianity and wants to maintain Muslim numbers high. The government has said however it wants to tackle Muslim extremism. (With reporting from Egypt).
Monday, 14 May 2007 (1 hours ago)
By BosNewsLife News Center
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Egyptians, not Greeks were true fathers of medicine. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Egyptians, not Greeks were true fathers of medicine,Scientists examining documents dating back 3,500 years say they have found proof that the origins of modern medicine lie in ancient Egypt and not with Hippocrates and the Greeks.The research team from the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at The University of Manchester discovered the evidence in medical papyri written in 1,500BC – 1,000 years before Hippocrates was born.
"Classical scholars have always considered the ancient Greeks, particularly Hippocrates, as being the fathers of medicine but our findings suggest that the ancient Egyptians were practising a credible form of pharmacy and medicine much earlier," said Dr Jackie Campbell.
"When we compared the ancient remedies against modern pharmaceutical protocols and standards, we found the prescriptions in the ancient documents not only compared with pharmaceutical preparations of today but that many of the remedies had therapeutic merit."
The medical documents, which were first discovered in the mid-19th century, showed that ancient Egyptian physicians treated wounds with honey, resins and metals known to be antimicrobial.
The team also discovered prescriptions for laxatives of castor oil and colocynth and bulk laxatives of figs and bran. Other references show that colic was treated with hyoscyamus, which is still used today, and that cumin and coriander were used as intestinal carminatives.
Further evidence showed that musculo-skeletal disorders were treated with rubefacients to stimulate blood flow and poultices to warm and soothe. They used celery and saffron for rheumatism, which are currently topics of pharmaceutical research, and pomegranate was used to eradicate tapeworms, a remedy that remained in clinical use until 50 years ago.
"Many of the ancient remedies we discovered survived into the 20th century and, indeed, some remain in use today, albeit that the active component is now produced synthetically," said Dr Campbell.
"Other ingredients endure and acacia is still used in cough remedies while aloes forms a basis to soothe and heal skin conditions."
Fellow researcher Dr Ryan Metcalfe is now developing genetic techniques to investigate the medicinal plants of ancient Egypt. He has designed his research to determine which modern species the ancient botanical samples are most related to.
"This may allow us to determine a likely point of origin for the plant while providing additional evidence for the trade routes, purposeful cultivation, trade centres or places of treatment," said Dr Metcalfe.
"The work is inextricably linked to state-of-the-art chemical analyses used by my colleague Judith Seath, who specialises in the essential oils and resins used by the ancient Egyptians."
Professor Rosalie David, Director of the KNH Centre, said: "These results are very significant and show that the ancient Egyptians were practising a credible form of pharmacy long before the Greeks.
"Our research is continuing on a genetic, chemical and comparative basis to compare the medicinal plants of ancient Egypt with modern species and to investigate similarities between the traditional remedies of North Africa with the remedies used by their ancestors of 1,500 BC."
May 10, 2007 | 4:22 PM
translate it!
3 comments | post a comment
Comments
Angie
May 10, 2007 | 5:22 PM
[delete]
That's interesting..thanks for sharing..
Awais Aftab
May 11, 2007 | 11:17 AM
[delete]
Very illuminating.
NaBeeel
May 11, 2007 | 9:57 PM
Yes Greats illuminating. [delete]
Thanks You all.
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Egyptians, not Greeks were true fathers of medicine. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Egyptians, not Greeks were true fathers of medicine
Scientists examining documents dating back 3,500 years say they have found proof that the origins of modern medicine lie in ancient Egypt and not with Hippocrates and the Greeks.
The research team from the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at The University of Manchester discovered the evidence in medical papyri written in 1,500BC – 1,000 years before Hippocrates was born.
"Classical scholars have always considered the ancient Greeks, particularly Hippocrates, as being the fathers of medicine but our findings suggest that the ancient Egyptians were practising a credible form of pharmacy and medicine much earlier," said Dr Jackie Campbell.
"When we compared the ancient remedies against modern pharmaceutical protocols and standards, we found the prescriptions in the ancient documents not only compared with pharmaceutical preparations of today but that many of the remedies had therapeutic merit."
The medical documents, which were first discovered in the mid-19th century, showed that ancient Egyptian physicians treated wounds with honey, resins and metals known to be antimicrobial.
The team also discovered prescriptions for laxatives of castor oil and colocynth and bulk laxatives of figs and bran. Other references show that colic was treated with hyoscyamus, which is still used today, and that cumin and coriander were used as intestinal carminatives.
Further evidence showed that musculo-skeletal disorders were treated with rubefacients to stimulate blood flow and poultices to warm and soothe. They used celery and saffron for rheumatism, which are currently topics of pharmaceutical research, and pomegranate was used to eradicate tapeworms, a remedy that remained in clinical use until 50 years ago.
"Many of the ancient remedies we discovered survived into the 20th century and, indeed, some remain in use today, albeit that the active component is now produced synthetically," said Dr Campbell.
"Other ingredients endure and acacia is still used in cough remedies while aloes forms a basis to soothe and heal skin conditions."
Fellow researcher Dr Ryan Metcalfe is now developing genetic techniques to investigate the medicinal plants of ancient Egypt. He has designed his research to determine which modern species the ancient botanical samples are most related to.
"This may allow us to determine a likely point of origin for the plant while providing additional evidence for the trade routes, purposeful cultivation, trade centres or places of treatment," said Dr Metcalfe.
"The work is inextricably linked to state-of-the-art chemical analyses used by my colleague Judith Seath, who specialises in the essential oils and resins used by the ancient Egyptians."
Professor Rosalie David, Director of the KNH Centre, said: "These results are very significant and show that the ancient Egyptians were practising a credible form of pharmacy long before the Greeks.
"Our research is continuing on a genetic, chemical and comparative basis to compare the medicinal plants of ancient Egypt with modern species and to investigate similarities between the traditional remedies of North Africa with the remedies used by their ancestors of 1,500 BC."
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She was rumoured to be the world's most beautiful woman in her time.Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Row over Nefertiti bust continues,She was rumoured to be the world's most beautiful woman in her time.Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt, was the co-ruler of her country in the 14th Century BC. Today, the bust of Nefertiti (whose name literally means "a beautiful woman has arrived") has pride of place in the Antiquities collection in Berlin's Altes Museum.
Her face features on postcards of the city and each year, thousands of visitors flock to the museum to admire the ancient treasure.
But, once again, the bust of Nefertiti is the subject of a heated debate, as it appears the Egyptians want it back.
The head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, Zahi Hawass, recently said the Egyptian Foreign Ministry would send letters to Germany requesting that the treasure should be loaned temporarily to Egypt.
This latest announcement has opened a can of worms as the German government has refused to give it back.
'German property'
The bust of Nefertiti was unearthed at Amarna in Egypt by a German archaeologist, Ludwig Borchardt, in December 1912. It's thought the bust was made around 1350BC.
Back in 1912, the excavation was financed by a Berlin philanthropist, James Simon. Nefertiti's bust was then taken to Germany under the terms of an agreement reached in 1913.
According to both museum officials and the German government, it is definitely German property. The treasure has been on public display in Berlin since 1923.
It is an enormous risk to let her travel. We could never be certain that she would arrive in good health Dietrich Wildung ,Curator, Berlin Egyptian Museum
"Nefertiti's face is an icon of beauty, and the bust is the ultimate symbol of female beauty," says Dietrich Wildung, the curator of Berlin's Egyptian Museum.
"But it is an enormous risk to let her travel. We could never be certain that she would arrive in good health. There are serious conservation issues. The bust is made of limestone and thick layers of plaster and it's very sensitive to vibrations, shock, and any change of temperature," he said.
The German Culture Minister, Bernd Neumann, has also supported the position of museum officials. Mr Neumann said the bust of Nefertiti was too fragile to travel and he reiterated "that there were no doubts about the legal ownership of the priceless artefact.
"Experts have reservations about taking Nefertiti on a long trip, and we have to take these concerns seriously," said Mr Neumann in a statement.
Bizarrely enough, a campaign has now been launched in Germany called "Nefertiti Travels".
The new initiative was launched by a cultural association based in Hamburg, CulturCooperation.
They have written an open letter to the German Culture Minister, Bernd Neumann, urging him to offer the statue to Egypt on loan.
I think Egyptians should have the chance to see the bust of Nefertiti in Egypt
Alexander Schudy, Berlin Network for Development Co-operation
"For the last 95 years, Berlin has insisted that the ownership of Nefertiti's bust is legally perfectly clear," says CulturCooperation's Lena Blosat.
"The Germans claim that Nefertiti has become an integral part of our cultural identity here in Germany, which we are not prepared to part with. And the Egyptians say she is our Egyptian Queen and thus part of our culture.
"Today, even allowing the bust to be exhibited in Egypt for three months is an issue which museum directors are obviously not willing to discuss," she said.
Campaigners have distributed postcards depicting the bust of Nefertiti with the words "Return to Sender."
'Best ambassador'
"I think Egyptians should have the chance to see the bust of Nefertiti in Egypt. They shouldn't have to travel all the way to Germany to admire their country's cultural assets," says Alexander Schudy, who works for a group called the Berlin Network for Development Co-operation.
"Nefertiti is not a unique case. There are many works of art in Germany which have a dubious past, and it's about time that we address this topic so that we can have a fair and honest debate," he says.
But museum officials are adamant that the bust of Nefertiti will not return to Egypt.
"I think Nefertiti is the best ambassador of Egypt. She is accepted here, although she is still unique and different. She must stay in Germany," says Dr Wildung, the curator of the Egyptian Museum.
As I stand and admire the bust of Queen Nefertiti, wearing her distinctive blue crown, I am struck by her enigmatic smile. I wonder what she would have made of all this fuss.
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The war drains away with thousands" of tactical errors in its conduct of the war in Iraq." - Posted By: NaBeeel
THE United States has a long and useful tradition that discourages military officers from questioning civilian control of the military or publicly faulting the president and other civilian officials. The recent criticism of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld by six retired senior generals is all the more urgent and alarming for its rarity.
The retired generals, including two who commanded Army divisions in Iraq, say Rumsfeld made fatal errors in planning and conducting the war and needs to go so changes can be made. Right about the errors, the generals are just confirming what most Americans already know:
Rumsfeld, acting at President Bush's direction, ignored military advice that 400,000 or more U.S. troops would be needed to secure Iraq after the invasion. He threw out years of State Department postwar planning and had no substitute plan for winning the peace. He fantasized that Iraqis would greet U.S. forces with open arms.
Rumsfeld also acted blasé toward looters who destroyed what remained of Iraq's infrastructure. He encouraged or tolerated harsh interrogation techniques that helped to create the environment in which U.S. troops tortured Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib — a shame for which Rumsfeld rightly offered to resign.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, much to Rumsfeld's chagrin, told reporters in Britain that the administration had made "thousands" of tactical errors in its conduct of the war in Iraq.
President Bush has given his defense secretary his full support. Full support frequently is a prelude for a resignation or dismissal to follow, but not this time. President Bush almost certainly realizes that attacks on Rumsfeld are attacks on the commander in chief and hispolicies.
To fire Rumsfeld would be to admit that terrible mistakes had
been made and that the Pentagon now requires new leadership to correct them.
As public support for the war drains away, few Americans question the need for change, and one way to achieve change is to bring in new leaders. What is more crucial to salvaging some achievement from the Iraq war than changing the secretary of defense is for President Bush to perceive the need to change his policies and the assumptions on
which they are based.
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The Arab governments have been suspicious of Iraq's new leadership. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Yes ? Reluctant reconciliation,Arabs lay down the rules before they consider supporting Al-Maliki's government, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki kicked off a regional tour in Cairo this week, attempting to seek help to stabilise his beleaguered and violence-torn country. During his first tour of the Arab region, he also tried to drum up support for next month's international conference in Egypt aimed at quelling the raging bloodshed in Iraq. His tour comes against a backdrop of the warning directed by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Iraqi leaders that they need to work faster to reconcile their rival factions as American support cannot be taken for granted for ever.
In Cairo, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif told Al-Maliki that Egypt supports Iraq's attempt to achieve peace, security and stability but he strongly emphasised "the need to achieve national reconciliation between all sects of Iraqi society". Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa delivered a similar message to Al-Maliki. But the Middle East News Agency elaborated further when it quoted an Egyptian diplomatic source as saying that the Arab governments will link their support for Al-Maliki's government to a package of reforms they have suggested.
The Arab governments have been suspicious of Iraq's new leadership, blaming it for fuelling sectarian violence. At their summit in Saudi Arabia last month, Arab leaders took a tough line on Iraq, demanding it change its constitution and the set-up of its armed forces to include more Sunnis and end the de-Baathification programme that uprooted former members of Saddam Hussein's regime from the government.
The Arabs' message echoed similar frustration by Washington on Al-Maliki's failure so far to achieve the much-discussed national reconciliation. During a visit to Baghdad last week, Gates urged Iraqi leaders to end sectarian violence and warned that American troops would not stay on indefinitely if no progress was made.
"Our commitment to Iraq is long-term, but it is not a commitment to have our young men and women patrolling Iraqi streets open-endedly," he said after meeting Al-Maliki. Gates said he had spoken to the Iraqi leader about "reaching out to the Sunnis" to end the bloodletting that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis. They discussed efforts to end the Shia-Sunni conflict and the accountability and reconciliation law which aims to promote reconciliation and national unity among Iraqis. The law is a refinement of the controversial de-Baathification law. It aims to re- integrate former supporters of Saddam into public life in a bid to reduce the bitterness of fuelling the Sunni anti-American campaign.
On Monday US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker also warned that Iraq's feuding leaders had to move away from an all or nothing approach to reach the broad political compromises necessary for healing their fractured country. Crocker, in his first news conference since arriving in Baghdad in March, said the months ahead for Al-Maliki's shaky coalition government would be important. "I think the Baghdad security plan can buy time, but what it does is buy time for what it ultimately has to do -- a set of political understandings among Iraqis. So I think these months ahead are going to be critical," Crocker said.
Al-Maliki rejected Arab conditions for backing his government's efforts to stabilise the strife- torn nation and accused some Arab countries of still harbouring terrorists who infiltrate into Iraq. "We welcome consultations but we won't accept conditions or dictation," he said at a press conference on Monday.
He further denied that the soaring violence in Iraq is sectarian and accused the Al-Qaeda terror group and loyalists of the former regime of Saddam Hussein of attempts to torpedo his government's efforts to restore stability. Al-Maliki also accused some Arab countries of harbouring and facilitating funding for foreign fighters to infiltrate into Iraq. "They should stop these factories of terrorism," he said. He also repeated that his priorities remained national reconciliation, restoring security and legislative reform."
While in Cairo , Al-Maliki announced that he ordered a halt to a construction barrier being built by the US military that would separate a Sunni enclave from Shia areas of Baghdad. The barrier has drawn sharp criticism from residents and Sunni leaders who complained it would isolate the community. Hundreds of Sunnis held a protest in Baghdad Monday to oppose its construction in their neighbourhood.
Al-Maliki's visit comes 10 days prior to two conferences on Iraq which will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh. The first meeting intends to officially launch an International Compact with Iraq [ICI] in May, aimed at strengthening the international organisation's role in Iraq. The second conference will be attended by Iraq's neighbours as well as Bahrain and Egypt, and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain. This conference broadly seeks to create a framework within which world powers and Iraq's neighbours can help Iraqis end the raging sectarian conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since last year.
Such American and Arab frustration will most certainly impact discussions at the gathering of Iraq's neighbours and the global conferences on Iraq in Egypt next month. The participants of the meetings will launch a three-level process of negotiations on Iraq: the first will be political reconciliation inside Iraq and the second will cover the regional process embodied by bilateral US talks with Iran and Syria. The third will focus on gathering a wider group of interested nations that could help stabilise Iraq as US military forces are gradually withdrawn.
Those who will attend the two conferences at Sharm El-Sheikh might next week find themselves in a deadlock over their priorities. While Al-Maliki will press for support for his security plan to uproot the insurgency, the rest of the participants will press ahead with demands that he should make progress on reconciliation which is ultimately the only solution to the conflict.
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Reluctant reconciliation . - Posted By: NaBeeel
Yes ? Reluctant reconciliation,Arabs lay down the rules before they consider supporting Al-Maliki's government, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki kicked off a regional tour in Cairo this week, attempting to seek help to stabilise his beleaguered and violence-torn country. During his first tour of the Arab region, he also tried to drum up support for next month's international conference in Egypt aimed at quelling the raging bloodshed in Iraq. His tour comes against a backdrop of the warning directed by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Iraqi leaders that they need to work faster to reconcile their rival factions as American support cannot be taken for granted for ever.
In Cairo, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif told Al-Maliki that Egypt supports Iraq's attempt to achieve peace, security and stability but he strongly emphasised "the need to achieve national reconciliation between all sects of Iraqi society". Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa delivered a similar message to Al-Maliki. But the Middle East News Agency elaborated further when it quoted an Egyptian diplomatic source as saying that the Arab governments will link their support for Al-Maliki's government to a package of reforms they have suggested.
The Arab governments have been suspicious of Iraq's new leadership, blaming it for fuelling sectarian violence. At their summit in Saudi Arabia last month, Arab leaders took a tough line on Iraq, demanding it change its constitution and the set-up of its armed forces to include more Sunnis and end the de-Baathification programme that uprooted former members of Saddam Hussein's regime from the government.
The Arabs' message echoed similar frustration by Washington on Al-Maliki's failure so far to achieve the much-discussed national reconciliation. During a visit to Baghdad last week, Gates urged Iraqi leaders to end sectarian violence and warned that American troops would not stay on indefinitely if no progress was made.
"Our commitment to Iraq is long-term, but it is not a commitment to have our young men and women patrolling Iraqi streets open-endedly," he said after meeting Al-Maliki. Gates said he had spoken to the Iraqi leader about "reaching out to the Sunnis" to end the bloodletting that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis. They discussed efforts to end the Shia-Sunni conflict and the accountability and reconciliation law which aims to promote reconciliation and national unity among Iraqis. The law is a refinement of the controversial de-Baathification law. It aims to re- integrate former supporters of Saddam into public life in a bid to reduce the bitterness of fuelling the Sunni anti-American campaign.
On Monday US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker also warned that Iraq's feuding leaders had to move away from an all or nothing approach to reach the broad political compromises necessary for healing their fractured country. Crocker, in his first news conference since arriving in Baghdad in March, said the months ahead for Al-Maliki's shaky coalition government would be important. "I think the Baghdad security plan can buy time, but what it does is buy time for what it ultimately has to do -- a set of political understandings among Iraqis. So I think these months ahead are going to be critical," Crocker said.
Al-Maliki rejected Arab conditions for backing his government's efforts to stabilise the strife- torn nation and accused some Arab countries of still harbouring terrorists who infiltrate into Iraq. "We welcome consultations but we won't accept conditions or dictation," he said at a press conference on Monday.
He further denied that the soaring violence in Iraq is sectarian and accused the Al-Qaeda terror group and loyalists of the former regime of Saddam Hussein of attempts to torpedo his government's efforts to restore stability. Al-Maliki also accused some Arab countries of harbouring and facilitating funding for foreign fighters to infiltrate into Iraq. "They should stop these factories of terrorism," he said. He also repeated that his priorities remained national reconciliation, restoring security and legislative reform."
While in Cairo , Al-Maliki announced that he ordered a halt to a construction barrier being built by the US military that would separate a Sunni enclave from Shia areas of Baghdad. The barrier has drawn sharp criticism from residents and Sunni leaders who complained it would isolate the community. Hundreds of Sunnis held a protest in Baghdad Monday to oppose its construction in their neighbourhood.
Al-Maliki's visit comes 10 days prior to two conferences on Iraq which will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh. The first meeting intends to officially launch an International Compact with Iraq [ICI] in May, aimed at strengthening the international organisation's role in Iraq. The second conference will be attended by Iraq's neighbours as well as Bahrain and Egypt, and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain. This conference broadly seeks to create a framework within which world powers and Iraq's neighbours can help Iraqis end the raging sectarian conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since last year.
Such American and Arab frustration will most certainly impact discussions at the gathering of Iraq's neighbours and the global conferences on Iraq in Egypt next month. The participants of the meetings will launch a three-level process of negotiations on Iraq: the first will be political reconciliation inside Iraq and the second will cover the regional process embodied by bilateral US talks with Iran and Syria. The third will focus on gathering a wider group of interested nations that could help stabilise Iraq as US military forces are gradually withdrawn.
Those who will attend the two conferences at Sharm El-Sheikh might next week find themselves in a deadlock over their priorities. While Al-Maliki will press for support for his security plan to uproot the insurgency, the rest of the participants will press ahead with demands that he should make progress on reconciliation which is ultimately the only solution to the conflict.
| April 30, 2007 | 22:05:29 |
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Prince Harry to be sent to Iraq Bloody conflict. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Prince Harry to be sent to Iraq, Prince Harry will be deployed to Iraq with his regiment, the head of the British army has confirmed. Gen Sir Richard Dannatt said he had taken the decision personally but stressed it would be kept under review. He called for an end to the "somewhat frenzied media speculation around this issue... in the interests of all our people deployed in Iraq at this time".
There have been fears for the safety of the prince in Iraq amid apparently worsening tensions in the country.
Gen Dannatt added: "The decision has been taken that he will deploy. I will of course keep that decision continually under review, and if circumstances are such that I change that decision, I will make a further statement."
Bloody conflict
In February, Clarence House and the MoD confirmed the prince would be sent to Iraq with his regiment, the Blues and Royals, saying he would take on a "normal troop commander's role" rather than a desk job.
The prince has long stated his wish to be in active service.
But concerns for his safety, and that of his soldiers, grew more intense after 12 UK troops were killed this month, one of the bloodiest since the conflict began.
The prince, 22, has taken part in preparation exercises. As an officer, he would be in charge of 11 soldiers carrying out reconnaissance work using four armoured Scimitar vehicles, each with a crew of three.
It is thought that the prince has always insisted he should not be treated differently because of his status.
The prince, known as Cornet Wales, graduated from Sandhurst in April last year and qualified as an armoured reconnaissance troop leader in October.
His rank of cornet is used by a small number of cavalry units including the Blues and Royals. It is the equivalent of the more usual rank of 2nd lieutenant. He is known to colleagues as Troop Commander Wales.
Safety debate
The deployment would make the prince the first royal to undertake a tour of duty in a war zone since the Duke of York served in the Falklands conflict in 1982.
Sir John Nott, Conservative defence secretary during the Falklands War, said the issue of Harry's deployment was different from his uncle's because the war in Iraq was "much more fraught" and did not have "complete public support".
Critics have suggested the risks to the prince are too great but others have claimed that insurgents will not be able to ascertain exactly where he has been deployed.
| April 30, 2007 | 18:58:48 |
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I knew the story of Noah, but I had no idea the boat would have been so big. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Dutchman's Noah's ark opens doors,A half-sized replica of the biblical Noah's Ark has been built by a Dutch man, complete with model animals.Dutch creationist Johan Huibers built the ark as testament to his literal belief in the Bible. The ark, in the town of Schagen, is 150 cubits long - half the length of Noah's - and three storeys high. A cubit was about 45cm (18in) long.
The ark opened its doors on Saturday, after almost two years' construction, most of it by Mr Huiber himself.
'Past comprehension'
"The design is by my wife, Bianca," Mr Huibers said. "She didn't really want me to do this at all, but she said if you're going to anyway, it should look like this."
Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras and bison are included in the ark's interior.
The Bible's Book of Genesis says Noah kept seven pairs of most tamed animals and one breeding pair of all other creatures in the boat, which survived a catastrophic flood sent down by God to punish man.
Mr Huibers, a contractor, built the ark out of cedar and pine - because Biblical scholars are still not sure as to which type of wood was used in the ark's construction.
He began building in May 2005, after he dreamed of the Netherlands being flooded.
"In February 1992, I had a dream that Holland will become flooded. The next day, I found a book about Noah's Ark in the local bookshop, and since then, my dream has been to build the ark," he said.
Visitors were stunned. "It's past comprehension," Mary Louise Starosciak told the Associated Press.
"I knew the story of Noah, but I had no idea the boat would have been so big."
The ark includes a 50-seat theatre showing a segment of the Disney film Fantasia retelling the story of Noah's Ark.
US visitor Lois Poppema told AP she thought the Netherlands was the right place for an ark to be built: "Just a few weeks ago we saw Al Gore on television .. saying that all Holland will be flooded.
"I don't think the man who made this ever expected that global warning will become [such an important] issue - and suddenly having the ark would be meaningful in the middle of Holland."
| April 29, 2007 | 14:29:41 |
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Problems by the dozen. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Iraq's prime minister comes to Cairo amid ongoing violence nationwide and a refugee crisis that threatens to overwhelm the region. Were solutions proposed, asks Dina Ezzat
An end to the plight of Iraqis inside and outside of Iraq requires action, not policy statements. Judging by the outcome of this week's visit to Cairo by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki -- the first by the Shia politician -- it seems sure that neither the Iraqi government nor key regional states (not to mention the US and other international forces) are ready to engage a plan of action for stabilising the situation in Iraq. Nor could they if even they wanted, some argue.
"What are we supposed to make of this visit by Maliki? Nothing. Maliki and people like him are a major part of the problem in Iraq," comments Ahmed, one Iraqi living in Cairo. "They are not the government of the Iraqi people. They are not Iraqis -- not real Iraqis. They are power groups that are only after their interests. They do not care for the Iraqis," he adds.
Having arrived last summer in the wake of the escalation of sectarian violence and speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly from his appliances store on the outskirts of Cairo, Ahmed is full of bitterness over the "role of those who call themselves Iraqis" in what befell him, his family and three million other Iraqis forced to flee Iraq since the US invasion in 2003 as well as Iraqis who are still living "in hell because they have no escape".
Ahmed, a 40-year-old Sunni, and his wife, a Shia, and their three daughters were all born and brought up in Baghdad. "Even under the nightmarish years of the invasion of Kuwait [in the early 1990s] and the sanctions that were imposed on Iraq things were okay. We were afraid of Saddam Hussein but we could have led a peaceful life if we simply avoided politics. Today, there is no such thing as a peaceful life in Baghdad," Ahmed laments.
"It is not just politics or one tyrant that you have to avoid; it is also religion, your sect, your neighbourhood, all the Sunni and Shia leaders, and everything else. And still, you can never tell if you will escape being killed or not; you cannot tell if your children will be spared or not," he adds.
It was this feeling of "continuous horror" that turned Ahmed's initial optimism in the wake of the dissolution of the previous regime into dismay and then almost nostalgia for the days under Saddam. "Before there was one devil. Today there are endless devils... some you know and some you do not."
For Ahmed as for many other Iraqis who spoke to the Weekly, Sunni and Shia alike, the government of Maliki and those prior to it failed the Iraqis. "I am 27 years old. I knew nothing of the good old days of Iraq that my parents used to speak of," says Mortada, also an Iraqi refugee now in Cairo. "I was born and brought up when Iraq was going through its wars with Iran, Kuwait, and the rest of the world. I only experienced sanctions and suffering," he says. When the regime of Saddam was toppled, Mortada hoped that the new governments of Iraq would bring fairness and, if not necessarily immediately, development and prosperity. Like Ahmed, Mortada is shocked by what he calls the "dismal performance of one Iraqi government after another."
For Ahmed and Mortada, post-invasion Iraqi governments are sectarian and offer no hope for the future. Iraqis in exile complain about all political leaders, Sunni or Shia, regardless of their own sect. Many Sunni Iraqis who spoke to the Weekly in Cairo emphasised their familial ties with Shias, just as Shias underlined familial ties with Sunnis. "I am Shia and I am living with two Sunni friends," says Mortada. "We share the same apartment and we work together in small jobs ill-fitted for our university degrees," adding that when one of the three is out of work, which happens often, the others provide for him.
Iraqis in Egypt seeking refuge are not all registered with the United Nations Humanitarian Centre for Refugees (UNHCR). Having their passports marked "refugee" is not easy for the average proud Iraqi to reconcile with. "I had to do it, because otherwise my son would not have been admitted to school and couldn't graduate into university," commented one Iraqi woman who asked for her name to be withheld. Having spent over a year trying to register herself as an investor -- a route that many Iraqis with financial means take in order to gain residency in Egypt -- this lady had no other choice but to take refugee status. "As a result I cannot leave the country and come back freely. I cannot visit my sister who has taken refuge in Syria. And if I ever try to go back to Baghdad to visit my husband, who has been repeatedly denied an entry visa to Egypt, I would not be able to come back to my son," she said, tears coming to her eyes.
There is no clear official estimate of the number of Iraqis who have fled to Egypt since the invasion, especially during the last year as the security situation deteriorated dramatically and as both Jordan and Syria, who play host to over two million Iraqis, refuse to accommodate more. Rough estimates suggest that there are between 70,000 and 100,000 Iraqis in Egypt, mostly in Cairo. Less than 10 per cent are registered as refugees.
"We never wanted to leave our country or seek refuge elsewhere. We lived under so much suffering during the days of Saddam, but we did not leave," said Ali, another Iraqi exiled in Cairo. He added: "It was the indiscriminate bombings and the kidnap and rape of our women that forced us out and is obliging us to put up with the humiliation of being treated as unwelcome guests."
It is hard to exaggerate the suffering of Iraqis seeking refuge away from their once prosperous country. Entire families have been forced, either by fear or under direct physical threat, to leave their homes and businesses. Some made it out safely, and together. Others were divided in the process.
"I came with my parents; my husband was supposed to follow in a few days after selling our properties," said a 25-year-old Iraqi women. Seven-months pregnant, she is not sure what happened to her husband because she lost touch with him. She is not sure if he is alive or, "God forbid", dead, or whether he will make it to be with her when their first child is born. A female friend of the woman told the Weekly that due to health complications that resulted from her continuous grieving it is uncertain whether or not the rest of her pregnancy will be safe.
"What can Maliki do for me? Nothing. Does he care for me? Those leaders just want to please the US, or Iran, or somebody else, but not us, the Iraqis. We are not on their minds," said the pregnant woman before breaking into tears.
Her emotional outburst brings words of sympathy from Iraqis passing by. "You are Iraqi. You must have faith in God. God is generous," they say as they see her sobbing on a pavement in Al-Ordoniyah, a district of 6th October City outside Cairo.
Every Iraqi who spoke to the Weekly, whether affluent or burdened by financial concerns, had but one answer to the question of what should be the outcome of the visit of Maliki to Egypt: agree with Egyptian authorities to make it easier for Iraqis forced to live in Egypt "until the situation gets better in Iraq".
"It is not in our hands. We cannot go back. We know that we might have to be here for a year or two, but we don't know if they will let us stay or not," said Zeinab, a middle-aged housewife. "If the Iraqi government cannot secure for Iraqis the basic requirements they need, especially personal safety in Iraq, then the least it could do is to speak to other governments to accommodate Iraqi refugees," she added.
Egyptian officials say that they have done their best to accommodate Iraqis; that Egyptian sympathy with the tragedy that befell the Iraqi nation in the wake of the US invasion and the consequent security deterioration prompted officials to allow entrance for close to 100,000 Iraqis, "Sunnis and Shias alike", to live in Egypt without harassment. Some sources indicate, however, that at the end of the day it is the paramount duty of Egyptian authorities to serve the interests of the Egyptian people. As such, Egyptian authorities deemed "inappropriate the 'doors wide open' policy for indefinite numbers of Iraqis to come and live in Egypt".
The concerns offered by security authorities are not easily countered. Authorities say they have a legitimate concern about having "just any Iraqis enter and live in Egypt" at a time when Al-Qaeda has made a hub out of Baghdad. They also say that despite amicable feelings that bond Sunni and Shia Iraqis who live in Egypt, there are no guarantees that tensions in Iraq would not be reflected in Egypt. Furthermore, security authorities are uncomfortable with the rising number of Shias in Egypt, given the prevalent security doctrine that all Shias are affiliated to Iran's political and security agenda.
Despite this context, sources say that the issue of Iraqi refugees in Egypt was not the number one item on the agenda of talks with Maliki held in Cairo Sunday, although it was discussed with promises made on the Cairo side to make accommodations and on the part of Maliki to work towards improving the situation on the ground, especially for residents of Baghdad, so that Iraqis don't have to flee.
Speaking to reporters on the eve of Maliki's arrival, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said that, "the success of the Iraqi government to achieve national reconciliation is the best way to address the situation of Iraqi refugees and displaced individuals since it would allow them to go back to their homes in what would be the ultimate solution to their problem."
Maliki's meeting with President Hosni Mubarak at the presidential headquarters in Heliopolis Sunday morning was private. Neither Maliki nor the presidential spokesman spoke to the press afterwards. Following talks with Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif Sunday afternoon, however, Maliki did address the press. The Iraqi prime minister said he urged Cairo to take part in Iraq's reconstruction and received an encouraging response.
"It was a positive and comprehensive meeting and we discussed the problems in Iraq. I clarified to the president the reality of what is going on in Iraq, which is not a civil or sectarian war," Maliki said during a joint press conference with Nazif. "We found that Egypt is ready to be a partner in Iraq's reconstruction and that Egyptian companies have a role that we are ready to support."
For his part, Nazif said the situation in Iraq and international efforts to help the embattled Arab nation had been discussed. "Egypt stands by Iraq and we affirm our support for the Iraqi government's efforts towards reconciliation between all parts of Iraqi society. We condemn indiscriminate terrorism," Nazif said.
Neither Maliki nor Nazif referred to demands made by the former for Egypt to consider posting a diplomatic presence in Baghdad to encourage the return of Arab diplomats to the Iraqi capital since the slaying of Ihab El-Sherif, head of the Egyptian diplomatic mission, in the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2004. Informed sources told the Weekly that Cairo made no promises on this front on the basis that it would be a terrible setback if another Egyptian diplomat was harmed in Baghdad. What Cairo promised instead is to encourage more Iraqi politicians to visit Cairo and examine the options for reconciliation. But on Tuesday Al-Maliki said at a press conference that he had received a promise from President Hosni Mubarak that an Egyptian ambassador to Baghdad would be appointed. Al-Maliki added that this would be realized 'soon'.
However, Egyptian sources underlined that Cairo insisted that for Egypt to show more openness towards the current Iraqi government it should show more openness to all Iraqis. Cairo expects, sources say, a reduction in sectarian bias exercised by the government and what Egypt fears is tacit support for radical Shia militias. "It is not at all that Egypt is playing Sunni versus Shia, but rather that Egypt believes firmly that an even-handed approach by the government towards all sects is necessary for the containment of the current ethnic violence in Iraq," said one source.
Egyptian officials have refrained from making public statements on this matter and chose instead to blame "some of the Iraqi forces acting in Iraq", as Foreign Minister Abul-Gheit did in a recent condemnation of ethnic killing in Baghdad.
At the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League for talks with Secretary-General Amr Moussa Sunday evening, Maliki was given much the same advice as he received in talks with Egyptian officials: if it wishes to receive broad support from all Arab countries, the Iraqi government has to move towards taking action to reduce sectarian divisions. Maliki promised to move in this direction, but he also called upon Arab countries to reach out to Iraq. The Iraqi prime minister and Arab League secretary-general told a joint press conference that they agreed that a future Iraqi reconciliation meeting could take place at the headquarters of the League if deemed too difficult to hold in Baghdad.
Neither Maliki nor Moussa, however, offered a date for the resumption of the reconciliation process launched by Moussa over a year ago but interrupted by escalating sectarian violence.
The issue of Iraqi reconciliation is likely to be high on the agenda of meetings that will be hosted by Egypt on Iraq in 10 days. Two conferences will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh and will be attended by Iraq's neighbours as well as Bahrain and Egypt, and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and other members of the G8 industrialised nations. On Tuesday, Al-Maliki told reporters that he believed that Iran will also attend the Sharm El-Sheikh conference.
"All Iraqis have suffered from this violence and from this terror and it is our hope that through the establishment of greater security and through the advancement of a process of political reconciliation in Iraq this violence can end," said Assistant US Secretary of State David Satterfield in Cairo last weekend following talks with the Arab League and Egyptian officials on the Sharm El-Sheikh meetings.
Maliki himself won't attend the upcoming meetings. Next, Maliki plans to travel to Kuwait with aides saying that the United Arab Emirates and Oman might be added to his itinerary.
| April 28, 2007 | 16:32:27 |
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In a bold wartime challenge to President Bush. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Senate Approves Troop Withdrawal Bill,Bush Promises Veto of Iraq Exit Timetable,, In a bold wartime challenge to President Bush, the Democratic-controlled Congress cleared legislation Thursday to begin withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by Oct. 1 with a goal of a complete pullout six months later. The White House dismissed the legislation as "dead before arrival."
The 51-46 Senate vote was largely along party lines, and like House passage a day earlier it underscored that the war's congressional opponents are far short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a Bush veto.
Democrats marked Thursday's final passage with a news conference during which they repeatedly urged Bush to reconsider his veto threat. "This bill for the first time gives the president of the United States an exit strategy" from Iraq, said Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin.
The legislation is "in keeping with what the American people want," added Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
The White House was unmoved. "The president's determined to win in Iraq. I think the bill that they sent us today is mission defeated," said deputy press secretary Dana Perino. "This bill is dead before arrival."
Given that standoff, Republicans and Democrats alike already were maneuvering for position on a follow-up bill.
Scenes From Iraq
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell dismissed the just-passed legislation as "political posturing" by Democrats that deserves the veto it will receive. "The solution is simple: Take out the surrender date, take out the pork and get the funds to our troops," he said.
The bill would provide $124.2 billion, more than $90 billion of which would go for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Democrats added billions more for domestic programs, and while most of the debate focused on the troop withdrawal issue, some of the extra spending also has drawn Bush's criticism.
The day's developments amounted to a landmark of sorts.
The vote occurred nearly four years after Bush stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier before a banner that read "Mission Accomplished" - and 113 days after Democrats took power in Congress and vowed to change course in a war that has cost the lives of more than 3,300 U.S. troops.
During Vietnam, a longer and far deadlier war for U.S. forces, Congress went years before it was able to agree on legislation significantly challenging presidential war policy.
In the current case, any veto override attempt would occur in the House, and even Democrats concede they lack the votes to prevail.
With House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at his side, Reid said Democrats hoped to have a follow-up war-funding bill ready for the president's signature by June 1. Despite administration claims to the contrary, he said that was soon enough to prevent serious disruption in military operations.
Several Democratic officials have said they expect the next measure will jettison the withdrawal timetable, a concession to Bush. At the same time, they say they hope to include standards for the Iraqi government to meet on issues such as expanding democratic participation and allocating oil resources.
Bush and congressional Republicans, eager to signal the public that they do not support an open-ended commitment to Iraq, have both embraced these so-called benchmarks. Unlike Democrats, they generally oppose using benchmarks to require specific actions, such as troop withdrawals.
Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, said at a news conference that the purpose of benchmarks should be to "see how the Iraqi government is doing," rather than to establish deadlines for a troop withdrawal.
Opinion on the issue covered a wide spectrum. "The only good measure that exists in Iraq now is body counts, and that's not a very good measure," said Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, a moderate Democrat.
Congress acted as the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, said at a Pentagon news conference that the U.S. mission "may get harder before it gets easier."
Less than three months after Bush announced an increase in troop strength and a shift in tactics, Petraeus said improvements were evident in both Baghdad and the Anbar Province in western Iraq. At the same time, he said the accomplishments "have not come without sacrifice" and that greater American losses have resulted from increased car bombings and suicide attacks, plus the greater concentration of U.S. troops among the Iraqi population.
There were no surprises in the Senate vote, in which 48 Democrats and one independent joined Republicans Gordon Smith of Oregon and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska in supporting the bill. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who typically votes with the Democrats, sided with 45 Republicans in opposition.
In a clear warning to the White House, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, opposed the legislation but issued a statement saying her patience with the war was limited.
"If the president's new strategy does not demonstrate significant results by August, then Congress should consider all options including a redefinition of our mission and a gradual but significant withdrawal of our troops next year," she said. Like Hagel and Smith, Collins is coming up on a 2008 re-election campaign.
Democrats have long argued that Republicans must choose between a politically unpopular war on the one hand and a president of their own party on the other.
The legislation requires a troop withdrawal to begin July 1 if Bush cannot certify that the Iraqi government is making progress in disarming militias, reducing sectarian violence and forging political agreements, otherwise by Oct. 1.
While the beginning of a withdrawal is mandated, the balance of the pullback is merely advisory, to take place by April 1, 2008.
Troops could remain after that date to conduct counterterrorism missions, protect U.S. facilities and personnel and train Iraqi security forces.
The war aside, Democrats included more than $10 billion in the legislation that Bush did not ask for. Included was $3.5 billion for the victims of Hurricane Katrina; $2.3 billion for homeland security and smaller amounts for rural schools, firefighting, children's health care and other programs.
| April 26, 2007 | 20:35:24 |
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Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. - Posted By: NaBeeel
In articles in the independent press, prominent leaders of the Coptic Orthodox Church criticized Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists.
In June 2004, the Ministry of Culture's Censorship Department formed a committee of cultural figures (both Muslim and Christian) to review a new film ("I Love the Cinema"/ "Bahebb El-Cima"), which told the story of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox minority during the Nasser era. After initial screenings, Muslim and Christian lawyers filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor, seeking to have the film removed from distribution and the film producers tried for "contempt for religion" because of the film's frank references to problems in the Church. A Cairo court first rejected the case, referring it to a specialized court, which ruled against the plaintiffs in late November 2004. Audiences were able to see the film at a number of theaters for approximately 8 weeks during the year.
Section IV. U.S. Government Policy
The subject of religious freedom is an important part of the bilateral dialogue. The subject has been raised with senior Egyptian government officials by all levels of the U.S. Government, including by the Secretary of State, Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, the Ambassador, and other Embassy officials. The Embassy maintains formal contacts with the Office of Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Embassy also discusses religious freedom issues regularly in contacts with other government officials, including governors and Members of Parliament. The Ambassador has made public statements supporting interfaith understanding and efforts toward harmony and equality among citizens of all faiths. Specifically, the Embassy has raised its concerns about official discrimination against Baha'is with the Government.
The Embassy maintains an active dialogue with the leaders of the Christian and Muslim religious communities, human rights groups, and other activists. The Embassy investigates every complaint of official religious discrimination brought to its attention. The Embassy also discusses religious freedom with a range of contacts, including academics, businessmen, and citizens outside of the capital area. U.S. officials actively challenge anti-Semitic articles in the media through discussions with editors-in-chief and other journalists.
U.S. programs and activities support initiatives in several areas directly related to religious freedom, including funding for CEOSS programs that work with Coptic community groups in Upper Egypt.
The U.S. is working to strengthen civil society, supporting secular channels and the broadening of a civic culture that promote religious tolerance. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo supports projects that promote tolerance and mutual respect between members of different religious communities.
The Embassy supports the development of materials that encourage tolerance, diversity, and understanding of others, in both Arabic-language and English-language curriculums.
The U.S. developed a version of the television program Sesame Street designed to reach remote households and which has as one of its goals the promotion of tolerance, including among different religions. According to a recent household survey, the program, begun in 2000, is reaching more than 90 percent of elementary school-aged children.
The Embassy is also working with the Supreme Council of Antiquities to promote the conservation of cultural antiquities, including Islamic, Christian, and Jewish historical sites.
| April 25, 2007 | 14:48:09 |
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Former Russian Leader Boris Yeltsin Dies. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Former Russian Leader Boris Yeltsin Dies,Former President Boris Yeltsin, who hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union by scrambling atop a tank to rally opposition against a hard-line coup and later pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy, died Monday at age 76. Kremlin spokesman Alexander Smirnov confirmed Yeltsin's death, and Russian news agencies cited Sergei Mironov, head of the presidential administration's medical center, as saying the former president died Monday of heart failure at the Central Clinical Hospital.
The first freely elected leader of Russia, Yeltsin was initially admired abroad for his defiance of the monolithic Communist system. But many Russians will remember him mostly for presiding over the steep decline of their nation.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, summed up the complexity of Yeltsin's legacy in a condolence statement minutes after the death was announced. He referred to Yeltsin as one "on whose shoulders are both great deeds for the country and serious errors," according to the news agency Interfax.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Yeltsin "an important figure in Russian history."
"No Americans, at least, will forget seeing him standing on the tank outside the White House (the Russian parliament building) resisting the coup attempt," Gates said while on a visit to Moscow.
Yeltsin was a contradictory figure, rocketing to popularity in the Communist era on pledges to fight corruption -- but proving unable, or unwilling, to prevent the looting of state industry as it moved into private hands during his nine years in power.
Yeltsin steadfastly defended freedom of the press, but was a master at manipulating the media. His hand-picked successor, Vladimir Putin, has proven far more popular even as he has tightened Kremlin control over both Russia's industry and its press.
Yeltsin amassed as much power as possible in his office -- then gave it all up in a dramatic New Year's address at the end of 1999.
His greatest moments came in bursts.
After Communist hard-liners tried to overthrow Gorbachev and roll back democratic reforms in August 1991, Yeltsin stood atop a tank to rally resistance to the coup. He spearheaded the peaceful end of the Soviet state on Dec. 25 of that year.
Ill with heart problems, and facing possible defeat by a Communist challenger in his 1996 re-election bid, he marshaled his energy and sprinted through the final weeks of the campaign. The challenge transformed the shaky convalescent into the spry, dancing candidate.
But Yeltsin was an inconsistent reformer who never took much interest in the mundane tasks of day-to-day government and nearly always blamed Russia's myriad problems on subordinates.
Yeltsin damaged his democratic credentials by using force to solve political disputes, though he claimed his actions were necessary to keep the country together.
He sent tanks and troops in October 1993 to flush armed, hard-line supporters out of a hostile Russian parliament after they had sparked violence in the streets of Moscow. And in December 1994, Yeltsin launched a war against separatists in the southern republic of Chechnya.
Tens of thousands of people were killed in the Chechnya conflict, and a defeated and humiliated Russian army withdrew at the end of 1996. The war solved nothing -- and Russian troops resumed fighting in the breakaway region in fall 1999.
In the final years of his leadership, Yeltsin was dogged by health problems and often seemed out of touch. He retreated regularly to his country residence outside Moscow and stayed away from the Kremlin for days, even weeks at a time. As the country lurched from crisis to crisis, its leader appeared increasingly absent.
Yet Yeltsin had made a stunning debut as Russian president. He introduced many basics of democracy, guaranteeing the rights to free speech, private property and multiparty elections, and opening the borders to trade and travel. Though full of bluster, he revealed more of his personal life and private doubts than any previous Russian leader had.
"The debilitating bouts of depression, the grave second thoughts, the insomnia and headaches in the middle of the night, the tears and despair ... the hurt from people close to me who did not support me at the last minute, who didn't hold up, who deceived me -- I have had to bear all of this," he wrote in his 1994 memoir, "The Struggle for Russia."
Yeltsin pushed through free-market reforms, creating a private sector and allowing foreign investment. In foreign policy, he assured independence for Russia's Soviet-era satellites, oversaw troop and arms reductions, and developed warm relations with Western leaders.
That was the democratic Yeltsin, who in August 1991 rallied tens of thousands of Russians to face down a hard-line Soviet coup attempt. Throughout his nearly decade-long leadership, he remained Russia's strongest bulwark against Communism.
But there was another Yeltsin.
He was hesitant to act against crime and corruption -- beginning in his own administration -- while they sapped public faith and stunted democracy. His government's wrenching economic reforms impoverished millions of Russians -- poor people whose wages and pensions Yeltsin's government often went months without paying.
In the course of the Yeltsin era, per capita income fell about 75 percent, and the nation's population fell by more than 2 million, due largely to the steep decline in public health.
Yeltsin was a master of Kremlin intrigues, and preferred the chess game of politics to the detail work of solving economic and social problems. He played top advisers off against each other, and never let any of them accumulate much power, lest they challenge him.
He fired the entire government four times in 1998 and 1999. The economy sank into a deep recession in summer 1998, but Yeltsin rarely commented on the troubles and never offered a plan to combat them.
He was quick to act if anyone threatened his hold on power, standing fast even when his traditional allies called on him to step down. He easily faced down an impeachment attempt by the Communist-dominated lower chamber of parliament in May 1999.
In foreign affairs, he struggled to preserve a role for his former superpower. He called for a "multipolar world" as a way to counterbalance what Russia perceived as excessive U.S. global clout, and in spring 1999 he sent Russian troops rushing to Kosovo -- ahead of NATO peacekeepers -- to underline that Moscow would not be elbowed out of European affairs.
He wrangled with the West in disputes over NATO expansion and Russia's relatively warm relations with Iran and Iraq. But as Russia's political and economic might withered, Yeltsin had little to offer other nations.
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was born Feb. 1, 1931, into a peasant family in the Ural Mountains' Sverdlovsk region. As a mischievous child, he lost his thumb and index finger while playing with a stolen grenade. When he was 3, his father was imprisoned in dictator Josef Stalin's purges. His alleged crime was owning property before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
Yeltsin was, by his own account, a garrulous, scrappy boy who loved pranks and was quick to fight. And from the start, he bucked authority.
He was expelled from elementary school for criticizing a teacher at a school assembly. Early in his career as a construction engineer, he was given written reprimands 17 times in one year -- "a new record," he would later recall proudly. And his long career as a Communist Party official was rife with battles with higher party officials.
He was educated as an engineer and married a fellow student, Naina Girina. They had two daughters.
At age 30, Yeltsin joined the Communist Party after a brief career in construction in Sverdlovsk city, now Yekaterinburg. He became a full-time party official in construction in 1969, and seven years later was named the region's party boss.
In 1985, Gorbachev, intent on his own reforms, brought Yeltsin to Moscow, where he shook up the city's party hierarchy. The strapping, silver-haired Yeltsin cut a popular figure in the capital, making a point of riding city buses instead of a limousine, standing in long lines in grocery stores and loudly demanding why managers were stashing away food for favored customers instead of selling it to ordinary consumers.
A bitter rivalry soon grew between him and the more cautious Gorbachev. When Yeltsin criticized Gorbachev at a party meeting in November 1987, accusing him of a sluggish approach to reform, Gorbachev fired him.
In the old days, that would have ended Yeltsin's career. But he stormed back to power in 1989, winning a Soviet parliament seat in the first real election in 70 years. The following year, Yeltsin dramatically quit the Communist Party, walking out of its final convention.
His popularity grew. Yeltsin was a natural with crowds, shaking hands and bantering in a booming voice. For many Russians, he had the unpolished charm of a "muzhik" -- a tough peasant with common sense and a fondness for vodka.
Even then, Yeltsin's career was punctuated by bouts of bizarre behavior that the public chalked up to alcohol. Red-faced pranks, missed appointments, inarticulate and contradictory public statements continued into his presidency, blamed by aides on jet lag, medication or illness.
Yeltsin won Russia's first popular presidential election in a landslide in June 1991. Russia still was part of the Soviet Union, but the central government had started ceding power to the 15 republics.
Kremlin hard-liners trying to stop that process launched the failed coup in August, putting Gorbachev under house arrest. But Yeltsin took control of mass protests in Moscow, leading the democratic opposition to victory.
Yeltsin banned the Communist Party and confiscated its vast property. The ban was lifted in court about a year later, but by then Yeltsin had dealt the death blow to the tottering Soviet state. He and the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus formed the Commonwealth of Independent States in December 1991, declaring the Soviet Union extinct. Gorbachev resigned within the month.
Impatient to lead Russia into a new, prosperous era, Yeltsin quickly launched an economic-reform program that freed prices but sent them soaring, wiping out many people's savings. Inflation skyrocketed and production plummeted.
Years later, he expressed regret over the rush, and said he'd been "naive."
"I ask forgiveness for not justifying some hopes of those people who believed that at one stroke, in one spurt, we could leap from the gray, stagnant, totalitarian past into the light, rich civilized future," he told the nation in a televised speech to announce his resignation on Dec. 31, 1999.
"I myself believed in this, that we could overcome everything in one spurt."
Tension grew between him and the Soviet-era parliament, climaxing in fall 1993 when Yeltsin disbanded the legislature. An armed standoff and street riots followed, and Yeltsin finally turned tanks against the parliament building. Scores of people were killed in the fighting.
Afterward, Yeltsin pushed through a constitution that guaranteed a strong presidency and allowed him to brush off any serious parliamentary challenges.
But growing hard-line influence led him to dump key reformers from his Cabinet, which alienated democratic forces. Their disillusionment grew after the start of the first Chechnya war and more hard-line gains in parliamentary elections in December 1995.
By early 1996, Yeltsin was deeply unpopular and presidential elections loomed in June. But true to form, Yeltsin rallied when things looked bleakest, manipulating the media, enlisting the aid of the so-called oligarchs who had enriched themselves on the spoils of the Soviet economy in a grueling campaign.
The campaign trips to Russian regions and exertion took a heavy physical toll, and by election day Yeltsin could not even make it to his scheduled polling station. Doctors later said he had suffered another mild heart attack during the campaign.
He underwent quintuple heart bypass surgery in November 1996, but continued to suffer from a series of other ailments. He also had long-running back trouble, and seemed increasingly shaky, both physically and mentally.
Russians questioned who was running the country -- the doddering Yeltsin, or the aides and tycoons whom critics accused of exercising undue influence over Kremlin policy.
Yeltsin's increasing frailty seemed to reflect the declining fortunes of the country he led. During public appearances, he would often stumble, and his speeches were punctuated by long, inexplicable pauses -- even when he had the text in front of him.
Russians expected another halting speech on New Year's Eve 1999, but he stunned the nation and the world with his resignation -- having given no hint that he would ever give in to calls that he step down before his second term was up in spring 2000. He named his last prime minister, former KGB agent Putin, acting president -- giving him a huge incumbent's advantage over any would-be challengers.
"Russia must enter the new millennium with new politicians, with new faces, with new, smart, strong, energetic people," Yeltsin said.
"And we who have been in power for many years already, we must go."
After his dramatic exit, Yeltsin appeared rarely in public -- popping up now and again at an official ceremony, holiday reception or tennis tournament. He traveled several times to China for what were described as health-boosting trips, and he looked fitter in retirement than he had in years.
Yeltsin met about once a month with Putin, usually at his dacha in Barvikha outside Moscow, he told an interviewer with Russian state television on the second anniversary of his resignation. He said he felt stronger than during the presidency, less weighed down by stress, and never regretted his abrupt departure. He felt certain that the reforms he championed would continue under Putin, he said.
"If I had doubts that the reforms might be reversed, I would not have resigned," Yeltsin said.
Yeltsin is survived by his wife, two daughters and several grandchildren. Funeral plans were not announced.
| April 23, 2007 | 13:50:33 |
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The United States the world's largest food aid donor. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bush gains support for new approach on global food aid, Waiters in white aprons maneuvered through a noisy cocktail party here the other evening, offering heaping platters of jumbo shrimp, lamb chops and crab-stuffed mushrooms to a crowd of people in town for an annual food aid conference dedicated to ending world hunger.
As shipping and agribusiness executives, charitable workers, lobbyists and federal employees mingled at Morton's steakhouse, Charles Worledge, who works for Sealift, a major shipper of U.S. food to the hungry, offered an insight essential to understanding the politics of food aid.
"I thought this was a charity," he explained during the party, for which another shipping company played host. "It's not. It's a business."
It was here in Kansas City, at the 2005 food aid conference, that the Bush administration pushed for a fundamental change that would have diminished profits to domestic agribusiness and shipping companies. It proposed allowing a quarter of the Food for Peace budget to be used to buy food in poor countries near hunger crises, rather than buying only U.S.-grown food that had to be shipped across oceans.
And Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns spoke at the conference on Wednesday to make the administration's case for the same idea, contending that such a policy would speed delivery, improve efficiency and save many lives.
Congress in each of the past two years killed the proposal, which was opposed by agribusiness and shipping interests who stood to lose business, even as it won support from liberal Democrats like Representatives Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Earl Blumenauer of Oregon.
But there are signs that the frozen politics of the issue are beginning to thaw, especially as evidence of flaws in the current aid system mounts.
A Government Accountability Office report released on the eve of the conference described in stark detail a system rife with inefficiencies:
The amount of food shipped over the past five years has fallen by half as shipping and other logistical costs have soared.
Only a little more than a third of U.S. food aid spending actually buys food.
The United States feeds about 70 million people a year now instead of the more than 100 million it fed five years ago.
Experts worry that the food aid budget will feed even fewer of the world's 850 million hungry people as soaring demand for corn to make ethanol drives up the cost of that staple, a mainstay of food aid programs.
This year, some farm state lawmakers are for the first time considering backing a pilot program to test buying food overseas. Representative Jo Ann Emerson, a Missouri Republican on the House Appropriations Agricultural Subcommittee, opposes major changes in food aid, but, she said, "doing a small demonstration is fine with me."
"If it turns out to work better in some places than others," she said, "I don't have a big problem with that."
And some influential supporters of the administration's more ambitious proposal are speaking out. Former President Bill Clinton recently said at a fund-raiser for Bread for the World, a Christian group that lobbies on hunger issues, that it was to Bush's "everlasting credit" that he had proposed buying food aid in poor countries. Such a policy had never crossed his mind when he was president, Clinton said, but he thought it was a great way to help farmers in Africa and to buy food more efficiently.
And while an alliance of 15 nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, involved in food aid has endorsed only a pilot program for local purchase, Catholic Relief Services, which has a million donors and links with 13,000 parishes, has embraced the administration's proposal. Addressing hundreds of people assembled at the conference, Ken Hackett, president of the agency, which is a major force in food aid, declared, "CRS supports the administration's request for greater flexibility through local purchase."
At perhaps no time since the government's food aid program was created during the Eisenhower administration over a half-century ago has there been more ferment about its future among scholars, politicians and advocates for the poor.
The curious mix of altruistic and self-interested motivations that animate U.S. food aid spring from its origins. Early in the 1950s, the government was the farmer's buyer of last resort when commodity prices fell, and as a result it sat on mountains of grain. The Food for Peace program, adopted in 1954, provided a way to dispose of the surplus grain, which was costly to store, and at the same time feed the world's hungry people. The law mandated that food for the program be grown domestically.
Over the years, the farm programs evolved, and the government shifted to buying virtually all food on the open market, but the requirement that it be grown in the United States never changed. In recent years, the United States has bought more than half the food for its aid programs from just four agribusinesses and their subsidiaries: Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Bunge and Cal Western Packaging, according to the Agriculture Department.
Some researchers and advocates say it is time to rethink the U.S. approach to fighting world hunger.
"Are we committed to eradicating hunger because it's feasible, not terribly expensive and our moral obligation as the richest society in human history?" asked Christopher Barrett, who is co-author of "Food Aid After Fifty Years" and is a professor of applied economics and management at Cornell University. "Or are we just trying to placate a few agribusiness, shipping and NGO constituencies with a handout?"
But some in Congress, as well as lobbyists for interest groups that benefit from food aid, warn that untying aid from requirements that the food be grown in the United States and mostly shipped on U.S.-flag vessels would shatter the political coalition that has sustained the program for decades and made the United States the world's largest food aid donor. They also warn that cash sent to poor countries can be misused or stolen, and that a mismanaged program to buy food in poor countries could drive up food prices.
| April 22, 2007 | 16:04:36 |
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The Wolfowitz affair. - Posted By: NaBeeel
The Wolfowitz affair, The Wolfowitz affair,,A sweetheart deal leaves a sour taste in many mouths
Under the demanding but not always inspiring leadership of Paul Wolfowitz, the World Bank has toiled hard for the past year, hammering out a strategy to fight corruption until every last detail was in place. In its finally approved form, that well-honed document has much to say about the vital role of a “vibrant civil society” and “competitive media” in holding officials’ feet to the fire.
But as he prepared to welcome ministers to the bank’s spring meetings in Washington, DC, on April 14th and 15th, Mr Wolfowitz’s own toes (so memorably exposed when he doffed his shoes during a visit to a Turkish mosque) may have felt a bit toasty. For that, he can thank the Government Accountability Project (GAP), a vibrant participant in America’s civil society-and the document it has fed to competitive media still far more fascinated by the man than by the organisation that he has run for almost two years.
The document in question is the salary history of Mr Wolfowitz’s girlfriend, Shaha Riza, who was working at the bank at the time of his arrival. Three months later, Ms Riza was posted to America’s State Department at the insistence of the bank’s ethics committee, which was not happy for one sweetheart to supervise another. What has raised eyebrows and greened complexions in Washington in recent weeks is the deal’s super-generous financial terms: before she left the bank, Ms Riza was earning $132,660. Two big pay hikes later, she takes home $193,590, much more than the secretary of state herself.
According to the bank’s anti-corruption strategy, the public disclosure of income and assets “can help to enhance the credibility of decision-makers”. But when Mr Wolfowitz’s incredulous underlings read about these handsome sums in the Washington Post on March 28th, they flooded their staff association with expressions of “concern, dismay and outrage”; the association duly agreed that Ms Riza’s terms were “grossly out of line” with staff rules and “extraordinarily discouraging” to bank minions whose entire annual pay was less than Ms Riza’s rise.
How much did Mr Wolfowitz help her cut the deal? That is what the bank’s board of executive directors is now investigating. On April 9th, in a statement to staff, he insisted he had upheld the rules, but pointed out that Ms Riza’s case was “unprecedented”, in part because her external posting was involuntary and for longer than usual. Whatever his precise involvement, his girlfriend and her lawyer clearly found themselves in a strong bargaining position when haggling over terms with the bank’s personnel chief, Xavier Coll, who was said by the Financial Times to have received direct written instructions from Mr Wolfowitz.
The bank’s staff appear in no mood to give their boss the benefit of the doubt. They have little trust in hiring decisions, the staff association says, because the rules are “ignored or are applied unevenly”. It has already rebuked Mr Wolfowitz over the manner of some previous appointments, like that of Suzanne Folsom, who was selected to head his internal corruption watchdog in preference to any of the nine names identified by a search committee.
More damaging than the posts he has filled are those he has left vacant for long periods.
The bank has only just appointed a new vice-president for Africa, for example, four months after Gobind Nankani left the job. According to the GAP, the money committed to poor African countries amounted to about $1.8 billion in the first nine months of this fiscal year, which ends on June 30th, 35% less than it had committed by the same point last year.
The staff have never taken Mr Wolfowitz to their hearts, but the reasons for their suspicion have evolved. At first, they were on the lookout for signs of neoconservative zeal. Would Mr Wolfowitz conscript the bank to the cause of “transformational diplomacy” (as Ms Riza’s lesser-paid colleague, Condoleezza Rice, might put it), devoting its know-how and money to changing the character of disaffected regimes? Now, the fear is not an excess of ambition, but a lack of traction; not that Mr Wolfowitz will overreach, but that he fails to follow through.
He cannot count on a second term, should he even want one, and five years is scant time to make an impression on an institution as unbiddable as the World Bank. The bank braced itself for the audacity of the first Bush administration. Instead it seems to have got the distracted stagnation of the second.
| April 19, 2007 | 00:28:15 |
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Artificial snow harms Alpine water system: scientists. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Artificial snow harms Alpine water system: scientists,Ski resort operators in the snow-deprived Alps should rethink the use of artificial snow as it saps water reserves and could leave an impact well beyond the region, scientists say.
After a very mild winter, they warned laying on artificial snow to satisfy skiers and snowboarders could change seasonal water cycles, hit water supplies and affect fragile ecosystems.
"To make artificial snow all day long and during the whole season is just completely irresponsible for our climate, especially on such a large scale," said Carmen de Jong, professor and research manager at the Mountain Institute at the University of Savoie in France.
"That is insane, you cannot continue like this," de Jong told reporters during the annual meeting this week of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna.
Artificial snow is used on around 23,800 hectares -- the equivalent of some 35,000 soccer pitches or nearly 30 percent of all Alpine skiing slopes.
Some 95 million cubic meters of water -- the annual water consumption of a city of 1.5 million people -- are needed to produce one season's artificial snow for skiers and snowboarders in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia.
Water used for the snow comes from surface streams, artificial reservoirs and increasingly from ground reserves.
De Jong said by keeping water in surface reservoirs instead of in the ground and by spraying it through the air to create the snow, around one third of the water evaporated, forming clouds that often traveled to other regions.
RIVERS RUNNING DRY?
Effects were already visible in some areas, like in parts of French skiing region Les Trois Vallees where water levels of some mountain rivers had dropped by 70 percent, she said.
Some Alpine villages, which previously got most of their drinking water from mountain streams, now needed to pump water out of the ground to ensure drinking supplies. Water taken out of the Alps would be missing for people and industry down the line.
"This could also have an enormous impact on the Mediterranean Sea if river discharges continue to fall," she said.
Ski resort operators argue there is no ecological impact from producing artificial snow.
"The water is not really used up, we simply extend the water cycle," said Albert Baier, managing director of the Planai ski lift operator in the Austrian resort of Schladming, where nearly all slopes are fitted with snow cannons.
"Everything comes from nature, and if I make snow now and then give it back to nature there is no problem with that," said Astrid Petri from the marketing department of Tyrolean ski resort Wilder Kaiser-Brixental.
De Jong recognized the economic role winter sports played for the region, but said snow sport enthusiasts and the tourism industry needed to come up with alternatives, like snow-shoe hiking.
"The tourism industry needs to realize that they cannot produce snow and have a skiing season at all costs," she said.
| April 18, 2007 | 17:28:38 |
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Nuclear spy' arrested in Egypt . - Posted By: NaBeeel
Nuclear spy' arrested in Egypt, Egypt hopes to have a power station of its own by 10 years
The Egyptian authorities have arrested an engineer who works at the country's nuclear energy agency for spying for Israel, state prosecutors said.
Prosecutor Hisham Badawi told a news conference the Egyptian national had taken reports from his workplace with the aim of exchanging them for money.
Two foreign nationals are also wanted by the authorities, prosecutors said.
Egypt has a small atomic reactor for research purposes but recently unveiled plans for a civilian nuclear programme.
The Egyptian engineer was arrested on 18 February, but news of his detention was withheld until the investigation was completed, prosecutors said.
A government statement named him as Muhammad Sayed Saber Ali, 35. The foreign nationals were named as Irishman Brian Peter and Shiro Izo of Japan.
Strained ties
Egypt is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which allows countries to build nuclear power stations under international supervision.
Israel is not a signatory and is believed to be the only state in the region with a nuclear arsenal, though it maintains a position of "ambiguity" on its nuclear weapons.
The two countries ended decades of hostility with the Camp David accords in the late 1970s, but ties have been put under strain over a string of espionage cases.
Last September, Egypt said it wanted to revive its nuclear power programme, which was frozen 20 years ago following the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union.
Demand for electricity has been growing in Egypt at an average rate of 7% a year and the country faces worsening power shortages.
| April 17, 2007 | 17:49:15 |
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Brutal Storm Soaks East Coast. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Storm Threatens Massive Coastal Flooding ,Strong Nor'easter Pounds the East With Wind, Pouring Rain, A powerful nor'easter pounded the East with wind and pouring rain Sunday, grounding airlines and threatening to create some of the worst coastal flooding some areas had seen in more than a decade.
Nature's Wrath
The storm flooded people out of their homes in the middle of the night in West Virginia and trapped others. Other inland states faced a threat of heavy snow.
One person was killed as dozens of mobile homes were destroyed or damaged by wind in South Carolina. The storm system already had been blamed for five deaths on Friday in Kansas and Texas.
The Coast Guard had warned mariners to head for port because wind up to 55 mph was expected to generate seas up to 20 feet high, Petty Officer Etta Smith said Sunday in Boston.
Airlines canceled more than 400 flights at the New York area's three major airports, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Kennedy Airport, on the wind-exposed south side of Long Island, had sustained wind of 30 to 35 mph with gusts to 48 mph, said weather service meteorologist Gary Conte.
The storm forced the cancellation of five major league baseball games Sunday and gave runners in Monday's Boston Marathon something to worry about besides Heartbreak Hill. The race-day forecast called for 3 to 5 inches of rain, start temperatures in the 30s and wind gusts of up to 25 mph.
"I don't like that," professional Kenyan runner Stanley Leleito said playfully, burying his head in his hands when told of the forecast. "The problem is that wind," he said. "But only rainy is OK."
Heavy rain and thunderstorms extended from Florida up the coast to New England on Sunday. Wind gusted to 71 mph at Charleston, S.C., the weather service said.
Storm warnings and watches were posted all along the East Coast, with flood warnings extending from North Carolina to the New York area. Winter storm warnings were in effect for parts of New England and eastern New York state.
More than 5.5 inches of rain fell in the New York region by Sunday evening, the National Weather Service said. Up to 6 inches had been predicted to fall by Monday, and Conte said Sunday night's high tide was likely to bring coastal flooding on Long Island and in parts of New York City.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer sent 3,200 National Guard members to potential flood areas. On Saturday he said the storm could cause the most flooding New York has seen since a December 1992 nor'easter, which washed away beach and sand dunes, knocked out power and left thousands of people temporarily homeless, their houses standing in feet of water.
Fallen tree limbs had cut off power to 1,500 households on Long Island and Fire Island Ferries suspended service to the island, off the south shore of Long Island.
Some residents of low-lying areas along the New Jersey shore packed up to leave.
"This is going to be bad," Shaun Rheinheimer said as he moved furniture to higher spots at his house on New Jersey's Cedar Bonnet Island.
Several highways were flooded around New Jersey. "We have crews out there helping disabled motorists, but my one word of advice is to stay home," said state Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri.
The storm also caused flash flooding in the mountains of southern West Virginia, where emergency services personnel rescued nearly two dozen people from homes and cars in Logan and Boone counties early Sunday. Two people were unaccounted for.
"It's about as bad as it can get," said Logan, W.Va., Fire Chief Scott Beckett. "This thing came down at 2 or 3 in the morning, when people were sleeping in their beds. They just didn't know what was happening."
Some remained trapped in their homes because roads were blocked by high water or mud, said Dean Meadows, Wyoming County emergency services director.
"Our houses sit in the middle of the hill, and it's all around us. I'm surrounded, it's like a lake completely around us," said Samantha Walker, 29, who was visiting her grandmother in Matheny. "We can't get out even if we wanted to get out.
Gov. Joe Manchin planned to issue an emergency disaster either Sunday evening or Monday morning, spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg said.
Up to 2.5 inches of rain had fallen in southern West Virginia since early Saturday and streams were still rising Sunday, said weather service meteorologist Dan Bartholf in Charleston.
At least 3 inches of rain fell in eastern Kentucky, where a 50-foot section of highway collapsed near Pikeville, said State Police Sgt. Jamey Kidd. No vehicles were caught by the collapse, he said.
Dozens of homes were destroyed or blown off their foundations in several areas of South Carolina's Sumter County, but authorities didn't immediately know if the cause was a tornado or straight-line wind, said county emergency management director Robert Baker Jr. One person was killed and four were seriously injured, he said.
In central Florida, a tornado damaged mobile homes in Dundee but no injuries were reported, police said.
The storm also rained out Sunday's Washington Nationals game with the New York Mets at New York's Shea Stadium, the Pittsburgh Pirates home game against San Francisco, the Houston Astros at Philadelphia, the Kansas City Royals at Baltimore, and the Los Angeles Angels at Boston. Last weekend, snow dumped by another major storm system wiped out scheduled Mariners-Indians games at Cleveland for four straight days.
Associated Press writers Wayne Parry in Manahawkin, N.J., Daniela Flores in Trenton, N.J., Tom Breen in Madison, W.Va., and Jimmy Golen in Boston also contributed to this report.
| April 16, 2007 | 00:10:27 |
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They've got serious combat fatigue after six years in office. - Posted By: NaBeeel
E-Mail Uproar Gives Dems Ammo Vs. Rove, The fight over documents has gone to red alert. The White House acknowledges it cannot find four years' worth of e-mails from chief political strategist Karl Rove. The admission has thrust the Democrats' nemesis back into the center of attention and poses a fresh political challenge for President Bush.
The administration has acknowledged that some e-mails missing from Rove's Republican party account may relate to the firing of eight U.S. prosecutors last year. The Democratic-run Congress is investigating whether the firings resulted from political pressure by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the White House.
For Democrats, the missing Rove e-mails is one more chance to pound away at their favorite target, the architect of Bush's 2000 and 2004 presidential victories and all-around White House political fixer.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has compared the missing e-mails to the 18-minute gap on President Nixon's Watergate tapes. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., says the White House message to Congress is: "We are stonewalling."
The White House chalks it up to just another outbreak of Democratic Rove rage. "My experience has been that any time Karl Rove's name is mentioned, it adds to the ammunition, regardless of merit," White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.
Only Dick Cheney raises the same kind of anger - and there is not much they can do about the vice president, short of impeachment.
The Rove connection is sure to be raised when Gonzales testifies Tuesday before Leahy's committee. His appearance, Democratic and Republican lawmakers say, may determine whether the longtime Bush friend can hold onto his job.
Democrats plan to focus on the Justice Department's contradictory statements about the firings and Gonzales' shifting explanations of his own role.
Democrats now are seeking Rove's sworn public testimony in their investigation of dismissed U.S. attorneys. So far, the White House has agreed only to off-the-record interviews for Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers with committee members.
Department documents turned over to Congress suggested that Rove and Miers had an early role in planning the firings, despite initial White House statements to the contrary.
Democrats have threatened to issue subpoenas. But, due to the constitutional separation of executive and legislative powers, it is not clear they can force Rove to testify.
"He's been a pet symbol to Democrats," said Fred Greenstein, professor emeritus of politics at Princeton University. "It's clear that he is very important to Bush and that the president takes him very seriously, even if the 2008 election outcome would be totally unaffected by dropping Rove."
Despite Rove's reputation as a political grand master, there is not exactly a rush to his door among the current large field of Republican presidential hopefuls.
Democrats have had Rove in their cross hairs before; he always has slipped away.
He was implicated in the CIA leak case as someone who had passed on the identity of CIA undercover agent Valerie Plame to reporters. But he never was charged and never called to testify in the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff. Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice and is awaiting sentencing.
Rove also managed to emerge unscathed from investigations of administration and congressional ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
If Rove deliberately deleted e-mails relating to the firing of the prosecutors, Democrats suggest, he could run afoul of a 1978 law that requires the White House to keep documents that relate to presidential actions, decisions and deliberations.
Republican strategist Rich Galen says Democrats could make the same mistakes that Republicans made under House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., in going after President Clinton after winning control of the House.
"That's what got us in big trouble in 1998 (midterm elections, when Republicans lost seats) and ultimately cost Newt his job as speaker. We so solely focused on going after Bill Clinton that people said, in essence, `We hired you to solve stuff - and not to spend all day, every day, trying to figure out how to make Bill Clinton's life miserable,'" said Galen, who worked for Gingrich when he was speaker.
Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, denies that his client deleted his own e-mails from a Republican-sponsored computer system. "His understanding, starting very, very early in the administration was that those e-mails were being archived," Luskin said.
Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University, said the controversy over the missing Rove e-mails is another sign of "the downward spiral of an old, tired administration."
It comes as public support for the war in Iraq continues to erode, Bush's approval ratings are in the mid-30s and the administration is embroiled in multiple scandals and ethics investigations.
"They've got serious combat fatigue after six years in office," said Baker. "The forces there are getting very thin."
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| April 15, 2007 | 15:32:14 |
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I think he's going to do fine. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Ex-US President Clinton: New UN Chief Is `Going To Do Fine' ,-Former U.S. President Bill Clinton gave U.N. Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon a vote of confidence after a 45-minute discussion of global hotspots.,"I think he's got a great handle on this job," Clinton said after the meeting Thursday. "I think he's going to do fine."
Clinton's two-year appointment as former Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy for tsunami relief ended on Dec. 31, a day before Ban took the reins of the world body. The U.N. said the former president asked for Thursday's meeting.
"We just wanted to have a visit," Clinton said. "We have talked a little bit about the work I did for the U.N. before and we talked about all the issues."
U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said the topics included follow-up to the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami that sent 33-foot high waves roaring across the Indian Ocean, killing more than 216,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
Ban and Clinton also discussed the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, Somalia, Uganda, Congo, Iran, Iraq, the Middle East peace process and HIV/AIDS - and what the U.N. and the Clinton Global Initiative were doing about global problems, Okabe said.
The Global Initiative is an annual gathering of business, political and nonprofit leaders held at the time of the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting in September. Participants are required to make financial or other commitments to help solve global problems.
Clinton said he invited the secretary-general to come to the Clinton Global Initiative in September.
| April 14, 2007 | 16:18:08 |
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Ohio man charged with helping al Qaeda. - Posted By: NaBeeel
A 43-year-old U.S. citizen was charged Wednesday with providing material support to al Qaeda and plotting to set off bombs in Europe and the United States, according to a federal indictment unsealed in Columbus, Ohio.
Ohio man charged with helping al Qaeda,
• Indictment reveals charges against man arrested Wednesday
• Christopher Paul of Columbus, Ohio, faces three terrorism-related counts
• Paul charged with plotting to set off bombs in Europe, United States
• Indictment says Paul helped al Qaeda, trained at their camp in Afghanistan
Christopher Paul did not enter a plea in his first court appearance Wednesday, and his lawyer, Donald Worley, would not comment on the charges when contacted by CNN.
A detention hearing and arraignment are scheduled for Friday, according to the clerk of court's office. (Read the indictment)
According to the indictment, the targets of the bomb plots allegedly included European tourist resorts where Americans stayed and a person in the United States whom prosecutors did not name.
The plotting took place between April 1999 and January 2000, according to the three-count indictment.
Prosecutors say that beginning in 1989, Paul supported terrorists by his actions, and he provided training and equipment to be used in attacks on people overseas.
Most of the ties the indictment lays out relating to Paul's alleged association with al Qaeda date back to the early to middle 1990s. Prosecutors allege Paul traveled to Afghanistan and trained at an al Qaeda camp in late 1990 or early 1991, and later in 1991 joined the terror group.
In court papers, prosecutors also say Paul and some co-conspirators watched videos depicting violence against Muslims, and in the middle 1990s he "expressed his admiration" for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to an unidentified co-conspirator.
"The indictment of Christopher Paul paints a disturbing picture of an American who traveled overseas to train as a violent jihadist, joined the ranks of al Qaeda, and provided military instruction and support to radical cohorts both here and abroad," Assistant Attorney General Ken Wainstein said in a written statement.
"Our persistence and determination in the pursuit of this case should serve as a strong warning to any American who considers joining forces with our enemy."
Prosecutors also charge Paul with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction by alleging that in April 1999, he "provided explosives training to co-conspirators in Germany in order to assist them in preparing to conduct attacks using explosives on targets in Europe and the United States."
The indictment lists various items found in Paul's or his father's homes in the last few years, including a night vision scope, "a thermal fax containing names, phone numbers, and contact information for key al Qaeda leadership and associates," a book on improvised land mines, books on making explosives and explosive devices and a letter from him to his parents "explaining that he will be 'on the front lines' and where to find out information on 'jihad.' "
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
| April 12, 2007 | 16:57:13 |
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Birkhead: I'm the father ,I told you so. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Birkhead: I'm the father
• NEW: DNA test is 99.99 percent certain, doctor says
• Anna Nicole Smith's attorney, former boyfriend among those claiming paternity
• Father of Dannielynn stands to share multimillion-dollar inheritance
NASSAU, Bahamas (CNN) -- Larry Birkhead says a Bahamian court declared he is the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby daughter, Dannielynn.
"I told you so," Birkhead said outside the court.
A DNA test confirmed him as the father with 99.99 percent certainty, said Dr. Michael Baird, who performed the test.
The court had ordered DNA testing to determine the father of the child, who has been at the center of a paternity dispute since she was born in a Bahamian hospital in September.
The doctor who performed a DNA test for Birkhead, Smith's former boyfriend who insisted he fathered the baby, revealed the results to a closed session of a Bahamian court Tuesday.
Birkhead, an entertainment reporter and photographer, said shortly after the baby's birth that he accompanied Smith to doctors' appointments until a "minor disagreement" took place while she was pregnant.
But Smith publicly identified Howard K. Stern, her lawyer and live-in companion, as the baby's father and listed him as the father on the child's birth certificate.
In September, Stern said on CNN's "Larry King Live" that he and Smith were confident he was the father, and "based on when the timing of when the baby was born, there really is no doubt in either of our minds."
Her daughter stands to inherit millions of dollars from the estate of Smith's late husband, oil tycoon Howard Marshall II. Until her death, Smith was involved in a legal battle over the inheritance.
After a protracted dispute over the burial of Smith's body, Stern and Birkhead began battling in Bahamian courts over the child, and a judge ordered that a swab be taken from the girl for DNA testing.
Stern then asked the Bahamas' Court of Appeal to block release of those test results, arguing that the judge had misinterpreted the law and his order invaded the girl's privacy.
Earlier this month, appellate judges questioned why Stern was raising legal claims after giving consent to the DNA swabbing.
Stern was ordered to pay $10,000 in court costs for the abandoned appeal.
| April 10, 2007 | 16:19:19 |
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Warming not behind hurricane activity. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Warming not behind hurricane activity: forecaster,Natural changes in ocean currents are to blame for increased Atlantic hurricane activity in recent years, not man-made global warming as many scientists believe, hurricane forecaster William Gray said on Friday.
"I think the whole human-induced greenhouse gas thing is a red herring," Gray said in a speech at the National Hurricane Conference.
Gray, whose annual forecasts for the hurricane season are closely watched, said the Earth has warmed the past 30 years, but that it was due to flucuations in ocean currents. He predicted a cooling off period would begin in five to 10 years as the currents change again.
"I see climate change as due to the ocean circulation pattern. I see this as a major cause of climate change," Gray told the meteorologists and emergency management specialist who attend the annual conference.
The Atlantic had destructive hurricane seasons in 2004, when four major hurricanes struck Florida, and 2005 when Katrina and Rita badly damaged the U.S. Gulf Coast.
In 2005, there were a record 28 named storms and 15 hurricanes, but last year was much calmer with 10 tropical storms and five hurricanes.
This year, Gray's forecasting team is predicting an active season with 17 named storms, nine of which will become hurricanes.
Periods of intense Atlantic hurricane activity are not unusual and follow the change of a key Atlantic Ocean current that shifts every 30 years or so to bring warmer ocean waters that encourage hurricane formation, .
He said carbon dioxide levels in the Earth's atmosphere have increased, but periods of hurricane activity preceded the build-up of the gas, which is blamed for warming and is the byproduct mostly of fossil fuel burning.
The changing ocean current "goes back for hundreds of thousands of years," Gray said. "These are natural processes. We shouldn't blame them on humans and CO2."
Gray said the Atlantic current appears to change because of a rise and fall in water salinity.
The combative professor dismissed the work of scientific colleagues who have linked global warming and increased hurricane activity, saying they were simply seeking grant money.
"You've heard a lot of foolishness over the last few years
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The urgency of this report prepared by the world's top scientists. - Posted By: NaBeeel
'The World Needs to Act Fast',Scientists Issue Grim Global Warming Report,Climate Change Raises Risk of Species Extinction, The world faces increased hunger and water shortages in the poorest countries, massive floods and avalanches in Asia, and species extinction unless nations adapt to climate change and halt its progress, according to a report approved Friday by an international conference on global warming.
'The World Needs to Act Fast'
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, presents the report on climate change in Brussels on Friday.
Virginia Mayo, AP
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, presents the report on climate change in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday.
"It has been a complex exercise," said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Several scientists objected to the editing of the final draft by government negotiators but, in the end, agreed to compromises. However, some scientists vowed never to take part in the process again.
Five days of negotiations reached a climax when the delegates removed parts of a key chart highlighting devastating effects of climate change that kick in with every rise of 1.8 degrees, and in a tussle over the level of scientific reliability attached to key statements.
There was little doubt about the science, which was based on 29,000 sets of data, much of it collected in the last five years. "For the first time we are not just arm-waving with models," Martin Perry, who conducted the grueling negotiations, told reporters.
Scientists Predict Huge Southwest Drought,
The final IPCC report is the clearest and most comprehensive scientific statement to date on the impact of global warming mainly caused by man-induced carbon dioxide pollution.
"The poorest of the poor in the world -- and this includes poor people in prosperous societies -- are going to be the worst hit," Pachauri said. "People who are poor are least able to adapt to climate change."
The report said up to 30 percent of species face an increased risk of vanishing if global temperatures rise 3.6 degrees above the average in the 1980s and 1990s.
Areas in drought will become even more dry, adding to the risks of hunger and disease, it said. The world will face heightened threats of flooding, severe storms and the erosion of coastlines.
"This is a glimpse into an apocalyptic future," the Greenpeace environmental group said of the final report.
Without action to curb carbon emissions, man's livable habitat will shrink starkly, said Stephen Schneider, a Stanford scientist who was one of the authors. "Don't be poor in a hot country, don't live in hurricane alley, watch out about being on the coasts or in the Arctic, and it's a bad idea to be on high mountains with glaciers melting."
"We can fix this," by investing a small part of the world's economic growth rate, said Schneider. "It's trillions of dollars, but it's a very trivial thing."
European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the report will spur the EU's determination to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
"The world needs to act fast if we are to succeed in stabilizing climate change and thereby prevent its worst impacts," Dimas said in a statement.
Negotiators pored over the 21-page draft meant to be a policy guide for governments. The summary pares down the full 1,572-page scientific assessment of the evidence of climate change so far, and the impact it will have on the Earth's most vulnerable people and ecosystems.
More than 120 nations attended the meeting. Each word was approved by consensus, and any change had to be approved by the scientists who drew up that section of the report.
Parry denied the hard-fought editing process resulted in a watered-down version, but acknowledged that "certain messages were lost."
At one point early Friday, it looked like the report "was not going to be accepted. It was very, very close to that point," said David Karoly, one of the scientific authors from the University of Oklahoma.
Though weakened by the deletion of some elements, the final report "will send a very, very clear signal" to governments, said Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate official.
The summary will be presented to the G8 summit of the world's richest nations in June, when the European Union is expected to renew appeals to President Bush to join in international efforts to control emissions of fossil fuels.
This year's series of reports by the IPCC were the first in six years from the prestigious body of 2,500 scientists, formed in 1988. Public awareness of climate change gave the IPCC's work unaccustomed importance and fueled the intensity of the closed-door negotiations during the five-day meeting.
"The urgency of this report prepared by the world's top scientists should be matched by an equally urgent response from governments," said Hans Verolme, director of the global climate change program of the World Wide Fund for Nature.
At the final session, the conference snagged over a sentence that said the impact of climate change already were being observed on every continent and in most oceans.
"There is very high confidence that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases," said the statement on the first page of text.
But China insisted on striking the word "very," injecting doubt into what the scientists argued were indisputable observations. The report's three authors refused to go along with the change, resulting in an hours-long deadlock that was broken by a U.S. compromise to delete any reference to confidence levels.
It is the second of four reports from the IPCC this year; the first report in February laid out the scientific case for how global warming is happening. This second report is the "so what" report, explaining what the effects of global warming will be.
For the first time, the scientists broke down their predictions into regions, and forecast that climate change will affect billions of people.
North America will experience more severe storms with human and economic loss, and cultural and social disruptions. It can expect more hurricanes, floods, droughts, heat waves and wildfires, it said. Coasts will be swamped by rising sea levels. In the short term, crop yields may increase by 5 percent to 20 percent from a longer growing season, but will plummet if temperatures rise by 7.2 degrees.
Africa will be hardest hit. By 2020, up to 250 million people are likely to be exposed to water shortages. In some countries, food production could fall by half, it said.
Parts of Asia are threatened with massive flooding and avalanches from melting Himalayan glaciers. Europe also will see its Alpine glaciers disappear. Australia's Great Barrier Reef will lose much of its coral to bleaching from even moderate increases in sea temperatures, the report said.
Separately, an independent organization that keeps tabs on glacial melting in Austria's Alps said its latest survey confirms that the ice sheets continue to shrink significantly and predicted most will vanish by the end of the century.
The Austrian Alpine Association said experts measured 105 of Austria's 925 glaciers last year and found they had receded by an average of 52 1/2 feet, with one of the sheets shrinking a dramatic 262 feet during 2006.
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We expect there to be no strings on our commanders. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Democrats confident they'll win spending fight, Bush thinks public will back him
Republicans miscalculated a decade ago and were blamed for forcing a government shutdown in a spending standoff with President Clinton. Now President Bush and congressional Democrats are on a collision course on Iraq spending -- a high-stakes confrontation to see who blinks and who can successfully accuse the other of shortchanging U.S. troops.
In winter 1995-96, majority Republicans, led by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, defied Clinton and voted for deep cuts in domestic programs. When Clinton vetoed the legislation, a disruptive, nearly monthlong holiday-season government shutdown ensued. Republicans sought to pin it on Clinton, but instead, they were largely blamed by the public for precipitating the crisis.
The current stalemate resembles that earlier battle, but with the tables turned. It's now Democrats who are defying a Republican president's veto threat. Both the House and Senate have passed bills to provide money for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan -- but they include timetables for withdrawing U.S. forces that Bush says he won't accept.
The dispute also brings to mind efforts by Congress in the 1970s to end the Vietnam War.
"Everybody knows that the money will be provided the troops eventually. But, given the election results, Congress probably needs to show the voters that they listened," said Stanley Collender, a longtime congressional budget analyst.
"Congress has very little ability once a president starts to wage war to do much about it, except for its constitutional power to raise and spend money. So Congress is here, trying to use the one tool available," said Collender, now managing director at Qorvis Communications, a business consulting firm.
Bush is betting that the public will back him over Congress, as it did Clinton in the previous epic spending standoff.
"We expect there to be no strings on our commanders," Bush said, renewing a veto threat on both a Senate-passed bill calling for most U.S. combat troops to be out of Iraq by March 31, 2008, and an even stronger House-passed bill demanding a September 2008 withdrawal.
House and Senate negotiators will have to reconcile the different versions.
The White House continued the verbal sparring on Friday by complaining that Congress had left town for a two-week spring break, with the House not even naming its legislative negotiators. "Every day that the Congress fails to act on this request causes our military hardship and affects readiness," said deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino.
In the 1995-96 showdown, many government offices were closed, people couldn't get passports, some government benefit checks were delayed, popular monuments were closed and access to national parks was restricted.
That led to a backlash against Gingrich and other Republicans, setting the stage for Democratic gains in the 1996 elections. Are Democrats now risking making the same mistake in defying a clear veto threat?
Their leaders say no.
If Bush vetoes the bill, "It's his responsibility," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
The House Democratic Caucus, headed by Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, on Friday issued what it billed as a comparison between the 2007 Iraq debate and the 1995 budget debate.
"President Clinton was far more willing to work with Republicans, while President Bush has been combative," said the document. "Moreover, in 1995 President Clinton was far more popular than President Bush is today and Democrats have the support and trust of the American people on Iraq, while the public opposed the Republican budget plans."
Unlike the government shutdown, which caused real hardships, few lawmakers in either party expect any funds to be actually cut for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. With small Democratic majorities, a Bush veto is all but certain to be sustained. And passage of legislation providing the funds, without a withdrawal timetable, seems likely to follow.
Furthermore, said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman: "Whatever Democrats do, Bush has said he's going to keep the war going. They have the money to do what they have to do."
Still, Melman said that it will be increasingly hard for Bush to keep Republicans in Congress in line. "George Bush's career is over. These guys still have careers on the line. And there are not too many of them that want to sacrifice that career for George Bush's ambitions in Iraq."
| March 31, 2007 | 19:19:46 |
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You don't have to have extra cost or effort. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Love pizza? Cook it well before dinner time,New York - Cooking whole wheat pizza crust at slightly higher temperatures, for just a bit longer, can substantially pump up its antioxidant content, according to new study results presented at the 233rd annual meeting of the American Chemical Society.
"This is something people can really do at home," Dr Liangli Lucy Yu of the University of Maryland in College Park told reporters. "You don't have to have extra cost, you don't have to have extra effort."
Because pizza crust is one of the most widely eaten whole wheat foods in the US, Yu and Jeffrey Moore, a doctoral student in food chemistry, investigated whether changes in dough fermentation and cooking times, as well as cooking temperatures, might also change its antioxidant content.
The researchers tested dough made from two different wheat varieties. Increasing cooking temperature from 400 to 550 degrees Fahrenheit increased antioxidant content by as much as 82 percent, while extending cooking times from seven to 14 minutes boosted antioxidant levels by up to 60 percent. When Lu and Moore allowed the dough to ferment longer, up to 48 hours, antioxidant content as much as doubled.
Higher temperatures and longer cooking and fermentation times increase wheat's antioxidant content because more nutrients are released from the wheat's bran coating, Yu noted in an interview. It's unlikely the same effect would be seen with non-whole wheat crusts, she added, given that refined flour doesn't contain wheat bran.
Students and faculty who tasted the pizza crust found it "highly acceptable", Yu said.
The study represents one of many "little things you can do at home to make your food better", she noted, such as storing vegetables properly.
For those trying this at home, she added, it's key to keep a careful eye on the oven so the crust won't burn.
| March 29, 2007 | 15:05:56 |
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In the Middle East, asking questions gets you noticed. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Asking questions gets you noticed,A minder shadows me as I chat to the director of the Nubian Museum. The most innocuous of inquiries, the most aboveboard of assignments pique the interest of security agencies across the Middle East. In Egypt, television journalists know this all too well. I experienced it once again, first hand, while filming this month's edition of Inside the Middle East.
Since first traveling to Upper Egypt in 1991, I'd always been curious about the ancient Nubian community. Distinct in their traditional dialect and ethnicity, the Nubians, who once ruled over the rich and lush land on the banks of the Nile, have become exiles of sorts in their own country.
A series of floods from the construction of dams on the mighty Nile displaced up to a million Nubians over the last generation. The government relocated many of them in the early '60s, sometimes deep into the desert, far from their ancestral homeland. Their Nile culture has drowned under the water of the river that made their glory for a period thousands of years ago.
We spoke to an old man who remembered what life was like in Nubian villages before the floods. In the open-air patio of a government-provided home, he energetically showed me deeds of his family property and spoke of the difficulty of adjusting to a more urban lifestyle.
"The children," he said remembering his days as a school principal, "don't draw colorful pictures anymore. Not the way they used to."
His wife, sitting on a wooden bench behind him, nodded "no" when I asked if all Nubians had been compensated fairly for the homes they were forced to abandon.
I interview a Nubian tribal leader
Then, the old man started changing his story. Life for Nubians was actually wonderful, he said with verve; they had all been given a fair swap for their property. The schools, he added, were top-notch.
It wasn't making sense; and then, I knew.
I turned around and saw a government minder taking notes. Leaning against a wall, behind the camera, the young man Egyptian authorities had "assigned" to our television crew was busy writing away.
I asked a few more questions and ended the interview. It was pointless to go on. The old man did not want to appear overly critical of the authorities. In Egypt, as in many countries in the Middle East, that can get you in trouble.
Later, I took the minder aside:
"Why are you taking notes?" I asked.
"Does it bother you?" he replied, smiling.
I wasn't smiling.
"Yes, actually, it does."
His expression turned serious. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an official ID card.
"Look," he says pointing to his picture, thinking I was questioning his credentials, rather than complaining that his presence was a nuisance.
The following day, a man who'd helped us on the ground in Aswan was called in to a local police station for questioning. We immediately called the police chief and dictated our shooting permit numbers over the phone, finally convincing the authorities that our contact had nothing to hide.
Add to that the checkpoints and the questions from soldiers calling their superiors. During this trip, I would hear fragments of conversations from the window of our van.
"Americans ... Tourism ... Yes sir."
This isn’t unusual in Egypt or anywhere else in the Middle East. Sometimes, information ministries don’t impose minders, but when they do, the "escorts" are simply following orders. In the end, I even warmed to the young man assigned to us in Upper Egypt. Young, shy, with a pencil mustache and a soft smile, he was easy to like. Others have been more intrusive and more aggressive.
In the end, we get around them. When conducting interviews, we make sure they're out of earshot. When alone, we spend that time speaking to ordinary people on the street. For more sensitive stories, we shoot interviews in hotels. In other words, we can report accurately and fairly, but the presence of minders is a constant reminder that we are being watched and that our presence is deemed a threat.
In Egypt a few weeks ago, 22-year-old blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil was imprisoned for four years for criticizing President Hosni Moubarak and "insulting Islam." All the while, opposition politicians complain proposed constitutional changes will further choke the democratic process in Egypt.
Dissenting voices are not easily tolerated within one of America's strongest allies in the Arab world.
In the Middle East, asking questions gets you noticed.
-- From Hala Gorani, CNN International Anchor
| March 28, 2007 | 15:59:18 |
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Mounting concerns over card fraud. - Posted By: NaBeeel
How to Protect Your Plastic,Free Credit Report,and Score Instantly!,Experian Credit Report
Recent Thefts of Credit- and Debit-Card Information Highlight Need for Consumer Caution; Beware of Unbranded ATMs,Debit-card use is soaring, but a series of recent scams highlights the growing risk of fraud to consumers who use the method of payment.
Thieves are always inventing new ways to steal consumers' account information, whether they use debit or credit cards. But debit cards typically put consumers at greater financial risk because they offer less legal protection than credit cards in the event of loss. And because debit cards access funds directly from your bank account, the money is missing while you sort out any theft, which could mean bounced checks, late fees and other problems.
Consumers who like the convenience of debit cards can take steps to protect themselves. These include keeping an eye on your card, if possible, when paying at places like restaurants and gas stations. Suspicious-looking ATMs, usually unbranded machines in convenience stores and the like, can also be targets for scams. You should safeguard your PIN, including shielding your hands when entering the numbers, because of other types of fraud that involve stealing your PIN number using hidden cameras and then taking your card.
Many consumer groups simply recommend paying with credit cards, because these typically offer the greatest legal protections in the event of an unauthorized charge and generally limit consumer losses to $50 under federal law. By contrast, banks' policies on debit-card protections can vary, often depending on how soon you report any loss to the institution and whether or not you used your signature. Some banks and card issuers have beefed up their consumer-protection guarantees, though these can have exceptions.
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"When push comes to shove, you have better protections with a credit card than you will ever have with a debit card, regardless of what the banks say with their ads," says Jay Foley, co-executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit group in San Diego. "Which would you rather do, argue with a credit card that a charge is erroneous, or argue with the bank to put money back in your account?"
Debit-card use has jumped about 20 percent a year since 1996, according to the Federal Reserve, and transactions using debit cards now outnumber those using credit cards. Banks have been pushing debit-card use, which topped $1 trillion last year, mainly to take market share away from payments for lower-priced items previously made with cash or checks. But debit-card fraud also is growing, to $662 million in 2005, up 21% from a year earlier, according to a recent report by PULSE EFT Associates, owned by Morgan Stanley.
A recent high-profile theft at several Stop & Shop markets in Rhode Island has drawn attention to the practice of "skimming," in which account data from cards' magnetic stripes are surreptitiously copied and later used to create counterfeit cards. For years, skimming has been a problem when paying at establishments such as restaurants, hotels and gas stations, where attendants swipe cards out of sight from customers.
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But in the Rhode Island incident, thieves stole customers' data in plain view by replacing checkout lane card-readers with bogus devices of their own. Four men have been arrested in the case. At Citizens Bank, one of the banks defrauded, according to the affidavit, at least $68,000 was stolen from customers' accounts. The bank says the funds were restored in compliance with federal law.
Still, debit cards offer a convenience that some consumers don't want to give up. Stacy Pena says she continues to use her debit card even though she lost $660 in unauthorized withdrawals from her Bank of America account in July. The California resident learned of the loss after two more unauthorized withdrawals in December. At that point, the bank closed her account and reimbursed her for the funds lost in December. But the bank so far has refused to refund the July loss, citing her delay in notification, she says.
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Ms. Pena says using her debit card keeps her from running up debt. "It is my main form of payment, but I'm going to be more vigilant about checking my statements now," she says. Bank of America declined to discuss Ms. Pena's situation.
Mounting concerns over card fraud have prompted some restaurant chains to try out new cashier systems. Hooters of America Inc. and Legal Sea Foods are introducing card-reading systems similar to those used in Europe that can be brought to a customer's table by the waitstaff, both to prevent skimming and for convenience. And Ruby Tuesday Inc. is launching a new point-of-sale checkout system that won't store any credit- or debit-card information, a precaution meant to prevent thieves from obtaining data by hacking or other means. The chain is one of the first to use a system that doesn't store account information to comply with new voluntary data-security standards adopted by a credit-card industry group.
Credit cards are regulated by federal fair-credit laws, which generally limit consumer responsibility for losses to $50 for unauthorized use. Many card issuers waive even that. Moreover, fraudulent charges are the bank's and the retailer's headache, not yours.
But debit cards are regulated by the law that governs electronic fund transfers. While losses are limited to $50 for unauthorized use reported within two business days, any losses reported after two days are limited to $500. If you report a loss more than 60 days after the bank transmits a statement that includes an unauthorized funds transfer, the bank doesn't have to reimburse you. As a result, cardholders can be liable for losses up to the entire balance in the account and their maximum overdraft line of credit.
A growing number of banks are touting "zero liability" protections to promote debit-card use, but there can be exceptions. Card issuers Visa USA and MasterCard Inc. offer their "zero liability" guarantees only to consumers who use their cards with a signature instead of a PIN. That can be difficult at times because retailers often steer consumers to enter their PINs on keypads. The reason: Banks get higher fees from merchants when consumers use debit cards with signatures, rather than PINs. Some banks may choose to offer zero-liability protection to PIN users, too. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s Chase bank, for instance, offers this protection to PIN-debit users if a fraud is reported within 60 days of receiving a bank statement.
| March 27, 2007 | 14:44:22 |
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Dark Chocolate May Lower Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Dark Chocolate May Lower Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease,If you eat some dark chocolate now-and-again you could well be lowering your chances of developing cardiovascular disease, say researchers at Yale Prevention Research Center, Connecticut, USA. It seems dark chocolate contains flavonoids which boost the function of endothelial cells in the lining of blood vessels.
Flavonoids, antioxidant compounds, can also be found in several fruits and vegetables, some wines as well as several teas. The higher your flavonoid intake, the lower you chances are of developing cardiovascular disease, say researchers.
In this latest study researchers looked at 45 people with a body mass index (BMI) of between 25 and 35. They were all healthy. If a person's BMI is over 30 he/she is probably obese, a BMI of over 25 indicates the person is probably overweight.
The participants were divided into three groups:
1. This group consumed eight ounces of cocoa per day - without sugar for six weeks
2. This group consumed eight ounces of cocoa per day - with sugar for six weeks
3. This group consumed a placebo (which was no cocoa) for six weeks
All participants had to undergo endothelial function tests during the six-week period. By using high frequency ultrasound, the researchers were able to measure how well the brachial artery could relax and expand, depending on the body's desired blood flow - the test is called FMD (flow mediated dilation).
This is how the three groups fared:
1. Cocoa, no sugar group. FMD improved 2.4%
2. Cocoa with sugar group, FMD improved 1.5 %
3. Place group., FMD worsened 0.8%.
Team member, Dr. Valentine Yanchou Njike, said "In this group of healthy adults with BMI between 25 and 35 kg/m2, dark chocolate ingestion over a short period of time was shown to significantly improve endothelial function, leading our team to believe that greater benefit may be seen through a long-term, randomized clinical trial. While the findings from this study do not suggest that people should start eating more chocolate as part of their daily routine, it does suggest that we pay more attention to how dark chocolate and other flavonoid-rich foods might offer cardiovascular benefits."
These findings are to be presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session in New Orleans next Tuesday, 27th March.
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=66082
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| March 25, 2007 | 16:40:54 |
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The International Journal of Cancer. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Cell phones unlikely to cause brain cancer: study,- Cell phone use does not appear to be associated with an increased risk of glioma -- the most common type of brain tumor, according to a new study. The story may be different, however, for intense use of cell phones over many years.
"Public concern has been expressed about the possible adverse health effects of mobile telephones, mainly related to (brain) tumors," Dr. Anna Lahkola, of the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Helsinki, and colleagues explain in the International Journal of Cancer.
The researchers examined the relationship between mobile phone use and risk of glioma by studying 1,521 glioma patients and 3,301 controls.
The vast majority of both groups reported using cell phones. Overall, 92 percent of glioma patients and 94 percent of controls reported ever using a mobile phone.
Overall, there was no evidence of increased glioma risk related to regular mobile phone use.
There were no significant associations observed with duration of use, years since first use, cumulative number of calls, or cumulative hours of use.
No increased glioma risk was observed when analog and digital phones were analyzed separately.
There was, however, a trend toward increased risk of glioma in people who used a cell phone for more than 10 years exclusively on one side of the head, which was on the same side as the tumor. The association reached "borderline statistical significance."
"This may be due either to chance or causal effect or information bias, i.e., overreporting of mobile phone use on the affected side by the cases with brain tumors," the investigators comment.
SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer, April 15, 2007.
| March 24, 2007 | 18:38:08 |
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Information on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena. - Posted By: NaBeeel
France Releases UFO Files Online, France's space agency is opening its "X-Files" to the public, putting years of UFO research and tens of thousands of documents on the WebUFO Sightings,
The Night the Lights Went On in Phoenix
Eventually, about 100,000 documents - including police reports, sketches, photos, videos and maps - will go up on the site. The first batch went up Thursday, and the site got so much traffic that it has been difficult to access since, said the space agency, known by its French initials CNES.
For years, a small group of space agency researchers have been trying, with limited funding, to explain reports of unidentified flying objects. The team calls itself the Group for Study and Information on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena.
Only about 9 percent of France's UFO cases have ever been fully explained, the group says, while experts have found a likely explanation for another 33 percent of cases.
Some cases unraveled over years. In 1985, two farmers near the Atlantic coastal city of Royan saw a burning object drop into a field nearby.
Experts initially concluded that it was part of the propulsion device of a recently launched satellite. But eventually, they realized it was a piece of leftover German World War II ordnance that spontaneously exploded four decades after the war and launched into the sky, the agency said.
Another case concerned a 1994 Air France flight. While flying over the Paris region, the airplane's crew noticed a large brown-red disk hovering in the horizon and constantly changing shape. The case "has never been explained to this day, and leaves the door open to all possible hypotheses," the agency wrote.
| March 23, 2007 | 16:43:33 |
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If the American troops pull out, - Posted By: NaBeeel
Iraqi VP warns of chaos if U.S. withdrawal prematur ,Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi warned on Thursday that his country could be thrown into chaos if U.S.-led coalition forces withdrew before his national troops were ready to handle security on their own. "We need the coalition forces to stay in Iraq until our national troops are qualified enough to look after security," Hashemi told a think tank seminar in Tokyo, where he is on a four-day official visit.
"They are, at the time being, not."
His comments come as U.S. Democratic leaders predicted that the House of Representatives would pass a war-funding bill that sets a strict timetable for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraq.
Under the House Democrats' bill, U.S. combat troops would have to be out of Iraq by September 1, 2008.
The White House has warned that President George W. Bush would veto any bill with deadlines for withdrawal, but Democrats are anticipating that and are already eyeing other bills to which they could attach similar language, while building pressure for an end to the war.
Hashemi, speaking in English, welcomed a timetable for a withdrawal of U.S. forces but said it needed to be coupled with a clear reform plan of Iraqi national forces.
"If we say that we need one year, one and a half years or even two years to go into a detailed, comprehensive reform for MOD (Ministry of Defense) and MOI (Ministry of Interior) units, we need the coalition forces to stay until this job has been fulfilled," he said.
"If the American troops pull out, withdraw, before we complete this plan, there is a possibility that the country might slide into chaos and the chaos could lead to a civil war," he said, adding that it could also lead to regional unrest.
Hashemi, who is set to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday, also said he wanted Tokyo's air force to expand its activities in supporting the coalition forces in Iraq, although he did not elaborate.
Abe said earlier this week that Tokyo planned to extend for another two years a law allowing its air force to fly support missions to Iraq.
Japan withdrew its 600 ground troops last year after a non-combat mission lasting more than two years, but about 200 air force personnel remain in Kuwait, where they airlift supplies to the U.S. military in Iraq.
| March 22, 2007 | 15:06:00 |
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Register youre websites and blogsites with the authorities. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Iranian bloggers on web restrictions, Iranian bloggers have reacted with anger and scorn to a new law requiring them to register their websites and blogsites with the authorities.
It is being seen as the latest attempt by the Iranian government to control the media.
A contributor to BBC Persian.com , Fariba Sahraie, asked six Iranian bloggers - inside and outside Iran - if they thought the law could be enforced and what effect it would have.
OMID MERMARIAN, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
The bloggers who write about politics or culture from a critical standpoint are people who are already known to everybody, and they abide by the law.
There are others who are either unknown or who write under aliases, and there's a third group who write from outside Iran.
This law only addresses the first group: the people whose names and addresses are known.
It is highly likely that if it is enforced, more and more bloggers will go underground.
This legislation would mean that every blogger who is an intellectual, a journalist, a social activist, or who writes under his own name would have to blog in line with government taste.
This would threaten the very existence of many social, political and cultural blogs. Even those that write about women.
Many influential weblogs are already being censored by the government.
This law would result in many websites and blogs being closed down. Or at the very least, they would become increasingly conservative.
ABOLHASSAN MOKHTABAD, TEHRAN
This law is about registering companies. But there is a difference between weblogs and companies.
The government should trust its citizens and tolerate them.
But concepts of trust and tolerance do not exist in the current government.
The drive to curb the media started with the newspapers. Now they are widening the scope to include the internet.
The Iranian government should remember what is happening in China. Nearly 30 thousand people are currently employed to control Chinese weblogs.
Beijing is spending a lot of money in controlling the flow of information.
This is impractical and impossible to do in Iran. It will also provoke even sharper criticism of the Iranian government.
WAHOOE NABEEEL, CANADA
Well, I have been trying to call the Iranian embassy in Ottowa to ask how I can register my weblog.
There was no answer and I got worried, because I really don't want to do anything illegal.
Seriously, there is no legal or practical foundation for this law. Even in north America there is still no law governing the internet.
Ensuring free dialogue can take place is one of the first conditions of restoring democracy. This law is diametrically opposed to that, even if it is being presented in an innocent way.
And anyway, what is the budget for this and how many people will be checking the websites every day?
Enforcing this law will officially put Iran on the list of the countries which are enemies of the internet.
Pro-democracy groups will find more reasons to criticise the Iranian government.
PARISTOO DOCOUHAKY, TEHRAN
It strikes me that getting rid of all sorts of private media is one of the objectives of this government.
Look at the newspapers. Every day you see fewer and fewer exclusive news stories.
Do you know why? It's because government officials don't welcome reporters.
At the moment, websites are the only outlet for those who care about freedom of information and for those who work in news.
Ministers want to limit and control websites, because they want to get rid of the media.
They have not given the issue any real thought, because destroying the media is tantamount to destroying the government.
Is this practical? It would be too optimistic to say it's not possible to restrict websites.
Just look at China. There, no stone is left unturned in the quest for media control.
SHAYAN MASHATIAN, TORONTO
Is the government - as the institution in charge of our society - entitled to impose such control over websites?
We all know that the drive to control the media began with radio [in the 1930s, the Iranian government said people had to get a permit before they could own a radio set] and has continued as far as satellite TV. The internet is the next step.
When the services on mobile phones become more popular, the same approach will be taken towards things like SMS texts.
This law can only be enforced on bloggers who have their own domain name.
If it's followed through, it will be yet another impractical and unenforceable law to add to those we already have.
And all this is irrespective of whether we actually agree with the law.
HASSAN ZAREZADEH ARDESHIR, CANADA
The plan is fundamentally flawed and is drawn up by people who know nothing about telecommunications.
Any attempt to limit the internet will backfire.
When video machines were banned in Iran, everyone tried to get one to use at home.
The restriction of information is taking place in our country, even though it hasn't worked in the past.
Do you remember when Mr Gharazi was the Minister for telecommunications? [In the late 1980s and early 1990s] He called on everyone with a fax machine register it at the post office. That didn't work either.
| March 21, 2007 | 20:09:24 |
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What remains of Egyptian democracy. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Anger over Egypt vote timetable, Opposition MPs branding the amendments a "constitutional putsch"Egypt's largest opposition group has strongly condemned government moves to hold a controversial referendum just days after its approval by parliament.
The Muslim Brotherhood group says the tight schedule is designed to prevent effective campaigning by those opposed to the proposed constitutional changes.
The vote will be held on Monday, according to a presidential decree.
Supporters say the changes strengthen democracy; opponents say they cement the creation of a police state.
President Hosni Mubarak, whose ruling National Democratic Party dominates the 454-member parliament, has proposed changes to 34 articles of the constitution.
Parliament approved the amendments on Monday in a session boycotted by opposition groups and they now go to popular referendum.
The vote had initially been expected to take place on 4 April, commentators say.
While the government and its supporters have hailed the measures as long overdue reforms, Amnesty International says they amount to the biggest erosion of human rights since emergency laws were introduced in 1981.
Ceremonial vote
"The new date of the coming referendum stunned all," said Muhammad Habib, deputy leader of the official banned-but-tolerated Brotherhood.
We know from past experience that the results announced from all referenda do not correspond to reality
Mustafa Sayyed
"It aims at reducing the time available for the opposition to hold popular activities opposing the constitutional amendments."
Political scientist Mustafa Kamal Sayyed told AFP news agency that it was possible to hold the referendum quickly, but the result would lack credibility.
"I think the government would just like the ceremony for the referendum but not the referendum itself or any popular participation," he said.
"We know from past experience that the results announced from all referenda do not correspond to reality," he said.
Past elections have been marred by widespread accusations of government-engineered fraud and intimidation of opponents.
The changes prohibit parties from using religion as a basis for political activity, give the president power to dissolve parliament and end judicial monitoring of election.
BBC Middle East analyst Roger Hardy says reformists are convinced the constitutional changes are the final death blow to what remains of Egyptian democracy.
The Muslim Brotherhood says it hasn't decided whether to call for a boycott of the referendum, or for a "no" vote.
| March 20, 2007 | 17:25:21 |
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This dinner will be for a lot of millionaires. - Posted By: NaBeeel
The ultimate road food: A dinner for millionaires at Egypt's pyramids,From the creators of the $25,000 dinner, there's another pricey gourmet feast on the horizon. Wealthy foodies can mark their calendars for Dec. 12, 2008, when top chefs from around the world will be flown to Egypt to cook a dinner in front of the ancient Pyramids of Giza, organizer Deepak Ohri said today. This dinner will be a bargain, at least compared to the one in Bangkok last month that was billed as the meal of a lifetime and cooked by six 3-star Michelin chefs for $25,000 a head. High-rolling food lovers flew in from the United States, Europe, the Middle East and across Asia for the 40-seat dinner.
The price for dining beside the pyramids has not yet been set, but it will cost less than $10,000 per person, said Ohri, the managing director of Bangkok's luxury Lebua hotel, the event planner behind the dinners that are boldly titled "Epicurean Masters of the World."
Though cheaper, the upcoming feast is intended to be even grander than its predecessor.
"It will still be for millionaires, but this dinner will be for a lot of millionaires," Ohri told The Associated Press.
Some 500 tickets will be sold for the dinner to be cooked by 30 3-star Michelin chefs.
About a third of the chefs already have confirmed their attendance; each chef will prepare a meal for roughly 17 diners.
A kitchen half a mile long will be set up against the backdrop of the pyramids with equipment and the best ingredients jetted in from around the world.
Unlike the $25,000 dinner, which featured rare French wines and mostly French food, the next meal will be culturally diverse and paired with fine wines from around the world, Ohri said.
Just how close diners will be to the pyramids depends upon the Egyptian government and the U.N.'s cultural body UNESCO, since the pyramids are a World Heritage site.
Talks are under way with authorities, Ohri said, noting that organizers are "considering" giving profits from the dinner to an organization or charity that deals with conserving the Seven Wonders of the World. The pyramids are the only surviving structure from the traditional list of architectural marvels.
All profits from the $25,000 Thai dinner are going to two charities — Medecins Sans Frontieres, which will be sent a check for $15,000, and the Chaipattana Foundation, a rural development program set up by the king of Thailand, which will receive $46,000, Ohri said.
| March 19, 2007 | 22:05:56 |
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Poll finds growing pessimism. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bush calls for patience on Iraq, US patrols have been venturing out on foot in Baghdad
US President George W Bush has said the US-led security push in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, will take "months, not days or weeks" to show results. In a speech to mark four years since the 2003 invasion, he said those on the ground were seeing "hopeful signs".
But he warned it would be disastrous for US security if Washington decided it was best to "pack up and go home".
His comments came as a BBC/ABC News poll suggested Iraqis are increasingly pessimistic about the future.
Less than 40% of those polled said things were good in their lives, compared to 71% two years ago.
However, a majority said that, despite daily violence, they did not believe Iraq was in a state of civil war, Other key findings from more than 2,000 people who took part in the poll:
58% overall said they wanted Iraq to remain a unified country
Almost all said they did not want Iraq to be broken up along sectarian lines
Only 35% said foreign troops should leave Iraq now
A further 63% said foreign troops should go only after security has improved.
'Good days and bad days'
"Four years after this war began, the fight is difficult, " President Bush said in his eight-minute speech from the White House.
He said his plan to send 21,500 extra US troops to secure Baghdad and the western Anbar province "will need more time to take effect".
If US forces were to step back from Baghdad before it is more secure a contagion of violence could spill out across the entire country "There will be good days and bad days ahead as the security plan unfolds,.
He said although it might be tempting to look at the challenges and decide that the best option would be to pack up and go home, "the consequences for American security would be devastating."
"If American forces were to step back from Baghdad before it is more secure a contagion of violence could spill out across the entire country. In time this violence could engulf the region.
"The terrorists could emerge from the chaos with a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they had in Afghanistan which they used to plan the attacks of September 11, 2001. For the safety of the American people we cannot allow this to happen."
He said aggressive operations were being carried out against both Shia and Sunni militants, and against al-Qaeda. Earlier Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki - in response to the findings of the nationwide opinion poll - insisted that the sectarian conflict in Iraq was ending.
| March 19, 2007 | 13:55:02 |
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The grape-growing industry in southern Ontario. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Grape growers crushed, Howard and Wendy Staff inspect the vines at the Jordan, Ontario farm. The closure of a Cadbury Schweppes factory in nearby St. Catharines has left them, one of 105 grape juice growers in the region, wondering what to do with their 400 acres of Concord vines.
Grandfather planted the first field of Concord grapes on the family farm, located on the Niagara Peninsula near Jordan, Ont., more than a century ago. Now Staff is faced with unsettling prospect of letting the grapes in the same field, along with those on hundreds of adjacent acres, literally die on the vine.
Staff, 64, is one of about 105 juice grape growers in the region who this week learned Cadbury Schweppes PLC was planning to hammer a final nail into the coffin of a once robust but now struggling sector of the grape-growing industry in southern Ontario.
The food and beverage giant said on Wednesday it was closing a plant in St. Catharines that turns purple Concord grapes into Welch's brand frozen concentrate grape juice, as well as grape jam and jelly.
"If you've been drinking Welch's grape juice, more than likely you've been drinking Ontario's grapes," said Debbie Zimmerman, the CEO of the Grape Growers of Ontario.
The problem, however, is that people aren't drinking much grape juice anymore. Instead, they are more likely to reach for one of dozens of varieties of bottled water or any number of juice-flavoured drinks that often contain very little real juice.
Zimmerman said Cadbury Schweppes has been signalling its plans for about three years, but that this week's decision to close the plant's doors on June 30 still came as a shock to growers, several of whom will have nowhere to sell their crops. She called it "the end of an era."
"It's kind of a sad scenario the way this has played out," agreed Staff, adding the closing will likely mean the loss of 40 part-time jobs and as many as four full-time jobs on his farm alone. "This was our 108th year of growing Concord grapes on the Niagara Peninsula."
Nearly half of Staff's 1,000 acres are devoted to growing Concord grapes. He operates the farm along with his wife and son, and was about to bring his daughter, a wine-maker, into the business. Now he's having second thoughts."We like to say it's where we have our roots, but those roots are being yanked out."
Up until 60 years ago, Concord grape growers dominated the region. Today, most growers produce higher-margin varieties that are used to make wine.
But not everybody can grow wine grapes. As a rule of thumb, Staff says, the closer you are to Lake Ontario the more likely you are to have the right kind of land. It can also be prohibitively expensive for growers to convert their operations, which is why the industry association is calling on the government to help growers make the transition. Staff estimates it would cost him about $1.5 million if he tried to convert his 400 acres of grape vines.
Luisa Girotto, a spokeswoman for Cadbury Schweppes Canada, said the decision to close the plant was purely an economic one, noting it had already been downsized from about 200 workers a decade ago to just 26 today. "It's not viable to keep running that plant," she said. "So the decision was made to consolidate production into U.S. facilities."
She said Cadbury Schweppes will still purchase contracted 2007 crops, as well as pay to have them shipped south of the border. It will also offer to pay $75 a tonne as part of a grower severance package. But some say it may be more economical to leave the grapes to rot, which can attract pests and affect the health of nearby vineyards.
While Girotto was hesitant to blame the situation on reduced demand for grape juice, she acknowledged the market has been sliding. "The grape category is down versus last year and the Welch's brand is consistent with the market dynamics."
Data released last week by the U.S. Beverage Marketing Corporation shows Americans are not only turning up their noses at juice, they are increasingly taking a pass on anything that tastes like juice.
As a category, so-called "fruit beverages," which includes pretty much anything that's juice-flavoured, declined by about 2.5 per cent last year, compared to a year earlier. By contrast, the increasingly dominant bottled water category was up by 9.5 per cent, sports drinks were up by 11.5 per cent and the relatively new energy drink category was by about 50 per cent.
The deep irony for juice-grape growers is the increasing dominance of bottled water, now second only to soft drinks in the U.S., is generally described as part of a larger trend toward healthier living. But recent studies have shown grape juice – particularly from Concord grapes – contains beneficial chemicals that can improve people's health.
Staff blamed deceptive marketing by beverage companies and loose product labelling restrictions for driving people away from drinking real grape juice.
"I think the public are being duped into buying coloured water," he said.
"And here we are producing a wholesome food product, but no one wants to buy it. It's a travesty."
| March 18, 2007 | 17:14:02 |
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The creation of a "sushi police. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Japan to certify 'real' sushi, Japan on Friday approved a campaign to certify "real" Japanese food overseas, worried that a global sushi craze will bastardise its national cuisine. The campaign comes despite international derision after a panel first made the recommendations last year, with some US restaurant owners and press reports mocking the creation of a "sushi police."
Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka gave the go-ahead Friday on the panel's recommendations, which include creating a label for "authentic" Japanese restaurants overseas, a ministry official said.
The label will show that a restaurant or product is "real," taking into consideration factors such as ingredients and atmosphere.
Japan estimates the world will have some 50,000 restaurants purporting to serve Japanese food three years from now, double the current number, amid perceptions that the cuisine is healthy.
But culinary purists -- and some government officials -- have expressed horror at what can pass for Japanese food overseas.
"Japanese restaurants are sharply increasing throughout the world despite insufficient information on Japanese food and the ingredients characteristic of Japanese cuisine," said the report approved Friday.
"As a result, there is concern that the image and brand of Japanese cuisine is being damaged," it added.
In light of last year's criticism, the government said that it will have minimal involvement in the process. It said local groups will issue the labels, the exact shape of which is yet to be decided.
"The government will help finance the launching of this project and the fundamentals of this system, but the rest will be overseen by the private sector," said the agricultural ministry official.
"The local bodies will include food professionals, companies and even individuals. We want them to be as wide open to anyone as possible," the official said.
| March 16, 2007 | 14:44:50 |
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Skimping on Fruits, Veggies, patr #3 - Posted By: NaBeeel
Americans, Canadian Skimping on Fruits, Veggies, Fewer than a third of U.S. adults eat enough fruits and vegetables, according to the CDC. ,From coast to coast, no state (or Washington, D.C.) meets the CDC's goals for adult fruit and vegetable consumption. People should eat at least five daily servings — two or more servings of fruit, and three or more servings of vegetables — as part of a balanced diet, says the CDC.
But today the agency reported that in 2005, fewer than 33% of U.S. adults reported eating at least two daily servings of fruit and barely 27% claimed to eat three or more daily servings of vegetables.
The government wants at least 75% of people age 2 and older to meet the fruit consumption goal, and at least 50% to meet the vegetable consumption goal, by 2010.
America ,Canadian has a long way to go to reach those goals.
Fruit And Vegetable Diet Report Card
In calculating compliance, fruit juices counted, but french fries, fried potatoes, and potato chips didn't.
Those most likely to eat vegetables three or more times a day included women, college graduates, people earning at least $50,000 annually, whites, and people 65 and older.
The report is based on data from a 2005 national survey of U.S. civilians 18 and older. The results appear in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
What About Kids, Teens?
The report only includes adults. But children and teens likely also have room for improvement in their fruit and vegetable consumption.
Though the CDC says it's too soon to update its estimates for fruit and vegetable intake for all Americans aged 2 and older, CDC data through 2002 shows that those 2 and over average 1.6 fruit servings and 3.2 vegetable servings per day.
Average daily fruit consumption was the same in 1994-1996 as in 1999-2002, but average daily vegetable consumption dipped by 0.2 servings between those two periods, according to the CDC.
Serving Size
Ready to step up your servings of fruits and vegetables? Here's a quick guide to serving size.
Half a cup of fruits or vegetables counts as one serving.
One serving of fruit equals:
1 medium-sized piece of fruit
Half a grapefruit
A quarter of a small cantaloupe
1/4 cup of dried fruit
1/2 cup of berries
A dozen grapes
3/4 cup of 100% fruit juice
One serving of vegetables equals:
1/2 cup of chopped vegetables
1 cup of raw, leafy vegetables (a small salad)
6-8 carrot sticks that are 3 inches long
1 medium potato
1/2 cup of beans or peas
3/4 cup of vegetable juice
| March 16, 2007 | 14:14:38 |
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Purple grape juice is on the top list. Part # 2 - Posted By: NaBeeel
Researchers find grape juice most beneficial among fruit juices, Scientists have found that grape juice is more beneficial than any other fruit juice for the health as it contains most polyphenols which are strong antioxidants.
British scientists had the findings when carrying out the first scientific analysis of fruit juices to measure their antioxidant activity - the anti-ageing compounds that protect against heart disease and other chronic conditions, according to a press release issued by the University of Glasgow on Thursday.
Purple grape juice is on the top list, followed by apple juice and cranberry juice, while orange juice, the most popular fruit juice, comes way down the list, according to the study by researchers at the University of Glasgow.
"The findings reveal that the variety of phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity of the individual juices varied markedly," Alan Crozier who led the study said.
Purple grape juice made with Concord grapes contains the highest and broadest range of polyphenols as well as having the highest antioxidant capacity, and other high-ranking products include cloudy apple juice and cranberry juice drink, the research results show.
Crozier said supplementing a healthy diet with a regular mixed intake of fruit juices such as purple grape juice, grapefruit juice, cloudy apple juice and cranberry juice during the week, will increase the consumer's intake of phenolic antioxidants.
Antioxidants are compounds such as vitamin C found in fruits and vegetables which are believed to play a key role by protecting the body from the damaging effects of free radicals, the products of metabolism. By quenching free radicals they help to maintain oxidative balance and prevent the development of diseases including cancer and heart disease.
The findings also revealed the number and level of antioxidant phenolic compounds in purple grape juice equates with those found in a Beaujolais red wine.
Source: Xinhua
| March 15, 2007 | 22:40:52 |
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Purple grape juice best among all juices. part #1 - Posted By: NaBeeel
Purple grape juice best among all juices, Many people start their breakfast with a glass of orange juice. But a new study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry suggests that a glass of grape juice may be better than any other juice.
That suggestion is based on the antioxidant activity in fruit juices, which is believed to help delay premature aging and ward off heart disease and other chronic diseases.
Among the juice tested, orange juice contains fewer polyphenols, which are strong antioxidants, than others, according to researchers at the University of Glasgow, who conducted the study. In addition to grape juice, apple juice and cranberry juice possess a high antioxidant activity as well.
Alan Crozier, professor of plant biochemistry and human nutrition who led the study, was quoted by independent.co.uk as saying "Purple grape juice made with Concord grapes contains the highest and broadest range of polyphenols as well as having the highest antioxidant capacity. Other high-ranking products include cloudy apple juice and cranberry juice drink."
The study was funded by the National Grape Co-operative, a consortium of farmers in the US operated by Welch's, the famous producer of Concord purple grape juice.
Drinking fruit juices is believed to provide many health benefits. In a recent study, researchers followed almost 2,000 men and women for up to 10 years and found drinking juices three times a week lowered the risk for Alzheimer’s disease by 76 percent compared to less than once a week.
A recent French study funded also by Welch's Foods Inc. and published in the journal Cardiovascular Research shows that polyphenols in Concord grape juice improve production of nitric oxide in endothelial cells, which promotes cardiovascular health.
The current study of 13 most popular fruit juices sold in Britain found that the maximal benefits could be obtained from a juice with a wide spectrum of polyphenols at high concentrations. One juice that meets that criterion is Concord grape juice, which contains high concentrations of a wide variety of polyphenolic antioxidants.
Antioxidants including but not limited to vitamin C are known to be able to neutralize DNA-damaging free radicals, which would otherwise lead to DNA damage potentially causing cancer and premature aging.
Professor Crozier was quoted as saying "Supplementing a healthy diet with a regular intake of a variety of fruit juices such as purple grape juice, grapefruit juice, cloudy apple juice and cranberry juice, will increase the consumer's intake of phenolic antioxidants.”
Crozier said that the best way to drink is drink mixture of a variety of juices including purple grape juice, grapefruit juice, cloudy apple juice and cranberry juice, which contain high levels of antioxidants.
According to the study, purple grape contains 0.98 millimoles of antioxidants per liter, compared to 0.67 mm/L in cloudy apple, 0.45 in pomegranate, 0.32 in cranberry, 0.30 in grapefruit juice, 0.26 in clear apple juice and o.12 in tropical juice.
Juices made from orange, pineapple, tomato, red grape, white grape contain less than 0.1 mm/L.
The amount of antioxidant phenolics in purple grape juice is found equal to that in a Beaujolais red wine, according to the study.
| March 15, 2007 | 22:34:35 |
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Canadian philosopher wins Templeton Prize. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Charles Taylor will receive $1.5 million for his work on spiritual awareness.,Charles Taylor, a Canadian philosopher who for 45 years has advocated the inclusion of spiritual dimensions in the study of humanities and natural and social sciences, won the 2007 Templeton Prize worth more than $1.5 million, it was announced in New York on Wednesday.
Taylor, 75, who teaches at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., is the first Canadian to win the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries About Spiritual Realities.
Taylor will receive the award, the world's largest annual monetary prize given to an individual, from Britain's Prince Philip at a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace on May 2.
In a telephone interview from New York, Taylor said the prevailing emphasis on the secular in the contemporary culture of science and academic study had shortchanged humanity.
It is impossible, he said, to "really understand" what makes people and societies "tick" without considering both the secular and spiritual.
"People must be able to think in both languages, in both levels — not just with one half of their brain," Taylor said. To leave out the spiritual is like "working with the other half [of the brain] frozen."
Born in Montreal in 1931, Taylor grew up in a Catholic home. His first degree was in history, but a 1952 Rhodes scholarship led him to study philosophy at Oxford, where he encountered what he describes as "an unstructured hostility" to religious belief.
It led him to question the so-called objective approaches of psychology, social science, linguistics, history and other human sciences.
He has written a dozen books, including studies of secularism and modernity, the German philosopher Hegel and pioneering American philosopher and psychologist William James.
In "A Secular Age," scheduled to be published in the fall, Taylor challenges what he called the "master narrative of secularization" — that religion would decline with advancing modernity.
In announcing the winner at a news conference, John M. Templeton Jr., president of the Templeton Foundation, said Taylor had "given us bold new insights that provide a fresh understanding of the many problems of the world, and, potentially, how we might together resolve them."
Taylor, a professor emeritus in philosophy at McGill University in Montreal, made four attempts to become a member of the Canadian House of Commons — once losing to Pierre Trudeau — in a contest that drew nationwide attention because both men were considered intellectuals and had high profiles.
Taylor said he planned to use his prize money for his research on the relationship between languages and linguistic meaning to art and theology.
The prize was created in 1972 by investor and philanthropist John Templeton. The Templeton Prize seeks to promote research that will expand spiritual awareness.
| March 15, 2007 | 18:06:41 |
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Stay healthy with food handling tips. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Americans still refusing to eat their veggies,Less than one-third of adults eat recommended daily servings, survey shows,A new survey shows that less than one-third of Americans are eating their fruits and vegetables. Fewer than a third of American adults eat the amount of fruits and vegetables the government recommends, a trend that’s remained steady for more than a decade, health officials said Thursday.
That’s “well below” the government’s goal of getting 75 percent of Americans to eat two servings of fruits and three of vegetables each day by 2010, said Dr. Larry Cohen of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The telephone survey of more than 305,000 adults in 2005 indicates the country is only about halfway toward meeting the goal three years from now.“We’re really concerned with the lack of success in meeting these national goals,” said Cohen, who works in CDC’s nutrition and physical activity division.
Although the rate of fruit and vegetable consumption has remained unchanged since 1994, health officials said the goal is still within reach.“We have more work to do over the next few years,” said spokeswoman Rachel Ciccarone.
Specifically the survey showed that 27 percent of adults ate vegetables three times a day, and about 33 percent ate fruit twice a day. A serving size is a half-cup for most fruits and vegetables, one cup for leafy greens.
What people eat instead
Senior citizens were more likely than others to follow Mom’s advice to eat more veggies, with slightly more than a third of that group eating three or more servings each day. Younger adults, age 18 to 24, ate the fewest vegetables. Nearly four-fifths of that age category scraped the veggies to the side of their plates — if they had vegetables on the plate at all.
Likewise, seniors also ate the most fruit, with nearly 46 percent eating two or more servings of fruit daily. People age 35 to 44 ate fruit the least, with fewer than 28 percent eating the recommended amount of fruit each day.
Interactive
The federal agency said it doesn’t know why people aren’t eating more veggies or fruits. Cohen said future surveys will ask people what other foods they are eating.
Susan Krause, a clinical dietitian at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, said people are eating more refined sugars or choosing protein instead of fruits and vegetables.
“There’s so much information out there and people get very confused. When they’re looking at protein, they feel that’s the solution when they’re not looking at long-term health benefits,” she said. “There’s so many fabricated foods now and people are looking at convenience.”
Not only are fruits and vegetables lower-calorie, they also have minerals and fiber that help guard against chronic diseases and cancer, the CDC says.
Programs in the works
The survey relied on people to report what they were eating. Telephone questioners asked how often they consumed fruit juice, fruit and vegetables. Although Hispanics ate the most fruits (37 percent) compared with blacks and whites, they ate the fewest vegetables, (about 20 percent). Whites, in contrast, ate the fewest fruits (31 percent) but the most veggies (28 percent).
Cohen said the CDC has been working on family and community programs to get more people to eat their veggies. The agency is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to get more fresh produce into schools.Teens' diets could lead to weight gain later
Krause said health officials should offer people simple options for getting fruits and vegetables in their diets, such as easy recipes in cooking classes and fruit smoothies or shakes in schools.
“If that’s a way of getting it in, at least it’s in the right direction,” she said. “Certainly (whole) fruit is a better choice, but that could be the next alternative.”
| March 15, 2007 | 17:55:36 |
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Latin American Tour Exposes Bush As Lame-duck President. - Posted By: NaBeeel
US President George W Bush Wednesday ended a Latin American tour marked by only one major accomplishment - the ethanol agreement with Brazil - and a conspicuous lack of any other concrete results.
As he moved from Brazil to Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and finally Mexico, Bush - always against a backdrop of simmering protests - insisted that he will work as hard as he "possibly can" to solve various bilateral issues.
However, with the US Congress now controlled by opposition Democrats, his best efforts are most likely to amount to nothing, observers said.
Throughout the tour Bush stressed the generosity of the American people, their wish to help combat poverty in neighbouring Latin America and the value of trade as "the best hope to lift millions out of poverty." However, without fresh funds and projects to back it up, that claim fell flat.
As if to stress the point, a wave of protests followed Bush as he travelled from country to country. Outspoken US critic Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez competed for air time, shadowing the US president with his own alternative regional tour.
Many analysts had anticipated this lack of results before Bush left Washington. He is an increasingly unpopular US president who does not control Congress, with less than half a presidential term left and no chance of re-election. Not even his vice president has ambitions to succeed him.
In this context, Bush's six-day Latin American tour was seen as a platform for gestures rather than proposals - more of a sign that he has not forgotten the region following September 11, 2001 than an assurance that he can actually at this point do much to help it.
At times, with the ancient ruins of the Yucatan for example in the background, he appeared more like a distinguished tourist than the most powerful man in the world.
The US president's visit to Brazil was marked by an important agreement to boost the production and use of ethanol in third countries, billed as an "OPEC for ethanol." However, Bush made it clear that he is not in a position to lift tariffs on Brazilian ethanol - in place by US law until 2009 - and any agreement that includes third countries still has to be discussed with third countries.
Moreover, there was no major progress in moving along the moribund Doha Round of talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO), a key issue in which Brazil and US are major players.
Bush's visit to Uruguay was largely an empty gesture. Just ten days before, Brazil played the role of regional sheepdog and successfully herded a discontented Montevideo back into the regional Mercosur trade fold and away from its intention to break the South American trade agreement. Uruguay had wanted to seek closer ties with the US and other countries outside Mercosur.
Bush also promised to work for more assistance for Colombia's fight against illegal narcotics trafficking and leftist rebels, and to achieve ratification of the bilateral free trade agreement with the United States' closest ally in the region. And he agreed with Guatemala and Mexico on the need for comprehensive reform of US migratory policy.
While his hands are tied by the US Congress on many of the issues, there could be one major exception.
Bush has been pushing for years for the US Congress to liberalize immigration and grant legal work visas to tens of thousands of Mexicans and other Latin Americans who aspire to live and work in the US. While his Republican Party has rejected his overtures, the Democrats are more receptive to liberalization measures. During Bush's visit to Mexico, he voiced hope that such a breakthrough would occur.
"I'm not a betting man. I don't like to bet because, when I do, I usually lose. But I'm an optimistic man in this case about getting comprehensive reform," Bush said in Mexico, as if to cast doubt on his own ability to predict the outcome of future events.
Many analysts had presented the US president's trip as an attempt to counter Chavez's growing influence in the region, but on this aspect, too, Bush appeared to have changed little.
Even Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made clear his loyalty to Chavez, publicly defending the Venezuelan government as legitimate. And to Washington's explicit wish to curb Venezuela's regional influence, Lula retorted that South American integration - of which Chavez and his oil money are currently a central part - "is taking place among independent nations."
Chavez boosted his own profile during the Bush visit, travelling to Argentina for a large stadium rally, then to Bolivia, Nicaragua, Jamaica and Haiti. He carried offers of aid and investment, particularly in the field of energy, based on his country's abundant oil money. And since the Venezuelan assembly recently granted Chavez the power to rule by edict, he has no hostile Congress to place stones in his way.
Indeed, at least as long as oil prices remain high and the US can offer nothing but good intentions, it is clear that Bush is going to need more than just one Latin American tour to counter the Venezuelan president's influence in the region.
| March 15, 2007 | 17:39:37 |
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PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT ACCEPTS UNITY GOVERNMENT. - Posted By: NaBeeel
MIDDLE EAST: PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT ACCEPTS UNITY GOVERNMENT
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday accepted a list of members of a national unity government after months of negotiations between his Fatah movement and Hamas. The government is aimed at ending factional violence which has claimed the lives of over 90 Palestinians since December last year. The key posts of interior, foreign and finance ministers will reportedly go to neither Fatah nor the Hamas movement of prime minister Ismail Haniyeh. The premier did not provide details on the cabinet's programme and only said its top priority was restoring security.
The national unity cabinet will be submitted to a parliamentary vote of confidence on Saturday.
Israel has said it will boycott the government as it did for its Hamas-run predecessor until it recognizes the Jewish state, renounces violence and accepts past peace agreements.
The United States and Europe have yet to decide whether to lift economic sanctions imposed on the outgoing government.
| March 15, 2007 | 14:30:45 |
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Lord Black fraud trial to begin. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Lord Black fraud trial to begin,Media tycoon Lord Conrad Black has arrived at a US federal court in Chicago ahead of his trial. Lord Black faces fraud and racketeering charges, including claims he diverted $84m (£44m) from the company he once ran to fund an extravagant lifestyle.
If convicted, the former boss of media group Hollinger International and one-time owner of the Daily Telegraph could be jailed for up to 101 years.
Lord Black, 62, and three co-defendants have denied the charges against them.
He arrived amid a frenzy of media interest - but eluded most of the journalists and photographers by using a security entrance.
Court officials are now preparing to begin the process of jury selection.
Along with Lord Black, federal prosecutors have issued charges against Jack Boultbee, 63, the former chief financial officer of Hollinger Inc, the firm which controlled and managed Hollinger International; Peter Atkinson, 59, general counsel for Hollinger Inc; and Mark Kipnis, 60, corporate counsel for Hollinger International.
David Radler, a former business associate of Lord Black, has cut a deal with prosecutors and will be the main witness against the tycoon, in return for a reduced 29-month jail term.
The laywer leading the prosecution is Patrick Fitzgerald, the US Attorney who recently successfully prosecuted Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney, for perjury.
'I am not afraid'
Lord Black, an outspoken businessman who is married to Canadian journalist Barbara Amiel, once presided over the world's third-biggest newspaper publishing company.
THE CHARGES
Criminal charges
15 charges of fraud
one of obstruction of justice
one of racketeering
Federal prosecutors allege Lord Black:
fraudulently received non-compete fees from the sale of Hollinger International assets
deprived the company of his honest services
repeatedly benefited himself at the expense of the company and its public shareholders through the abuse of company perks
Other executives on trial
John Boultbee - former chief financial officer
Peter Atkinson - former general counsel
Mark Kipnis - former corporate counsel and secretary
The titles in his empire ranged from the UK's Daily Telegraph to the Jerusalem Post and the Chicago Sun-Times.
But the Canadian-born tycoon was forced to quit as chief executive of Hollinger International, now named Sun-Times Media Group, after shareholders accused him of siphoning off millions of dollars in unauthorised payments to himself.
Lord Black will face accusations he used company funds to pay for a lavish birthday party for his wife, as well as designer handbags, opera tickets and the refurbishment of a Rolls-Royce.
"He managed the company for his own benefit and had a royal, almost Louis XIV attitude towards his shareholders," said Ross Albert, a principal at the Atlanta-based law firm Morris, Manning & Martin.
"The question is, did his personality and sense of entitlement contribute to misconduct?"
In an article published on Saturday for Canada's National Post newspaper, entitled "I am not afraid", Lord Black said he was confident that the trial would find in his favour.
"As I know the facts and believe in the fairness of 12 randomly selected Americans, I am confident of the outcome," he wrote in the paper he previously founded.
Lord Black ran Hollinger International for eight years before stepping down in November 2003.
He renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2001, becoming a British citizen so he could take up a seat in the House of Lords.
| March 14, 2007 | 13:38:26 |
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Bush promises push for immigration reform. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bush promises push for immigration reform
• NEW: President Bush, Mexican president agree on need for secure border
• NEW: Felipe Calderon calls for creation of new jobs in Mexico
• NEW: Bush promises to push for immigration reform legislation
• Bush, Calderon meeting at Yucatan resort as Bush's five-nation trip winds up
MERIDA, Mexico (CNN) -- President Bush vowed Tuesday to do all he can to push for changes in U.S. immigration laws, and stressed that he and his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, were working together on immigration issues.
"My pledge to you and your government -- but more importantly, the people of Mexico -- is that I'll work as hard as I possibly can to pass comprehensive immigration reform," Bush said at a ceremony welcoming him to Mexico.
"Together we're working to ensure that we have a secure and modern border that speeds the legitimate flow of people and commerce, and stops those who threaten our common safety and prosperity," Bush said.
The conservative Mexican president, who eked out a narrow victory in July, was polite but critical in his assessment of current U.S. immigration policy, which has resulted in millions of Mexicans paying thousands of dollars each to make the risky trip through deserts and mountains to find jobs in America.
"I'm from Michoacan, one of the states that has suffered most from emigration," he said. The result has been separated families and "pueblos where old people live alone."
He added, "We lose in each emigrant the best of our country: young, strong workers. People who leave because they don't encounter opportunities here to move forward."
Calderon called for the generation of jobs in Mexico, "because this is the only way to resolve, at its base, the migration issue."
"There is nothing better for security and prosperity of the region than the prosperity of Mexico," he said.
"We share the proposal to maintain a secure border. People who live on both sides merit it -- as much the Americans as the Mexicans."
Calderon also referred to the flow of drugs into the United States but called on his neighbor to the north to help.
"As long as the demand for drugs isn't reduced in one territory, it will be very difficult to reduce the provision of it from ours," he said.
Bush, who served as governor of Texas before becoming president, began his administration by seeking closer ties with Mexico. But those efforts were sidelined by the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that followed.
Last year, Bush endorsed a "comprehensive" immigration reform bill that would couple tighter border controls with a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for the 10 million-plus illegal immigrants now estimated to live in the United States. But the measure stalled in Congress in the face of opposition from his own party.
Speaking in Guatemala on Monday, Bush said he hopes to have a comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by August.
About 85 percent of the illegal immigrants entering the United States are from Mexico, which is the United States' third-largest trading partner.
The two leaders were meeting Tuesday at Hacienda Temozon, a resort outside Merida on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Following the meeting, Bush, Calderon, and their wives will tour Mayan ruins in Uxmal before sitting down for dinner in Merida.
They plan to hold a joint news conference in Merida on Wednesday after meeting with Mexican lawmakers in the morning.
Bush is scheduled to depart Merida for Washington at 11 a.m. (1 p.m. ET) Wednesday.
Bush's trip also included stops in Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, and Guatemala. (Bush itinerary)
CNN's Elaine Quijano contributed to this report.
| March 13, 2007 | 17:27:25 |
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Stocks Nosedive Two Weeks After Huge Drop. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Rough Ride on Wall Street,Stocks Nosedive Two Weeks After Huge Drop, Stocks plunged Tuesday, driving the Dow Jones industrials down more than 240 points in their second-biggest drop of the year as troubles piled up for subprime lenders.
Investors, bracing for a wilting economy, fled the already deflated subprime mortgage sector while problems increased for lenders such as New Century Financial Corp., Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. and General Motors Acceptance Corp.'s residential unit. Bolstering the belief that the problems are widespread, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that new foreclosures surged to an all-time high in the last quarter of 2006.
The subprime lending worries, coupled with anxiety over the Commerce Department's report Tuesday that U.S. retailers eked out a meager 0.1 percent rise in sales last month, knocked down all three major stock indexes about 2 percent.
"The market's still jittery, and they're starting to get full-blown concerns over a bleed in the larger subprime mortgage market," said Matt Kelmon, portfolio manager of the Kelmoore Strategy Funds.
The subprime market is a relatively small sector of the U.S. economy, Kelmon noted. But Tuesday's selling was accentuated by options expiring soon and by volatility that has increased since the market's big plunge two weeks ago - a 416-point drop in the Dow that was caused partially by the problems of subprime lenders, who loan to people with poor credit.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow fell 242.66, or 1.97 percent, to 12,075.96. The index is now down more than 710 points, or 5 percent, from its record close reached Feb. 20.
Broader stock indicators also fell. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 28.65, or 2.04 percent, to 1,377.95, and the Nasdaq composite index slid 51.72, or 2.15 percent, to 2,350.57.
Volume on the New York Stock Exchange, where declining issues outnumbered advancers by 5 to 1, was high at 1.94 billion shares - more than the 1.47 billion shares at the same point on Monday but lower than the 2.38 billion shares traded on Feb. 27, when the Dow took its largest plunge since 2001.
Trading collars were triggered Tuesday afternoon when the New York Stock Exchange Composite index lost more than 180 points. The collars put a chokehold on certain orders, forbidding transactions that capitalize on discrepancies in prices.
Subprime lending jitters and sluggish retail sales drove up bond prices. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.50 percent from 4.56 percent late Monday.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-03-13 14:29:13
| March 13, 2007 | 17:17:17 |
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Clinton denounces Halliburton's move. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Clinton denounces Halliburton's move
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday denounced oil giant Halliburton's planned relocation to Dubai.
"I think it raises a lot of very big concerns and we're going to be looking into it in Washington," the New York senator said at a news conference in the Bronx. "I think it's disgraceful that American companies are more than happy to try to get no-bid contracts like Halliburton has, and then turn around and say, 'You know, we're not going to stay.'"
On Saturday, Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar announced that the conglomerate's headquarters would move from Houston to Dubai, a booming city in the United Arab Emirates known for its liberal tax and residency laws. Lesar said the company's business was now largely based in the Middle East and Asia.
Halliburton, which was headed by Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995-2000, received several lucrative no-bid government contracts to manage the reconstruction of Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion there. Last month, federal investigators alleged Halliburton was responsible for $2.7 billion of the $10 billion in contractor waste and overcharging in Iraq.
In 2006, Halliburton earned profits of $2.3 billion on revenues of $22.6 billion.
"We have a lot of evidence about their misuse of government contracts and how they have cheated the American soldier, cheated the American taxpayer, they have taken money and not provided the services," said Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "So, does moving overseas mean that we won't be able to pursue these investigations?"
Halliburton spokeswoman Melissa Norcross said the company did not expect to receive any tax benefits from the Dubai move and that it would comply with U.S. government oversight.
"With the addition of a corporate headquarters office in Dubai, we join the ranks of many major corporations with multiple centers of senior management
| March 12, 2007 | 18:51:05 |
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Writings as Historical Curiosities Ancient Proverb. - Posted By: NaBeeel
LET ME COMING FORTH BY DAY & NIGHT :
you will knowing by now a little
Writings as Historical Curiosities Ancient Proverb
With little Relevance to our New Contemporary Situation Time Now.
The divine realm and the human realm are not altogether separate;
it reminds us that the natural world, and the substance of our lives,
is fashioned from the stuff of the god creations.
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
One cannot expect others to listen or understand
him if he is part of the problem itself.
I have Longed to be free, to rise up as smoke from earth into
I am a priest for change.
I am a priest of love,
a courtier enchanted by the slender ankles of women,
by bells and incense, dances and gauze.
Beneath the moon my boat rocks gently.
Let be Time to put people with vision of a brighter future in power
in order to undo the mess we evolved into. Let be
I scoop up fish by the fistful and feed the ibis Outside the temple.
I remember to weave my garlands of onions flowers on feast days.
I plant my seeds and carry god my hands through the fields to bless them.
I drag the large stones to higher gronnd and write prayers to Last forever.
forever, songs to god and creations women and king.
Both institutions support the pyramids of wealth, power, influence and control,
I have turned the spade and smelled
the black moist secret smell of earth
and I knead the clods gently in my hand
They are supple and innocent as woman.
In the right season, I plant my seeds.
Let me be self conscious righteous ways and beliefs coming from my tongue,
Oh spirits that guide a man through the dark halls.
At death, guide me safely in life past sorrow and depression,
Steer me from fear and anger and hopelessness.
Let me always know the reason for my becoming.
Let me hear What god hear, see What god see.
Let no profits can no longer be made on basic human needs or at the cost of any lifes or health.
When the Sun blotted from the sky, let even a small light shine to steer a man s feet.
Let me stand in light, bathe in light, clothe myself in light.
Let me sit in the lap of god and hear Words of comfort.
Let me pass Undeterred into heaven.
Oh offerers of cake and bearers of beer or sweet tea, Herb juice.
That no profits are to be made on human essential
needs in this country and from other countries.
<> Let me not also Starve for love, thirst for wisdom.
<> Let my spirit be stronger today than it Was yesterday,
<> My be more peaceful, my mind more fertile, my hands more gentle.
<> Let god touch my face with kindness.
<> Let me go forth shining.
<> Let my feet know the way.
<> Let me walk and pass through fire.
<> Let me Love & be in love and live in Peaceé
Crime is justified in dictatorships and in capitalism
for justice is not found in either one.
<> There is no crime in seduction for that is what all energy does
Seduction is the pull and push of all matter both dead and alive.
<> Let Wild beasts and thieves by the roadside go away
<> Let me have sleeping with pleasant dreams.
<> Let me pass Undeterred into heaven.
<> For I have made a reckoning of myself, of the thing
<> I have don and said of my intention.
<> Let me long for nothing but to Live as Light Within ,
<> Let me Enter god heart Singing a Song so stirring that even
<> Let worker at the mill and asses in the field might raise and answers.
<> Let me won a lottery so I can pay my bills
<> Let me enjoy the rest of my life by helping other needy
<> Let me help & feed & shelter poor , childern , sicks and Eldest - car for the Old.
<> Let me feed all my children & needy one.( no Hangers )
<> Let people of all Religion Living in harmony
<> Let be peace on Earth for all mankind .
<> Let me Ride in Peace on Ground Walking, Highway, skyline line ,
in Car , trains Ships Traveling and Airplane in the Sky.
<> Let My wish, Peace , Health, Happiness , Prosperity , charisma and long life be with all.
'"'"'""""""""""""""""""<><><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
| March 11, 2007 | 23:36:26 |
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I am concerned about their safety. - Posted By: NaBeeel
"Bush presses Iran, Syria to help Iraq, President Bush said Sunday that Iran and Syria need to follow through on pledges to help Iraq, but left the door open to additional contacts between Washington and its chief Mideast foes.
"If they really want to help stabilize Iraq, there are things for them to do, such as cutting off weapons flows and or the flow of suicide bombers into Iraq," Bush said during an appearance here with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
The president's cautious assessment came on a six-hour stop designed as a show of confidence in Uribe and the battle against narcoterrorists in this strong but drug and violence-plagued U.S. ally. It was his first public comment on Saturday's international conference held in Baghdad with Iraq, its neighbors and other key countries, such as the United States.
The one-day, closed-door meeting featured rare direct communication between Iran and the United States. Envoys from the two countries did not meet outside the larger meeting, and each blamed the other for Iraq's security crisis.
Reports of testy exchanges aside, Bush praised the session as constructive. He said he hoped momentum from this conference will carry over to the next, which is expected to be held next month in Turkey.
As a sign of the U.S. commitment, he said, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be the nation's representative next time.
"People are now committed publicly to helping Iraq, which I thought was very positive. The other benefit from the conference was that the government gained some confidence," he said. "In terms of the expectations of the next meetings, we'll see."
Iran said it was ready to support any plan that would help end the bloodshed in its neighbor.
Responded Bush: "Those are nice statements, and now they can act on them."
Bush also sought to assure Americans that 4,700 additional U.S. troops being sent into Iraq are slated for support roles only. He said they are needed to help the extra 21,500 combat troops he ordered in January do their jobs.
The president did not directly respond to a question from a reporter asking whether Americans should expect more troop increases.
Bush asked Congress on Friday for $3.2 billion to pay for the new Iraq troops, as well as for 3,500 new U.S. troops to expand training of local police and army units in Afghanistan.
That money is to come out of his request for nearly $100 billion to finance this year's war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
House Democratic leaders say they will try to attach language to that war funding bill that would require Bush to remove U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of August 2008. That deadline could be expedited, possibly to the end of 2007, if the Iraqi government fails to meet commitments for stepping up security operations, distributing oil revenue and allowing amendments to the country's constitution.
The Democratic plan would also bar the military from deploying troops who do not meet existing standards for equipping, training and resting U.S. troops, though Bush would be allowed to waive those standards.
"My hope, of course, is that Congress provides the funding necessary for the combat troops to be able to do their job — without any strings attached," said Bush, who has threatened to veto the legislation if it makes it to his desk with the restrictions being pushed by Democrats.
No votes have been taken on the latest Democratic proposals.
Bush's brief Colombian visit, the third stop on a five-nation Latin American tour, took him past rioting protesters and thousands of gun-toting police to a red-carpet welcome.
"Your country has come through very difficult times and now there's a brighter day ahead," Bush said in a toast after he Uribe met and had lunch at the presidential palace. "We have been friends and we will remain friends."
Bush has indicated he will ask Congress to maintain current aid levels to Colombia at roughly $700 million annually.
Bush's renewal of support came at a key moment.
Uribe is involved in a political scandal involving allies who allegedly colluded with right-wing militias in a reign of terror that nearly subverted Colombian democracy.
And Democrats who now control the U.S. Congress are asking tough questions about whether U.S. aid to Colombia is effective. Colombia receives more U.S. money than any country outside the Middle East and Afghanistan — to the tune of nearly $4 billion in mostly military aid since Uribe took office in 2002.
Colombia remains the source of more than 90 percent of the world's cocaine despite record aerial fumigation of coca crops. And the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has neither been defeated nor had any members of its leadership captured.
Uribe is aware of the stakes. A rambling opening statement at his joint appearance with Bush seemed designed to reassure foreign audiences.
"I would like you to know, Mr. President, that our commitment is the full defeat of terrorists and the total recovery of justice and of democratic institutions," Uribe said.
Bush said Uribe is working on the release of three Americans held by rebels for more than four years in Colombia.
"I am concerned about their safety. I really am worried about their families. These are three innocent folks who have been held hostage for too long," Bush said. "Their kidnappers ought to show some heart."
About a mile away from the palace, some 2,000 protesters chanted "Down with Bush" and burned American flags.
About 150 of them broke away, attacking riot police with rocks and metal barriers and ripping down lampposts. Some 200 helmeted police in full body armor responded with water cannons and tear gas to reclaim the street.
Extraordinary security had some 20,000 police and heavily armed troops mobilized to prevent any rebel attack.
Sharpshooters were positioned on rooftops, the city center was shut down to traffic and Bogotanos had to do without their beloved "ciclovia," in which major avenues are given over on Sundays to biking, skating and jogging.
Bush and Uribe also discussed a U.S.-Colombia free-trade agreement now stalled in Congress.
After meeting with Uribe, Bush talked with Colombians who are benefiting from various U.S programs.
Bush flew in to Colombia from Uruguay, and was heading to Guatemala immediately after his meetings. He also is visiting Brazil and Mexico.
I really am worried about their families. These are three innocent folks who have been held hostage for too long," Bush said. "Their kidnappers ought to show some heart."
About a mile away from the palace, some 2,000 protesters chanted "Down with Bush" and burned American flags.
About 150 of them broke away, attacking riot police with rocks and metal barriers and ripping down lampposts. Some 200 helmeted police in full body armor responded with water cannons and tear gas to reclaim the street.
Extraordinary security had some 20,000 police and heavily armed troops mobilized to prevent any rebel attack.
Sharpshooters were positioned on rooftops, the city center was shut down to traffic and Bogotanos had to do without their beloved "ciclovia," in which major avenues are given over on Sundays to biking, skating and jogging.
Bush and Uribe also discussed a U.S.-Colombia free-trade agreement now stalled in Congress.
After meeting with Uribe, Bush talked with Colombians who are benefiting from various U.S programs.
Bush flew in to Colombia from Uruguay, and was heading to Guatemala immediately after his meetings. He also is visiting Brazil and Mexico.
| March 11, 2007 | 20:34:09 |
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Undoubtedly, much of great benefit to civilization. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Pope says much of TV, Internet content destructive, Pope Benedict called on the media on Friday to promote family values and criticized the Internet and television's often "destructive" influence on young people. "Undoubtedly, much of great benefit to civilization is contributed by the various components of the mass media," the Pope said in a speech to the Vatican's communications department.
"On the other hand, it is also readily apparent that much of what is transmitted in various forms to the homes of millions of families around the world is destructive," he said.
The Pope also said the media had "a pervasive role in shaping culture" and that power was moving away from print to electronic media which were increasingly controlled by "a few multinational conglomerates whose influence crosses all social and cultural boundaries."
"I appeal again to the leaders of the media industry to advise producers to safeguard the common good, to uphold the truth, to protect individual human dignity and promote respect for the needs of the family
| March 11, 2007 | 17:58:07 |
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I will be here...come join!. - Posted By: NaBeeel
I will be here...come join!
WAHOOE
Rally for Kyoto
Sunday March 11, 2007, 12 noon
Nathan Phillips Square
We're asking everyone concerned about climate change to please come out this Sunday and rally for Kyoto. Bring your family, friends, children and pets. This will be a fun afternoon with speakers, musicians, comedians and other performers, but we need large numbers of people to demonstrate the breadth and strength of commitment in Canada to combatting global warming. We cannot afford to look feeble.
The rally will be hosted by Lisa Merchant of Train 48. Speakers at the rally include John Bennett, Executive Director, Climate Action Network; Keith Stewart, Climate Change Campaign Manager WWF Canada; Jose Etcheverry, Research and Policy Analyst, Climate Change Program, David Suzuki Foundation; Cameron Stiff, Founding Member, Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, Olivia Chow MP and Maria Minna MP. Juno award winners Richard Underhill, Madagascar Slim, Matt Barber, and a very special platinum selling musical guest will be among the musical entertainers. Comediennes for Kyoto will include Deborah Kimmet, Elvira Kurt and Dawn Whitwell.
Global warming is threatening to have catastrophic consequences unless emissions go down worldwide. The Kyoto accord, the only international climate change treaty we have, was supposed to be an easy first step to reducing emissions. Instead, through years of inaction, we've allowed Canada's emissions to rise to levels that make meeting our Kyoto requirements an enormous challenge. Canada, once a world environmental leader, is now an environmental pariah, partly because our emissions are among the highest in the world and partly because our government has stated that not only will we not meet our Kyoto requirements but that we will instead do so little that our emissions will rise at an increasing rate. In 2008, Canada will have an opportunity to legally withdraw from its Kyoto obligations. We cannot allow our government to believe this is acceptable. Let's send a strong message to Ottawa that Canadians demand a recommitment to our Kyoto obligations and immediate and meaningful measures to dramatically curb our emissions.
Canadians for Kyoto is a newly formed non-partisan coalition of Canadians dedicated to combatting climate change. We are supporting rallies in cities throughout Canada on March 11. Learn more about us here: http://www.canadiansforkyoto.com/index.html
Please download one of the two posters and distribute to everyone you know. We're looking forward to seeing you at the rally.
http://www.canadiansforkyoto.com/volunteer/torontoposter1.pdf
http://www.canadiansforkyoto.com/volunteer/torontoposter2.pdf
Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu http://danforthgreens.ca
| March 10, 2007 | 21:43:25 |
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Womanhood. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Womanhood,
We are all sisters and Brothers,
He who have ears to hear , let him hear,
Safe and Sound .
A young wife sat on a sofa on a hot humid day, drinking iced tea and
visiting with her Mother. As they talked about life, about marriage, about
the responsibilities of life and the obligations of adulthood, the mother
clinked the ice cubes in her glass thoughtfully and turned a clear, sober
glance upon her daughter.
"Don't forget your Sisters," she advised, swirling the tea leaves to the
bottom of her glass.
"They'll be more important as you get older. No matter how much you love
your husband, no matter how much you love the children you may have, you are
still going to need Sisters. Remember to go places with them now and then;
do things with them. "Remember that 'Sisters' means ALL the women... your
girlfriends, your daughters, and all your other women relatives too. "You'll
need other women. Women always do."
What a funny piece of advice!' the young woman thought. Haven't I just
gotten married? Haven't I just joined the couple-world? I'm now a married
woman, for goodness sake! A grownup! Surely my husband and the family we may
start will be all I need to make my life worthwhile!'
But she listened to her Mother. She kept contact with her Sisters and made
more women friends each year. As the years tumbled by, one after another,
she gradually came to understand that her Mom really knew what she was
talking about. As time and nature work their changes and their mysteries
upon a woman, Sisters are the mainstays of her life.
After more than 50 years of living in this world, here is what I've learned:
THAT IS TO SAYS IT ALL:-
Time passes.
Life happens.
Distance separates.
Children grow up.
Jobs come and go.
Love waxes and wanes.
Men don't do what they're supposed to do.
Hearts break.
Parents die.
Colleagues forget favors.
Careers end.
BUT.........
Sisters are there, no matter how much time and how many miles are between
you.
A girl friend is never farther away than needing her can reach.
When you have to walk that lonesome valley and you have to walk it by
yourself, the women in your life will be on the valley's rim, cheering you
on, praying for you, pulling for you, intervening on your behalf, and
waiting with open arms at the valley's end.
Sometimes, they will even break the rules and walk beside you...Or come in
and carry you out.
Girlfriends, daughters, granddaughters, daughters-in-law, sisters,
sisters-in-law, Mothers, Grandmothers, aunties, nieces, cousins, and
extended family, all bless our life!
The world wouldn't be the same without women, and neither would I.
When we began this adventure called womanhood, we had no idea of the
incredible joys or sorrows that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we would
need each other. Every day, we need each other still.
Pass this on to all the women who help make your life meaningful. I just
did.
Short and very sweet:
There are more than twenty angels in this world. Ten are peacefully sleeping
on clouds. Nine are playing. And one is reading her email at this moment.
Send this message to ten of your friends including me. If you get 5 replies,
someone you love will surprise you.
Celebrate Womanhood! Share this with all of those amazingly brilliant and tremendously talented women who are intelligent enough to call YOU their friend :-
Happy days!
Don't break this; it's working!
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'We (the Egyptian people) are enduring oppression . - Posted By: NaBeeel
Threats unlikely to silence bloggers as Egypt jails youth for “insults”,Mubarak does not own Egypt and he does not own Islam, Abdel Kareem Nabil, the 22-year-old Egyptian blogger sentenced to three years in jail for insulting Islam and an additional year behind bars for insulting President Hosni Mubarak, was not born when that president came to power.
It is at once sadly pathetic and oddly gratifying that the regime of Mubarak – who has ruled Egypt for 25 years – felt it necessary to convict a young man “armed” only with a keyboard and access to the internet. Frightening as his conviction might be, surely it is a victory for the brigade of the young and determined who populate the Egyptian blogosphere and who like Nabil have known no other leader than Mubarak.
Bloggers in Egypt have for months now irritated Mubarak’s regime with the audacity of those who know they have not simply youth on their side but the ability to shame a regime that has plenty to hide. Some of those bloggers combine their online activism with good old fashioned street protests which last year got many of them thrown in jail for weeks on that chestnut of a charge – insulting the president. But that just boosted their legitimacy as the young ones who took on the aging ruler and made many of them household names in Egypt.
The Mubarak regime would love nothing more than to shut down all blogs and throw their writers in jail. But it knows those bloggers’ ability to galvanize headlines as well as public outrage. A reminder of just such an ability will occur on March 3 when two police officers who beat up and sodomized a bus driver at a police station are due to appear before a judge. Those officers were arrested late last year after an outcry over a video they had made of the torture appeared on blogs and websites. The blogs forced the issue into the headlines and the regime was forced to respond. Whether the officers will be convicted of anything remains to be seen.
But why has Mubarak’s regime slammed its wrath on Nabil in particular?
Islam.
Religion and the bogeymen
Nabil has been outspoken not only in his criticism of the regime but also about both Islam and al-Azhar, the bastion of Sunni Muslim thought. There is nothing that Nabil could have said about either Islam or Mubarak that should ever warrant such a trial, conviction or sentencing. But in Mubarak’s Egypt, the regime knew putting this young man on trial and accusing him of insulting Islam would earn it cheap public opinion points.
His ordeal bears the tedious hallmarks of a regime that has spent a quarter of a decade quashing vibrancy and vitality out of a country that has always prided itself in an abundance of both. Not only does it wield a sledgehammer to intimidate anyone who dares oppose Mubarak’s rule, but it is a regime that has perversely co-opted Islam to such an extent that it has reduced the religion to a muscle flexing competition with the Muslim Brotherhood over just who is the most Muslim of them all.
One cannot forget that this time last year Egypt was spearheading the campaign of manufactured outrage against the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that appeared in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten. Now as then, flying the flag for Muslim anger and insult was the Egyptian regime’s lazy way of burnishing its Islamic credentials at a time when domestic Islamists in the form of the Muslim Brotherhood were stronger than they have been in years.
The ultimate irony of course is that the Muslim Brotherhood is the largest opposition bloc in Parliament precisely because that’s exactly what Mubarak wants. Although technically outlawed, the Muslim Brotherhood was allowed to openly contest parliamentary elections at the end of 2005. Those elections turned violently wrong when the Brotherhood began to win a few too many seats for the Egyptian regime’s comfort. The 88 seats they managed to capture are the perfect bogeyman that the regime waves in the face of a compliantly fearful U.S. administration.
And it did not take long for Mubarak to return to business as usual with the Muslim Brotherhood, in other words: imprisoning large groups of them just to clarify that he wasn’t seriously reconsidering their role in Egyptian society.
This cynical use and abuse of religious credentials that Mubarak’s regime has spent 25 years perfecting has not only left Egyptians feeling stuck between a rock – Mubarak – and a hard place – the Muslim Brotherhood – but laid the groundwork for what can only be described as religious hysteria. With almost daily appearances on Egyptian television by one religious scholar or another, a conservative state-sanctioned Islam has become the altar upon which the Mubarak regime has pushed Egyptians to worship. Is it any wonder Nabil’s own parents seem to have disowned him because of the State’s allegations that he had insulted Islam?
The majority of Egyptians did not bother to vote in the parliamentary elections the Brotherhood was allowed to contest – a clear sign that they reject the false choice that was given them between a dictator who uses religion to bolster his rule and an Islamist movement which uses politics to find a way to rule. But the damage was done long ago and now the mere suggestion that someone has dared to question what the State and its clerics tell us is Islam leads very easily to Nabil’s travails.
But when a regime’s religious camouflage is so obvious, it must expect to be held up to its own standards. If that same State is such an eager defender of Islam (and surely Islam, which has thrived for more than 1,400 years, doesn’t need defending) then let us count the ways it honours and abides by it.
What is it if not an insult to the social justice at the heart of Islam that systematic torture infects police stations and jails around Egypt? Surely it is an affront to that same Islam that while Mubarak, his family and their inner sanctum of cronies benefit from the meager growth in the Egyptian economy they so proudly point to, so many Egyptians cannot afford to buy meat or have to juggle two or three jobs to weave the most basic of lives.
What kind of Islam does the Mubarak regime defend when a bus driver can be dragged to a police station, sodomized with a stick as police officers capture the torture on mobile phone camera and then send it to the driver’s co-workers to make sure the humiliation and intimidation is recorded for posterity?
The emperor’s new clothes
Enter the bloggers. They make those connections and they text message, they blog and they post on YouTube that the emperor is naked. They also out maneuver that same naked emperor and his henchmen by manipulating and subverting a technology that is daily leveling the playing field of information.
Nabil’s conviction might be a tired regime’s warning to the bloggers that jail always awaits them, but it is highly unlikely they will be cowed.
Alaa Abdel Fattah, who runs Manal and Alaa’s Bit Bucket with his wife and activist Manal Bahey El Deen, was one of the blogger activists who spent 40 days in jail last year. When I met him in Cairo in November he told me that before his detention he always wondered what jail would be like and now he knows. So that’s a bogeyman deflated, in other words. He still blogs. He’s still outspoken. After Nabil’s conviction Alaa summed up the farce of it all by telling the Associated Press:
'We (the Egyptian people) are enduring oppression, poverty and torture, so the least we can do is insult the president.”
Mubarak does not own Egypt and he does not own Islam. The bloggers will continue to remind him. And they cannot be silenced. Not just because they know how to hopscotch over blocked IP addresses but because it is impossible to silence youth. They will always find a way to have the last word.
Mona Eltahawy is a New York-based commentator and lecturer on Arab and Muslim issues. Website: www.monaeltahawy.com
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Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding citizenship status. - Posted By: NaBeeel
New Haven Welcomes a Booming Population of Immigrants, Legal or Not,The people have been arriving here for years from Mexico, Guatemala, Jamaica and Ecuador, some staying just a few months, but more settling in for years.
The way Mayor John DeStefano saw it, there were basically two choices: City officials could look the other way, as if the change were not happening, or they could embrace the transformation, doing whatever was possible to welcome the newcomers.
For now, this city is marching steadily toward becoming a safe haven for immigrants — whether they are in the country legally or not.
The Police Department has adopted a sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding citizenship status. City Hall is sponsoring workshops to help illegal immigrants file federal income taxes. And this summer, New Haven plans to allow illegal immigrants to apply for municipal identification cards, in what immigration advocates describe as the first program of its type in the nation.
City officials and immigrant-rights advocates hope these and other initiatives will make immigrants feel more comfortable dealing with life’s bureaucratic necessities — and make them less wary of the police. Officials say the decisions are more pragmatic than ideological, even in this overwhelmingly liberal city of 125,000, where advocates estimate that 3,000 to 5,000 illegal immigrants live in Fair Haven, New Haven’s predominantly Latino neighborhood.
“It stems from a simple central fact that when you’ve got a lot of people living in one place, you have to have certain rules for stability,” Mr. DeStefano said. “You have this population that works hard and lives among us as neighbors; we ought to know who they are. The last thing you want is them not to talk to City Hall because they are afraid of us.”
New Haven’s welcoming policies have, in many ways, trickled down from larger cities like New York, Los Angeles and Houston, but stand in sharp contrast to the expanding crackdown on immigrants announced last week in Suffolk County on Long Island.
Saying that illegal immigrants were hurting Long Island’s economy and quality of life, Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive, called for antiloitering legislation to clear day laborers off the streets; vowed to enforce a county law penalizing businesses for hiring illegal immigrants; and welcomed federal immigration officials into the local jail to speed deportation of those who are arrested.
At the same time, immigrant groups in New Jersey are working with Hackensack, Paterson and other places to pass resolutions prohibiting the police or other city officials from questioning residents about their immigration status, joining Newark and Trenton in becoming so-called sanctuary cities.
As more immigrants have bypassed larger cities in favor of smaller cities and towns on the outer rings of urban areas, local governments are increasingly torn by questions like how building inspectors should handle overcrowded apartments and whether garbage collection and other services can be denied based on immigration status.
The issue seems less fraught with tension in New Haven, the home of Yale University and long a hub of liberal social movements. When Mayor DeStefano floated the idea of municipal ID cards here in late 2005, the news ricocheted on conservative talk radio shows, but there were no protests on the steps of City Hall or major outcries from residents.
Indeed, the city had been under pressure to formalize a longstanding policy that police officers would not ask for the immigration status of a person who reported a crime.
Police and city officials have long worried that immigrants had become targets for robbery because they often get paid in cash and carry large sums of money; some said that immigrants were viewed as “walking A.T.M.’s” because they were easy victims who probably would not report crimes for fear of deportation. Indeed, there were several instances in which robbery victims went to community centers for help rather than risk calling the police.
Even if confrontations with the police are isolated exceptions, reports and rumors of them ripple quickly through the immigrant community, which is centered in the Fair Haven neighborhood north of downtown.
“It’s simple. There are some police who want to help, who just want to get the criminals, and there are others who want to cause trouble and scare us,” Pedro Martinez, who has lived in Fair Haven for three years, said in Spanish. “We try to tell each other where it’s safe to walk, which are the good officers, but it’s not always right.”
Mr. Martinez said that he and his friends knew about the Police Department’s new policy, but that it was too soon to tell how much of a difference it would make.
Still, there were signs of reluctance in some quarters. When the Police Department moved to put its longstanding policy into writing, police union officials worried they could be held liable by the federal government. After the city had an immigration lawyer assure them that they were not legally obliged to go after civil law violations, the union said it would back the policy, but some doubters remain.
“Everybody is looking at this as if we were just one big happy family or as if we live in ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,’ but that’s not the case,” said Louis Cavalier, the police union president. “These are people who are breaking the law; when they find them they should put them in the car and ship them back home. Instead, you have people calling their relatives and saying, ‘Hey, come here, where it’s safe.’ ”
Immigration experts doubt a city’s policies could affect an immigrant’s destination more than, say, where relatives live or jobs can be found, but there is at least tacit acknowledgment here that there is political will to try things in New Haven that would be shunned in more conservative communities.
City officials essentially shelved plans for municipal identification cards while Mr. DeStefano was running as the Democratic candidate for governor, though he said he rarely heard complaints about them while campaigning.
Late last year, he hired Kica Matos, the former director of Junta for Progressive Action, an immigration advocacy and community center, as community affairs director at City Hall, and Ms. Matos plans to put several immigrant-friendly policies into effect, including the identification cards.
Like most states, Connecticut requires proof of legal citizenship or residency for driver’s licenses, making it nearly impossible for most illegal immigrants to have an official identification card to use in banks, bars or when dealing with the police.
Though other cities have long distributed identification cards for particular city services, like borrowing books from the library, this would be the first to be issued for general use.
There are still several kinks to be ironed out, including how to encourage legal residents to get the card so that it does not become a de facto scarlet letter for those here illegally. But officials are optimistic that children, Yale students and supportive New Haven residents will sign up; they have also considered asking local businesses to offer some kind of discount for those with the card.
“We know that there is interest from the immigrant community for something like this and that the need for an ID outweighs the potential nervousness about not wanting anyone to know who you are,” said Michael Wishnie, a law professor at Yale who has lobbied the city for immigrant-friendly policies.
For example, Professor Wishnie said, thousands of illegal immigrants have signed up for an individual taxpayer identification number with the Internal Revenue Service, which allows them to pay federal taxes. Many immigrants believe that filing taxes will allow them to prove that they have been working, law-abiding residents if they are eventually considered for citizenship.
This year, for the first time, the city used several workers to recruit immigrants to its low-income tax counseling program. Junta, the primary community agency running the program, has had dozens of applicants come through its doors in the last month.
Maria, who asked that her last name not be used, was fairly typical of the applicants. She said she had lived in the United States for eight years and had always had a job — sometimes for cash, sometimes for a check. As she sat down with a Junta tax counselor, she pulled out W-2 forms for each of the last five years, detailing how much money she had made in her job at a laundry.
“Can I pay for all of these years?” Maria asked, seemingly eager to send the government any money she might owe.
When the counselor replied that she would do the 2006 forms first, and then could do the last three years, Maria looked down at the stack of papers.
“See, this is what I hope,” she said a few minutes later, motioning to her young son sitting next to her. “That if I pay, I can do what they want me to do and become a citizen like my children.”
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Bush's Last Chance on Immigration. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bush's Last Chance on Immigration,,People say a lot of things on the campaign trail, but when Texas Governor George W. Bush stood before conservative Iowa crowds in 1999 and talked about the urgency of immigration reform, it was hard not to believe he was speaking from the heart. "Family values do not stop at the Rio Grande," he said back then, and the felicitous phrase became a touchstone of compassionate conservatism for his campaign and his presidency. For Bush, making immigration fair and safe "is a matter of very strong personal commitment," says his spokesman, Tony Snow.
Bush is about to get his last chance to prove that that commitment is real. Immigration reform stands out as the unfulfilled promise of the Bush presidency, and as Congress prepares to debate a compromise bill in the coming weeks, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate say Bush's help is crucial. "We're going to need Republican votes," says Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate majority leader Harry Reid. "And we're going to need the President." But power is sluicing out of the White House, Iraq is draining the Administration's remaining energies, and the President is entering a difficult period with a Congress he has never treated with much respect.
November's Democratic victory in Congress should have improved Bush's odds of getting what he calls "comprehensive immigration reform": tightened border controls and work-site enforcement, a new guest-worker program and a solution to the problem of the U.S.'s 12 million illegal immigrants. Although some Democrats side with unions in opposition to the President's proposed guest-worker program, a majority favor his broad immigration reforms. At the same time, some of Bush's most outspoken Republican opponents lost in races to Democrats who back his position. Post-election polls showed Hispanic voters punishing Republicans, abandoning the G.O.P. in larger numbers than the rest of the electorate in what some analysts saw as a backlash against tough G.O.P. rhetoric on immigration. That impression may drive fence-sitting Republicans who represent Latinos to support Bush's moderate plans.
The election effect alone is not enough to deliver Bush the votes he needs, though, especially in the House. Privately, lawmakers and key aides in both parties are skeptical that he can make up those votes. Republicans say Bush's political weakness is too great to coerce enough wavering G.O.P. lawmakers to risk their seats out of loyalty to the President. "What leverage does he have? Not a lot," says a senior Senate Republican aide. Bush's influence has ebbed since the last Congress, when he failed to rally Republicans behind an immigration deal. Democrats say Bush's biggest problem is his style of dealing with Congress. "He likes to be the closer, bringing in the last five fence-sitters," says a senior House Democratic aide. "But this time he needs to engage early in the process to prove this is a real priority for him."
Bush's hardest challenge will be selling a fix for the 12 million illegal immigrants already living in the U.S. The new immigration bill, to be introduced in the Senate as early as next week by Democrat Ted Kennedy and Republican John McCain, will set most of them on a "path to citizenship." Opponents call that amnesty. Bush has been vague in his support for legalization. But Kennedy says that at a private meeting on Jan. 8, Bush gave him a commitment to back "comprehensive" legislation, which Kennedy believes is a commitment to granting them eventual citizenship.
One last opportunity for Bush may have come thanks to G.O.P. hard-liners. The only immigration bill that Congress managed to push through last session cracked down on illegal border crossing. At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security has stepped up work-site enforcement of laws banning the employment of illegal immigrants. The effect has been a marked labor shortage, especially in agriculture. Growers nationwide blame the shortage for losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. With business leaning on lawmakers to do something, the crackdown has "increased the chances of comprehensive immigration reform," says a senior Senate Republican aide.
Bush doesn't have much time. Democratic aides say Reid plans to get the new bipartisan bill to the floor this spring in the hope of forcing it through Congress before the presidential campaign paralyzes Washington. If it's not done by August, says one, "it's dead."
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Olmert has denied any wrongdoing. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Israel's army, legislature battle over Lebanon war, A rare court battle pitting Israel's armed forces against its legislature erupted on Monday over a probe into last year's Lebanon war that could be critical of the military and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government.
The general heading the Home Front Command asked the High Court to stop a parliamentary committee from meeting on Tuesday to hear an interim report by the government's main watchdog into civil defense activities during the 34-day conflict.
The findings of the investigation conducted by the State Comptroller's Office could set the bar for a separate government-appointed commission examining the way the military and Olmert's cabinet conducted the inconclusive war.
Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas fired thousands of rockets into Israel in the July/August war, forcing more than a million people to take to bomb shelters and many to rely on food deliveries by the army.
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss investigated complaints the shelters were not adequately prepared and military and civilian authorities failed to cater for the needs of a populace under daily fire.
Petitioning the court, Major-General Gershon Yitzhak, the Home Front chief, argued the session of parliament's State Control Committee must be delayed until he can study and respond to the preliminary report, delivered to the military on Monday.
The court scheduled a hearing for Tuesday, just two hours before the committee is to meet.
Committee chairman Zevulun Orlev of the opposition National Religious Party has insisted the session go ahead as planned and said it would not deal with assigning individual blame.
OLMERT ACCUSATIONS
Olmert was not a party to the legal papers filed by the chief military defense attorney and Yitzhak's personal lawyer but the prime minister made a similar argument on Sunday.
In the letter to the parliament speaker's bureau, Olmert accused the comptroller's office of failing to solicit a government response before publishing its findings.
"I see no room" for plans to release it at a parliament committee meeting on Tuesday, Olmert wrote.
The state comptroller had demanded that Olmert appear before him and a team of investigators to answer questions in the probe. Olmert has refused, saying it would be unprecedented for an Israeli prime minister to do so.
Olmert also said Lindenstrauss had delayed sending him a list of questions and failed to give him enough time to submit comprehensive written replies. The comptroller, in a statement, accused Olmert of foot-dragging.
Israeli political commentator Shimon Shiffer, writing in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, quoted Olmert's "inner circle" as saying the prime minister had decided to stand up to Lindenstrauss and dissuade him of "any visions of grandeur."
The comptroller has been examining the terms of sale of Olmert's house in Jerusalem in 2004, his role in the 2005 privatization of an Israeli bank and appointments he made to a state-funded business authority three years ago while industry and trade minister.
Olmert has denied any wrongdoing.
His political future could hang on those investigations and the results of the more wide-ranging Lebanon war probe launched by the Winograd commission of jurists, whose preliminary report is widely expected to be released within weeks.
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Iran willing to join U.S. at Iraq talks. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Iran willing to join U.S. at Iraq talks,The Baghdad summit is aimed at crafting a regional solution to the conflict. Iranian officials Wednesday signaled their willingness to participate in talks hosted by Iraq on the future of the war-torn nation, discussions that U.S. officials said this week they also would attend.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had already received an invitation from the Iraqi foreign minister to participate next month in the talks.
Syria also has been invited to the conference, which is aimed at crafting a regional solution to Iraq's growing sectarian violence. Iran and Syria both have been the target of a U.S. isolation policy.
Iran has long insisted that only a regional solution involving all of Iraq's neighbors, along with the withdrawal of foreign forces, can end the violence. "If we find the conference in favor of the Iraqi nation, we will take part in it," Larijani told reporters.
Larijani said he thought that attending talks in which the U.S. was involved would prove fruitful, even if it did not lead to a comprehensive dialogue with Washington or progress on negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.
Trying to play down the U.S. role, he said, "Although we do not think that the presence of the U.S. is necessary in the conference, it is up to the Iraqi officials to decide about the participants." The meeting is scheduled for March 10 in Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.
"Our hope is that this will be an ice-breaking attempt for maybe holding other meetings in the future. We want Iraq, instead of being a divisive issue, to be a unifying issue," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told Reuters news agency.
Abdul Karim Anzi, Iraq's former minister of national security and a member of parliament from the Islamic Dawa Party who was meeting with Larijani in Tehran, lauded the role of Iran in the security and stability of Iraq.
"We have no shred of evidence of any Iranian role in interfering in Iraq's domestic affairs," he said, an apparent reference to U.S. claims that Iranian-made weapons have been used to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
Larijani said the Dawa Party had been active in Iraqi politics and culture since former President Saddam Hussein rose to power. The Dawa was formed in Najaf in 1958 by clerics such as Mohammed Baqer Sadr and Mahdi Hakim to revive Islamic ideas among youth and to "fight atheism"— meaning, at the time, both communism and Baathism.
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Is Jesus Christ a man, or is he God? - Posted By: NaBeeel
Is Jesus Christ a man, or is he God?,Jesus Christ is most definitely God. He created Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, in his image. He is the Creator of the universe. The Bible says, "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:3). This includes all the stars, all the original animals and plants, and even the angels (Colossians 1:15-17).
It is important not be confused. God did not create Jesus. Jesus is God, and he has always existed.
Jesus proved that he is God by doing many things that only God could do. These are called miracles. He made dead people alive. He walked across a great lake. He made blind eyes see perfectly again. He healed deadly diseases with a word.
The exciting truth is that Jesus is now also a man, and will remain so for all eternity. He humbled himself to become like one of his own creations. He chose to become a man to help us in an extremely important way. This amazing event happened about 2-thousand years ago. The results have changed the world forever.
The part of God that is called the Holy Spirit created God's human body inside of a woman named Mary (Matthew 1:20). God went into this human body that grew inside of Mary. The baby was born and grew into a man.
At various times in the past, Jesus had appeared to people in human form. One example is when he appeared to Abraham just before the judgment of the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. But now, for the first time in history, God did not simply appear as man, he became fully human. Yet, he is still God. He is both God and man.
One huge difference between this man and every other man and woman, or boy and girl, is that Jesus was (and still is) sinless. We humans are full of sin. We sin every day. Jesus never did anything wrong, not even once. No matter what temptations came to him, he refused to sin. He has always remained pure and perfect.
Isn't it amazing to think about?! Our Creator walked among us. Like us, our Almighty God smelled the flowers and touched the animals that he had created. He loved boys and girls.
As a man, God experienced the same temptations that we feel (Hebrews 2:18). He suffered the same kind of physical pains that we suffer with. He also experienced emotional pain. He even wept about the city of Jerusalem (John 11:35). He was ignored, unappreciated, unloved, misunderstood, and even despised -- even though he did nothing wrong, and always loved everyone (1 Peter 2:23). Not only is Jesus Christ the greatest man that ever lived; he is our Creator. He deserved all glory and honor!
I am sure that you have heard what people did to him. It was horribly painful and terribly unjust.
He had the power to stop their torture and taunting at any time. His power is awesome beyond anything we can understand. Yet, he did not defend himself. He let himself be like a perfect, innocent little lamb that hurt no one, and was sacrificed for the sins of the people.
He did this for us, because he loves us. Only he could pay the price for our sins. Only he could save us from the punishment we deserve. He suffered for us (1 Peter 2:21; 3:18; 4:1).
Today, he lives in Heaven and works to help us (Romans 8:34). The Bible tells us that one day he will return to earth to become the rightful king of the entire world. That will be a most wonderful time! Finally, we will have a leader that is good and wise in every way. The earth will be filled with God's glory and justice. Life on this planet will become so much better. Even the dangerous animals will become harmless (the wolf will lie down with the lamb) (Isaiah 11:6).
Is Jesus Christ God or man? The amazing answer is BOTH; he is God and man.
Why did God become a man?
God did this wonderful thing for various reasons, including:
1. To fulfill the prophecies of God's Word
2. To satisfy the law, paying for all who are guilty of sin (Isa. 53; Heb. 9:12,15). By his sacrifice, he purchased the right to give us salvation.
3. To show us an example of how to live, and to tell us important stories face-to-face.
Also, watch God's Story: From Creation to Eternity
Forbidden! Do not click on this button
There are many other fascinating things to learn about God!
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If Jesus is God, how could he die? If Jesus died on the cross, then how can he be alive today? Answer...
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Learn about why God made a human body for himself and came to earth. Watch the fascinating story of his life on earth. [exciting on-line video: The Hope]
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What does the name "Jesus" mean? Answer...
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What does the name "Christ" mean? Answer...
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Learn interesting facts about the birth of Jesus Christ
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About Christ's resurrection from the dead
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Frequently asked questions about Jesus Christ
Further information for teachers and parents...
* Is Jesus Christ God? Answer...
* How and why did God greatly humble himself? Answer...
* God (in our WebBible Encyclopedia)
* Incarnation (in our WebBible Encyclopedia)
* Trinity (in our WebBible Encyclopedia)
* Has science disproved the miracles associated with Jesus Christ? Answer...
* Was Jesus Christ only a legend? Answer...
* Isn't the virgin birth of Jesus Christ mythological and scientifically impossible? Answer...
* The Law - its purpose (using the Law in evangelism)
* Are you good enough to go to Heaven? Answer...
* Redemption (in our WebBible Encyclopedia)
* Does God feel our pain? Answer...
| February 27, 2007 | 16:37:03 |
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The Lost Tomb of Jesus” are nots real at all. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Experts question documentary’s claims, The Academy Award-winning director behind “Titanic” and “The Terminator” is attempting to challenge fundamental tenets of Christianity by suggesting that Jesus may have been a father whose body was buried far from the Jerusalem tomb where believers say he rose from the dead.
In a documentary set to air Sunday, Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron and his team contend they’ve produced new evidence that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and fathered a son named Judah.
Biblical experts and archaeologists who are familiar with the central evidence instantly discounted the claim, which Discovery Channel has touted as possibly “the greatest archaeological find in history,” as an ill-informed, recycled publicity grab.
The chances that the findings in “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” are real “are more than remote,” Israel Museum curator David Mevorah said. “They are closer to fantasy.”
If proved true, the findings would undercut Christian beliefs that Jesus never had children and that he rose from the dead. The documentary also contradicts long-held beliefs by Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians that Jesus had lain in a tomb around which Christians built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem.
“It doesn’t get bigger than this,” Cameron said before the basic findings were presented Monday at a New York news conference. “We’ve done our homework; we’ve made the case, and now it’s time for the debate to begin.”
The Discovery Channel documentary and an accompanying book center on a 2,000-year-old limestone tomb that was discovered more than a quarter-century ago during a construction project in a residential Jerusalem neighborhood between the Old City and Bethlehem.
When the tomb was uncovered in 1980, specialists were called. The man who led the effort was Amos Kloner, an archaeologist from Bar Ilan University, who meticulously documented the findings.
The tomb contained 10 limestone burial boxes and scattered bones. Among the inscriptions found on the ancient caskets: Jesus, son of Joseph; Mary; and Judah, son of Jesus.
Five of the burial boxes, known as ossuaries, had names that could be linked to the Bible, including versions of Joseph and Matthew.
Then and now, Kloner took no note of the names, saying they were common among residents of the area at the time.
But Discovery hired a statistician who concluded that the chances that this was the tomb of Jesus and his family were 600 to 1.
Mevorah called the statistical analysis “a good trick.” While the collection of names might seem compelling, Mevorah said the names were popular at the time and that another ossuary with the inscription “Jesus, son of Joseph” is on display in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as part of a traveling exhibition of early Christian artifacts.
“Statistics can bring empires down or build them up,” he said. “But I wouldn’t build a theory of the most important person of the first century on statistics.”
The documentary used DNA testing on samples taken from the ossuary for Jesus and a second for Mary to show that the two sets of bones weren’t related, evidence the television researchers said indicated that the two probably were married.
The documentary suggests that the ossuary labeled Judah, son of Jesus, may have carried the bones of their son, though the researchers make no mention of doing DNA testing on that box.
After watching a review copy of the documentary, Kloner criticized it as little more than a publicity stunt.
“The claim that the burial site has been found is not based on any new idea. It is only an attempt to sell,” Kloner said. “It’s a waste of money.”
No matter what the truth may be, the documentary is certain to fuel a surge in populist religious skepticism best exemplified by the wildly successful novel and film “The Da Vinci Code.” The Dan Brown mystery centered on theories that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and that she was pregnant when he was crucified.
| February 27, 2007 | 14:48:20 |
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The Departed’ Wins Best Picture, Scorsese Best Director. - Posted By: NaBeeel
The Departed’ Wins Best Picture, Scorsese Best Director,Twenty-six years and seven snubs after his first Oscar nomination, for “Raging Bull,” Martin Scorsese finally felt the warm embrace of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Sunday as he was named best director and his murderous mob thriller “The Departed” was named the best picture of 2006.
“Could you double-check the envelope?” Mr. Scorsese quipped after silencing a raucous standing ovation of whistling, whooping academy members.
“I’m so moved,” he said, accepting the directing prize. “So many people over the years have been wishing this for me. Strangers — I go into doctors’ offices, elevators, I go for an X-ray — they say, ‘You should win one.’ ”
Forest Whitaker won best actor for his performance as the cunning, seductive and savage Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland.”
“Receiving this honor tells me that it’s possible,” Mr. Whitaker said. “It is possible, for a kid from East Texas, raised in South Central L.A., and Carson, who believes in dreams, who believes them in his heart, to touch them and have them happen.”
Helen Mirren took best actress for her performance as a traditional monarch in a modern world in “The Queen.”
“For 50 years or more, Elizabeth Windsor has maintained her dignity, her sense of duty and her hairstyle,” Ms. Mirren said. “I salute her courage and her consistency, and I thank her, for if it wasn’t for her, I most certainly would not be here.”
Graham King, the only of three credited producers permitted to accept the best-picture award for “The Departed,” said, “To be standing here where Martin Scorsese won his Oscar is such a joy.” “Pan’s Labyrinth,” Guillermo Del Toro’s magical-realist fantasy set in 1944 Fascist Spain, received Oscars for cinematography, art direction and makeup at the 79th Academy Awards ceremony, but fell short of its ultimate prize, best foreign-language film, which went to “The Lives of Others,” from Germany.
Jennifer Hudson, the “American Idol” reject-turned-star of “Dreamgirls,” was named best supporting actress, giving two of the four acting awards to African-Americans. And Alan Arkin, the cranky, heroin-snorting grandfather in the bittersweet family comedy “Little Miss Sunshine,” won best supporting actor.
“Little Miss Sunshine” also won for its original screenplay by Michael Arndt, a former assistant to Matthew Broderick who had to wait seven years for his script to be produced. “When I was a kid my family drove 500 miles in a van with a broken clutch,” he said, explaining the source of his inspiration. “It ended up being one of the funnest things we did together.”
On a night in which several top awards came as no surprise, “An Inconvenient Truth,” the documentary featuring Al Gore on global warming, won best documentary feature.
“I made this movie for my children,” said the director, Davis Guggenheim, his arm on Mr. Gore’s shoulder. “We were moved to act by this man.”
Mr. Gore took his moment in the worldwide spotlight to underline the film’s message. “My fellow Americans, people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis,” he said, adding that the “will to act” was a renewable resource. “Let’s renew it,” he said.
That film also won best original song, for “I Need to Wake Up,” by Melissa Etheridge, upsetting “Dreamgirls,” which had three songs in contention. Holding her Oscar aloft backstage, Ms. Etheridge quipped that it would be “the only naked man who will ever be in my bedroom.”
In a twist, “The Lives of Others,” which examined the Orwellian police state that was East Germany, won in something of an upset. The German director, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, thanked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California “for teaching me that the words ‘I can’t’ should be stricken from my vocabulary.”
The awards for Mr. Del Toro’s movie came on a night in which his and two other films by Mexican directors were up for a total of 16 honors. One of them, “Babel,” won for its original score by Gustavo Santaolalla, who also won last year for “Brokeback Mountain.”
“Happy Feet” was named the year’s best animated feature.
Accepting for best supporting actor, Mr. Arkin said that “Little Miss Sunshine” was about “innocence, growth and connection.” His voice cracking, he praised his fellow actors, saying that acting was a “team sport.” He added, “I can’t work at all unless I feel the spirit of unity around me.”
William Monahan won best adapted screenplay for “The Departed,” his transplantation of the movie “Infernal Affairs” from Hong Kong to South Boston.
An Oscar also went to Thelma Schoonmaker, the longtime editor to Mr. Scorsese. She saluted Mr. Scorsese for being “tumultuous, passionate, funny” as a collaborator. “It’s like being in the best film school in the world,” she said.
“Dreamgirls,” nominated for eight awards, the most of any film, also won for sound mixing. But Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto,” whose three nominations were caught up in the tempest caused by the director’s drunken, anti-Semitic rant last summer, was shut out.
Ellen DeGeneres made her first appearance as the host of the movie industry’s annual celebration of itself, on a night expected to have its share of pregnant moments. Three filmmaking titans — Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola — presentedthe award for best director.
Ms. DeGeneres said it had been a lifelong dream of hers to be host for the Oscars, rather than to win one. “Let that be a lesson to you kids out there: Aim lower,” she said, sounding a theme for the evening’s opening, which was designed to honor the many nominees, 177 in all, rather than focusing on the winners.
Ms. DeGeneres repeatedly ventured into the audience, at one point getting Mr. Spielberg to take a picture of her with Clint Eastwood, “for MySpace.”
And in a choice full of irony for industry insiders, Tom Cruise, who was thrown off the Paramount lot last summer by Viacom’s chairman, Sumner M. Redstone, gave the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Sherry Lansing, the former Paramount chairwoman who retired during a shake-up by Mr. Redstone two years earlier.
Backstage, Ms. Lansing said she had not known that Mr. Cruise was going to give her the award. “I saw him at an Oscar party a few days before, and he was sort of cold to me,” she said. Onstage, she said, he had whispered in her ear: “This is an honor. I really wanted to do this, you know how much I love you.” Ms. Lansing said she believed Mr. Cruise, who had a rough year before taking over management of United Artists, would be back to pick up an Oscar for directing or producing within five years.
Ennio Morricone, the Italian composer, received an honorary Oscar from Mr. Eastwood, who starred in the spaghetti westerns for which Mr. Morricone provided the unmistakable music.
The program began with a bouncy montage, directed by Errol Morris, of interview snippets with nominees reciting, among other things, the number of times they had come close to winning an Oscar. “Zilch,” said Peter O’Toole, of the number of times he had won.
Will Ferrell and Jack Black, leading members of Hollywood’s comedy rat pack, did a song-and-dance number bemoaning the paucity of comedic talent among the Oscar nominees. “I guess you don’t like laughter,” Mr. Ferrell sang. “A comedian at the Oscars is the saddest, bitterest, alcoholic clown.”
John C. Reilly, a past Oscar nominee, then stood up in the audience to remind them — in song — that he had been in both “Boogie and Talladega Nights.” All three then crooned that they hoped to go home with Helen Mirren, a best-actress nominee, who is in her 60s.
Breaking with tradition, the show’s producer, Laura Ziskin, best known for the “Spider-Man” franchise, rejiggered the lineup of awards to leave the marquee categories — best actor, actress, director and picture — for the end of the night. The first half of the show was front-loaded with technical and craft categories: art direction, makeup, sound editing and mixing, costume design and visual effects.
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” won for visual effects; “Letters From Iwo Jima” took sound editing; “Marie Antoinette” picked up costume design.
The director Ari Sandel won best live-action short film for “West Bank Story,” a spoof on “West Side Story” with feuding Palestinian and Israeli falafel stands. “This is a movie about peace and about hope,” Mr. Sandel said. “To get this award shows that there are so many out there who also support that notion.”
The award for animated short went to “The Danish Poet,” written and directed by Torill Kove.
Mr. Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio, a nominee for best actor (“Blood Diamond”), announced in the middle of the telecast that the program had offset its carbon emissions by buying energy credits. “This show has officially gone green,” Mr. DiCaprio said.
The Oscars adopted other conservation measures this year, such as using recycled paper for the Oscar ballots. “We have a long way to go, but all of us, in our lives, can do something to make a difference,” Mr. Gore said.
But Mr. Gore did not throw his hat in the ring, as the producers of his film, among others in Hollywood, had hoped he might. Asked if he had a major announcement to make, Mr. Gore said: “With a billion people watching, it’s as good a time as any. So my fellow Americans, I’m going to take this opportunity, here and now, to formally announce” — and the Oscars orchestra, right on cue, drowned him out as if he had droned on a second too long.
The Academy Awards capped a season in which the conventional wisdom has often been wrong, and actual wisdom has been in short supply. The big question before the nominations was how many Oscars “Dreamgirls” might win, and what film could compete with it for best picture. The only question after the nominations was, What happened to “Dreamgirls”?
Many theories were advanced, including misguided marketing and an abundance of hype, but the film’s director, Bill Condon, cut to the chase: “Maybe the Academy saw five films they liked better.” Whatever the reason, the film’s elimination left the race wide open to an array of films that took very different routes to the nomination.
“The Departed” rode a wave of box-office success and a plan to keep Oscar hype on the down-low, partly because many in the industry felt it was time to recognize the director Martin Scorsese’s lifetime of excellence. “Little Miss Sunshine,” a new take on the family road-trip movie, which won four Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, was a film that no one in Hollywood seemed to want to make, but it connected with audiences to the tune of more than $94 million in worldwide box-office receipts. “Babel,” by contrast, left United States audiences cold while doing good business abroad, but connected with critics and was rewarded for a global, ambitious story by winning best dramatic feature at the Golden Globes.
“The Queen,” a small movie that managed to do everything right, managed to ride one of the year’s more remarkable performances — Ms. Mirren as a traditional monarch in a very modern world — to broad critical recognition. And after “Flags of Our Fathers,” another would-be Oscar hopeful, met with indifference, Mr. Eastwood and his studio, Warner Brothers, decided to release the film’s twin, “Letters From Iwo Jima,” before year’s end — and were rewarded with a best-picture nomination.
This appeared to be the most ethnically and linguistically diverse batch of film nominees yet, appropriate enough given that Hollywood’s foreign revenues now eclipse the domestic take by a significant margin. The Oscar slate included several films shot largely in languages other than English, most notably Mr. Eastwood’s “Letters From Iwo Jima,” in Japanese, and Mr. Gibson’s “Apocalypto,” in Maya dialects.
“Babel,” from the Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, spanned three continents and five languages — Japanese, Berber, Spanish, English and sign — and two of its actresses, Rinko Kikuchi of Japan and Adriana Barraza of Mexico, received nominations. (Three films by Mexican directors were up for a total of 16 honors.)
| February 26, 2007 | 16:25:31 |
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Immigrants who wire money get help from the Fed. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Immigrants who wire money get help from the Fed,Directo a Mexico lets customers without Social Security numbers wire money at little cost. Even as the federal government is starting to crack down on companies that hire illegal immigrants, it's been helping those same workers send money home, cheap.
Dubbed Directo a Mexico, the Federal Reserve-sponsored service allows customers without Social Security numbers to wire money through the Fed system to Mexico's central bank at little cost. In September, the Fed expanded the remittance program by allowing immigrants, legal or not, to open accounts at participating banks and credit unions in the U.S. or Mexico. About 27,000 transfers are made through the program each month.
The program has attracted the attention of conservative immigration activists and members of Congress, who say financial institutions shouldn't cater to illegal immigrants.
Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-Solana Beach), who leads the congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, said Directo a Mexico and programs like it should be stopped and that participating banks were "profiteering from illegal immigration."
Bilbray is also targeting Bank of America Corp., which this month announced plans to offer credit cards to immigrants without Social Security numbers, drawing complaints that the nation's largest retail bank was underwriting illegal immigration.
"It's illegal for a landlord to do it, it's illegal for an employer to do it, and it should be illegal for financial institutions to do it," Bilbray said.
Bank of America has said that it complied fully with all banking and anti-terrorism laws governing customer identification, which permit the use of forms of ID other than Social Security numbers.
Bilbray said legislators were working on proposals that would prevent financial institutions such as the Fed and Bank of America from catering to illegal immigrants, and are calling on the Bush administration to address the issue.
Elizabeth McQuerry, an Atlanta-based assistant vice president for the Fed's retail payments office, said Directo a Mexico wasn't breaking any laws. She said the program complied with the Patriot Act, the Bank Secrecy Act and other laws against money laundering. Customers must provide identification — a consular identification card or other picture ID — and banks regularly check the documents' authenticity, she said.
Fed staffers developed the program with counterparts at Mexico's central bank after President Bush announced it with then-Mexican President Vicente Fox in 2003. About 150 banks and credit unions participate, including 20 in California, McQuerry said.
Directo a Mexico was intended for all Mexicans living in the U.S. It did not specifically exclude those here illegally.
Only immigrants who are in the U.S. legally can get a Social Security number, but any Mexican national can get a consular ID, regardless of legal status.
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), an advocate of increased border security who has talked in the past of taxing illegal immigrants' remittances, said the Fed program might not be breaking any financial laws, but "there is a law against aiding and abetting illegal aliens in this country."
Conservative groups are also pressing the government to stop or modify Directo a Mexico. The Washington-based conservative legal group Judicial Watch, which says it has 400,000 members, obtained a copy of a Fed presentation about Directo a Mexico in December and posted it on its website to show that the government was not only offering a subsidized service to illegal immigrants, but actively marketing and promoting it.
"This program undermines our nation's immigration laws and is a potential national security nightmare," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement at the time. "In the least, the Federal Reserve must limit this program to legal aliens and U.S. citizens only."
Ira Mehlman, the Los Angeles-based spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said Directo a Mexico not only flouted immigration law, it hurt U.S. workers by draining money from the national economy.
"This is money earned by people who have come here illegally, often earned at the expense of other Americans, and then taken out of the country and not spent here," Mehlman said.
His group — which supports enforcement of immigration laws and reports 100,000 members, about 35,000 in California — says the U.S. government should better regulate wire transfer companies rather than offer an alternative that "makes it easier and more attractive for people to come here and break the law."
Economists and Directo a Mexico supporters dispute claims that the program harms the U.S. economy, and say it will actually help fight crime by encouraging people to use a legal, regulated money transfer service. They also say it may stem illegal immigration by making it easier and cheaper to wire money home, lessening the need for the sender's relatives to cross the border to earn a living.
Philip Martin, chairman of the Comparative Immigration and Integration Program at UC Davis, said remittances sent to Mexico last year were just a fraction of the U.S. economy, $23 billion out of a gross domestic product of more than $13 trillion. And as businesses increasingly serve illegal immigrant customers, he said, it's in the country's best interest to monitor their activity through programs like the Fed's.
| February 26, 2007 | 16:15:46 |
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Eumultuous, passionate, funny” as a collaborator. - Posted By: NaBeeel
‘The Departed’ Wins Best Picture, Scorsese Best Director,Twenty-six years and seven snubs after his first Oscar nomination, for “Raging Bull,” Martin Scorsese finally felt the warm embrace of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Sunday as he was named best director and his murderous mob thriller “The Departed” was named the best picture of 2006.
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Monica Almeida/The New York Times,Martin Scorsese won Oscars for best director and best picture for "The Departed." ,After seven snubs, Martin Scorsese finally won an Oscar. But did he win for the right movie?
Helen Mirren was named best actress for "The Queen."“Could you double-check the envelope?” Mr. Scorsese quipped after silencing a raucous standing ovation of whistling, whooping academy members.
“I’m so moved,” he said, accepting the directing prize. “So many people over the years have been wishing this for me. Strangers — I go into doctors’ offices, elevators, I go for an X-ray — they say, ‘You should win one.’ ”
Forest Whitaker won best actor for his performance as the cunning, seductive and savage Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland.”
“Receiving this honor tells me that it’s possible,” Mr. Whitaker said. “It is possible, for a kid from East Texas, raised in South Central L.A., and Carson, who believes in dreams, who believes them in his heart, to touch them and have them happen.”
Helen Mirren took best actress for her performance as a traditional monarch in a modern world in “The Queen.”
“For 50 years or more, Elizabeth Windsor has maintained her dignity, her sense of duty and her hairstyle,” Ms. Mirren said. “I salute her courage and her consistency, and I thank her, for if it wasn’t for her, I most certainly would not be here.”
Graham King, the only of three credited producers permitted to accept the best-picture award for “The Departed,” said, “To be standing here where Martin Scorsese won his Oscar is such a joy.” “Pan’s Labyrinth,” Guillermo Del Toro’s magical-realist fantasy set in 1944 Fascist Spain, received Oscars for cinematography, art direction and makeup at the 79th Academy Awards ceremony, but fell short of its ultimate prize, best foreign-language film, which went to “The Lives of Others,” from Germany.
Jennifer Hudson, the “American Idol” reject-turned-star of “Dreamgirls,” was named best supporting actress, giving two of the four acting awards to African-Americans. And Alan Arkin, the cranky, heroin-snorting grandfather in the bittersweet family comedy “Little Miss Sunshine,” won best supporting actor.
“Little Miss Sunshine” also won for its original screenplay by Michael Arndt, a former assistant to Matthew Broderick who had to wait seven years for his script to be produced. “When I was a kid my family drove 500 miles in a van with a broken clutch,” he said, explaining the source of his inspiration. “It ended up being one of the funnest things we did together.”
On a night in which several top awards came as no surprise, “An Inconvenient Truth,” the documentary featuring Al Gore on global warming, won best documentary feature.
“I made this movie for my children,” said the director, Davis Guggenheim, his arm on Mr. Gore’s shoulder. “We were moved to act by this man.”
Mr. Gore took his moment in the worldwide spotlight to underline the film’s message. “My fellow Americans, people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis,” he said, adding that the “will to act” was a renewable resource. “Let’s renew it,” he said.
That film also won best original song, for “I Need to Wake Up,” by Melissa Etheridge, upsetting “Dreamgirls,” which had three songs in contention. Holding her Oscar aloft backstage, Ms. Etheridge quipped that it would be “the only naked man who will ever be in my bedroom.”
In a twist, “The Lives of Others,” which examined the Orwellian police state that was East Germany, won in something of an upset. The German director, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, thanked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California “for teaching me that the words ‘I can’t’ should be stricken from my vocabulary.”
The awards for Mr. Del Toro’s movie came on a night in which his and two other films by Mexican directors were up for a total of 16 honors. One of them, “Babel,” won for its original score by Gustavo Santaolalla, who also won last year for “Brokeback Mountain.”
“Happy Feet” was named the year’s best animated feature.
Accepting for best supporting actor, Mr. Arkin said that “Little Miss Sunshine” was about “innocence, growth and connection.” His voice cracking, he praised his fellow actors, saying that acting was a “team sport.” He added, “I can’t work at all unless I feel the spirit of unity around me.”
William Monahan won best adapted screenplay for “The Departed,” his transplantation of the movie “Infernal Affairs” from Hong Kong to South Boston.
An Oscar also went to Thelma Schoonmaker, the longtime editor to Mr. Scorsese. She saluted Mr. Scorsese for being “tumultuous, passionate, funny” as a collaborator. “It’s like being in the best film school in the world,” she said.
“Dreamgirls,” nominated for eight awards, the most of any film, also won for sound mixing. But Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto,” whose three nominations were caught up in the tempest caused by the director’s drunken, anti-Semitic rant last summer, was shut out.
Ellen DeGeneres made her first appearance as the host of the movie industry’s annual celebration of itself, on a night expected to have its share of pregnant moments. Three filmmaking titans — Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola — presentedthe award for best director.
Ms. DeGeneres said it had been a lifelong dream of hers to be host for the Oscars, rather than to win one. “Let that be a lesson to you kids out there: Aim lower,” she said, sounding a theme for the evening’s opening, which was designed to honor the many nominees, 177 in all, rather than focusing on the winners.
Ms. DeGeneres repeatedly ventured into the audience, at one point getting Mr. Spielberg to take a picture of her with Clint Eastwood, “for MySpace.”
And in a choice full of irony for industry insiders, Tom Cruise, who was thrown off the Paramount lot last summer by Viacom’s chairman, Sumner M. Redstone, gave the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Sherry Lansing, the former Paramount chairwoman who retired during a shake-up by Mr. Redstone two years earlier.
Backstage, Ms. Lansing said she had not known that Mr. Cruise was going to give her the award. “I saw him at an Oscar party a few days before, and he was sort of cold to me,” she said. Onstage, she said, he had whispered in her ear: “This is an honor. I really wanted to do this, you know how much I love you.” Ms. Lansing said she believed Mr. Cruise, who had a rough year before taking over management of United Artists, would be back to pick up an Oscar for directing or producing within five years.
Ennio Morricone, the Italian composer, received an honorary Oscar from Mr. Eastwood, who starred in the spaghetti westerns for which Mr. Morricone provided the unmistakable music.
The program began with a bouncy montage, directed by Errol Morris, of interview snippets with nominees reciting, among other things, the number of times they had come close to winning an Oscar. “Zilch,” said Peter O’Toole, of the number of times he had won.
Will Ferrell and Jack Black, leading members of Hollywood’s comedy rat pack, did a song-and-dance number bemoaning the paucity of comedic talent among the Oscar nominees. “I guess you don’t like laughter,” Mr. Ferrell sang. “A comedian at the Oscars is the saddest, bitterest, alcoholic clown.”
| February 26, 2007 | 16:04:28 |
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They just want to get money for it. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Scholars, Clergy Criticize Jesus Documentary,Film Contradicts Beliefs at Heart of Christianity
Filmmakers and scholars on Monday unveiled two stone ossuaries they said could have contained the remains of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, but several other scholars derided claims in a new documentary as unfounded and contradictory to basic Christian beliefs.
"The Lost Tomb of Jesus," produced by Oscar-winning director James Cameron and airing on the Discovery Channel on March 4, argues that 10 ancient ossuaries -- small caskets used to store bones -- discovered in a suburb of Jerusalem in 1980 may have contained the bones of Jesus and his family.
One of the caskets bears the title, "Judah, son of Jesus," hinting that Jesus may have had a son, according to the film. The very fact that Jesus had an ossuary would contradict the Christian belief that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven.
"There's a definite sense that you have to pinch yourself, that what you're doing, that email you just sent, is real," Cameron said at Monday's news conference. He told NBC'S "Today" show earlier Monday that statisticians found "in the range of a couple of million to one" the likelihood of that grouping of names appearing together on ossuaries in one place.
Simcha Jacobovici, the Toronto filmmaker who directed the documentary, said that a name of one of the ossuaries -- "Mariamene" -- is a major support to the argument that the tomb is that of Jesus and his family. In early Christian texts, "Mariamene" is the name of Mary Magdalene, he said.
Most Christians believe Jesus' body spent three days at the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City. The burial site identified in Cameron's documentary is in a southern Jerusalem neighborhood nowhere near the church.
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In 1996, when the British Broadcasting Corp. aired a short documentary on the same subject, archaeologists challenged the claims. Amos Kloner, the first archaeologist to examine the site, said the idea fails to hold up by archaeological standards but makes for profitable television.
"They just want to get money for it," Kloner said.
Shimon Gibson, one of three archaeologists who first discovered the tomb in 1980, said Monday of the film's claims: "I'm skeptical, but that's the way I am. I'm willing to accept the possibility."
The film's claims, however, have raised the ire of Christian leaders in the Holy Land.
Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem who was interviewed in the documentary, said the film's hypothesis holds little weight.
"I don't think that Christians are going to buy into this," Pfann said. "But skeptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear."
"How possible is it?" Pfann said. "On a scale of one through 10 -- 10 being completely possible -- it's probably a one, maybe a one and a half."
Pfann is even unsure that the name "Jesus" on the caskets was read correctly. He thinks it's more likely the name "Hanun." Ancient Semitic script is notoriously difficult to decipher.
Kloner also said the filmmakers' assertions are false. "The names on the caskets are the most common names found among Jews at the time," he said.
William Dever, an expert on near eastern archaeology and anthropology, who has worked with Israeli archeologists for five decades, said specialists have known about the ossuaries for years.
"The fact that it's been ignored tells you something," said Dever, professor emeritus at the University of Arizona. "It would be amusing if it didn't mislead so many people."
Osnat Goaz, a spokeswoman for the Israeli government agency responsible for archaeology, said the Antiquities Authority agreed to send two ossuaries to New York, but they did not contain human remains. "We agreed to send the ossuaries, but it doesn't mean that we agree with" the filmmakers, she said.
Associated Press Writer Marshall Thompson contributed to this report from Jerusalem and AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll contributed from New York.
| February 26, 2007 | 15:51:32 |
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US body 'to plan attacks on Iran'. - Posted By: NaBeeel
US body 'to plan attacks on Iran', The US Pentagon has set up a special planning group to co-ordinate possible attacks on Iran, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has reported.
In the weekly New Yorker magazine, Hersh said the group would plan raids to be carried out within 24 hours of a presidential order for military action.
A Pentagon spokesman said he knew of no such group and denied that the US was planning war with Iran.
Any suggestion of this was "wrong, misleading and mischievous", he said.
The Pentagon is continuing intensive planning for a possible bombing attack on Iran, a process that began last year, at the direction of the president
The article, quoting unnamed sources, added that covert intelligence-gathering inside Iran had been stepped up in recent months, with special operations groups entering from Iraq to pursue Iranians suspected of working against US interests.
The operations were co-ordinated by Vice-President Dick Cheney and relied heavily on support from Saudi Arabia, the sources said.
But the fact that Sunni groups were receiving US backing meant that militants hostile to US interests were benefiting from the policy, they added.
'New targets'
Quoting a senior former intelligence official, Hersh wrote that a group had been set up within the Joint Chiefs of Staff to develop a contingency bombing plan which could be implemented within 24 hours.
"The Pentagon is continuing intensive planning for a possible bombing attack on Iran, a process that began last year, at the direction of the president," he wrote.
The group had recently acquired a new assignment, he said, to identify targets in Iran that could be supplying or aiding militants in Iraq.
Previously the focus had been on the destruction of Iran's nuclear facilities and regime change, the reporter added.
But Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told the Associated Press news agency he did not know of the existence of the group, adding that the US was not planning to go to war with Iran.
"To suggest anything to the contrary is simply wrong, misleading and mischievous," he said.
Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter also played down the reports.
"We have contingency plans around the world," he said, quoted by AP.
"We had contingency plans with the Soviet Union, and we had specific targets. That didn't mean that we were planning to strike the Soviet Union."
| February 26, 2007 | 13:26:57 |
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Canada court rejects terror law - Posted By: NaBeeel
Canada court rejects terror law, The debate over the law pitched security against individual rights
Canada's Supreme Court has struck down a controversial system that allowed the government to detain and deport foreign-born terror suspects.
The nine judges ruled that the security certificate system - in place since 1978 - violated Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The system allowed a suspect to be held indefinitely or deported on the basis of evidence presented in secret.
The case was brought by three men who deny accusations of links to al-Qaeda.
'Fair process'
The Supreme Court has given parliament one year to rewrite the section of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act - under which the certificates are issued - to comply with the constitution.
"Before the state can detain people for significant periods of time, it must accord them a fair judicial process," wrote Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin on behalf of all nine judges.
The three men who brought the case to the Supreme Court - Algerian-born Mohamed Harkat, Moroccan-born Adil Charkaoui and Syrian-born Hassan Almrei - deny links to terrorism and said they would be tortured if they were deported to their native countries.
The three suspects said the law discriminated against them
The court said it was arbitrary to detain the men for a long period without a review of their circumstances.
Mr Harkat was held for three-and-a-half years without charge until he was freed on bail in June 2006 under strict conditions.
Mr Charkaoui spent 21 months in jail before he was freed in February 2005 also under strict bail conditions.
Mr Almrei has been detained since October 2001.
"It's a very good decision and we're certainly very pleased," said Mr Almrei's lawyer Barbara Jackman.
Two other men, both Egyptian-born, also face deportation under the security certificates, but were not part of the Supreme Court case.
Government ministers and security officials have said the certificates are necessary to defend national security.
But critics have said they lead to indefinite detention or deportation of non-Canadian citizens on the basis of secret intelligence presented to a federal court judge at closed hearings.
"The secrecy required by the scheme denies the named person the opportunity to know the case out against him or her, and hence to challenge the government's case," Justice McLachlin wrote.
| February 24, 2007 | 13:30:50 |
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'Imprinted behaviour. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Emotion robots learn from people, Making robots that interact with people emotionally is the goal of a European project led by British scientists.Feelix Growing is a research project involving six countries, and 25 roboticists, developmental psychologists and neuroscientists.
Co-ordinator Dr Lola Canamero said the aim was to build robots that "learn from humans and respond in a socially and emotionally appropriate manner".
The 2.3m euros scheme will last for three years.
"The human emotional world is very complex but we respond to simple cues, things we don't notice or we don't pay attention to, such as how someone moves," said Dr Canamero, who is based at the University of Hertfordshire.
Sensory input
The project involves building a series of robots that can take sensory input from the humans they are interacting with and then adapt their behaviour accordingly.
Dr Canamero likens the robots to babies that learn their behaviour from the patterns of movement and emotional state of the world around them.
The robots themselves are simple machines - and in some cases they are off-the-shelf machines. The most interesting aspect of the project is the software.
Dr Canamero said: "We will use very simple robots as the hardware, and for some of the machines we will build expressive heads ourselves.
"We are most interested in programming and developing behavioural capabilities, particularly in social and emotional interactions with humans."
The robots will learn from the feedback they receive from humans.
"It's mostly behavioural and contact feedback.
"Tactile feedback and emotional feedback through positive reinforcement, such as kind words, nice behaviour or helping the robot do something if it is stuck."
The university's partners are building different robots focusing on different emotional interactions.
'Detect expressions'
The robots will get the feedback from simple vision cameras, audio, contact sensors, and sensors that can work out the distance between the machine and the humans.
We are focusing on emotions relevant to a baby robot that has to grow and help human with every day life
Dr Lola Canamero
"One of the things we are going to use to detect expressions in faces and patterns in motion is a (artificial) neural network."
Artificial neural networks are being used because they are very useful for adapting to changing inputs - in this case detecting patterns in behaviour, voice, movement etc.
"Neural networks learn patterns from examples of observation," said Dr Canamero.
One of the areas the robots will be learning from is human movement.
"Motion tells you a lot about your emotional state.
"The physical proximity between human and robot, and the frequency of human contact - through those things we hope to detect the emotional states we need."
The robots will not be trying to detect emotional states such as disgust but rather will focus on states such as anger, happiness, loneliness; emotions which impact on how the robot should behave.
'Imprinted behaviour'
"It is very important to detect when the human user is angry and the robot has done something wrong or if the human is lonely and the robot needs to cheer him or her up.
"We are focusing on emotions relevant to a baby robot that has to grow and help human with every day life."
One of the first robots built in the project is exhibiting imprinted behaviour - which is found among birds and some mammals when born.
"They get attached to the first object they see when born.
"It is usually the mother and that's what makes them follow the mother around.
"We have a prototype of a robot that follows people around and can adapt to the way humans interact with it.
"It follows closer or further away depending on how the human feels about it."
Dr Canamero says robots that can adapt to people's behaviours are needed if the machines are to play a part in human society.
At the end of the project two robots will be built which integrate the different aspects of the machines being developed across Europe.
The other partners in this project are the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Universite de Cergy Pontoise, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, University of Portsmouth, Institute of Communication and Computer Systems, Greece, Entertainment Robotics, Denmark and SAS Aldebaran Robotics, France.
| February 23, 2007 | 17:29:39 |
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Canada, Gates team to hunt HIV vaccine. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Canada, Gates team to hunt HIV vaccine, The Canadian government and Bill Gates announced an initiative Tuesday to establish a research institute to develop an HIV vaccine, committing a total of $119 million to the project.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his government has pledged $95.3 million to a new fund called the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, while the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has promised up to $24 million.
Gates' $33 billion foundation has become a world leader in fighting AIDS and other epidemic diseases as well as extreme poverty, particularly in the developing world.
"Between Canada and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we will contribute to the effort to develop a safe, effective, affordable and globally accessible HIV vaccine," Harper said alongside Gates in the capital, Ottawa.
"HIV/AIDS is one of the most heart-wrenching health crises the world has ever seen," said Harper. "It is one of the greatest scientific challenges of our time."
The money will help build a new research facility and support Canadian scientists to work with partners around the world. The goal is the manufacture of a preventative vaccine within a decade.
Gates noted that the Canadian initiative would come under the umbrella of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, a global alliance of independent organizations established in 2003 that is dedicated to the development of a preventative HIV vaccine.
"At that time, we recognized that no single company or government alone could take on this challenge, that in fact a number of organizations would need to work together," said the Microsoft co-founder.
The Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise estimates there were nearly 5 million new HIV infections in 2005, and that nearly 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.
Gates noted that because of the success of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and other partnerships between governments and the private sector, the number of HIV-positive people receiving antiretroviral treatment has gone up to 1.4 million.
"But that still falls very far short of the number of new people being infected each year," he said. "I think scientists would agree that this will be one of the toughest vaccines ever to create, but it therefore needs to be a priority."
AIDS has killed more than 20 million people worldwide, is the leading cause of death in Africa, and the fourth-leading cause of death worldwide.
Harper came under criticism in August when he declined to address a global summit on AIDS held in Canada's financial capital, Toronto, that included former President Clinton, Gates and his wife Melinda.
| February 21, 2007 | 16:07:44 |
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Clashes reported in Iranian city. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Clashes reported in Iranian city,Clashes between armed militants and police have erupted in the south-eastern Iranian city of Zahedan, state media have reported.
Police sealed off the area and exchanged fire with the attackers after a bomb went off, Irna news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying.
It comes two days after a car bomb in Zahedan killed 11 Revolutionary Guards.
A hardline Sunni group, Jundallah, said it carried out Wednesday's attack.
Iranian officials have accused Britain and the United States of supporting ethnic minority rebels operating in the Islamic republic's sensitive border areas.
'Percussion bomb'
The explosion and clashes took place just hours after the funerals for the 11 Revolutionary Guards.
The governor of Zahedan, Hassan ali Nouri, told Fars news agency that the explosion was caused by a percussion bomb - a device which produces a large bang but causes little damage.
Provincial police commander Gen Mohammad Ghaffari told Fars that 68 people had been arrested over Wednesday's bombing, including three who are suspected of having carried out the attack.
"The gang has been ordered by some foreign states to plant bombs in specific places and escape the country simultaneously," Gen Ghaffari said.
He added that police had found a number of weapons and explosives in a house "where members of the terrorist group Jundallah were getting prepared for another operation".
Zahedan is the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province, which borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It has a substantial Sunni Islam Baluch community.
The city has been the focus of low-level unrest, with several security force members being killed in the last two months.
Police have sometimes clashed with gangs transporting opium from Afghanistan.
| February 18, 2007 | 13:40:43 |
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The Americans are coming. - Posted By: NaBeeel
U.S. move means Canada stuck in Afghanistan,,We have no excuse after Bush commits more troops to war,George W. Bush has breathed new life into the Afghan war. With his decision to send 3,500 more U.S. troops to that country, he has also made it more difficult for Canada to get out.This is the real significance of the U.S. president's speech on Thursday. Bush also forgot to mention Canada when going through a list of nations contributing troops to the conflict. But that's irrelevant.
What's important is that the Americans are turning their attention back to Afghanistan.
That wasn't the original plan. A little over a year ago, U.S. commanders spoke of drawing down their troop strength there from what was then about 21,000 soldiers.
The idea at that time was that America would hand off Afghanistan to allies like Canada in order to focus on Iraq. To that end, the U.S. put the bulk of its troops in Afghanistan under NATO command.
But that was before the last congressional elections, when Bush still thought he had a free hand in Iraq. It was also when he thought he could still pacify that chaotic country.
Now, with Democrats controlling the U.S. Congress, Republican Bush is no longer free to do whatever he wants. What's also become clear is that he cannot succeed in Iraq.
All political leaders seek legacies. So far, that of George W. Bush does not look stellar. He risks being remembered as the first U.S. president to lose a war he deliberately started.
For a man who styles himself a wartime president, this must be difficult to bear. How could someone who revels in the title of commander-in-chief leave office without winning at least one war, somewhere?
For a while, it looked like Iran would provide that war. Hence, Washington backed Israel's invasion of Lebanon last summer, in the hope that Tel Aviv could neutralize Iran's Hezbollah allies there.
The Israelis botched that task, but Bush remained fixated on Iran. He tried the old weapons of mass destruction gambit, arguing that Iran's attempts to develop nuclear capability made it a world threat.
In the end, not even the Europeans bought that story.
Then, Washington accused Iran of targeting U.S. troops in Iraq. That culminated in a bizarre but unconvincing show-and-tell in Baghdad this week, where anonymous U.S. officials attempted to prove, from serial numbers on bomb fragments, that Iran was evil.
That didn't go anywhere either. Even Americans were skeptical.
Bush's remarkable U-turn on North Korea can be also explained in terms of his desire to clear the decks before embarking on another war. After years of insisting that America wouldn't bribe North Korea to give up its nuclear weaponry, the U.S. president this week suddenly decided to do just that.
The North Korean turnaround offended some of the president's more conservative partisans. They missed the point. By neutralizing North Korea, Bush ensured that he could better focus American military attention elsewhere.
But where? Was Bush really serious about taking on Iran? Or could he find a war somewhere else that was easier.
His speech on Thursday suggests the latter. Bush, it seems, has rediscovered Afghanistan. His Democratic opponents routinely hector him for not putting enough troops into that country. Now, he is taking their advice.
Conventional wisdom suggests that this is good news for the Canadian and other NATO forces already fighting there. The theory goes that if America finally puts all of its muscle into Afghanistan, the Taliban insurgents will surely be defeated.
In fact, this may not be true. The old Soviet Union adhered to the same theory when it invaded Afghanistan in force in 1979 to bolster a client government which – like that of current President Hamid Karzai – was trying to modernize the country, battle obscurantist insurgents and improve the lot of women. History will show that the Soviets lost.
History also suggests that an American public sick of having their soldiers killed in one far-off foreign country will not necessarily welcome more military deaths in another.
But all of this is for the future. The story now is that the Americans are coming.
Before Bush's speech, even the hawks in Canada had a plausible excuse for withdrawing from Afghanistan. As a Senate committee report put it this week, if other allies aren't willing to ante up more troops, why should Canadians continue to die there?
Now, our biggest ally has stepped up. So, we have no excuse.
Unless Canadians are prepared to rethink the whole rationale of this war, we are fated to remain.
| February 17, 2007 | 13:22:56 |
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House Resolution Criticizes Bush War Policy. - Posted By: NaBeeel
House Resolution Criticizes Bush War Policy, The Democratic-controlled House issued a symbolic rejection of President Bush's decision to deploy more troops to Iraq on Friday, opening an epic confrontation between Congress and commander in chief over an unpopular war that has taken the lives of more than 3,100 U.S. troops.
Voices in the Debate
From the Blog: Can War Still Be Won?
Watch Video: Iraqi Refugees | Talk About It: Post Thoughts
The vote on the nonbinding measure was 246-182.
"The stakes in Iraq are too high to recycle proposals that have little prospect for success," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, leader of Democrats who gained power last fall in elections framed by public opposition to the war.
"The passage of this legislation will signal a change in direction in Iraq that will end the fighting and bring our troops home," Pelosi vowed after leading the House in a moment of silence as a sign of respect for those who are fighting and their families.
Citing recent comments by Democrats, Bush's Republican allies said repeatedly the measure would lead to attempts to cut off funds for the troops. Outnumbered, they turned to Rep. Sam Johnson of Texas to close their case - and the former Vietnam prisoner of war stepped to the microphone as lawmakers in both parties rose to applaud his heroism.
"Now it's time to stand up for my friends who did not make it home, and for those who fought and died in Iraq already," he said. "We must not cut funding for our troops. We must stick by them," he added, snapping off a salute as he completed his remarks to yet another ovation.
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Bush made no comment on the developments, and his spokesman said the president was too busy to watch the proceedings on television.
After a secure videoconference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Bush said the Iraqis reported providing troops to fight alongside Americans, making sure that no ethnic or religious factions are ignored in the security operations, providing $10 billion toward reconstruction and working on an oil revenue-sharing law.
"That's good news for the Iraqi people. And it should give people here in the United States confidence that his government knows its responsibilities and is following through on those responsibilities," he said.
More than 390 of 434 lawmakers spoke during four days of a dignified debate - an unusual amount of time devoted to what Republicans and Democrats alike said was the most significant issue confronting the country.
Supporters of the nonbinding resolution included 229 Democrats and 17 Republicans - fewer GOP defections than Democrats had hoped to get and the White House and its allies had feared. Two Democrats joined 180 Republicans in opposition.
Moving quickly, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., set a test vote for Saturday on an identical measure, and several presidential contenders in both parties rearranged their weekend campaign schedules to be present.
Republican senators said in advance they would deny Democrats the 60 votes needed to advance the resolution, adding they would insist on equal treatment for a GOP-drafted alternative that opposes any reduction in funds for the troops.
Even so there were signs of Republican restlessness on the issue. Only two members of the GOP rank and file sided with Democrats on an earlier procedural vote; the total figured to be higher this time.
The developments unfolded as a new poll showed more than half those surveyed view the war as a hopeless cause.
A sizeable majority, 63 percent, opposes the decision to dispatch more troops, although support for Bush's plan has risen in the past few weeks from 26 percent to 35 percent, according to the AP-Ipsos poll.
The House measure disapproves of Bush's decision to increase troop strength, and pledges that Congress will "support and protect" the troops.
Scenes From Iraq
Bush has already said passage of the measure will not deter him from proceeding with the deployment of another 21,500 troops, designed primarily to quell sectarian violence in heavily populated Baghdad.
Already, troops of the Army's 82nd Airborne have arrived in Iraq. Another brigade is in Kuwait, undergoing final training before proceeding to Iraq. Three more brigades are ticketed for the Baghdad area, one each in March, April and May.
In addition, the Pentagon is sending two Marine battalions to Anbar province in the western part of the country, the heart of the Sunni insurgency.
Bush and his allies in Congress calculated days ago that the House measure would pass, and increasingly have focused their energy on the next steps in the Democrats' attempt to end U.S. participation in the war.
"I'm going to make it very clear to the members of Congress, starting now, that they need to fund our troops," Bush said earlier this week, a reference to legislation that requests more than $93 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Democrats have made clear in recent days they will use Bush's spending request to impose certain standards of readiness, training and rest for the troops.
"That stops the surge (in troops) for all intents and purposes, because ... they cannot sustain the deployment," Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said recently.
Republicans pointed to Murtha's remarks repeatedly during the day as evidence that despite their claims to the contrary, Democrats intend to cut off funds for the troops.
"This is all part of their plan to eliminate funding for our troops that are in harm's way. And we stand here as Republicans ... committed to making sure our troops in harm's way have all the funds and equipment they need to win this war in Iraq," said Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader.
| February 16, 2007 | 17:14:42 |
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Auditors: Billions wasted in Iraq war. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Auditors: Billions wasted in Iraq war,The U.S. government is at risk of squandering significantly more money in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has already wasted or otherwise overcharged taxpayers billions of dollars, federal investigators said Thursday.
The three top auditors overseeing contract work in Iraq told a House committee that $10 billion in spending was wasteful or poorly tracked. They pointed to numerous instances in which Defense and State department officials condoned or otherwise allowed poor accounting, repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for work shoddily or never done by U.S. contractors.
That problem could worsen, the Government Accountability Office said, given limited improvement so far by the Department of Defense even as the Bush administration prepares to boost the U.S. presence in Iraq.
David M. Walker, comptroller general of the GAO, Congress' auditing arm, said his agency has been pointing out problems for years, only to be largely ignored or given lip service with little result.
"There is no accountability," Walker said. "Organizations charged with overseeing contracts are not held accountable. Contractors are not held accountable. The individuals responsible are not held accountable."
"People should be rewarded when they do a good job. But when things don't go right, there have to be consequences," he said.
Senate Democrats, calling recently cited cases of waste "outrageous rip-offs of the American taxpayer," quickly moved to introduce legislation Thursday to stiffen punishment for war profiteers and cut down on cronyism in contracting.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., and 23 other senators, would impose penalties of up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $1 million for war profiteering and restore a rule that prohibits awarding federal contracts to companies exhibiting a pattern of breaking the law in performance of government contracts.
That rule, put in place by President Clinton, was dropped by the Bush administration upon taking office, Dorgan said.
The auditors' joint appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee comes as Congress is preparing for a showdown with President Bush next month over his budget request of nearly $100 billion to pay for more U.S. troops in Iraq.
Also testifying Thursday were Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, and William Reed, director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency.
According to their testimony, the investigators:
_Found overpricing and waste in Iraq contracts amounting to $4.9 billion since the Defense Contract Audit Agency began its work in 2003, although some of that money has since been recovered. Another $5.1 billion in expenses were charged without proper documentation.
_Urged the Pentagon to reconsider its growing reliance on outside contractors to run the nation's wars and reconstruction efforts. Layers of subcontractors, poor documentation and lack of strong contract management are rampant and promote waste even after the GAO first warned of problems 15 years ago.
_Pointed to growing Iraqi sectarian violence as a significant factor behind wasted U.S. dollars. Iraqi officials must begin to take primary responsibility for reconstruction efforts, an uncertain goal given widespread corruption in Iraq and the local government's inability to fund projects.
Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., who chairs the panel, has pledged scores of investigations of fraud, waste and abuse — with subpoenas if necessary — on the Bush administration's watch. He decried the overpricing identified by the DCAA, a figure that has tripled since last fall.
Of the $10 billion in overpriced contracts or undocumented costs, more than $2.7 billion were charged by Halliburton Co., the oil-field services firm once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.
"According to the Pentagon auditors, more than one in six dollars they have audited in Iraq is suspect," Waxman said.
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the top Republican on the panel, pointed to ongoing, "systemic" problems in Iraq contracting.
"This much is clear: Poor security, an arcane, ill-suited management structure, and frequent management changes have produced a succession of troubled acquisitions
| February 16, 2007 | 14:11:57 |
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U.S. to allow 7,000 Iraqi refugees. - Posted By: NaBeeel
U.S. to allow 7,000 Iraqi refugees
• U.N. estimates 2 million Iraqis have left their country since war began
• U.S. tells U.N. it will try to resettle 7,000 Iraqi refugees in United States this year
• So far, U.S. has taken in 466 Iraqi refugees
• New U.S. plan calls for $18 million for refugee aid, placement in other countries
- The Bush administration hopes to resettle about 7,000 Iraqi refugees to the United States this year, the State Department said Wednesday.
The decision comes amid pressure from the U.S. Congress and the international community to do more about the growing refugee crisis.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres estimates as many as 2 million Iraqis have left their country since the war began and another 1.7 million have moved within Iraq as a result of increased sectarian violence.
The United States has been criticized for accepting a small number of refugees since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The United States has taken in 466 Iraqi refugees since then.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Guterres to outline a new U.S. program for Iraqi refugees, which includes $18 million for additional funding for UNHCR to assist with resettlement of refugees in other countries and humanitarian aid.
The plan is the work of a new task force announced last week to study the Iraqi refugee issue.
U.S. Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky, who led the task force, said the United States would attempt to resettle about 7,000 Iraqi refugees from countries where they have fled from Iraq.
"The United States and the international community can best help displaced Iraqis by quelling the violence in Iraq," she said. "At the same time, we have a responsibility to respond to the immediate needs of Iraqis who have fled violence and persecution."
Dobriansky said the United States also is working to develop special provisions for resettlement of thousands of Iraqis who work for the United States in Iraq and are still there, but face increased threat because of their cooperation with the coalition.
The 7,000 Iraqis would be included in the 70,000 refugees worldwide permitted under U.S. law to resettle in the United States each year.
Ellen Sauerbrey, U.S. assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, said that Iraqis referred to the United States from UNHCR and other countries for possible resettlement in the U.S. would go through rigorous security checks and health screening before being allowed to immigrate.
Sauerbrey said the need for resettlement was rather small until the February 2006 bombing of a revered Shiite mosque in Samarra, which sparked the sectarian violence and prompted large numbers to flee Iraq.
The majority of Iraqi refugees have fled into Syria and Jordan.
Guterres, who attended the briefing for reporters, said that while resettling refugees is important, providing aid to neighboring countries so that refugees living there temporarily can live dignified lives is also critical.
He said Arab countries are hosting refugees because of their traditional culture of hospitality, but those countries need additional capacity to help refugees over the long term.
While he said resettlement could mean "life or death" for some Iraqis, it will never fully address the problem. He stressed a political solution is needed so that refugees will be able to go home.
Last week, Rice authorized the U.S. Embassy in Damascus to talk to the Syrian government about the flow of Iraqi refugees, but made clear it was not the start of a broader conversation on Iraq.
Dobriansky said the United States has been in contact with several countries in the region, including Syria, about the refugee situation.
When asked if the U.S. commitment is enough, Guterres said, "The dimension of the problem is so huge that nothing is anytime enough, but I think it's a very good start."
He said the United Nations will hold a donors' conference to raise money to help Iraqi refugees and those internally displaced. He said Iran, which is hosting about 50,000 Iraqi refugees, will take part.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/14/us.iraq.refugees/index.html
| February 15, 2007 | 14:02:25 |
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One Rose for Unconditional Love . - Posted By: NaBeeel
YOU May you always have:
One Rose for Unconditional Love
One Rose for Financial Wealth
One for Everlasting Happiness
One for Success
One for Knowledge
One for Beauty, inner and outer
One for Family
One for Honesty
And the last one for a long and healthy life
For every friend you send these roses to, your wish will come true
You have 30 seconds start.
| February 14, 2007 | 17:08:25 |
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U.S. was creating a basis for conflict with Iran, - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bush: U.S. aims to protect troops, not wage war with Iran•President Bush said Wednesday he did not know if Iranian leaders sent weapons used to kill U.S. troops in Iraq but Iranian-made bombs were having a deadly effect and the United States had to respond.
"We know [the bombs are] there, we know they're provided by the Quds force. We know the Quds force is a part of the Iranian government," he told a news conference.
"I don't think we know who picked up the phone and said 'the Quds force, go do this,' but we know it's a vital part of the Iranian government. What matters is, is that we're responding."
The president rejected suggestions that the U.S. was creating a basis for conflict with Iran as "preposterous."
"My job is to protect our troops, and when we find devices that are in that country that are hurting our troops, we're going to do something about it, pure and simple. ... Does this mean you're trying to have a pretext for war? No. It means I'm trying to protect our troops. That's what that means," Bush said.
The Quds force is part of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard, and is involved in special operations, according to the CIA World Fact Book.
In his first news conference in two months, Bush also praised the performance of the Iraqi government in moving to blunt the insurgency, and he said he was pleased with an agreement with North Korea to stop nuclear weapons development.
Bush also touched on Iran's nuclear program, saying he wants to keep the world -- not just the United States -- focused on the issue.
"I believe that's a more effective way of convincing the Iranians to give up their nuclear weapons ambitions," he said.
As for progress in Iraq, Bush said the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is fulfilling its commitment to increase troops and security in Baghdad.
In his first news conference in two months, Bush said Iraqi insurgents will do all they can to "undermine the Maliki government and its Baghdad security plan."
"These are people that will kill innocent men, women and children to achieve their objective, which is to discourage the Iraqi people, to foment sectarian violence -- and to, frankly, discourage us from helping" the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki do its job, Bush said.
Bush said insurgents are also trying hard to turn American public opinion against the war.
"They're all aimed at, frankly, causing people here in America to say it's not worth it," Bush said of insurgent attacks.
But he said the violence will be much worse if the U.S. abandons Iraq now.
"If you think the violence is bad now, imagine what it would look like if we don't help them secure the city, the capital city of Baghdad," he said.
Shortly before the conference began, the president said he spoke with Gen. David Petraeus, his new commander on the ground in Iraq.
Bush said Petraeus told him that "the commander who Prime Minister Maliki picked to operate the Baghdad security plan is in place. They're setting up a headquarters. And they're in the process of being in a position to be able to coordinate all forces."
Bush said his plan to add U.S. combat troops to Iraq was on course.
"We talked about the fact that our coalition troops that are heading into Baghdad will be arriving on time," Bush said of his conversation with Petraeus. (Watch House members face off over Iraq resolution )
Bush has proposed the deployment of another 21,000 troops. (Full story)
Bush cautioned the Democrat-majority Congress that they don't undermine the troops in Iraq -- whether they agree with his strategy or not.
"I am going to make it very clear to the members of Congress starting now that ... they need to fund our troops, and they need to make sure we have the flexibility necessary to get the job done," he said.
Bush said there was progress on the civilian side in Iraq as well.
"The Iraqi government's making progress on reforms that will allow more of its citizens to re-enter political life," he said, adding that he will keep up pressure on al-Maliki "to keep making the hard decisions he's making."
North Korea's nuclear program
Bush also touted an agreement with North Korea to begin closing down its nuclear program.
North Korea has 60 days to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear complex and readmit nuclear inspectors. In return, it will get 50,000 tons of fuel oil or financial aid of an equal amount. (Full story)
Bush said he was pleased with the agreements reached Tuesday at the six-party talks in Beijing, and pleased with the efforts of China to get the deal.
"This is a good first step," Bush said, but Pyongyang must follow through "and do what they say they will do."
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice drew a distinction between the first 60-day period, when she said nuclear activities will be suspended, and a later "disablement phase."
"The disabling of these facilities is a sign that the North Koreans may, in fact, be ready to make a strategic choice," she said at a briefing in Washington on Tuesday. "I will not take it as a complete sign until we've seen that disablement, but obviously disablement is an important step forward."
The United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia have been holding talks with North Korean officials since 2002 in an effort to convince Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program.
| February 14, 2007 | 14:10:47 |
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Stern tried to get Smith to visit a doctor, sister says. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Stern's sister: Brother knew Smith was very sick
• NEW: Tape indicates Smith not breathing when 911 call made
• Stern's sister: Stern said Smith had fever of 105
• Stern tried to get Smith to visit a doctor, sister says
• Stern's sister: Smith and Stern to wed on February 27
Anna Nicole Smith was unresponsive and not breathing when an Indian tribe's police department requested help from paramedics, according to a tape released Tuesday.
In the 31-second call, the Seminole tribal police department asked Hollywood paramedics for help in assisting Smith, who was found unconscious in her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on the tribe's reservation.
"She's not breathing, and she's not responsive. She's, um, actually Anna Nicole Smith," the woman from the Seminole Police is heard saying in asking for help in Room 607. (Watch what the nurse did after finding Smith)
"Oh, OK," a woman at the Hollywood Police Department responds.
Officials say they were on the scene six minutes after the call. Smith, a former Playboy playmate, model and reality TV character, was pronounced dead about an hour later at a hospital.
Hollywood Police Capt. Tony Rode, who played the tape for the media, referred all questions to the Seminole Police Department, which did not immediately respond to a call for comment Tuesday.
"This investigation belongs to the Seminole Police Department," Rode said. "You are looking at the extent of our role."
The initial emergency call to the Seminole Police was not released; the Seminoles are a sovereign Indian nation and not subject to state open government laws.
Smith's partner, Howard K. Stern, wasn't with her when she died, but he had been there that morning and he knew she was very sick, his sister, Bonnie Stern, said. Smith had been running a fever of 105 degrees, and a nurse was "icing her down" earlier that day, she said.
"When he left her, she was sleeping," Bonnie Stern said.
Howard Stern had been gone only about two hours when news reached him that Smith was dead, his sister said.
Bonnie Stern, who recently traveled from her Beverly Hills home to the Bahamas to comfort her brother, said he had tried to get Smith to visit a doctor but Smith had refused because she was afraid that it would draw publicity. (Watch what else Bonnie Stern said about hiding baby Dannielynn and controlling Smith)
"They had plans to get a yacht and to buy an engagement ring. They were going to get married February 27. It was going to be a real marriage," she said.
Asked what she thought caused Smith's death, Bonnie Stern said: "Her immunity was so low. She was so depressed. She kept getting sick and her body just probably broke down."
Smith had never recovered from the loss of her 20-year-old son, Daniel, who died in the Bahamas in September while visiting his mother and newborn half-sister at a hospital, friends said. She had also spent a decade battling in court over the estate of her late husband, the 90-year-old Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.
Smith 'incredibly misunderstood'
Alex Goen, the founder and CEO of TrimSpa, knew Smith well from working with her as a company spokesmodel and said she suffered from social anxiety, as well, even after years in the celebrity spotlight.
"She was clearly incredibly misunderstood," Goen told CBS's "The Early Show" on Tuesday.
Smith had gone through drug rehabilitation in the past, and her mother, Vergie Arthur, has blamed drugs for her daughter's death.
Smith met Stern in 1996 when she was referred to his law firm, Bonnie Stern said.
"He started doing her legal work and then he became her confidant. They became best friends and then he fell in love with her," she said.
Stern, 38, is listed on a birth certificate as the father of Smith's baby girl. He said in an interview with "Entertainment Tonight" that he is the executor of a will drafted for Smith that will leave everything to the little girl, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern.
Another man, Larry Birkhead, also claims to be the father, and actress Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, recently said he had a decade-long affair with Smith and might be the baby's father. Von Anhalt said Monday that he plans to file a paternity challenge in court and wants a DNA test.
Birkhead told New York's Daily News that he and Smith had meticulously planned for the birth of the child, but that after they broke up he was pushed to the side.
"Howard has never liked me and he never wanted me and Anna to be together," Birkhead, 34, told the Daily News in Tuesday's editions. "After she got pregnant, things went quickly downhill because of his difference of opinion on several matters."
Birkhead recounted how he had tried to save Smith from her risky lifestyle. He said Smith left him because of his attempts to intervene. The couple split early last summer.
"I watched over her to make sure she was safe, and once I was basically pushed to the side," he said, "I had no control over what she did or anyone else around her did."
Bonnie Stern said "there were times of some intimacy" between Birkhead and Smith, but said, "Larry Birkhead was not her boyfriend."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
| February 13, 2007 | 15:50:38 |
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Will be held liable to the fullest extent of the law. - Posted By: NaBeeel
New photos show Smith in bed with Bahamian immigration minister
• Pictures show Anna Nicole Smith with immigration minister
• Both were fully clothed
• Bahamian officials probing whether she got special favors
• Spokesman for Smith's companion says pictures stolen
- A newspaper published two photographs on its front page Monday showing Anna Nicole Smith lying in bed fully clothed in an embrace with the Bahamian immigration minister, who approved her application for permanent residency.
Immigration Minister Shane Gibson has come under criticism from the political opposition for giving the former Playboy Playmate special treatment in granting Smith -- who died Thursday in Florida -- residency in the Bahamas last year.
The residency application was based on Smith's purported ownership of a waterfront mansion. But G. Ben Thompson, a South Carolina developer who once dated Smith, has said he had not given Smith the house as a gift as her lawyers have asserted. Thompson is attempting to reclaim the house.
A representative of Anna Nicole Smith's companion, Howard K. Stern, scrambled on Monday to control dissemination of items he said were stolen from the mansion over the weekend before he returned from Florida, including images from a computer taken from the house.
Ron Rale, Stern's spokesman, said in a statement Monday that anyone who disseminates any of the items without his prior written consent "will be held liable to the fullest extent of the law." Rale said police have recovered all the missing property.
Two photographs published on the front page of The Tribune of Nassau show Smith and Gibson looking into each other's eyes with their faces only a couple inches apart while lying on a bed decorated with pink flowers and a white ribbon. The newspaper said the photographs were taken in Smith's bedroom and that it obtained the pictures Sunday from an unidentified source.
Opposition leader Hubert Ingraham said he was looking into the matter.
"I'm making some inquiries," Ingraham told The Associated Press.
All of Smith's personal items, including the birth certificate of her 5-month-old daughter, whose paternity is being disputed by three men, had been taken from the house, Rale said.
Stern over the weekend reclaimed the Bahamas mansion along with 5-month-old Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern. They had lived in the gated waterfront estate, known as "Horizons," before Smith died last week.
Stern said he is trying to keep Smith's mother, Vergie Arthur, who traveled from the United States and went to the gates of the mansion on Sunday, from seeing Dannielynn.
"She just despised that woman," Stern said, in a video segment broadcast Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"As long as I have one breath left in my body that woman will not see Dannielynn," Stern said.
Arthur told "Good Morning America" that she fears for Dannielynn's safety, pointing out that Stern has been present when Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith, died under mysterious circumstances in a Bahamas hospital room while visiting his mother days after Dannielynn was born.
A coroner hired by Smith's family said Daniel died in September from a lethal combination of drugs, including methadone. An inquest into his death is scheduled to begin March 27.
"I do have a problem with her being with Howard Stern," Arthur said. "I had a daughter and I had a grandson. He was there when both of them died. Now I only have a granddaughter left, and now he has her, and I'm afraid for her."
Stern is listed on a birth certificate as Dannielynn's father. But two other men have challenged the claim. (Watch how the two squared off on camera )
A former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, has filed a lawsuit claiming he is the father. On Friday, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, announced that he had a decade-long affair with Smith and he may be the girl's father.
The New York Daily News has reported that a manuscript it obtained says Smith froze the sperm of her late 90-year-old husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, before his death and may have used it to become pregnant.
Since Marshall's death in 1995, Smith had been waging a court battle over his estate. A federal court in California awarded Smith $474 million, but that was later overturned. But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that she deserved another day in court.
Experts say the decision of who receives custody could determine the child's inheritance.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
| February 12, 2007 | 19:39:59 |
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Let Anna Nicole be a warning, - Posted By: NaBeeel
Let Anna Nicole be a warning, Before there was Paris, there was Anna Nicole. And now that Anna Nicole is gone, there is still Paris. And Britney. And Nicole. And Lindsay. In there, and with them, lies a cautionary tale of fame for the sake of fame -- an empty fame full of flourish, flashbulbs, and in Anna Nicole's death, finality.
New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser puts it succinctly, writing "the ugly death of Anna Nicole Smith should be a wake-up call to the upstart bimbo triumvirate of Paris, Lindsay and Britney. You, too, Nicole." The point, as it goes, is that as you spiral downward, flaunting your debauchery with reckless abandon, the law of averages dictates that you can outrun fate only for so long -- more so if you encase yourself in an armor of self-importance, ignorance, arrogance and narcissism.
Paris Hilton could only tempt fate for so long before getting arrested on DUI charges and then having her life splattered and spread across the Internet simply because she failed to do something as simple as pay a storage bill. The result: Someone else scooped up her personal books and photos, creating a Web site that attracted more than one million Paris voyeurs in just the first few days.
Britney Spears' voyeurism had more to do with failing to don a simple pair of panties, repeatedly, then flashing her privates for the paparazzi, creating a permanent record of a below-the-belt mistake that will haunt her for the rest of her life. "Pantyless Partying With Paris" has become an alliteration repeated so many times now it is a part of our lexicon. Her nightlife indulgences continue unabated.
Nicole Richie also tempted fate until she was found dazed in her vehicle on a Southern California highway. "Wrong way Nicole" we can now call her, her highway mishap a metaphor for her life, and she, too, faces a DUI charge. So much for a simple life.
Then there's Lindsay Lohan, who treated trips to Alcoholic Anonymous classes as just another appointment before heading back to the clubs. The reality check seemed to come as she checked into rehab, which she then proceeded to treat like a 30-day inconvenience punctuated by field trips to get her car serviced, grab a bite of lunch with friends or do some work on her latest movie. Serious is as serious does. While she pretended to get serious, it was not something she did.
So, with all that said, it is striking to read what Caryn James writes in The New York Times about Anna Nicole Smith: "She was a glittery spectacle who offered guilt-free voyeurism, as we watched her dramas with drugs and weight and inheritance laws. And the lesson of her fame is that there is no lesson."
Caryn, I would beg to differ. There is a lesson to Anna Nicole's fame. You can tempt a vapid fame only for so long if it is constructed of falsehoods, recklessness and self-abuse. It is a lesson the "Britpack" should examine closely.
What was it about Anna Nicole?
There have been hundreds of Playboy Playmates, but the wire services don’t put out new stories every time one of them appears at an event. Countless beautiful young women have married rich old men, but you never hear about them on national TV. Reality show stars are a dime a dozen, but seldom make the cover of supermarket tabloids.
Perhaps it was that she was many things -- and not quite anything. She was Forrest Gump, wandering from one spotlight to the next (the Playboy Mansion? Billionaire's ranch? The Supreme Court?). She was a national Rorschach blot, in which various constituencies -– breast-loving men, money-loving hangers-on, the celebrity media –- saw what they wanted. She was presented as a cartoon character, two-dimensional and not quite real.
She was also a mother who lost a son and leaves behind a 5-month-old daughter.
That, too, echoes.
A Greek tragedy retold by Jacqueline Susann -- or Dave Barry.
| February 12, 2007 | 14:06:37 |
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Smith's lawyer seizes control of Bahamas house. - Posted By: NaBeeel
• Locks at Smith's Bahamas home changed twice in 24 hours
• Smith said Thompson, a former boyfriend, gave her the house
• Thompson said the house was on loan to Smith
• Smith's baby thought in Bahamas; Smith's mom also there
The locks at the Bahamas mansion where Anna Nicole Smith had been living were changed Saturday for the second time in 24 hours, as a lawyer for the late reality TV star said he had retaken possession of the estate.
Outside the gated mansion known as "Horizons," attorney Wayne Munroe also told a small contingent of reporters that he had filed a robbery complaint with police over computer equipment and other personal effects allegedly taken from the home. He did not disclose further details.
The 39-year-old former Playboy playmate, who died at a Florida hotel on Thursday, had claimed that U.S. developer and former boyfriend G. Ben Thompson bought her the house as a gift. (Watch how millions of dollars may be wrangled over))
The impromptu press conference outside the mansion's gates came several hours after Godfrey Pinder, an attorney for Thompson, announced he had taken control of the residence in the exclusive New Providence neighborhood by changing the locks on Friday on behalf of his client. Thompson has said he bought the house and that the residence was on loan to Smith, with whom he had a brief relationship.
But Munroe said the property belongs to Howard K. Stern -- Smith's companion, who is listed on a birth certificate as the father of Smith's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern.
Baby's whereabouts unknown
He added that he did not know the whereabouts of Dannielynn, who is at the center of a broadening legal battle, but emphasized that Stern is due custody of the baby.
"As the other registered parent, Howard Stern has the right to speak to the custody of Dannielynn. That has to be respected unless and until a court -- not a person -- says otherwise," Munroe said, standing next to Pinder.
Smith's ownership of the mansion was the basis of her claim to residency in the Bahamas. In a lawsuit, Smith asked a court to recognize her as the owner and reject a claim on the house by Thompson, a South Carolina developer.
The island chain's Supreme Court has scheduled a February 26 hearing on the matter, Munroe said.
Witnesses reported seeing Stern inside the mansion with TV crews shortly before the attorneys spoke to reporters, and Munroe confirmed that he was in Nassau. Several SUVs with black-tinted windows exited the gated mansion's grounds earlier.
Earlier in the day, Pinder said Bahamian Immigration Minister Shane Gibson's mother was permitted into the waterfront home late Friday to remove some of Smith's personal effects, including clothes and jewelry. The government official was a friend of the late reality TV star.
And on Friday, a pickup carried a crib and an infant's car seat from the mansion to Gibson's house in the middle-class Marathon area. Later, a baby could be heard crying inside the house. Gibson did not return calls seeking comment Saturday.
The exact whereabouts of Dannielynn, who was not with Smith on Thursday when she died in Florida, were unclear Saturday.
Experts say the decision of who receives custody could determine the child's inheritance. Smith was in a long legal battle over the fortune of her late husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.
Smith's mother arrived Friday in Nassau, where the late star's son died last year under mysterious circumstances, to check on the welfare of her granddaughter, according to Reginald Ferguson, assistant commissioner for the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
Arthur, who was reportedly staying in a resort in Nassau's famed Cable Beach, could not be reached for comment Saturday. She told ABC's "Good Morning America" that she believes her daughter died from a drug overdose.
A birth certificate for Dannielynn lists Stern as the girl's father, but two other men have challenged for paternity. A former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, has filed suit claiming he is the father. On Friday, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, announced that he had a decade-long affair with Smith and may be the girl's father.
And the New York Daily News reported Saturday that a manuscript it obtained by Smith's half-sister, Donna Hogan, says Smith froze the sperm of her 90-year-old oilman husband, J. Howard Marshall, before his death and may have used it to become pregnant.
Smith gave birth to Dannielynn on September 7. Three days later, her 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith, died while visiting her in the hospital. A medical examiner hired by the family concluded he died from an accidental combination of methadone and antidepressants, but results of an official autopsy have not been released.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
| February 11, 2007 | 16:16:47 |
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It's a really large legal quagmire. - Posted By: NaBeeel
'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? Anna Nicole Smith, the pneumatic blonde whose life played out as an extraordinary tabloid tale - Playboy centerfold, jeans model, bride of an octogenarian oil tycoon, reality-show subject, tragic mother - died Thursday after collapsing at a hotel.
She was 39.
She was stricken while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and was rushed to a hospital. Edwina Johnson, chief investigator for the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office, said the cause of death was under investigation and an autopsy would be done on Friday.
Just five months ago, Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel, died suddenly in the Bahamas in what was believed to be a drug-related death.
Seminole Police Chief Charlie Tiger said a private nurse called 911 after finding Smith unresponsive in her sixth-floor room at the hotel, which is on an Indian reservation. He said Smith's bodyguard administered CPR, but she was declared dead at a hospital. Later Thursday, two sheriff's deputies carried out at least eight brown paper bags sealed with red evidence tape from Smith's hotel room.
Dr. Joshua Perper, the chief Broward County medical examiner who will perform the autopsy, said if her death was from natural causes, the findings would likely be announced quickly. He cautioned, however, that definitive results could take weeks.
"I am not a prophet, and I cannot tell you before the autopsy what I am going to find," he said.
Through the '90s and into the new century, Smith was famous for being famous, a pop-culture punchline because of her up-and-down weight, her Marilyn Monroe looks, her exaggerated curves, her little-girl voice, her ditzy-blonde persona, and her over-the-top revealing outfits.
Recently, she lost a reported 69 pounds and became a spokeswoman for TrimSpa, a weight-loss supplement. On her reality show and other recent TV appearances, her speech was often slurred and she seemed out of it. Some critics said she seemed drugged-out.
"Undoubtedly it will be found at the end of the day that drugs featured in her death as they did in the death of poor Daniel," said a former attorney for Smith in the Bahamas, Michael Scott.
Another former Smith attorney, Lenard Leeds, told the celebrity gossip Web site TMZ that Smith "always had problems with her weight going up and down, and there's no question she used alcohol." Leeds said it was no secret that "she had a very troubled life" and had "so many, many problems."
Smith attorney Ron Rale told The Associated Press that he had talked to her on Tuesday or Wednesday, and she had flu symptoms and a fever and was still grieving over her son. He dismissed claims her death was related to drugs as "a bunch of nonsense."
"Poor Anna Nicole," he said. "She's been the underdog. She's been besieged ... and she's been trying her best and nobody should have to endure what she's endured."
The Texas-born Smith was a topless dancer at a strip club before she entered her photos in a search contest and made the cover of Playboy magazine in 1992. She became Playboy's playmate of the year in 1993. She was also signed to a contract with Guess jeans, appearing in TV commercials, billboards and magazine ads.
In 1994, she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, owner of Great Northern Oil Co. In 1992, Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at $550 million.
In a 2005 interview with ABC, Smith recalled meeting Marshall at what she called a "gentleman's club" in Houston. "He had no will to live and I went over to see him," she said. "He got a little twinkle in his eyes, and he asked me to dance for him. And I did."
Marshall died in 1995 at age 90, setting off a feud with Smith's former stepson, E. Pierce Marshall, over his estate. A federal court in California awarded Smith $474 million. That was later overturned. But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court revived her case, ruling that she deserved another day in court.
After news came of Smith's death, G. Eric Brunstad Jr., the lawyer who represented Marshall, said in a statement: "We're very shocked by the news and extend the deepest condolences to her family."
Smith starred in her own reality TV series, "The Anna Nicole Show," in 2002-04. Cameras followed her around as she sparred with her lawyer, hung out with her personal assistant and interior decorator, and cooed at her poodle, Sugar Pie. She also appeared in movies, performing a bit part in "The Hudsucker Proxy" in 1994.
In a statement, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner said: "I am very saddened to learn about Anna Nicole's passing. She was a dear friend who meant a great deal to the Playboy family and to me personally."
Smith's son died Sept. 10 in his mother's hospital room in the Bahamas, just days after she gave birth to a daughter.
An American medical examiner hired by the family, Cyril Wecht, said he died accidentally of a combination of methadone and two antidepressants. Last month, a Bahamas magistrate scheduled a formal inquiry into the death for March 27.
Meanwhile, the paternity of Smith's now 5-month-old daughter remained a matter of dispute. The birth certificate lists Dannielynn's father as attorney Howard K. Stern, Smith's most recent companion. Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead was waging a legal challenge, saying he was the father. An emergency hearing in the paternity case was scheduled for Friday in Los Angeles.
Debra Opri, the attorney who filed Birkhead's paternity suit, said Birkhead "is devastated. He is inconsolable, and we are taking steps now to protect the DNA testing of the child. The child is our No. 1 priority."
The legal complications of Smith's estate could take years to unravel, an expert said. Christopher Cline of the law firm Holland and Knight, who is an estate planning specialist, said he has never seen a case "with more moving parts."
Outstanding questions include not only the paternity of her daughter, but if she died with a will and how her death will affect the lawsuit pending against the Marshall estate. It also wasn't clear where she legally lived when she died.
"It's a really large legal quagmire," .
Smith was born Vickie Lynn Hogan on Nov. 28, 1967, in Houston, one of six children. Her parents split up when she was a toddler, and she was raised by her mother, a deputy sheriff.
She dropped out after 11th grade after she was expelled for fighting, and worked as a waitress and then a cook at Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken restaurant in Mexia.
She married 16-year-old fry cook Bill Smith in 1985, giving birth to Daniel before divorcing two years later.
AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch in Los Angeles and Associated Press Writers Sarah Larimer in Hollywood, Fla., and Ana Cholo in Los Angeles contributed to this story.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
| February 10, 2007 | 14:30:08 |
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Florida tornadoes. (the scale of the devastation.) - Posted By: NaBeeel
Eyewitness: Florida tornadoes ,Florida truck driver Jim Minich lives in the town of Belleview, close to the area of Lake County badly affected by tornadoes. He told the BBC about a visit to the worst-hit area, the town of Lady Lake, to help his son cope with the aftermath of Friday's storms.
In Belleview there was no damage, but the storms passed within a quarter of a mile of my son's house, and it's a miracle his property was not more badly damaged.
I've been involved in relief efforts before, and I can say for sure that the destruction on the ground in Lady Lake at the moment is disastrous. If you imagine for yourself an active war zone, that would be the situation.
When you look at the expressions on people's faces impacted by the storms you can see they are devastated, bewildered, confused. It's clear that they don't know what to do.
They have lost everything. There was a church, built to withstand 150mph winds. Now it's completely gone. A mobile home park is nothing but a pile of rubble. You cannot recognise it.
There are still people missing, and there are still people searching
Jim Minich
Trees have been torn up and uprooted, and others that were not growing there have been brought in and dumped on top of them. Power lines are down.
There was a trailer filled with oranges - it weighed maybe 20,000lb (9,100kg) of trailer, and 55,000lb (25,000kg) of oranges. These storms picked it up and tossed it about and made all the oranges spill out.
Trees with a bough expanse of 150ft (46m) have been torn straight out of the ground.
These were strong storms.
I'm not sure where those people who have lost their homes are being housed. I would imagine that some churches opened their doors last night and that people in the community opened their homes.
But it isn't over yet. There are still people missing, and there are still people searching.
I'm trying not to overstress the situation. But you have to be there to observe the scale of the devastation.
| February 3, 2007 | 16:53:16 |
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At least 14 killed by Florida tornadoes - Posted By: NaBeeel
At least 14 people have been killed in the US state of Florida after tornadoes and severe thunderstorms hit the region.
Homes, businesses and churches were reduced to rubble across a wide area north of Florida's key tourism region of Orlando.
The Governor of Florida has declared a state of emergency, and rescue teams are continuing to search for survivors who might still be trapped under flattened homes.
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The storm hit at 8.15am Irish time with at least one and perhaps two tornadoes touching down.
Three people were killed in Lady Lake, about 64km northwest of Orlando, and 11 died in nearby Paisley, on the edge of the Ocala National Forest.
It is understood that more than 500 buildings have been damaged or destroyed and thousands of homes remain without power.
The Red Cross has opened shelters for people left homeless.
| February 2, 2007 | 12:17:09 |
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Chirac would like Iran's help to curb the activities of Hezbollah. - Posted By: NaBeeel
France planned, then canceled a diplomatic visit to Iran, At a time when most world powers have forged a united front against Iran because of its nuclear program, President Jacques Chirac arranged to send his foreign minister to Tehran to talk about a side issue, then abruptly canceled the visit earlier this month in embarrassing failure.
Chirac's troubles stemmed from his deep desire to help resolve the crisis in Lebanon before his term expires in May. To that end, he decided to seek the support of Iran, which, along with Syria, backs the radical Shiite organization Hezbollah, three senior French officials said, in describing the effort.
So he planned to send Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy to Tehran, only to call off the trip two days before it was to have taken place, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on diplomatic issues.
Both Douste-Blazy and senior Foreign Ministry officials concluded that such a trip was doomed to fail and would send the wrong signal just weeks after the Security Council unanimously approved sanctions intended to curb Iran's nuclear program, they added.
That put Douste-Blazy in the uncomfortable position of having to tell Chirac that he did not want to go, one senior official said.
"This is not French diplomacy at its best," the official said of the initiative, which was disclosed in the newspaper Le Monde on Tuesday afternoon.
When Douste-Blazy visited Saudi Arabia and Egypt early this month, the foreign ministers of both countries also informed him that they strongly opposed any such initiative.
Prince Saud al Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, was so determined to stop the visit that he spoke to Douste- Blazy in uncharacteristically blunt terms — "I am going to tell you, do not go" — according to a senior official familiar with the conversation.
The French plan contradicted the Bush administration strategy of trying to isolate and punish Iran. Rather than negotiating with Tehran, the United States is building up U.S. forces in the Gulf, persuading many international businesses to cut off dealings with the country and trying to curtail Iranian operations in Iraq.
The Bush administration apparently was not consulted in advance about the plan, and Stephen Hadley, the Bush administration's national security adviser, protested the visit to Jean-David Levitte, the French ambassador in Washington.
In subsequent communications with R. Nicholas Burns, the U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs, and Craig Roberts Stapleton, the U.S. ambassador to France, the Foreign Ministry gave assurances that it was trying hard to ensure that Douste-Blazy did not travel to Iran.
Iran, meanwhile, has officially expressed its displeasure that the trip was canceled.
For the moment, Jean-Claude Cousseran, a former head of the French foreign intelligence service and former ambassador to Egypt, is planning to make the trip to Tehran, leaving open the face-saving possibility that the foreign minister could follow at a later, unspecified, date, a senior French official said.
But the initiative is so ad hoc and divisive that one senior official said that even Cousseran's trip might not take place.
Chirac's initiative is surprising because he has consistently taken a hard line against Iran and its nuclear program, privately expressing the view that the Islamic republic cannot be trusted. While other global players, including Russia and China, regularly send senior officials to Tehran, France had joined with Britain, Germany and the United States in pressuring Iran to suspend its uranium-enrichment activities or face sanctions in the Security Council. In fact, France drafted much of the initial Council resolution, in tough language that was watered down in the end.
French officials emphasized that discussion of Iran's nuclear program was not part of the new initiative, and that Chirac was simply trying anything he could think of to help Lebanon, where about 1,700 French troops are stationed as part of a UN peacekeeping force.
Chirac's interest in Lebanon is described by some of his close aides as an "obsession," and he seems driven to help bolster its weak government before his presidential mandate ends, even if it means courting Tehran.
Specifically, Chirac would like Iran's help to curb the activities of Hezbollah. He also wants to win Iran's support for an international tribunal to try the killers of Lebanon's former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, who was a close friend.
Chirac has repeatedly ruled out any dialogue with Syria, which he blames for Hariri's assassination.
| February 1, 2007 | 16:00:30 |
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US money is 'squandered' in Iraq . - Posted By: NaBeeel
US money is 'squandered' in Iraq,Millions of dollars in US rebuilding funds have been wasted in Iraq, US auditors say in a report which warns corruption in the country is rife.
A never-used camp in Baghdad for police trainers with an Olympic-size swimming pool is one of the examples highlighted in the quarterly audit.
Billions of budgeted dollars meanwhile remain unspent by Iraq's government.
The report comes as President Bush is urging Congress to approve $1.2bn (£600m) in further reconstruction aid.
The audit by Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction (Sigir), is the latest in a regular series of updates to Congress.
Budgeting problems
"The security situation continue to deteriorate, hindering progress in all reconstruction sectors and threatening the overall reconstruction effort," says his 579-page report, which is due to be released later on Wednesday.
More remains to be done to account for past US investment and to promote the highest and best use of future US funding for Iraq
Stuart Bowen
Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
Among the wide-ranging findings, the audit says that corruption continues to plague Iraq and infrastructure security remains vulnerable.
Auditors express "significant concern" about the Iraqi government's record in managing and spending budgets.
Billions of dollars budgeted for capital projects remained unspent at the end of 2006, the report says.
Vague invoices
As well as not spending funds, the audit also highlights ways in which money has been used either improperly or wastefully.
US FUNDS IN IRAQ
Security and justice 34%
Electricity 23%
Water 12%
Economic, societal development 12%
Oil and gas 9%
Transport, communications 4%
Health care 4%
Source: Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
One case involved a payment by the US State Department of $43.8m to a contractor, DynCorp International, for a residential camp for police trainers outside the Adnan Palace grounds in Baghdad. The camp has never been used.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry ordered $4.2m of work there, never authorised by the State Department, that included 20 trailers for important visitors and an Olympic-size swimming pool.
The State Department has said that it is working to improve controls.
Another example cited in the report is $36.4m spent by US officials on armoured vehicles, body armour and communications equipment that cannot be accounted for because invoices were vague and there was no back-up documentation.
Contracts have been awarded for virtually all of the $21bn earmarked by the US government for Iraqi reconstruction, and some 80% has been spent.
Democrats, who now control the US Congress, have expressed concern at the prospect of devoting more funds to rebuilding efforts in Iraq.
Rep Henry Waxman is planning in-depth hearings next week into charges of waste and fraud in Iraq.
Since 2003, the way reconstruction aid is used has changed, with money originally destined for infrastructure programmes cut and more spent on areas like security and democracy projects.
Electricity output remains below pre-war levels, while funds initially earmarked for water and sewerage have been cut by 50%, the audit says.
Investigations
The report also points to continuing high unemployment, put at 18% but widely believed to be under-reported, as a contributing factor in the insurgency.
It concludes that the Iraqi government's "most significant challenge" continues to be strengthening the judiciary, prisons and the police.
"The United States has spent billions of dollars in this area, with limited success to date."
Mr Bowen's audit office began operations in March 2004 and is currently conducting 78 investigations, of which 23 have been referred to the US Department of Justice.
There have so far been four convictions.
His office, which was nearly closed down last year by Republicans, is now due to carry on its oversight work through 2008.
Do you think money has been squandered in Iraq? We are especially interested in hearing from people inside Iraq.
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Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6316057.stm
Published: 2007/01/31 10:43:53 GMT
© BBC MMVII
| January 31, 2007 | 20:16:18 |
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President Bush should clean up the mess. - Posted By: NaBeeel
President Bush should clean up the mess he made in Iraq and bring American troops home before he leaves the White House in 2009, Sen. Hillary Clinton said yesterday.
Clinton fired her rhetoric-raising broadside at Bush and the Iraq war on her first swing through Iowa as a presidential hopeful, painting herself as tough, warm and presidential all at the same time.
"The President has said this is going to be left to his successor," she said at a rally in Davenport. "I think it's the height of irresponsibility, and I really resent it.
"This was his decision to go to war; he went with an ill-conceived plan, an incompetently executed strategy, and we should expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office," the former First Lady said.
White House spokesman Rob Saliterman criticized Clinton (D-N.Y.) for "a partisan attack that sends the wrong message to our troops and the Iraqi people."
One questioner challenged Clinton to explain her vote in late 2002 to authorize the war. She said Congress was "misled" at the time by the President.
"He took the authority that I and others gave him, and he misused it," she said. "And I regret that deeply. And if we had known then what we know now, there never would have been a vote, and I never would have voted to give this President that authority."
Dawn Trettin, 33, and her son Ramon Briones, 18, who has joined the Army, said they liked what they heard from Clinton. Trettin, though, teared up when someone in the crowd told her son not to go to Iraq.
"I don't want to just pull out and leave it in chaos," she said, though she was waiting to make up her mind on whom to vote for next year.
Her son, who said he liked Clinton's depth, was ready to commit after hearing her pitch. "I liked her," he said. "I would vote for her."
Clinton is leading her Democratic rivals in national polls, but she is not the front-runner in Iowa. If Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucus was held now, she would lose to 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards. She also trails former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in state polls.
She completed a two-day swing through the state last night in a bid to close the gap and tried to erase the perception among many Iowans that she can't win, talking to them in small groups in living rooms and by the thousands in large halls.
The reception was strong, and Camp Clinton liked what it saw.
"We are thrilled with the weekend," said Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson.
Clinton also focused on middle-class issues like making college more affordable and obtaining universal health care coverage.
She promised to try to at least get universal coverage for kids during her next two years in the Senate.
Today, she's picking up the war theme theme again in Texas, attending the dedication of Brooke Army Medical Center's $50 million Center for the Intrepid. The 60,000-square-foot physical rehabilitation center is for veterans injured in the war.
| January 29, 2007 | 12:34:32 |
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How Alexander the Great Died. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Alexander the Great
July, 356 BC–11 June 323 BC
http://en.discuss.takingitglobal.org/thread/19451
Alexander fighting Persian king Darius III. From Alexander Mosaic, from Pompeii, Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale.
Place of birth Pella, Macedon
Place of death Babylon (Most probable)Wars of Alexander the Great
Chaeronea – Granicus – Issus – Tyre – Gaugamela – Hydaspes River
Alexander the Great (Greek: É™€É¡ÉøV ?É…€ÉÃÉøÉÀɬɜÉÕV,[1] Megas Alexandros; July 356 BC–June 11, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon (336–323 BC), was one of the most successful military commanders in history. Before his death, he conquered most of the world known to the ancient Greeks, never losing a battle. Alexander is also known in the Zoroastrian Middle Persian work Arda Wiraz NÇmag as "the accursed Alexander" due to his conquest of the Persian Empire and the destruction of its capital Persepolis. He is known as Eskandar-e Maqduni (Alexander of Macedonia) in Persian, Dhul-Qarnayn (the two-horned one) in Arabic, Alexander Mokdon in Hebrew, and Tre-Qarnayia in Aramaic (the two-horned one, apparently due to an image on coins minted during his rule that seemingly depicted him with the two ram's horns of the Egyptian god Ammon), al-Iskandar al-Kabeer in Arabic, Sikandar-e-azam in Urdu, Skandar in Pashto. Sikandar, his name in Urdu and Hindi, is also a term used as a synonym for "expert" or "extremely skilled".
Following the unification of the multiple city-states of ancient Greece under the rule of his father, Philip II of Macedon (a labour Alexander had to repeat twice because the southern Greeks rebelled after Philip's death), Alexander conquered the Persian Empire, including Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Gaza, Egypt, Bactria and Mesopotamia and extended the boundaries of his own empire as far as the Punjab. Before his death, Alexander had already made plans to also turn west and conquer Europe. He also wanted to continue his march eastwards in order to find the end of the world, since his boyhood tutor Aristotle told him tales about where the land ends and the Great Outer Sea begins. Alexander integrated foreigners (non-Macedonians, non-Greeks known as the Successors[2]) into his army and administration, leading some scholars to credit him with a "policy of fusion." He encouraged marriage between his army and foreigners, and practiced it himself. After twelve years of constant military campaigning, Alexander died, possibly of malaria, typhoid, or viral encephalitis. His conquests ushered in centuries of Greek settlement and rule over distant areas, a period known as the Hellenistic Age, a combination of Greek and Middle Eastern culture. Alexander himself lived on in the history and myth of both Greek and non-Greek cultures. After his death (and even during his life) his exploits inspired a literary tradition in which he appears as a legendary hero in the tradition of Achilles.
http://en.discuss.takingitglobal.org/thread/19451
| January 26, 2007 | 21:07:58 |
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Mob attacks India murder suspects. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Mob attacks India murder suspects,An Indian businessman and his servant, accused in the rape and murder of at least 19 women and children, have been assaulted by a mob.
The duo were attacked by a crowd of onlookers, as well as lawyers, outside the court in Ghaziabad, near Delhi.
Businessman Moninder Singh Pandher appeared to fall unconscious during the assault. He was taken to hospital where his condition is reported to be stable.
Mr Pandher and his servant Surendra Koli were arrested in December.
Police and investigation agencies have recovered skulls and body parts from a drain outside the businessman's house in Noida, a suburb of Delhi.
Slapped and punched
Emotions have been running high in the area and angry locals are continuing to hold a vigil outside Moninder Singh's home.
The two men are in the custody of India's federal investigating police, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Television channels showed footage of lawyers and other people climbing on to scooters and cars and raining blows on the two men.
The pair were slapped and punched and kicked by the mob. A policeman was shown kneeling over him, trying to save him from further blows.
Pandher was seen lying on the ground after the assault.
CBI officials say the two have received minor injuries.
The federal investigation agency took over the case a fortnight ago amid anger at local police inaction.
Negligence
Residents say as many as 40 children have disappeared in the area over the past two years.
Parents of some of the missing children have demanded that the guilty be executed.
The accused are being questioned by CBI officials and have also undertaken lie detector tests.
The crime has shocked the country with many people accusing the local police of negligence and dereliction of duty.
Many locals say police failed to act over the abductions and murders because many of those reported missing came from poor families.
Six Noida policemen have been sacked for alleged incompetence. Three senior officers are suspended.
| January 25, 2007 | 11:12:16 |
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"property values went crazy." - Posted By: NaBeeel
More Californians at risk of losing homes, The number of Californians defaulting on their mortgage loans is rising rapidly, according to figures released Tuesday, providing striking evidence that more people are at risk of losing their homes.
Default notices jumped 145% in the last three months of 2006, accelerating a trend that began in late 2005 as home sales started to cool.
It was the largest number of default notices in any three-month period since 1998.
Analysts said the increase was not worrisome — yet. But if the number continues to escalate, it could drag down home values in certain communities, they warned.
"So far, this isn't alarming," said John Karevoll, chief analyst at DataQuick Information Systems, which compiled the data. But if default notices "keep going up at this rate, it could get nasty fast," he added.
Home markets that are most vulnerable include the Inland Empire and the Central Valley, both of which drew throngs of first-time buyers even as the housing boom was ending.
Such homeowners are the most at risk of losing their homes because they have relatively little equity in their properties, making it harder to refinance their mortgages.
Default notices are the initial step in the foreclosure process. In the fourth quarter of last year, lenders issued such notices to 37,273 borrowers across the state, warning them that they were at risk of foreclosure, compared with 15,196 during the same period a year earlier,
Not every notice of default leads to a foreclosure, when a property is seized and sold to pay the mortgage. But foreclosures also are on the rise. There were 6,078 in the last quarter of 2006, up from 874 a year earlier.
Defaults and foreclosures fell steadily starting in the late 1990s as housing prices took off. In those heady days, practically anyone needing money to pay bills could refinance, cashing out equity from what seemed to be an endlessly refilling piggy bank.
In a stagnant or falling market, that option isn't available to recent buyers or those who have visited the pig once too often. Instead, many of those who are unable to make their payments must either sell the property or let the bank take it over.
During the mid-1990s, this process reached its peak as quarterly default statistics routinely exceeded 50,000 and foreclosures topped 15,000. (The housing stock has grown since then, making the 1990s numbers even worse by comparison.)
That era was one of the grimmest in modern California history, marred by the Los Angeles riots, the Northridge earthquake and an economic recession — all of which contributed to the collapse in home values.
Today, the economy is healthy and unemployment has rarely been lower.
"I really don't see any distress out there," said Chris Comer, a mortgage broker at Pacific Capital in San Marcos, Calif. "Most people getting notices of default are figuring out ways to get those mortgages current by any means possible so they're not kicked out in the street."
Most people, but not everyone.
James Brown, a 66-year-old retired insurance agent in Salinas, Calif., has a history of heart trouble. When he had an operation in 2005, he said, "the doctor gave me a 50-50 chance I'd die on the table. So I did a stupid thing: I refinanced the house."
Brown's goal in tapping his equity was to give his wife, Monica, a $100,000 cushion after his death. But he didn't read the paperwork carefully, and didn't realize that his monthly loan payment would skyrocket.
There was also a problem with the operation: It worked.
A year or two earlier, that would have been nothing but good news. In the early part of the decade, Brown recalled, "property values went crazy."
| January 24, 2007 | 11:59:21 |
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Senate panel expected to oppose Bush's Iraq plan. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Democrats took the first step toward a wartime repudiation of President Bush on Wednesday, convening a Senate committee to endorse legislation declaring that the deployment of additional troops to Iraq is "not in the national interest."
"We better be damn sure we know what we're doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder," said Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, the only Republican on the committee to announce support for the measure.
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Delaware, the panel's chairman, said the legislation is "not an attempt to embarrass the president. ... It's an attempt to save the president from making a significant mistake with regard to our policy in Iraq."
Less than one month after taking control of Congress, there was little doubt Democrats had the votes to prevail. They hold 11 seats on the committee, to 10 for Republicans.
The full Senate is scheduled to begin debate on the measure next week, although Biden has said he is willing to negotiate changes in hopes of attracting support from more Republicans.
Even Republicans opposed to the measure expressed unease with the revised policy involving a war that has lasted nearly four years, claimed the lives of more than 3,000 U.S. troops and helped Democrats win control of Congress in last fall's elections.
"I am not confident that President Bush's plan will succeed," said Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, senior Republican on the committee.
But he also said he would vote against the measure. "It is unclear to me how passing a nonbinding resolution that the president has already said he will ignore will contribute to any improvement or modification of our Iraq policy."
"The president is deeply invested in this plan, and the deployments ... have already begun," Lugar added.
He suggested a more forceful role for Congress, and said lawmakers must ensure the administration is "planning for contingencies, including the failure of the Iraqi government to reach compromises and the persistence of violence despite U.S. amd Iraqi government efforts."
Senate panel expected to oppose Bush's Iraq plan
• NEW: Senate panel expected to pass resolution opposing troop buildups plan
• Resolution would not not prevent Bush from carrying out plan
• Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, questions whether troop "surge" in Iraq will work
• Eight Republican senators on record opposing Bush plan
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| January 24, 2007 | 11:21:22 |
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..So send your entire Army. - Posted By: NaBeeel
http://www.nydailynews.com, Zawahiri: Bring it on!
Al Qaeda No.2 Ayman al-Zawahiri mocked President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq yesterday and dared him to send more.
"Why send 20,000 only? Why not send 50,000 or 100,000? Aren't you aware that the dogs of Iraq are pining for your troops' dead bodies?" Zawahiri said, according to the SITE Institute, which monitors international terrorism.
In the 14-minute video with English subtitles, Zawahiri, a fugitive Egyptian doctor and deputy of Osama Bin Laden, said Bush was pursuing a strategy for defeat.
"So send your entire Army to be annihilated at the hands of the mujahedeen [holy warriors]," Zawahiri said.
The video surfaced as suicide car bombers destroyed a Shiite market in Baghdad yesterday, killing more than 80 in the worst of a series of attacks that left at least 130 dead.
In the town of Khalis 50 miles north of Baghdad, a suicide bomb followed by a mortar shell slammed into another Shiite market, killing at least 12, police said.
The violence was the worst since more than 200 were killed in a series of November attacks on the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in northeast Baghdad.
As part of Bush's latest plan to take back Baghdad, a brigade of about 3,200 troops from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division has arrived in Baghdad and is expected to begin operations next week. At least four more Army brigades and 4,000 Marines are expected to arrive in the coming months.
| January 23, 2007 | 14:37:45 |
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Banking in U.S. dollars Tightened up existing rule. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Banking in U.S. dollars Tightened up existing rules ,Those using American bank accounts will have to follow U.S. rules, Consumers who are banking in U.S. dollars will have to follow rules set out by the United States and how they're applied by Canadian banks.
Prevention programs are needed for those who are "at risk in getting involved in gang activity or perhaps are
members of gangs and who would like to get out and never have to go back to that situation.
Citizens of Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Sudan, North Korea or Myanmar are prevented from having U.S. dollar accounts.
The Royal Bank (TSX:RY) had been tightly applying U.S. restrictions on who could open American dollar accounts as part of the effort to stop terrorism and money laundering, but will ease its policy.
our 'Know Your Client' and 'Anti-Money Laundering' requirements, which include proof of residency in Canada,"
The bank said it will work with clients who may be impacted by the requirements.
Citizens of Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Sudan, North Korea or Myanmar are prevented from having U.S. dollar accounts.
For people who are banking with American dollars and through the American banking system, the law applies to
the country of jurisdiction.
"The bank here has made a decision between themselves, their clients and the situation in the United States".
"So it's clearly a jurisdictional issue relating to the United States just as if a similar matter had to do with Canadian banks, it goes back to the country of jurisdiction."
Prevention programs are needed for those who are "at risk in getting involved in gang activity or perhaps are members of gangs and who would like to get out and never have to go back to that
The Royal Bank has said the United States has tightened up existing rules which were put into place since the terrorist attacks in September 2001. It has major bank and brokerage operations in the United States.
A spokesman for the TD Bank (TSX:TD) has said it's not the bank's policy to refuse to open a U.S dollar account in Canada for people with dual citizenship, but it carefully monitors the transactions of anyone with a U.S dollar account.
Several other banks, such as the Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO) and Scotiabank (TSX:BNS), say they don't deny U.S. dollar accounts to citizens on the list as long as they meet normal requirements.
| January 18, 2007 | 15:05:14 |
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Iran warns it's ready for nuke standoff - Posted By: NaBeeel
Iran warns it's ready for nuke standoff, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Iran was prepared for any possibility in the standoff with the West over its nuclear activities — a tough reaction to a U.S. military buildup in the Gulf meant as a warning to Tehran.
His comments were an apparent reaction to the U.S. decision to deploy a second aircraft carrier, the USS Stennis, to the Gulf. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the increased U.S. presence was to impress on Iran that the four-year war in Iraq has not made America vulnerable.
"Today, with the grace of God, we have gone through the arduous passes and we are ready for anything in this path," state-run television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
The U.N. Security Council recently imposed limited sanctions to punish Iran for defying a resolution demanding that it suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can produce fissile material to fuel nuclear reactors or, at purer concentrations, the core of nuclear weapons.
The U.S. and its allies accuse Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, an allegation Tehran denies, insisting it only wants to produce energy. U.S. administration officials have said diplomacy was the focus of their policy on Iran but have never ruled out attacks on Iran.
In Paris, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, said he was concerned the sanctions could escalate Iran's standoff with Western powers.
"I don't think sanctions will resolve the issue ... sanctions in my view could lead to escalation on both sides," he warned.
ElBaradei, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, suggested that a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities ultimately would not thwart its ambitions.
"What we know is that Iran has the knowledge, but you cannot bomb knowledge," he said.
ElBaradei said the pressure has failed to break a consensus in Iran that the oil-rich nation needs to master the complex process of uranium enrichment. Iran this week said it is moving toward large-scale enrichment involving 3,000 centrifuges, which spin uranium gas into enriched material.
Ahmadinejad said Iran will not be deterred by threats and sanctions, which it has rejected as "invalid" and "illegal."
"Their aim is to frighten Iran and weaken the resistance of the Iranian nation but they will not succeed," he was quoted as saying.
ElBaradei called for a resumption of talks with Tehran and said he would support any efforts to "engage Iran," including the possibility of a French negotiator.
"My worry right now is that each side is sticking to its guns," he said. "We need someone to reach out."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this week that now is not the time for the United States to talk to Iran, adding that Tehran does not appear ready to accept a conditional U.S. offer to join European talks over its nuclear program.
ElBaradei warned that only applying pressure could prompt the Islamic republic to follow the path of North Korea, which kicked out U.N. inspectors and pulled out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2003 and then conducted its first-ever nuclear weapons test last October.
"My priority is to keep Iran inside the system," he said.
Meanwhile, a high-level Iranian delegation arrived in North Korea on Thursday, the communist nation's media reported. North Korea, like Iran, is facing intense international pressure to give up its nuclear weapons programs.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry delegation, led by Vice Minister Mahdi Safari, arrived in Pyongyang, the Korean Central News Agency reported in a one-sentence dispatch without giving any further details.
Ahmadinejad also denounced critics of his nuclear diplomacy at home, saying their calls for compromise echo "the words of the enemy" and will not affect his government's handling of the nuclear dossier with the West.
Conservatives and reformists alike have in recent weeks openly challenged Ahmadinejad's hard-line nuclear diplomacy tactics, with many saying his fiery anti-Western remarks are doing more harm than good.
Reformists have called for a return to suspension of nuclear activities to avoid further punishment at the Security Council.
"Unfortunately, some inside the country try to fabricate news and portray a bad image of the great achievement of the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad said in reference to Iran's uranium enrichment program.
They "prescribe compromise, repeat the words of the enemy. Of course, this will have no effect,"
| January 18, 2007 | 11:22:58 |
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Acknowledging their party is divided on Iraq. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Senate resolution to criticize Iraq plan, Senate Democrats working with a well-known Republican war critic are developing a resolution declaring that President Bush's troop build up in Iraq "is not in the national interest," said people familiar with the document.
The resolution also would put the Senate on record as saying the U.S. commitment in Iraq "can only be sustained" with popular support among the American public and in Congress, according to officials who are knowledgeable about the draft.
These officials would speak only on grounds of anonymity because the drafting is still under way. Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican and potential 2008 presidential candidate, is helping Democrats with the wording of the anti-war resolution.
"It is not in the national interest of the United States to deepen its military involvement in Iraq, particularly by escalating U.S. troop presence in Iraq," it says.
The resolution will be cosponsored by Sens. Carl Levin and Joseph Biden, as well as Hagel. Levin, D-Mich., chairs the Armed Services Committee, and Biden, D-Del., heads the Foreign Relations Committee.
The Senate leadership is expected by Thursday to propose the resolution, with debate planned around the same time that Bush delivers his State of the Union speech next Tuesday.
Hagel's agreement to help Democrats champion the resolution amounts to a setback to the administration and to Bush, who has argued vehemently that some 21,500 additional U.S. troops are needed to help the Iraqi government calm sectarian violence in Baghdad and Anbar province.
Bush announced on Jan. 10 that he planned to augment the more than 130,000 forces in Iraq with the additional 21,5000 troops.
Earlier, Bush summoned Republicans skeptical of the war to the White House to discuss the issue as Democratic House and Senate leaders maneuver for votes to gauge GOP opposition to Bush's policy.
The White House refused to say who was invited to meet with Bush.
The resolutions in Congress seemed likely to be largely symbolic and they would not affect the Pentagon's war budget or challenge the president's authority over U.S. forces. Such votes, however, could be a shot across the bow to Bush.
The resolutions also would help Democrats measure GOP support for more aggressive legislative tactics, such as cutting off funds for the war.
Such a vote puts many Republicans in an uncomfortable position. They will have to decide whether to stay loyal to an unpopular GOP president and risk angering voters disillusioned by the war or buck the party line.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said Wednesday she thinks there should be a cap on U.S. troops in Iraq and said she wants "to condition American aid to the Iraqis on their meeting political benchmarks."
"I am opposed to this escalation," she said on NBC's "Today" program. "The Bush administration has frankly failed to put any leverage on this government," said Clinton, considered a likely 2008 Democratic presidential front-runner, although she has not yet entered the race.
Bush has been trying to sell his revised war plan to the public in a series of television interviews. He told PBS's Jim Lehrer in an interview broadcast Tuesday that keeping his old policies in place would lead to "a slow failure," but withdrawing from Iraq, as some Democrats and other critics suggest, would result in an "expedited failure."
"I am frustrated with the progress," Bush said. "A year ago, I felt pretty good about the situation. I felt like we were achieving our objective, which is a country that can govern, sustain and defend itself. No question, 2006 was a lousy year for Iraq."
Several GOP members of Congress have offered only lukewarm endorsements of Bush's plan.
Republican Rep. Chris Shays — who scraped by in the November elections while his GOP Connecticut colleagues Rob Simmons and Nancy Johnson lost their seats — said his vote would depend on what Democrats come up with. He said he supports the troop push if there are guarantees offered by the Iraqis that they will reach a political settlement.
Lining up behind Bush in the Senate are Republican stalwarts and a few members who have long backed sending more troops to Iraq, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
Acknowledging their party is divided on Iraq, Republican leaders are trying to stave off a showdown in Congress by casting Democratic efforts as a political ploy to embarrass the president.
Republicans are also discussing alternative proposals, including one House resolution promising to keep funding for troops in combat.
The White House cautioned lawmakers about the consequences of voting against a buildup.
"The one thing the president has said is, whatever you do, make sure you support the troops," press secretary Tony Snow said at the White House. "And the question people who support this resolution will have to ask is, how does this support the troops?"
| January 17, 2007 | 14:41:55 |
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Comet McNaught. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Comet set for spectacular show,If you are one of those comet-watchers desperately disappointed by the total flop of Halley's Comet in 1986, make sure you get out early on Monday evening and every night until at least Friday to watch Comet McNaught, which is promising much better viewing.
Comet McNaught, named after the Australian astronomer R H McNaught, who discovered it in 2006, will be visible low on the western horizon just after sunset from Monday evening for about a week, although tonight's viewing should be the best.
Each night's show should last about half-an-hour, and it could be spectacular - although this is not guaranteed, as the Halley fizzle proved.
'It could emerge as the brightest comet in recorded history'
Local astronomer Case Rijsdijk said the comet would be visible for about half-an-hour each evening, as it as very close to the Sun.
He suggested comet-watchers head for venues such as Signal Hill, which offer uninterrupted views of the western horizon.
McNaught is reported to be the brightest comet visible from Earth in 30 years.
Reports from the northern hemisphere were that it had sparkled its way across the northern skies last week.
"It could emerge as the brightest comet in recorded history," Nasa astronomer Tony Phillips said.
McNaught will look like an elongated cloud, pointing upwards and to the left.
Each evening it will appear a little further to the south.
Comets, sometimes called "dirty snowballs" or "icy mudballs", are a mixture of water ice, frozen gases and dust particles that were not incorporated into planets when the solar system was formed.
Astronomers are particularly interested in them because of the evidence they contain of the early history of the solar system.
| January 15, 2007 | 10:56:33 |
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It is absolutely lawful. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Pentagon viewing Americans' bank records, The Pentagon and to a lesser extent the CIA have been using a little-known power to look at the banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage within the United States, officials said Saturday.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Saturday the Defense Department "makes requests for information under authorities of the National Security Letter statutes ... but does not use the specific term National Security Letter in its investigatory practice."
Whitman did not indicate the number of requests that have been made in recent years, but said authorities operate under the Right to Financial Privacy Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the National Security Act.
"These statutory tools may provide key leads for counterintelligence and counterterrorism investigations," Whitman said. "Because these are requests for information rather than court orders, a DOD request under the NSL statutes cannot be compelled absent court involvement."
"It is our understanding that the intelligence community agencies make such requests on a limited basis," said Carl Kropf, a spokesman for the Office of the National Intelligence Director, which oversees all 16 spy agencies in the government.
The national security letters permit the executive branch to seek records about people in terror and spy investigations without a judge's approval or grand jury subpoena.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the lead agency on domestic counterterrorism and espionage, has issued thousands of national security letters since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Whitman said Defense Department "counterintelligence investigators routinely coordinate ... with the FBI."
The national security letters have prompted criticism and court challenges from civil liberties advocates who claim they invade the privacy of Americans' lives, even though banks and other financial institutions typically turn over the financial records voluntarily.
The New York Times reported on expanded use of the technique by the Pentagon and CIA in an article posted Saturday on the Internet.
The vast majority of national security letters are issued by the FBI, but in very rare circumstances they have been used by the CIA before and after 9/11, said a U.S. intelligence official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity.
The CIA has used these non-compulsory letters in espionage investigations and other circumstances, the official said.
"It is very uncommon for the agency to be issuing these letters," the official said. "The agency has the authority to do so, and it is absolutely lawful."
Another government official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said one example of a case in which the letters were used was the 1994 case of CIA officer Aldrich Ames, who eventually was found to have been selling secrets to the Soviet Union.
None of the officials reached by the AP commented about the extent of use by the Defense Department agencies, but the Times said military intelligence officers have sent the letters in up to 500 investigations.
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| January 14, 2007 | 08:52:01 |
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It was not from the neighborhood. - Posted By: NaBeeel
What Landed in New Jersey? It Came From Outer Space,It was not from the neighborhood.
The object that tore through the roof of a house in the New Jersey suburbs this week was an iron meteorite, perhaps billions of years old and maybe ripped from the belly of an asteroid, experts who examined it said yesterday.
Tentatively named “Freehold Township” for the place where it landed — and ruined a second-floor bathroom — the meteorite is only the second found in New Jersey, said Jeremy S. Delaney, a Rutgers University expert who examined it.
“It’s a pretty exciting find,” said Dr. Delaney, who has examined thousands of meteorites. He said that the first New Jersey meteorite was found in 1829, in the seaside town of Deal.
The meteorite now belongs to the family whose house it ended up in, said Lt. Robert Brightman of the Freehold Township Police Department, adding that they had asked not to be identified.
The family has not yet given permission for physical testing of the meteorite, but from looking at it, Dr. Delaney and other experts were able to tell that the object it had been part of — perhaps an asteroid — cooled relatively fast.
It is magnetic, and reasonably dense, they determined. The leading edge — the one that faced forward as it traveled through the earth’s atmosphere — was much smoother, while the so-called trailing edge seemed to have caught pieces of molten metal.
In fact, Mr. Delaney said, it seemed very similar to another meteorite fragment, the Ahnighito, now on display at the American Museum of Natural History.
“This little guy is a lot like it,” he said. “It’s a good candidate for the core of an asteroid.”
And the scientists are hoping that the owners of the “Freehold Township” will make it available for testing and public viewing, like the Ahnighito, a 34-ton chunk of the Cape York meteorite found in Greenland.
Or, they could sell it.
“The worth of a meteorite like this is almost completely determined by where it fell,” said Eric Twelker, a geologist and a dealer in meteorites, who buys and sells perhaps a hundred of them a month on meteoritemarket.com, his Web site. He was speaking of the premium placed on meteorites with a compelling back story, like the football-size rock that crashed into a parked Chevrolet in Peekskill, N.Y., in 1992.
| January 6, 2007 | 15:46:03 |
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The Democrats are back. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Democrats take control of Congress, In a day of ceremony and historic change, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) became the nation's first female House speaker on Thursday as Democrats eagerly took control of Congress for the final two years of President Bush's term.
"The Democrats are back," rejoiced Pelosi, and she immediately set the rank-and-file to work passing tougher ethics rules.
As is customary, the opening moments of the 110th Congress produced pledges of bipartisanship at both ends of the Capitol. Yet Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled a new political order when they swiftly challenged Bush over the war in Iraq.
"No issue in our country is more important than finding an end to this intractable war," said Reid, D-Nev. "Completing the mission in Iraq is the president's job, and we will do everything in our power to ensure he fulfills it." Bush is expected to announce a revised strategy next week for the war, which has claimed the lives of more than 3,000 members of the U.S. armed forces.
The two houses convened at the stroke of noon, under Democratic control together for the first time since 1994.
That meant a return to power for men long used to wielding it. Liberals such as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) of Massachusetts and Rep. John Dingell (news, bio, voting record) of Michigan are committee chairmen again, for example.
And it brought reduced circumstances to others — no one more so than Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., just a member of the ranks after eight tumultuous years as speaker.
By custom, lawmakers brought their children to opening ceremonies in the House, and Pelosi swept into the chamber accompanied by her grandchildren.
Formality reigned, as always, in the Senate, where Vice President Dick Cheney administered the oath of office to 33 new and newly re-elected senators.
Former President Clinton watched from the gallery as his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, was sworn in for a second term from New York.
In a chance encounter, he dodged questions about her presidential ambitions. "I would like not to talk about it today," he said.
It fell to Rep. John Boehner (news, bio, voting record) of Ohio, the new House Republican leader, to hand the gavel — symbol of the speaker's authority — to Pelosi. "Whether you're a Republican, Democrat or an independent, this is a cause for celebration," he said, noting her place in history.
But he also gave notice to the party she leads, adding, "Republicans will hold the incoming majority accountable for its promises, and its actions."
Across the Capitol, Sen. Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record) of Kentucky took over as leader of minority Republicans, and said it was time to put an end to "a culture of partisanship over principle." He said cooperation was clearly possible on minimum wage and lobbying bills, and he added that he hoped the issues of Social Security and immigration would also yield to compromise.
Reid said he was eager for cooperation, and he arranged for a rare closed-door meeting of all senators before the Senate convened to help set a more cordial tone.
Leader of a slender majority, the Nevadan said, "Some may look at this composition as a recipe for gridlock, but I see it as a unique opportunity. ... We must turn the page on partisanship and usher in a new era of bipartisan progress."
He tempered his optimism when referring to Bush — a man he has previously called a loser. "The president has 22 months left in office. If he wants to accomplish anything, he will have to work with us in Congress to pass bipartisan legislation," he said.
In the two months since the election, both Reid and Pelosi have promised longer hours in Congress, an institution where the five-day work week is a rarity.
While Thursday was set aside for ceremony and celebration in the Senate, the House plunged immediately into work on the agenda that Democrats campaigned on last fall.
Despite Republican procedural protests, Democrats said they had the votes to assure passage of rules changes designed to end what they long called a "culture of corruption."
The changes expand restrictions on privately financed trips enjoyed by lawmakers, prohibit travel on corporate jets and require greater disclosure of earmarks, the pet projects inserted into legislation at the behest of individual lawmakers.
House members would still be allowed to take trips financed by foundations that seek to influence public opinion, but only if the ethics committee approves the travel in advance.
Current rules ban congressional travel paid for by lobbyists or foreign governments, and violations of the existing restrictions played heavily in the scandal involving Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
House Democrats have an ambitious agenda for the next few weeks. They have pledged to pass bills to raise the minimum wage, expand the opportunity for federally funded stem cell research, make Medicare prescription drugs cheaper, reduce the cost of student loans, implement anti-terror measures and reduce tax breaks enjoyed by the oil industry — all before Bush goes to the Capitol on Jan. 23 for his State of the Union address.
The Senate operates on a far slower pace, but Reid has said he will attempt to complete work on the early measures. Legislation to crack down on lobbyists will be the first bill brought to the floor next week.
At least one measure — the stem cell legislation — faces a veto threat. Republicans have also hinted Bush would reject a measure that orders the administration to muscle drug companies into lowering their prices for prescriptions filled under Medicare.
| January 5, 2007 | 15:56:39 |
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There's some great interest in what we have here, - Posted By: NaBeeel
Mysterious object crashes through roof,- Authorities were trying to identify a mysterious metallic object that crashed through the roof of a house in eastern New Jersey.
Nobody was injured when the golf-ball sized object, weighing nearly as much as a can of soup, struck the home and embedded itself in a wall Tuesday night. Federal officials sent to the scene said it was not from an aircraft.
The rough-surfaced object, with a metallic glint, was displayed Wednesday by police.
"There's some great interest in what we have here," said Lt. Robert Brightman. "It's rather unusual. I haven't seen anything like it in my career."
He said he hoped to have the object identified within 72 hours, but declined to name the other agencies whose help he has enlisted.
Approximately 20 to 50 rock-like objects fall every day over the entire planet, said Carlton Pryor, a professor of astronomy at Rutgers University.
"It's not all that uncommon to have rocks rain down from heaven," said Pryor, who had not seen the object that struck the Monmouth County home. "These are usually rocky or a mixture of rock and metal."
Pryor said laboratory tests would have to be conducted to determine if the object was a meteorite.
Police received a call Wednesday morning that the metal object had punched a hole in the roof of the single-family, two-story home, damaged tiles on a bathroom floor, and then bounced, sticking into a wall.
The object was heavier than a usual metal object of its size, said Brightman, who added that no radioactivity was detected.
Brightman would not disclose the address of the house or the names of the people who lived there, citing the family's desire to not talk to the media. He would only say that the couple and their adult son live in a township housing development.
Brightman said one man who lives at the home found the object at about 9 p.m. Tuesday after returning from work and hearing from his mother that something had crashed through the roof a few hours earlier.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which sent investigators to the town, did not know where the object came from, said spokeswoman Arlene Murray.
"It's definitely not an aircraft part," she said. "I can't speak beyond that as to what it might be."
In the neighborhood later in the day, residents chatted with each other in the streets about the fallen object, but none said they knew which house had been hit.
Robert Nalven, 55, said nothing this exciting had happened in the six years he's lived in the affluent development. "I'm happy it didn't hit my house," he said.
| January 4, 2007 | 12:03:01 |
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CANADA IS MELTING DOWN . - Posted By: NaBeeel
Huge ice shelf breaks free in Canada's far north,- A chunk of ice bigger than the area of Manhattan broke from an ice shelf in Canada's far north and could wreak havoc if it starts to float westward toward oil-drilling regions and shipping lanes next summer, a researcher said on Friday.
Global warming could be one cause of the break of the Ayles Ice Shelf at Ellesmere Island, which occurred in the summer of 2005 but was only detected recently by satellite photos, said Luke Copland, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa's geography department.
It was the largest such break in nearly three decades, casting an ice floe with an area of 66 square km (25 square miles) adrift in the Arctic Ocean, said Copland, who specializes in the study of glaciers and ice masses. Manhattan has an area of 61 square km (24 square miles).
The mass is now 50 square km (19 square miles) in size.
"The Arctic is all frozen up for the winter and it's stuck in the sea ice about 50 km (30 miles) off the coast," he said.
"The risk is that next summer, as that sea ice melts, this large ice island can then move itself around off the coast and one potential path for it is to make its way westward toward the Beaufort Sea, and the Beaufort Sea is where there is lots of oil and gas exploration, oil rigs and shipping."
The break went undetected when it happened due primarily to the remoteness of the northern coast of Ellesmere island, which is only about 800 km (500 miles) from the North Pole.
The speed of the crack and drift-off shocked scientists.
Satellite images showed the 15-km long (9-mile long) crack, then the ice floating about 1 km (0.6 miles) from the coast within about an hour, Copland said.
"You could stand at one edge and not see the other side, and for something that large to move that quickly is quite amazing,.Copland said the break was likely due to a combination of low accumulations of sea ice around the mass's edges as high winds blew it away, as well as one of the Arctic's warmest temperatures on record. The region was 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees F) above average in the summer of 2005.
Ice shelves in Canada's far north have decreased in size by as much as 90 percent since 1906, and global warming likely played a role in the Ayles break.
"It's hard to tie one event to climate change, but when you look at the longer-term trend, the bigger picture, we've lost a lot of ice shelves on northern Ellesmere in the past century and this is that continuing," he said. "And this is the biggest one in the last 25 years."
| December 29, 2006 | 17:27:04 |
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Jessica -- My Christmas Sucks. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Jessica -- My Christmas Sucks,Filed under: Let's Get This Party Started
Jessica SimpsonFor Jessica Simpson, it's the most miserable time of the year, with no man and a career that's going off the rails. Jessica didn't leave her trailer on the Louisiana set of her movie "Blonde Ambition" for two days, according to In Touch Weekly, prompting an emergency intervention by sister Ashlee. Then, when the thought of sun and warmth in Hawaii was just too much to bear, Jessica decided to go to blizzard-ridden Colorado instead.
Britney SpearsHer dark moods are being blamed partly on her recent "9 to 5" debacle at the Kennedy Center Honors -- only a brief glimpse of her arm could be seen during the broadcast of the tribute to Dolly Parton last night. And the mag says, Jess' second Christmas without ex-hubby Nick Lachey has been particularly hard, especially because Nick is constantly and very publicly out and about with girlfriend Vanessa Minnillo.
Is Carrie Stealing Jess' Cowboy?
Jessica isn't getting action from her ex-boytoy, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo -- but Carrie Underwood might be. Underwood, says In Touch Weekly, was a surprise guest at Texas Stadium for the Cowboys' Christmas Day game against Philadelphia, and gave Romo a hug on the field before kickoff.
Kelly Clarkson
Romo told a small-town paper in central Illinois, where he went to college, that he was dating the "American Idol" chanteuse. Christmas wasn't her first appearance at a Cowboys game -- she sang at Texas Stadium on Thanksgiving Day. Of course, Carrie might want to skip the next game – Romo had a terrible outing against the Eagles as she watched from the sideline.
Tara Conner photogalleryWho is Miss USA Sleeping With?
The answer: Herself.
Tarnished beauty-pageant tart Tara Conner won't be having many debauched late nights – or fast guys to spend them with -- at her latest home, the Caron Foundation rehab center in Pennsylvania. In fact, reports the New York Daily News, Tara will be in bed by 11 o'clock at night, up at 6:30 in the AM, and will be doing chores like mopping, cleaning and making her own bed, just like all the other attendees of the $24,000-per-month facility.
And even if she gets a little boy-craving during her 28-day stay there, she'll have to squelch it, because men and women are segregated at Caron. Still, there's no word on whether she'll be able to, you know, lend her support to other female rehabbers like she allegedly did to Miss Teen USA Katie Blair.
| December 27, 2006 | 16:48:39 |
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The Pope's Christmas message. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Pope urges Mid-East peace efforts, The Pope reiterated his desire to visit the Holy Land,
Pope Benedict XVI has called for fresh efforts to bring peace to the Middle East and Africa,
in his traditional Christmas message to pilgrims in Rome.
The Pope spoke of the "many grave crises and conflicts" in the Middle East and voiced
"hope that the way will be opened to a just and lasting peace".
He also deplored the conflicts in Darfur and other parts of Africa.
He lamented the many deaths from hunger and disease around the world in "an age of unbridled consumerism".
The Pope noted man's scientific advances in the modern age, but added that in the 21st Century "perhaps he needs a saviour all the more" because so much of humanity was still suffering.
His "Urbi et Orbi" speech was delivered from the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. It is his second Christmas as pontiff.
The Pope contrasted scientific breakthroughs such as the internet and decoding of the human genome with what he called the "heart-rending cry" for help from those dying of hunger, thirst, disease and poverty.
Some people remain enslaved, others are victims of religious or racial hatred, he noted.
The threats to the individual's personal and moral integrity had become more insidious in the modern age, the Pope said.
His earlier Midnight Mass sermon focused on the plight of suffering children.
He singled out those forced to fight as child soldiers, to beg and those
"who suffer deprivation and hunger" and "children who are unloved".
Middle East focus
The Middle East turmoil was a central theme of the Pope's Christmas message.
"I place in the hands of the divine Child of Bethlehem the indications of a resumption of dialogue between the Israelis and the Palestinians, which we have witnessed in recent days, and the hope of further encouraging developments," he said.
He also issued an "appeal to all those who hold in their hands the fate of Iraq, that there will be an end to the brutal violence that has brought so much bloodshed to the country".
His message was broadcast live on television to more than 40 countries.
He said he would like to visit the Holy Land as soon as circumstances permit.
| December 25, 2006 | 17:19:54 |
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The hardships suffered this year have been extraordinary. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Gaza resident looks back on the year,When Hatim Muhammad wants to escape from Gaza he listens to the birdsong of his 31 canaries.,The 41-year-old, a former militant who is now unemployed, has turned one of the rooms of his house into a makeshift aviary.
Mr Mohammed felt 2006 was the worst year of his life
In the same room, seven of his 11 children sleep at night.
"I feel like I'm free when I hear the canaries," says Hatim, the birdcages swaying gently above his head. "They help me forget about all my problems."
Like many in Gaza, Hatim will remember 2006 as the year problems piled up. Even by Palestinian standards, the hardships suffered this year have been extraordinary.
First came the international economic boycott which followed the election of Hamas. That embargo plunged many Palestinians here into poverty.
Over the year, Israeli military operations in Gaza and the West Bank killed more than 600 Palestinians.
One of the Hamas militants said that they should put a bullet in my head. But then the other said they should shoot me in the leg because I have 11 children
Hatim Muhammad
Operations intensified in Gaza in June after Palestinian militants captured an Israeli soldier in a cross border raid.
Military operations to secure the release of the soldier and to stop Qassam rocket fire into Israel have failed to do either.
In November, Israel halted operations in Gaza, while rocket fire lessened, but continued.
Late in the year, factional violence between the two main Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah broke out. Over the year, about 40 Palestinians have died in factional fighting.
"This has been the worst year of my life," says Hatim. "I swear to God, I now have no money for milk and food for my children," he says.
Infighting
Before the embargo, Hatim was unemployed and depended on relatives, friends, and neighbours for small handouts to pay for his family's frugal existence.
But many of the 160,000 government workers have not received their full pay in nine months. Few people can afford to generous now.
His 17-year-old daughter Falisteen has kidney problems and requires medication.
Hatim says that he owes the pharmacist $400 (£200).
"I avoid him now," he says. "I'm too embarrassed to see him."
During the Israeli incursion that began in the summer, sonic booms and constant shelling terrified his children.
But he says the inter-factional violence between Fatah and Hamas supporters troubles him most.
"The bullets should be used against the Jews and not the Palestinians," says Hatim, who was once a local leader in the al-Aqsa Brigades, a militant wing of Fatah.
Death threat
For now, a shaky ceasefire between the two factions appears to be holding.
"I'm a bit happier now," he says. "It appears to be safer."
But he will not forget in a hurry the moment last Sunday when two armed Hamas supporters marched up to his cinderblock house, located along a warren of paths in the refugee camp, and threatened to kill him.
"One of them said that they should put a bullet in my head," says Hatim.
"But then the other said they should shoot me in the leg because I have 11 children.
"In the end they did neither, but they sprayed my house with bullets."
Despite everything, Hatim remains an optimist.
Tattooed on his arms are the Palestinian flag and an inscription that reads "for freedom". He hopes that the new year will bring an end to all of the problems and an independent Palestinian state.
"I pray to god that all this will happen," he says. But he does not look too convinced.
| December 21, 2006 | 17:45:17 |
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A realistic policy option in the Middle East. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Iran offers to help U.S. exit from Iraq, Iran's foreign minister delivered a blunt challenge to the United States on Saturday, saying Tehran is willing to help U.S. troops withdraw from neighboring Iraq but only if Washington makes some tough policy changes.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki claimed U.S. troops were responsible for at least half the violence tearing apart Iraq and that their departure would pay security dividends for the entire region.
"If the United States changes its attitude, the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to help with the withdrawal from Iraq," Mottaki told the International Institute of Strategic Studies conference here. "Fifty percent of the problem of insecurity in Iraq is the presence of foreign troops."
Mottaki echoed calls made last week by Iran's top national security official, Ali Larijani, for Gulf Arab countries to eject American bases in their countries and establish a regional security pact with Iran. Mottaki went further and offered deeper cooperation with the six Gulf Arab states on energy, tourism, business and counter-narcotics.
Iran's offers do not seem to have tempted Gulf neighbors who are apparently more worried about the dangers of living near Iran's nuclear facilities, especially amid threats by Washington and Israel to use military force to destroy them.
Mottaki's forceful speech was a challenge to U.S. interests in the Gulf and a strong display of the country's rising assertiveness in the face of U.S failures in the region.
At one point, Mottaki addressed an international audience that included U.S. Vice Adm. David Nichols, the deputy chief of U.S. Central Command, and said the regional chaos sparked by the Bush administration's twin wars demonstrated that U.S. military force was no longer a realistic policy option in the Middle East.
"Today the time of threats is over. The period of unilateralism is over," Mottaki said. "Look at Iraq. Look at Afghanistan. That gives us a very important lesson."
Iran's proposal for a Gulf security alliance shows no sign of gaining traction among the region's Arab leaders. Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said security of the energy-rich region depends on the United States, the European Union and other major oil-importing countries.
Much of the discussion at this security conference centered on the U.S. Iraq Study Group report, and its recommendation that Washington seek Iran's help in steering Iraq away from civil war.
William Cohen, defense secretary under President Clinton, urged Iran to push for talks with Washington.
"If you forgo aspirations for nuclear weapons and cut off funding for radical elements and support the Mideast peace process, then yes, you'd be welcomed into the international community. We'd have billions of dollars going into your economy," Cohen told the Iranians among 250 delegates from 22 countries.
"If Iran is simply interested in pursuing a nuclear energy program and not weapons, that's something the U.S. wouldn't object to and would support."
| December 10, 2006 | 15:19:47 |
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Identity theft is a big concern. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Your Caller ID May Not Be Telling You The Truth, A lot of people use caller ID as a convenience to screen for unwanted calls. Some have used it for years to avoid telemarketers, and some use it for their own personal safety.
But television station WISN discovered that some people have found a way to get around the system.
"Yeah, I think the possibilities for fraud are endless," said Elmer Prenzlow, of the Wisconsin Consumer Protection Office.
Prenzlow is concerned about Web sites that allow callers to disguise their phone number so that when they place a call, a different number shows up on the caller ID screen.
"Oh, it's a big concern because caller ID is a valuable tool for consumers to be able to screen calls coming into their home," Prenzlow said.
It is called spoofing. For as little as $10, Web sites such as SpoofCard.com will let you disguise your phone number.
For example, one could use a cell phone to call someone else's phone and disguise the caller ID simply by going through the SpoofCard number first, the station reported. A caller can make it appear as though the call is from anyone, anywhere -- from the Green Bay Packers to the governor, or even the White House.
And that is not the only thing these Web sites can disguise.
You can also speak in a normal voice, but the computer alters it so the person at the other end hears what sounds like the voice of a woman, the station reported.
It is not illegal to alter your voice or disguise your number unless a telemarketer does it to get around the no-call list and get you on the phone. But Prenzlow said telemarketing calls are not the only concern.
"Stalking, harassment -- those type of things. Identity theft is a big concern," Prenzlow said.
"We frequently recommend to victims that they log their phone calls if they're getting harassing phone calls," said Carmen Pitre, director of the Task Force on Family Violence.
Pitre said caller ID is a valuable tool for victims and law enforcement to help prevent harassment and other dangers -- if it can be trusted.
"We know that batterers use technology and that batterers will sometimes go to any length to harass victims in their life, and this is just one more way that they can gain access," Pitre said.
The potential for trouble exists, but not just for those are getting the spoofed numbers on their caller IDs. There is also a risk for those who are doing the spoofing.
"If you go onto the Web and sign up for one of these type devices, you're giving your credit card information and identity to someone who you can't even trace," Prenzlow said.
The Web sites are not a secret. They have been around for more than a year, and apparently they are not breaking any law by selling the service, WISN reported.
The station was told the FCC is investigating the industry.
WISN was unable to reach the company behind SpoofCard, which has no known phone number or address, only its Web site.
| December 8, 2006 | 16:28:29 |
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Bush Tells Shiite Leader He's Unhappy With Violence. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bush Tells Shiite Leader He's Unhappy With Violence,Says He's Not Satisfied With Efforts to End Fighting in Iraq at White House Meeting, President George W. Bush told a Shiite political leader the United States is not satisfied with progress in Iraq and sought the cleric's help to curb extremists and terrorists trying to undermine the struggling new democracy.
Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim said U.S. troops need to stay in Iraq to help deal with escalating violence. He also told Bush at the White House on Monday that Iraq welcomes help from other nations, including those in the Middle East, so long as they do not bypass Iraq's political process.
"Iraq should be in a position to solve Iraqi problems," al-Hakim told Bush after their Oval Office meeting that lasted more than an hour.
Many consider al-Hakim, who lived in exile in Iran for years, a more powerful political figure than Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Al-Hakim leads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the largest Shiite bloc in Iraq's parliament. His party also is backed by the Badr Brigade militia, which has been blamed for sectarian killings.
The meeting was evidence that Bush, under pressure to find a new blueprint for his war strategy, was getting more personally involved in the political infighting among Iraq's majority Shiites, the Sunnis and the Kurds, most of whom also are Sunni Muslims.
"I told him that we're not satisfied with the pace of progress in Iraq, and that we want to continue to work with the sovereign government of Iraq," Bush said. He said the young Iraqi government needs to be given more capability quickly to secure the country from extremists and murderers.
Bush is meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday, a day after the bipartisan Iraq Study Group issues its recommendations on new directions for Bush's Iraq policy. Bush also plans to meet next month with Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi. Last week, he met in Jordan with al-Maliki.
Before al-Hakim's visit to the United States, two al-Maliki aides and a third person close to al-Hakim said the cleric was expected to try to persuade Bush to enlist Iran's help to quell violence in Iraq. Bush spoke with al-Hakim directly about Iran and Syria and the critical need for them to respect Iraqi sovereignty and stop destructive activity that undermines Iraq's unity government, a senior administration official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge details of the meeting.
The official said it was not known whether al-Hakim specifically asked Bush to enlist Iran's assistance. Al-Hakim told reporters that he vehemently opposes regional or international efforts to solve Iraq's problems that bypass the unity government in Baghdad.
"We reject any attempts to have a regional or international role in solving the Iraqi issue," the cleric said through a translator. "We cannot bypass the political process. Iraq should be in a position to solve Iraqi problems."
Later, in a speech at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, al-Hakim said Iraq is interested in creating good relations with all neighboring nations, including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, Syria and Jordan.
But he said: "We do not want to distribute shares of power to neighboring countries, but rather we want balanced relations."
Al-Hakim said he talked with Bush about equipment, including armaments, that the Iraqi security forces need. He pledged that the government would deal with all forms of terror, no matter where they originate.
He also said in the speech that eliminating the danger of civil war in Iraq can be done only by decisive strikes against terrorist Baathists and extremist followers of Islam. "Otherwise we will continue to witness massacres being committed every now and then against the innocent Iraqis," he said. Baathists are followers of deposed President Saddam Hussein's Baath Party; the name means "Resurrection."
Monday's developments came amid rising expectations about a new U.S. policy that Bush is crafting for Iraq, which his advisers say will be announced within weeks. He is seeking information from reviews being done by the State Department, National Security Council and the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as the Iraq Study Group, led by former Republican Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana.
It became increasingly clear that the administration was looking for Iraq alternatives well before the November elections, when Bush adamantly defended his policies.
A day before the elections, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wrote a letter saying he had developed a list of alternative approaches for Iraq over a period of weeks. In his letter, obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, Rumsfeld said he and Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had told the president "a number of weeks ago" that they were considering alternatives for Iraq policy because changes were needed.
Rumsfeld also wrote that at his request, Gen. John Abizaid, the top commander for U.S. forces in the Middle East, had assembled a group to work on the issue.
12-05-06 06:57 EST
| December 5, 2006 | 16:10:49 |
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Too combative for international diplomacy. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bolton to Resign as U.N. Ambassador,Unable to win Senate confirmation, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton will step down when his temporary appointment expires within weeks, the White House said Monday.
Bolton's nomination has languished in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for more than a year, blocked by Democrats and several Republicans. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Republican who lost in the midterm elections Nov. 7 that swept Democrats to power in both houses of Congress, was adamantly opposed to Bolton.
Critics have questioned Bolton's brusque style and whether he could be an effective public servant who could help bring reform to the U.N.
President Bush, in a statement, said he was "deeply disappointed that a handful of United States senators prevented Ambassador Bolton from receiving the up or down vote he deserved in the Senate."
"They chose to obstruct his confirmation, even though he enjoys majority support in the Senate, and even though their tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work at a sensitive and important time," Bush said. "This stubborn obstructionism ill serves our country, and discourages men and women of talent from serving their nation."
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, said Bolton's departure could be a turning point for the administration.
"With the Middle East on the verge of chaos and the nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea increasing, we need a United Nations ambassador who has the full support of Congress and can help rally the international community to tackle the serious threats we face," Kerry said. He said it was an opportunity for Bush to nominate an ambassador "who enjoys the support necessary to unite our country and the world and who can put results ahead of ideology."
Bush gave Bolton the job temporarily in August 2005, while Congress was in recess. Under that process, the appointment expires when Congress formally adjourns, no later than early January.
The White House resubmitted Bolton's nomination last month. But with Democrats capturing control of the next Congress, his chances of winning confirmation appeared slight. The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, said he saw "no point in considering Mr. Bolton's nomination again."
While Bush could not give Bolton another recess appointment, the White House was believed to be exploring other ways of keeping him in the job, perhaps by giving him a title other than ambassador. But Bolton informed the White House he intended to leave when his current appointment expires, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.
Bush planned to meet with Bolton and his wife later Monday in the Oval Office.
Bush said he accepted Bolton's decision with deep regret.
"He served his country with extraordinary dedication and skill, assembling coalitions that addressed some of the most consequential issues facing the international community," the president said. "During his tenure, he articulately advocated the positions and values of the United States and advanced the expansion of democracy and liberty.
"Ambassador Bolton led the successful negotiations that resulted in unanimous Security Council resolutions regarding North Korea's military and nuclear activities. He built consensus among our allies on the need for Iran to suspend the enrichment and reprocessing of uranium," Bush added. "His efforts to promote the cause of peace in Darfur resulted in a peacekeeping commitment by the United Nations. He made the case for United Nations reform because he cares about the institution, and wants it to become more credible and effective."
Bolton, who pushed strongly for U.N. reform, has had strained relations with many in the U.N. Secretariat, led by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and has repeatedly called for all top U.N. officials to leave when Annan steps down as U.N. chief on Dec. 31 and is replaced by Ban Ki-moon.
"I think Ambassador Bolton did the job he was expected to do," Annan said Monday morning when asked about Bolton's resignation. "He came at a time when we had lots of tough issues from reform to issues on Iran and North Korea. I think as a representative of the U.S, government, he pressed ahead with the instructions he had been given and tried to work as effectively as he could."
As late as last month, Bush, through his top aides, said he would not relent in his defense of Bolton, despite unwavering opposition from Democrats who view Bolton as too combative for international diplomacy.
In a letter to Bush, dated last Friday, Bolton offered no reason for his decision. "After careful consideration, I have concluded that my service in your administration should end when the current recess appoint expires," Bolton wrote.
| December 4, 2006 | 22:39:36 |
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The National Certificate of Educational Achievement. - Posted By: NaBeeel
New Zealand students may 'text-speak' in exams, New Zealand's high school students will be able to use "text-speak" -- the mobile phone text message language beloved of teenagers -- in national exams this year,.
Text-speak, a second language for thousands of teens, uses abbreviated words and phrases such as "txt" for "text", "lol" for "laughing out loud" or "lots of love," and "CU" for "see you."
The move has already divided students and educators who fear it could damage the English language.
New Zealand's Qualifications Authority said Friday that it still strongly discourages students from using anything other than full English, but that credit will be given if the answer "clearly shows the required understanding," even if it contains text-speak.
The authority's deputy chief executive for qualifications, Bali Haque, said students should aim to make their answers as clear as possible.
Confident that those grading papers would understand answers written in text-speak, Haque stressed that in some exams, including English, text abbreviations would be penalized.
Post Primary Teachers' Association President Debbie Te Whaiti said the authority's move reflects the classroom situation.
Teachers would have concerns if text slang became acceptable in everyday written language in classrooms, she said.
Critics said the National Certificate of Educational Achievement or NCEA, the main qualification for high school students, would be degraded by the authority allowing text speak use in exams.
Internet blogger Phil Stevens was not amused by the announcement. "nzqa[New Zealand Qualifications Authority]: u mst b joking," Stevens wrote. "or r u smoking sumthg?"
| November 11, 2006 | 16:57:06 |
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It's a little bit of a mixed message, sure. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bush Meets With Likely Senate Leaders, President Bush opened the Oval Office Friday for a second day in a row to Democrats who will rule Capitol Hill next year, and both sides promised cooperation. But Democrats' heads were shaking over Bush demands for the current lame-duck GOP Congress to enact measures they oppose.
"It's a little bit of a mixed message, sure," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, who is set to be majority leader when his party assumes power in January. "Folks are scratching their heads a little bit."
Bush invited Reid and the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, to his office for a nearly hourlong meeting aimed at charting a way forward in a government to be divided between a Republican White House and a Democratic Congress. Bush had had lunch a day earlier with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, expected be the next speaker of the House.
"My attitude about this is that there is a great opportunity for us to show the country that Republicans and Democrats are equally as patriotic and equally concerned about the future, and that we can work together," said Bush, appearing in a good-natured mood when he, Reid and Durbin appeared before reporters in the Oval Office afterward.
Reid and Durbin agreed. "The only way to move forward is with bipartisanship and openness, and to get some results," Reid said. "And we've made a commitment, the four of us here today, that's what we're going to do."
Vice President Dick Cheney, who completed the foursome, did not speak in public.
Bush found common ground in the Western roots he shares with Reid, who is from Nevada. "We tend to speak the same language, pretty plainspoken people, which should bode well for our relationship," the president said.
But one of the president's first public acts after his party's losses in Tuesday's elections _ voting that was widely seen as a rebuke of his leadership and policies _ was to press for an aggressive agenda while Congress remains in GOP hands for the next two months.
On his list are at least two items deeply controversial to Democrats: legalizing his warrantless eavesdropping program, stalled in the Senate because of a Democratic filibuster threat, and confirming John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, which Democrats have said is unlikely to happen.
Durbin had said on Thursday, "For a Republican Congress to have gone forward for two years and produced so little, and then for the president to come up with a huge agenda for the next two weeks, you have to ask him, 'Why didn't you use some of the time you spent arguing on some less important issues before?'"
White House press secretary Tony Snow said both the eavesdropping and Bolton-nomination issues were crucial, and that Democrats should see their merits.
"Bipartisanship works both ways," he said. "I don't think you should look at these as necessarily provocative."
Bolton has held the post on a temporary basis for more than a year, and Bush cannot make a second recess appointment of him. Without confirmation, Bolton would have to leave the job in January. Snow said the White House doesn't consider his nomination dead, despite statements from the Hill that make it seem that way.
Snow left open the possibility that Bolton could play the same role at the U.N., just with a different title.
"I'm not aware of that, but I am not going to rule anything in or out," .
Both Pelosi and Reid complimented Bush after the meetings. Pelosi said "I think we can find a way to have agreement on" the eavesdropping bill while making clear that would involve changes, such as adding some form of judicial review.
Manley said it was important that Bush was reaching out, noting Reid and the president probably had not met since the summer. But he also said many Democrats on Capitol Hill are skeptical after six years of being largely ignored.
For their part, Democrats are not shrinking from an agenda that Bush clearly does not like, including funding for embryonic stem cell research, government negotiation of drug prices and reinstating budget rules that would make extending the president's tax cuts difficult.
| November 10, 2006 | 21:15:25 |
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You can be anything you want, kid. - Posted By: NaBeeel
A greats Friend respected by all of his colleagues is Lost to death,He was gracious, "He would always have a smile." He was somebody who liked being out there on the story,Ed Bradley of '60 Minutes' dies of leukemia,Mike Wallace, Bob Schieffer and others join Larry King in a tribute
to Ed Bradley.
- Ed Bradley, the longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent who reported on subjects ranging from jazz musicians to the Columbine school shootings, has died. He was 65.
Bradley died Thursday at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital of leukemia, according to staff members at the CBS program.
Bradley joined "60 Minutes" during the 1981-82 season after two years as White House correspondent for CBS News and three years at "CBS Reports." His reporting over the years won him a Peabody Award, 19 Emmys and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, among many others. He was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Black Journalists.
His most recent Emmy was for a segment about the reopening of the 1950s racial murder case of Emmett Till in Mississippi.
Katie Couric, in announcing the death of Bradley on CBS, described him as "smooth, cool, a great reporter, beloved and respected by all of his colleagues here at CBS News." (Watch as Couric gives the details of Bradley's death -- 1:22)
CNN correspondent and former CBS reporter John Roberts said the newsman was "always a person you could sit down with and he could keep you intrigued for hours at a time with the stories he could tell."
Roberts called Bradley a "first-rate" journalist.
"He clearly was a field reporter," said Howard Kurtz, media reporter for The Washington Post. "He did not want to be chained to a desk." Kurtz also hosts CNN's "Reliable Sources."
"He was somebody who liked being out there on the story, whether it was in the Vietnam War or whether it was doing investigative work or bringing alive the plight of families who were dealing with illnesses or violence or other issues he covered," Kurtz added. (Watch Kurtz share his thoughts on Bradley -- 3:42 )
Bradley was known for his thoughtful, mellifluous voice and often deceptively relaxed interviewing style, a laid-back approach that often prompted unexpected emotion in his subjects. In 2000, he conducted the only television interview with condemned Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. His hourlong report on the plight of Africans dying of AIDS, "Death by Denial," won a Peabody.
Roberts, who said he didn't know about Bradley's illness, described his former co-worker's excitement and awe at being able to interview heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali after the boxer put him off for a while.
Bradley told Roberts he felt Ali was playing a kind of game with him.
According to Roberts, Bradley told him, "He [Ali] said he didn't want to talk. Maybe today, maybe not today. I don't know."
"Bradley told me Ali had this twinkle in his eye that said, 'Yes, I do want to talk to you. I just want to do it on my own time.' And I think for Ed, that was probably one of the most memorable interviews that he's ever done."
Bradley, a great music lover, also interviewed Miles Davis, Lena Horne and Paul Simon, among other performers. He once moonlighted as a disc jockey, earning $1.50 an hour spinning records while working as a teacher by day. In his later years, he hosted the radio show "Jazz at Lincoln Center."
"The idea that I could go to a station and open the cabinet doors of what we called the library and pull out music present and past and play what I liked to play, music I liked to hear, and that there were people out there listening to my taste in music -- man, it just didn't get better than that," he told the online publication All About Jazz in 2004.
Bradley was born June 22, 1941. He grew up in a tough section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he once recalled that his parents worked 20-hour days at two jobs apiece, according to The Associated Press. "I was told, 'You can be anything you want, kid,' " he once told an interviewer. "When you hear that often enough, you believe it."
Bradley began his career in radio at WDAS in his hometown in 1963. In 1967, he moved to New York and radio station WCBS, and then joined CBS News as a stringer in the Paris, France, bureau in 1971.
After a stint in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam, he came to Washington in 1974. He covered Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign in 1976, then became CBS' first African-American White House correspondent.
CNN's David Fitzpatrick, a former CBS producer who worked with Bradley, said there were tears in the halls of CBS News after word came of his passing.
"He was gracious," Fitzpatrick said. "He would always have a smile."
Bradley is survived by his wife, Patricia Blanchet.
Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
| November 9, 2006 | 14:02:07 |
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Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Stepping Down /'Fresh Perspective'. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Rumsfeld Resigns as Defense Secretary. After years of defending his secretary of defense, President Bush on Wednesday announced Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation within hours of the Democrats' triumph in congressional elections. Bush reached back to his father's administration to tap a former CIA director to run the Pentagon.
'Fresh Perspective'
The Iraq war was the central issue of Rumsfeld's nearly six-year tenure, and unhappiness with the war was a major element of voter dissatisfaction Tuesday - and the main impetus for his departure. Even some GOP lawmakers became critical of the war's management, and growing numbers of politicians were urging Bush to replace Rumsfeld.
Bush said Robert Gates, 63, who has served in a variety of national security jobs under six previous presidents, would be nominated to replace Rumsfeld. Gates, currently the president of Texas A&M University, is a Bush family friend and a member of an independent group studying the way ahead in Iraq.
The White House hopes that replacing Rumsfeld with Gates can help refresh U.S. policy on the deeply unpopular war and perhaps establish a stronger rapport with the new Congress. Rumsfeld had a rocky relationship with many lawmakers.
"Secretary Rumsfeld and I agreed that sometimes it's necessary to have a fresh perspective," Bush said in the abrupt announcement during a postelection news conference.
In a later appearance at the White House with Rumsfeld and Gates at his side, Bush praised both men, thanked Rumsfeld for his service and predicted that Gates would bring fresh ideas.
Scenes from Rumsfeld's Career
"The secretary of defense must be a man of vision who can see threats still over the horizon and prepare our nation to meet them. Bob Gates is the right man to meet both of these critical challenges," Bush said.
But underscoring that he would not bow to those pushing for a quick U.S. withdrawal, Bush also said, "I'd like our troops to come home, too, but I want them to come home with victory."
In brief remarks, Rumsfeld described the Iraq conflict as a "little understood, unfamiliar war" that is "complex for people to comprehend." Upon his return to the Pentagon after appearing with Bush and Gates, Rumsfeld said it was a good time for him to leave.
"It will be a different Congress, a different environment, moving toward a presidential election and a lot of partisanship, and it struck me that this would be a good thing for everybody," Rumsfeld told reporters.
There was little outward reaction among officials at the Pentagon, beyond surprise at the abrupt announcement.
Asked whether Rumsfeld's departure signaled a new direction in a war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,800 U.S. troops and cost more than $300 billion, Bush said, "Well, there's certainly going to be new leadership at the Pentagon."
Voters appeared to be telling politicians that the sooner the war ends the better. Surveys at polling places showed that about six in 10 voters disapproved of the war and only a third believed it had improved long-term security in the United States.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Rumsfeld was not leaving immediately. Rumsfeld planned to deliver a speech on the global war on terrorism at Kansas State University on Thursday.
Just last week Bush told reporters that he expected Rumsfeld, 74, to remain until the end of the administration's term. And although Bush said Wednesday that his decision to replace Rumsfeld was not based on politics, the announcement of a Pentagon shake-up came on the heels of Tuesday's voting.
With his often-combative defense of the war in Iraq, Rumsfeld had been the administration's face of the conflict. He became more of a target - and more politically vulnerable - as the war grew increasingly unpopular at home amid rising violence and with no end in sight.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he hopes to hold Gates' confirmation hearings in time for the Senate to approve his nomination this year. But Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, whose party would control the Senate next year should it win the remaining undecided race in Virginia, said he had questions about Gates' ties to the Iran-Contra scandal of the Reagan administration.
Gates ran the CIA under the first President Bush during the first Gulf war. He retired from government in 1993.
He joined the CIA in 1966 and is the only agency employee to rise from an entry level job to become director. A native of Kansas, he made a name for himself as an analyst specializing in the former Soviet Union and he served in the intelligence community for more than a quarter century, under six presidents.
Numerous Democrats in Congress had been calling for Rumsfeld's resignation for many months, asserting that his management of the war and of the military had been a resounding failure. Critics also accused Rumsfeld of not fully considering the advice of his generals and of refusing to consider alternative courses of action.
Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan and Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri - the top Democrats on the Armed Services committees - said the resignation would be a positive step only if accompanied by a change in policy.
"I think it is critical that this change be more than just a different face on the old policy," Skelton said.
Rumsfeld, 74, has served in the job longer than anyone except Robert McNamara, who became secretary of defense during the Kennedy administration and remained until 1968. Rumsfeld is the only person to have served in the job twice; his previous tour was during the Ford administration.
Rumsfeld had twice previously offered his resignation to Bush - once during the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in spring 2004 and again shortly after that. Both times the president refused to let him leave.
Gates took over the CIA as acting director in 1987, when William Casey was terminally ill with cancer. Questions were raised about Gates' knowledge of the Iran-Contra affair, and he withdrew from consideration to take over the CIA permanently. Yet he stayed on as deputy director.
Then-National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, who has been a critic of the younger Bush's policies, asked Gates to be his deputy in 1989 during the administration of Bush's father. The elder President Bush, a former CIA director himself, asked Gates to run the CIA two years later.
Gates won confirmation, but only after hearings in which he was accused by CIA officials of manipulating intelligence as a senior analyst in the 1980s.
Melvin Goodman, a former CIA division chief for Soviet affairs, testified that Gates politicized the intelligence on Iran, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. "Gates' role in this activity was to corrupt the process and the ethics of intelligence on all of these issues," Goodman testified.
The Bush administration's use of intelligence on Iraq has been a central theme of criticism from Democrats who say the White House stretched faulty intelligence from U.S. spy agencies to justify invading Iraq in 2003.
Gates has taken a much lower profile since leaving government. He joined corporate boards and wrote a memoir, "From The Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War." It was published in 1996.
Gates is a close friend of the Bush family, and particularly the first President Bush. He became the president of Texas A&M University in August 2002. The university is home to the presidential library of the elder Bush.
| November 8, 2006 | 20:39:06 |
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I call on all Iraqis, Arabs and Kurds, to forgive, reconcile and shake hands," - Posted By: NaBeeel
Saddam Hussein Calls for Reconciliation in Iraq, A somber Saddam Hussein called on Iraqis to forgive each other Tuesday, when he returned to court two days after being sentenced to death for crimes against humanity in another case.Saddam, speaking to the court in the afternoon session, cited references to the Prophet Muhammad and Jesus who had asked for forgiveness for those who opposed them.
"I call on all Iraqis, Arabs and Kurds, to forgive, reconcile and shake hands," Saddam said after respectfully challenging one witness' testimony.
The ex-president, who was wearing a black suit with a white shirt, appeared subdued during the proceeding, where he and six other defendants are on trial for the Operation Anfal crackdown against Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s.
Saddam showed none of the bravado of Sunday, when he shouted "Long live the people and death to their enemies!" as another court sentenced him to the gallows for the deaths of nearly 150 Shiite Muslims following a 1982 assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail.
He and two others were sentenced to death by hanging. Four co-defendants received lesser sentences and one was acquitted.
Instead, he sat in stony silence Tuesday as Kurdish survivors told of being duped by promises of amnesty, only to watch their friends and family being shot by Iraqi government soldiers.
On Tuesday, the court called three witnesses who survived the Aug. 28, 1988, slaying of more than 30 Kurdish men who had surrendered after hearing of an amnesty offer.
The first witness, Qahar Khalil Mohammed, told the court that he and other men from his village turned themselves in after being promised that Saddam had issued an amnesty for them.
Instead, the 33 men were lined up at the bottom of a hill and soldiers opened fire on them.
"When they fired in our direction, we all fell to the ground," he said.
Mohammed said he was wounded but survived.
"When I went back, I saw my father and two brothers had been killed, as well as 18 of my relatives," he testified. He said an Iraqi medical officer used a broken bottle to clean his wound.
Another survivor, Abdul-Karim Nayif, repeated the false amnesty claim and submitted a video of a mass grave found near his village after the Kurds gained self-rule in 1991. The video showed numerous human remains.
The Anfal trial, which was adjourned until Wednesday, will continue while an appeal in the Dujail case is under way. The prosecution says about 180,000 Kurds, most of them civilians, were killed in the crackdown in 1987-88.
The chief prosecutor in the Dujail case said Monday that a nine-judge appeals panel was expected to rule on Saddam's guilty verdict and death sentence by mid-January. That could set in motion a possible execution in February.
r
The Iranian government called for the death sentence on Saddam to be carried out, saying the former Iraqi dictator was a criminal who deserved to die.
"We hope the fair, correct and legal verdict against this criminal ... is enforced," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said Tuesday at a news conference.
Iran and Iraq waged a bitter eight-year war after Saddam invaded the country in 1980.
Shiites and Kurds, who suffered terribly under Saddam's Sunni-dominated rule, have hailed the sentence as just.
| November 7, 2006 | 13:55:38 |
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"Blended wing" design. - Posted By: NaBeeel
'Silent aircraft': How it works
Engineers from the University of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have unveiled a radical design for a "silent aircraft".
The team says any noise from the concept aircraft, known as the SAX-40, would be "imperceptible" beyond the boundaries of an airport. It would also burn far less fuel than conventional planes.
The design is the result of three years' work and includes both new and existing technologies.
AIRFRAME
The shape of the plane is what is known as a "blended wing" design. This hybrid design uses the wings of a conventional plane smoothly blended into a wide tailless body.
As turbulent airflow, generated by irregular surfaces, causes noise, the designers tried to make the airframe as smooth as possible.
The aerofoil shape of the body means that it also contributes to the aircraft's lift, meaning it can make a slower approach on landing, again reducing noise.
The improved lift also means that the plane can do away with flaps on the wings, which are a major source of airframe noise on conventional aircraft.
Because the design does not need a tail, used to provide additional lift and stability on conventional craft, it also cuts down on turbulent airflow and noise from the back of the plane.
The design, made of lightweight composites, also improves the fuel efficiency of the craft whilst cruising.
ENGINES
The engines of the SAX-40 are embedded within the blended wing design with the air intakes on top. This means that the upper surface of the aircraft shields people on the ground from engine noise.
The engines are also mounted deep within the intake ducts, lined with mufflers, to maximise the noise absorption.
By embedding the three engines in the aircraft frame, it also reduces drag and therefore noise.
The "ultra-high bypass ratio turbofans", as they are known, are also arranged in a novel way to minimise noise output.
Instead of having one large fan, they have three arranged side-by-side. The smaller fans means the noise from each one is easier to absorb with surrounding "acoustic liners", or muffling materials.
EXHAUSTS
The output of the engines is channelled through what is known as a "variable area exhaust nozzle".
This means that the cross sectional area of the exhaust can be changed to generate different amounts of thrust and to maximise the engine's performance.
At take-off the exhausts would be open-wide to generate the maximum amount of thrust. Whilst cruising they would reduce in size to burn fuel more efficiently.
They can also be rotated, or "vectored", to generate thrust in the optimal direction for take-off and landing.
The exhaust are also lined with "mufflers" to reduce the noise of the engines.
UNDERCARRIAGE
Turbulent air swirling around the undercarriage at take-off and landing are major sources of noise.
To reduce this, the SAX-40 would have fairings to cover the wheels and braking systems, creating as smooth a flow of air as possible. This could reduce the noise from the landing gear by up to 7dB.
However, by doing this it makes the landing gear more difficult to stow and service, and also makes cooling the brakes more difficult.
TRAILING WING EDGE
When turbulent air moving over the top surface of the wing shoots off the trailing edge it abruptly meets non-turbulent air. The result generates a huge amount of noise.
To minimise this, the SAX-40 would have "trailing edge brushes", a series of long, thin protrusions off the back of the wing.
These allow a smoother transition between turbulent and non-turbulent air and could reduce trailing-edge wing noise by up to 4dB.
LEADING WING EDGE
The leading-edge of the wings are slightly drooped. These further help improve the lift of the aircraft, particularly at lower speeds.
To cut-down on the amount of noise generated by air whistling through a slat between the main wing body and the leading edge, the gap is covered in a flexible material.
The edges would be stowed whilst cruising for optimum performance
This drooped design is already being used on the Airbus A380.
| November 6, 2006 | 13:41:02 |
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This is just a hint of what really happens,'Dear Lord'. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Letters to God Found Dumped in Water,They Were Sent to a New Jersey Minister Who's Now Dead, Some of the letters are comical (a man asking God to let him win the lottery, twice), others are heartbreaking (a distraught teen asking forgiveness for an abortion, an unwed mother pleading with God to make the baby's father marry her).
'Dear Lord'
"There are hundreds of lives here, a lot of struggle, washed up on the beach," said Bill Lacovara, who found about 300 letters to God in the Atlantic.
Talk About It: Post Thoughts
The letters - about 300 in all, sent to a New Jersey minister - ended up dumped in the ocean, most of them unopened.
The minister died two years ago at 79. How the letters, some dating to 1973, wound up bobbing in the surf is a mystery.
"There are hundreds of lives here, a lot of struggle, washed up on the beach," said Bill Lacovara, a Ventnor insurance adjuster who was fishing last month with his son when he spotted a flowered plastic shopping bag and waded out to retrieve it. "This is just a hint of what really happens. How many letters like this all over the world aren't being opened or answered?"
Many of the letters were addressed to the Rev. Grady Cooper, though many more simply said "Altar." According to the text of several of them, they were intended to be placed on a church's altar and prayed over by the minister, the congregation or both.
Some were neatly written in script on white-lined paper, others in a feverish scrawl on tattered scraps of parchment or note cards. Many were crinkled from being in the water and then dried out after Lacovara fished them out of the sea.
A dog-eared business card inside one of the letters identified Cooper as associate pastor of the Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Jersey City. A woman who answered the phone at the church office confirmed Cooper once was a minister there, and had died nearly two years ago. The current pastor did not return several calls from The Associated Press over the past few days.
Other documents in the bag, including bank statements and canceled checks, also listed Cooper's name and an address for him in Jersey City. A death certificate issued in 2004 for a Grady Cooper lists the same address as those on the bank documents and some of the letters.
His wife, Frances, whose name also showed up on some of the letters at the same address, died in 2000, according to Hudson County records.
No one answered the door last week at the address where Cooper once lived, and a neighbor said he did not recall anyone by that name. Attempts to locate Cooper's relatives were unsuccessful.
Lacovara speculated that someone cleaning out Cooper's home found the letters and threw them on the beach in Atlantic City, about 100 miles from Jersey City.
"I guess rather than just throw them in the garbage, maybe they thought they'd set them out to sea to bless these people," he said. "So they made a trip to Atlantic City, maybe went to a casino, and put the letters in the water."
The letters, wrapped in several smaller brown paper bags inside the larger plastic bag, did not appear to have been in the water too long, Lacovara said, though about half were too badly damaged to be legible.
He opened a few with his son, Rocky, on the beach. The first few were humorous.
| November 4, 2006 | 21:44:21 |
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Canada is getting poor marks, - Posted By: NaBeeel
Canada gets poor marks in international health survey of doctors, Canada is getting poor marks in an international study of effective primary health care for patients.
The survey of doctors in seven countries by the Commonwealth Fund says only 23 per cent of Canadian physicians use electronic medical records. That was the lowest percentage and far behind the 98 per cent level in the Netherlands.
Canada also lags when it comes to providing after-hours care, multi-discipline teams to treat chronic illness and financial incentives for doctors to improve the quality of care.
The survey suggests Canada has a long way to go to catch up with other countries, including New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany.
Only the United States scored lower than Canada on some of the measures for patient care.
The Commonwealth Fund is a private, non-partisan foundation that supports independent research on health and social issues. The group surveyed more than 6,000 primary care physicians.
| November 3, 2006 | 14:25:58 |
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TAKE A BREAK ON THE WILD SIDE. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Productivity Slows to a Standstill, The productivity of American workers slowed to a standstill in the summer while wage pressures were rising at the fastest clip in more than two decades, a combination likely to raise inflation concerns at the Federal Reserve.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, showed no change in the July-September quarter while labor costs rose by 3.8 percent. For the past year, labor costs are up by 5.3 percent, the fastest increase since 1982.
In other economic news, the number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly shot up last week to the highest level in more than three months. A total of 327,000 fired employees filed benefit claims, up by 18,000 from the previous week.
The total number of jobless claims, which are adjusted for normal seasonal variations, was the highest since early July and raised concerns about whether the slowing economy is finally beginning to push companies to lay off workers.
Meanwhile, reports from the nation's largest retailers indicate that consumers may have taken a breather in October after going on a shopping spree in September. But analysts said significant declines in gasoline prices should boost retail sales in the upcoming holiday season as consumers will have more to spend on other items.
Merchants beating expectations for October included Limited Brands Inc. and Bebe Stores Inc., while retailers reporting disappointing results included Costco Wholesale Corp.
The flat productivity reading in the third quarter was the poorest showing since a 0.1 percent decline in productivity in the final three months of last year. Over the past four quarters, productivity has risen by 1.3 percent, the weakest showing since a 1.1 percent rise in early 1997.
The 3.8 percent rise in the cost of labor per unit of output followed even bigger gains of 9 percent in the first quarter and 5.4 percent in the second quarter. Those increases pushed labor costs up by 5.3 percent for the year ending in September, the biggest gain since late 1982.
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates 17 consecutive times in an effort to slow the economy enough to bring inflation pressures under control. The Fed has left rates unchanged for three straight meetings, hoping that it has done enough to slow economic growth.
However, the significant slowing in productivity growth and the continued rise in wage pressures, if not reversed in coming quarters, could prompt the Fed to resume raising interest rates to fight inflation.
Since 1995, the country has enjoyed a decade of strong gains in productivity, which is the primary ingredient needed to lift living standards. Increased output means that companies can pay their workers more without having to raise the cost of their products - increases that push inflation higher.
The concern is that with productivity gains slowing over the past year and the cost of labor rising, these trends could make the Fed's job of keeping inflation under control more difficult.
The rise of 18,000 in the level of jobless claims was far above the 2,000 increase that analysts had been expecting. So far, the slowing economy has prompted companies to trim their plans to hire new workers, but they have resisted laying off current employees. However, the severity of the slowdown could be prompting them to start laying off existing workers.
The government will report on the October jobs picture on Friday. The expectation is that unemployment will remain at a low of 4.6 percent and hiring will rebound to 125,000 new jobs, up significantly from the anemic 51,000 new jobs created in September.
| November 3, 2006 | 13:23:18 |
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So he has every right. - Posted By: NaBeeel
U.S. Says Missing Soldier Married Iraqi, The U.S. military said Thursday that there is "an ongoing dialogue" to win the release of a kidnapped American soldier, and said the captive is an Iraqi-American who married an Iraqi woman early last year.· Iraqi Family Says U.S. Soldier Is Son-in-Law
Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the military spokesman, would not say with whom or at what level the dialogue was taking place. But he said the United States believes the soldier is still in the custody of his abductors.
Caldwell identified the service member as Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, a 41-year-old reserve soldier. He was visiting his Iraqi wife when he was handcuffed and taken away by gunmen during a visit to the woman's family, Caldwell said.
The soldier's name had been widely published after a woman claiming to be his mother-in-law told the story of the interpreter's secret marriage three months ago and his abduction on Oct. 23.
Caldwell, however, said that the soldier and his wife were married in February 2005 and that he didn't arrive in Baghdad until November 2005.
"So he has every right, of course, as an American soldier to marry whomever he wants. ... At the time he was abducted, his wife was in country here, in Baghdad," he said.
At the Pentagon, a senior defense official said that since he left the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad without permission, the soldier would technically have been considered AWOL at the time of any abduction. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
The woman who claimed to al-Taayie's mother-in-law, Latifah Isfieh Nasser, said last week that the soldier's in-laws put up a futile struggle to stop the abduction by men believed to be Mahdi Army militia fighters. Relatives said al-Taayie's kidnappers later used his cell phone to contact them.
The Mahdi Army is a Shiite militia loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The soldier's religious affiliation was unknown; his wife's family is Shiite Muslim.
The mother-in-law said that her daughter, 26-year-old physics student Israa Abdul-Satar, met the soldier a year ago and that the couple were married in August and spent their honeymoon in Egypt.
She showed an AP reporter photographs of the couple in Cairo, one of them dated Aug. 14. A photograph of the soldier in a gray suit and Abdul-Satar in a red dress was on the wall of the living room in the two-room apartment, where the couple stayed when the soldier came to visit. The apartment was in a neglected, three-story building on a quiet street.
Nasser, 48, said she has 10 children, several of whom witnessed the abduction in Baghdad's Karradah district. The wife of the U.S. soldier and two of her siblings later were taken by American troops to the Green Zone, where they were being kept for their safety.
"She is so upset that she keeps threatening to take her own life," Nasser said of al-Taayie's wife.
She said that at first they did not know what al-Taayie did for a living, but he later told them he was a translator with the U.S. military.
"We asked him many times not to come to visit us often. The day he was kidnapped, my husband told him not to visit too frequently because he was worried about him."
According to Nasser, the abduction was preceded by an incident on the same day when a neighbor she identified as Abu Rami put a gun to the soldier's head as he was heading on a motorcycle to the nearby home of Nasser's brother, where his wife was visiting.
"Ahmed was frightened and his wife was crying," said Nasser. "Fifteen minutes later, a car came and stopped outside my brother's house and four armed men jumped out. They wore black pants, black shirts and white masks. They dragged Ahmed out and slapped handcuffs on him before they bundled him into the back seat of the car.
"My daughters struggled with the kidnappers. One of them broke her hand and another had her hand cut in the struggle. They were begging the gunmen not to take him," said Nasser.
One of her sons and Abu Rami followed the kidnappers in another car, but turned back before they could learn where the gunmen were headed. Abu Rami since has left the neighborhood and gone into hiding,
| November 2, 2006 | 20:50:08 |
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US issues Lebanon 'plot' warning. - Posted By: NaBeeel
US issues Lebanon 'plot' warning,The United States has said there is "mounting evidence" that Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are planning to topple the Lebanese government.
The White House said Syria hoped to stop the formation of an international tribunal to try suspects in the killing of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.
Spokesman Tony Snow said any attempt to destabilise the Lebanese government would violate UN resolutions.
A UN team has been investigating who was behind Mr Hariri's death in 2005.
Hezbollah demand
The White House statement appears to result from the tense situation in Lebanon, where Hezbollah is demanding one third of cabinet seats, thereby giving it a veto over decisions.
Such a veto would enable it to block approval of the international tribunal to try suspects in Mr Hariri's assassination, our correspondent says.
The Hezbollah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, has threatened street demonstrations in support of his demand.
We are... increasingly concerned by mounting evidence that the Syrian and Iranian governments, Hezbollah, and their Lebanese allies are preparing plans to topple Lebanon's democratically-elected government
Tony Snow
White House spokesman
The US is concerned that this instability could result in the fall of the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
The statement also casts doubt on any willingness by the Bush administration to consider Syria and Iran as potential partners over the future of Iraq, an idea that the Baker commission on Iraq is expected to suggest, our correspondent adds.
Former US Secretary of State James Baker is heading a bipartisan Iraq Study Group, considering future strategy in Iraq for US policy makers.
Hariri tribunal
The White House said it was "increasingly concerned by mounting evidence that the Syrian and Iranian governments, Hezbollah, and their Lebanese allies are preparing plans to topple Lebanon's democratically-elected government.
"There are indications that one goal of the Syrian plan is to prevent the current Lebanese government from approving the statute for an international tribunal that would try those accused of involvement in former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination," the statement continued.
In March, the security council approved the formation of an international tribunal that would try those accused of involvement in the murder of Mr Hariri.
The UN sent a draft plan for the tribunal to Lebanese authorities on 21 October but it has yet to be approved of by Lebanon's cabinet and parliament or by the UN Security Council.
Mr Hariri was killed on 14 February 2005, along with 20 others in a massive blast on Beirut's seafront.
UN investigators said in September they had found new evidence that he was probably killed by a suicide bomber.
The assassination has been widely blamed on Syria, but Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has repeatedly denied that his country had anything to do with the killing.
| November 1, 2006 | 13:48:26 |
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They're not my favourite things - Posted By: NaBeeel
Prince urges religious tolerance, The Prince of Wales has called for religious tolerance and moderation in a speech during his visit to Pakistan.,He was speaking at a women's college near Islamabad after safety fears led to the cancellation of a planned trip to Peshawar close to the Afghan border.
He and the Duchess of Cornwall spent an unscheduled second day in the capital.
Charles urged his audience to "stand up against the kind of mistaken and misguided leadership that can so easily set one community against another".
The world is in desperate need of people who have moral courage, who are not afraid of standing up for truth and fairness and civilised values ,
Prince Charles
"The world is in desperate need of people who have moral courage, who are not afraid of standing up for truth and fairness and civilised values - especially at a time in the world's history when ignorance and prejudice are so prevalent and so dangerous.
"Religion has once again become a source of conflict and intolerance.
"One of the tasks of education must surely be to engender the acquisition of wisdom," he said.
"In a secular age you hear again and again the accusation that religion is the cause of so much misery and strife in the world.
"However, religion itself is not the problem. It is surely human misinterpretation of the sacred texts handed down to us that can lead to such appalling misunderstanding and hatred.
"Will you, for instance, have the moral courage to stand up against the kind of mistaken and misguided leadership that can so easily set one community against another?"
At the university, in Rawalpindi, armed commandos, including veiled women, from the Punjab police were on guard.
The hastily-arranged trip saw the prince and duchess touring classrooms before sitting in an open-air cafeteria with some of the young women.
One pupil, Zill Esuma, 21, said as she waited for them to arrive: "We didn't know anything about it. We have not been told."
Teacher Ruksana Hassan, co-ordinator for gender studies, said she was only informed of the royal visit a few minutes before they entered the room.
When asked by one woman if she had seen any differences between Pakistan university students and British ones, the duchess said Pakistani students appeared more hard-working.
"They're more into partying and having fun," she said of their British counterparts.
Wasp annoyance
The couple went on to an archaeological site at Taxila, also outside the capital.
Carrying out their second engagement at the ancient Buddhist ruins, the duchess was pestered by wasps.
She told reporters: "They're not my favourite things."
She went on to buy a marble mortar and pestle from a small roadside stall for her son Tom Parker Bowles.
The prince was described as being "extremely disappointed" at the cancellation of the couple's planned visit to the north-west because of fears of violence after Pakistani forces destroyed an Islamic school near the border, killing 80.
In Peshawar, 500 members of a hardline Islamic group burned an effigy of US President George Bush and denounced Pakistan's President, General Pervez Musharraf.
And at least 10,000 people protested in the north-western town of Khar near the site of Monday's missile attack
In the southern city of Multan, a member of Pakistan's largest Islamic political group said the military had bombed the school to show Charles how tough they could be on terrorism.
People were martyred on Prince Charles' arrival as a salute to him
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Tariq Naeem
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Tariq Naeem said: "Whenever an important American or British personality comes to Pakistan, innocent people are martyred in the name of militants.
"People were martyred on Prince Charles' arrival as a salute to him."
On Monday, the prince met President Musharraf and among subjects discussed during their 45-minute meeting was the case of a Briton sentenced to death in the country.
Prince Charles also launched a scheme aimed at helping poor youngsters become entrepreneurs and attended a reception hosted by the British high commissioner during his visit.
| October 31, 2006 | 22:39:20 |
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The climate of fear prevails. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Suburban gangs defy French police,Immigrant suburbs sometimes look like war zones
Police responsible for law enforcement in France's tense immigrant-majority housing estates liken their job to a military mission."What we have is urban warfare," according to Patrick Trotignon, a 30-year veteran working for the police union Synergie.
Gaelle James, an officer who works in Montreuil, a poor suburb just east of Paris, agrees.
"We are confronted by ever more criminals who are getting ever more violent," .
"They are now out to kill cops."
This may sound like hyperbole - but a year after a wave of rioting spread through France's ghettos, a number of attacks in recent weeks seem to confirm this grim assessment.
On 13 October, for instance, police responding to an emergency call in Epinay-sur-Seine, north of Paris, drove into a trap - two cars blocked their vehicle, which was set upon by dozens of youths wielding iron bars and knives.
The officers fought their way out without firing their guns, but one ended up in hospital with a broken jaw.
Ms James says this kind of attack is becoming worryingly frequent - washing machines have even been dropped from tower blocks on official vehicles.
"Doctors and other emergency services no longer venture into some estates," she notes.
The increasingly organised nature of violence is highlighted in a recent report by the interior ministry's intelligence service.
A future wave of suburban disturbances, it warns darkly, could target "the last remaining institutional representatives in a number of areas - the police".
Filming attacks
According to Mr Trotignon, the attacks are the work of teams structured along military lines.
"Operations are planned by senior commanders, with underlings making emergency calls and the foot soldiers carrying out the assaults," he says.
What's the point of taking risks to catch criminals when they can just walk out of court?
Gaelle James ,Police lieutenant "And the icing on the cake is filming the whole thing with your mobile phone."
The violence in French suburbs has devastating consequences on police morale. "Those posted there can't leave fast enough," Mr Trotignon says.
The impoverished area of Seine-Saint-Denis north-east of Paris - where the 2005 riots began - is "haemorrhaging" officers, he adds, as those with enough seniority get transferred to the provinces.
This high turnover means that those tasked with France's most dangerous districts tend to be young - as the prefect, the top official in Seine-Saint-Denis, noted in a leaked note to the interior ministry.
The prefect and many in the police blame this situation on soft judges reluctant to jail the young offenders.
After last year's disturbances, the prefect wrote, only one minor in Seine-Saint-Denis was imprisoned out of 85 prosecuted.
"What's the point of taking risks to catch criminals when they can just walk out of court?" Ms James complains.
'Wildlife park'
According to Mr Trotignon, the head of the Seine-Saint-Denis tribunal is nicknamed "Father Christmas" by delinquents.
But few in the suburbs feel they are getting fair - let alone preferential - treatment from the authorities.
Contempt for police, in particular, is almost universal among young men. Here is a sample of quotes from youths recently interviewed in housing estates near Paris:
"We don't want a police station here. Some cops are racist."
"Riots are caused by police. They think we are all delinquents."
"The cops don't respect us. They come in and smash doors.
They systematically suspect blacks and Arabs."
"Some cops are aggressive and use racial slurs when they check you."
Older residents, of course, express different views. They deeply resent the rampant lawlessness and want more, not fewer, police.
Youths from the French suburbs say they think all the ingredients for chaos remain
"Cars are vandalised and youths fight all the time, but when we call the cops they never come," complains a North African man living in Clichy-sous-Bois, a dismal ghetto north-east of Paris.
Nadir Dendoune, a 34-year-old journalist living in l'Ile-Saint-Denis, says what is needed above all is better policing.
"When I was young, the cops were patrolling on mopeds and talked to us," he recalls.
"Now they don't know us. They just patrol the area locked in their cars and look around as if they were in a wildlife park."
Beatings
In 2002 Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy decided to abandon community policing based on prevention in favour of a strict law-and-order approach.
Beat officers were replaced by shock "anti-crime brigades" who police the suburbs mostly from outside. Many local officials and youth workers in the suburbs feel this was a dreadful mistake.
"In this area community-based policing played a very positive role. Officers did real work in the estates," says Clichy's deputy mayor, Olivier Klein.
"Now they go in only for tough security missions, but this does not make people more secure."
Laurence Ribeaucourt, a social worker in the Clichy area, says the riots reveal a growing divide between police and people.
"For the past three years things have been getting steadily worse," she says. "Youths tell me they have been beaten up in custody and harassed by police."
Whether France's housing estates need soft "prevention" or tough repression is a matter of debate.
What is beyond dispute, however, is that the law is no longer enforced in many of France's deprived suburbs.
Relations between large sections of the population and the police have broken down.
Both sides are afraid of each other and as long as the climate of fear prevails, the urban warfare will continue.
| October 30, 2006 | 12:10:55 |
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This came at a great time WOW ?. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Ford Worker Wins Lottery as Plant Closes, A worker at the Ford Motor Co. Atlanta Assembly Plant won $225,000 from a Georgia Lottery scratch-off ticket as he was headed to work for the last time, the day production ended at the plant.
Jerome McInnis said he plans to invest most of his winnings and the prize "will enable me to take care of everything."
Jerome McInnis, 52, of College Park, Ga., bought a $5 instant game ticket Friday morning when he stopped for gas at US Amoco in College Park.
In a statement issued by the Georgia Lottery Corp., McInnis said he was so excited when he won the prize, he drove off without putting gas in his tank even though he had paid for the gas.
The 13-year employee of the Hapeville, Ga., plant won the first of six top prizes in the "Bah Humbucks" instant game, the lottery statement said.
McInnis said he had opted to take an early retirement package after Ford announced in January that it would idle the plant. About 1,950 employees lost their jobs and were given their choice of one of eight kinds of severance package when the plant ceased production of the Ford Taurus sedan Friday morning.
"This came at a great time. It's just exciting to win like this," he said in a statement. McInnis was not immediately available to be interviewed Friday because he was still working at the plant for his last day, said lottery spokesman J.B. Landroche.
McInnis said in the statement he plans to invest most of his winnings and the prize "will enable me to take care of everything."
The Atlanta Assembly Plant had been producing cars since 1947. In the last five years it was ranked as one of the company's top 10 most productive assembly lines in North America. Friday's milestone concluded 21 years of producing the popular sedan, with sales of more than 7 million vehicles.
| October 29, 2006 | 12:52:59 |
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I am a friend of the United States. - Posted By: NaBeeel
U.S., Iraq Agree to Speed Security Handover,American Death Toll for October Grows to 98
Embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Bush agreed Saturday to expedite the handover of full control of Iraq's army to the government as they seek to quell the insurgency and sectarian bloodshed.,
President Bush talks by video teleconference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad on Saturday. Watch Video: Bush Lays Out Shifting War Tactics
The two leaders spoke for nearly an hour a day after al-Maliki declared he was a friend of the U.S., but "not America's man in Iraq," leading to talk of a growing rift between Washington and the Iraqi leader.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, announced the death of a Marine in restive Anbar province west of Baghdad on Friday, raising to 98 the number of U.S. military personnel killed in October, already the fourth deadliest month since the Iraq war began in March 2003.
Al-Maliki's office issued a statement after a 50-minute video conference with Bush saying the two leaders agreed to the joint goals of speeding up training of Iraqi soldiers and "handing over security responsibility to the Iraqi government."
In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush affirmed that al-Maliki is a sovereign leader whom the U.S. is assisting.
"What you've got in Maliki is a guy who is making decisions," Snow said. "He's making tough decisions, and he's showing toughness and he's also showing political skill in dealing with varying factions within his own country. And both leaders understand the political pressures going on."
The statements from both sides were aimed at dousing speculation about a rift, which intensified Friday after al-Maliki declared he was his own man during a meeting with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.
The comment, described by an al-Maliki aide, was in sharp contrast to the joint statement issued after the meeting that stressed the need to work together to set timelines to clamp off spiraling violence.
"I am a friend of the United States, but I am not America's man in Iraq," Hassan al-Suneid, a close al-Maliki aide, quoted the Iraqi leader as telling Khalilzad.
U.S. officials have been pressuring al-Maliki, a Shiite, to crack down on Shiite militias and death squads blamed for much of the sectarian conflict that has worsened this year and to accept a timeline for curbing violence.
Al-Maliki depends heavily on Iraqi Shiite politicians whose parties run the heavily armed militias.
Al-Suneid said the prime minister demanded that his government be treated as an elected administration with international legitimacy and that U.S. forces in Iraq must coordinate better with his government.
He added that al-Maliki repeated to Khalilzad his reluctance to implement a timeline for tackling security issues, arguing that Iraq's security forces were not yet up to the task.
The dispute has tarnished Bush's bid to promote policy "adjustments" in Iraq with less than two weeks left before U.S. elections. The vote is expected to be in part a referendum on Bush's policy in Iraq as U.S. deaths have topped 2,800 and the war dragged into its 44th month.
A relative calm in the Baghdad area during the five days since the end of the holy month of Ramadan broke down Saturday in a fresh outbreak of violence.
Iraqi soldiers, backed by American forces, raided an insurgent hide-out near Baghdad at dawn, killing 15 fighters and capturing eight, police said. The raid was in Shejeriyah, about 18 miles south of the capital, police Lt. Mohamed al-Shemeri said.
The U.S. military reported a separate raid south of the capital in which an insurgent dressed as a woman was killed when he opened fire on American soldiers who had rounded up 10 comrades.
A rocket hit an outdoor marked in southern Baghdad, killing one person and wounding 35, and a bomb exploded in a minibus in the capital's east, killing one and wounding nine, police said.
Clashes erupted between U.S. and Iraqi troops and gunmen in the city of Ramadi, an insurgency stronghold where dozens of militants staged a military-like parade last week not far from a U.S. base. The troops used loudspeakers to ask residents to stay indoors.
Nine Iraqi soldiers were kidnapped on the increasingly dangerous highway linking the capital with the northern city of Kirkuk. They were dragged off a minibus north of the restive city of Khalis, 55 miles north of Baghdad, said Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Ameen, the regional commander.
In Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said they had found two bodies of apparent sectarian violence in the city's central al-Mu'allimeen district. A third body was pulled from the Diyala river. Later, police reported the shooting deaths of two men in a Baqouba market.
| October 28, 2006 | 16:47:37 |
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Housing market cooling off faster than anticipated . - Posted By: NaBeeel
Housing slump batters US economy,US economic growth slowed to an annual rate of 1.6% in the third quarter of 2006, its lowest level for three years.,Commerce Department figures showed that the slump in the US housing market was largely responsible for the loss of economic momentum.
The data showed a 17.4% annual fall in spending on new housing.
During the previous three months the economy had grown by 2.6%. Now the rate is at its lowest since the first quarter of 2003, when it was 1.2%.
However, some analysts said that consumer spending, buoyed by a fall in fuel prices, would provide a boost to the economy with some forecasting a growth rate of 3% in October to December.
Below 2% is certainly a negative surprise and suggests that the economy is cooling off faster than anticipated
Lower costs at the petrol pump, combined with strong employment figures led to improving consumer sentiment during October, a survey said.
The index, compiled by the University of Michigan, was at 93.6 in October, up from September's figure of 85.4.
Voter influences
However, the slump in gross domestic product (GDP), well below Wall Street expectations, comes as a blow to President George W Bush ahead of the US midterm elections next month.
The economy, alongside immigration and the war in Iraq, is expected to be a major influence on voters when they go to the polls.
Political reaction to the figures was swift. Republicans pointed to the sustained rally in key stocks on the Dow Jones index as proof of the US economy's resilience. White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters that economic growth would "continue to rebound".
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the housing boom had been "clearly unsustainable" and the market had "needed to have a correction".
However Nancy Pelosi, a leading Democrat politician, said that "just because the president looks through his rose-coloured glasses and sees a strong economy doesn't make it so".
Another Democrat, Senator Jack Reed, said the growth figures contradicted "the President's claim that his tax cuts are working".
Rates relief?
Analysts said the news meant an interest rate rise from the US Federal Reserve was now unlikely to be imminent - with some predicting a rate reduction as being more probable.
The UK-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said it expected US growth would be revised up slightly but that the picture remained "one of a controlled economic slowdown".
"Weak GDP figures will likely give the markets something to worry about, although on the other hand, they will raise expectations that the next move in interest rates will be down," said CEBR senior economist Jonathan Said.
In the US, the data also caused a surprise.
"Below 2% is certainly a negative surprise and suggests that the economy is cooling off faster than anticipated," said Bank of New York strategist Michael Woolfolk.
"But it is certainly in line with the Federal Reserve's story that a moderation in growth will help core inflation come back down into its comfort zone in the mid term."
Latest figures show that annualised economic growth in the UK is 2.8%, while it is 3.4% in the eurozone.
| October 28, 2006 | 11:56:50 |
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Illegal immigration has been on the rise. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bush Signs Bill for Fence on U.S.-Mexico Border,Barrier to Combat Illegal Immigration Will Stretch 700 Miles,President Bush signed a bill Thursday authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, Will they will do the sam with Candaian Border next, hoping to give Republican candidates a pre-election platform for asserting they're tough on illegal immigration.
"Unfortunately the United States has not been in complete control of its borders for decades and therefore illegal immigration has been on the rise," Bush said at a signing ceremony.
"We have a responsibility to enforce our laws," he said. "We have a responsibility to secure our borders. We take this responsibility serious."
He called the fence bill "an important step in our nation's efforts to secure our borders."
The centerpiece of Bush's immigration policy, a guest worker program, remains stalled in Congress.
And a handful of House Republican are at the brakes, blocking negotiations with the Senate for a bill that includes the president's proposal.
Still, Bush argues that it would be easier to get his guest worker program passed if Republicans keep their majorities in the House and Senate after the Nov. 7 elections. His proposal would allow legal employment for foreigners and give some of the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States a shot at becoming American citizens.
The measure Bush put into law Thursday before heading for campaign stops in Iowa and Michigan offers no money for the fence project covering one-third of the 2,100-mile border.
Its cost is not known, although a homeland security spending measure the president signed earlier this month makes a $1.2 billion down payment on the project. The money also can be used for access roads, vehicle barriers, lighting, high-tech equipment and other tools to secure the border.
Mexican officials have criticized the fence. Outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has spent much of his six years in office lobbying for a new guest worker program and a chance at citizenship for the millions of Mexicans working illegally in the U.S., calls the fence "shameful" and compares it to the Berlin Wall.
Others have doubts about its effectiveness.
"A fence will slow people down by a minute or two, but if you don't have the agents to stop them it does no good. We're not talking about some impenetrable barrier," T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing Border Patrol agents, said Wednesday.
Customs and Border Protection statistics show that apprehensions at border crossings are down 8 percent nationally for the budget year that just ended, Bonner said. Apprehensions were up in the San Diego sector, he said, an area of the nearly 2,000-mile border that has the most fencing.
A spokesman for Customs and Border Protection would not confirm the statistics or discuss reasons for the increase in the San Diego sector.
Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, both Texas Republicans, had wanted to amend the fence bill to give local governments more say about where fencing is erected. They lost that battle, but Republican leaders assured them the Homeland Security Department would have flexibility to choose other options instead of fencing, if needed.
Cornyn said he voted for the fence because he wanted to help demonstrate that Congress was serious about border security.
"The choice we were presented was: Are we going to vote to enhance border security, or against it?" Cornyn said. "I think that's how the vote was viewed."
Associated Press Writer Suzanne Gamboa contributed to this report.
| October 26, 2006 | 14:30:21 |
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GOP Security Edge Wanes. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Republican's bin Laden Ad Sparks Furor, Party Hopes to Focus Election on National Security,
Republicans unveiled an advertisement on Friday featuring the image and words of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and a warning to voters that "these are the stakes
" in the November 7 election.
The Republican National Committee ad, first shown on its Web site and scheduled for airing on cable television early next week, also includes images of al Qaeda fighters in training and other al Qaeda leaders.
"What is yet to come will be even greater," the ad quotes bin Laden as saying, before concluding with the words: "These are the stakes. Vote November 7."
President George W. Bush's Republicans, slipping in the polls from public dissatisfaction with the Iraq war, are fighting to retain control of Congress in the election. Democrats must pick up 15 House seats and six Senate seats to win a majority in each chamber.
Republicans hope to turn the debate in the campaign's closing stages back to their traditionally strong issues of national security and the war on terrorism, although recent polls show Democrats overtaking them on that turf.
Democratic Senate campaign committee spokesman Phil Singer called the ad a "desperate" effort to spur Republican voter turnout.
The bin Laden ad recalls one of the most famous American political ads, the 1964 "Daisy" ad used by Democratic President Lyndon Johnson in his race against conservative Republican Barry Goldwater.
It featured a small girl picking a daisy and a countdown to nuclear explosion before an announcer says, "These are the stakes."
| October 21, 2006 | 14:38:41 |
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“It’s just such a big thrill to see and hear this man. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Cheney Feels the Love as He Hits the Heartland, By MARK LEIBOVICH, The New York Times
Grace Mosier lives with her mom and dad, goes to birthday parties, takes ballet classes and is just like a lot of other 6-year-old girls. Except that she happens to be obsessed with Dick Cheney.
Vice President Dick Cheney appears in Topeka, Kan., where a crowd greeted him with cheers, sustained applause, and even some war whoops.
"Like a Rock Star:" Vice President Dick Cheney appears Thursday in Topeka, Kan., where an enthusiastic crowd greeted him with cheers, sustained applause, and even a few war whoops.
“I really, really like him,” says Grace, who can tell you what state the vice president was born in (Nebraska), where he went to grade school (College View, in Lincoln) and the names of his dogs (Dave and Jackson). She gets her fix of Cheney fun-facts by visiting the White House Web site for children. It says there that his favorite teacher was Miss Duffield and that he used to run a company called Halliburton.
So when Mr. Cheney came to town Thursday, Grace was at Forbes Field, holding a little American flag and a sign that said, “Welcome, Mr. Vice President, pet Dave and Jackson for me.” She watched him get off Air Force Two, step into a car and speed off to a fund-raiser.
“Like a rock star coming to town,” says Dene Mosier, Grace’s mother. And while Mr. Cheney might be an unusual object for a 6-year-old’s fixation, it is probably less unusual here, in the heart of Cheney Country.
The terrain consists of hotel ballrooms, military bases and private homes deep in the reddest of red states like Kansas (where President Bush and Mr. Cheney won by 25 percentage points in 2004). As a rule, people still love Mr. Bush in Cheney Country, at least relative to some locales. But the president cannot be everywhere, so Mr. Cheney comes instead, exposing as he goes the durability and devotion of his party’s base.
He is dispatched around the country — to Topeka last week, to Casper, Wyo., the week before, and to Wyoming, Mich., the week before that — to preside over events largely ignored by the national news media but covered big-time by the local press. He raises a lot of cash for the Republican Party and its candidates — more than $40 million at 114 events since January 2005, many of them in off-Broadway political settings like Topeka.
And a big Kansas welcome he gets: cheers, sustained applause, even some war whoops — yes, war whoops. Loving ones.
“Well, that warm welcome is almost enough to make me want to run for office again,” the vice president responds. “Almost.”
Mr. Cheney’s favorability ratings might be in an underground bunker, somewhere beneath the president’s (at 20 percent in the most recent New York Times poll). Critics deride him as a Prince of Darkness whose occasional odd episodes — swearing at a United States senator, shooting a friend in a hunting accident and then barely acknowledging it publicly — suggest a striking indifference to how he is perceived. Even admirers who laud his intellect and steadiness rarely mention anything about his electrifying rooms or people.
But then there are people like these, at the Capitol Plaza Hotel Manor Conference Center in Topeka.
“It’s just such a big thrill to see and hear this man,” says Marvin Smith, a farmer and former teacher.
Mr. Smith says most people he knows feel the same way, “except for a few of those peacemakers.” He means protesters, a smattering of whom are picketing down the street.
“We love him here,” Susan Wagle, a state senator, says of Mr. Cheney.
]
After a sustained and rollicking ovation that inspires a rare smile with both sides of his mouth, Mr. Cheney starts into a variant of the same talk he has delivered literally hundreds of times. He tells how the first vice president, John Adams, enjoyed Senate floor privileges until they were revoked. (Mr. Cheney has told this story at least 48 times in official remarks since 2001, according to the White House’s Web site.)
He skips the bit about how he had been the lone congressman from Wyoming — “It was a small delegation, but it was quality,” which he has told at least 67 times as vice president.
He offers his standard homage to tax cuts, a warning about how terrorists are still trying desperately “to cause mass death here in the United States” and a derisive cataloging of the various “Dean Democrats,” congressmen including Charles B. Rangel of New York, Henry A. Waxman of California and Barney Frank of Massachusetts, whose influence would grow if the apocalypse came and Democrats took over Congress.
The crowd boos.
“Don’t hold back,” Mr. Cheney urges.
The crowd laughs.
The lights over Mr. Cheney’s head keep getting dimmer and then brighter, the kind of inexplicable distraction that can get an advance person fired but that also adds sizzle to the floor show. (There were no audible requests for Mr. Cheney to crowd-surf, shed his tie or perform “Free Bird.”)
CONTINUED
| October 17, 2006 | 15:33:31 |
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Walt Disney said it has outlined new guidelines for the foods. - Posted By: NaBeeel
That is a good newes, Walt Disney cuts down on fat, calories ,Company cuts calories, trans fats from food in theme parks, licensing deals, after its decade-long deal with McDonald's expired. Walt Disney Co. said on Monday it is putting limits on the calorie, fat and sugar it will allow in packaged foods it markets to children using the faces of Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters.
The move comes amid widening media focus on the growing number of obese and overweight children in the United States. It also follows the expiration this year of a decade-long exclusive deal Disney (down $0.13 to $30.98, Charts) had to promote its films in McDonald's Corp.'s (down $0.02 to $42.09, Charts) fast-food kids' Happy Meals.
In a statement, Disney said it has outlined new guidelines for the foods it will allow to carry one of its licenses.
For instance, added sugar in those foods will not exceed 10 percent of calories for main and side dishes and 25 percent of calories for snacks. Total fat will not exceed 30 percent of calories for main and side dishes and 35 percent for snacks.
Disney has also pledged to eliminate artery-clogging trans fats from both the food served at its theme parks and in its licensed and promotional products.
"The Disney brand and characters are in a unique position to market food that kids will want and parents will feel good about giving them," Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said in a statement.
The timetable for implementing the new policies will depend on existing licensing contracts, most of which will expire within the next two years.
The company said most of its licensed products and promotional tie-ins will meet the new guidelines by the end of 2008.
Food served at Disney theme parks will be free of trans fats by the end of 2007, the company said.
Disney shares edged down 11 cents, or 0.35 percent, to $31.00 in early afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
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| October 16, 2006 | 17:29:16 |
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The strongest earthquake to rattle the Hawaii islands . - Posted By: NaBeeel
Hawaii Assesses Damage From Earthquake,Governor Issues Disaster Declaration
Officials fanned out across Hawaii early Monday to inspect bridges and roads following the strongest earthquake to rattle the islands in more than two decades, a 6.6-magnitude quake that caused blackouts and landslides, but no immediate reports of fatalities.
Government Guide: Recent U.S. Quake Activity
"The level of damage is still being assessed right now," Rodney Haraga, director of the Hawaii Department of Transportation, told CBS' "The Early Show" Monday.
"We know that on the Big Island we have had some problems with road closures, some rock slides and right now we're sending a team this morning to go to the Big Island to do an assessment on several highways."
The quake hit at 7:07 a.m. local time Sunday, 10 miles north-northwest of Kailua-Kona, a town on the west coast of Hawaii Island, also known as the Big Island, said Don Blakeman of the National Earthquake Information Center, part of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Haraga said power had been restored on Oahu to only about 50 percent of customers, but electricity on the Big Island was "practically all up."
Gov. Linda Lingle issued a disaster declaration for the state and the state Civil Defense had several reports of minor injuries as aftershocks continued to shake the island chain.
"We were rocking and rolling," said Anne LaVasseur, who was on the second floor of a two-story, wood-framed house on the east side of the Big Island when the temblor struck. "I was pretty scared. We were swaying back and forth, like King Kong's pushing your house back and forth."
Lingle, who was in a hotel near the epicenter, said the most serious injury reported to her was a broken arm.
The Pacific Tsunami Center reported a preliminary magnitude of 6.5, while the USGS gave a preliminary magnitude of 6.6. To make matters worse, the quake struck during heavy rain, adding a risk of mudslides.
The earthquake was followed by several strong aftershocks, including one measuring a magnitude of 5.8, the USGS said. Forecasters said there was no danger of a tsunami, though choppier-than-normal waves were predicted.
Earthquakes in the 6.0 magnitude range are rare in the region, which more commonly sees temblors in the 3- and 4-magnitude range caused by volcanic activity.
"We think this is a buildup from many volcanic earthquakes that they've had on the island," said Waverly Person, a geophysicist with the USGS.
The power outages were largely due to power plants turning off automatically when built-in seismic monitors were triggered by the earthquake. All electricity systems needed to be rebooted, which was expected to take several hours in more populated areas.
"We were totally prepared for a disaster such as this, but obviously with a disaster this big you can't be prepared for everything," Haraga told ABC's "Good Morning America."
Kona Community Hospital on the western side of Big Island was evacuated after large chunks of ceiling collapsed and power was cut off, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
At least 10 acute care patients were evacuated to a medical center in Hilo, said Terry Lewis, spokeswoman for the hospital. About 30 nursing care patients were being moved temporarily to a nearby conference center, she said.
"We were very lucky that no one got hurt," said Lewis.
Mayor Harry Kim estimated that as many as 3,000 people were evacuated from three hotels on the Big Island. Brad Kurokawa, Hawaii County deputy planning director, confirmed the hotels were damaged, but could not say how many people had left. They were being taken to a gymnasium until alternate accommodations could be found, he said.
The earthquake caused water pipes to explode at Aston Kona By The Sea, a condominium resort, creating a dramatic waterfall down the front of the hotel from the fourth floor, said Kenneth Piper, who runs the front desk.
"You could almost see the cars bouncing up and down in the parking garage," Piper said.
Hawaii's largest quake on record was an 1868 magnitude-7.9 earthquake that triggered a tsunami and spawned numerous landslides that resulted in 31 deaths, according to the USGS. The last strongest temblor was in 1983, registering a magnitude 6.7.
A FEMA computer simulation of the latest quake estimated that as many as 170 bridges on the Big Island could have suffered damage in the temblor, said Bob Fenton, FEMA director of response for the region. More than 50 federal officials were en route to the Big Island to assess damage and begin recovery work, he said.
Lingle told radio station KSSK that she toured the Kona area by helicopter to view the damage, including earth falling into Kealakekua Bay.
"You could see the water was turning brown," said Lingle.
On Hawaii Island, there was some damage in Kailua-Kona and a landslide along a major highway, said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Center. Officials also said there were reports of people trapped in elevators in Oahu.
In Waikiki, a top tourist destination on Oahu, worried visitors began lining up outside convenience stores for food, water and other supplies. Managers were letting tourists into the darkened stores one at a time.
Karie and Bryan Croes waited an hour to buy bottles of water, chips and bread.
"It's quite a honeymoon story," said Karie Croes, as they sat poolside in lounge chairs surrounded by grocery bags at ResortQuest Waikiki Beach Hotel.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Les Dorr said planes were arriving at Honolulu International Airport, but there were few departures. Security checkpoints were without power, so screeners were screening passengers and baggage manually.
Resorts in Kona were asked to keep people close to hotels, Kim told television station KITV. Cruise ships were told to keep tourists on board, and ships that were due to dock were asked to move on to their next location, he said.
"We are dealing with a lot of scared people," he said.
The Big Island has about 167,000 residents, many of them in and around Hilo, on the opposite site of the island from where the quake was centered.
Associated Press writers Audrey McAvoy, Tara Godvin, Greg Small and Jaymes Song in Hawaii and Leslie Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
| October 16, 2006 | 13:37:40 |
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Major Earthquake Hits Hawaii/ - Posted By: NaBeeel
Earthquake Hits Hawaii, Knocking Out Power,Governor Issues Disaster Declaration
A strong earthquake shook Hawaii early Sunday, jolting residents out of bed and causing a landslide that blocked a major highway. Ceilings crashed at a hospital, and aftershocks kept the state on edge. People wait in line for food at a roadside chicken stand in Kihei, Hawaii, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006, after an earthquake struck the big island of Hawaii.
People wait in line for food at a roadside chicken stand in Kihei on Sunday, after an earthquake struck the big island of Hawaii.
The state Civil Defense had unconfirmed reports of injuries, but communication problems prevented more definite reports. Gov. Linda Lingle issued a disaster declaration for the entire state, saying there had been damage to buildings and roads. There were no reports of fatalities.
The quake hit at 7:07 a.m. local time, 10 miles north-northwest of Kailua Kona, a town on the west coast of Hawaii Island, also known as the Big Island, said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center, part of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Blakeman said there was no risk of a Pacific-wide tsunami, but there was a possibility of significant wave activity in Hawaii.
The Pacific Tsunami Center reported a preliminary magnitude of 6.5, while the U.S. Geological Survey gave a preliminary magnitude of 6.6. The earthquake was followed by several strong aftershocks, including one measuring a magnitude of 5.8, the Geological Survey said.
"We were rocking and rolling," said Anne LaVasseur, who was on the second floor of a two-story, wood-framed house on the east side of the Big Island when the temblor struck. "I was pretty scared. We were swaying back and forth, like King Kong's pushing your house back and forth."
Water pipes exploded at Aston Kona By The Sea, an 86-unit condominium resort, creating a dramatic waterfall down the front of the hotel from the fourth floor, said Kenneth Piper, who runs the front desk.
"We are a concrete building, but we really shook. You could almost see the cars bouncing up and down in the parking garage," he said.
The quake caused widespread power outages, and phone communication was possible, but difficult. By midday Sunday, power was restored to Hilo on the Big Island and was starting to be restored to Maui, said Chuck Anthony, a spokesman for the Hawaii National Guard. Officials did not have a firm estimate of how many people were without power.
Lingle told radio station KSSK that she toured the Kona area by helicopter to view the damage, including earth falling into Kealakekua Bay.
"You could see the water was turning brown," said Lingle.
A FEMA computer simulation of the quake estimated that as many as 170 bridges on the Big Island could have suffered damage in the temblor, said Bob Fenton, FEMA director of response for the region. More than 50 federal officials were en route to the Big Island to assess damage and begin recovery work, he said.
On Hawaii Island, there was some damage in Kailua-Kona and a landslide along a major highway, said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Center. Officials also said there were reports of people trapped in elevators in Oahu.
In Waikiki, one of the state's primary tourism areas, worried visitors began lining up outside convenience stores to purchase food, water and other supplies. Managers were letting tourists into the darkened stores one at a time.
Karie and Bryan Croes were waited an hour to buy bottles of water, chips and bread. "It's quite a honeymoon story," said Karie as she and her husband sat in lounge chairs surrounded by their grocery bags beside a pool at ResortQuest Waikiki Beach Hotel.
Kona Community Hospital on the western side of Big Island was being evacuated after ceilings collapsed and power was cut off, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
At least 10 acute care patients were being evacuated across the island to a medical center in Hilo, said Terry Lewis, spokeswoman for the hospital. About 30 nursing care patients were being moved temporarily to a nearby conference center, she said.
"We were very lucky that no one got hurt," said Lewis.
Power was back up in the hospital, and its emergency room was accepting patients, hospital officials said. One operating room that sustained minimal damage was available for use if necessary.
The quake affected travel plans for many visitors, though the state was in its low period of the tourism season. Airports were functioning despite the power outages, though travel was difficult and some flights were being canceled, officials said.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Les Dorr said planes were arriving at Honolulu International Airport, but there were few departures. Dorr said the Transportation Security Administration security checkpoints were without power, so screeners were screening passengers and baggage manually.
Resorts in Kona were being asked to keep people close to hotels, Big Island Mayor Harry Kim told television station KITV. Cruise ships were asked to keep tourists on board, and ships that were due to dock with tourists were asked to move on to their next location, he said.
"We are dealing with a lot of scared people," he said.
Hotels throughout the islands reported scattered injuries and disruptions. Many hotel managers broadcast warnings over public-address systems that echoed through corridors.
Earthquakes in the 6.0 magnitude range are rare in the region, though they have happened before. The region more commonly sees temblors in the 3- and 4-magnitude range caused by volcanic activity.
"We think this is a buildup from many volcanic earthquakes that they've had on the island," Waverly Person, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center.
The last Hawaiian earthquake this strong struck more than 20 years ago. The magnitude 6.7 caused heavy property damage on Hawaii Island and collapsed trails into a volcano in Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park on Nov. 16, 1983. A 6.1-magnitude quake also hit in 1989, according to the Earthquake Information Center.
The largest recorded Hawaiian earthquake struck the Ka'u District on Hawaii Island in 1868, causing 77 deaths. Its magnitude was estimated at 7.9.
A 9.5-magnitude earthquake, the largest in the world, struck Chile on May 22, 1960, and a tsunami traveled to Hawaii where 61 people died.
Associated Press writers Audrey McAvoy, Tara Godvin, Mark Niesse and Jaymes Song in Hawaii and Leslie Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
| October 15, 2006 | 21:34:34 |
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British presence in Iraq also hurt British security interests abroad, - Posted By: NaBeeel
Britain Army Chief Calls for Iraq Troop Pullout , Britain’s top army commander said the presence of British troops in Iraq was exacerbating security problems on the ground and they should be withdrawn soon.
In an interview with the Daily Mail newspaper, Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt criticized postwar planning for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and said the British presence in Iraq also hurt British security interests abroad, which British Prime Minister Tony Blair has repeatedly denied.
The public criticism by Dannatt, extraordinary for a serving officer of his rank, was seized on by critics of the war in Iraq and Dannatt conducted a series of television and radio interviews on Friday trying to calm the storm he had triggered.
He insisted he had said “nothing new or noteworthy” in his interview with the tabloid and was just repeating policy.
“It was never my intention to have this hoo ha, which people have thoroughly enjoyed overnight, trying to suggest there is a chasm between myself and the prime minister,” he told the British Broadcasting Corp.
In the Daily Mail interview he said: “I think history will show that the planning for what happened after the initial successful war fighting phase was poor, probably based more on optimism than sound planning.”
He continued: “I don’t say that the difficulties we are experiencing round the world are caused by our presence in Iraq but undoubtedly our presence in Iraq exacerbates them.”
Britain should “get ... out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems,” .
In his subsequent radio and television interviews, he said he was not suggesting an immediate withdrawal.
“I’m a soldier. We don’t do surrender. We don’t pull down white flags. We’re going to see this through,” he said.
“But we’ve got to get on with it. We can’t be there for years and years,” Dannatt said.
His remark that British forces exacerbate violence in some parts of Iraq was simply stating the obvious, he said. He added that in places, like Basra, they were still providing benefits.
But he also said ambitions had to be lowered from the expectations of a few years ago, and were now mainly focused on keeping Iraq from splitting up.
“We had high hopes,” he told the BBC. “It has proved more difficult for a whole variety of reasons and therefore we’re pressing on to get the best result we can. And it may not be that result that we originally wanted to get.”
British generals have said in the past that they hope to cut their force in Iraq — now roughly 7,000 troops — in half by the middle of next year. They have turned over two of the four provinces they patrol to Iraqis.
“We’re going to complete that process and ... the number of troops deployed there will reduce,” Dannatt said. Britain has lost 119 troops killed.
Political Fallout
Some of his remarks in the Daily Mail could have political repercussions on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Iraq war is unpopular in Britain, and Iraq’s worsening violence is a political issue for President Bush who faces a congressional election next month.
Blair’s office did not comment directly on the interview, issuing a statement saying British troops were in Iraq at the invitation of an elected government there.
“Britain is an important ally. The withdrawal of troops is something that is discussed in open forums in democracies but we are not going to make any comments,” the spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad, Lt Col. Christopher Garver, said.
Blair has insisted that British troops must remain in Iraq until the Iraqi government is able to take control of security.
Dannatt said Britain would not abandon Iraq to U.S. forces. Britain was the only country to send a large contingent to back the United States during the 2003 invasion.
“We have got to stand together with our American allies. I am on the record publicly as saying we are standing shoulder to shoulder with the Americans,
| October 13, 2006 | 14:43:58 |
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North Korea Warns of 'Declaration of War' From U.S. - Posted By: NaBeeel
McCain Criticizes Clinton on North Korea, Republican Sen. John McCain on Tuesday accused former President Clinton, the husband of his potential 2008 White House rival, of failing to act in the 1990s to stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons. Sen. John McCain, speaking at a news conference in Southfield, Mich., criticized the former Clinton administration's policies on North Korea.
Sen. John McCain criticized the former Clinton administration's handling of North Korea. McCain took a direct jab at Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., for her husband's policies.
"I would remind Senator (Hillary) Clinton and other Democrats critical of the Bush administration's policies that the framework agreement her husband's administration negotiated was a failure," McCain said at a news conference after a campaign appearance for Republican Senate candidate Mike Bouchard.
"The Koreans received millions and millions in energy assistance. They've diverted millions of dollars of food assistance to their military," he said.
Democrats have argued President Clinton presented his successor with a framework for dealing with North Korea and the Republican fumbled the opportunity. In October 2000, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made a groundbreaking visit to Pyongyang to explore a missile deal with Chairman Kim Jong Il. There was even talk of a visit by President Clinton.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula
Reports this week suggesting North Korea tested a nuclear device prompted a number of Democrats to criticize Bush, arguing that he focused on Iraq, a country without weapons of mass destruction, while ignoring legitimate threats from Pyongyang.
The criticism took a presidential campaign turn on Tuesday as McCain, the Arizona senator considered the Republican front-runner for the party nod, assailed Clinton's husband and mentioned her by name. The New York senator is considered her party's leading candidate in 2008.
Sen. Clinton's spokesman dismissed McCain's criticism and argued that it was time for a new policy from the president.
"Now is not the time to play politics of the most dangerous kind - with our policy on North Korea," Philippe Reines, spokesman for Sen. Clinton, said in a statement. "History is clear that nothing the Bush administration has done has stopped the North Koreans from openly testing a nuclear weapon and presenting a new danger to the region of the world."
Five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush "has allowed the 'axis of evil' to spin out of control. Our Iraq policy is a failure. Iran is going nuclear and North Korea is testing nuclear weapons," the statement said.
A spokesman for President Clinton, Ben Yarrow, said in a statement that it was "unfortunate that anyone would attempt to rewrite history to score political points at a time when we need to address this serious threat."
"For eight years during the Clinton administration, there was no new plutonium production, no nuclear weapons tests and therefore no additional nuclear weapons developed on President Clinton's watch," said Yarrow, who added that Colin Powell, Bush's secretary of State, endorsed Clinton's policy toward North Korea in 2001.
McCain's criticism also elicited a strong response from Democratic Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 presidential nominee and a potential 2008 candidate.
"He must be trying to burnish his credentials for the nomination process," said Kerry, who labeled McCain's comments "flat politics and incorrect."
"The truth is the Clinton administration knew full well they didn't have a perfect agreement. But at least they were talking. At least we had inspectors going in and we knew where the (nuclear fuel) rods were. This way, we don't know where the rods are, the rods are gone. There are no inspectors. Ask any American which way is better," Kerry said.
The Massachusetts senator made the remarks in Nevada during a campaign appearance with Elizabeth Carter, wife of Democratic Senate candidate Jack Carter.
In U.S.-North Korea relations, the initial breakthrough occurred in October 1994 when U.S. negotiators persuaded North Korea to freeze its nuclear program, with onsite monitoring by U.N. inspectors. In exchange, the United States, with input from South Korea and Japan, promised major steps to ease North Korea's acute energy shortage.
These commitments were inherited by the Bush administration, which made clear almost from the outset that it believed the Clinton policy ignored key elements of North Korea's activities, especially the threat posed by the hundreds of thousands of troops on permanent duty along the Demilitarized Zone with South Korea.
McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he backed tough U.N. sanctions against North Korea in response to the reported test. The measures, he said, should include a military embargo, financial and trade sanctions and the right to inspect all cargo in and out of North Korea.
McCain also called on China to "step up to the plate" and vote for sanctions and rejected calls for one-on-one talks between the United States and North Korea.
"The worst thing we could do is to accede to North Korea's demand for bilateral talks," McCain said. "When has rewarding North Korea's bad behavior ever gotten us anything more than worse behavior?"
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, speaking during a debate Tuesday with his Republican rival for the Senate, accused the Bush administration of walking away from relationships the Clinton administration had developed.
"When the North Korean ambassador came to the United States, he had to go to New Mexico to meet Bill Richardson, who had been at the United Nations, because he didn't have anyone else to talk to," Kennedy said. "The United States is the heavy in this. The United States has to engage. This administration has to have direct contact with North Korea."
Associated Press Writer Kathleen Hennessey in Boulder City, Nev., contributed to this report.
10/10/06 22:27 EDT
| October 11, 2006 | 12:53:47 |
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Ambassador, you are really spoiling us. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Presenter of Diplomatic Dinners, Hosting a diplomatic dinner is full of pitfalls. Get it right and important relationships can be formed. Get it wrong and serious diplomatic incidents can follow. So, what happens when food and drink get mixed up with foreign policy?
From grand, set-piece occasions to intimate lunches and dinners, diplomats have always used food and drink to try and further their cause. But it can be a hazardous tactic.
Take what is called "placement" - deciding who sits where at a meal. The former British ambassador in Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, calls it "one of the most sublime arts of diplomacy".
In Washington the embassy employed a social secretary whose job was to know all the gossip - who had had affairs or rows with whom - so they could be seated accordingly,
Try working out that seating plan
Then there's the tricky issue of status. One diplomat in Australia turned over his plate as he felt his place was too lowly. "But he was extremely greedy so he only did it for the first course," says Lord Carrington, who was High Commissioner in Australia at the time.
Even cutlery can cause trouble. Hugh Lunghi, who was a British interpreter at Winston Churchill's wartime meetings with Stalin, saw the Soviet leader thrown into confusion by an elaborate place setting.
"How does one use these tools," he asked. In the end, though, Stalin conceded: "We are primitive in our approach to food. We have a lot to learn from you."
Stalin might also have wanted lessons in how to use diplomacy to promote national cuisine. Even in Paris, a great culinary capital, the British embassy has developed a secret weapon - a French chef trained to cook puddings and pies.
When her husband was the ambassador there Lady Jay imported all kinds of British delicacies, including a cheese called Waterloo. Her only failure was jelly, which the French never took to.
Bears' paws
"I tried it very, very wobbly, very firm but I could never get it right. The chef said to me 'I think we ought to forget jelly',.
The most accomplished diplomatic diner should really be prepared to eat with enthusiasm whatever is served. Michael Shea, formerly the Queen's press secretary, remembers her eating some sort of rat in south America and dried bat in the pacific islands.
Cutlery confused Stalin
"You have to be polite about it because it can be one of the national dishes," .
Veterans of Middle East diplomacy, like Sir Antony Acland, came across the ceremony of the sheep's head, where the eyeball was given to the guest of honour.
"You knew that honour was being done to you and the host knew that he was doing honour to you," he says. "But it wasn't exactly an extremely tasty morsel that you had to somehow get down."
Some menu items are politically unpalatable. The former governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, remembers a delegation from the World Wildlife Fund which had come to China to promote the protection of rare species. At their farewell banquet hosted by the government in Beijing, the second course was bears' paws.
'Showered champagne'
But one of the worst diplomatic hazards of all is drink. Veterans joke about being asked to "lay down your liver for your country".
"Foreign guests were plied with drink and some of them, including very high ups, including our ambassador... just fell on the table," says Mr Lunghi, of his time in Moscow.
Stalin, meanwhile, used to stay sober enough to exploit others' lapses
by drinking water disguised as vodka.
One is an expert at diplomacy
There have been times when British diplomacy has made full use of alcohol. When Christopher Soames was ambassador in Paris in the 1970s "he just sort of showered the place in champagne", says retired senior Foreign Office official Sir John Ure.
That approach was frowned upon by those who thought the Diplomatic Service was too extravagant. These days consumption is more modest.
But the government does keep a large wine cellar near Whitehall with nearly 40,000 bottles. The head of government hospitality, Robert Alexander, is in charge of deciding who is served what. Only heads of state are allowed the finest vintages. Other wines are chosen in the hope of improving the atmosphere.
"You have to bear in mind that a lot of ministers are meeting people for the first time so they do occasionally need a conversational aid and the wine and the food can help provide that," he says.
'Strong stomach'
But does all this entertaining really make a difference? Mr Patten has his doubts.
"I think there is a certain amount of tosh talked about this, principally by those who confuse foreign policy with being nice to foreigners," he says.
Others say a successful meal can be the making of a diplomatic relationship, like the first time Tony Blair met George W Bush.
"It was an event at which the personal chemistry between the two men matched pretty well and you saw that very early on in the meal," says Mr Meyer, who witnessed it.
But it all takes careful planning, and a strong stomach, if eating for your country is really going to work.
Diplomatic Dinners is broadcast on Tuesdays at 0930 BST on Radio 4.
Add your comments on this story, using the form below.
The unfairness of it is that it can turn two countries into enemies because of personal differences between the representatives. But I doubt if those differences represent the people of respective countries.
Ratsie, Francistown
I am disgusted that taxpayers' money is being used to hold extravagant dinners and drinking sessions by the Foreign Office. When exactly are they going to be held accountable for how they are spending our millions? Down to the last penny?
Mollie, London
Well that explains why George and Tony have made such a dog's breakfast of their own foreign policies.
Mark, Hull
Of course diplomats say it's important to serve champagne and caviar - they like it! These are public servants consuming lavish food and wine at public expense with precious little to show for it. How much grand dining has been spent on wooing the Iranians, North Koreans, Russians, Syrians? Millions of pounds worth and with few tangible benefits.
We should sell the wine cellar and use the proceeds to pay off some of the national debt. We should only serve still water and dry biscuits (if they want a hearty meal they can pay for it out of their over-inflated salaries that go with their over-inflated egos).
Huw Sayer, Norwich, Norfolk
Given the numbers of starving people in the world and poverty in even the most forward of 'developed nations', I would have thought that most civilised countries would have done away with these wastes of finance and food years ago.
Pauline, England
All the comments posted below are so negative! Has everyone lost their sense of occassion or are we as a nation becoming so cheap that nobody is allowed to treat themselves once in a while?
Nick, Kent
If you moved into a new area and decided to invite the neighbours round for dinner as a means of introduction and promoting community spirit, would you crack open a bottle of wine and prepare a decent supper, or would you treat them to a glass of tap water and some dry crackers?
John, London, England
What a bunch of bores you lot are. Seriously, lighten up! I'm as stingy as the next person when it comes to the government's rampant taxation and spending, but can also appreciate that many in the foreign and diplomatic corps are exceptionally well qualified at what they do and have poise, manners, integrity and intelligence that belie their pay grades. That dinner layouts, place settings and what is served can cause such an uproar clearly illustrates the climate these folk have to work in. Anything to alleviate the situation I say!
Martin, London
Perhaps all of those people above who complain about the so-called excesses of diplomats would like to donate some of their food and wine to the starving millions? If a good bottle of Claret between ambassadors helps mutual interests, then who am I to complain?
Extravagant Dinners! Why not? It's about promoting an image of your country to the rest of the world. It's also a brilliant excuse to eat some really tasty dishes and drink some excellent wine.
I wonder how many of those complaining about the extravagence of these dinners plan on having "dried biscuits and water" for Xmas dinner? Frankly paying for a few bottle of booze seems cheaper than paying for a war. Equally as the nephew of an ambassador I can tell you the pay isn't worth the workload and dangers either.
As for the comment about having "dried biscuits and water" for Chrismas dinner; the difference is that when I buy my Christmas dinner, I pay for it myself. When ambassadors have extravagant dinners....I pay for it too.
It has often been said that food is the best way to a person's attention or heart. In Shona language there is a common saying, which losely translated is 'wining and dining strengthen relationships'So to get your foriegn policy right through food is one way of many possible means. Not bad, for food is meant to be enjoyed!
| October 10, 2006 | 16:43:43 |
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Ignored legitimate threats from the communist regime. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Democrats Blast Bush's Handling Of North Korea,Democrats seized on North Korea' newest nuclear provocation to criticize President Bush's record in confronting Kim Jong Il, arguing that the administration's focus on Iraq ignored legitimate threats from the communist regime.
In the nearly five years since Bush labeled North Korea part of an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq, Kim Jong Il's government has withdrawn from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, announced it has nuclear weapons, refused to return to six-nation talks and launched seven missiles into the Sea of Japan.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., blasts the Bush's policies on North Korea, telling Reuters, "The Bush administration has for several years been in a state of denial about the growing challenge of North Korea, and has too often tried to downplay the issue or change the subject."
Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, echoed this sentiment, saying, "We had the opportunity to stop North Korea from increasing its nuclear power, but George Bush went to sleep at the switch while he pursued his narrow agenda in Iraq."
However, Republicans sought to deflect the criticism and prove that their party is tough on security, unlike their Democratic counterparts.
House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, accused Democrats of obstructing important work on a missile defense program, saying, "It is now clear that such a position would weaken America's national defense and put Americans in danger."
However, in light of the Republican page scandal, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and others directed their anger at the North Koreans, with the speaker calling the test "a desperate act of a criminal regime."
| October 10, 2006 | 16:16:09 |
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Nuclear Nightmare Comes True. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Nuclear Test Draws Worldwide Condemnation,United Nations Proposal Seeks Tough Sanctions
The world got an unwelcome addition to the nuclear club - and heard an ominous exception to the universal outcry.After a week of pleas to stop, North Korea announced Monday it had followed through on its threat of staging an underground test of an atomic bomb, setting off warnings by friend and foe alike that the nuclear age had reached a dangerous new level.
Even before Washington could confirm the test, President Bush called Pyongyang's announcement "a threat to international peace and security." He demanded an "immediate response" from the U.N. Security Council and proposed even tougher sanctions - but no military action - against the impoverished communist regime.
Japan's U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, the Security Council president, said all members agreed that the response "should be strong, swift and very, very clear in its message and its action."
One notable voice, though, was missing from the condemnation about North Korea becoming the ninth country to have nuclear weapons, joining the United States, Russia, France, Britain, India, Pakistan, China and - though never acknowledged - Israel.
The country believed to be the next prospective member - Iran - watched the reaction and sympathized that the reclusive communist nation had been goaded into it by American "threats and humiliation."
World leaders worried that Iran would be encouraged by North Korea's success, even though Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes to be used for nuclear energy.President Bush's Statement,"Once again, North Korea has defied the will of the international community and the international community will respond."
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Russia was the only country to say it had "no doubts" over the North Korean claim, but the U.S. and other experts said the explosion was smaller than expected and they had yet to confirm it was nuclear.
But the reaction of world governments reflected little doubt that they were treating the announcement as fact.
The U.N. Security Council condemned the announcement, urging Pyongyang to return to stalled talks, refrain from further tests and keep its pledge to scrap its clandestine weapons program.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton and key allies Britain and France also said they would seek tough new U.N. sanctions against the North.
The United States circulated a draft U.N. resolution late Monday that would condemn North Korea's nuclear test and impose tough sanctions on the reclusive communist nation for its "flagrant disregard" of the Security Council's appeal not to detonate a device.
The draft, obtained by The Associated Press, prohibits all trade in military and luxury goods and prevents "any abuses of the international financial system" that could contribute to the transfer or development of banned weapons.
It would also ban all countries from allowing any North Korean ships in their ports or any North Korean aircraft from taking off or landing in their territory.
But just how long it will take the council's 15 members to agree on a resolution remains to be seen.
Council experts started discussing the proposals in meetings Monday afternoon, but it was unclear whether China and Russia - the North's closest allies - would support some of the tough measures, which also include international inspection of all cargo to and from North Korea to limit the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and to ban any material that could be used in the production of weapons of mass destruction.
Before the experts meeting, the ambassadors from the five veto-wielding council nations - the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China - met with Oshima.
| October 9, 2006 | 22:42:42 |
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Condemnation of the North Korean test. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Analysis: U.N. reacts to N. Korea,The U.N. Security Council was unusually busy Monday morning, nominating South Korea Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon for confirmation by the General Assembly as the world organization's next secretary-general then targeting Seoul's neighbor, North Korea, for detonating a nuclear device.
The United States at least, saw a link.
"It's really quite an appropriate juxtaposition that today, 61 years after the temporary division of the Korean Peninsula at the end of World War II, that we are electing the foreign minister of South Korea as secretary-general of this organization and meeting as well to consider the testing by the North Koreans of a nuclear device," said the U.S. ambassador, John Bolton.
"I can't think of a better way to show the difference in the progress of those two countries, great progress in the south and great tragedy in the north," he added.
But Monday, the council was concentrating on North Korea.
The panel of 15 strongly condemned the reported nuclear test by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, calling it "a grave challenge" that violates international norms, aggravates regional tensions and creates serious security issues for the world community.
After initial consultations, immediately after sending Ban's nomination to the assembly, Ambassador Kenzo Oshima of Japan, this month's president of the council, emerged from behind closed doors to express the will of the panel.
He urged North Korea to refrain from further testing and return to the six-party talks that have been seeking to resolve the issue of Pyongyang's its nuclear program.
Members of the council ordered their experts to meet in the afternoon to hammer out language for the resolution. The veto-wielding permanent five members of the panel, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States met to further discuss the crisis.
Friday, the council warned the DPRK of unspecified action if it went ahead with the test, which it said would represent a clear threat to international peace and security.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "deeply concerned" and also called in a statement issued by his spokesman, for urgent resumption of the talks between China, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States that have been going on sporadically in Beijing for several years.
Just how urgent Security Council action was sought, was indicated by U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, who broke from the panel's meetings after Oshima reported on the members' initial reaction to the news from Pyongyang.
He recalled council resolution 1695, unanimously approved this summer "in response to the unprovoked launch of ballistic missiles by North Korea."
Bolton also noted the North Korean test followed Friday's "very strongly worded" formal presidential statement read out in the chamber by Oshima, calling on Pyongyang not to test.
"You'll remember when the Security Council adopted Resolution 1695, the North Korea Ambassador, in the council chamber, rejected 1695 and got up and walked out," the Washington envoy told reporters. "Now, in effect, by testing after the council called on North Korea not to test, they've defied the council again."
Bolton proceeded to call the consultations "quite remarkable."
"I laid out the number of elements that the United States was asking for council members to consider in a sanctions resolution that would be under Chapter VII," he said. "These elements obviously go beyond 1695 because 1695 was pre-nuclear test. The entire discussion, in which all 15 council members participated, took only 30 minutes. That's remarkable in the Security Council, as some of you may know, to have a unanimous condemnation of the North Korean test -- no one defended it; no one even came close to defending it," Bolton said.
"Now we'll see how the negotiations go, but I think we're off to an important start here so that the message to North Korea, and more important even than the message, the strong steps we feel the council should take, can be swiftly adopted."
When it was recalled he told reporters last week Pyongyang's friends on the council were protecting North Korea, Bolton replied, "I didn't see any protectors of North Korea in that room this morning."
| October 9, 2006 | 18:05:19 |
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History is not just made up of generals and kings. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Vatican unveils necropolis inside its walls,- Lovers of Roman-era art and archaeology can thank the Vatican's parking problem for the discovery of one of the ancient world's best preserved necropolises -- right inside the tiny city-state's walls.
The necropolis was opened on Monday, three years after it was unearthed by workers who were breaking ground for a new garage to ease the Vatican's dearth of parking space.
"We found the kind of things that have usually been lost in past excavations in Rome," said Giandomenico Spinola, director of the excavation and restoration works.
One of the novelties of the necropolis, located along what was once the ancient Via Triumphalis (Triumphal Way) that Roman warriors used when returning from conquests, is that it offers a mixture of burial sites of both rich and middle class Romans.
"History is not just made up of generals and kings," said Paolo Liverani, another member of the Vatican team that led the restoration project near St Peter's Basilica.
"This is not your usual necropolis in the center of Rome. It's the only one like it. To find something similar, you have to go all the way to Ostia," he said, referring to the archaeological site at the ancient seaport west of the city.
The excavations have brought to light some 40 mausoleums and over 200 single tombs arranged on multiple levels, most well preserved and dating between the end of the 1st century BC to the start of the 4th century AD.
A landslide at the end of the 2nd century covered the site and helped its preservation.
The more simple tombs include funerary altars with terracotta urns that held ashes of those cremated, lamps, and holes from where garlands were hung.
Alongside tombs of ordinary, middle class Romans -- one a "tabellarius" (letter carrier) and another a "hortator" (circus horse trainer) -- rest finely sculpted sarcophagi of Romans with more money.
The floor of one of the up-scale mausoleums was decorated with a preserved black-and-white mosaic of a drunken Dionysus, the god of the vine, held up in a vineyard by a young satyr.
The mosaic was restored in the Vatican Museums restoration laboratory and placed back in its original location.
One of the intricately sculpted sarcophogi includes a figure of a person in prayer, indicating that he may have been a wealthy Roman who converted to Christianity before the emperor Constantine made the new religion legal in 313 AD.
"This is a work in progress," said Francesco Buranelli, director of the Vatican museums.
Indeed, some of the skeletons that have been unearthed -- including that of a small boy holding an egg in his hand -- are still half buried, making a visit to the site a slightly eerie but highly realistic experience.
Visitors to the necropolis, which is covered by a newly constructed building, can walk over it on steel catwalks which offer an excellent view of the ruins.
| October 9, 2006 | 15:04:53 |
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Entering a new, dangerous nuclear age . - Posted By: NaBeeel
N Korea 'nuclear test' condemned ,The UN Security Council has strongly condemned North Korea's claim to have tested a nuclear weapon underground.It will also consider what steps to take next, including sanctions that could be mandatory and enforceable.
President George W Bush said the US is working to confirm the test claim. He branded it a "provocative" act threatening peace and stability. He said he and regional leaders agreed North Korea's actions were unacceptable and deserved an immediate UN response.
Current Security Council President Kenzo Oshima of Japan urged North Korea to refrain from further testing and return to six-party talks.
The session comes three days after the council agreed a formal statement urging North Korea to cancel any planned nuclear test.
The nuclear test... marks a historic event... It will contribute to defending peace and stability
North Korean statement
The Americans have circulated a 13-point draft resolution seeking targeted sanctions. They include:
Halting trade in material that could be used to make weapons of mass destruction
Inspections of cargo going in and out of North Korea
The ending of financial transactions used to support nuclear proliferation
The US also wants to see the sanctions brought under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which means they would be mandatory and ultimately enforceable by military means.
UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett also said the UK would be "pushing for a robust response" under Chapter Seven.
However the Russians and Chinese - who have trade links with North Korea - have been reluctant to go down that path, says the BBC's Laura Trevelyan at the UN in New York.
US ambassador to the UN John Bolton said that although responses were preliminary, he was "very impressed by the unanimity of the Council on the need for a strong and swift answer".
"I didn't see any protectors of North Korea in that room," he said.
But North Korea's ambassador, Pak Gil Yon, said the Security Council should congratulate Pyongyang instead of issuing "useless" resolutions.
'Unpardonable'
In his first public statement, the US president said the North Korean claim "constitutes a threat to international peace and security."
He said he had telephoned Chinese, Japanese, Russian and South Korean leaders, who had all reaffirmed their commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
"Once again, North Korea has defied the will of the international community, and the international community will respond," he said.
N KOREA NUCLEAR PROGRAMME
Believed to have 'handful' of nuclear weapons
But not thought to have any small enough to put in a missile
Could try dropping from plane, though world watching closely
"The North Korea regime remains one of the world's leading proliferators of missile technology including transfers to Iran and Syria."
Mr Bush added that the development would not help North Korea's "oppressed and impoverished" people, who deserved a better future.
Earlier Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe - visiting Seoul - called the claimed test "unpardonable".
He warned the region was "entering a new, dangerous nuclear age".
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun feared the move could "spark a nuclear arms build-up in other countries".
In an unusually strong statement against its ally, China said the claimed test "defied the universal opposition of international society".
Meanwhile, the head of the South's intelligence service said it had detected more movement at another North Korean test site and he could not rule out further nuclear tests.
'No radiation leak'
South Korean media said the test took place in Gilju in Hamgyong province at 1036 (0136 GMT).
The size of the bomb is uncertain, with estimates varying from 550 tons of destructive power to as much as 15 kilotons. The 1945 Hiroshima bomb was 12.5-15 kilotons.
But correspondents say the claimed test does not necessarily mean North Korea has a fully-fledged nuclear bomb or warhead that it can deliver to a target.
North Korea's KCNA news agency described the test as an "historic event that brought happiness to our military and people".
It said the test would maintain "peace and stability" in the region and was "a great leap forward in the building of a great prosperous, powerful socialist nation". There was no radiation leak, it said.
Pyongyang pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 and has refused for a year to attend talks aimed at ending its nuclear ambitions.
| October 9, 2006 | 14:48:29 |
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Afghans could switch their allegiance from NATO to the Taliban. - Posted By: NaBeeel
General: Afghans May Soon Back Taliban, NATO's top commander in Afghanistan warned on Sunday that a majority of Afghans would likely switch their allegiance to resurgent Taliban militants if their lives show no visible improvements in the next six months.
Gen. David Richards, a British officer who commands NATO's 32,000 troops here, told The Associated Press that he would like to have about 2,500 additional troops to form a reserve battalion to help speed up reconstruction and development efforts.
He said the south of the country, where NATO troops have fought their most intense battles this year, has been "broadly stabilized," which gives the alliance an opportunity to launch projects there. If it doesn't, he estimates about 70 percent of Afghans could switch their allegiance from NATO to the Taliban.
"They will say, 'We do not want the Taliban but then we would rather have that austere and unpleasant life that that might involve than another five years of fighting,'" Richards said in an interview.
"We have created an opportunity," following the intense fighting that left over 500 militants dead in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, he said. "If we do not take advantage of this, then you can pour an additional 10,000 troops next year and we would not succeed because we would have lost by then the consent of the people."
NATO extended its security mission last week to all of Afghanistan, taking command of 12,000 U.S. troops in the war-battered country's east. The mission is the biggest ground combat operation in NATO history and gives Richards command of the largest number of U.S. troops under a foreign leader since World War II.
Some 8,000 U.S. troops will continue to function outside NATO, tracking al-Qaida terrorists, helping train Afghan security forces and doing reconstruction work.
Afghanistan is going through its worst bout of violence since the U.S.-led invasion removed the former Taliban regime from power five years ago. The Taliban has made a comeback in the south and east of the country and is seriously threatening Western attempts to stabilize the country after almost three decades of war.
Taliban militants have acknowledged adopting the suicide attacks commonly used by insurgents in Iraq, launching 78 suicide bombings across Afghanistan this year which have killed close to 200 people, NATO said Sunday.
There were only two suicide attacks in 2003 and six in 2004, according to Seth Jones, an analyst for the U.S.-based RAND Corp. He said there were 21 in 2005.
Richards, who will lead the NATO forces in Afghanistan until U.S. Gen. Dan K. McNeil takes over in February, said the Taliban may lose support among Afghans if it continues the attacks.
"The very cowardly use of suicide bombers, the tragic use of suicide bombers, reveals weakness on the part of the Taliban, not strength," he said.
Richards said NATO troops have also seen an upsurge in violence along the eastern border with Pakistan since that country's government signed a deal with pro-Taliban militants last month to end fighting that broke out after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001.
U.S. military officials have said the number of attacks on coalition and Afghan troops has tripled in the tribal border region. Afghan and Western officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of not doing all it can to block the flow of insurgents over the border, but Pakistan has rejected the charge.
Richards, who will travel to Pakistan for meetings with military leaders on Monday, urged "partnership and cooperation rather than confrontation" in dealings with Pakistan.
The U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces killed five suspected insurgents in a clash in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, the Ministry of Defense said. One suspected insurgent was detained following the gunfight in eastern Paktika province.
| October 8, 2006 | 22:00:39 |
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Bold decisions" will be required on Iraq - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bush's Iraq options limited. Pulling out troops would be tantamount to admitting defeat for Bush
A warning by a senior Republican senator that "bold decisions" will be required on Iraq if progress is not made soon has prompted talk that the White House might be forced into policy changes after the mid-term elections in November.
The problem for President George W Bush was illustrated by an example only this last week.
The hope that US troops would be "stood down" as Iraqi troops "stand up" was turned upside down.
It was an Iraqi police unit in Baghdad that was stood down, because of suspicions that it was condoning militia murders.
If the US cannot rely on the Iraqis, then the policy of transferring responsibility has no prospect of success.
Insurgent defeat looks impossible
And if there is no political solution, then the violence will continue.
The president's options are limited.
There are at least four wars going on Iraq - the war by jihadists against US troops, the war by nationalists against US troops, the war by Sunni jihadists against Shias and the war by Shia militias against Sunnis.
Any action he takes to alleviate one area could impact on another.
He is hardly likely to announce a withdrawal.
He himself has said that Iraq is the frontline in the war on terror he declared after 9/11.
Withdrawal therefore would be an admission of defeat in that war and might hand the country over to the jihadists, his absolutely worst nightmare.
Talks with insurgents?
He could send more troops. The US public would be doubtful to say the least and Congress might not fund them.
He could threaten to withdraw some troops in the hope of shocking the Iraqi government do more against the Shia militias.
But that might simply not work. And it could encourage the insurgents.
There are four separate wars going on in Iraq
He could suggest negotiating with the nationalist insurgents.
The Iraqi government is already trying to do so but will not accept the insurgents' demand for a US withdrawal.
But can the violence be stoped without insurgent agreement?
Insurgent defeat looks impossible.
He could suggest dividing Iraq along its ethnic lines. But that could precipitate a full-scale civil war.
Or he could just batten down the hatches and stick it out.
White House unprepared
The senator who has challenged the administration is John Warmer, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He said bluntly: "In two or three months if this thing hasn't come to fruition and if this level of violence is not under control and this government able to function, I think it's a responsibility of our government internally to determine is there a change of course we should take.
The US is giving the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki some more time to try to pull things together
"I wouldn't take off the table any option at this time."
Senator Warner made similarly grave remarks this time last year when he suggested the plan to hand over to Iraqi forces as soon as possible.
His assessment that it is his plan that is now failing gives his comments added impact.
The White House was not prepared for these remarks. A press secretary Dana Perino admitted: "I don't know what Senator Warner meant by that."
She referred reporters to a speech he made in Salt Lake City on 31 August.
"He said 'this is a crucial moment'," said Ms Perino. "And he said that the American people 'are very patient, as long as the Iraqi government continues to make hard decisions and continues to make progress.'"
So the US is giving the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki some more time to try to pull things together.
The US wants to give Mr Maliki's government a bit longer
Mr Maliki has announced yet another plan for reconciliation, this time by setting up local security committees but nothing he has done so far seems to have matched the needs of the time and the country.
President Bush is also waiting for a report from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group which will report after the mid-terms.
This group, led by an old Bush family friend and former Secretary of State James Baker and by Democrat Lee Hamilton, could be the peg on which any shift of policy might be hung.
It, too, is critical of the Iraqi government's performance.
"The Iraqi government must act," said Mr Hamilton in September.
"The government of Iraq needs to show its own citizens soon, and the citizens of the United States, that it is deserving of continued support.''
| October 8, 2006 | 21:29:47 |
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Security to Iraq . - Posted By: NaBeeel
Iraq sweep aims to stem killing in north
Thousands of Iraqi troops launched a crackdown in Kirkuk on Saturday, ordering residents to stay in their homes in an effort to put down violence that has swelled in the north amid efforts to rein in bloodshed in Baghdad.
Elsewhere in the north, a suicide bomber rammed a police checkpoint with an explosives-packed car, killing 14 people in the town of Tal Afar. It was the deadliest attack in a day that saw 26 Iraqis killed around the country.
In March, President Bush had pointed to Tal Afar as an example of progress made in bringing security to Iraq after a major U.S. offensive swept through the town, 30 miles from the Syrian border.
But after a period of quiet, Saturday's was the fourth suicide attack in the town in the past three weeks.
Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops have been carrying out an intensified sweep of Baghdad since August, searching neighborhood by neighborhood to root out insurgents and militias who have killed thousands this year.
But at the same time, shootings, bombings and other attacks has been swelling in northern areas such as Kirkuk and Mosul, the capital of the province where Tal Afar is located _ though the bloodshed has not been on the scale seen in Baghdad.
The U.S. military announced Saturday that a U.S. soldier was killed Friday near Beiji, about 60 miles southwest of Kirkuk.
Authorities in Kirkuk this week completed digging a 10-mile trench around the city's southern and western edges aimed at cutting off side roads to prevent car bombs from being brought into the city. Intensified checkpoints were set up on city entrances that remained.
On Saturday, authorities announced a curfew had been extended to round-the-clock "until further notice," ordering all residents off the streets, said Kirkuk police chief Lt. Gen. Sherko Shaker.
"This operation comes as a measure to cleansing Kirkuk from weapons, as well to prevent the militants from having any chance to reorganize their abilities," he said. "We shouldn't give them any chance to rest."
Troops conducted searches and raids on Saturday in the southern and western sectors of the city, where most of the Sunni Arab population is centered. So far, 150 suspected Sunni insurgents have been arrested and more than 220 assault rifles have been seized, Shaker said.
Kirkuk, located 180 miles north of Baghdad, is a major oil center and the focus of an ongoing struggle for power between its large Sunni and Kurdish populations.
The Kurds want to include the city in their autonomous zone further north and are working to resettle thousands of Kurds who were driven out during the regime of Saddam Hussein and replaced with Sunni Arabs.
Al-Qaida in Iraq and another major Sunni group, Ansar al-Sunna, have increased their presence in regions west of the city, said Sheik Abdul-Rahman al-Munshid, a top sheik in the Sunni Obeid tribe. He blamed Kurdish efforts in the city for fueling Sunni Arab support for insurgents.
"The demands of the Kurdish political forces and their attempt ... to work to make Kirkuk part of the northern region that have created worry among the non-Kurdish groups," he said.
Meanwhile, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed vehicle into a police checkpoint in Tal Afar, killing four policemen and 10 civilians. Some of them died when parts of nearby homes collapsed from the force of the blast.
In nearby Mosul, gunmen killed a woman whose son works with the city police, Mosul police Col. Abdel-Karim al-Jubouri said. A Kurdish lawyer was shot to death in front of his home in the evening.
Gunmen killed five people in separate shooting attacks on roads northwest of Mosul, including three Iraqis who worked at a nearby military base.
In Baghdad on Saturday, gunmen sprayed a Shiite-owned bakery in the Mansour district with bullets, killing two people and wounding one.
More bodies with bound hands and signs of torture on them were found; two were in the Tigris River in downtown Baghdad and five others were dumped in a southeastern suburb.
Meanwhile, the U.S. command said it had captured 28 suspected terrorists in a series of nine raids early Tuesday in the Jisr Diyala neighborhood of southeastern Baghdad. Among those were three "high value individuals, including the No. 9 person on the division's high-value target list."
| October 7, 2006 | 22:37:49 |
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Clinton and his allies for heart healthiness. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Clinton deal put restrictions on school snacks
Major food companies have agreed to make popular snacks healthier
(New York - WABC, October 6, 2006) - Cut the fat, cut the sugar and cut the salt.
That's the goal behind a new initiative to crackdown on junk food in schools.
The push is being made by former President Bill Clinton, who will make his pitch Friday afternoon.
Education reporter Art McFarland is in Harlem with the story.
Clinton and his allies for heart healthiness have formed an alliance they call the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. The goal is to target childhood obesity, and they say the announcement Friday is a big step in the right direction.
"Chips, you can have a chocolate bar," student Luis Arias said, when asked what was available in his school's vending machines.
But even the most popular snack, like chips and candy bars sold in schools, will be expected to cut the fat.
Clinton has brokered a deal with some of the major food companies, including Kraft, Mars, Campbell, Dannon and Pepsi, to redo the recipes and make them healthier.
"I have actually looked in the back of the snacks," student Dharminder Singh said. "And they do have a lot of calories and a lot of fat."
The guidelines for fat content are based on recommendations from scientists. Some of the school snacks will cut their fat content by more than half.
But some students question the need for trimming the fat.
"I think the snacks are healthy as it is," student Emilio Tatis said. "Once you just take into account what [kids] are eating in the first place, it doesn't matter if they [have] fat or not."
We will hear from the former president and members of the food industry today about how they will target not only childhood obesity, but also the early onset of diabetes and other diseases affecting children.
Some of the products may also soon appear on the general market with reduced fat as well.
| October 6, 2006 | 17:14:19 |
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We have problems in our schools. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Should schools allow teachers, principals, administrators and other school personnel to carry concealed weapons? Lawmaker Wants Teachers Armed With Guns
Rep. Lasee To Propose Gun Legislation, -- In the wake of school shootings in Wisconsin, Colorado and Pennsylvania during the last two weeks, a Wisconsin state legislator said he plans to introduce legislation that would allow teachers, principals, administrators and other school personnel to carry concealed weapons.
Interactive: Recent School Shootings
Rep. Frank Lasee, R-Bellevue, said Wednesday that, while his idea may not be politically correct, it has worked effectively in other countries.
"To make our schools safe for our students to learn, all options should be on the table," he said. "Israel and Thailand have well-trained teachers carrying weapons and keeping their children safe from harm. It can work in Wisconsin."
Lasee stressed that the measure would hinge on school staff members getting strict training on the use of the weapons.
But Pete Pochowski, director of school safety for Milwaukee Public Schools, expressed opposition to the proposal.
"Statistically, the safest place for a child to be is in school," Pochowski aid . "We have problems in our schools, but not to the point where we need to arm our teachers and principals."
Children in countries such as Israel and Thailand are far more vulnerable to daily violence than students in America, he said.
"In the country we live in, we have a lot of freedom," Pochowski said, "and we have to expose ourselves to some danger to keep that."
Funeral services were held Wednesday for Principal John Klang, who was shot and killed Friday at Weston High School.
| October 5, 2006 | 18:17:34 |
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Iran again urged the West to solve the standoff . - Posted By: NaBeeel
Major world powers to discuss Iran on Friday, Major world powers will meet on Friday to decide how to tackle Iran over its nuclear programme, officials said, as the EU's top diplomat said the West should be open to further talks with Tehran.
Remarks by ministers from some of the major powers signalled uncertain resolve over Iran before the London meeting at which the United States, backed by Britain, is likely to seek a decision on preparing sanctions at the U.N. Security Council.
U.S. and British officials said U. S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would join counterparts from Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany at 5:00 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Friday after talks earlier in the day between senior officials.
While Washington is lobbying hard for sanctions, Russia and China have opposed this route and some European countries say diplomacy must be given longer. All six major powers are veto-wielding Security Council members apart from Germany.
Iran again urged the West on Thursday to solve the standoff through talks but repeated it would not stop uranium enrichment. Iran says the programme is only for power generation but the West suspects it wants to make a nuclear bomb.
France, while suggesting Iran was exploiting the stalemate to build up its atomic fuel programme, said "we are (still) offering our hand" for a deal. Russia said it remained opposed to sanctions despite an apparent dead end in EU-Iran talks.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the door to dialogue with the Islamic Republic should not be slammed. "I think that even if we fail now, we should maintain the doors open," he told reporters in Rome.
"The time for negotiations is not infinite, but we try to do our utmost."
| October 5, 2006 | 18:07:58 |
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Worst week of bombings in three years. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Condoleezza Rice meets Iraq PM in Baghdad, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Baghdad for a surprise visit on Thursday as the capital suffered its worst week of bombings in three years. “The secretary did meet with Prime Minister (Nuri) al-Maliki,” confirmed US embassy spokesman Lou Fintor, adding that she arrived Thursday afternoon and will meet with US and Iraqi officials in the course of her visit. Rice left Israel earlier Thursday as part of a Middle East tour.
Her last visit to Iraq was on April 26, when she arrived with Defence Secretary Donald Secretary to congratulate Maliki on being chosen to form a coalition government.
Since then, Iraq has slipped deeper into the grip of a brutal wave of sectarian violence which now kills more than 100 people per day, and US troop numbers in the country have climbed from 132,000 to 142,000.
On Wednesday, US coalition spokesman Major General William Caldwell told reporters that the number of car bombs and roadside booby-traps exploding every day in Iraq was at its highest level since the US-led invasion in March 2003.
Rice’s visit comes after Iraq’s political leaders signed a solemn pledge on Monday to end the sectarian bloodshed, the latest initiative of Maliki’s government to stem the rampant killings engulfing the country.
| October 5, 2006 | 14:37:57 |
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The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. - Posted By: NaBeeel
North Koreans Say They Plan a Nuclear Tes, North Korea announced Tuesday that it intended to conduct its first nuclear test, prompting warnings from Tokyo to Washington that an underground explosion would lead to a sharp response and could undermine the security balance in Asia.
North Korea did not say when it would try to test a weapon, and experts inside and outside the Bush administration said the announcement itself was a negotiating ploy, intended to force the White House into lifting economic sanctions and holding one-on-one talks with North Korea.
American intelligence officials said they saw no signs that a test was imminent. But they cautioned that two weeks ago, American officials who had reviewed recent intelligence reports said American spy satellites had picked up evidence of indeterminate activity around what is thought to be North Korea’s main test site. It was unclear to them whether the activity was part of plans for a test, or perhaps a feint related to last month’s visit to Washington by President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea.
At that meeting, Mr. Bush and Mr. Roh discussed the possibility of a test, and Mr. Roh said the event would “change the nature” of South Korea’s policy of economic engagement with the North, Mr. Roh told Americans he met afterward.
But the two leaders did not appear to have a coordinated strategy, and a senior Asian diplomat in Washington said Tuesday that “no one is quite sure how to respond” if the North conducted a test in the near future.
In public, the Bush administration’s response was muted and left the American response as unclear as the North Korean threat.
North Korea has long possessed plutonium fuel to manufacture nuclear weapons, and American intelligence agencies say they believe the country expanded its fuel stockpile in recent years so that it could now make roughly six to eight weapons, and perhaps more. That inventory was increased, North Korea says, after the eviction of international inspectors in early 2003, just as the Bush administration was focused on the invasion of Iraq.
North Korea claimed more than a year ago that it possessed a “nuclear deterrent,” but the absence of a test has created a diplomatic ambiguity, allowing China to raise doubts about how far the country had progressed, and giving Washington room after President Bush’s declaration in his first term that he would never “tolerate” a nuclear-armed North Korea.
It is unclear whether the North Koreans have determined that ambiguity is no longer in their interests. In a statement issued Tuesday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said that “the U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the D.P.R.K. to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a self-defense measure in response.” North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
But earlier this month a North Korean general, Ri Chan-bok, told a visiting American expert, Selig S. Harrison, that no test was necessary.
Mr. Harrison quoted General Ri as saying last week: “If we have an underground test it could have radioactive leakage. These rumors are spread by U.S. agencies to smear us. I have never heard indications of a nuclear test in our government or armed forces.”
In a statement, Frederick Jones, the National Security Council spokesman, said a test would “severely undermine our confidence in North Korea’s commitment to denuclearization” and “pose a threat to peace and security in Asia and the world.”
“A provocative action of this nature would only further isolate the North Korean regime and deny the people of the North the benefits offered to them” in six-nation talks that have not reconvened in more than a year, the statement said.
But behind closed doors the announcement touched off a flurry of meetings, as officials wrestled with uncertain intelligence, questions about whether China or South Korea could prevent a test and the possibility that a test could take place before the Congressional elections.
The American statement did not draw the lines in the sand that marked the nuclear standoffs of the 1990’s, when the Clinton administration began reinforcing American forces on the Korean Peninsula in response to a threat by the North to convert its supply of spent nuclear reactor fuel into bombs.
But American officials, who declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak about North Korean policy, have recently said the administration assumes that sooner or later, North Korea will conduct a test. “You could argue that it wouldn’t be an all-bad thing,” one administration hawk said, “because it would finally unify the Chinese, and the Russians and the South Koreans,” all of whom have been reluctant to pressure North Korea.
Michael Green, who handled North Korea issues for the National Security Council until he left the White House last year, said, “I think that the evidence has grown, especially with the missile launch, that North Korea has its own escalation ladder, and they would agree to postpone a test only for the right price.”
Mr. Green said he thought it was unlikely that North Korea’s price would be met, and he said he thought the North had “calculated that they can take the heat from China and Japan, and they are not losing much from South Korea anyway.”
In Tokyo, North Korea’s sudden announcement was the first international test for Japan’s new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, a nationalist who has vowed to make security a top priority. Mr. Abe warned North Korea against the test in stern terms rarely heard in the cautious language of Japanese diplomacy.
“Japan and the world absolutely will not tolerate a nuclear test,” he told reporters, in a statement worded more sharply than the Bush administration’s. “The international community would respond harshly.”
[On Wednesday, China urged North Korea to “exercise necessary calm and restraint,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, said in a statement reported by Reuters from Beijing. But he also warned other countries to “peacefully resolve their mutual concerns through dialogue” and “not take actions that escalate tensions.”]
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Cairo, where she met with several Arab counterparts on regional issues, including Iran’s nuclear program, that the announcement was disturbing and that a nuclear test would be “a very provocative act by the North Koreans.”
Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting from Seoul, South Korea; Martin Fackler from Tokyo; and Philip Shenon from Cairo.
| October 5, 2006 | 14:12:11 |
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The Palestinian Authority has faced a political crisis . - Posted By: NaBeeel
Rice pledges US support for Abbas, Ms Rice said the US admired Mr Abbas' leadership
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has pledged Washington's support for beleaguered Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Speaking after meeting Mr Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Ms Rice said the US had "great admiration" for his leadership.
Her comments came after Mr Abbas said talks with Hamas on forming a national unity government had collapsed.
Ms Rice is also due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Her visit is part of a wider Middle East trip aimed at reinforcing support for moderate leaders.
But the BBC's state department correspondent Jonathan Beale says while Ms Rice poured praise on the Palestinian leader, she appeared to have little to offer him.
She said the US wanted to do more and was discussing how to facilitate a meeting between Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas.
But, our correspondent says, there was no indication that the US had a plan to restart the peace process.
Humanitarian plight
At a joint news conference in Ramallah, Ms Rice reiterated Washington's support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.There is no dialogue now Mahmoud Abbas ,Palestinian leader
Rice courts moderate Arabs
"You have the strong commitment of the United States to that cause and the personal commitment of me and the personal commitment of the president," she told Mr Abbas.
She said the US was very concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza, and promised to "redouble our efforts to improve the conditions for the Palestinian people".
The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says Ms Rice's focus on this trip has been both to bolster Mr Abbas but also to try to secure some safety valve for the tensions building up in the Palestinian territories - not least by getting the Israelis to open some of the border crossings that are essential to the Palestinians' economic well-being.
But, he says, the Israelis have a price - better security and the return of their abducted soldier, held by Palestinian militants since June.
Talks fail
Mr Abbas meanwhile said talks with Hamas to form a national unity government had collapsed.
"There is no dialogue now," he said. "I have also said that dialogue cannot continue forever.
"Therefore, we have to think long and hard about what we are going to do and what is the next step going to be."
The Palestinian Authority has faced a political crisis since Hamas won elections in January. Its refusal to recognise Israel and renounce violence triggered a Western boycott.
Over the past month, Mr Abbas has been seeking to form a coalition government with his more moderate Fatah party on a platform which would be acceptable to the international community.
The Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya, criticised Ms Rice's visit, saying the secretary of state "cares only to rearrange this region and to rearrange the Palestinian scene in a way that serves the American and Israeli agenda".
A flare-up of fighting between Hamas and Fatah gunmen in the West Bank and Gaza over the past few days claimed an 11th life on Wednesday.
Unidentified masked gunmen killed a Hamas leader in the West Bank city of Qalqilya, a day after Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militants threatened to kill senior Hamas members.
| October 4, 2006 | 16:25:10 |
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Lies and Cover-Ups. Part 1 - Posted By: NaBeeel
Lies and Cover-Ups are not ’Being in Denial’
The right wing of the Republican Party has a problem with the truth. The American press corps has an addiction to euphemisms.
Bob Woodward called his book "State of Denial." The press around the book raises the question of whether President George W. Bush and his highest officials—Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condi Rice— are unable to face the truth ("in denial").
Yet the sort of anecdote Woodward tells, and the new information surfacing on Tenet’s briefing of Rice and Hastert’s inaction on Foley— all these do not point to denial or lack of realism. They point to lying and to deliberately spinning and misleading the US public.
I don’t understand why US reporters and editors won’t call a spade a spade.
This is the exchange on Larry King Live with Woodward on Monday:
’ WOODWARD: Well, the evidence going way, way back is that there is a kind of denial. Let me give you an example and there are dozens in the book. November 11, 2003, now this is six months, eight months after the invasion the top CIA man, a guy named Rob Rischer (ph), who is head of the division for the Near East for the Middle East for the CIA, this is one of these operatives you never hear about or see, been to Iraq, went to the seven bases we had and he came back and briefed President Bush and the NSC. And, he said there’s an insurgency out there. Don Rumsfeld, who was there said, "Well, I’m not sure I agree with you." The CIA man gets out The Pentagon’s manual which says, look, an insurgency is defined this way, popular support, ability to strike at will, ability to move at will, and says it meets all of these criteria. President Bush says "Well, I don’t think we’re there yet and I don’t want any of my cabinet officers saying there’s an insurgency. I don’t want to read about it in "The New York Times."
KING: Is this...
WOODWARD: Now what is that? Now, what you also find in the research at that time, the month before, attacks zoomed up, insurgent attacks on our forces and Iraqis to 1,000 in the month of October, 2003. Now that’s 30 attacks a day. That’s one an hour. Now, imagine if there was — in this country if there were attacks one an hour, you’d say something’s going on and the concern should not be what’s "The New York Times" going to say? The concern should be how do we deal with this?
KING: Is this devious or incompetent?
WOODWARD: You know, again, I’m not judging, no evidence that it’s devious. Bush is an optimist. What it is, it’s inattentiveness. They thought this was going to be easy. They thought, as Cheney...
KING: You quote him from this show.
WOODWARD: ...saying yes.
KING: The insurgency is over.
WOODWARD: Yes. ’
Well, it is just obviously devious. He said, "I don’t want to read about it in the New York Times." That translates as, I don’t want my critics on the left to have the ammunition that an acknowledgment of an insurgency would give them. He didn’t say, "My definition of an insurgency is X and what you’re describing doesn’t fit it." His reply was not substantive, it was instrumental. Like everything else in this administration, they say what will get them their way, not what is true and honest.
But Rob Richer (it is on p. 266) was giving him a professional’s estimation. Even Paul Bremer agreed with him on this occasion, and if Bush couldn’t trust Bremer’s estimation of what was going on, he should have fired him. That toady Gen. Myers intervened with some silly list of things that had gone well, as if that were germane to the question of whether there was an insurgency.
Bush covered Richer’s briefing up, and he covered it up from us. For political reasons. He lied.
Woodward’s outrage comes from his recognition that Bush’s cold shoulder to Richer had policy implications. If you can’t announce that there is an insurgency, then you cannot order an effective counter-insurgency policy. The failure of the Bush administration all along in Iraq to publicly acknowledge how bad the situation was has cost thousands of US soldiers’ their lives. They died because Bush was treading water instead of coming on television and saying, there is an insurgency, and here are the five practical things we are going to do to combat it.
He came on television and told everybody that things are just fine over there. He shares a profound culpability for all those horrible deaths and maimings of Americans in uniform, over 20,000 by now.
Then there is the issue of the Tenet-Rice meeting in which the CIA director warned Condi Rice in July of 2001 that the chatter was off the charts and he feared an attack on the US by al-Qaeda. Woodward says that Rice brushed him and Cofer Black off. Rice and the White House had never told the 9/11 Commission about this meeting, and some are beginning to think it was deliberately covered up.
| October 3, 2006 | 15:48:01 |
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Military attack on Iran . - Posted By: NaBeeel
Double blow to nuclear detente
A US military response to North Korea's move remains unlikely
On the same day, the crises over the nuclear policies of North Korea and Iran have taken a turn for the worse.
North Korea's announcement that it intends to carry out a nuclear weapons test is another grave twist in a crisis that appears to be without end or solution.
And a senior British official has said it is now clear that Iran will not suspend uranium enrichment and that therefore moves to impose sanctions will start in the UN Security Council.
The only hope that can be seen in the North Korean statement is what is not in it. It does not announce that a test has already taken place.
There is therefore some possibility that, by warning of it well in advance, North Korea is simply trying to engage the United States in direct dialogue.
If the North cannot or will not be restrained, then the world might one day have to live with the North Korean bomb
In particular it wants the US to halt moves it has taken to prevent the North from trading weapons parts and carrying out other suspected illegal economic activities.
However, the history of North Korea's nuclear ambitions is such that it is only realistic to take its statement at face value and to expect a test at some stage.
It has previously withdrawn from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has announced that it has built nuclear weapons. A test is a logical technical follow-up.
Any test would cause extreme concern in the region and might in due course propel both South Korea and Japan to go down the nuclear weapons route themselves.
The reaction of the United States to a test is obviously not going to be favourable but is unlikely to be military.
There is a chance the North's move may be a gambit for dialogue
The risk of North Korea launching an attack on South Korea (whose capital Seoul is very close to the border line) in retaliation is very high, probably too high to risk.
The US very much hopes that China will be able to restrain the North Koreans, who rely heavily on Chinese aid, but so far this has not happened.
If the North cannot or will not be restrained, then the world might one day have to live with the North Korean bomb.
The policy then would be to isolate the North even further. It is already subject to sanctions against its nuclear and missile programmes under a Security Council resolution passed this summer.
The hope would be that in the course of time, the regime will collapse internally as other communist regimes have done and that it will no longer be a threat.
But for this to happen the US would have to accept that the wheel on one part of what President George W Bush calls the "axis of evil" will keep on rolling.
'All hardliners'
As for Iran it is no surprise that negotiations now appear to have come to a halt.
They were being led by the EU's foreign policy representative, Javier Solana, and his conclusion, reported to the permanent five members of the Security Council plus Germany, is pessimistic.
The EU says Iran will not suspend uranium enrichment
Iran, he has reported back, will not suspend enrichment as demanded by the Security Council.
The next move, according to a senior British official, will be an attempt to get sanctions imposed on Iran by the council.
This will be easier said than done and even if achieved, sanctions are unlikely to stop Iran at this stage.
The US has imposed a wide-ranging embargo on Iran for more than 25 years and it has made no difference to Iran's policy.
"They are all hardliners in Tehran at the moment," a British official commented.
The sanctions were threatened in the resolution demanding suspension that was passed on 31 July and need a separate council decision.
Russia and China have hitherto been opposed to sanctions and France has recently expressed doubts as well.
They might be prepared to take limited steps but the effect of these is not likely to be severe on Iran.
The issue of a military attack on Iran is not on the agenda.
| October 3, 2006 | 15:24:15 |
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Awful disasters. - Posted By: NaBeeel
What makes a good UN secretary general?
The UN Security Council is deciding which of the six candidates for Kofi Annan's job it will recommend to the General Assembly, for when he steps down at the end of the year. But what makes a good secretary general?
When Norwegian Trygve Halvdan Lie went to New York to become the first UN secretary general in 1946, expectations were low.
The UN's founders saw the job as essentially bureaucratic, to be filled by a "good chap" who would run the place smoothly.
But this role has changed significantly over time.
"Without any loss of responsibilities, other responsibilities have crept in - among which, one could describe as acting as the world's conscience," says Professor Adam Roberts, the leading academic expert on the UN.
Prof Roberts believes this role began with Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary General, who led the organisation during the most intense times of the Cold War, in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Finding the role intensely frustrating - he upset the Soviet Union so much that Nikita Khrushchev called for the role to be abolished - Hammarskjold found himself thinking of things the UN could try and do.
In particular, Roberts credits him with playing a "very creative role" in assisting the development of UN peacekeeping.
'Awful disasters'
But the end of the Cold War changed everything - or at least it seemed at the time.
The UN Security Council found itself ready to fulfil its founding ideals. Following action taken against Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1991, the UN soon found it was engaged in peacekeeping missions around the globe.
But Sir Marrack Goulding, one of the top officials during the time, says it was a period of missed opportunities.
"The member states did not respond to the demand created by the end of the Cold War, and we were incredibly stretched," he recalls.
"We didn't get the staff we needed, and as a result some pretty awful disasters took place - in Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda."
Lord Hannay, Britain's ambassador to the UN from 1990 to 1995, says member states are "ruthless" at manipulating the UN.
"They go about blaming the UN for things that are actually their responsibility - but they go far too far in acquitting themselves," he adds.
Managing the US
There is no doubt secretaries general have been used as a punchbag from time to time by the member states.
The most high-profile victim was the Egyptian, Boutros Boutros Ghali, who, in December 1996, was effectively removed from his post by the Clinton administration after falling out with the Americans over a range of issues.
UN SECRETARIES GENERAL
Kofi Annan, Ghana: 1997-
Boutros Boutros Ghali, Egypt: 1992-1996
Javier Perez de Cuellar, Peru: 1982-1991
Kurt Waldheim, Austria: 1971-1981
U Thant, Burma: 1961-1971
Dag Hammarskjöld, Sweden: 1953-1961
Trygve Lie, Norway: 1946-1952
He is, to date, the only secretary general not to have served two terms in the post.
James Rubin, a senior American diplomat at the time, believes the lesson is that any secretary general must get on with the US to succeed.
"Managing the United States is the single indispensable of being an effective secretary general," he says.
"It doesn't mean agreeing with the United States, but it does mean managing the United States.
"It's also true that the United States does not happen to be very popular in the world right now. Since the UN is made up of member states, and most of those member states now do not happen to be very pleased with US foreign policy, you have to be able to manage this great power, but also do it in a way that doesn't make the majority of your members feel as if you're buckling under all the time."
Sir Marrack says any secretary general has to satisfy 192 member states - each with differing visions of the world.
"The member states are not united - on almost any major issue you will see one group of member states arguing with another group of member states," he points out.
"When that happens, the secretariat is in a hugely difficult position. Who are they going to obey?"
Disappointment
To be a success, a secretary general clearly must be strong as well as diplomatic.
But with so many restrictions, can the post-holder expect to make any difference?
"This is not a position of power; this is not a man who can lay down the law," says Sir Marrack.
"But he does have huge influence, and he has a 'bully pulpit'. He can tell the world that they really have to get to grips with whatever it might be - Aids, the environment. Kofi Annan in particular has made a great deal of that influence.
"I think we shouldn't understate the importance of the role. If you put into it someone who couldn't communicate properly, you'd be missing a lot of tricks."
As the member states prepare to choose the eighth secretary general, James Rubin says it is time for people around the world to lower their expectations.
"If major countries in the world aren't prepared to do something, the UN isn't going to be able to do it either," he says.
"If people understood that, they would be less disappointed by the chief diplomat of the United Nations."
But the fact remains that so much hope continues to be invested - a challenge for anyone's stamina, diplomatic skills, and courage.
| October 2, 2006 | 18:07:24 |
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Terrorist Chief is a failure and a liar . - Posted By: NaBeeel
Who is given the right to speak on Islam, you are making a a failure and a liar in the war on terror you self , why ???
Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri called President Bush a failure and a liar in the war on terror in a video statement released Friday, and he compared Pope Benedict XVI to the 11th century pontiff who launched the First Crusade.
Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri accuses the United States and its agents of torturing Muslim prisoners seized across the Middle East. in the war on terrorIntelCenter,
Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri accuses the United States and its agents of torturing Muslim prisoners seized across the Middle East.in the war on terror ( you cause all that )
"Can't you be honest at least once in your life, and admit that you are a deceitful liar who intentionally deceived your nation when you drove them to war in Iraq?" Osama bin Laden's deputy said, appearing in front of a standing lamp and a small, decorative cannon.
Al-Zawahri also criticized Bush for continuing to imprison al-Qaida leaders in prisons, including al-Qaida No. 3 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind who was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.
"Bush, you deceitful charlatan, 3 1/2 years have passed since your capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, so how have you found us during this time? Losing and surrendering? Or are we launching attacks with God's help and becoming martyrs?" he said.
"What you have perpetrated against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other Muslim captives in your prisons and the prisons of your slaves in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and elsewhere is not hidden from anyone, and we are a people who do not sleep under oppression and who do not abandon our revenge until our chests have been healed of those who have committed aggression against us," he said.
"And we, by the grace of Allah, are seeking to exact revenge on behalf of Islam and Muslims from you and your soldiers and allies."
Al-Zawahri accused the United States and its agents of torturing Muslim prisoners seized across the Middle East.
"Your agents in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan have captured thousands of the youth and soldiers of Islam whom you made to taste at your hands and the hands of your agents various types of punishment and torture," al-Zawahri said.
Ben Venzke, head of the Virginia-based IntelCenter, which monitors terrorism communications, said al-Zawahri essentially gave al-Qaida's spin on the arrests and detentions of its leaders.
"They are countering arguments that individuals have been able to provide useful information," he said. "And they are continuing to reinforce their intentions for revenge."
Al-Zawahri said Benedict is reminiscent of Pope Urban II, who in 1095 ordered the First Crusade to establish Christian control in the Holy Land.
"This charlatan Benedict brings back to our memories the speech of his predecessor charlatan Urban II in the 11th century ... in which he instigated Europeans to fight Muslims and launch the Crusades because he (Urban) claimed 'atheist Muslims, the enemies of Christ' are attacking the tomb of Jesus Christ, peace be upon him," al-Zawahri said.
Al-Zawahri's remarks about Benedict were a clear response to the pontiff's comments this month that sparked outrage across the Muslim world. In that speech, Benedict cited a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."
"If Benedict attacked us, we will respond to his insults with good things. We will call upon him and all of the Christians to become Muslims who do not recognize the Trinity or the crucifixion," al-Zawahri said.
Al-Zawahri also called a U.N. resolution to send peacekeepers into Sudan's war-torn Darfur region a "Crusader plan" and implored the Muslims of Darfur to defend themselves.
"There is a Crusader plan to send Crusaders forces to Darfur that is about to become a new field of the Crusades war. Oh, nation of Islam, rise up to defend your land from the Crusaders aggression who are coming wearing United Nations masks," he said. "No one will defend you (Darfur) but a popular holy war."
The nearly 18-minute statement, titled "Bush, the Pope, Darfur and the Crusades," was produced by al-Qaida's media arm, as-Sahab, and made available by the IntelCenter. An initial segment shows al-Zawahri in an office-type setting, while in the second part he is in front of a brown backdrop. The first segment also has English subtitles.
After conducting a technical analysis of the videotape, the CIA concluded "with confidence" that the speaker is in fact Ayman al-Zawahri, said a CIA spokesperson who spoke on condition of anonymity
An intelligence official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. experts view the latest video as a typical propaganda message, whose main thrust is a call for more people to join the jihad, or holy war.
It wasn't immediately clear when the message was recorded, the official said, but al-Zawahri's reference to the pope indicated the message was produced sometime after Benedict's Sept. 12 comments about Islam.
Al-Qaida has released a string of videos to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, showing increasingly sophisticated production techniques in a likely effort to demonstrate that it remains a powerful, confident force despite the U.S.-led war on terror.
The IntelCenter said Friday's video was the 48th released by the al-Qaida Web site this year, three times more than last year's number - which had been the highest. It said al-Zawahri has appeared in 14 of the 2006 videos.
| October 1, 2006 | 14:38:50 |
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WHAT IS THE T R U T H !!!! - Posted By: NaBeeel
WHAT IS THE TRUTH.
CLINTON INTERVIEW,
Conservative hit job,
Clinton's fireworks shock Fox anchor.
The fireworks began when Wallace, after leading with several innocuous questions about Clinton's charitable work since the end of his presidency, asked, ``Why didn't you do more to put Bin Laden and al Qaeda out of business when you were president?''
'I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked, `Why didn't you do anything about the [attack on the USS] Cole,' '' a furious Clinton retorted. 'I want to know how many people you asked, `Why did .. they fire [White House counterterrorism chief] Dick Clark?' . . . You didn't ask that, did you? Tell the truth, Chris.'' Wallace, he added, was just doing the bidding of ``all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now.''
Mr. Clinton appeared on Fox News Sunday in a combative interview in which he defended his handling of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and said he “worked hard” to have the al-Qaeda leader killed. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try.
Rice challenges Clinton statements on al-Qaeda fight
The Clinton interview has been the focus of much attention :-
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice challenged statements made by former president Bill Clinton, saying in an interview published Tuesday that
the Bush administration aggressively pursued al-Qaeda even before Sept. 11, 2001.
“What we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years,” Ms. Rice said during a meeting
with editors and reporters at the New York Post.
Ms. Rice disputed his assessment, that is just flatly false,he “left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy” for incoming officials when he left office.
“We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al-Qaeda, ”she told the newspaper,
Mr. Clinton accused host Chris Wallace of a “conservative hit job” and asked: “I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked,
‘Why didn't you do anything about the Cole?' I want to know how many people you asked, ‘Why did THEY fire Dick Clarke?'”
Ms. Rice portrayed the departure of former White House anti-terrorism chief Richard Clarke differently,
saying he “left when he did not become deputy director of homeland security.” ( HE IS FIRE NOT HE DEPARTS) that is just flatly false.
Ms. Rice, however, questioned the value of the dialogue. (value of THIS IMPORTANT dialogue)
“I think this is not a very fruitful discussion,” she said. “We've been through it. The 9/11 commission has turned over every rock and we know exactly what they said.”
Now she is covering here head in the mud, we still want to know THRUTH, Tell me about the conspiracy theories of Arabs
and Muslims, The invasion to Iraq has given a huge impetus to a global jihad ,
would they have know that in the first place.Has Iraq war fuelled terrorism?
What is your reaction to US intelligence claims that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has fuelled international terrorism.
WHAT IS THE TRUTH ,CLINTON INTERVIEW.
AND other many baseless conspiracy theories.
AS i see the US and Israel give lots of reasons to
the Middle Easterners to construct various conspiracy
theories.
AND as we all know There are many conspiracy theories
that turned out to be true. I believe so,
Here again the outright expression of hypocrisy of the
US "free" media will go deep& deep in the well of
conspiracy theories.
that well be used to end the world by mistakes soon.
:-#:confused::cool::o:(:):D:p:nerdy:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
| September 30, 2006 | 14:10:21 |
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Has Iraq war fuelled terrorism? - Posted By: NaBeeel
Has Iraq war fuelled terrorism?
What is your reaction to US intelligence claims that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has fuelled international terrorism.
President George W Bush agreed to release parts of the report following earlier leaks to the US media but the Democrats have called for it to be issued in full.
Declassified sections say that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has spawned a new generation of Islamic radicalism that has spread across the globe.
However, Mr Bush has accused those behind the leak of trying to mislead the American public for political purposes.
What is your reaction to President Bush's speech? Should the report have been declassified? Should it be released in full? Has the occupation of Iraq has fuelled international terrorism?
| September 27, 2006 | 17:24:43 |
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Conservative hit job”. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Rice challenges Clinton statements on al-Qaeda fight
Associated Press
NEW YORK — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice challenged statements made by former president Bill Clinton, saying in an interview published Tuesday that the Bush administration aggressively pursued al-Qaeda even before Sept. 11, 2001.
“What we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years,” Ms. Rice said during a meeting with editors and reporters at the New York Post.
The newspaper published her comments days after Mr. Clinton appeared on Fox News Sunday in a combative interview in which he defended his handling of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and said he “worked hard” to have the al-Qaeda leader killed.
“That's the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now,” Mr. Clinton said in the interview. “They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try.”
Related to this article
Ms. Rice disputed his assessment.
“The notion somehow for eight months the Bush administration sat there and didn't do that is just flatly false — and I think the 9/11 commission understood that,” she said.
Ms. Rice also took exception to Mr. Clinton's statement that he “left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy” for incoming officials when he left office.
“We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al-Qaeda,” she told the newspaper, which is owned by News Corp., the same company that owns Fox News Channel.
In the interview, Mr. Clinton accused host Chris Wallace of a “conservative hit job” and asked: “I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked, ‘Why didn't you do anything about the Cole?' I want to know how many people you asked, ‘Why did you fire Dick Clarke?'”
Ms. Rice portrayed the departure of former White House anti-terrorism chief Richard Clarke differently, saying he “left when he did not become deputy director of homeland security.”
The Clinton interview has been the focus of much attention — drawing more than 800,000 views on YouTube and earning the show its best ratings in nearly three years.
Ms. Rice, however, questioned the value of the dialogue.
“I think this is not a very fruitful discussion,” she said. “We've been through it. The 9/11 commission has turned over every rock and we know exactly what they said.”
| September 26, 2006 | 12:22:11 |
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And you got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Testy Fox interview, Clinton defends handling of bin Laden threat
In a combative interview on "Fox News Sunday," former President Clinton defended his handling of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden, saying he had tried to put bin Laden out of business and that he had been attacked for his efforts by the same people who criticize him now for not doing enough.
"That's the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now," Clinton said in the interview broadcast Sunday. "They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried."
Clinton accused host Chris Wallace of a "conservative hit job on me" and asked, "I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked, 'Why didn't you do anything about the Cole?' I want to know how many people you asked, 'Why did you fire Dick Clarke?'"
He was referring to the USS Cole, attacked by terrorists in Yemen in 2000, and former White House anti-terrorism chief Richard A. Clarke.
Wallace said Sunday that he was surprised by Clinton's response to "a very non-confrontational question, 'Did you do enough to connect the dots and go after Al Qaida?'"
"I was stunned by this kind of conspiratorial view of all this," Wallace said in a telephone interview. "All I did was ask him a question, and I think it was a legitimate news question. I was surprised that he would conjure up that this was a hit job."
Clinton said he "worked hard" to try to kill bin Laden. "I authorized the findings of the CIA to kill him," he said. "We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody's gotten since. And if I were still president, we'd have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him."
He told Wallace, "And you got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever, but I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get bin Laden. I regret it, but I did try and I did everything I thought I responsibly could."
Clinton also criticized the ABC miniseries, "The Path to 9/11," which critics accused of distorting his record on fighting terror.
"ABC just had a right-wing conservative running their little 'Pathway to 9/11,' falsely claiming it was based on the 9/11 Commission Report with three things asserted against me directly contradictory to the 9/11 Commission Report," he said.
The interview was taped Friday following Clinton's three-day Global Initiative conference, and Clinton said Wallace was to have devoted half his questions to the conference.
Clinton told Wallace, "You set this meeting up because you're going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers because (Fox chief) Rupert Murdoch is supporting my work on climate change. And you came here under false pretenses and said that you'd spend half the time talking about _ you said you'd spend half the time talking about what we did out there to raise $7 billion-plus in three days from 215 different commitments, and you don't care."
| September 25, 2006 | 15:20:07 |
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Lebanese Christians hold mass rally. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Geagea was released from prison in 2005
Tens of thousands of Lebanese have attended an annual mass to commemorate Christian fighters killed in the 1975-90 civil war and to hear a speech by the Lebanese Forces party leader, Samir Geagea.,Crowds flocked to a cathedral in Harissa, north of Beirut, to attend the mass on Sunday.
The rally came two days after hundreds of thousands attended a demonstration in Beirut organised by the Shia Muslim militia, Hezbollah, to celebrate what it called its recent "victory" over Israel in the month-long conflict.
Geagea said: "We are the victors, and yet we do not feel it was victory but rather that a real catastrophe befell our country, and that our fate and destiny are at the mercy of the winds."
Supporters waved his picture, and the white, red and green flags of the Lebanese Forces as the party leader spoke at the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Harissa.
"We are the victors because it was us who were demanding the [Lebanese] army's deployment [in south Lebanon], backed by Unifil [peacekeepers], while they were opposed," he said without naming Hezbollah.
Murder charges
Geagea is a member of the anti-Syrian "March 14" parliamentary group that has criticised Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 and has called for the group to disarm.
Hezbollah chief Nasrallah wants
a new government in place
It was the first service he had attended after he was released from prison last year after serving more than a decade on multiple murder charges from the war.
The former militia leader had not attended the annual mass for 12 years because of his imprisonment.
He was arrested in April 1994 and his group was banned, after a church bombing that killed 10 people.
Imprisoned
Gegea was later acquitted in the bombing but sentenced to three life terms on several other murder counts, including the killing of Rashid Karami, the pro-Syrian prime minister in 1987.
Geagea served 11 years in prison before he was released in July 2005, after Lebanon's parliament approved a motion to pardon him.
He led the Lebanese Forces - the country's most powerful Christian militia during the Lebanese civil war.
Israel backed his militia during the war, and during the Israeli invasion in 1982 to expel Palestinian guerrillas.
| September 24, 2006 | 17:37:46 |
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Violence sweeps Iraq on Ramadan. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Violence sweeps Iraq on Ramadan
At least 35 people have been killed in a car bomb attack on a kerosene tanker in the mainly Shia district of Sadr City in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
Nine severed heads were also found in the city of Tikrit as violence swept across the country.
The BBC's Ian Pannell in Baghdad said most bombing victims were women queuing for cooking fuel to use throughout the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
US officials have predicted an increase in violence throughout Ramadan.
Meanwhile, Iraqi officials say they have captured a leader of violent Sunni militant group, Ansar al-Sunna.
The bomb attack is one of the deadliest in Iraq in recent weeks.
At least another 37 people were injured in the bomb blast, and Iraqi police Colonel Saad Abdul-Sada said that the death toll could rise further.
At the scene of the attack people used blankets as makeshift stretchers to rush the injured to ambulances, which then ferried them to the Al Sadr general hospital.
One witness spoke of their horror at the attack: "What did those people do? The poor civilians were trying to get kerosene and gasoline. All of them were women and children."
The attack took place in Sadr city, a mainly Shia neighbourhood which is home to the notorious armed militia group, the Mehdi army.
Leader captured
No-one has claimed responsibility, but our correspondent says it is most likely another sectarian attack. The area has witnessed an increasingly violent tit-for-tat conflict between Shia and Sunni Muslims.
Adding to the day's grim events, the severed heads of nine murdered Iraqi police and soldiers were reported to have been found north of the capital.
BBC correspondent Jim Muir said it is believed the heads belong to Iraqi security forces abducted by insurgents.
In other developments:
A US soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack in northern Baghdad
A Danish serviceman was killed and eight others injured in a roadside bomb attack near the southern city of Basra.
Sunnis began their month of Ramadan daytime fasting on Saturday, while Shias are set to follow on Sunday.
In recent years there has been a spike in violence in Iraq throughout the holy month and US officials are predicting that it will be much the same this year.
The UN recently reported a rise in Iraq deaths, with almost 3,600 civilians killed in July and more than 3,000 in August this year.
In a separate development the Iraqi prime minister's office says US and Iraqi forces have captured Muntasir al-Jibouri, a senior member of Sunni militant group Ansar al-Sunna.
He was captured overnight, along with two colleagues, in the town of Muqdadiya, in Diyala province 80km (50 miles) north-east of Baghdad.
Ansar al-Sunna is one of the most violent groups involved in Iraq's Sunni insurgency, responsible for a number of suicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.
Among the attacks the group has claimed responsibility for is a December 2004 attack on a US military mess hall in Mosul in which 22 people died.
The group, which is believed to have links to al-Qaeda, has its origins in Ansar al-Islam, a radical group based in mountainous northern Iraq.
| September 23, 2006 | 19:41:38 |
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President Bush and gas pumps, - Posted By: NaBeeel
or Bush, Cheaper Gas Is Premium,When it comes to President Bush's approval rating - the number that measures his political health - one factor seems more powerful than any Oval Office address or legislative initiative.
President Bush and gas pumps
A statistical analysis found that 78 percent of changes in President Bush's approval ratings could be correlated with inverse changes in the price of gas.
It's the price of a gallon of gas.
Statisticians who have compared changes in gas prices and Bush's ratings through his presidency have found a steady relationship: As gas prices rise, his ratings fall. As gas prices fall, his ratings rise.
For some Americans, analysts speculate, gas prices provide a shorthand reading of the general state of the economy. Even though prices at the pump are largely outside the president's control, he gets credit when they fall - and blame when they rise.
"Gas prices are a price everybody knows because it hangs on the street in big letters," says Stuart Thiel, an economist at DePaul University in Chicago who has been tracking the trend for several years.
A statistical analysis by Doug Henwood, editor of the liberal newsletter Left Business Observer, found that an "uncanny" 78% of the movement in Bush's ratings could be correlated with changes in gas prices. Based on trends in crude oil prices, Henwood predicted last Thursday that it "wouldn't be surprising to see his approval numbers rise into the mid-40s."
In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, Bush's rating rose to 44%, his highest in a year. Average gas prices, which peaked at more than $3 a gallon in August, had dropped under $2.50, the lowest since March.
A renewed focus on terrorism contributed to Bush's turnaround, analysts say. "When they put the terror issue out there, they tend to get political points," says sociologist Robb Willer of the University of California, Berkeley.
Gas prices may be "a proxy for larger developments in the political economy," Henwood says. For instance, the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina, which drove up fuel costs, also eroded Bush's support.
The ratings of Bush's three immediate predecessors weren't closely tied to gas prices, Henwood found. Volatile prices and a supply crunch did contribute to President Jimmy Carter's political travails.
For Bush, too, prices have been volatile, and his background as an oilman may be a factor affecting public attitudes. In the USA TODAY poll, two in five said the administration has deliberately manipulated gas prices to decline before the fall elections.
Routine market forces are likely to deliver more good news to Bush, says Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service. Absent an international crisis, he predicts gas prices will drop an additional 10 to 20 cents a gallon by Election Day.
| September 21, 2006 | 16:57:56 |
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Some applause when he called Bush the devil. - Posted By: NaBeeel
At U.N., Chavez Calls Bush 'The Devil', Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took his verbal battle with the United States to the floor of the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, calling President Bush "the devil."a As he holds up a book by Noam Chomsky "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest For Global Dominance" during his address to the United Nations.
The impassioned speech by the leftist leader came a day after Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparred over Tehran's disputed nuclear program but managed to avoid a personal encounter.
"The devil came here yesterday," Chavez said, referring to Bush's address on Tuesday and making the sign of the cross. "He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world."
The leftist leader, who has joined Iran and Cuba in opposing U.S. influence, accused Washington of "domination, exploitation and pillage of peoples of the world."
"We appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our head.
The main U.S. seat in the assembly hall was empty as Chavez spoke. But there was a "junior note taker" there, as is customary "when governments like that speak," the U.S. ambassador to the U.N said.
Ambassador John Bolton told The Associated Press that Chavez had the right to express his opinion, adding it was "too bad the people of Venezuela don't have free speech."
"I'm just not going to comment on this because his remarks just don't warrant a response," Bolton said. "Serious people can listen to what he had to say and if they do they will reject it."
Chavez drew tentative giggles at times from the audience, but also some applause when he called Bush the devil.
Chavez spoke on the second day of the annual ministerial meetings, which were overshadowed by an ambitious agenda of sideline talks.
The Mideast peace process also was in the spotlight, with ministers from the Quartet that drafted the stalled road map -- the U.S., the U.N., the European Union and Russia -- planning to meet. The Security Council also was scheduled to hold a ministerial meeting Thursday that Arab leaders hope will help revive the Mideast peace process.
Bush tried to advance his campaign for democracy in the Middle East during his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, saying extremists were trying to justify their violence by falsely claiming the U.S. is waging war on Islam. He singled out Iran and Syria as sponsors of terrorism.
Bush also pointed to Tehran's rejection of a Security Council demand to stop enriching uranium by Aug. 31 or face the possibility of sanctions. But he addressed his remarks to the Iranian people in a clear insult to the government.
"The greatest obstacle to this future is that your rulers have chosen to deny you liberty and to use your nation's resources to fund terrorism and fuel extremism and pursue nuclear weapons," the U.S. leader said.
"Iran must abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions," he said. "Despite what the regime tells you, we have no objection to Iran's pursuit of a truly peaceful nuclear power program."
He said he hoped to see "the day when you can live in freedom, and America and Iran can be good friends and close partners in the cause of peace."
Ahmadinejad took the podium hours later, denouncing U.S. policies in Iraq and Lebanon and accusing Washington of abusing its power in the Security Council to punish others while protecting its own interests and allies.
The hard-line leader insisted that his nation's nuclear activities are "transparent, peaceful and under the watchful eye" of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog. He also reiterated his nation's commitment to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Earlier this month, Ahmadinejad proposed a debate with Bush at the General Assembly's ministerial meeting after the White House dismissed a previous TV debate proposal as a "diversion" from serious concerns over Iran's nuclear program.
But even though the two leaders spoke from the same podium, they skipped each other's addresses and managed to avoid direct contact during the ministerial meeting.
Also on Wednesday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned that terrorism is rebounding in his country and said efforts to build democracy there had suffered setbacks over the past year as violence increased, especially in the volatile south where NATO forces have been battling Taliban militants in some of the fiercest battles since the hard-line government was toppled in 2001.
"We have seen terrorism rebounding as terrorists have infiltrated our borders to step up their murderous campaign against our people," he told the General Assembly.
He said the situation was so bad it had contributed to a rise in polio from four cases in 2005 to 27 this year because health workers were unable to reach the region.
But he said the problem had to be fought beyond Afghanistan's borders as well as within.
"We must look beyond Afghanistan to the sources of terrorism," he said. "We must destroy terrorist sanctuaries beyond Afghanistan."
He also expressed concern about "the increased incidents of Islamophobia in the West," saying it does not "bode well for the cause of building understanding and cooperation across civilizations."
The crisis in the ravaged Sudanese region of Darfur also was on the agenda Wednesday, with the African Union's Peace and Security Council meeting to discuss breaking the deadlock over a plan to replace an AU force with U.N. peacekeepers.
The Sudanese president said his country won't allow the United Nations to take control of peacekeepers in Darfur under any circumstance, claiming that rights groups have exaggerated the crisis there in a bid for more cash.
But Omar al-Bashir did say that the African Union, which now runs the peacekeeping mission in Darfur, should be allowed to augment its forces with more logistics, advisers and other support.
"We want the African Union to remain in Darfur until peace is re-established in Sudan," al-Bashir said at a news conference. Those comments suggest that the African Union will not face any resistance in renewing the peacekeeping force's mandate, which expires Sept. 30.
Associated Press writers Ian James and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this story.
| September 20, 2006 | 14:56:08 |
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'Mystery object' delays shuttle. - Posted By: NaBeeel
'Mystery object' delays shuttle
The US space agency's Atlantis shuttle has had its Wednesday landing postponed after an unidentified object was seen floating near the vehicle.
The delay will give engineers an opportunity to investigate the incident - and time for poor weather at the Florida landing strip to pass.
"The mission management team has decided to keep Atlantis 24 more hours in orbit," a Nasa spokesman said.
Atlantis is returning from the space station where it attached solar wings.
The first opportunity for a touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center is now 0615 EDT (1015 GMT) on Thursday.
The mystery object appears on video taken by a shuttle camera. It has been described as small and dark, and coming possibly from the ship's payload bay.
It was noticed as astronauts were testing the vehicle's jets in preparation for the return to Earth.
Tourist arrival
Mission Control has told the astronauts on Atlantis to hold off packing away the shuttle's robot arm and television antenna in case further inspections are required.
"The question is: what is it? Is it something benign, or is it something more critical we should pay attention to?" said Wayne Hale, the space shuttle programme manager.
"We want to make sure we're safe before committing to that critical journey through the atmosphere."
Even before the unexplained object came to the attention of engineers, Nasa was considering a change to the scheduled landing time because of unfavourable weather forecasts at Kennedy.
Atlantis is making its way home from a construction visit to the International Space Station. The orbiter undocked on Sunday to make way for a Soyuz craft that is heading to the platform with a new crew and the first female space tourist, Anousheh Ansari.
The US businesswoman is expected at the station with the new commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurinat at 0524 GMT on Wednesday.
| September 19, 2006 | 14:03:13 |
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WHAT IS IN HIS MINDS ??? - Posted By: NaBeeel
About Iraq on the Record
On March 19, 2003, U.S. forces began military operations in Iraq. Addressing the nation about the purpose of the war on the day the bombing began, President Bush stated: “The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder.” Two years later, many doubts have been raised regarding the Administration’s assertions about the threat posed by Iraq.
Prepared at the direction of Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Iraq on the Record is a searchable collection of 237 specific misleading statements made by Bush Administration officials about the threat posed by Iraq. It contains statements that were misleading based on what was known to the Administration at the time the statements were made. It does not include statements that appear mistaken only in hindsight. If a statement was an accurate reflection of U.S. intelligence at the time it was made, it was excluded even if it now appears erroneous. For more information on how the statements were selected, see the full methodology. The Iraq on the Record Report is a comprehensive examination of these statements.
Iraq on the Record is searchable by the the five Administration officials most responsible for providing public information and shaping public opinion on Iraq:
President George W. Bush
Vice President Dick Cheney
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell
Then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
It is also searchable by issue area:
Iraq's Nuclear Capabilities
Chemical and Biological Weapons
Iraq and Al-Qaeda
Iraq as an Urgent Threat
It is also searchable by keyword, such as "mushroom cloud", "uranium", or "bin Laden."
| September 19, 2006 | 13:37:11 |
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WHAT IS IN HIS MINDS. ? - Posted By: NaBeeel
About Iraq on the Record,On March 19, 2003, U.S. forces began military operations in Iraq. Addressing the nation about the purpose of the war on the day the bombing began, President Bush stated: “The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder.” Two years later, many doubts have been raised regarding the Administration’s assertions about the threat posed by Iraq.
Prepared at the direction of Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Iraq on the Record is a searchable collection of 237 specific misleading statements made by Bush Administration officials about the threat posed by Iraq. It contains statements that were misleading based on what was known to the Administration at the time the statements were made. It does not include statements that appear mistaken only in hindsight. If a statement was an accurate reflection of U.S. intelligence at the time it was made, it was excluded even if it now appears erroneous. For more information on how the statements were selected, see the full methodology. The Iraq on the Record Report is a comprehensive examination of these statements.
Iraq on the Record is searchable by the the five Administration officials most responsible for providing public information and shaping public opinion on Iraq:
President George W. Bush
Vice President Dick Cheney
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell
Then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
It is also searchable by issue area:
Iraq's Nuclear Capabilities
Chemical and Biological Weapons
Iraq and Al-Qaeda
Iraq as an Urgent Threat
It is also searchable by keyword, such as "mushroom cloud", "uranium", or "bin Laden."
| September 19, 2006 | 13:37:11 |
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Islam want to dominates the world By 2020. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Iraq al-Qaida Says Pope, West Are Doomed, Al-Qaida in Iraq and its allies warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that he and the West were "doomed" and proclaimed that the holy war would continue until Islam dominates the world.
Pope Sparks Controversy
Vatican officials insisted the pope did not intend to be offensive and expressed regret over any hurt caused to Muslims.
The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups that includes al-Qaida in Iraq, issued a statement on a Web forum about the pope's remarks last week on Islam. The authenticity of the statement could not be immediately independently verified.
"You infidels and despotic, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism when God's rule is established governing all people and nations," the statement said.
The group said Muslims will be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshipper of the cross" saying "you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere ... We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose head tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (killed by) the sword."
Islam forbids drinking alcohol and requires non-Muslims to pay a head tax to safeguard their lives if conquered by Muslims. They are exempt if they convert to Islam.
The statement said that the Quran tells Muslims in many occasions that "jihad continues and should never stop until dooms day where this religion ends victorious."
The group also accused U.S. President George W. Bush of initiating the "new Crusades campaign against Islam by his invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq while the servant of the cross, the pope of the Vatican, is continuing this path by his blatant attack on Islam, its prophet ... and especially his talk about jihad."
Benedict on Tuesday in Germany had quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and an educated Persian on the truths of Christianity and Islam.
Pope's Comment
In a speech, the Pope referred to criticism of the Prophet Mohammad by 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything Mohammad brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." Using the terms "jihad" and "holy war," the Pope said violence was "incompatible with the nature of God."
Sources: AP
"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said.
"He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached,'" he quoted the emperor as saying.
The pope on Sunday said that he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction and said the remarks came from a text that didn't reflect his own opinion.
9/18/2006 09:35:48
| September 18, 2006 | 13:55:44 |
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U.S. holds AP photographer in Iraq 5 mos. - Posted By: NaBeeel
The U.S. military in Iraq has imprisoned an Associated Press photographer for five months, accusing him of being a security threat but never filing charges or permitting a public hearing.
Military officials said Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen, was being held for "imperative reasons of security" under United Nations resolutions. AP executives said the news cooperative's review of Hussein's work did not find anything to indicate inappropriate contact with insurgents, and any evidence against him should be brought to the Iraqi criminal justice system.
Hussein, 35, is a native of Fallujah who began work for the AP in September 2004. He photographed events in Fallujah and Ramadi until he was detained on April 12 of this year.
"We want the rule of law to prevail. He either needs to be charged or released. Indefinite detention is not acceptable," said Tom Curley, AP's president and chief executive officer. "We've come to the conclusion that this is unacceptable under Iraqi law, or Geneva Conventions, or any military procedure."
Hussein is one of an estimated 14,000 people detained by the U.S. military worldwide — 13,000 of them in Iraq. They are held in limbo where few are ever charged with a specific crime or given a chance before any court or tribunal to argue for their freedom.
In Hussein's case, the military has not provided any concrete evidence to back up the vague allegations they have raised about him, Curley and other AP executives said.
The military said Hussein was captured with two insurgents, including Hamid Hamad Motib, an alleged leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. "He has close relationships with persons known to be responsible for kidnappings, smuggling, improvised explosive device (IED) attacks and other attacks on coalition forces," according to a May 7 e-mail from U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Jack Gardner, who oversees all coalition detainees in Iraq.
"The information available establishes that he has relationships with insurgents and is afforded access to insurgent activities outside the normal scope afforded to journalists conducting legitimate activities," Gardner wrote to AP International Editor John Daniszewski.
Hussein proclaims his innocence, according to his Iraqi lawyer, Badie Arief Izzat, and believes he has been unfairly targeted because his photos from Ramadi and Fallujah were deemed unwelcome by the coalition forces.
That Hussein was captured at the same time as insurgents doesn't make him one of them, said Kathleen Carroll, AP's executive editor.
"Journalists have always had relationships with people that others might find unsavory," she said. "We're not in this to choose sides, we're to report what's going on from all sides."
AP executives in New York and Baghdad have sought to persuade U.S. officials to provide additional information about allegations against Hussein and to have his case transferred to the Iraqi criminal justice system. The AP contacted military leaders in Iraq and the Pentagon, and later the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad.
The AP has worked quietly until now, believing that would be the best approach. But with the U.S. military giving no indication it would change its stance, the news cooperative has decided to make public Hussein's imprisonment, hoping the spotlight will bring attention to his case and that of thousands of others now held in Iraq, Curley said.
One of Hussein's photos was part of a package of 20 photographs that won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography last year. His contribution was an image of four insurgents in Fallujah firing a mortar and small arms during the U.S.-led offensive in the city in November 2004.
In what several AP editors described as a typical path for locally hired staff in the midst of a conflict, Hussein, a shopkeeper who sold cell phones and computers in Fallujah, was hired in the city as a general helper because of his local knowledge.
As the situation in Fallujah eroded in 2004, he expressed a desire to become a photographer. Hussein was given training and camera equipment and hired in September of that year as a freelancer, paid on a per-picture basis, according to Santiago Lyon, AP's director of photography. A month later, he was put on a monthly retainer.
During the U.S.-led offensive in Fallujah in November 2004, he stayed on after his family fled. "He had good access. He was able to photograph not only the results of the attacks on Fallujah, he was also able to photograph members of the insurgency on occasion," Lyon said. "That was very difficult to achieve at that time."
After fleeing later in the offensive, leaving his camera behind in the rush to escape, Hussein arrived in Baghdad, where the AP gave him a new camera. He then went to work in Ramadi which, like Fallujah, has been a center of insurgent violence.
In its own effort to determine whether Hussein had gotten too close the insurgency, the AP has reviewed his work record, interviewed senior photo editors who worked on his images and examined all 420 photographs in the news cooperative's archives that were taken by Hussein, Lyon said.
The military in Iraq has frequently detained journalists who arrive quickly at scenes of violence, accusing them of getting advance notice from insurgents, Lyon said. But "that's just good journalism. Getting to the event quickly is something that characterizes good journalism anywhere in the world. It does not indicate prior knowledge," he said.
Out of Hussein's body of work, only 37 photos show insurgents or people who could be insurgents, Lyon said. "The vast majority of the 420 images show the aftermath or the results of the conflict — blown up houses, wounded people, dead people, street scenes," he said.
Only four photos show the wreckage of still-burning U.S. military vehicles.
"Do we know absolutely everything about him, and what he did before he joined us? No. Are we satisfied that what he did since he joined us was appropriate for the level of work we expected from him? Yes," Lyon said. "When we reviewed the work he submitted to us, we found it appropriate to what we'd asked him to do."
The AP does not knowingly hire combatants or anyone who is part of a story, company executives said. But hiring competent local staff in combat areas is vital to the news service, because often only local people can pick their way around the streets with a reasonable degree of safety.
"We want people who are not part of a story. Sometimes it is a judgment call. If someone seems to be thuggish, or like a fighter, you certainly wouldn't hire them," Daniszewski said. After they are hired, their work is checked carefully for signs of bias.
Lyon said every image from local photographers is always "thoroughly checked and vetted" by experienced editors. "In every case where there have been images of insurgents, questions have been asked about circumstances under which the image was taken, and what the image shows," he said.
Executives said it's not uncommon for AP news people to be picked up by coalition forces and detained for hours, days or occasionally weeks, but never this long. Several hundred journalists in Iraq have been detained, some briefly and some for several weeks, according to Scott Horton, a New York-based lawyer hired by the AP to work on Hussein's case.
Horton also worked on behalf of an Iraqi cameraman employed by CBS, Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, who was detained for one year before his case was sent to an Iraqi court on charges of insurgent activity. He was acquitted for lack of evidence.
AP officials emphasized the military has not provided the company concrete evidence of its claims against Bilal Hussein, or provided him a chance to offer a defense.
"He's a Sunni Arab from a tribe in that area. I'm sure he does know some nasty people. But is he a participant in the insurgency? I don't think that's been proven," Daniszewski said.
Information provided to the AP by the military to support the continued detention hasn't withstood scrutiny, when it could be checked, Daniszewski said.
For example, he said, the AP had been told that Hussein was involved with the kidnapping of two Arab journalists in Ramadi.
But those journalists, tracked down by the AP, said Hussein had helped them after they were released by their captors without money or a vehicle in a dangerous part of Ramadi. After a journalist acquaintance put them in touch with Hussein, the photographer picked them up, gave them shelter and helped get them out of town, they said.
The journalists said they had never been contacted by multinational forces for their account.
Horton said the military has provided contradictory accounts of whether Hussein himself was a U.S. target last April or if he was caught up in a broader sweep.
The military said bomb-making materials were found in the apartment where Hussein was captured but it never detailed what those materials were. The military said he tested positive for traces of explosives. Horton said that was virtually guaranteed for anyone on the streets of Ramadi at that time.
Hussein has been a frequent target of conservative critics on the Internet, who raised questions about his images months before the military detained him. One blogger and author, Michelle Malkin, wrote about Hussein's detention on the day of his arrest, saying she'd been tipped by a military source.
Carroll said the role of journalists can be misconstrued and make them a target of critics. But that criticism is misplaced, she said.
"How can you know what a conflict is like if you're only with one side of the combatants?" she said. "Journalism doesn't work if we don't report and photograph all sides."
| September 17, 2006 | 22:18:10 |
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Pope Sparks Controversy - Posted By: NaBeeel
Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction to his recent remarks about .The pope sparked the controversy when, in a speech Tuesday to university professors during a pilgrimage to his native Germany, he cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet ."
At this time I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of myaddress at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims," the pope .
,told Al-Arabiya TV immediately after the pope's speech that, "It is not enough. He should apologize because he ."
Mohammed al-Nujeimi, a professor at the Institute of Judicial and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, also .
The pope does not want to apologize. He is evading apology and what he said today is a repetition of his previous.
The Vatican released a statement Saturday saying the pope "sincerely regrets" that Muslims were offended, but .
Pope's Comment
In a speech, the Pope referred to criticism of the Prophet Mohammad by 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything Mohammad brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." Using the terms "jihad" and "holy war," the Pope said violence was "incompatible with the ."
Sources: AP
But the leader of Egypt's largest Islamic political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said that "while anger over the ."
While he is the head of the Catholic Church in the world, many Europeans are not following (the church) so what,".
Turkey's foreign minister said Sunday the pope was still expected to visit in November in what would be his first trip to a Muslim nation. "From our point of view, there is no change," Abdullah Gul told reporters before departing for a.Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier urged world religious leaders to show "responsibility and restraint" to avoid .
We understand perfectly how sensitive this sphere is. I think it would be right if we call for responsibility andrestraint from the leaders of all world faiths," he said during a meeting with parliamentary leaders from Group of .
In his speech on Tuesday, Benedict quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine .
The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said. "He said, I quote, 'Show me justwhat Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command .'"
.
Earlier Sunday in the West Bank, two churches were set on fire as anger over the pope's comments grew throughout .
,,.
Palestinian Muslims hurled firebombs and opened fire at five churches in the West Bank and Gaza Strip Saturday to .
,confiscating umbrellas with metal tips and bottles of liquids. Sharpshooters kept watch from a balcony and other .
Police headquarters across Italy were also ordered to raise security at potential Catholic targets, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. However, at the Vatican, no additional security measures could be seen as tourists strolled .
Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said he believed tensions over Benedict's remarks wouldn't result in any further heightening of security concerns. He told Italian state radio that suspected terrorist cells under surveillance ."
Associated Press correspondent Victor L. Simpson at the Vatican and Nadia Abou el-Magd in Cairo, Egypt .
| September 17, 2006 | 15:04:21 |
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Cloud of uncertainty. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Iraq war 'disaster for Mid-East', Iraq has become one of the most violent places on Earth
The UN secretary general has said that most Middle East leaders regard the US-led invasion of Iraq and its aftermath as a disaster for the region.
Kofi Annan, speaking at a briefing following his recent tour of the region, said that the timing of any US withdrawal was now a key issue.
He said some leaders wanted the US to stay in Iraq and stabilise it, while others wanted an immediate withdrawal.
The White House said it disagreed with his characterisation of events in Iraq.
Spokesman Tony Snow accepted there had been unrest in Iraq but pointed to attempts to establish democracy in Lebanon and in Palestinian areas, and said democracy was also gaining a footing in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Mr Annan was speaking at a news conference at the UN in New York ahead of this year's General Assembly.
He also appealed to Iran to work with the international community to solve the dispute over its nuclear programme. Washington accuses Tehran of attempting to build a nuclear bomb.
'Cloud of uncertainty'
Speaking about his tour of Middle East nations, Mr Annan told reporters: "Most of the leaders I spoke to felt that the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath have been a real disaster for them...They believe it has destabilised the region."
But he also said many leaders wanted the Americans to stay in Iraq until the security situation improved, arguing that "having created the problem they cannot walk away".
He said other leaders, notably in Iran, felt "the presence of the US is a problem and that the US should leave, and if the US were to decide to leave, they would help them".
Mr Annan concluded: "So in a way, the US has found itself in a position where it cannot stay and it cannot leave.
"And I believe, if it has to leave, the timing has to be optimum and it has to be arranged in such a way that it does not lead to even greater disruption or violence in the region."
Turning to Iran, Mr Annan said he detected a slight shift in Tehran's approach and believed the Iranians were more open to suspending their nuclear enrichment activities as part of negotiations.
"We cannot afford another crisis in this region. I appeal to the Iranians to ...lift the cloud of uncertainty surrounding their programme, so hopefully this will be done."
| September 14, 2006 | 20:10:40 |
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JUTE LEAF/ It may reduce risk of cancer. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bangladeshi jute (Corchorus capsularis, Corchorus olitorius) leaf as medicine
Two species of jute (Corchorus capsularis and Corchorus olitorius) are being cultivated in Bangladesh. Capsularis (deshi) has maximum use as vegetable thanOlo itorius (Tossa) due to its bitter taste. Jute leaves are being used as vegetables in Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia, including Bangladesh for a long time. Besides, it is also used as herbal medicine to control or prevent dysentery, worm and constipation etc. Jute leaves are being used as health-food in Japan. Jute leave is rich in vitamins, carotinoids, calcium, potassium and dietary fibers. Jute leaf contains antitumor promoters; Phytol and Monogalactosyl-diacylglycerol. It may reduce risk of cancer.
Japan has been importing dry jute leaf from Africa and they are using it as the substitute of coffee and tea. In Europe, jute leaves are being used as soup. Through induced mutation, different types of mutant and varieties of C. capsularis had been developed. In spite of its importance, Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) initiated a mutation-breeding programme to develop more leaves genotype of jute as vegetable
After irradiation, a dwarf mutant CM-18 with more number of leaves has been selected. The mutant CM-18 was selected out for its higher leaf yield. Then it was tested in farmers' fields. Fresh twigs (edible portion) of 30 days old seedling of both the genotypes were analyzed for Protein, Fiber, Alkaloid, Carotene and Vitamin C. The mutant line CM-18 produced 32 per cent higher twig yield than its parental variety CVL-1. Qualitative characters compared with its parental variety CVL-1 are shown below:
* The mutant CM-18 contains higher protein and carotene contents than parent variety. Fiber, Alkaloid and Vitamin C contents are more or less similar with CVL-1. Low alkaloid contained in leaves make it tasty. The mutant CM-18 has high vegetable yield potential, protein and carotene content.
* Due to better performance in respect of yield and quality the mutant CM-18 has been registered as the first jute variety in Bangladesh for vegetable purpose in the name of Binapatshak-1 in 2003. Fresh jute leaf has higher demand. BCSIR has a technology to keep the leaf fresh for about one month. The technology can be utilised to export . fresh jute leaf for earning foreign currency.
(Dr. K.M. Shamsuzzaman, Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture, Nov. 2003))
| September 14, 2006 | 14:34:18 |
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He had no emotion. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Police: Gunman killed after college shooting
• NEW: Radio Canada reports that a female student died after shooting
• Authorities say gunman was killed by police; 20 students wounded
• Hospital: Six victims to receive operations
• Student says one gunman wore trench coat, began shooting outside
A gunman was killed by police and 20 students were wounded after a Wednesday shooting at Dawson College in downtown Montreal, police said.
Another student -- a woman in her 20s -- died later, Radio Canada quoted Montreal Police Chief Yvan Delorme as saying.
Initial reports indicated that as many as four people, including two gunmen, had been killed, but Delorme told CNN that only the single gunman was killed. Police were looking for other possible suspects.
Delorme would not comment on a motive, but said the shootings were not hate crimes or terror-related.
Three of the critically wounded were in operating rooms Wednesday afternoon, and three others were awaiting operations, a Montreal General Hospital spokeswoman said. Two other critically wounded victims were in the emergency room, she said.
All surgeries should be completed by Wednesday evening, she said.
The spokeswoman said at least 14 victims had been brought to area hospitals. Eleven patients were transported to Montreal General and four or five more had been taken to two other area hospitals to ease the burden on Montreal General, she said.
Among the wounds being treated were gunshots to the head, abdomen, chest, arms and legs, she said. (Watch witnesses describe escaping through pools of blood -- 3:44)
Police cordoned off the 12-acre campus after the incident and searched a nearby shopping mall for suspects, a police spokesman said.
A SWAT team was in the college because "we believe there might be other suspects inside the Dawson College," a Montreal police spokesman told reporters.
Police were using search dogs in a door-to-door search for the gunman or gunmen Wednesday afternoon, another spokesman said.
The shots were randomly fired in the cafeteria and atrium, and students said they didn't think anyone was targeted, said reporter Genevieve Beauchemin with the television station CFCF. Students told Beauchemin that at least one of the gunmen was dressed in black.
'He had no emotion'
A student told Global News in Montreal that one of the shooters was in his early 20s and was wearing a trench coat.
"He was saying nothing, just shooting. He told people to get away, and that was it," the student said.
Another student, Daniel Mightley, 21, said the shooting began outside the college. Mightley said he was heading to lunch when he saw one of the shooters to his right. The gunman, who was wearing a black trench coat and had a mohawk, fired a shot and "everybody just ran inside," he said.
"I saw his face and he had no emotion in his face whatsoever," Mightley said. "He was walking very slowly toward us and just shooting."
Mightley said he saw at least one person get shot.
Police had not yet determined how many people were shot, said Sgt. Giuseppe Boccardi.
"My understanding, at this moment, is that most of the students have exited the college grounds," Boccardi said.
Video showed students streaming from the campus after the midday shootings.
"People were literally running for their lives," said Beauchemin, describing what the students told her was a "stampede."
Emergency personnel and police, in bulletproof vests, wheeled people on two stretchers to ambulances. Boccardi said he couldn't provide a description of the victims.
A first-year student who didn't give her name said she saw one victim who had been shot in the leg being helped across the street, and another who had been shot in the stomach lying on the sidewalk.
"We were just sitting in class, and we were listening to the teacher and we heard guns going off," the student said. "We looked outside and everyone was screaming and crying and there were people that got shot that were running away.
"And then our teacher left, and he came back and said the gunmen were inside and we had to leave."
Dawson College will be closed until Monday, Radio Canada reported.
The college has 7,000 day students and 3,000 night students, according to the Dawson Web site.
In Canada, students as young as 16 can attend colleges, which generally serve as bridges between high schools and universities.
This is not the first shooting at a Montreal college. About 17 years ago, Marc Lepine opened fire at Ecole Polytechnique. Fourteen female students were killed in the December 1989 shooting before Lepine killed himself.
Lepine left behind a three-page letter blaming feminists for his not being able to get into the school.
| September 13, 2006 | 20:16:02 |
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Syrian security put to the test. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Syrian security put to the test,Syria is known for being one of the most security-obsessed states in the Middle East. The Baathist government imposed a state of emergency when it came to power in 1963, giving the state security agencies the power to detain suspects for long periods without arrest warrants.
There are four major branches of security forces - the political security directorate, military intelligence, the general intelligence directorate and air force intelligence.
According to the latest US state department human rights report, these operate outside the control of the legal system and devote resources to monitoring internal dissent and individual citizens.
Observers say this situation has contributed to Syria's relative calm, compared with many of its neighbours which have been the target of a string of Islamist militant attacks over the years.
'Police state'
Violence such as that seen on a Damascus street on Tuesday outside the US embassy are therefore a rarity.
"It is rare because Syria is a very tight police state," former British ambassador in Syria Sir Andrew Green told the BBC.
"And the reason for that - which people often forget - is that Islamic extremists pose the main threat to the Syrian regime itself."
However, there have been isolated shooting incidents in Damascus's diplomatic quarter in recent months.
In June, four gunmen and a security guard were killed when Syrian security forces said they had foiled an attack by Islamist militants near the studios of state-run TV.
That is what led Britain's current envoy, Peter Ford, to speculate in media interviews that Tuesday's attack was the work of a small local group, rather than an attempt by the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda.
The timing of the attempted bombing could be significant though, 12 September, a day after the fifth anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the US carried out by 19 al-Qaeda suicide hijackers.
Foiled attack
The exact details surrounding the attack - which took place in one of the most heavily guarded areas of the Syrian capital - are still not clear.
However, television footage showed what looked to have been a powerful homemade bomb - pipe bombs strapped to large propane gas canisters - carried in a delivery van.
They did not get past the high perimetre fence of the US embassy, which is next to a public road. The embassy buildings themselves are some distance back from the fence.
Tuesday's violence appears to recall a 27 April 2004 incident in which the authorities said they had foiled an attack by Islamist militants in another diplomatic area.
Two men were sentenced to be hanged in connection with that attack. One of the men described his involvement as a "personal act" in a televised confession.
Syrian Interior Minister Bassa Abdel Majid said that while three attackers had been killed, one had been captured and it was hoped he would reveal the background of the attack.
Syria's security services can celebrate the fact that an attack on the US embassy was averted at a time of high tension between the two countries.
But questions will be asked about how the attackers managed to reach the embassy's first line of defence.
| September 13, 2006 | 19:57:16 |
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Militant Injured In Embassy Attack Dies. - Posted By: NaBeeel
-A fourth militant who allegedly took part in an attack on the
US Embassy in Syria has died from his injuries.
Three of the other suspected Islamic militants were killed in the brazen assault Tuesday.
Syrian guards exchanged gunfire outside the compound with the attackers, who shouted "God is
great" and tried to storm in with automatic weapons and hand grenades.
A Syrian guard was killed in the attack. No Americans were hurt.
The state-run Syrian News Agency says the fourth suspect could not be interrogated before he died because of the extent of his injuries.
There has been no claim of responsibility but Syria's ambassador to the US says "it's logically possible" that an al-Qaeda offshoot is responsible.
| September 13, 2006 | 14:14:30 |
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AREA OF EMBASSY ATTACK. - Posted By: NaBeeel
US thanks Syria over embassy raid,Firefighters and other emergency services were sent to the scene ,The US has thanked Syria for foiling an attack on its embassy in Damascus.
Syria said three attackers were killed and a fourth captured as they tried to drive two cars at the compound. One security officer was killed.
Syrian media blamed Islamic extremists but no-one has said they carried out the attack. One car went up in flames but the second bomb failed.
The US, which lists Syria as a sponsor of terrorism, said it was grateful that the embassy staff's safety was ensured.
There were no reports of US casualties. There is currently no US ambassador to Damascus and very limited contact between the governments.
Damascus has seen sporadic unrest in recent years, including a reported attempt to bomb the Canadian embassy.
Grenades
Security forces sealed off the Rawda area, which also houses other embassies and security installations.
AREA OF EMBASSY ATTACK
"Three terrorists were killed and one was wounded," said Interior Minister Gen Bassam Abdel Majid.
It was, in his words, a "terrorist operation targeting the US embassy" and involving home-made bombs and automatic weapons.
Ayman Abdel-Nour, a Syrian political commentator who was in the area, said the attackers had run "toward the compound shouting religious slogans while firing their automatic rifles".
Grenades were reportedly thrown at the embassy's wall, said to be about 2.5m (8ft) high.
Witnesses said that after an initial exchange of fire, two of the attackers sought refuge in a nearby building but were pursued and gunned down by security forces.
Heightened tension
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice thanked Syria's security forces and expressed condolences over the death of the guard.
"I do think that the Syrians reacted to this attack in a way that helped to secure our people and we very much appreciate that," she said.
"I think it's very early to try and speculate why this may have happened," she said.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the US was "grateful for the assistance the Syrians provided in going after the attackers".
"We are hoping they will become an ally and make the choice of fighting against terrorists," he said.
The attack comes at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Damascus, with bitterness in Syria over US support for Israeli military action in Lebanon.
The US accuses Syria of supporting the insurgency in Iraq and not doing enough to prevent weapons going to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
BBC Arab affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi says it is difficult to see what Islamic militants could gain by undermining stability in Syria.
But, our correspondent says, it is also probable that some elements have been angered by Syria providing intelligence to Washington on al-Qaeda.
On the fifth anniversary of the 11 September attacks, al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had warned there would be more attacks in Israel and the Gulf.
| September 12, 2006 | 19:50:52 |
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Iraq asks Iran to reign in militants. - Posted By: NaBeeel
TEHRAN, Iran - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made his first official visit to Iran, a close ally, asking the Islamic regime on Tuesday to crack down on al-Qaida militants infiltrating his country and seeking new deals to help Iraq's troubled oil industry.
The visit reflected the complex relationship between Iran, a mostly Shiite Muslim country, and Iraq's government, now dominated in the post- Saddam Hussein era by Shiite allies of Tehran. Since Saddam's fall in 2003, Iraq has sought better relations with Iran and to heal scars left by the 1980-88 war that killed more than 1 million people on both sides.
The two enjoy increasingly strong ties that include new oil cooperation. Iraq has already turned to Iran for help with a chronic shortage of petroleum goods, reaching a deal last month to import Iranian gasoline, kerosene and cooking fuel. Iraqi officials said al-Maliki's visit and other recent exchanges could improve the cooperation.
But at the same time, the United States — the Iraqi government's other top ally and a bitter enemy of Iran — has repeatedly accused Tehran of interfering in Iraqi politics and allowing insurgents to cross the porous 1,000-mile border. Iran denies the claims.
Moreover, Iraq is struggling to control months of brutal Shiite-Sunni sectarian violence, some of which is blamed on Shiite militias that are linked to parties in the government but also believed to have ties with Iran.
Al-Maliki's welcome was warm in Iran, where he spent part of his yearslong exile from Iraq during Saddam's rule.
The Iraqi premier had a red-carpet reception at the office of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. After their meeting, the two leaders exchanged jokes and answered questions from reporters.
"All our assistance to the Iraqi people will be to establish complete security" in Iraq, Ahmadinejad told a joint press conference, according to the state-run news agency.
"Iran and Iraq enjoy historical relations. These relations go beyond neighborly ties. Our relations will remain excellent," he said.
Al-Maliki said his visit would be "a turning point in the expansion of relations between Iran and Iraq that enjoy historical and ancient ties."
Asked about allegations that Iran was interfering in Iraq, al-Maliki said, "There is no obstacle in the way of implementing agreements between Iran and Iraq."
Neither mentioned the issue of al-Qaida militants. But Haidar al-Obadi, a parliament member from al-Maliki's Dawa Party, said the Iraqi leader was asking Iran "for cooperation in controlling the border to prevent any al-Qaida exploitation of the border."
"There are al-Qaida members and al-Qaida strongholds in Iran," he told the Associated Press in Cairo, speaking in a telephone interview from Baghdad. The militants have been "taking advantage of the long border" to smuggle weapons and people into Iraq "most likely without the Iranian government's knowledge," he said.
The United States accuses Tehran of harboring al-Qaida fugitives. Tehran has denied the charges and says it has no interest in fomenting instability across the border. However, Iran has not ruled out the possibility that some infiltrators might have crossed its border illegally. Al-Qaida's branch in Iraq has carried out some of the most brutal suicide attacks against Iraqi Shiites.
"We consider Iraq's progress, independence and territorial integrity as our own," Ahmadinejad said.
Ahmadinejad also said Iran hoped "unwanted guests will leave the region," a reference to U.S. forces in Iraq.
An Iraqi economic delegation visited Iran just before al-Maliki to discuss more petroleum deals, apparently further Iranian exports of gasoline and other fuel goods, said Haidar al-Obadi, another Dawa party parliamentarian.
Details of any new agreements have not been released. Al-Maliki said "Iraq is willing to expand its relations with Iran in the area of political and economic arenas especially energy and water."
Despite its huge oil reserves, Iraq has been suffering under shortages of fuel products because of the damage to the industry from insurgent attacks and the turmoil in the country. It has also turned to Syria and other countries for supplies.
In July 2005, former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari made a landmark visit to Iran, the first by an Iraqi premier since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam.
Since the fall of Saddam in 2003, the two countries have sought to heal scars left by the 1980-88 war that killed more than 1 million people on both sides.
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| September 12, 2006 | 19:22:41 |
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"Iran will provide assistance to the Iraqi government to establish full security. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Iran president backs 'united' Iraq, Iran's president -- hosting a visit from Iraq's prime minister and expressing support for his country's beleaguered war-torn neighbor -- says the Islamic republic supports a "united" Iraq and will help the nation "establish full security," an Iranian news agency reported.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at a news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki after private talks were held on Tuesday, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. It is al-Maliki's first visit to Iran since he became prime minister earlier this year.
"Iran will provide assistance to the Iraqi government to establish full security. We believe strengthening the Iraqi government is tantamount to promoting security, peace and friendship in that country," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.
Iraq is currently in the throes of deep civil strife, enduring a persistent insurgency and an upsurge of sectarian violence this year between Sunnis and Shiites in Baghdad and other cities.
American and British officials have claimed that Iran is attempting to fan the flames of insecurity in Iraq, where the government is trying to promote national unity among Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds.
Iran and Iraq are linked in large part by common religion, but their relationship is complicated.
Iran -- populated largely by Persians, Azeris and Kurds -- is predominantly Shiite Muslim. About 60 percent of the people in Iraq are Shiite, most of whom Arabs.
Iraq's new government is dominated by a Shiite-led coalition. Both Ahmadinejad and al-Maliki are Shiites.
While many Iranians and Iraqis -- officials as well as citizens -- believe the nations are kindred spirits, there have been tensions between them.
They fought a bloody war in the 1980s when Saddam Hussein was in power in Iraq. Hussein is now on trial for genocide in connection with a military campaign in Iraq's Kurdish region at the tail end of that war.
The United States, now the chief ally and backer of the Iraqi government, has been a longtime adversary of Iran on many issues, including Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Last week, six Iraqi border guards were detained by Iranian border guards in a dispute, an official with Iraq's border security said.
A prominent Sunni member of Iraq's parliament, Saleh al-Mutlag, questioned al-Maliki's visit in light of this incident.
"I am very surprised that a prime minister would visit a country holding symbols of Iraq's sovereignty," he said.
An Iraqi official told CNN the issue will be dealt with in Tehran by lower-level officials from the two countries.
'Close ties'
Ahmadinejad also boosted the idea of a "united and independent Iraq" that "will be beneficial to security and progress of the entire region."
He "pointed out that both countries have close ties in both cultural and religious areas, and they have reached agreement in trade, transportation and energy," IRNA said.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq enjoy deep-rooted historical relations beyond normal ties between the two neighboring states," Ahmadinejad is quoted as saying. "We regard progress, independence and territorial territory of Iraq as our own."
And, he added, "we completely support the Iraqi government and parliament and will transfer our experience to our Iraqi friends in all fields including reconstruction of the country and economic cooperation."
Describing his talks with al-Maliki as "very good," he said the countries "share" a "common stance on regional and international issues. Both sides are determined to consolidate brotherly ties."
According to the IRNA report, al-Maliki said both countries are looking forward to bilateral cooperation.
IRNA reported that al-Maliki was "asked whether Iran and Iraq did not implement previous agreements following allegations raised against Iran about its meddling in Iraq's domestic affairs."
It reported that al-Maliki "stressed the two sides face no obstacle in the way of implementing agreements."
Earlier, Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabbagh told CNN that al-Maliki was in Iran on a two-day official visit "to discuss security and political relations."
"In principle, Iraq wants a relationship with no interference."
Asked what he meant by no interference, Dabbagh replied that Iraq did not want to be drawn into the disputes between Iran and the United States.
"Iraq cannot pay the cost for that. As Iraq cannot be used by Iran to attack the United States, also Iraq cannot be used as a base for America to attack Iran."
| September 12, 2006 | 14:07:13 |
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"Blood and Tear& Brutal reality. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Beirut's anger over lasting damage,Several million gallons of oil flooded the coastline near Beirut, The port of Beirut has welcomed its first big cargo ships since Israel lifted its eight-week blockade of Lebanese territorial waters and air space on Friday imposed after the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah militants.
While the lifting of the embargo is clearly a significant step for Lebanon, Chris Morris has been finding out that the repercussions of the conflict are still keenly felt, even outside those areas most badly damaged in Israel's military offensive.
Abu Ali is 49-years-old. In a small open boat, he has been fishing off the coast of Beirut for a quarter of a century. It is a familiar routine - make money in the summer when the fish are plentiful and the seas are calm. It helps tide you through the winter.
But there has been nothing familiar about the summer of 2006.
The small port of Dalieh is a tiny inlet, little more than a stone's throw from the posh sea-front apartment blocks of West Beirut. About 100 fishermen usually set out from here, Abu Ali among them, to ply their trade in the Mediterranean.
But Dalieh has died, it has been smothered.
Everything is covered in a thick slick of heavy fuel oil. The smell sticks in the throat, the oil sloshes against blackened boats and rocks, polluting everything it touches. It is filthy, it is toxic, and it is right in the heart of the city.
A few men in oil-stained overalls are trying to clean the surface of the water. But their pump has broken down and there is so much garbage stuck in the oil that it becomes a thankless, demoralising task.
The fishermen look on, disconsolate, and wonder when they will get their port back.
Massive setback
Abu Ali has eight children to feed. He has already had to sell his car to make a little money.
"Even if we wanted to go out to sea," he says, "we cannot sell the fish. Why did the Israelis have to ruin our shoreline? And why haven't our leaders done more to help?"
It is more or less eight weeks now since Israeli air strikes sent several million gallons of oil flooding into the sea from a power plant south of Beirut.
This is heavy fuel oil, and some of it has sunk to the sea bed, poisoning delicate ecosystems
Since then delays caused first by the war, then by bureaucratic incompetence, have allowed it to spread along the coast.
On Beirut's famous beaches oil has seeped up to half a metre into the sand. Hotels and fish restaurants are closed. And marine life is under threat as well. This is heavy fuel oil, and some of it has sunk to the sea bed, poisoning delicate ecosystems.
For a country so dependent on trade and tourism, it is a massive setback. This has always been an outward-looking sea-faring nation, a place which traces its history back to the Phoenicians and their ancient ports at Biblos, Sidon and Tyre.
Lebanon is already simmering with anger about the Israeli bombardment. To lose the sea is an added blow.
Most of the oil will eventually be cleaned up, and Beirut will re-emerge from this. So will the rest of Lebanon - it has done it before.
But much of the damage has already been done. Every conflict leaves it mark, and this one is no different.
Brutal reality
In the neighbourhood around the Place de l'Etoile, near the BBC office, just down the road from the 19th-Century Ottoman palace which houses the prime minister's offices, the bars and cafes are full once again - late into the night, and into the early morning.
Many of the buildings around here are new - reconstructed on the ruins of the civil war of the 1970s and 1980s. Symbols of a resurgent Beirut.
But the clock tower which stands sentinel where all the roads converge has been draped with expensively produced banners.
Designer boutiques and dead bodies. It is an awkward juxtaposition, deliberately so
"Blood and Tears," says one.
"Two Israeli soldiers abducted," reads another, "hundreds of Lebanese children killed. Is it right?".
Around the clocktower Lebanese flags flutter amid graphic photographs of the recent war. Children's bodies. Bits of children's bodies.
Images of the brutal reality of violent conflict which rarely appear in the Western media.
Some people stop and stare and shake their heads. Others wander past, clutching bags from expensive local stores.
Designer boutiques and dead bodies. It is an awkward juxtaposition, deliberately so. But even those who have come out to party here have not forgotten their fury.
Most of it is directed at Israel. Some of it at the international community which failed to stop the bombardment for five weeks.
A few blame Hezbollah for crossing the border and capturing the soldiers in the first place, provoking Israel in the summer heat of July.
That is not, though, a sentiment you will hear in the southern suburbs of this city - the Shia strongholds where entire streets have been flattened by Israeli missiles.
The destruction there is intense. So, too, is the determination to rebuild.
But normal life? Well, on the surface, yes, it is returning to many parts of Beirut. This is a resilient city. The lifting of the Israeli blockade is another step on the road to recovery.
But the events of the past two months have been an unexpected, unwanted shock.
"Normal?" says Abu Ali, in the stinking, oil-soaked port of Dalieh. "I've almost forgotten what that is."
| September 9, 2006 | 14:01:31 |
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The rationale for international management of Middle East problems. - Posted By: NaBeeel
THE Region in the remaking, A new Middle East seems to be shaping on four fronts, seemingly at the cost of Arab capitals,This week, international troops were deployed in South Lebanon as a buffer between the fighters of Hizbullah and the Israeli army in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 1701. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that by next week some 5,000 troops could be stationed across the south.
Meanwhile, under UN Security Council resolution 1706, Sudan is obliged to accept international peacekeepers that will enforce peace between Sudanese government forces and armed opposition groups in Sudan's westernmost war-torn province of Darfur.
"We believe that we have to win the Khartoum government over," said Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit. Annan, at a joint press conference with Abul-Gheit in Alexandria Tuesday, was less tender. If Sudan chooses not to cooperate, he said, "it will have to answer to the international community," hinting that it might face sanctions.
During a recent regional tour, Annan said that the UN would continue its efforts along with leading European players to find a settlement to the Iranian nuclear standoff. In an early sign of willingness to cooperate with the international community on regional concerns, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this week offered a visiting Annan confirmation that Tehran will support the implementation of resolution 1701 that brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon after a five-week war.
With so much diplomatic movement, hopes are that positive momentum can be grasped and some of the regions' lasting conflicts addressed. On 21 September, according to Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, Arab countries are going to participate in a Security Council meeting at the ministerial level to argue the need for direct intervention by the Council -- along with other traditional key players, especially the US -- to promote a "new peace process" that could lead to a settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict within a reasonable time span.
Indeed, during his Middle East tour that included Beirut, Jerusalem, Amman, Damascus, Tehran, Doha, Jedda, Alexandria and Ankara, Annan and all of his hosts made statements indicating that all regional problems will now be handled primarily through the UN Security Council, rather than by regional capitals and organisations. For example, in a statement to the press made in Alexandria Annan announced that would be "only" within the framework of UN efforts, and through a special facilitator that he would soon appoint, that a prisoner swap will be clinched and the Israeli blockade on Lebanon lifted.
For their part, Arab foreign ministers meeting at the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League yesterday focused on four main issues: formulating a collective Arab position to propose to the Security Council as the basis for new Arab-Israeli negotiations; encouraging the commitment of all Arab parties, including Syria, to the implementation of resolution 1701; encouraging the Sudanese government to cooperate with resolution 1706; and examining the impact of recent developments vis-à- vis the Iranian issue and ongoing violence in Iraq on security and stability in the Gulf.
Speaking to the press on the fringe of their meetings and in joint press conferences with Annan, Arab foreign ministers seemed willing to accept that the ability of Arab capitals to influence regional developments has declined and that it may now be possible for them to impact regional affairs only through engaging in international forums. The rationale for international management of Middle East problems was echoed when Iraqi Foreign Minister Houchair Zibari insisted that all realistic approaches towards the crisis in Iraq will have to take into consideration the crucial role that US troops play in Iraq, and that the continued presence of these troops, for a while, is essential prospects of stability.
Off the record, Arab diplomats admit to learning two key lessons from the Lebanon war: that Arabs are too weak and too divided to be able to force Israel or any international player to consider Arab interests; and that there are unmistakable signs of a different regional order appearing that Arabs need to play within or be from now on irrelevant. The new regional order, they say, will necessarily include an acceptance of the growing influence of the three non-Arab Middle East countries -- Israel, Iran and Turkey -- each of which appears to have a bigger say in regional affairs than Arab countries do collectively.
Diplomats argue that within this new regional order there will be little room for political manoeuvres. The power game from now on will be rather clear-cut. Syria this week, Annan told reporters, agreed to increase the number of guards on its border with Lebanon and to "take all necessary measures" to curb the flow of arms to Hizbullah as stipulated in resolution 1701. For this declared commitment, Syria was offered a promise from Annan that it will be rescued from isolation.
Iran, too, is playing along. According to statements made by Annan following talks in Tehran, Iranian positions were "helpful". Curbing support to Hizbullah in return for Israel's commitment to the fragile truce and exercising influence of over Shia militants in Iraq in return for lesser constraints on its nuclear research programme, seems to be Tehran's way forward.
The growing acceptance of a period of change on the side of all players surely prompted Annan to report a successful mission and to indicate a true opportunity for "peace and security in the Middle East." Meanwhile, the final shape of a future Middle East, European sources indicate, is likely to be drawn through an international conference that the EU and the Arab League both support despite Israeli opposition and US reluctance.
If in the new Middle East international involvement is paramount, Arab countries will have to give up on plans to take fate into their own hands. However, Arab diplomats are assuring observers that Arab states will benefit. Mentioned is the potential restoration of most Arab territories annexed by Israel during the 1967 war, the end of threats of economic sanctions, and perhaps constructive development aid, especially in the case of Palestine. The important thing, proffered Hesham Youssef, chief of cabinet of the Arab League secretary general, is for Arabs to prevent the reoccurrence of the mishandling of Middle East issues by international powers that led to recurrent regional tribulations.
| September 8, 2006 | 17:38:23 |
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The United States and Iran should be repaired through talking, not threats. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Iran's former president, Mohammed Khatami, appealed for better U.S.-Iranian relations and suggested another approach for world powers that have demanded Tehran roll back its nuclear program or face U.N. punishment.
Khatami said Thursday the rift between the United States and Iran should be repaired through talking, not threats.
"Even now I believe that relations between our two respective governments should be resolved through dialogue," Khatami said during a news conference with U.S. and other reporters. He spoke through a translator.
"Using violence by every side and violent language by every side is not conducive to dialogue and it will increase and exacerbate the problems," Khatami said.
Khatami was a two-term Iranian president once seen as the harbinger of moderation and better relations with the United States. He is the most senior Iranian to visit the capital since the United States broke diplomatic ties with Iran following the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
Khatami will not meet with any U.S. officials. His five-city tour of the United States has angered some conservatives in Congress, some influential Iranian exiles in the United States, and some of the diplomats and employees held captive for 444 days.
President Bush and his administration are not giving Khatami a warm reception, although the U.S. government is providing and paying for a phalanx of security agents.
The administration allowed the visit to demonstrate good will toward Iranians in general, if not their leaders, and to point up the free speech and freedom of movement that are possible in the United States. Before Khatami arrived, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he hoped the universities and others hosting Khatami would ask him tough questions.
The State Department granted Khatami a visa to visit the United States for a two-week speaking tour despite severe trade and other penalties the U.S. imposed on Iran after the 1979 revolution.
The centerpiece of Khatami's visit to Washington was an address Thursday at Washington National Cathedral, a few miles from the White House. About 200 protesters chanted "Shame on you" and other slogans from across the street before Khatami spoke.
| September 8, 2006 | 14:41:37 |
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Emporhebender Anblick für die arabische Welt. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Emporhebender Anblick für die arabische Welt.
Den Satz schlurfend, sieht Heikal prüfenzeiten voran für Amerika und
Israel im "neuen Mittlere Osten," ich sind optimistisch, von einem
historischen Standpunkt, "Mohamed Hassanein Heikal erklärte dem
Qatar-gegründeten Wanne-Araber Satellitenfernsehenstation Al-Jazeera.
Heikal war in seinem Element. Er rhapsodised in seiner großartigen
alten Art des fundamentalen arabischen Nationalisten. Er demonstrierte
noch einmal a Messias-wie Fähigkeit, einen emporhebenden Anblick für
die arabische Welt mitzuteilen.
Ein Grund für Hoffnung, entsprechend Heikal, ist, daß der neueste
Umlauf des Kämpfens im Libanon drei Mythen zerbricht. "zuerst,
bildete er eine Spotterei vom Amerikanisch-Israelischen Sicherheit
Bündnis in der Region. Israel ist vom Kämpfen der amerikanischen
Kriege durch Vollmacht, "er erklärte betäubtem Vorführer Jumana
Numur," an zweiter Stelle, es zerbricht ein für allemal den Mythus
des israelischen militärischen invincibility unfähig. Und, letzt
aber nicht wenige, warf es Theorien über die lokale politische Szene
in den Ländern der Region."um
Der arabische vorderste politische Verfasser der Welt sagte, daß die
Region eine neue "gefährliche und extrem komplizierte Phase"
erreicht. Exposé Heikals schwang stark in der arabischen Welt mit, in
der US fremde Politik verabscheut wird. "der Libanon ist aufgetaucht
als das Labor für die neuen dynamischen Kräfte in der Region."
Indem es wendet, fürchtet sich das Steigen über militärische
Eskalation im Mittlere Osten, Heikal derided die wirkungslose Antwort
der arabischen Regime.
"was ich nicht verstehen kann bin, daß sie gegen Angriff Israels im
Libanon aber einwendeten, hob nie einen Augenbraueüberschuß an, wie
man den Angriff anhält," Heikal erklärt. "die arabischen Regime
haben viele Optionen und nicht gerechten unternehmenden Krieg."
Während seine Kritik arabische Regime im allgemeinen betraf, hob er
spezielle Vergeltung für die amtliche ägyptische Position auf.
"warum nicht Ägypten abgeschnittenes Öl- und Gaszubehör nach
Israel, zum Beispiel?" er wunderte sich.
"der Krieg errichtete landmines der Libanon -- in den politischen und
konfessionellen landmines. Der Libanon verdient besser von den
Arabern. Ich werde besonders an der ägyptischen Reaktion überrascht.
Was Ägypten tat, tun Sie, aber stehen Sie untätig bereit, wie der
Libanon wurde bombardiert?"
Heikal schlug einen Akkord in der arabischen öffentlichen Meinung an.
Er betonte eine Schicht in den inländischen politischen, regionalen
und internationalen Prioritäten. In naher Zukunft wird fremde Politik
des Amerikaners beherrscht, indem man herauf Wahrung des
Scheinseinheiten, zum der internationalen Krise über Israels wildem
und unfruchtbarem Angriff gegen unschuldige libanesische Zivilziele
gleichzurichten beschw50rt.
Mit deadpan Stimmung prophesised Heikal eine Apocalypse der fast
unvergleichbaren Anteile. Seine Vorhersage kann quixotic klingen, aber
es ist plausibel: "es gibt viel, das arabische öffentliche Meinung
noch wissen möchte. Es gibt so viele unbeantwortete Fragen."
Heikal hat immer seine Anträge als die rechte Entscheidung für die
arabische Welt dargestellt, und die meisten seinen Projektoren stimmen
überein. Möglicherweise ist es die Weise, in der er seine
Philosophie von die besten Interessen der arabischen Welt echt suchen
umreißt, die überzeugt.
Die etwaige israelische Abfahrt vom Libanon war praktisch
unvermeidlich. Was zunächst geschieht, ist von kritischem Belang.
"leider es gibt keine Übereinstimmung über, wie man Stoffe
verbessert," sagte er.
Manchmal Hilfen einer decken langfristige Ansicht die grosse Abbildung
auf. Washington ist an einem Verlust. Telefon-Aviv ist auch. Die
Politiktagesordnung ist über dem sofortigen Chaos hinaus unmittelbar
nach dem israelischen brutish Angriff gegen den Libanon geworfen
worden.
"möglicherweise sind die aufschlußreichsten Informationen, zum vom
Treffen Heikals aufzutauchen Heikals anhaltender kritischer Wert da
der Guru der arabischen politischen Dynamik," Mohamed EL-Sayed
besagter, unabhängiger Analytiker in der Al-Ahram Mitte für die
politischen und strategischen Studien, Al-Ahram Wochenzeitung
erklärt.
"weiter, hat Heikal eine enorme analytische Fähigkeit. Seine Analyse
der gegenwärtigen Lage ist an zweiter Stelle zu keinen. Er ist
hartnäckig und systematisch. Und, sogar wichtiger nie rhetorisch,
"sagte hinzugefügt.
"Heikal hat ein breites Publikum in Ägypten und in der arabischen
Welt. Leute verstehen, daß er unermeßliche historische Bedeutung
hat. Er ist der vorstehendste politische Verfasser und der Kommentator
in der arabischen Welt seit den vierziger Jahren gewesen. Er war ein
naher Teilnehmer des späten Präsidenten, Gamal Abdel-Nasser."
"haben Sie keine Illusionen," gewarntes Heikal. "Hizbullah ist
betriebsbereit zum Kampf." Wenn diese Tendenzen zu ihren logischen
Zusammenfassungen genommen werden, ist ein neuer Mittlere Osten in der
Tat im Bilden. Unterdessen zieht die US Leitung eine Strategie ab, um
seinen, "Anblick eines neuen Mittlere Ostens" in die Tat umzusetzen
anzufangen.
Aber kann sie wie weit gehen? Arabische Regime können nicht Rehash
die verhängnisvolle Legacy des Präsidenten George W Bush im
Mittlere Osten. Die zerbrechlichen Grundlagen des neuen
Mittlere Ostens, der von Bush können vorgestellt wird nicht einfach,
sein.
"es gibt einen neuen Sykes-Picot in der Region -- außer daß Israel
und die Vereinigten Staaten ersetzen Großbritannien und Frankreich.
Es gibt Chaos und Änderung in der Region, "Heikal extrapoliert. "der
Libanon hat gestanden dem Opferlamm und dem Leithammel der Region."
Das existentielle angst, das die arabische Welt gegriffen hat, da der
wilde israelische Angriff im Libanon Anzeige ist, daß es neue
populäre Dynamik gibt, die amtliche Veranschaulichungen sidelining.
Es gibt Zeichen der gesellschaftlichen Friktion dort außerdem. Die
Pro-Westlichsten Regime in der arabischen Welt sind besonders
verletzbar.
Islamists wird self-confident und projiziert ihre eigene Ideologie auf
westliche Begriffe wie Demokratie, Freiheit und den Rechtsgrundsatz.
Wenn man die Region durch amerikanische Augen betrachtet, wird der
Mittlere Osten entlang drei Äxten aufgespaltet: totalitäre, Anti-
amerikanische Autokratien; freundliche Regime, die versuchen,
demokratische Verbesserungen einzuleiten (obwohl halbherzig); und eine
einzelne entwicklungsfähige und vibrant Demokratie, Israel. Nichts
kann von der Wahrheit weiter sein. Ja ist die Region mit Diktatoren
vollgestopft, die behaupten, daß sie Demokratisierung beim
Beibehalten ihres Griffs auf Energie wünschen.
"der Wettbewerb ist, mit unterschiedlichen Spielern intensiv,"
beachtetes Heikal. Entsprechend Heikal stellen Amerika und Israel ein
vorzügliches Dilemma in den Monaten, möglicherweise Jahre
gegenüber, um zu kommen. "Amerika und Israel wissen, daß der
libanesische Widerstand soviel Momentum erzielt hat, daß er nicht
durch den Kurs dieser Dekade jetzt besiegt werden kann."
Die Mühe ist die, welche die Lebensbedingungen verbessert, zur Folge
hat das Verstärken der Demokratie über der Region, mit ernsten
Implikationen für die langfristige Aussicht der Region. Arabische
Regime stellen jetzt ein Dilemma von ihren Selbst gegenüber. Sie sind
in keinem Zweifel, der ", den Mittlere Osten umzudefinieren"
einfacheres besagtes ist, als getan gelassen worden.
Schließlich stellen die Dutzende von Geistesstörung Sitzungen und
bickering unter arabischen leaderships die Art "Locher dar und Judy"
der Politik Heikal beharrt, daß arabische Führer widerstehen
müssen.
| September 3, 2006 | 14:54:00 |
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A master and his mantle , Part #1 - Posted By: NaBeeel
Weekly canvasses thoughts of writers, critics and filmmakers on the influence of Naguib Mahfouz on the Arabic novel, and on their own work, Every brick in an alley that Mahfouz wrote about in his novels is part of Egypt's history.
In European literature the novel was forged and set in cities while in the Arab world the setting was rural. The first novel to be written in Arabic is Mohamed Husayn Haykal's Zaynab. Early pioneers like Taha Husayn, Yahia Haqqi and Tawfiq Al-Hakim, even the city dwellers among them, opted for rural settings. It was Naguib Mahfouz who highlighted the city for the first time.
When he concluded the first stage of his writing, which focussed on Ancient Egypt, he moved towards the realism exemplified in Al-Qahira Al-Jadida (The New Cairo), Bidaya Wa Nihaya ( The Beginning and the End ) and Zuqaq Al-Midaqq ( Midaq Alley ) and which concluded with the great epic of the Trilogy. The move was towards an urban experience, set in Cairo or Alexandria.
It is sometimes better not to step into the orbit of a large star so as not to be burnt or obliterated by it. He is astute, austere, serious, committed -- setting his goal and adamant in his pursuing that a goal to the end. He suppresses temptation and venal instincts. It would have been perfectly possible for Mahfouz to travel the world as an international celebrity, but he chose not to. He has travelled outside Egypt only three times, and only when he was obliged to do so whereas other writers today count their achievements in the number of foreign invitations they receive.
Mahfouz never actively pursued the translation of his works; rather, he was approached by translators. He never tried to appeal the Western reader; rather, he expressed himself with such honesty that readers came to him.
Artists can be bohemian and eccentric. It is possible that there is something of such qualities in Mahfouz but they are expressed in his writing, not in the conduct of his daily life.
Mahfouz had much to give on both the personal and literary level. He was working on Ahlam Fatrat Al-Naqaha (English translation, The Dreams ), intense writing that distills the wisdom of many years, until the end. Some writers die while they are still breathing but not so Mahfouz; we were fortunate he worked until the last. One of the great lessons to be learned from Mahfouz is how he merged life with writing; thus it is that the two must end together.
Ibrahim Aslan, novelist
While tracing Mahfouz's direct influence is very difficult, he was the writer who laid the foundations of the Arabic novel, and they were strong foundations. The attempts made before his arrival on the scene were really no more than examinations of the site, testing the soil's texture before the actual building could begin. Mahfouz provided a sturdy base for the Arabic novel in general. He was able to create from Arabic, with all its phonetic characteristics, a language able to be the vehicle for modern literature, a modern storytelling form. And he forged the Arabic novel in a fashion that speaks to the Western understanding of the genre, a fact that has had a profound effect. The achievement is of barely imaginable magnitude.
Mahfouz has always been a singular example, in the way in which he accords respect and value to his work and in the way in which he respected the reader.
But it is Mahfouz the man who remains closest to my heart. He was always a son of this country ( ibn balad ), able to represent common folk because he was raised in a popular quarter, from where his jocularity and wit is derived. I also grew up in a low income area and strongly relate to this aspect of Mahfouz. I have no doubt that Mahfouz's youth had an enormous effect on his writing; writers generally work from scenes they can observe at close hand and it is no accident that Mahfouz could write of districts such as the one in which he was raised.
Alaa El-Aswani, novelist
Naguib Mahfouz founded the modern Arabic novel. He is one of the most important novelists in the history of literature and had he not been an Arab he would have received the Nobel Prize for literature much earlier. But the award of the prize is often a political decision. He received it when it was no longer possible to continue to ignore him.
Naguib Mahfouz is an inspiration to all writers, not just on account of his genius but also through the example of his determination and dedication.
Mahfouz was a friend of my father, Abbas Al-Aswani, so I knew a great deal about him from childhood. There is no doubt that he influenced me as a writer. I was influenced, in particular, by a statement he made in which he said he would not have achieved what he has had he not believed that writing is a mission to be pursued regardless of returns, that it provided him with a consolation for all that saddens him in this world.
His relationship with the generations that succeeded him is that of a father towards his children, with all the positive and the negative aspects of such ties. Many of those that followed him did so rebelliously, seeking to emerge from beneath his mantle.
| September 2, 2006 | 16:58:49 |
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A letter to President Bush. - Posted By: NaBeeel
A letter to President Bush
Before a real clash of civilisations becomes reality, M. Waakki* pleads for reason -- and some comprehensive rethinking -- in Washington
Dear President Bush,
It is with my deepest regret that I write this letter to you. People throughout the Middle East have always held every president of the United States in the highest regard, but I have been driven to write this letter after hearing your thoughtless, almost racist, description of our hallowed religion as "Islamo-fascism".
When you first used this expression sometime ago, we thought it was just a slip of the tongue, a stumble. Your more mature advisors would surely soon correct you. When General Boykin used this expression, we thought he would surely be fired. And when other advisors, like Daniel Pipes, used it we ignored it as the unfortunate bigotry of misguided Likudniks, though they seemed to fill the corridors of your administration.
It was heartening that you always talked about Islam with respect, considering it part of our mutual heritage of heavenly faiths sent by our one God -- the God in which we all believe, be we Christians, Muslims or Jews. Even after your actions -- all of your actions -- betrayed admiration for, alliance with, and complete support of Israel, even after the whole world watched the total destruction of Lebanon, we thought that these actions were simply the result of a broken moral compass. But when you equate Islam with fascism, you crossed all acceptable lines of behaviour.
Mr President, throughout the last 60 years no American president has ever used his pulpit to so publicly denigrate any human faith, and you, Mr President were held in high esteem because of your previous, positive statements about Islam. You even described it as a religion of peace, which it is.
Fascism, Mr President, as defined by Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language is "a system of government characterised by rigid one party dictatorship, forcible suppression of opposition, private economic enterprise under centralised governmental control, belligerent nationalism, racism and militarism, etc." Benito Mussolini was one founder of modern fascism, but no one ever accused him of being a "Christo-fascist".
The majority of your people do not agree with your policies or opinions or actions, whether in Iraq or elsewhere. But this, Mr President, is not our fight. This is your problem. This is your legacy, whatever you want to leave behind. But insulting 1.2 billion Muslims is not becoming of the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, the one that your predecessor described as the shining city on the hill. Most of us believed that description.
We thought that if you heard one of your unenlightened advisors using such language you would be a role model, rising above to stop them in their tracks. America is bigger than that. You can embrace the Israelis as much as you want. You can even support their destruction of entire towns and massacres of thousands of civilians.
All of this could go under policy failures, or a broken moral compass, but attacking one of God's holiest religions is not a policy failure -- it is much worse than that. And here, Mr President, we part ways. I hope you realise the gravity of the wedge you are creating between the US and those billion Muslims in the world.
As for your call for democracy in the Middle East, the German magazine Der Speigel in an interview with your predecessor, Jimmy Carter, said, "It comes as no surprise that that had been discredited. The former president said, 'My concerns have gotten even worse now with the United States supporting and encouraging Israel in its unjustified attack on Lebanon. Israel has no moral justification for its massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon'.
"Mr President, the majority of Arab-Americans, including myself, were hoping that you would pursue your father's even-handed policies in the Middle East. But when former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil quoted you in your first National Security Council meeting as saying, "We are going to tilt US policy to Israel and we are going to be consistent," we could not believe him. Unfortunately you have tilted it completely and systematically towards Israel.
Mr President, Israel's fight with the Arabs is not your fight. Mature advisors would tell you that Israel is not America. Israel is your delinquent ally. You will spend the rest of your administration trying to clean up Israel's bloody mess. This does not have to be your fate or your destiny or your cross to bear, like a delinquent son. You don't have to pay for their ugly wars.
The Arabs collectively declared that they want to live in peace with Israel. The peace proposal adopted by the Arab League in Beirut in 2002 is unequivocal. Please read it, Mr President.
When I was in Rochester, Minnesota, 6 August, I read in The Star Tribune that in 2002 Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said to you, "I think we never had such a relationship with any president of the United States." Most Arabs can say the same thing, Mr President, but with exactly the opposite meaning. The irony is that it does not have to be this way. There is no other part of the world where countries have been as consistently friendly and helpful to America as those in the Arab world, despite the long history of injustice, insults and total neglect of their hopes and aspirations.
Believe me, Mr President, every Arab I know believes that it is an act of magnanimity that they accept Israel to live among them, but only if Israel accepts to live among them peacefully, forgoing expansionism, creeping annexation and continued settlement enlargement.
Mr Bush, the ball is in your court, but you have to fear God, the one God that we all believe in -- Christians, Muslims and Jews.
* The writer is a political analyst resident in Washington.
| September 1, 2006 | 22:52:34 |
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The foremost manifestations of corruption. - Posted By: NaBeeel
The shaping of cultures,It was the singular character of Hizbullah that allowed it to resist the might of the Israeli military machine. It is a character that the group must not allow to be diluted, When you take a look around the Arab world today,
what do you see?
You see sons being groomed for monarchical succession in republics that are still caricatures of Bonapartism and Mameluke despotism. Ironically, these heirs apparent always begin their careers by condemning corruption, yet they are one of the foremost manifestations of corruption.
You see CNN's Rolf Blister questioning the Iraqi president as though he were on trial: "Do you recognise Israel or not?" Nur Al-Maliki squirms under the interrogation, unable to pluck up the courage to say that that's the last thing on his mind at a time when his country is falling apart. But recognition of Israel is what the American media thinks is important about Iraq, and will continue to think even after no walls are left standing.
There is the division into regional axes, with political leaders changing positions as though they were playing musical chairs. One day they'll deride Arab nationalism and Arab identity if it is used to promote modernism, to resist Israel or combat the American drive to partition Iraq. The next day they'll turn around and use these concepts against Iran. Just to hear a Saudi official defending Arab identity makes your head spin.
There is the Palestinian government under siege, Palestinian society being destroyed. International delegations meet the Palestinian president and snub the democratically elected Palestinian government, while in Lebanon they meet the government and snub the president. Washington could not order non-Arab countries such as Turkey or Russia not to receive elected Hamas officials but it has no problem laying down the law with Arab governments. The same governments which attacked Hizbullah because of its Shia affiliation are the same ones that attack Sunni-affiliated Hamas. Such are the inconsistencies of the pro-American axis.
You see the promotion of Resolution 1701 as an achievement even though it is much worse than 1559, and the Lebanese resistance condemned for its Syrian and Iranian connections and for having brought trouble to Lebanon. Yet when Syria and Iran celebrate the victory of this "Syrian-Iranian" resistance movement they are accused of intervening in Lebanese affairs. As for the resistance's Arab enemies, they either question whether there was a victory at all or they attribute it to the Lebanese government.
Even more worrying is the unprecedented drive to inflame sectarian discord and drive a wedge between Sunni and Shia Muslims, as though they were mutually hostile tribal groups rather than adherents to differing Islamic doctrines. In the past, non-democratic governments based their legitimacy upon a doctrine of national unity that they were uniquely poised to embody. Now we see non- democratic regimes fuelling sectarian strife and national disunity in order to perpetuate themselves.
In contrast to the foregoing, we can take heart in the Arab people's rejection of the sectarian bait. Popular support for the Lebanese resistance was widespread, proving that Arab identity is alive in spite of everything. Arab popular support for the predominantly Shia Lebanese resistance was at least as strong as it was for the Sunni Taliban at the time of the American invasion of Afghanistan. When it comes to hostility towards American and Israeli policies, Arab ties prevail over sectarian ones.
People were greatly impressed by the model the Lebanese resistance set and by its ability to deliver a stunning blow to the Israeli assault and to anti-Arab stereotypes. This impression has set in motion a fermentation that will have far-reaching effects in the long run, and this, too, is positive. It should now be clear to all that the Arab public is not interested in agreements with Israel that are prejudicial to the Arabs in general, and to the Palestinians in particular.
I demonstrated my respect and sympathy for the resistance during its ordeal and the jubilant aftermath. I stood by it when others remained silent because under such circumstances moral support must take precedence. Even now it is important to realise that the war against the resistance is not over, which is why one must bear in mind the source of any criticism. Enemies of the resistance have aired objections that could reasonably be accepted by the movement's supporters were they not obviously aimed to undermine the resistance. The following criticisms are offered by way of support of the resistance.
I believe that the Iranian-supported Lebanese party should not act towards Iran as communist parties acted towards Moscow in the days of the Soviet Union. Iran is not infallible, and it is certainly less than innocent in Iraq, where it is helping to promote sectarian strife in order to further its own regional ambitions. One can understand Hizbullah's predicament because of its material dependence on Iran. However, the party still has considerable room for manoeuvre because of the popular support it has received in the Arab world, which it can turn to its advantage without having to lose Iran's support.
Nor should we expect Hizbullah to get all worked up over Kofi Annan's visit, as if its greatest hope was for recognition from the UN secretary-general. After all, the UN official was there to put into effect a resolution that is unjust to Lebanon and its resistance movement.
Modesty, action instead of words, persistence, organisation and judgement are the qualities that have distinguished Hizbullah over the past two decades, giving the Lebanese resistance its unique character. The party's greatest success is in having developed a workable model for resistance, ending inferiority complexes and defeatist theories based on the notion that Arabs are culturally or genetically flawed.
In the wake of the recent victory, even immediately preceding it, there were some ominous signs. Not only were there displays of pictures of Iranian leaders, reminiscent of the Arab communists' displays of socialist leaders in the past, as if they were new religious icons, but kitschy portraits of the Hizbullah leader began to appear on private and public buildings, cars, in restaurants and stores.
Of course there is no comparing this with the ubiquitous pictures of regime leaders that Arab governments force on their publics. The proliferation of Nasrallah images was spontaneous and reflected genuine popular admiration and widespread support for the resistance. Nevertheless, one would think that a party bearing a liberationist message would strive to minimise this type of personality cult, which has always been a product of folk faith and official encouragement. Instead the party is fostering it through its publications and media.
Generally, political movements tend to condemn this phenomenon only in others. Arab nationalists condemned the hero worship of Stalin yet these same people turned Gamal Abdel-Nasser into an icon in a similar way. The revolutionary left, which scoffed at both Stalinists and Nasserists, pinned up its pictures of Marx and Che Guevara. The problem with this is that it obviates critical thought because it voids the symbols of the ideas they are meant to embody. To personify an idea by vesting symbolic meaning in an individual is to elevate that individual beyond criticism. This immunity must inevitably alter the quality of the idea itself.
No one in the West would know the daughter of Guevara. Yet she was received in Lebanon as if she was the member of a royal dynasty in line for succession. That's how things work in Lebanon. Religious affiliations are an important part of politics and social life, but ultimately everything boils down to powerful family dynasties. Hizbullah has stood as a remarkable exception. Its leaders fought with their own sons on the field of battle and paid the price instead of sending other people's sons off to war as they groomed their own to take over. This policy has won Hizbullah respect among Lebanese and Arab forces. It would be a pity if this model was now sullied by personality cults.
Democracy is not a panacea that will solve all our problems. The history of democracy is full of attempts to falsify the popular will, to delude the people, to purchase power, to use sensationalism and mass media chicanery to turn opinion in a particular direction. Yet whatever its failings, it is difficult to imagine such leader worship in a democracy, regardless of how popular a leader is. Democracy, democratic institutions and the rule of law are inherently averse to the adulation of political leaders.
Democratic societies seem to have channelled the inclination to hero worship into the alternative "religions" of mass consumer societies, which take as their temples the stage and screen and sporting arenas. The daily brass tacks of politics keep politicians far too busy to become media celebrities, apart from at campaign time. In the Arab world, by contrast, the cult of the ruler is usually pursued in inverse proportion to his political legitimacy.
Hizbullah is not the ruling party, though you would never guess given the adoration accorded to its leaders. But even if it were just a resistance movement such personality cultism is inconsistent with its function. I know that a large portion of the resistance's leadership would agree with me on this point, though they would hold that the cult comes with the territory, is a product of a process of mobilisation that draws on both political and religious sentiments.
They would add that it is a healthy expression of self-respect to brandish pictures of resistance leaders in the faces of the dynastic heads of the various religious denominations who do not have to lift a finger to have their pictures posted around the country while simultaneously ridiculing the ubiquitous pictures of rulers in neighbouring countries. All this is true, but the party is still responsible for the type of culture it is disseminating.
What are we to make, for example, of such post- war declarations as "my children died as martyrs in the cause of Al-Sayid," or "this house was destroyed by the Israeli bombardment, but to those concerned the house was offered as tribute to Al-Sayid". Obviously these are expressions of sacrifice for the sake of the resistance or the national cause. They are meant to affirm the determination to remain steadfast and to challenge anyone who tries to drive a wedge between the resistance and the families that lost their homes or loved ones.
That is the political message of such declarations. But it is one thing for people to say such things in private and quite another for Hizbullah to broadcast them through its media. The latter represents a conscious attempt to shape a culture favorable to the party. Such a culture may be useful when directed against foreign invaders but it cannot combat social and economic backwardness, political regression, corruption, exploitation, sectarianism and nepotism.
Some presume that the culture of the resistance offers an alternative to the general spectacle of an Arab world that has succumbed to all of the above. The phenomena I have described though, suggests the opposite. This is not because of its sectarian character, which is unavoidable given conditions in Lebanon. In fact, Hizbullah deserves credit for its openness to other political/sectarian forces and the model of religious tolerance it has presented.
However, it has not presented Lebanon with a non- sectarian model. Even if Hizbullah's origins are a natural product of the Lebanese environment we could hope it might offer an alternative. The party has every right to boast of offering a model of dedication and organisation at the level of the resistance, but it has not offered an alternative vision for society.
The resistance culture Hizbullah is fostering is a culture determined to reject foreign hegemony and adopt modern and rational means to organise and equip the party and its social bases towards that end. This is precisely why it is difficult to imagine a resistance leader squirming before a foreign journalist asking him whether he is going to recognise Israel. But this culture does not offer an alternative to the Arab world's prevalent political culture.
Perhaps this is not Hizbullah's historic mission. Perhaps it should not be asked to perform this mission. But an alternative to the prevailing political and social culture is urgently needed throughout the Arab world. Imitating Hizbullah is not the answer, because the nature of the mission is not the same.
| September 1, 2006 | 16:01:49 |
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The kidnapping would lead to a war of this scale and magnitude. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Nasrallah sorry for scale of war
Nasrallah ordered the capture of the soldiers on 12 July
Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has said he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war.
"Had we known that the kidnapping of the soldiers would have led to this, we would definitely not have done it," he said in an interview on Lebanese TV.
He added that neither side was "heading towards a second round" of fighting.
More than 1,000 Lebanese died in the 34-day conflict which left much of southern Lebanon in ruins.
The Israeli offensive began after two Israeli soldiers were seized during a cross border raid by Hezbollah militants on 12 July.
Annan visit
"We did not think that there was a 1% chance that the kidnapping would lead to a war of this scale and magnitude," Sheikh Nasrallah said.
"Now you ask me if this was 11 July and there was a 1% chance that the kidnapping would lead to a war like the one that has taken place, would you go ahead with the kidnapping?
"I would say no, definitely not, for humanitarian, moral, social, security, military and political reasons.
Many thousands have been left homeless by the offensive
"Neither I, Hezbollah, prisoners in Israeli jails and nor the families of the prisoners would accept it."
Sheikh Nasrallah was speaking on the eve of a visit to Beirut by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to discuss the expanded UN peacekeeping force to be deployed in southern Lebanon.
A force of 15,000 soldiers, 7,000 of them from European Union states, will be deployed to maintain the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The UN hopes to have some of the troops on the ground within a week, although the foreign minister of Finland - which currently holds the EU presidency - has said it will be two to three months before the whole force is deployed.
The force will be led by France until February, at which time Italy will take command.
Speaking in Brussels on Friday, Mr Annan said the plan would only work if the enlarged UN force, called Unifil 2, was "strong, credible and robust".
Mr Annan said the force offered the possibility of a "durable ceasefire and long-term solution" to the Middle East crisis.
| August 27, 2006 | 16:59:24 |
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French role,President Jacques Chirac of France. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Lebanon needs 13,000 UN troops 'as soon as possible'
The head of the United Nations force in Lebanon has called for the urgent dispatch of 13,000 troop reinforcements who are supposed to help the Lebanese army rid the south of armed Hizbollah militias and police a buffer zone north of Israel.
"They need to arrive as quickly as possible," said Major General Alain Pellegrini, the commander of the 2000-strong UN force that is to be beefed up in order to secure an Israeli withdrawal and the disarmament of Hizbollah.
"But before that, there is something that can be done quickly - a deployment of the Lebanese army," the French officer said.
Under the provisions of a UN resolution adopted on Friday night, the Lebanese army is supposed to dispatch 15,000 troops to the south.
The same number of blue-helmets are to "accompany and support the Lebanese armed forces" who are to ensure that southern Lebanon will be "free of armed personnel".
Representatives of 40 countries were invited to a "technical" meeting of potential troop contributors at UN headquarters last night.
It was the third such meeting and UN sources say they hope the general outline of the force would become clear "within a week".
However, a western diplomat said: "no firm offers are expected until details are firmer," and European leaders said the mandate for the force must be clear before they would agree any deployment.
But the disarming of the Hizbollah fighters remains unresolved.
Their leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, said overnight it was "wrong timing" to discuss the issue of guerrilla weapons while Lebanon was under attack.
The resolution provides for the Lebanese army to disarm the Shia militia, which has aroused some scepticism as many of the Lebanese soldiers are Shia.
Maj-Gen Pellegrini said yesterday: "Do you try integrating some of these people into Lebanon's army? Do you make border guards out of them? Can we persuade them to give up their weapons and return to civilian life? There are many possibilities - it's up to the Lebanese people to examine them."
French role
President Jacques Chirac of France, which is widely expected to lead the expanded force, said he would decide on the French role only when he has considered the force's mandate.
Lebanon rejected proposals that had the backing of Israel for a strong multinational force which would disarm Hizbollah.
But there were concerns that a multinational operation would be considered as an occupying force, which led the UN Security Council to compromise and decide to reinforce the mandate of Unifil which has been stationed in southern Lebanon for the past 28 years.
France is wary about the mandate because it lost 58 paratroopers serving in a multinational force in October 1983, when a Hizbollah suicide bomber attacked their barracks in Beirut.
The resolution authorises the force to use "all necessary action ... to ensure its area of operations is not utilised for hostile activities of any kind".
It is also expected to prevent arms being moved illegally into Lebanon from such countries as Syria and Iran that have armed Hizbollah.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy has made it clear the mission of the troops would not include disarming Hizbollah by force.
The Italian prime minister, Romano Prodi, told President President George Bush in a phone call yesterday that Italy wanted "a clear mandate, free from ambiguity" for the force for which it could contribute 3000 troops.
France already participates in the Unifil force in south Lebanon along with China, Ghana, India, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Ukraine.
Other countries expressed a willingness to take part in the expanded force including Italy, Spain, Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Italian Foreign Minister, Massimo D'Alema, said: "I think Italian soldiers can arrive here in a few days. That means two weeks ... and we can achieve the withdrawal of the Israeli soldiers."
| August 17, 2006 | 16:00:51 |
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Israel Attacks Lebanon's Christian Heartland. - Posted By: NaBeeel
Israel expanded its assault on Lebanon Friday, launching its first major attack on the Christian heartland north of Beirut and severing the last significant road link to Syria.
Hezbollah renewed attacks on northern Israel, killing two civilians in a barrage of 120 rockets.
An Israeli airstrike hit dozens of farm workers loading vegetables near the Lebanon-Syria border, killing 28, the workers' foreman and a Lebanese official said.
Five Lebanese civilians were killed and 19 wounded in the Israeli airstrikes north of the capital in Christian areas where Hezbollah has little support or presence, including the picturesque coastal resort of Jounieh.
In separate air raids near Beirut's airport and southern suburbs, a Lebanese soldier was killed and two soldiers and four civilians were wounded, security officials and witnesses said. The predominantly Shiite Muslim sector is largely controlled by Hezbollah guerrillas. Israel said Hezbollah facilities and a Hamas office were targeted.
Israeli Tanks Move Towards North Lebanon Border,
Israeli Air Strike on Qana Kills Dozens of Civilians,
Two Israeli soldiers were killed by a Hezbollah anti-tank missile during heavy fighting in a southern Lebanese village where the militant group had been launching rockets, the army said.
The Israeli attacks on the four bridges on the main north-south coastal highway linking Beirut to Syria severed the only remaining major road link between Lebanon and Syria. The 90-minute drive to the Syrian border takes at least double the time on the small coastal road that remains open.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a staunch pro-Syrian and close ally of Hezbollah, charged that Israel is trying to pressure Lebanon to accept its conditions for a cease-fire , which include Hezbollah's disarmament and ouster from a swath of south Lebanon.
"The Israeli enemy's bombing of bridges and roads is aimed at tightening the blockade on the Lebanese, cutting communications between them and starving them," Lahoud said.
He linked the new raids to Israel's failure to win quick victory in the south, where Israeli soldiers have been mired in ground battles with Hezbollah guerrillas for several days.
An Israeli army spokesman, Capt. Jacob Dallal, said Israel targeted the bridges to stop the flow of weapons from Syria.
International aid agencies said Friday said the road bombing would slow down aid shipments to needy civilians in central Lebanon and the coastline around the capital, Beirut, where the bulk of the population lives.
Border crossings in the east have been shut by airstrikes. Israel has imposed a naval blockade and has hit the international airport to seal off Lebanon's sea and airspace.
"This is Lebanon's umbilical cord," Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Program told The Associated Press. "This (road) has been the only way for us to bring in aid. We really need to find other ways to bring relief in."
In the farm attack near al-Qaa, a town about six miles from a Hezbollah stronghold, Lebanese civil defense official Ali Yaghi said at least 28 people were killed.
Yaghi said at least 12 workers were wounded and some were likely buried under rubble. A bulldozer was brought to the site to try to uncover survivors, he said. The Israeli army said it had attacked two buildings where it suspected weapons were being stored, and it was checking reports that it had hit a vegetable storehouse and civilians.
In Israel, police said 120 rockets had fallen, including one that crashed into a house in the Israeli Arab town of Mughar, killing a woman. An Israeli man was killed near the border town of Kiryat Shemona.
Police commander Dan Ronen said 45 rockets had fallen within one half-hour period.
More than three weeks into the fighting, six Israeli brigades -- or roughly 10,000 troops -- were locked in battle with hundreds of Hezbollah guerrillas in about 20 towns and villages in south Lebanon.
Israeli artillery intensified bombing there overnight, sending as many as 15 shells per minute against suspected Hezbollah strongholds.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz has told top army officers to begin preparing for a push to the Litani River, about 20 miles north of the border. That would require further approval by Israel's Security Cabinet and could lead to far more casualties.
Hezbollah said in a statement broadcast by the group's Al-Manar TV station that guerrillas had killed six Israeli soldiers near the villages of Aita al-Shaab and Markaba.
The Israeli army said two soldiers were killed and two wounded by a Hezbollah anti-tank missile during heavy fighting in a village where the militant group had been launching rockets.
Despite Israel's efforts, Hezbollah launched at least 200 rockets into northern Israel on Thursday, in a new tactic of simultaneously firing a large number of rockets.
Hezbollah's leader offered to stop attacking if Israel ends its airstrikes.
Israel's United Nations ambassador, Dan Gillerman, said that Sheik Hassan Nasrallah's offer of a truce was "a sign of weakness ... and he may be looking for a way out."
Gillerman warned against a threat by Nasrallah to launch rockets on Israel's commercial center, Tel Aviv.
"We are ready for it, and I am sure that he (Nasrallah), as well as his sponsors, realize the consequences of doing something as unimaginable and crazy as that," the Israeli ambassador told CNN.
On the second front of its offensive against Islamic militants, Israel began pulling tanks out of southern Gaza after a two-day incursion that killed eleven Palestinians, including an 8-year-old boy.
The fighting in Gaza, which began June 25 after Hamas-linked militants captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid, has killed a total of 175 Palestinians, the U.N. reported, adding that it was concerned that "with international attention focusing on Lebanon, the tragedy in Gaza is being forgotten."
The offensive in Lebanon began after another cross-border raid by Hezbollah guerrillas who captured two Israeli soldiers.
According to an Associated Press count, at least 530 Lebanese have been killed, including 454 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry; 26 Lebanese soldiers; and at least 50 Hezbollah guerrillas.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said that 1 million people -- or about a quarter of Lebanon's population -- had fled the fighting.
Seventy-two Israelis have been killed -- 43 soldiers and 29 civilians. More than 300,000 Israelis have fled their homes in the north, Israeli officials said.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said the United States and France have "come a long way" in negotiating a Security Council resolution that calls for an immediate end to Middle East hostilities,said.
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed support Thursday for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon as the first phase in ending the conflict. It was the most concrete signal yet that the U.S. may be willing to compromise on the stalemate over how to end the fighting.
Israel, backed by the United States, has rejected calls for an immediate cease-fire, saying it wants an international force or the Lebanese army to deploy in southern Lebanon to prevent future Hezbollah attacks.
| August 5, 2006 | 13:39:08 |
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Massive Deportation, But in CANADA YES WE DO - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bush Rejects Idea of Massive Deportation, But in CANADA YES WE DO
''Massive deportation of the people here is not going to work. It's just not going to work.''-- President Bush, rebutting lawmakers advocating a law-and-order approach to immigration, said Monday that those who are calling for massive deportation of the estimated 11 million foreigners living illegally in the United States are not being realistic.
'
--"Massive deportation of the people here is not going to work," Bush said as a Congress divided over immigration returned from a two-week recess. "It's just not going to work."
In addition to speaking here, Bush was meeting Tuesday with a bipartisan group of senators at the White House to press his case.
Bush spoke in support of a stalled Senate bill that includes provisions that would allow for eventual citizenship to some of the illegal immigrants already here. Some conservatives say that would amount to amnesty.
"This is one of the really important questions Congress is going to have to deal with," Bush said. The president said he thought the Senate "had an interesting approach by saying that if you'd been here for five years or less, you're treated one way, and five years or more, you're treated another."
Standing in the center of a theater in the round-type setting with an audience full of business people, Bush spoke sympathetically about the plight of foreigners who risk their lives to sneak into the United States to earn a decent wage. He said the U.S. needs a temporary guest worker program to stop people from paying to be smuggled in the back of a truck.
"I know this is an emotional debate," Bush told the Orange County Business Council. "But one thing we can't lose site of is that we are talking about human beings, decent human beings."
Lawmakers, with an eye on Election Day in just over six months, remain far apart on whether to crack down on illegal immigrants or embrace them as vital contributors to the U.S. economy.
Bush said it's important to enforce border laws that are on the books and boasted that 6 million immigrants have been captured and turned back since he took office.
"You can be a nation of law and be a compassionate nation at the same time," he said to applause.
The White House's immediate goal is to get legislation approved by the Senate and into a conference committee. The president's aides hope a compromise can be reached with House members who passed a tougher bill that would impose criminal penalties on those who try to sneak into this country and would build fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., intends to seek passage of immigration legislation by Memorial Day by reviving the Senate bill that stalled earlier this month due to internal disputes in both parties as well as political maneuvering.
In a gesture to conservative critics of the measure, Republican leadership aides said last week that Frist also will seek roughly $2 billion in immediate additional spending for border protection.
After his immigration speech, Bush was ending a four-day stay in California that also featured speeches on U.S. competitiveness and his energy plan, meetings with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former President Ford and plenty of time on his bike.
Bush's massive entourage took an overnight detour to Napa Valley just so he could bike through the picturesque wine country Saturday, and he rode Sunday morning to a peak overlooking Palm Springs.
He planned to stop in Las Vegas on his way home Monday to raise money for Republican Rep. Jon Porter at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino.
By NEDRA PICKLER,
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| April 24, 2006 | 23:03:32 |
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Making the most of your trip - Posted By: NaBeeel
This sort of unique attraction too difficult and too expensive to travel to
The lure of a big city vacation From the Tower of London to Paris' Eiffel Tower, historic landmarks and one-of-a-kind attractions have long lured travelers to the world's great cities.
"It becomes, at least for some people, a kind of pilgrimage in the sense that you want to finally see the Statue of Liberty and it's in New York and you have to go to New York to see it, ""There isn't a second version of it anywhere else."
This sort of unique attraction, combined with the excitement of city life and a concentration of cultural opportunities, fine dining, shopping and accommodations brings some visitors back again and again.
"There's such a vast range of riches in a small, pretty easily navigated space. That's definitely what attracts me to cities,"
Few large cities have remarkable natural scenic attractions to build upon, so they tend to rely on heritage and cultural sites to set themselves apart,Visiting cities gained popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries, as the landed aristocracy in Britain increasingly sent their sons -- and occasionally their daughters -- to round out their education on a Grand Tour of the celebrated sights and cities of continental Europe,.
America's nouveau riche adopted this tradition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and later, less well-heeled travelers joined the tourist ranks.
"In terms of what we might call mass tourism or middle-class tourism, that really didn't develop until after World War II,". "It was just too difficult and too expensive to travel."
Now the allure of big cities seems as potent as ever. The number of visitors to central Paris in 2004, for example, is estimated at 25 million, according to the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau.
New York City welcomed 39.9 million visitors to the five boroughs in 2004 and is expecting a tally of nearly 41 million for 2005, according to NYC & Company, the city's official tourism marketing organization.
Getting acclimated to the pace and logistics of a large metropolitan
area can take a little time.
"I recommend when you get somewhere, you either ask a taxi driver to take you around or you get on one of the tourist buses that allow you to pay a one-day fee and travel in the circuit as often as you want, so that you get a visual idea of the city,".
Whether you're visiting a big city for the first or 15th time, a good map is essential. Even locals carry maps to navigate London, so there's no shame in standing on a street corner peering at yours.
In some cities, local volunteer guides will help guests discover the destination, In New York, Big Apple Greeters offers this service.
I recommends walking as much as possible because it gives you more opportunities to discover the local culture and get a sense of a city's layout.
When using public transportation, I suggests taking buses over subways for the same reason.
"If you're just a little bolder and you get buses, then you're above ground and you can pick up where you are so you have the confidence to make your own explorations a little later."
Most cities offer discount transportation cards that can save you money
if you anticipate frequent bus or subway trips.
Keep your hotel's address on hand and have the hotel give you the number of a reputable cab company to keep with you,.
Renting a cell phone in an international destination can also ensure that you always feel confident about getting back to your home base.
Making the most of your trip
Lonely Planet's I advises travelers to plan their itineraries around a city's neighborhoods to get the best local flavor.
"Identify your passions and then identify the neighborhoods
where the most appropriate places you want to see are,".
It may be a part of the city known for art galleries or historic attractions or a particularly well-regarded area for restaurants, theater or shopping.
"One of the things I always try to do in a city if I'm there for multiple days is actually block out some time for aimless wandering,"that Wandering leaves the door open for some of the most memorable and unexpected discoveries of my trip.
Even before you choose your destination, consider the atmosphere you're seeking.
Every great city has a unique collection of attractions and notable features.
San Francisco, California, is particularly unusual because of its stunning location.
While the city offers museums and other cultural attractions, visiting those institutions is not the first thing , what the urbanism expert, would do on a visit.
"I'd just enjoy walking around and probably take the cable car
and just look at the views and go by the water and do all those things," .
San Francisco's scenic beauty and cuisine put it high on
Frechtling's list of favorite cities. England's capital also ranks high.
"I'm very fond of London for the theater," .
History is king in European cities, , because it stretches
back so much farther than in the United States.
"I think in a sense the European cities are unbeatable because they have this head start,".
Whether you're headed to Europe, Asia, Australia, South America or across the United States, I recommends building a splurge into your trip.
Choose one great meal in a legendary restaurant over a slightly nicer place to sleep,
or cut back on dining expenses in favor of the best seats you can get to the opera.
"That almost certainly will be one of the most priceless memories that you bring back home.
| April 19, 2006 | 19:42:35 |
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MY TRIPE TO LE LOI.LE LOI IN .DOWNTOWN SAIGON - Posted By: NaBeeel
MY TRIPE TO LE LOI.LE LOI IN .DOWNTOWN SAIGON
IN Saigon, Cholon - Binh Tay Market
Binh Tay market is the biggest market in Saigon. It is located in the city's Chinatown, Cholon. Although this is mainly
a wholesale market, it is a visit you should not miss. A walk inside the market will be a pleasure for your senses. The market is quite far from the city center. If you do not want to take a taxi, there is a bus that will take you here. Ask your hotel.
Currently several hundred thousand Chinese origin citizens live in Saigon. If you have some time left, take a walk around the streets in Cholon. You will see a clear Chinese influence in this district. Most shop signs are written in Chinese Characters. Remember that Vietnamese is the only Southeast Asian language that uses the Latin Characters.
Saigon, Dong Khoi Street
One of the biggest avenues in Saigon's center is Dong Khoi. It goes from river Saigon to the People Committee Hall (or City Hall). Dong khoi is perpendicular to Le Loi. Le Loi is the main avenue in downtown Saigon. It is a broad avenue that goes from the Ben Thanh Market to the Opera house. In this avenue you will find many souvenir shops, bars and some restaurants. Another big street in this part of District 1 is Hai Ba Trung. In Hai Ba Trung you will find many fashion and souvenir shops. This is the posh area of the city. Some of the best hotels in Saigon are located in this part of the city.
________________________________________________________________Notes_____
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Community work * Social work with orphans * Train Teachers * Fight HIV/ AIDS
*
6 months training in USA or the Caribbean required. Boarding expenses.
Start: April, June, October, February
HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE
www.iicd-volunteer.org
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Phone: 413 441 5126
e-mail: info@iicd-volunteer.org
| April 18, 2006 | 20:08:18 |
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Volunteering abroad with UNV - Posted By: NaBeeel
Volunteering with agencies in your country Could be the best choice for you ,
You would like to share your skills and knowledge with people in another country. Check the country profiles on WorldVolunteerWeb to find names of organizations in your home country, which recruit volunteers for assignments abroad.
Also check the list of volunteer sending agencies with which UNV collaborates
in some 40 countries.
Volunteering abroad with UNV
At UNV, we recruit a great diversity of talents. We offer opportunities to:
* Professionals from various sectors and from any country in the world
who want to share their expertise with counterparts in developing countries.
* Humanitarian aid specialists from all walks of life and from any country
in the world committed to supporting relief and peace efforts.
* Senior business leaders and retired executives from any country in the world who
wish to support private sector development in developing countries.
* Expatriate professionals from the developing world who would like
to return and share their expertise with national counterparts in their home country.
* IT specialists from any country in the world who want
to make new technologies work for human development.
* If you don't match any of the above descriptions. What else is there fr you.?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> IN FRENCH :>
rir à l'étranger avec UNV par l'entrée de Wahooe This est
environ : Partageons nos différences | Canada | le livre ""
Offrir avec des agences dans votre pays pourrait être le choix
le plus approprié pour vous, vous voudriez partager vos
qualifications et connaissance avec des personnes dans un autre pays.
Contrôlez les profils de pays sur WorldVolunteerWeb pour trouver des
noms des organismes dans votre pays d'origine, qui recrutent des
volontaires pour des affectations à l'étranger.
Contrôlez en outre la liste de volontaire envoyant les agences avec
lesquelles UNV collabore à environ 40 pays.
Offrant à l'étranger avec UNV à UNV, nous recrutons une grande
diversité des talents. Nous donnons des occasions :
* Professionnels de divers secteurs et de tout pays dans le monde
qui veulent partager leur expertise avec des contre-parties
dans les pays en voie de développement.
* Spécialistes humanitaires en aide de tous les secteurs et de tout
pays
dans le monde commis aux efforts supportants de soulagement et
de paix.
* Chefs de file des affaires aînés et cadres retraités de tout pays
dans le monde qui souhaitent supporter le développement de secteur
privé dans les pays en voie de développement.
* Professionnels expatriés du monde en voie de développement qui
voudrait
pour renvoyer et partager leur expertise avec les
contre-parties nationales dans leur pays d'origine.
* IL spécialistes de tout pays dans le monde qui veulent faire le
travail de nouvelles technologies pour le développement humain.
* Si vous n'appariez aucune des descriptions ci-dessus. Qu'y a-t-il
des francs vous ?
15 avril 2006 | 5:43 P.M.
| April 15, 2006 | 17:43:18 |
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High likelihood of US military action against Iran: expert Say:- - Posted By: NaBeeel
High likelihood of US military action against Iran: expert
The World Today - Wednesday, 12 April , 2006 12:19:40
Reporter: Eleanor Hall
Eleanor Hall hosts The World Today's lunch hour of current affairs,
with background and debate from Australia and the world.
Monday to Friday, 12:10pm, ABC Local Radio and Radio National.
ELEANOR HALL: A security consultant to the United States Defence Department and a former adviser to President Clinton on nuclear arms reduction says today's announcement by Iran is deeply worrying.
Dr Michael Nacht, who is now Dean of Public Policy at University of California, predicts that there is a high likelihood that there will be a military confrontation between Iran and the United States before the end of President George W. Bush's term.
But speaking to me earlier today, Dr Nacht said the choices for the international community are limited and that doing nothing in response to Iran's latest challenge is not an option.
MICHAEL NACHT: There of course are different judgements about how quickly they can actually fabricate and then deploy a nuclear weapon. Some say as short a time as a year or two. Others say it's going to take years. But there's no doubt that they have the capability and they're moving in the right direction from their perspective.
ELEANOR HALL: Well President Ahmadinejad actually scoffed that the United Nations Security Council knows it can't do anything. How should the international community respond then? I mean are sanctions a realistic option?
MICHAEL NACHT: I actually don't think they're very realistic, because in economic terms, the European Union and many other countries trade extensively with Iran, they're very dependent on Iranian oil. There are just too many economic interests that Iranians have as leverage that would produce a set of sanctions of the kind that the Americans want.
And I, you know… with respect to a UN approved sanction that the Security Council has to approve, I would be very surprised if either Russia or China supported any effort at sanctioning Iran.
ELEANOR HALL: So what message does that send?
MICHAEL NACHT: The message is that the path their on is going to pay off, that they can have their cake and eat. They can basically develop a nuclear energy program.
They can, in addition, in my view, work on a clandestine nuclear weapons program, and they can also maintain bilateral and multilateral economic and political relations with many countries in the world.
And in doing all that, they strengthen the hand of the regime internally and they reduce, you know, their own internal opposition.
ELEANOR HALL: So as someone who's watched this for a long time. How worried are you about that?
MICHAEL NACHT: Well I think this is very serious. I think this is a very serious issue and could easily develop into the next and probably final threat of really concrete military action by the United States.
ELEANOR HALL: Well of course this does come in the same week that the Bush administration's plans for nuclear strikes possibly on Iran's facilities have been revealed.
The President is now playing down that option, but does today's announcement by Iran make this much more likely?
MICHAEL NACHT: Well, you know, frankly my own view throughout the Bush years has been he doesn't joke around.
The language that he's using and the language that Condoleezza Rice is using about the Iranian threat suggests to me that they are gearing up and developing the options for military action.
ELEANOR HALL: So what would be the consequences of a military confrontation between Iran and the United States?
MICHAEL NACHT: Well, I mean, you know, what we see… if Iraq is any indicator, they're highly unpredictable. What we expect to happen may not happen.
And I do think the United States has the physical capacity to destroy most, but not necessarily all, of the Iranian nuclear capability.
The reason I think it's unlikely we can get it all is because they're highly dispersed, they're deeply buried underground.
You know, the Iranians are doing all the things they're supposed to do to protect their assets, and the thought is that they would mount terrorist actions in the United States, in Europe, more against Israel. I mean they of course already back Hamas and Hezbollah. But exactly how much of that they would do is hard to say.
ELEANOR HALL: You've mentioned Iraq and the difficulty there. I mean, how would you compare the two – the prospect of going to war against Iraq and the prospect of going to war against a much bigger country Iran?
MICHAEL NACHT: Right. I mean they are different in many respects. I'd be very surprised if there was any American or any other land-based operation in Iran. I think this would be done strictly from the air using combat aircraft and missiles.
ELEANOR HALL: So if you were advising the Bush administration at the moment, what would you be suggesting they do in response to this statement?
MICHAEL NACHT: I probably would try a multiple strategy. I would not give up on the multilateral diplomatic IAEA UN sanctions strategy, which is largely what they are doing. I would pursue that. I'm not very optimistic it would work, but I would pursue that.
I probably at some point would engage in direct diplomatic negotiations with the Iranians. I'd at least try. I don't think you have a lot to lose. I think that's been a mistake of the Bush administration – not to negotiate directly with the Iranians or frankly with the North Koreans.
And then I would have a military option, but you'd have to really make the case to the American people and to the international community about the justification for this. And frankly right now, of course, President Bush is in a very weakened position.
ELEANOR HALL: But do you think you could make a case for military action against Iran?
MICHAEL NACHT: Well I think they'd have to be able to come forward again… See, I think they should try these other things so then if they fail, frankly, it gives them a little bit more credibility.
There'll be no… they really need to try all the non-military options first.
ELEANOR HALL: But you don't shy away from a military option at the end? You think that you have to keep that there on the table.
MICHAEL NACHT: Absolutely.
I think that diplomacy in these kinds of situation is only as effective… I mean, the carrot is only as effective as the threat of the use of the stick.
ELEANOR HALL: But you're saying that even with the threat that military action could unleash more terrorism, that is a better option than allowing Iran to continue.
MICHAEL NACHT: Yes. It could have very… there's no doubt that it could have very adverse consequences if we act militarily. I think you'd have to go in with your eyes wide open.
But the precedent of Iran going down this path, the precedent for others, the impact further even on North Korea, the impact on a possible – which has been discussed – a possible Saudi-Pakistani-Sunni nuclear program and nuclear alliance to combat the Iranian Shia nuclear program.
This is all very bad news and I do think, though perhaps I'm misreading the situation, I do think that Bush will act one way or the other. It will be resolved in some… let's say it'll be transformed by the end of his tenure.
ELEANOR HALL: And how confident are you that that resolution will be a successful one from the United States point of view?
MICHAEL NACHT: Frankly, I think there are problems no matter what we do, from doing nothing to trying diplomacy and failing, to even acting militarily.
There'll be a lot of adverse consequences no matter what we do.
ELEANOR HALL: That's Dr Michael Nacht, a security analyst and former adviser on nuclear arms issues to President Clinton.
He was speaking to me from Berkeley earlier today.
Eleanor Hall hosts The World Today's lunch hour of current affairs,
with background and debate from Australia and the world.
Monday to Friday, 12:10pm, ABC Local Radio and Radio National.
| April 13, 2006 | 14:56:18 |
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The current debate over immigration - Posted By: NaBeeel
Bill Clinton's great regret: race disparity
What is about CANADA
WASHINGTON Former President Clinton says the current debate over immigration is further proof that racial problems have yet to be solved.
Speaking in Washington, Clinton said one of his "great regrets" was failing to do more to bridge the economic and social gaps between white and black people in the United States.
Speaking to a black think tank, Clinton urged private citizens to take action on racial issues, saying disasters like the tsunami in Asia and Hurricane Katrina show non-governmental organizations can rebuild and improve society.
What is about CANADA ????? Could you tell me :-
| April 12, 2006 | 15:37:48 |
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JUNK FOODS - Posted By: NaBeeel
Lawmakers try to expel junk food from schools
Trying to shrink the growing waistlines of children, lawmakers want to expel soda, candy bars, chips and other junk food from the nation's schools.
Dangerous weight is on the rise in kids. This week, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the rate of obese and overweight kids has climbed to 18 percent of boys and 16 percent of girls. Four years ago, the number was 14 percent.
Lawmakers blame high-fat, high-sugar snacks that compete with nutritious meals in schools.
"Junk food sales in schools are out of control," Senator Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, said Thursday. "It undercuts our investment in school meal programs and steers kids toward a future of obesity and diet-related disease."
Harkin and a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill to have the Agriculture Department set new nutritional standards for all food sold in schools. The goal is to restrict junk food sales in schools.
The department sets standards for breakfasts and lunches in federal school meal programs, which reimburse public and nonprofit private schools for giving free or reduced-price meals to kids. Those meals must follow federal dietary guidelines, which call for more fruits, vegetables and whole grains and less calories, fat, added sugars and sodium.
But the standards don't apply to a la carte lines in cafeterias, vending machines or school stores. The Agriculture Department has tried to restrict junk food before, but a 1983 federal court ruling, in a lawsuit by the National Soft Drink Association, said the limits could only apply to cafeterias during meals, not for the entire day throughout campus.
Today, candy, soda and other snacks are sold in nine out of 10 schools, according to the Government Accountability Office. Already plentiful in high schools, junk food has become more available in middle schools over the past five years, the GAO found.
States have tried to limit junk food in recent years. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group, legislators in 40 states introduced 200 bills last year to improve nutrition in school foods.
Parents are responsible for how kids eat, but kids are at school for much of the day, said Margo G. Wootan, the center's director of nutrition policy.
"When parents send their kids to school with lunch money, they shouldn't have to worry that the money will be spent on Flaming Cheetos and a Coke instead of on a balanced meal,"The Agriculture Department encourages schools to sell nutritious food, department spokeswoman Jean Daniel said. Daniel declined to comment on the bill, which officials have not reviewed.
She pointed out that schools are supposed to have "wellness policies" that include nutrition guidelines for food in place by July, as required by Congress in 2004.
"More and more children are overweight and obese," Daniel said. "What we do know is we've got to engage parents, teachers, schools, community leaders, organizations -- all of us are going to have to work together."
The food industry argues that all foods can fit into a healthful diet.
"My fear is that the criteria will be so restrictive that kids won't be able to optimally learn, in the school environment, about making healthful food choices over time," said Robert Earl, senior director of nutrition policy at the Food Products Association, an industry group. asked whether more attention should be paid to physical activity in schools. Now"Putting all the attention on food alone doesn't necessarily improve inactivity in kids,
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PAID ON PETFORMANCE - Posted By: NaBeeel
Coca-Cola directors to be paid on performance
Coca-Cola, the world's largest soft drinks maker, will for the first time pay its directors based on the company's performance, eliminating extra fees for serving on the board and its committees.
The move forms part of the Atlanta-based company's efforts to shake off criticism of its corporate governance and align the interests of board members with shareholders. Under the new system, which will come into effect this year, board members will receive payment for their services only if the company meets certain performance targets over a three-year period.
Coca-Cola, whose board members include billionaire Warren Buffett and media tycoon Barry Diller, said directors would receive share units each year equal to a flat fee of $175,000. If the company meets a goal of 8% compounded annual earnings growth over the next three years, the units would be payable in cash.
However, if the firm misses its target in any three-year period, directors will receive nothing for that year when the equity-share units would have matured.
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Major hurricane striking ON THE WAY - Posted By: NaBeeel
Major hurricane striking
Five Hurricane Names to Be Retired
Never will Katrina be so little missed. Nor Dennis, Rita, Stan and Wilma - four other hurricane names from last year's devastating storms that have now been officially retired.
Normally six lists of names are used in rotation for storms in the Atlantic-Caribbean-Gulf of Mexico region, but names of particularly destructive storms are retired.
The decision to retire these five names was made by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization meeting in Puerto Rico, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced.
They were part of a record 27 named storms and 15 hurricanes that occurred in 2005.
The retired names will be replaced by Don, Katia, Rina, Sean and Whitney.
Some 67 names have been retired since storms were first named in 1953. The first to be dropped, in 1954, were Carol and Hazel. Last year's five is the most retired in a single year.
This year's hurricane names will be: Alberto, Beryl, Chris, Debby, Ernesto, Florence, Gordon, Helene, Isaac, Joyce, Kirk, Leslie, Michael, Nadine, Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Sandy, Tony, Valerie, William.
If that number of names suffices.
Last year's hurricane season blew away the predictions. But with the start of the 2006 season less than two months away, here's what a leading forecaster from Colorado State University says:
· This season will be busy, but not as intense as last year.
· There's a 81 percent chance a major hurricane could hit along the U.S. coast and a 64 percent chance one could hit the East Coast.
· The still-recovering Gulf Coast could be hit again -- there's a 47 percent chance of a major hurricane striking there.
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THE FATE OF THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS - Posted By: NaBeeel
Congress Nears Deal on Illegal Immigrants..... what about Canada
In a last stab at compromise, Senate Republicans and Democrats reported progress Thursday toward agreement on legislation opening the way to legal status and eventual citizenship for many of the 11 million immigrants now in the U.S. illegally.
"There's been tremendous progress overnight," said Sen. Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) of Nevada, the Democratic leader, while Majority Leader Bill Frist also expressed optimism that a long-sought compromise might be at hand.
There was no immediate reaction from President Bush, who has made immigration legislation a key priority.
The developments occurred after Frist unveiled a new bill late Wednesday night on the subject as the Senate headed into a test vote on the most sweeping immigration bill in two decades.
In general, the legislation would provide for enhanced border security, regulate the flow of future immigrants into the United States and settle the legal fate of the estimated 11 million men, women and children already in the country.
It was the fate of the illegal immigrant population that proved hardest to legislate, and it has left the Senate on the verge of gridlock for days.
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CHANGE COLORS IN THE FALL - Posted By: NaBeeel
What happens inside the leaf?
Think of leaves as being like little solar panels for trees. Just as solar cells use light to produce electric energy, leaves use light from the sun to produce food for trees. This process is known as photosynthesis, which means "to put together with light." When light enters the leaf, a special part called a chloroplast (klo-ro-plast), uses the light to change carbon dioxide and water into breathable oxygen and a sugar called glucose. Inside the chloroplast is a chemical called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is very important, because it is the chemical that allows photosynthesis to take place, and it gives leaves their green color.
What happens when the weather starts to change?
When autumn comes and winter is on its way, you’ll notice that it doesn’t stay light outside nearly as long as it did during the summer. That means that the leaves don’t get as much light as they used to, and the amount of chlorophyll starts to decrease.
Remember, chlorophyll is what gives a leaf its green color, so as there is less chlorophyll, the leaves loose their strong green color.
Where do the colors come from?
There are always small amounts of other certain colors in every leaf, so when the green starts to fade, the other colors start to become visible. Some of the colors that might hide in leaves until fall are browns, yellows, and oranges (the color, not the fruit!). Colors like reds and purples are made by chemical reactions inside the leaf.
What do the colors mean?
* Brown: The leaf is dying or already dead.
* Yellow and Orange - These colors are made by chemicals called carotenoids (keh-rot’n-oids’). These are always present in small amounts, but they become more visible when the green color starts to fade.
* Red and Purple - These colors are made by chemicals called anthocyanins (an-tho-SI’ah-ninz). These are formed by chemical reactions that usually take place as the weather starts to change in the fall. Leftover food (glucose) in a leaf can also make a leaf look red.
All of these colors can combine to form even more colors. That is why you might see so many different colors on the trees in your yard, or even on a single tree.
Beauty In Creation
It’s a lot of fun to see how God did so much more than just make things work; He made them look good, too! Watching the leaves turn colors in the fall is just one example of the wonderful beauty that God created here on Earth.
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Canadian police probe theft of HIV-tainted blood - Posted By: NaBeeel
Canadian police and health officials searched on Tuesday for a thief who made off with vials of HIV-contaminated blood plasma from a Vancouver hospital.
The thief pried open a locked freezer at a laboratory at St. Paul's Hospital during the weekend and removed the 19 vials that were marked with the lettering "HIV VL" and labeled with the patients' names,.
Police said they do not know what motivated the theft, but health officials said the risk to the public was minimal.
"The vials are sealed. Unless the blood is injected into someone's bloodstream, the public is not at risk," said Akber Mithani, vice president of medical affairs at the hospital, which is home to an AIDS research program.
If the vials were thawed, the virus would only survive for about 72 hours.
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IBM IS EYEING FUTURE PROFITS - Posted By: NaBeeel
IBM expands data-integration software business
IBM on Sunday said it would expand its business of selling software and services that enable businesses to more easily access information stored in myriad computer sources and systems, an area the company is eyeing for future profits.
The company announced five new software releases as well as services and training related to so-called service-oriented architecture, which allows companies to build virtual bridges across previously unrelated computer data, systems and functions.
One of the new offerings, an extension of IBM's popular WebSphere business software, gives companies an instant overview of a variety of factors influencing their business, according to IBM.
For example, the software could alert a user when a competitor makes a market-shifting move, IBM said in a statement. The alert could be integrated with outside research and records of customer feedback and could recommend steps to limit the effects of the competitor's move.
The new releases are the latest in a two-year effort by IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., to promote service-oriented architecture, or SOA, in a multi-pronged approach drawing on software, hardware and services businesses.
The company added more than 1,800 new SOA customers in the past year and plans to invest about $1 billion in the business this year after spending that much last year, said Steve Mills, senior vice president of IBM's software group, in an interview.
"We learned where the gaps are," over the past two years, Mills said. "SOA is more than just building new things. It's about reusing what you already have."
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THE BIGGEST PRIZE ? Reform immigration policy - Posted By: NaBeeel
The immigration divide
As debate on immigration heats up, all agree the system is broke
Editor's note: The following is a summary of this week's Time magazine cover story.
(Time.com) -- The numbers tell the story -- one of conflicted values and little resolution.
Of those surveyed in a Time poll last week, 82 percent said they believe the government is not doing enough to keep illegal immigrants out of the country, and a large majority (75 percent) would deny them government services such as health care and food stamps.
Half (51 percent) said children who are here illegally shouldn't be allowed to attend public schools. But only one in four would support making it a felony to be in the United States illegally, as the House voted to do when it approved the tough enforcement bill submitted by Wisconsin Republican F. James Sensenbrenner.
Rather than expel illegal immigrants from the country, more than three-quarters of those polled (78 percent) favored allowing citizenship for those who are already here, if they have a job, demonstrate proficiency in English and pay their taxes.
These figures help to shed light on how two chambers of Congress, both run by the same political party, should appear to be headed in such different directions on immigration. The Senate Judiciary has passed a measure far more open to immigration than the House version.
The kind of comprehensive immigration reform being discussed by the Senate carries the potential of transforming the politics of the country by making citizens -- and therefore voters -- of millions of mostly Hispanic residents in relatively short order.
Says Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona: "This legislation is a defining moment in the history of the United States of America." And possibly in the history of the Republican Party, which is why the politics of immigration is becoming so tricky for the GOP.
The business interests in the party base don't want to disrupt a steady supply of cheap labor for the agriculture, construction, hotel and restaurant industries, among others. That's why business lobbyists broke into applause and embraced in the Dirksen office building as the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-6 to send its bill to the Senate floor, with four of the committee's 10 Republicans joining all its Democrats in favor.
But those same business interests had lost badly in the House, where social conservatives argued that illegal immigration has begun an uncontrolled demographic and cultural transformation of the country, threatening its values.
The president has insisted that he wants reform that includes both enhanced border enforcement and provisions for guest workers. Last week, as President Bush met in Mexico with President Vicente Fox, he said, "We want them coming in in an orderly way." He added, "And if they want to become a citizen, they can get in line, but not the head of the line."
In the end, drafting a law acceptable to both the House and the Senate would mean finding common ground in three areas, each of which presents political challenges and real-world consequences of its own:
Tightening the border
There is only one thing on which all sides of this debate agree:
America needs to get tougher about controlling its borders. If there is any easy part to writing an immigration law, this is it.
Every proposal before Congress calls for more border-patrol agents, more jail cells and detention centers for captured illegal immigrants, and new technology to enable employers to screen employees to ensure that they are lawfully in the country.
Assuring a labor supply
The country has welcomed so-called guest workers into the United States since World War I, during which tens of thousands of Mexican workers were allowed in temporarily to help on the nation's farms.
The idea is that when harvest time is over, they return home. Except that often they don't, which is why the House rejected Bush's proposed guest-worker plan when it passed its immigration bill in December.
But House leadership strategists say privately they believe this time, with a strong lobbying effort by business and some additional pressure by Bush, they may find the votes they need to support a guest-worker program in a conference bill. The Senate Judiciary bill would allow at least 87,000 guest workers a year to apply for permanent residency, a step toward citizenship -- which may be more than House Republicans can swallow.
But even if guests are explicitly temporary, there is always a great risk that they will nonetheless stick around after their papers expire.
The 'A' word
And what of the 11 million illegal immigrants who are in the United States?
Will they get a chance at the biggest prize -- citizenship? No word in the immigration debate is more freighted than amnesty.
Everyone who wants to reform immigration policy to legitimize a significant portion of those who are here illegally is quick to insist that what they are talking about is "earned citizenship."
The bill that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, for example, created a path to citizenship that would take 11 years and require that immigrants hold jobs, demonstrate proficiency in English, pass criminal-background checks and pay fines and back taxes.
"This is an earned path," stressed South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the Republicans who voted for it. "Some will make it, and some will not. The only thing to me that is off the table is inaction."
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PROTESTING TOUGH IMMIGRATION BILLS IN CANADA TOO - Posted By: NaBeeel
Students Stage New Immigration Protests
Thousands of students protesting tough immigration bills being debated in Congress marched in California, Texas, Nevada and other states Friday. Most demonstrations were peaceful, but there was a stabbing during a protest in Virginia.
· Illegal Immigrants Put Cities in a Bind · Bush Says Border Security Key to Prosperity
The demonstrations coincided with the 79th anniversary of the birth of the late Cesar Chavez, the co-founder of the United Farm Workers union who became a champion of poor, Hispanic agricultural workers in the 1960s and '70s.
Students waved Mexican flags and signs saying "We are not criminals" as they demonstrated in San Diego's Chicano Park. A police spokesman said there were 1,500 protesters, although earlier police estimates put the number as high as 4,000.
Students distributed leaflets explaining a provision of a bill approved in the House that calls for a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration. Its prospects for becoming law are uncertain; at a summit in Cancun, Mexico, with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts, President Bush reiterated his support Friday for giving illegal immigrants the chance to work legally in the U.S.
Protester Jessica Hurtado, a U.S.-born senior at La Jolla High School, said the House legislation would "affect pretty much everyone I know - aunts, uncles, friends."
· Illegal Immigrants in U.S Hispanic Migration By the Numbers 12 million Estimated number of illegal immigrants in the U.S.
Hurtado, who painted the words "No violencia" on her cheeks, said her relatives and friends would be scared to even go to a hospital out of fear of deportation if the House bill becomes law. Her parents came from Mexico and are now legal residents.
Sheriff's deputies monitored at least 200 students from north San Diego County high schools who walked to California State University, San Marcos.
"To their credit, the students have been very peaceful, which corresponds to Cesar Chavez's legacy," said sheriff's Lt. Jim Bolwerk.
About 1,000 students marched in Bakersfield, in California's Central Valley. But there were no reports of walkouts in the giant Los Angeles Unified School District, where a week of youthful outcry began with tens of thousands of students leaving classes, triggering a police crackdown on truancy.
In Mira Loma, Calif., groups for and against the proposed legislation faced off in a noisy but peaceful confrontation on a street outside a Riverside County high school,
"They were shouting at each other back and forth. About 10 deputies stood in the middle of the street to make sure nothing would happen," sheriff's spokesman Dennis Gutierrez .
In Las Vegas, police and school officials said at least 3,000 students, drawn together by text messages and cell phone calls, left high schools, middle schools and a community college after the morning bell. They marched to the Las Vegas Strip and held demonstrations at downtown government buildings and a park.
"We're not here to start trouble. We're just here to work," said Marcela Guevara, the 14-year-old daughter of Mexican immigrants.
One student was arrested for carrying a gun but no shots were fired, Las Vegas police .
A few miles away, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales spoke at a meeting of Hispanic publishers. He told reporters the students would be better off letting their voices be heard after school and on weekends.
"The children need to stay in school," .
As many as 3,000 people marched through downtown Fort Smith, Ark., while at least 2,000 protesters, most of them high school students, clogged streets in downtown El Paso, Texas, during a third day of protests there.
In Arizona, about 900 to 1,000 Tucson middle school students and another 300 high school students walked out of classes.
In Virginia's Fairfax County, a high school student was stabbed during a protest that drew about 75 people Friday.
The 16-year-old boy was hospitalized with injuries that police said were not believed to be life-threatening. Two teenagers were arrested; police said they did not know whether the suspects had been among the protesters.
In Woodbridge, Va., a Hispanic second grader and kindergarten student were sent home from school for wearing homemade T-shirts that read "Latinos Forever" in Spanish. The elementary principal said he feared the T-shirts would be disruptive, given the widespread student protests.
"How is (a T-shirt) going to disrupt a kindergarten class?" asked Carmen Soriano, the younger boy's mother.
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SOLVE GLOBAL PROBLEMS - Posted By: NaBeeel
Clinton Wants Billions to Aid World's Poor
Former President Clinton's attempt to marshal the resources of the world's wealthy and influential to solve global problems resulted in $2.5 billion in pledges during a signature conference held last year.
This year, he wants even more.
On Friday, the former president was joined by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as he discussed plans for the 2006 Clinton Global Initiative and from the September 2005 gathering.
Clinton described major strides in addressing global health challenges like HIV infection in Africa, saying the CGI had negotiated testing and treatment for 250,000 people and would probably reach a million or more by next September.
But he also warned of a growing crisis brought about by global climate change and said the U.S. had not responded adequately to the threat.
"I don't understand why we in our country are in denial about this," Clinton said, adding that Great Britain and other countries in western Europe had cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 15 percent with no detrimental impact on their economies.
Bloomberg, a Republican, praised Clinton's efforts as "vitally important."
Clinton spokesman Jay Carson said there had been good progress on the commitments from last year, though some pledge-makers have had problems fulfilling their commitments. He wouldn't name those who were struggling but said there was still time for them to come through.
This year's gathering is set for Sept. 20-22 in New York with some of the focus on poverty, public health, energy and religious conflict. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, investor Warren Buffett and French President Jacques Chirac are among those expected to attend.
The 2005 session drew about 800 people at $15,000 a head.
Some of the more than 300 plans that resulted from that session:
• Three philanthropists and a group called Vital Voices Global Partnership collected nearly $170,000 to help women in the Middle East gain business skills.
• A doctor hoping to get medical supplies to needy parts of the world gained the support of the World Health Organization and the Cardiovascular Research Foundation in an initiative valued at $500,000 a year.
• Deutsche Bank launched a $75 million microfinance consortium.
• Three of the larger commitments that Carson said were being met: Swiss Re, a reinsurance and financial services organization, pledged $300 million to start an investment fund to promote clean energy in Europe; Scottish entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter pledged $100 million to fight Third World poverty; Sudanese businessman Mohamed Ibrahim pledged $100 million to create an investment fund for African companies.
Commitments already are rolling in for 2006, including a $5.5 million promise from the Global Consumer Group at Citigroup to expand microfinancing efforts in 25 countries.
| March 31, 2006 | 15:01:21 |
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TODAY JOB MARKET 2006 - Posted By: NaBeeel
Which of These Fastest Growing Careers Is Right for You?
You've had enough of your job. It's time to reach higher, earn more and be fulfilled in your profession. Lucky for you, some of the fastest growing jobs offer excitement, prosperity and the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others. Acquire the knowledge and skills in high demand in these industries, and you’ll be a degree closer to making your dreams a reality.
Which field most captivates you?
Education
With about one in four Americans enrolled in educational institutions, educational services is the second largest industry, accounting for about 12.7 million jobs. Most teaching positions -- which constitute almost half of all educational services jobs -- require at least a bachelor's degree. Some require a master's or doctoral degree, much like the position to which Aretha Rhone-Bush aspired.
Serving as assistant principal at Hilton Head High School (Hilton Head, S.C.), Rhone-Bush saw the opportunity she'd been waiting for -- one that would not only enhance her career, but ultimately her education, too.
"I saw the proposal for the bond referendum to build the [new] school," she says. "When I was hired as an assistant principal at Hilton Head High School, I told my principal I wanted the opportunity to lead the school."
Investigate these rapidly expanding fields:
* Education
* Nursing
* Information Technology
* Business
* Criminal Justice
And, after she led a 55-member committee through the design and build process of Bluffton High School, a state-of-the-art technology school, Rhone-Bush was unanimously chosen as principal. At age 34, she is one of the youngest high school principals in the nation.
"This position is my destiny," says Rhone-Bush. "I didn't just happen upon this job." Which is why she decided to expand on her existing knowledge by enrolling in an online Ph.D. program in Leadership for K-12 Programs Specialization through Capella University.
Nursing
It's time to help others and help yourself by exploring a career in health care, specifically nursing. With almost 500,000 health care establishments across the country, professionals who can fuse human compassion with advanced medical technology are in great demand. From cleansing a child's scraped knee and caring for the terminally ill to working side by side with doctors and surgeons, professionals like yourself work hard to improve the lives of those around them and are recognized accordingly. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nursing is among the top 10 occupations with the largest estimated job growth. Choosing an educational program that fits your life is an excellent prescription for advancement in this flourishing industry.
Take Terri Welborn, RN, manager of trauma services at a 415-bed hospital in Midland, Texas, for instance. She completed a legal nurse consulting certificate online at Kaplan University last April, and is now enrolled in Kaplan's newly launched online bachelor of science degree in nursing (BSN) program. "I am married and have three kids, and three grandkids under the age of 7. And, my husband is a police officer and is looking at retirement in about five years," says Welborn. "So I'm looking for a way to take my career in a direction that allows me to utilize the experience and knowledge I've acquired in the past 25 years, but not to be tied to the hospital 40 hours a week."
Information Technology
If you're driven by the digital world, why not capitalize on your cyber-savviness? With fast-growing fields such as Web design and development, systems engineers, and database management, you can connect to a career opportunity that is exciting, cutting-edge and creative.
One stepping stone to an IT degree that many are taking advantage of is certificate programs. In fact, computer systems design and related services industry is cited by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as one of the top 10 fastest growing industries in the economy, adding more than 600,000 jobs between 2002 and 2012.
Statistics like that are encouraging, especially to someone like Debra Wall-Czech. When she got laid off, she immediately faced difficulty finding another job because she didn't have a college degree. With so many responsibilities to juggle -- taking care of a family and traveling the world with a country/rock band -- the 41-year-old decided the best option for her was to get a degree online.
"I can log onto classes from home or when I'm traveling." In fact, Debra has even accessed her classes at Internet cafés and military-base computer labs. Even with her demanding schedule, Wall-Czech successfully earned two bachelor's degrees from DeVry -- one in computer information systems and one in business information systems. She has since enrolled at DeVry's Keller Graduate School of Management where she'll complete a master's degree in project management this year.
Business
If you're intrigued by all things business -- yes, even beyond 'The Apprentice' -- it's time to make your corporate mark. Power your pursuits with a degree; advanced study is especially impressive in the boardroom of any business. MBA earners are consistently courted by corporate bigwigs, and with some programs offered entirely online, there are more options from which to choose. You can specialize in areas such as accounting, project management, marketing and more.
Deb Hagan wanted to succeed in the boardroom and knew that a master's degree would help her do that. Having a full-time job and being a busy mother of two wasn't going to stop her from getting it. In fact, neither was giving birth to her third child, which happened right in the middle of her online coursework at the University of Phoenix.
Two days after her son was born, she wrapped up a statistics class; less than one week after that, she registered for two more courses. Crazy? Ambitious is more like it. Deb saw an opportunity to make professional and personal advancements through online learning, and now that she's latched on, she's not letting go.
Criminal Justice
Crime prevention, litigation and legal disputes -- and the need to protect confidential information and property of all kinds -- will always create opportunities for people with degrees in criminal justice. In fact, employment of private detectives and investigators is expected to grow faster than the average occupation across the next decade. Accordingly, various certificate and degree programs focusing on theses exciting and important career avenues are flourishing.
For Brenda McGreevy of Guilderland, N.Y., the convenience of distance learning allowed her to earn her associate's degree in criminal justice almost entirely online, while working full time for the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, and volunteering 20 hours a week as an emergency medical technician for the Western Turnpike Rescue Squad in Guilderland. "I decided to go to school for a degree after my youngest daughter went to college and that left me being the only one in the household that hadn't gone to college," says the now 49-year-old McGreevy, who's a mother of two grown daughters. The academic fit she found helped her graduate with a 4.0 G.P.A.
In addition to state and other public service career opportunities, the field of criminal justice is booming in the private sector as well. Attorneys always need assistance from skilled professionals with a working knowledge of the field, not to mention the endless demand for investigators in the corporate world. Corporate investigators monitor the tumultuous financial activity of the world's businesses and are experts at assessing internal and external financial losses and preventing industrial spying by competitors. Additionally, two newer fields -- cyber-security and homeland security -- are rapidly growing alternatives for those looking to apply their business degrees to criminal justice.
| March 29, 2006 | 13:13:24 |
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Senate Panel Approves Immigration Bill - Posted By: NaBeeel
Senate Panel Approves Immigration Bill
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved sweeping election-year legislation Monday that clears the way for 11 million illegal aliens to seek U.S. citizenship, a victory for demonstrators who had spilled into the streets by the hundreds of thousands demanding better treatment for immigrants.and that not in CANADA
With a bipartisan coalition in control, the committee also voted down proposed criminal penalties on immigrants found to be in the country illegally. It approved a new temporary program allowing entry for 1.5 million workers seeking jobs in the agriculture industry.
"All Americans wanted fairness and they got it this evening," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., who played a pivotal role in drafting the legislation.
There was no immediate reaction from the White House, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C. said he hoped President Bush would participate in efforts to fashion consensus legislation. "The only thing that's off the table is inaction," said Graham, who voted for the committee bill.
The 12-6 vote broke down along unusual lines, with a majority of the panel's Republicans opposed to the measure even though their party controls the Senate.
Sen. Jon Kyl (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., seeking re-election this fall in his border state, sought repeatedly to insert tougher provisions into the legislation, but was generally rebuffed. "This has been a very, very important and historic debate," he said.
Committee chairman Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania was one of four Republicans to support the bill, but he signaled strongly that some of the more controversial provisions could well be changed when the measure reaches the Senate floor. That is "very frequently" the case when efforts to reach a broad bipartisan compromise falter, he noted.
Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. had originally said debate on the issue would begin Tuesday, but an aide said those plans had changed.
In general, the bill is designed to strengthen enforcement of U.S. borders, regulate the flow into the country of so-called guest workers and determine the legal future of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.
The bill would double the Border Patrol and authorizes a "virtual wall" of unmanned vehicles, cameras and censors to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border.
It also allows more visas for nurses and agriculture workers, and shelters humanitarian organizations from prosecution if they provide non-emergency assistance to illegal residents.
The most controversial provision would permit illegal aliens currently in the country to apply for citizenship without first having to return home.
"Well over 60 percent of Americans in all the polls I see think it's OK to have temporary workers, but you do not have to make them citizens," said Kyl, who is seeking re-election this fall.
"We have a fundamental difference between the way you look at them and the way I look at them," Kennedy observed later.
| March 27, 2006 | 20:37:40 |
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MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT - Posted By: NaBeeel
Older Americans need another six months to sign up for the Medicare prescription drug benefit, a Democratic congressman, who's also a pharmacist, said Saturday.
Rep. Marion Berry of Arkansas also said the government needs to think long and hard about meaningful Medicare law.
Berry said people eligible for the prescription benefit are confused by the various offerings, and some are even paying more for medicine now than they were before they joined the program.
"We need to extend the sign-up period by six months to give seniors more time to make sense of this benefit, and we need to eliminate the Bush administration's prescription drug tax,"May 15 is the deadline for enrolling in the new Medicare drug benefit plan, which was enacted by Congress in 2003. People who sign up later probably will have to pay higher premiums.
Americans who want to sign up complain they're confused by the myriad of private options offered in the prescription drug program. Many poor people ran into problems when they were switched over from their drug benefits within Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor, to the Medicare drug benefit.
And many pharmacists are struggling because they haven't been paid for drugs administered by the program,.
"I will never forget one conversation I had with a pharmacist from DeWitt, Arkansas, who had given away $60,000 in free medications in just one week because he knew his customers might die if they did not receive their refill that day. Medicare Part D is the FEMA of health care," .
Medicare could bargain for lower drug prices to save money for the government and for the elderly,.
"Every American deserves the best health care we can provide. We do not have to accept a failed benefit and we do not have to tolerate a culture of corruption or leaders who are afraid to admit their mistakes. Democrats have the answer, and under a Democratic Congress, we will give seniors the prescription drug benefit they were promised years ago. Together we can do better,".
| March 26, 2006 | 14:06:20 |
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Canadian hostages heading home - Posted By: NaBeeel
Canadian hostages heading home
Mr Sooden and Mr Loney will continue campaigning,
Two Canadian peace activists held hostage for almost four months in Iraq are due to leave Baghdad as they begin their journey home.
Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, and James Loney, 41, were released along with Briton Norman Kember, 74.
They were freed from a house west of Baghdad by multinational forces.
Christian Peacemaker Teams , the group the men were campaigning for, said all three were still committed to working for peace in Iraq.
They are concerned for justice for all different ethnic groups here
Mr Sooden's 33rd birthday - said: "I don't know if it will be here, or if it will be in another country but they are still very concerned.
"They are concerned for justice for all different ethnic groups here."
All were unharmed during their captivity, she added.
Mr Sooden and Mr Loney were due to arrive in Dubai at 1730 local time on Saturday before making their way back to Canada, the CPT office in Baghdad said.
Mr Kember spent Friday night in Kuwait flew to Heathrow Airport in London on Saturday.
The rescue followed a weeks-long operation by British troops and US and Canadian special forces.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the Canadian special forces were only in Iraq temporarily to carry out the rescue.
US citizen Tom Fox, kidnapped at the same time on 26 November in Baghdad, was found shot dead earlier this month.
| March 25, 2006 | 17:40:40 |
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Nation had hottest year on record - Posted By: NaBeeel
Australia may be face of warming
Nation had hottest year on record, braces for temperature rise
Bush fires burn last January near Halls Gap in the Grampians mountain range in Victoria, Australia.
People in this sheep ranching town gave up washing their cars and sprinkling their gardens long ago because of a water shortage. Children are barred from school sport fields because they are dried rock-hard and dangerous.
Goulburn, a hub for the region's Merino sheep industry that's a two hour drive from Sydney, could represent a here-and-now example of what many scientists say are problems the world will face because of global warming.
The tablelands where Goulburn is situated have been in the grip of a drought since 2002, and its main reservoir has dried up to less than 10 percent of capacity.
Goulburn's 23,000 residents are having to radically change their routines.
"This is really a sign of the times," said Gail Lawton, who spent 100,000 Australian dollars (US$75,375, euro61,390) to install a water recycling machine at her laundry and car wash. "I don't think world leaders are taking this seriously enough."
Australia just had its hottest year on record. The average temperature across the country in 2005 was 22.89 C (73.2 F), or 1.09 C (1.96 F) above the mean temperature for 1961-90.
The government's main research body, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, predicts average temperatures in Australia will rise further -- between 1 C and 6 C (up to 10 F) by 2070.
It says the rising temperatures will largely be caused by higher concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Scientists say such a rise would cause warmer seas and contribute to the destruction of the world's largest coral formation, the Great Barrier Reef. It would also lead to many more of the wildfires that strike annually during Australia's searing summer, and to the deaths of as many as 15,000 more people each year by 2100 from heat-related illnesses.
Global warming has hit Australia hard because of its location as a mid-latitude country with a history of climactic extremes such as droughts and floods, according to scientists and environmentalists.
It also is the driest inhabited continent -- only Antarctica is drier -- so any declines in rainfall or temperature increases have a greater impact on water supplies and agriculture, among other issues.
Environmentalists say cutting the use of fossil fuels is key to reining in rising global temperatures that could force vast changes in the way most people live.
Greenpeace and other environmental groups say the answer lies in the Kyoto Protocol, which legally binds countries to targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2012, and to developing alternative energy sources from the wind and sun.
Australia's government acknowledges that temperatures are rising, but Australia and the United States are the only industrialized nation not to sign the Kyoto pact.
The government says emission control targets would cause economic hardship to Australia's energy-dominated industries by driving up commodity prices. It also argues that forcing countries like India and China to set emission targets would contribute to poverty by limiting access to cheap energy sources like coal.
In January, Australia, the United States, China, India, South Korea and Japan pledged to reduce greenhouse gases through voluntary measures at the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development And Climate.
They agreed to work with private companies and international lending agencies to expand markets for investment and trade in cleaner, energy efficient technologies.
Environmentalists say that pact is a charade because industry will never change its polluting ways through voluntary measures.
An Australian government study said implementing the nonbinding pact would reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as 20 percent by 2050 compared to no action being taken. But emissions would still increase over today's levels, with some environmental groups calculating a 100 percent rise by 2050, resulting in a temperature increase of 4 C (5 F).
World Wildlife Fund For Nature Australia says that warming waters would translate into more severe flooding and intense cyclones that will result in a 650 percent increase in storm-related damage.
Global warming will also mean a 148 percent increase in bushfires and the loss of natural preserves like the Kakadu wetlands. That, in turn, would contribute to the "mass extinction of mammals, birds, insects and flora," the fund said.
"Australians need to ask themselves whether this is an acceptable outcome," WWF-Australia chief Greg Bourne said.
"The Australian government is willing to sacrifice public health and safety, the lifestyles of millions of Australians and our most treasured natural icons to pursue a business as usual energy path," he said.
Business groups say that such warnings are hysterical and that it is not necessary to impose any restrictions until global warming's causes are better understood.
"To make radical decisions focused solely on reducing carbon emissions is premature," said Tim Wilson of the Australian APEC Study Center, a pro-business group which has received funding from Exxon Mobil Corp.
Janette Lindesay, associate professor in climatology at Australian National University in Canberra, sees the threat of global warming as more serious than do business groups, but also advises caution in dealing with the threat.
From her work, she says that climate is becoming increasingly erratic in Australia, as it has around the world, and that global warming could be contributing to this. But she said weather patterns like El Nino and Australia's long history of droughts must be considered in determining the country's future weather.
"I am absolutely convinced that climate is a very serious issue that we have to take seriously and take action to mitigate," Lindesay said.
"But we have to realize this is a complex system that we do not yet fully understand," she said. "It doesn't mean we shouldn't tackle it. But we have a ways to go before we fully understand how the system is responding and will respond to climate change."
As the debate rages, Australia's climate is already showing signs of change.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization says rising temperatures and declining rainfall have resulted in a 40 percent drop in snow depth in the Australian Alps in the past 40 years. Rising sea levels that have made flooding worse and caused repeated bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef.
Droughts -- some lasting nearly a decade -- have devastated farming communities, dried up rivers and contributed to bigger and more deadly bushfires.
In towns like Goulburn, water conservation has become a way of life.
Since 2002, families have reduced their daily water usage by almost two thirds to 150 liters (39.6 gallons). Many have installed water-saving toilets and tanks to collect rainwater runoff from their houses. Instead of using mugs that need to be washed, some bars have started serving beer in paper cups.
The main reservoir, once a popular boating spot, is now a muddy pond.
"This has been the worst drought. It's heartbreaking," said Ken May, walking through his award-winning garden that has lost 15 trees and most flowers over the past year. "We can't do anything now. I don't want to plant a thing."
The town is pumping water in from a nearby river and considering building a 40 million Australian dollar (US$30.2 million,euro24.6 million) recycling plant that would turn storm and sewage water into drinking water.
"We will never go back to the days when you can hose down your car or turn on your sprinkler and forget you turned it on," Goulburn Mayor Paul Stephenson said. "This is going to be a way of life."
| March 24, 2006 | 21:52:59 |
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THE TOWN GIRL WHO BECOME BIG STARE - Posted By: NaBeeel
N.C. Post Office Named After Ava Gardner
The Smithfield Post Office is now the Ava Gardner Post Office.
President Bush signed legislation Monday to rename the post office in honor of the Oscar-nominated actress, who grew up in Johnston County.
"Ava Gardner was a small-town girl who became a big-time celebrity," said
Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-N.C., who sponsored the bill to rename the post office.
"She represents the can-do attitude and patriotism of the people of Smithfield and Johnston County," Etheridge said.
Gardner was nominated for a best-actress Oscar for 1953's
"Mogambo." Her films also include "The Night of the Iguana" and "On the Beach."
She had a series of high-profile marriages, to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra. The actress died in 1990,
| March 23, 2006 | 15:43:54 |
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Holiday in Viet Nam - Posted By: NaBeeel
TET holiday in Viet Nam
Lunar New Year,or Tet is VietNam's main holiday.It's the grandest and most important occasion in the year which falls sometime between 19 Jan and 20 Feb on the Western calendar.Tet marks the beginning of spring and for agrarian people,the start of the New Year
The preparations and celebrations used to be spread over moths but nowadays,the holiday is much shorter.Still,there is great excitement building up well b4 Tet.Streets are decorated with coloured lights and red banners.Shops're full of goods.Ppl are busy buying gifts,cleaning and decorating the house and cooking traditional foods.
Homes are often decorated with trees and flowers at this time.The traditional flowers for Tet are peach flowers in the North and apricot flowers in the South.Besides,the kumquat tree with its ripe deep orange fruits's popular throughout the country.One of Tet's most special foods is "banh chung",which is made from sticky,yellow mung beans and fatty pork."Mut",which is candied fruit such as sugared apples,plums and even tomatoes,is also popular.
On the first days of Tet everyone tries to be nice and polite to others.PPl believe that what they do on the 1st day of the year will influence their luck during the whole year.Only good comments can be made.Ppl visit other family members or friends and they exchange New year's wishes.Children receive their "lucky money" inside red envelopes.Many ppl go to the pagoda to pray for happiness for themselves and their family.Both children and adults take part in games and various forms of entertainment.Tet is really a time of fun and festival throughout the country.
So, if you plan to visit Viet Nam, why don't you visit in Tet holiday.I'm sure you will have a interesting vacation ! ^_^
| March 21, 2006 | 22:21:56 |
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VIETNAMESE ECONOMY& SAIGON CITYS LANDMARKS - Posted By: NaBeeel
VIETNAMESE ECONOMY&
SAIGON CITYS LANDMARKS
Vietnamese economy is growing fast. If I am not wrong Vietnam has the second fastest growing economy is Southeast Asia, after China. This economic growth is visible everywhere in Vietnam, but it is more evident here in Saigon. New companies and foreign investments are bringing huge amounts of money to this economy. New high scrapers, new hotels and new tourist facilities are being built in this part of the city.
Saigon, An Quang Pagoda
Although the An Quang Pagoda is not one of the main temples in Saigon, I wanted to add a picture of it to show that there is much more to see in this city than the average tourist sees. The longer you stay in Saigon, the more off-the-beaten-path monuments and historical sites you will have the chance to see.
It was in this pagoda that a religious leader was arrested for propagating anti-government ideas. Well, more than anti government ideas, he was trying to promote free speech and free religious expression.
You have to know that freedom of speech and democracy are still taboo in Vietnam. Many tourists do not realize how much control the government has over its citizens. Buddhism religion is tolerated, but no criticism or suggestions of reforms are accepted. "Temple arrests" and isolations are the government answers to these kind of requests.
Saigon, Cholon - Binh Tay Market
Binh Tay market is the biggest market in Saigon. It is located in the city's Chinatown, Cholon. Although this is mainly
a wholesale market, it is a visit you should not miss. A walk inside the market will be a pleasure for your senses. The market is quite far from the city center. If you do not want to take a taxi, there is a bus that will take you here. Ask your hotel.
Currently several hundred thousand Chinese origin citizens live in Saigon. If you have some time left, take a walk around the streets in Cholon. You will see a clear Chinese influence in this district. Most shop signs are written in Chinese Characters. Remember that Vietnamese is the only Southeast Asian language that uses the Latin Characters.
Saigon, Dong Khoi Street
One of the biggest avenues in Saigon's center is Dong Khoi. It goes from river Saigon to the People Committee Hall (or City Hall). Dong khoi is perpendicular to Le Loi. Le Loi is the main avenue in downtown Saigon. It is a broad avenue that goes from the Ben Thanh Market to the Opera house. In this avenue you will find many souvenir shops, bars and some restaurants. Another big street in this part of District 1 is Hai Ba Trung. In Hai Ba Trung you will find many fashion and souvenir shops. This is the posh area of the city. Some of the best hotels in Saigon are located in this part of the city.
Saigon, Opera House
The Saigon Opera House or Ho Chi Minh Municipal Theater is one of the city's landmarks. It sits at the end of Le Loi street. The building was originally built by the French to host Opera shows. In 1955 it was transformed into the South Vietnam's Assembly House. After the nation's reunification the building remained unused. Not long ago it was refurbished. It currently hosts vietnamese theatre and traditional music shows.
In front of the theater there is a square where locals gather to spend the hot evenings.
Well my friend this is it, this Virtual Tour came to its end. I hope you enjoyed it.
Vietnamese soldier showing us one of the Cu Chi Tunnels.
If you take the Cu Chi Tour, a guide will also show you some of
The traps the Viet Congs used to kill their enemies.
If visiting Saigon, another excursion you should not miss is the Mekong Delta.
You will need at least two days to visit the delta.
If you are looking for a beach destination,
You may do a couple of days excursion to Vung Tau, or Muine.
If you have more days, take a plane and escape to Phu Quoc Island.
If you want to visit the rest of the country,
You may take a bus and stop in Muine, and continue to Nha Trang.
Or take a train straight to Nha Trang.
You may also take a plane and go to Hoi an and Hue.
from Saigon there are also direct flights to Hanoi.
I welcome you to write to me about your impressions of this tour.
To contact me, visit my page
Economic Overview: Vietnam is a poor, densely-populated country that has had to recover from the ravages of war, the loss of financial support from the old Soviet Bloc, and the rigidities of a centrally-planned economy. Substantial progress was achieved from 1986 to 1996 in moving forward from an extremely low starting point - growth averaged around 9% per year from 1993 to 1997. The 1997 Asian financial crisis highlighted the problems in the Vietnamese economy, but rather than prompting reform, reaffirmed the government's belief that shifting to a market-oriented economy would lead to disaster. GDP growth of 8.5% in 1997 fell to 6% in 1998 and 5% in 1999. Growth then rose to 6% to 7% in 2000-02 even against the background of global recession. These numbers mask some major difficulties in economic performance. Many domestic industries, including coal, cement, steel, and paper, have reported large stockpiles of inventory and tough competition from more efficient foreign producers. Since the Party elected new leadership in 2001, Vietnamese authorities have reaffirmed their commitment to economic liberalization and have moved to implement the structural reforms needed to modernize the economy and to produce more competitive, export-driven industries. The US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement entered into force near the end of 2001 and is expected to significantly increase Vietnam's exports to the US. The US is assisting Vietnam with implementing the legal and structural reforms called for in the agreement.
| March 20, 2006 | 22:05:15 |
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≤≥ WAR OF CHOICE ≤≥ - Posted By: NaBeeel
≤≥ WAR OF CHOICE ≤≥
The Role of Islam in Arab society ,
The Buddhist self-immolations in Vietnam ,
We face in Iraq, like we did in Vietnam, an enemy who refuses to play by our rules and is clearly willing to die for his beliefs.
But Iraq looks a lot like Vietnam
There was no real plan for victory in Vietnam, and there appears to be none for Iraq.
Even attempt meaningful democratic reforms to which will never work to install democracy in Iraq or in the Middle East
We face in Iraq, like we did in Vietnam, an enemy who refuses to play by our rules and is clearly willing to die for his beliefs.
But Iraq looks a lot like Vietnam
Wars of Choice , Vietnam and Iraq were both wars of choice. And they are also similar in that deceit and misrepresentation was employed by the U.S. government, first to engage U.S. forces and then to keep them there. President Bush took us to war on the grounds that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and had ties to al Qaeda. No weapons of mass destruction have been found and no ties to al Qaeda have been discovered. We were also told our troops would be greeted with open arms and flowers, which didn’t last long, and that Iraqi oil would pay for most of the reconstruction. Now told we’re in Iraq to nurture democratic self-government, political reconstruction is also going badly.
In retrospect, it is clear we had no idea what we were getting into when we marched into Vietnam, and the same appears true in Iraq. In reference to Vietnam, President Johnson pledged in April 1965: “We will not withdraw, either openly or under the cloak of a meaningless agreement.” Four decades later, President Bush pledged: “We’ve got to stay the course and we will stay the course” in Iraq.
The American people–and the Iraqi people– Middle Eastern- deserve better than this. They are entitled to a well-thought-out, credible plan, detailing how the administration expects to achieve its objectives in Iraq. A realistic plan is also a prerequisite to engaging fully the international community in reconstruction efforts, a necessity the Bush administration has only belatedly come to recognize. Reviewing what went right–and wrong–in Vietnam might be a good place to start when creating such a plan.
Throughout the Vietnam War, especially in the early years, American officials deliberately misrepresented the enemy. Vietnamese nationalists were ignored with all opposition labeled Communist or with the delightfully pejorative phrase “Viet Cong.” In Iraq, the Bush administration has once again written nationalists out of the script. Insurgents are variously labeled “dead-enders,” “fanatics,” “thugs,” “militants,” “terrorists,” or “outsiders,” despite growing evidence that a large percentage of the Iraqi people are opposed to the U.S. occupation. Recent intelligence reports suggest that support for the insurgents is widespread and growing. In some areas, Sunni and Shiite groups are joining forces, at least temporarily, in a common cause – killing Americans.
There is also a failure in Iraq to understand and empathize with local mores and culture or the role of Islam in Arab society. The military has too few Arab language specialists and those experts in government with good knowledge of Iraq’s history and culture were marginalized from the Pentagon’s planning of the war and the peace, just as we failed to comprehend the Buddhist culture of Vietnam. The bombing of a mosque in Fallujah in April 2004 is a recent case in point. Suicide bombers in the Middle East, like Buddhist self-immolations in Vietnam, are incomprehensible to the average American, nestled in a comfortable suburb with a good paying job. Plunging into a maelstrom of political and religious rivalries, we have too often depended in Iraq on the counsel of a few self-serving Iraqi exiles and Arab intellectuals experienced in manipulating Western arrogance and ignorance.
There was no real plan for victory in Vietnam, and there appears to be none for Iraq. The June 30 date for the transfer of sovereignty back to the Iraqi people, in particular, makes no sense except in the context of President Bush’s desire to be rid of Iraq before the U.S. elections in November. When asked why it is so important to pretend to return sovereignty to the Iraqis on June 30, no one in the administration seems to have an answer. What is clear is that no viable political body has been created or identified in Iraq in the last year with the domestic political support necessary to take charge and run the country after the turnover. Unless the White House adds credibility to the June 30th transfer, it is also clear that the other dates detailed by the president in his April 2004 press conference, dates leading to a permanent Iraqi government by December 2005, have no meaning whatsoever.
At the end of the Persian Gulf War, President George H. W. Bush, flanked by then Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell, proudly proclaimed we’d finally licked the “Vietnam syndrome.” Is it any wonder then that President George W. Bush, surrounded by the same advisors, refuses to recognize that Iraq increasingly resembles that traumatic Asian conflict? Iraq today looks more and more like the Vietnam to be knew firsthand who you may look at it now
for an army intelligence officer more than three decades ago to comber.
Strategy and Tactics
First, there are the obvious strategic and tactical similarities. American troops are fighting a guerrilla war in Iraq. The terrain is difficult, and the insurgents know it better than we do. The enemy attacks at a time and place of its own choosing, avoiding troop concentrations where U.S. firepower can be brought to bear. Urban warfare has become the norm with insurgents staying close to U.S. troops, often engaging civilians to support or shield their operations. As a result, the uncertain battleground of Iraq poses enormous challenges for American soldiers, seeking to separate combatants from civilians without alienating most Iraqis. We face in Iraq, like we did in Vietnam, an enemy who refuses to play by our rules and is clearly willing to die for his beliefs.
Before we finished in Vietnam, we had dropped more bombs on Indochina than had been dropped on the remainder of the world in all the wars to that time. The U.S. military continues to believe in the might of firepower. But it also wrestles with the difficult task of establishing the appropriate balance between winning hearts and minds with aid and reconstruction and using force to root out insurgents. In Iraq, we have moved from “shock and awe” to building schools and hosting soccer games. We’re now back to block-to-block searches of cordoned cities.
In the process, the U.S. military has generally refused to account for civilian casualties in Iraq, in part because they are frequently huge. As in Vietnam, 600 dead or dying Iraqis too often appear as 600 “insurgents” in army press accounts. The refusal to acknowledge civilian casualties, while meticulously accounting for our own, has another downside. It suggests to Iraqis that American lives are more important than those of the people we supposedly came to liberate.
Iraq’s Tet Offensive?
In this regard, the April 2004 insurrection in Iraq could well have a political impact on the Bush administration similar to the impact of the 1968 Tet offensive on the Johnson administration. The Tet offensive exposed the consistently positive U.S. message in Vietnam to be a lie. In turn, the savage attacks of Iraqi insurgents almost 40 years later dealt a heavy blow to the credibility of the Bush administration. In both cases, events on the ground suggested that the U.S. government, not only was not in control, but didn’t have a plan and that is the truth.
A parallel can also be drawn to the now discredited domino theory, which suggested that the fall of Vietnam would lead to a Communist takeover of all of Asia. President Bush promised a similar domino effect in the Middle East in which the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would lead to a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and the flowering of democracy throughout
the region.
The failure to install democracy in Iraq will likely lead to a long winter of autocracy in the Middle East before other
states even attempt meaningful democratic reforms to which will never work to install democracy in Iraq or in the Middle East,
because the over all grow & flow of the Islamic fanatics , Al Qaeda , Moslume Brother , Islamic militants Terrorists “fanatics
“militants” “terrorists,” or “outsiders,” despite growing evidence that a large percentage of them all over the whole middle East Which could to Lead to Islamic Government as Iran is widespread and growing and could leads to religious Civil war.
| March 19, 2006 | 21:49:35 |
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The plight of Sudanese who come to Egypt as refugees - Posted By: NaBeeel
Sudanese refugees feeling the sting of unfriendly Egypt
Breaking point came in December
when 28 died as police raided camp
Tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees have fled to Egypt, but many have felt unwelcome.
• Legal status: Sudanese in Egypt are not granted blanket U.N. refugee status, which would open the possibility of resettlement.
• Scorned: Human rights workers say the Sudanese are subject to taunts, discrimination and violence.
On a dirt lane in the poor Arba wa Nus neighborhood, Malles Tonga, a Sudanese refugee, spoke loudly about the brutality of Egyptian police and blamed President Hosni Mubarak.
Suddenly, an Egyptian merchant emerged from a nearby dry-goods store, shouted an Egyptian slur for black Africans and yelled: "If you don't like it here, go home!"
The slur exemplifies the plight of Sudanese who come to Egypt as refugees: They fear going home, but the welcome mat in Egypt, always thin of resources and tolerance, is almost threadbare.
The situation of Sudanese in Egypt brings to light the special difficulties refugees face when they flee a war-ravaged and impoverished land for another poor country. Egypt is in many ways an inhospitable place for its own citizens.
But dark-skinned Sudanese Christians stand out among the Egyptians, typically lighter-skinned Muslim Arabs.
Under a bilateral arrangement, Egypt permits Sudanese to live and work in the country, but U.N. approval for asylum results only after a laborious interview process.
A breaking point for many Sudanese came Dec. 30, when hundreds of riot police stomped through a makeshift camp in central Cairo to clear it of 2,500 refugees, trampling or beating to death 28 people.
Accounts of the melee in this article were pieced together from Sudanese refugees. In late September, a few refugees gathered at Mustafa Mahmoud park in Mohandessin, an upper-middle-class neighborhood, to demand full refugee status from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
They hoped they could be resettled in Europe, the United States or another wealthy country and not return to Sudan, from where many had fled a 21-year civil war.
The number of refugees involved in the protest grew.
Before dawn Dec. 30, riot police marched into the camp wielding sticks and truncheons. Some refugees pulled poles from the tents to fight back, witnesses said.
Tonga said he was knocked unconscious. He awoke in one of several military camps outside Cairo where 1,000 detained refugees were bused.
Last month, the last 156 of about 2,000 migrants arrested during the violence were released from jail. A Foreign Ministry official said they were illegal immigrants but would not be deported "for the sake of not scattering the Sudanese families who live in Egypt."
The refugees think they lost. U.N. refugee officials, whose office is a half-block from the scene of the violence, are fighting accusations that, by urging the police in, they were responsible for the massacre.
In OTHERR NEWES IN EGYPT:
Egypt confirms first human death of bird flu
Egypt announced on Saturday that a woman had died of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu, the first human death of avian influenza in the populous north African country.
The 30-year-old woman from Nawa village in Qalyubiya, some 40 km north of here, died early on Friday morning in a Cairo hospital where she had been treated for flu-like symptoms, the health ministry said in a statement.
Medical experts had detected the H5N1 bird flu virus in her blood samples, said the ministry, adding that more samples of the woman had been sent to Britain for further tests.
The statement also said the woman had raised some chickens at her home despite an official ban since the country suffered its first bird flu outbreak among wild birds and poultry in February.
Some of the woman's chickens had died before she showed flu-like symptoms and checked in a local hospital, it said.
| March 18, 2006 | 17:09:09 |
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THE PEAR OF THE ORIENT ,MY TRIP TO SAIGON, VIETNAM - Posted By: NaBeeel
THE PEAR OF THE ORIENT
MY TRIP TO SAIGON, VIETNAM
SOUTHEAST ASIA
Saigon, pagoda
Saigon is a rather new city. In the 15th century there was not much else than swamps here. In the 17th century a small town was formed. At the end of this century a local government was formed. Due to its strategic location, the city grew rapidly. At the end of the 18th century the town became officially a city.
In the 19th century the French invaded the city. They stayed here for a century. That is why many monuments and buildings have a European look. In 1954 the French were defeated. Some years later, Vietnam was splitted in two. Many citizens of North and Central Vietnam migrated to Saigon.
Many of the North Vietnamese that came to Saigon during the 1950's and 1960's were entrepreneurs, other were intellectuals, and other were politicians. All this led to the expansion of the business and cultural life in Saigon. In the western world Saigon was known as the "Pearl of the Orient" .
In 1975 Communists invaded the city, and the country was reunified. The official name of the city was changed to "Ho CHi Minh City". Until a few decades Saigon was closed to foreigners. Nowadays Saigon is a city open to the world. The official name may still be Ho Chi Minh, but Vietnamese call it Saigon.
Saigon, motorbikes' jam
Officially 6 or 7 million people live in Saigon. Half of them own a motorbike. During rush hours, streets and avenues in the center of Saigon are flooded with this small motorbikes.
Possessing a motorbike is a symbol of status. Many youngster recognize it would be impossible for them to find a girlfriend without a scooter. The more expensive the bike, the easier it is for them to find a beautiful girl.
A typical teenager will pick up his girlfriend a weekend afternoon, take her for a ride, and sit in a park's bench to talk. Public kissing is, still, un polite.
Saigon, street in Pham Ngu Lao
Food is one of the main reasons to visit Vietnam. Thanks to the French presence in this country, local food is Asian but with a certain European touch. The offer of food is too extensive to be detailed in this guide, but I will give you some hints.
The street intersection in Pham Ngu Lao. Restaurants in this area serve the local version of Western food: pizza, pasta and hamburgers. For the real local deal, go to a market or to a street stall.
The most popular breakfast in Vietnam is Pho (pronounced Pha). It is a noodle soup usually with meat ('pho bo', beef soup; 'pho ga', chicken soup, and so on). Another local specialty are the Vietnamese spring rolls, Goi Cuon, with salad, vermicelli and pieces of pork, prawns, or beef wrapped around rice paper. [next »]
Saigon, Vietnamese Restaurant
When looking for a place to eat in Saigon, there are two options. One is the street stalls where locals eat. They may look somewhat dirty, but it is in these streets restaunrants where I found the best food in Vietnam. Most of the times you sit in a small plastic chair in the street. Each of this restaurants is specialized in one type of food (noodles, soups, beef). As in the rest of Vietnam, things go really fast in these restaurants. You wait for a free seat, order your meal, eat, pay and leave. The whole process may take less than 15 minutes. You will also find these food stalls in all local markets.
For the ones looking for a restaurant to eat more properly, you will find plenty of options in Saigon. In the picture you see one of my favorite restaurants. I do not remember its name. It was not far from the reunification Palace, in District 1. No matter what I ordered, it tasted really great.
Saigon, Lau Restaurant
The L a u restaurant, Lau was one of my favorite dishes.
Lau is also known as 'Hot Pot'.
Although the dish is delicious, you may need some help to eat it.
L a u is a Saigon specialty where customers are served a boiling casserole with a fire to keep it hot.
You have to put the vegetables in the broth.
There is the meat, the sea food, the fish and even the snake versions of this dish.
If you want to taste them all, order the mixed Hot Pot.
The waiter will explain you when, and for how long, you have to put the meat in the broth.
You may also order some noodles and put them in the pot.
I was told that people of Saigon like Hot Pot (or Lau)
Because they can eat this dish for hours while drinking beer.
Yes, I was told people in the South of Vietnam are heavy drinkers.
Saigon, fruit vendor
One of the things you will appreciate more when traveling around Vietnam are the local fruits.
They are always so fresh! You will find them in markets, shops and in the streets.
The list of Vietnamese fruits is almost endless: Custard-apple, Durian, Green-dragon, Guava, Litchi, Longan, Mango, Papaya, Rambutan, Sapodilla, Star-fruit, Water-apple,... Should I go on? Some of them are available in our home countries, but nowhere do they taste as good as in Vietnam. Specially recommended is the Green dragon fruit.
Fruit juices should not be missed either.
If you want to be safe, ask the clerk to remove the ice (most of the times it comes from tap water).
But I have to tell you that I drunk thousands of juices while in Vietnam, and I did not have a single digestive problem.
Saigon, street vendors
Saigon is a rather new city. In the 15th century there was not much else than swamps here. In the 17th century a small town was formed. At the end of this century a local government was formed. Due to its strategic location, the city grew rapidly. At the end of the 18th century the town became officially a city.
In the 19th century the French invaded the city. They stayed here for a century. That is why many monuments and buildings have a European look. In 1954 the French were defeated. Some years later, Vietnam was splitted in two. Many citizens of North and Central Vietnam migrated to Saigon.
Saigon, motorbikes' jam
Officially 6 or 7 million people live in Saigon. Half of them own a motorbike. During rush hours, streets and avenues in the center of Saigon are flooded with this small motorbikes.
Possessing a motorbike is a symbol of status. Many youngster recognize it would be impossible for them to find a girlfriend without a scooter. The more expensive the bike, the easier it is for them to find a beautiful girl.
A typical teenager will pick up his girlfriend a weekend afternoon, take her for a ride, and sit in a park's bench to talk. Public kissing is, still, un polite.
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| March 16, 2006 | 21:58:49 |
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I AM THE HEAD OF THE STATE - Posted By: NaBeeel
"I am the head of state," Saddam replied.
Saddam Testifies, Calls Trial a 'Comedy'
Judge Closes Proceedings, Citing 'Political Speech'Saddam Hussein testified Wednesday for the first time at his trial, calling on Iraqis to stop a bloody wave of sectarian violence and instead fight American troops, prompting the chief judge to close the courtroom after declaring Saddam was making political speeches.
Even as the judge repeatedly yelled at Saddam to stop, the deposed leader read from a prepared text, insisting he was still Iraq's president.
"Let the (Iraqi) people unite and resist the invaders and their backers. Don't fight among yourselves," he said, praising the insurgency. "In my eyes, you are the resistance to the American invasion."
Saddam was the last of the case's eight defendants to testify. Though he has spoken frequently since the trial began in October, Wednesday's session was to be the first chance for the judge and prosecutors to directly question him on charges of killing 148 Shiites and imprisoning and torturing others during a 1982 crackdown against the Shiite town of Dujail.
Instead, Saddam - dressed in a black suit - read from his statement, insisting he was Iraq's elected president and calling the trial a "comedy."
He addressed the "great Iraqi people" - a phrase he often used in his speeches as president - and urged them to stop the wave of Shiite-Sunni violence that has rocked the country since the Feb. 22 bombing of the Askariya shrine in Samarra.
"What pains me most is what I heard recently about something that aims to harm our people," Saddam said. "My conscience tells me that the great people of Iraq have nothing to do with these acts."
Chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman interrupted,
saying Saddam was not allowed to give political speeches in the court.
"I am the head of state," Saddam replied.
"You used to be a head of state. You are a defendant now,"
Abdel-Rahman barked at Saddam.
As Saddam continued reading from a prepared text, the judge repeatedly turned off his microphone to prevent his words from being heard and told him to address the charges against him. But Saddam ignored the judge and continued reading from his text.
"You are being tried in a criminal case. Stop your political speech,"
Abdel-Rahman said angrily.
"Had it not been for politics I wouldn't be here," Saddam replied.
He went on, urging Iraqis not to fight each other.
"What happened in the last days is bad," he said. "
You will live in darkness and rivers of blood for no reason."
He continued: "The bloodshed that they (the Americans) have caused to the Iraqi people only made them more intent and strong to evict the foreigners from their land and liberate their country."
At one point, Abdel-Rahman screamed at him, "Respect yourself!"
Saddam shouted back: "You respect yourself!"
"You are being tried in a criminal case for killing innocent people,
not because of your conflict with America," Abdel-Rahman said.
Saddam responded, "What about the innocent people who are dying
in Baghdad? I am talking to the Iraqi people."
Finally, Abdel-Rahman ordered the session closed to the public,
telling journalists to leave the chamber. The delayed video feed also was cut.
"The court has decided to turn this into a secret and closed session," he said.
The stormy session was a stark contrast to the past three hearings, when each of Saddam's seven co-defendants was questioned by Abdel-Rahman and the chief prosecutor.
Saddam and the seven former members of his regime face possible execution by hanging if they are convicted in connection with the crackdown in Dujail following a July 8, 1982, shooting attack on Saddam's motorcade in the town.
Last month, Saddam stood up in court and boldly acknowledged that he ordered the 148 Shiites put on trial before his Revolutionary Court, which eventually sentenced them all to death. But Saddam insisted it was his right to do so since they were suspected in the attempt to kill him.
Before Saddam's testimony, his half brother Barzan Ibrahim _ who headed the feared Mukhabarat intelligence agency at the time of the Dujail attack _ was questioned for more than three hours by the chief judge and prosecutor.
Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi showed the court a series of Mukhabarat documents on the Dujail case from 1982 and 1983, some of which bore signatures he said were Ibrahim's. One of them was a memo from Ibrahim's office asking Saddam for rewards for six Mukhabarat officers involved in the Dujail crackdown.
"This is not my signature. My signature is easy to forge,
and this is forged," Ibrahim said.
He said the same of another document listing Dujail families whose farmlands were razed in retaliation for the shooting. Another document, signed by an assistant to Ibrahim, talked about hundreds of Dujail detainees being held at Mukhabarat headquarters and the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
Ibrahim said that memo as well was false.
"It's not true. It's forged. We all know that forgery happens," he said.
In previous sessions, Dujail residents testified that Ibrahim participated in torturing them at Mukhabarat headquarters. One woman claimed Ibrahim kicked her in the chest while she was hung upside down and naked by her interrogators.
But Ibrahim insisted the Mukhabarat was not involved in the investigation into the attack on Saddam and denied any personal role in the crackdown.
"I didn't order any detentions. I didn't interrogate anyone," he said, adding that he resigned from the Mukhabarat in August 1983. "There is not a single document showing that I was involved in the investigation."
Ibrahim insisted that the General Security agency carried out the Dujail crackdown. He said his only involvement came on the day of the shooting, when he went to the village and ordered security officials to release Dujail residents who had been arrested.
The defense has argued that Saddam's government acted within its rights to respond after the assassination attempt on the former Iraqi leader.
The prosecutor has sought to show that the crackdown went well beyond the authors of the attack to punish Dujail's civilian population, saying entire families were arrested and tortured and that the 148 people killed were sentenced to death without a proper trial.
| March 15, 2006 | 14:02:28 |
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MY TRIPS TO THE DUTCH COUNTRY - Posted By: NaBeeel
Pennsylvania Dutch Food Trails
Eat your way through Pennsylvania Dutch country this spring.
The region is inviting visitors to check out "FlavorFest Food Trails," including an Ale Trail, a Dairy Trail, a Water & Winery Trail, a Market Basket Trail, and a Sweet'N'Salty Trail. Downloadable maps are available from http://www.padutchcountry.com or call (800) 723-8824 for details. You'll be able to order a printed culinary trail guide in April.
Meanwhile, here are some places to explore on your own.
In Lancaster County, twist your own pretzels at Intercourse Pretzel Factory in the town of Intercourse or at The Pretzel Factory or Sturgis Pretzel House in the town of Lititz. Lititz, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year, is also home to a giant chocolate fountain at Cafe Chocolate, where you can try chocolate fondue.
Just across the Chester County line, at Herr's Snack Foods, you can taste warm potato chips just off the line on factory tours offered Monday-Thursday. Hershey's Chocolate World has tours daily, with a new chocolate-making tour ride opening in April.
For fresh farm produce and homemade food, try the Lancaster Central Market, or stop at one of the Amish- and Mennonite-owned roadside stands and bakeries, like the Bird in Hand Bake Shop. Behind-the-scenes tours are also available at restaurants such as Plain and Fancy in Bird-in-Hand and Miller's Smorgasbord in Ronks.
Area bed-and-breakfasts are hosting culinary and wine events, such as a German-themed culinary weekend in May at The Harvest Moon B&B in New Holland —
http://www.harvestmoonbandb.com.
For the kids, there are opportunities at working farms to milk cows, collect fresh eggs and take a hay ride. For listings, go to http://www.padutchcountry.com and click on "lodging" and then "working farms."
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| March 12, 2006 | 13:07:20 |
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THE BELEAGUERED NATIONS - Posted By: NaBeeel
in the beleaguered nation.
Iraq's Not on Verge of Civil War
Iraq is not on the verge of civil war, the Pentagon's top general said Sunday,
though he acknowledged that "anything can happen"
in the beleaguered nation.
Ending the insurgency depends not only on military efforts but also on whether the Iraqi government can give the people what they want, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace said.
"I do not believe it has deep roots," Pace said of the insurgency.
"I do not believe that they're on the verge of civil war."
Iraqis continued a stalemate over putting together a new government, a delay that has prevented parliament from meeting since it was elected Dec. 15.
Pressure mounted Sunday on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to give up his bid for a new term amid anger over the recent surge in sectarian killings that has complicated already snarled negotiations on a new Iraqi government.
"Anything can happen, I agree," Pace said, then added: "I believe the Iraqi people have shown in the last week to 10 days that they do not want civil war."
Despite increasing worry among Americans that the three-year-old campaign is going badly, Pace said that much progress is being made toward training Iraqi forces to take over security of the country — something officials hope will eventually allow U.S. troops to leave
Asked how things are going, Pace said: "I'd say they're going well. I wouldn't put a great big smiley face on it, but I would say they're going very, very well."
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MRS CLINTON BEFOR 2008 PRESIDENTIAL RACE - Posted By: NaBeeel
Clinton Challenger Pulled From Reagan-Era Hat
for the party and perhaps weaken Mrs. Clinton before the 2008 presidential race.
It was supposed to be a marquee Republican campaign of the 2006 elections — a fusillade-style effort to defeat Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, which, even if it did not succeed, would excite donors nationally, raise millions for the party and perhaps weaken Mrs. Clinton before the 2008 presidential race.
Instead, to the chagrin of Republicans in New York and Washington, the party has not recovered from the December implosion of Jeanine F. Pirro's campaign against Mrs. Clinton. Republicans have been desperate for a credible challenger, while party leaders in Washington have tried to fill the vacuum by attacking Mrs. Clinton as "angry" and "brittle" — criticism they wish was coming from the campaign trail in New York.
To put it nicely, the Republican game plan is nowhere after a year of strategizing and overtures to at least six potential challengers. One of those challengers even calls the selection process "a Keystone Kops operation," and the only Republican now running, John Spencer, denounces "party elitists" who are against him.
Just weeks ago, Mr. Spencer looked poised to be the challenger, with a record of accomplishment as a former mayor of Yonkers. But with a caustic manner and a history of marital infidelity, Mr. Spencer may foil the party's drive for female voters and match up badly against Mrs. Clinton, some Republicans say.
Those Republican critics are now coalescing around a late entry: Kathleen Troia McFarland, 54, a protégée of Henry A. Kissinger who has not been in public service since working as a Pentagon spokeswoman under President Ronald Reagan. Yet Ms. McFarland, known as K. T., is pretty green: She has been a stay-at-home mother since 1985, and was drawn to the Senate race only because she already believed she was going to lose her bid for a Congressional seat on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
In an interview this week, Ms. McFarland said for the first time that she would challenge Mrs. Clinton and run on a platform of national security and military issues, given her background. She also said she is forswearing mudslinging, saying her party erred by calling Mrs. Clinton angry.
At the same time, both she and her advisers said the Senate battle provided a crucial chance before the presidential election to test Mrs. Clinton and expose what they see as her liberal voting record.
"Either we bog down Hillary Clinton in 2006, in New York, or we give Hillary a free pass, let her build up chips around the country by helping other candidates, and walk out of New York with a big win and become unstoppable for 2008," said Ed Rollins, the Reagan and Perot political adviser, who is helping run Ms. McFarland's nascent bid. "Republicans have to get serious about a challenger to Hillary right now."
Republican strategists in Washington say the White House political team also wants a strong challenger for Mrs. Clinton, yet is focusing for now on winnable races that would help preserve Republican majorities in the House and Senate.
"Karl would love to see Hillary defeated, but is that the best use of time and money?" said one strategist who described a conversation with Karl Rove, President Bush's political adviser, and was granted anonymity in exchange for recounting a private conservation. "It doesn't help matters that New York Republicans can't figure out who to run against Senator Clinton."
In recruiting Ms. McFarland, Republicans are to some extent reaching back to their original theory that the best challenger to Mrs. Clinton is another tough, telegenic woman who supports abortion rights and may keep some female votes in play.
"The gender piece is a key piece to a victory this year, but also key to the future of our Republican Party in New York," said Robert Davis, the Erie County Republican leader, who, along with James Ortenzio, a party leader in Manhattan, are prominent backers of her bid.
Ms. Pirro was supposed to fit that gender profile, and the state party so favored her that a respected Republican, Edward F. Cox, a lawyer and son-in-law of President Richard M. Nixon, bowed out of the race last fall. But Ms. Pirro's expertise as a former Westchester County district attorney did not seem to fit with the current Senate debates on taxes, Social Security, or Iraq, and her fund-raising foundered nationally, in part because a lack of preparation led to some widely publicized gaffes.
Perhaps reflecting her inexperience in the political world, Ms. McFarland declined to talk at length about issues, saying she was still studying the details. She described herself first as a "moderate Republican" and then as a "Reagan Republican." She refused to say how she would have voted on the Iraq war, but added that she believed more American troops should have been deployed.
She said her focus would be fighting terrorism and strengthening national security, and cast her rationale for running in strong pro-family terms.
"The war on terror is not going to be easy, and in a lot of ways, it's much more difficult than the cold war," Ms. McFarland said. "It's not a time to play politics, to play gotcha, to only talk to Republicans or to Democrats. It's a time to say, what do we agree on? What common ground can we find?"
"My objective in running for office is I want to keep my children and my grandchildren as safe as I can," said Ms. McFarland, who has five children and three grandchildren. "I have a husband whose office is above Grand Central Station. If we have a terrorist attack on the subway, that's where they go. I have a daughter who's in the Naval Academy. She's someone who would be sent overseas with the first wave. If the United States has policies that are shortsighted or irresponsible, she bears the brunt."
No matter who the challenger is, Mrs. Clinton is in formidable shape as a senator with high approval ratings, a widely respected record, and celebrity status in a Democratic-leaning state after eight years as the first lady. Independent polls show her to be remarkably popular in New York, with favorability ratings in the 60 percent range. They have also shown that the attacks on her by Washington Republicans are actually increasing her popularity.
"The Republican attacks on Senator Clinton have backfired," said Mark Penn, her pollster. "It is the Republicans who looked partisan as they continue to sink in the polls."
While Mrs. Clinton already has $17 million to spend on the race, Ms. McFarland has raised about $600,000 for her Congressional bid, though she and her husband, Alan, an investment banker, are wealthy. Mr. Rollins said she would be more successful than Ms. Pirro with Republican donors nationwide because of her history with President Reagan and her work on military issues, such as being an author of his famous "Star Wars" speech.
"She has the stature and gravitas that Republicans will embrace," Mr. Rollins said. "The former mayor of Yonkers is not necessarily going to be viewed as an impressive candidate by major figures in the party."
Mr. Spencer, who has been running since last spring, dismissed Ms. McFarland in an interview as "a liberal Manhattan Republican elitist" and said she was too late because he had won support from Republicans and the Conservative Party's executive committee. The full Conservative Party will pick its candidate in May; every Republican who has won statewide since 1974 has had its endorsement.
Under Mr. Spencer, crime rates and local taxes fell in Yonkers, and new schools and waterfront projects were built. Yet he had controversy: As mayor, while married, he fathered two children with his chief of staff. After years of questions, he publicly acknowledged the relationship, divorced his wife and married his former aide.
For Stephen J. Minarik III, the state Republican chairman who recruited Ms. Pirro and is now helping Mr. Spencer, it has been a long year of strategizing that he would like to conclude without a Republican primary battle. He said the door was not closed on Ms. McFarland — who just met yesterday with Joseph L. Bruno,
the Senate majority leader — but it was very late to start a candidacy.
"We really have to turn our sights onto Hillary Clinton,"
Mr. Minarik said, "and stop her before she can run for president."
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READY FOR TAKE OFF - Posted By: NaBeeel
That is the Flying car ready for takeoff?
The picture has changed, however, with the development of lighter and stronger construction materials and more efficient engines. Terrafugia is aiming to build a vehicle that will fly at 120 miles per hour and get 30 miles a gallon in the air. (It will also get 40 miles per gallon on the freeway and 30 in the city).
The Transition vehicle will carry a payload of only 430 pounds, far less than cars, but how many cars can take flight after 1,500 feet of takeoff space?
Software pioneer Bricklin tackles wikis
Rock's living history, streamed online
RSA: Taking a bite out of cybercrime
'Dodos' film pecks holes in evolution debate
Demand also has finally begun to emerge. Today's clogged freeway traffic and dispersed suburban living patterns have created an audience for these types of vehicles. Regional airports are also somewhat plentiful and underutilized. In addition, Federal Aviation Administration regulations passed in 2004 have made it easier to get a sport pilot's license.
"Since 9/11, for the first time, average door-to-door travel speed has really dropped substantially due to a combination of increased security measures at airports and more road traffic," Dietrich said in a statement accepting the Lemelson prize.
The Lemelson foundation, named after controversial inventor and patent litigant Jerome Lemelson, gives an annual student award, as well as lifetime awards, to inventors. Past winners of the student prize included James McLurkin for his work on swarming robots.
Lifetime achievement winners included Segway inventor Dean Kamen.
The foundation cited Dietrich, one of the star students in the department, for other accomplishments. Dietrich also holds a patent for the Centrifugal Direct Injection Engine, a low-cost, high-performance rocket propulsion engine.
For his doctoral work, he is researching how a fusion reactor could be used to power a spacecraft.
| February 19, 2006 | 23:01:46 |
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INTRODUCING MANGO-XAN - Posted By: NaBeeel
INTRODUCING MANGO-XAN@
The mangosteen fruit has been prized for thousands of years because of its role in ancient Southeast Asian folk medicine. Historically, preparations from the rind of the mangosteen were used throughout Eastern cultures as folk remedies and tonics to treat a variety of conditions. Modern studies of the mangosteen are now beginning to validate the science behind its long- known and appreciated benefits.
Long hidden in the orient, Asia's "Queen of Fruits" -the mangosteen-is now available in Mango.xan Liquid Dietary Supplement. Uniquely delicious and amazingly healthful, the product's name is derived from the exotic and delicious mangosteen and its uniquely potent antioxidant and phytoceutical compounds known as xanthones. Mango.xan is a delicious and healthful blend of 100% pure antioxidant and nutrient-rich fruit juices.
Adding Mango.xan to your daily nutritional regimen (1-3 fl. oz. every day) can help you enjoy overall better health. Mango.xan works with your body at the cellular level in the following ways:
. Helps alleviate cell damage caused by free radicals
and promotes healthier cells .
Increases energy and stamina .
Supports the body's immune system .
Promotes a healthy digestive system
WHAT'S IN MANGO-XAN?
MANGOS TEEN (Garcinia mangostana L)
Regarded as one of the most delicious fruits in the world, the mangosteen is native to the Malay Archipelago and Indonesia, but is now also grown in wet tropical regions throughout Southeast Asia, and beyond. Mangosteen has a thick peel or hull which is much too bitter to be edible but possesses abundant xanthoneshighly potent antioxidants.
Inside the hull is the soft white and segmented fruit.
(See ingredient information in shaded area below).
MANGOSTEEN'S XANTHONES
Found in the mangosteen fruit and its peel are naturally occurring, highly potent antioxidants that help fortify your body by protecting it from cell-ravaging free radicals. Free radicals are atoms or groups of atoms with an odd (unpaired) number of electrons that attack and cause damage to every kind of cell and are blamed for a myriad of health problems as they seek out their missing pieces.
Mangosteen's xanthones are comprised of molecules and
atoms that possess an extra electron.
These elcctrons help neutralize and stabilize free radicals,
inhibiting their ability to cause cell damage. This supports and protects every system in your body.
The xanthones and other biologically active substances in
the mangosteen combine to strengthen the natural,
healthy function of your body's cells and tissues.
Using proprietary methods and technology, Mango.xan contains a concentrated extract of xanthones from the pericarp/peel of the mangosteen, shown on the ingredient panel as "Garcinia mangostana (mangosteen) peel extract".
The result is higher xanthone content without
the "floaters and sludge" of roughly ground peel.
QUALITY MATTERS
Independent laboratory test results show that Mango.xan contains significantly higher xanthone content and superior antioxidant activity ratings than other mangosteen supplements.
In fact, Mango.xan proved to have one of the highest ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) scores among all liquid dietary supplements. Most scientists agree that the higher the ORAC score, the more potent and prevalent the antioxidants which can reduce free radical damage to the body.
Our state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and high quality control standards enable Mango.xan to be bottled with no added gumS, pectins, artif1cial flavors or f1llers, and no preservatives.
Additionally, each I oz. serving of Mango.xan contains 100% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C, and every bottle of Mango.xan features a roll-on pilfer-proof (ROPP) cap providing a flawless vacuum seallock in~f1avor and freshness.
The shelf life of our product is two years with a "Best Before" date printed on every bottle.
| February 18, 2006 | 17:39:04 |
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OPENING CEREMONY the Winter Olympics - Posted By: NaBeeel
OPENING CEREMONY the Winter Olympics
OPENING CEREMONY
With thousands of athletes and fans in attendance and a worldwide television audience, the 20th Winter Olympics officially began Friday night with a rollicking celebration in Torino's southern district of Santa Rita.
Legendary Italian skier Alberto "Tomba the Bomb" Tomba carried the Olympic torch into the Olympic Stadium. It was passed off four times before Italian cross country skier and multiple Olympic medalist Stefania Belmondo ignited the Olympic Cauldron by placing the flame on an apparatus in the stadium.
Outside Belmondo's relative upset over Tomba in being selected to light the cauldron, the ceremony included a closing performance by Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi declaring the Games open, and a tribute to John Lennon, with singer Peter Gabriel performing the former Beatle's seminal song "Imagine."
NORDIC COMBINED
The first event on Saturday's schedule is the nordic combined individual event, which pairs ski jumping with cross-country skiing. The ski jumping portion of the competition has already begun and the athletes will later complete the event with a 15-kilometer cross-country ski race. An American has never medaled in this event, but four-time Olympian Todd Lodwick has an outside chance to win some hardware.
BIATHLON
The men's biathlon at the 2002 Salt Lake Games was dominated by Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, who is back to make a run at Olympic history and will start with Saturday's 20-kilometer race. Bjoerndalen won all four events four years ago and enters the Torino Games with five golds to his credit -- three shy of the overall Olympic Winter Games record held by countrymate Bjorn Daehlie, who captured eight gold medals in cross-country skiing. Sven Fisher of Germany and France's Raphael Poiree are primed to give Bjoerndalen a run for his money this time around.
FREESTYLE SKIING
American women Shannon Bahrke and Michelle Roark could challenge for gold in the moguls competition in freestyle skiing, but they'll have to beat defending Olympic champ Kari Traa of Norway. Bahrke finished second at the Salt Lake Games, but hasn't had a podium finish at any World Cup events this season. Roark ranks third in the World Cup season with consecutive wins at Deer Valley and Lake Placid, but this year's top gold medal threat could be Canada's Jennifer Heil. Heil was fourth at the Salt Lake Games, but is at the top of the rankings in this year's World Cup season. She has finished outside the top two just once.
SPEEDSKATING
The first speedskating event of the Games is the men's 5,000 meters and American Chad Hedrick is gold medal favorite. He currently leads the World Cup standings after four of the five races, but will face stiff competition from Sven Kramer of the Netherlands and Norway's Eskil Ervik. Ervik set a world record in Calgary on November 13, 2005, but Hedrick eclipsed it later in the day. Kramer then bested Hedrick's time in Salt Lake City the following weekend. Others to watch include a pair of Dutch skaters in Carl Verheijen and Bob de Jong, while American Shani Davis will try to pull a surprise in his first Olympic event.
LUGE
The men's luge will start with two runs on Saturday and will then conclude with two more on Sunday. It will also mark the beginning of the end for the great Georg Hackl. The German star will participate in his sixth and final Olympic Games. He has medaled in each of the past five, sandwiching a pair of silver medals in 1988 and 2002 around three golds in 1992, '94 and '98, but has struggled with illness and injury since having back surgery in August. Italy's Armin Zoeggeler denied Hackl a fourth straight gold in 2002 and will have the home crowd in his favor this weekend, while American Tony Benshoof could give the U.S. a first-ever men's luge Olympic medal.
FIGURE SKATING
The Russians are back and will try to continue their dominance of the pairs figure skating Saturday night. A duo from Russia, the Unified Team or the old Soviet Union has won a pairs gold in each Olympics since 1964 and it will be up to Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin to keep the streak alive. Of course, four years ago there was the controversy over the judging in the pairs competition and a second gold was awarded to Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. The top threats to the Russians appear to be China's Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang, who finished second to Totmianina and Marinin at the Grand Prix final, while another Russian team of Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov could also threaten. The United States will send Rena Inoue and John Baldwin to the ice in the pairs competition, which will conclude Monday with the free skate.
SKI JUMPING
The normal hill qualifications in ski jumping will take place Saturday and Finland's Janne Ahonen will try for the Olympic medal that has so often eluded him. Ahonen has five World Championship gold medals and two overall World Cup titles, but he was fourth at both the 1998 Games in Nagano and in Salt Lake City four years ago. The finals are set for Sunday.
ICE HOCKEY
Four games are scheduled in women's ice hockey, including the United States opener against Switzerland. Canada will take on the host country of Italy, while Finland will meet Germany and Sweden will square off against Russia.
OPENING CEREMONY the Winter Olympics More to come
| February 11, 2006 | 14:13:15 |
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THE BIG CELEBRATIONS CHINESE PARTY - Posted By: NaBeeel
COME WITH ME & THE PARTY
Welcome to the Year of the Dog in Hong Kong! This is a holiday festival like no other, an amazing celebration that is full of ancient traditions, rituals and culture. You'll find the holiday mood infectious as the people of Hong Kong come out to celebrate Chinese New Year and to welcome the Year of the Dog!
Friday 27 January - Saturday 28 January 2006
Experience the colours and f! ragrances of special Chinese New Year flower markets. Beautiful flowers, delicate potted plants and young trees are an essential part of celebrating Chinese New Year. Each type is said to bring different kinds of good fortune. Kumquat trees, narcissus and peonies bring prosperity. Peach blossoms add fire to romance, while tangerine plants with leaves intact help ensure long- lasting relationships and "fruitful" marriages. With so many plants in demand, people flock to special markets to find the right kind of luck. Mingle with the crowds and enliven your senses for the Year of the Dog!
Sunday 29 January 2006 - Chinese New Year's Day
Featuring dynamic performers, glittering lights and impressive floats, this ranks among the world's biggest parades and is one of the most popular public events in Hong Kong. Staged once again at night and sponsored by Cathay Pacific Airways for the eighth consecutive year, the Cathay Pacific Internat! ional Chinese New Year Parade is marking its 10th anniversary with an international pageant of parade floats, marching bands, dancers and more to create an electrifying fusion of East and West. Add the backdrop of the incomparable Hong Kong skyline and Victoria Harbour and you have a truly spectacular event that offers lifetime memories.
Monday 30 January 2006
Expect to be spellbound and join in the waahs, oohs and aahs as an amazing display of computer-controlled fireworks ushers in the Year of the Dog. It's a traditional part of Chinese New Year celebrations, scaring away demons to ensure good luck, and no one does it like Hong Kong. What makes fireworks in Hong Kong special is the spectacular backdrop of city lights and harbour. More than 500,000 people line the harbour to witness the spectacle and millions more watch it on TV. Join the fun on the shoreline or aboard a harbour cruise, or watch it from a harbour-view restaurant or hotel. No matter where you are, you'll be cheering as the firewor! ks create intricate patterns across the sky.
Tuesday 31 January 2006
The action is fast and furious as horses thunder down the stretch to the roar of the crowds. You'll want to get in on the excitement and the thrills that a day at the track always deliver. Just seeing the crowds is a memorable experience. The first race meeting of the Chinese New Year is particularly fortuitous. Racing fans believe that winning at the track on this day creates good fortune all year long. To make the day even more special, join a Come Horseracing Tour.
The celebrations run from January 27-31, so come discover all that Hong Kong has to offer during Chinese New Year!
| January 25, 2006 | 21:05:07 |
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WHAT ON INTERNATIONAL STAGE - Posted By: NaBeeel
WHAT ON INTERNATIONAL STAGE
Foreign affairs concern strategy
Taken Canada into the war
Remains a mystery
Should Iraq be an issue?
Middle East beacon of democracy
≤≥ The other day I watched a United States congressman explain how his Florida constituents were feeling about the continuing presence of U.S.. troops in Iraq. There's a growing "underbelly of unease," as he described it-a revealing response from a Republican supporter of George W. Bush's Iraq strategy.
Iraq remains one of the most pressing issues on the international stage, and that makes you wonder whether it's an issue for Canadians as well. In last year's election campaign, it did come up-would Stephen Harper or Paul Martin have taken Canada into the war? This year, the debate isn't about whether not going to Iraq was right, it's about whether not getting out is right.
What Martin's or Harper's position is on that remains a mystery.
Should it be? Iraq continues its cycle of chaos, continues to send U.S. troops home in flag-drapped coffins, continues its almost daily round of car bombings and kidnappings, and continues not to be the Middle East beacon of democracy Bush was convinced it would be after its 2003 "liberation."
It's left Bush with pathetically low approval ratings despite weekly pleas that the war was, and stilI is, just and right. The past few months have been especially hard on the White House, as the drip, drip, drip of the Scooter Libby and Karl Rove affairs further undermines the original reason for going to war.
And then there's the cost-hundreds of billions of dollars the U.S. Treasury doesn't have, and has had to borrow from, of all places, China too.
That has more than a few people worried about the long-term impact on the U.S. economy. So, should the United States pull out of Iraq, or at least name the date in the next year when it will?
Just a few months ago, only those on the fringes of the Iraq discussion would have suggested an immediate pullout now it's become a legitimate topic, argued openly on Capitol Hill, debated on talk shows and, one assumes, in the living rooms of the nation.
If a pullout happened, the Iraqi army and police, some of whom have been taught by Canadians in the relative safety of nearby Jordan, would be left with the task of trying to bring stability to a country that has none Could they handle it is not the questioncould they handle it at least as well as the Americans have, is Bush thinks they're not there yet, partly blaming Western trainers, who, he says, taught too much classroom theory and not enough useful stuff. Such as, here's how to hold a handgun.
But Bush's explanations don't seem to be swaying public opinion, which is heading in the other direction It's all led to some interesting manoeuvring on the part of prominent U.S. politicians-for example, Bill and Hillary Clinton. Watching the Clintons often becomes an exercise in admiration, no matter how you feel about them. How they position themselves to embrace all possibilities and then almost always benefit from it is quite amazing, and what they've done with Iraq seems no exception.
Bill Clinton, who didn't say this when the battle was joined, has now declared that the war was a mistake. That allows a lot of Democrats to claim they too only supported the war because of erroneous information "deh'berately" fed to them by the White House. Keeping one foot on the other side of the issue is Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who, prepping for her likely 2008 presidential bid, still needs to look tough. So her position has a twist: she argues that the job in Iraq isn't done yet, and the U.S. shouldn't leave until it is, because handing the country over to the insurgents ultimately poses a threat to the U.S. Others though, and not just Democrats, are part of that "underbelly of unease," as the Re
What Martin's or Harper's views are about a U.S. exit strategy remains a mystery publican in Florida described it.
They want out now, saying there's nothing more that U.S. troops can achieve, that Iraq should be left to Iraqis to sort out. Some are even going so far as to say the only solution is to split the country in three: Kurds in the north, Shias in the south and Sunnis in the middle. Why? Because, they say, only a dictator could keep three such disparate groups at peace in one country.
But as we all know, that person is busy right now he's on trial for crimes against humanity. Should Canada be debating all this, too? Why not? The United States is our most important ally and our biggest trading partner what happens to it affects us in many different ways. And we are involved, from the training in Jordan to the two Canadian aid workers kidnapped in Iraq last week.
During the leaders' news conferences that launched the campaign, not one question was asked about Iraq or, for that matter, about anything foreign.
Not surprising, given the domestic issues that should be at the top of the agenda and will likely stay there until Jan. 23. But this is going to be a long campaign, with many entry points to help define the differences between the leaders.
Knowing how they feel about a key foreign affairs concern surely wouldn't be a bad thing.
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| January 7, 2006 | 14:01:59 |
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FUTURE OF ROBOTIC TECHNOLOGY - Posted By: NaBeeel
Future of Robotic Technology
Brooks Forecasts Future of Robotic Technology
Artificial intelligence and robotics expert Rod Brooks forecasts major changes in the next 50 years. Much in the way that computers have revolutionized society, robots may take on an increasingly significant role in people's lives. As part of the Gerard Salton Lecture Series, Brooks delivered a talk yesterday entitled "Flesh and Machines: Robots and People" to discuss potential applications of intelligent robots.
Brooks, who directs the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT, asserted that we have more in common with robots, and machines in general, than we think.
"Mankind has had a long history of retreat from 'special-ness,'" Brooks said.
Centuries ago, humans discovered that Earth was not, in fact, the center of the universe. Later, humans and animals were found to have common ancestors. DNA as the fundamental mechanism of life means that humans and yeast are somewhat similar.
"Over time men have become less special and more like technology," Brooks said. "We only have 25,000 genes -- even potatoes have more than that!"
Brooks showed videos of several robots designed in his lab. In one scene, Brooks's colleague Cynthia "plays" with a robot she designed, Kismet.
"We see her moving that eraser, then the robot moving it. They're taking turns." At least, Brooks added, that's what the average observer would think. "But when we thought about it, she was doing all the work. She was giving the robot motion cues. That set us off on reading literature on child development."
Like Cynthia, mothers give their infants motion cues. They engage in activities with their children that the children cannot do by themselves, but can be trained to do with their caregiver's help.
"What the robot sees drives what it does," Brooks said.
Inside these robots exists a three-dimensional space; the robot's emotions are a point in that space. The robot uses its emotional state to generate how it reacts to certain objects, and can display emotion through facial expressions.
In another experiment suggestive of robots' similarity to children in their earliest stages of development, the lab called in various people to speak with the robot.
"When a mother interacts with her child, she generates messages through her voice: praise, attention, prohibition,and soothing are the four basic messages," Brooks said.
In the video, when one woman said, "Good job, Kismet! Look at my smile!" in an encouraging voice, the robot smiled proudly. When another said, "No, no, that's not appropriate" in a disparaging tone, Kismet lowered his head, his large ears drooping.
Although robots like Kismet don't actually understand the meanings of words, they are able to vocally replicate phonemes. As people teach various words to Kismet and Cog, another of CSAIL's robots, the robots can repeat them and identify them with their corresponding objects.
Brooks acknowledges that the development of intelligent robots is still in beginning stages, although significant progress has been made in areas like navigation. However, he said, "I think beyond navigation, robots have new possibilities which will be important."
As the world's demographics shift in the next half century, robots can be useful in fields such as manufacturing, agriculture and elderly assistance. Brooks imagines being able to roboticize large agriculture machines for the maintenance of individual plants. Such robots could do menial and time-consuming tasks like pruning and picking.
"Europe and the U.S. import low-cost labor now ... But that labor may not be there in 50 years," Brooks said.
Second, robot arms could be used for fixed automation, which is particularly useful in manufacturing. Such robots would require the dexterity of a six-year-old, said Brooks. Third, he hoped that robots could be developed to provide in-home care to the elderly, who will soon comprise a much larger demographic in places like North America, Europe, Korea and Japan.
The future, however, holds many challenges to realizing certain robotic applications. "Will we accept robots?" Brooks asked the audience.
It may be hard, he explained, for humans to come to grips with machines that may equal or surpass their own capabilities. Few people want to admit that their emotions can exist within a machine.
"I'm not saying current robots have real emotions, but if they did, it would be hard for people to accept ... and there would certainly be legislation against it!" Brooks said as the audience laughed.
"I liked the lecture very much," said Hugo Fierro grad. "I already took some courses on robots, but never thought about the philosophical aspect of it. I liked his predictions, although they're very futuristic."
"It was a lot of fun. I heard some very interesting and provocative ideas," said Prof. Graeme Bailey, computer science.
And as for the possibility of Brooks' vision becoming reality someday? "I hope so," Bailey said. "If one was to answer no to that, we have a somewhat dismal future for ourselves."
| January 3, 2006 | 18:20:07 |
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T E R R O R OF LI F E - Posted By: NaBeeel
TERROR OF LIFE
2005
“natural evil”
TERROR OF LIFE 2005
WHAT A SAD THING,
THAT HAD TO HAPPENED !
So MANEY
CONFLICT BEYOND BELIEF
THOSE DAYS
IT WAS ZEALOT OF FIRE
Where the act of creation took place
As a celebration of the beauty and terror of life.
Quest for fire
what a sad terror thing
Meaning to what happing to as the terror of life:-
That's is to say
Red heat stir old feeling
In coma of sharing circle,
"In viewer forum "
By breaking the codes
Of the word of power
"H E K A U",
To the hour of healing
For the new edge before
The storm warning in
Alberta, and it's a miserable Summer
the year's 2000 with flatten crop,
That's is to say
Mother Nature was certainly
Relentless in the past 12 months,
Canadian travellers have not been deterred:
They're sticking with their often
Adventurous globe-trotting plans.
Hurricane Katrina left thousands dead.
New Orleans is now one of the largest toxic waste dumps
This catastrophe is going to get worse before it gets better.
Disease, displacement, and unemployment
Face many of the victims of Katrina
Indian Ocean catastrophe
The tsunami disaster in South Asia
The killer waves were set off by a massive undersea
earthquake “Mother Nature’s wrath”
Hurricanes in the Caribbean.
Earthquakes in Pakistan,
Indonesia and Iran.
Landslides in Guatemala and Southern California.
THIS THING THAT HAVE
HAPPENING.
THAT'S IS TO SAY"
Feed your inner child cake
Recharge your mojoo
Realign your chakras
File your ego
File of anger to your body & sprits
Where the peace of love & understanding
Going like smoke in the air
As a tour of duty in adams family
"Are you being served all your needs"
"with Rapid Fire to change your heart",
in the Driver'seat/to the pool,
patios and decks and Tornado
or earthquake on the way. .
That's is to say
In cold journey in your life on earth's
with the last word in 48 hours
to "the war of the roses" with Danny Devito,
"Do you know where you come from
and where you are going" .
. Ask yourself how did they do that!
in the Blue Reef Adventures
in the Universe for Wild discovery,
and asked yourself
why in the world all this have to happening.
WHAT A SAD THING
That had to happened,
With a fire in the eyes,
It was a Zealot of fire,
To the third rock from the sun,
R a b b a Amen El k h e p e r a
From into the beginning of becoming
In primeval time, in primeval matters.
Where the act of creation "took place to as,
The work of a lifetime is the process of returning to light
and life.
THATS IS TO SAY
For a time I rest In the grace of the world peace and I am free but nothing noteworthy has happened so far to the final day of the end of the World. That is to say ¡¡¡Ù
| January 2, 2006 | 14:08:02 |
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WAVES OF SADNESS - Posted By: NaBeeel
TERROR OF LIFE
2005
Waves of sadness
“natural evil”
TERROR OF LIFE 2005
WHAT A SAD THING,
THAT HAD TO HAPPENED !
So MANEY
CONFLICT BEYOND BELIEF
THOSE DAYS
IT WAS ZEALOT OF FIRE
Where the act of creation took place
As a celebration of the beauty and terror of life.
Quest for fire
what a sad terror thing
Meaning to what happing to as the terror of life:-
That's is to say
Red heat stir old feeling
In coma of sharing circle,
"In viewer forum "
By breaking the codes
Of the word of power
"H E K A U",
To the hour of healing
For the new edge before
The storm warning in
Alberta, and it's a miserable Summer
the year's 2000 with flatten crop,
That's is to say
Mother Nature was certainly
Relentless in the past 12 months,
Canadian travellers have not been deterred:
They're sticking with their often
Adventurous globe-trotting plans.
Hurricane Katrina left thousands dead.
New Orleans is now one of the largest toxic waste dumps
This catastrophe is going to get worse before it gets better.
Disease, displacement, and unemployment
Face many of the victims of Katrina
Indian Ocean catastrophe
The tsunami disaster in South Asia
The killer waves were set off by a massive undersea
earthquake “Mother Nature’s wrath”
Hurricanes in the Caribbean.
Earthquakes in Pakistan,
Indonesia and Iran.
Landslides in Guatemala and Southern California.
THIS THING THAT HAVE
HAPPENING.
THAT'S IS TO SAY"
Feed your inner child cake
Recharge your mojoo
Realign your chakras
File your ego
File of anger to your body & sprits
Where the peace of love & understanding
Going like smoke in the air
As a tour of duty in adams family
"Are you being served all your needs"
"with Rapid Fire to change your heart",
in the Driver'seat/to the pool,
patios and decks and Tornado
or earthquake on the way. .
That's is to say
In cold journey in your life on earth's
with the last word in 48 hours
to "the war of the roses" with Danny Devito,
"Do you know where you come from
and where you are going" .
. Ask yourself how did they do that!
in the Blue Reef Adventures
in the Universe for Wild discovery,
and asked yourself
why in the world all this have to happening.
WHAT A SAD THING
That had to happened,
With a fire in the eyes,
It was a Zealot of fire,
To the third rock from the sun,
R a b b a Amen El k h e p e r a
From into the beginning of becoming
In primeval time, in primeval matters.
Where the act of creation "took place to as,
The work of a lifetime is the process of returning to light
and life.
THATS IS TO SAY
For a time I rest In the grace of the world peace and I am free but nothing noteworthy has happened so far to the final day of the end of the World. That is to say ¡¡¡Ù
| December 31, 2005 | 13:10:14 |
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Freedom of E X P R E S S ION - Posted By: NaBeeel
Freedom of E X P R E S S ION &
impunity campaign
CAMPAIGN TO CHALLENGE IMPUNITY WAS LAUNCHED IN NOVEMBER 2002
AT THE BIENNIAL MEETING OF THE WRITERS IN PRISON COMMITTEE OF INTERNATIONAL IN SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, MEXICO. CANADA IS LEADING THE EFFORT lN PARTNERSHIP WITH INTERNATIONAL WRITERS IN PRISON COMMITTEE, AMERICAN CENTRE, AND MEXICO.
Freedom of Expression and Impunity Campaign
<> SILENCING THE MESSENGER:-THE MURDER OF WRITERS AND JOURNALISTS
Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of a flourishing democracy. All citizens must be able to
express themselves without hindrance on any matter and through any medium.
The works to promote and protect this right across the globe and notes that the threat to this right is
strong today as it was when the organization's work began in 1921.
Nowhere is this threat more pronounced than in the continued murder of writers and journalists every year . because of their work. In many countries individuals who make a living through the written word are deliberately targeted by those who seek to silence them. They are often killed because their investigations and criticism have exposed those in power thereby threatening their positions of influence. (Some were even murdered to prevent them from reporting on sensitive issues.)
Many reporters investigate cases of corruption that involve public officials or business figures. Journalists and writers have also spoken out against military officials or criminal elements such as drug traffickers. Local reporters covering crime, corruption and human rights-violations are especially vulnerable particularly in countries where conflict is widespread and impunity is the'norm. Over the past ten years It has recorded the murders of more than 400 writers. journalists and media workers.
..
(1) Gerardo Bedoya, Colombia: The editor and journalist for the Cali daily El PaIs was gunned down at point blank range in 1997 by an unknown assailant. Those said to be responsible for the murder were elements withi~ Cali's drug carteL Bedoya had been an outspoken critic of ' drug lords in;theregion. More than five years later, his murder remains unsolved.
(2) Edgar Damalerio, Philippines: On May '13, 2002, ' two men on motorcycles shot dead the 34"':year-old . journalist in Pagadian, Mindanao Island, as he was driving from a press conference. Damalerio, 'who had inves- , tigated corruption among local police and politicians, had previously received death threats. The ensuing investigation has failed to identify those responsible. In addition, witnesses have been threatened and, in one case. killed.
(3) Nasser Zarafshan, Iran: The noted attorney and writer was sentenced in 2002 to five years' imprison- ' ment and fifty lashes for "disseminating state secrets and the possession of firearms and alcohol." Zarafshan was legal representative for the relatives of two of the families of Iranian writers and journalists murdered in 1998, His conviction is believed to be for his criticism of the official investigation into the murders and also as a means of silencing others who seek the truth behind the killings.
Impunity: the problem
One phenomenon noticed in many countries is that public institutions designeq to act as checks on authorities are still weak. As a result, the media have assumed this role by bringing to light illegal or abusive acts previously unnoticed, ignored or perpetuated by authorities. In other countries, the lack of a political opposition leaves authoritarian regimes unchallenged. Consequently, the press has become the voice of critical views, filling the void left by the absence of political parties or organized opposition groups.
Those responsible for the murder of writers and journalists are many. Be ther members of organized crime, corrupt politicians and public officials, the military or rebel forces, they are universally intolerant of the countervailing power of the written Word and set out to silence opposing or dissenting voices .
The fact that very few of these cases are solved points to official involvement in the crimes In addition, investigations when they do take place, are often impeded by threats, corruption and indifference;
As long as authorities in such countries remain incapable of carrying out serious impartial and effective investigations that lead to the identification and punishment of those responsible for the murder of writers and journalists, the number of cases solved will continue to be alarmingly low.
I believes that the judicial system in such countries must be capable of eliminating human rights abuses and putting an end to impunity around the world, as long as the international community accepts the continued killing of writers and journalists, and the de-facto amnesty granted to their killers
there can be no real freedom of expression, no right to life and no respect for any human rights.
Challenging impunity In order to fight for justice in the cases of murdered journalists and writers, they marked International Human Rights Day last December 10 by announcing a year-long campaign to challenge impunity for violations of the right to freedom of expression. The initiative will include direct actions throughout the year and will culminate with the release of and on the problem of impunity and a series of public programs during International 69th World Congress of Writers in Mexico City in November 2003.
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| December 17, 2005 | 21:59:16 |
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<> A VISTING DURBAN IN SOUTH AFFRICA <> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<> A VISTING DURBAN IN SOUTH AFFRICA <>
It was a dream, down there.
That waves and warps through clear shallow water.
Yearning wonder at all the beauty that is out there.
But it is vibrant and real and alive,
a whole new world more fun.
Durban's latest tourist attraction is an
aquatic wonder world of thrilling theme parks,
breathtaking marine life and dreamy underwater adventure.
"If you get eaten by a shark don't come crying to me,"
I said, blushing furiously as I realized immediately what I'd said.
If you substitute 'fall off that bike and break your neck'
for 'get eaten by a shark' I might have been my father, 25 years ago.Still, kids will be kids.Or maybe boring grown-ups will just be boring grownups.
I was talking to Eid, my eight-year-old nephew,
who was clambering on the low wooden fence
surrounding the surface of the shark tank at
uShaka Marine World, the new and rather thrilling watery theme park that opened this year at Durban's Point.
Formerly the seedy and seamier part of town,
The Point is being renovated with restaurants,
sundowner bars and now uShaka;
the world's fifth-largest marine park.
The municipality has invested R 735m in the expectation of
generating 1,5 million visitors in the first year.
None of which was of the slightest interest to Eid.
Eid wanted to see sharks.
“It's a bit unsafe”said a woman pushing a baby in a pram.
“Your son could fall in.”“A couple of bites and he'll learn his lesson”I assured her, trying to sound like a parent.
She gave me a peculiar look as I dragged- Eid
towards the Phantom Ship.
uShaka is actually three theme parks in one.
First there is the Village Walk retail section,
a kind of Lost City by the sea without the casino.
Themed to suggest a Zulu village (with what is proudly described as 'the biggest thatched roof in the country').
Village Walk is the kind of large-scale retail heaven
the rich and famous would feel at home in,
with metal Zulushield light fittings
and banisters shaped like geckos.
The second park is Wet 'n Wild, with its water-rides and super-tubes, but it was an uncharacteristically chilly day in Durban so we skipped Wet 'n Wild. Besides, there are no sharks there and Eid had only one thing on his mind.
Entrance to Sea World,
the third and best part of the uShaka complex,
is through the Phantom Ship,an extraordinary 80m replica of a 1920s cargo steamer whose hull I had to physically touch before.
I would believe it wasn't an actual ship driven ashor by an Indian Ocean tempest and rusting in stately retirement amid the palm trees.
The upper decks and stern are
home to a variety of restaurants
with views into the tanks,
but we raced down the staircase,
down below the water line,
down to where the fishes live.
It is wonderful down there.
The aquarium spreads out through tunnels and ghostly blue chambers.
Atmospheric maritime sounds play over the PA -
gurgles and creaks and moans, morse-code transmissions,
distant eerie music
as though from some spectral Marie Celeste.
The galleries resemble the holds of ships-
you walk between coiled ropes and hawsers,
cargo in wooden boxes,
rivets in the grey-steel walls and water-tight doors,
and you don't have to be eight to dream you are in a sunken ship,
saved by a trapped air bubble,
looking out through the portholes at the bottom of the ocean.
EID's eyes were wide.
He stared for hours at the eels and the octopus,
and for days at the turds in their large tank,
those wise old men of the sea
who always look as though they're taking their morning dip before retiring to the nearest teashop to smoke pipes and play dominoes.
Eid stared agog at the devil fire fish -
the gauzy, red-white-and-black phantoms often found haunting actual wrecks.
Their tank is designed like a flooded cabin on an old liner -
they hang against the walls and furniture like hellish Christmas decorations in the Bermuda Triangle.
But it was the sharks that held Eid,
as they hold us all.
uShaka has the largest collection of sharks in the southern hemisphere,
even after the unfortunate recent events
when a number died in one of the tanks
after teething problems with algae control and oxygenation. yap.
One tank holds the reef sharks-
fast, darty, nippy, like terriers on a Sunday walk-
but it is the big fellows that hold a dark fascination.
We stood in the blue gloom,
staring out at the heavy solemnity of the Zambezi and Ragged-Tooth.
Eid held his breath and his eyes shone darkly.
Finally we made our way up to the light like returning deep-sea divers,
not rushing up too fast for fear of the bends.
Outside, Sea World is a sprawling series of interconnected lagoons
- the surfaces of the larger tanks -
winding between green grass and walkways and palms.
We wandered to the penguin enclosure, where the birds stood dolefully like London commuters at a station.
Then to the 1 200-seat canvas-topped auditorium for the dolphin show.
When I was Eid's age,
I used to visit the old dolphinarium to watch Gambit,
the world's largest captive dolphin.
He's still there, still breathtakingly massive,
still displacing vast amounts of water
onto the first 10 rows of the auditorium,
to the amusement of everyone sitting further back.
Of course we sat in the front row.
There is something about an eight-year-old cry of delight when he is unexpectedly drenched by a dolphin that simply should not be resisted.
Besides, we were going to get even wetter.
Best of all at Sea World is the opportunity to snorkel in the coral lagoon -
the huge tank with reef fishes and man-made coral, fronting through a glass window onto the reef-shark tank.
R40 affords 45 minutes of snorkeling
and there is no better way to introduce a small child to the giddy delights of the marine world.
Supervision and mandatory buoyancy vests cut out safety worries
Within mere seconds you are drifting weightless
in a wonder world of angelfish and triggerfish,
parrotfish and rays.
Of all the modern innovations that would have enlivened my own youth,
it is the snorkeling lagoon I envy the most.
It is designed to resemble the reef around a desert Indian Ocean Island
where pirates have scuttled their treasure.
On the seabed there are chests overflowing with jewels and doubloons, replica ivory tusks and gold ingots strewn across the white sandy bottom, and even, for some reason
a World War II jeep rusting away in sunny silence.
It was a dream, down there.
I bobbed and breathed and watched Eid,
while he giggled underwater at the fish brushing against his feet.
He would have stayed there all day and through the night too.
For Eid it was a new world,
a day his horizons were not only broadened but deepened,
when his eyes lit with the light that dances on the sea,
that waves and warps through clear shallow water.
I doubt he will ever get over it.
For me it was a day of being eight all over again
and rediscovering that aching,
yearning wonder at all the beauty that is out
To compare uShaka Marine World to the V&A Aquarium is like comparing Durban and Cape Town themselves -
some parts are a little tacky, even kitsch.
Sophisticates may smirk and snoot.
But it is vibrant and real and alive,
and it quickens the pulse and
inspires daydreams far more than Cape Town ever does.
Cape Town may be more elegant, more ethereal
but Durban is, quite frankly,
A whole world more fun.
| December 17, 2005 | 14:12:00 |
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<> HEAVY B U R D E N <> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<> HEAVY B U R D E N <>
ILLUSIONS OF THE MIND
ALL PROBLEMS ARE ILLUSIONS BY THE MIND :
It feels as if a heavy burden has been lifted.
A sense of light. ness. I feel clear. . .
But my problems are stal there waiting for me, aren't they?
They haven't been solved.
I am I not just temporarily evading them?
Yes If you found yourself in paradise,
It wouldn't be long before your mind would say "yes,
But...." Ultimately, this is not about solving your problems.
It's about realizing that there are no problems.
Only situations - to be dealt with now, or
To be left alone and accepted as part of the "isness" of
The present moment until they change or can be dealt with.
Problems are mind-made and need time to survive.
They cannot survive in the actuality of life.
Focus your attention on and
Tell me what problem you have at this moment.
I am not getting any answer
Because it is impossible to have a problem when your attention is fully in ,
A situation that needs to be either dealt with or accepted - yes.
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| December 14, 2005 | 15:06:48 |
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<> FREE OF THINKING <> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<> FREE OF THINKING <>
THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION
In life-threatening emergency situations,
The shift in consciousness from time to presence sometimes happens naturally.
The personality that has a past and a future momentarily
Recedes and is replaced by an intense conscious presence,
Very still but very alert at the same time.
Whatever response is needed then arises out of that state of consciousness.
The reason why some people love to engage in dangerous activities,
Such as mountain climbing,
Car racing, and so on,
Although they may not be aware of it,
Is that it forces them into
The intensely alive state that is free of time,
Free of problems,
Free of thinking,
Free of the burden of the personality.
To Slipping away from the present moment even for a second may mean death.
Unfortunately, they come to depend on a particular activity to be in that state.
But you don't need to climb the north face of the Eiger.
You can just enter that state now.
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| December 12, 2005 | 13:32:48 |
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ITS A GOOG DEALS YES :- - Posted By: NaBeeel
Yahoo Acquires Social Network del.icio.us
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (Dec. 10) -- In its latest acquisition of a social networking service, Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc. on Friday devoured del.icio.us Inc., a startup that enables people to more easily compile and share their favorite content on the Web.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company didn't disclose how much it paid for New York-based del.icio.us because the purchase price wasn't large enough to have a significant impact on its finances.
Del.icio.us will continue to run its own Web site, which allows users to create a personal account so they can create a page devoted to their favorite online articles, music and reviews. The material can be shared with others simply by sending along the Web link. The content also can be identified with labels, or "tags," to make it simpler to find.
More than 300,000 users have signed up for the service since del.icio.us' inception two years ago, founder Joshua Schachter said in a Friday phone interview. Schachter intends to work at Yahoo's headquarters, but del.icio.us's other eight employees will be scattered around the country.
During the past year, Yahoo has been adding more tools that promote sharing among friends and family as it battles for Web traffic with its biggest rivals - Google Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL. All of them are trying to widen their Internet audiences so they can make more money from steadily increasing volume of online advertising.
Yahoo's other recent social networking acquisitions include a popular photo-tagging service, Flickr, and an event-planning service, Upcoming.org.
| December 11, 2005 | 14:11:41 |
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<> WHAT HAPPEN INSIDE YOU <> - Posted By: NaBeeel
WHAT HAPPEN INSIDE YOU :-
THE BODY PAIN,THE WAY OUT OF PAIN:-
THE EMOTIONAL PAIN& Powerful Spiritual Practice
For many young women, the pain-body awakens
Particularly at the time preceding the menstrual flow.
Right now,Don't think about it -
Don't let the feeling turn into thinking.
Don't judge or analyze.
Don't make an identity for yourself out of it.
Stay present, and continue to observer of what is happening inside you.
Become aware not only of the emotional pain but also of
"The one who observes," the silent watcher.
This is the power of your own conscious presence.
Then see what happens.
Let me just say this:
If you are able to stay alert and present at that time and
Watch whatever you feel within, rather than be taken over by it, It affords an opportunity for the most powerful spiritual practice and A rapid transmutation of all past pain becomes possible.
The process that I have just described is profoundly powerful yet simple.
It could be taught to a child, and Hopefully one day it will be one of the first things children learn in school.
Once you have understood the basic principle of being present as The watcher of what happens inside you - and
You "understand" it by experiencing it -You have at your disposal the most potent transformational tool.
This is not to deny that you may encounter intense inner
Resistance to disidentifying from your pain.
This will be the due process for your powerful spiritual practice .
| December 9, 2005 | 14:43:30 |
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CONFLICT IN RELATIONSHIPS - Posted By: NaBeeel
CONFLICT IN RELATIONSHIPS
LISTENING TO THE INNER BODY
When listening to another person,
Don't just listen with your mind, listen with your whole body.
Feel the energy field of; your inner body as you listen.
That takes attention away from thinking and creates a still
Space that enables you to truly listen without the mind interfering.
You are giving the other person space - space to be.
It is the most precious gift you can give.
Most people don't know how to listen because
The major part of their attention is taken up by thinking.
They pay more attention to that than to what the other person is saying, and
None at all to what really matters:
The Being of the other person underneath the words and the mind.
Of course, you cannot feel someone else's Being except through your own.
This is the beginning of the realization of oneness, which is love.
At the deepest level of Being, you are one with all that is.
Most human relationships consist mainly of minds interacting with each other,
Not of human beings communicating, being in communion.
No relationship can thrive in that way, and that is why there is so much conflict in relationships.
When the mind is running your life, conflict, strife, and problems are inevitable.
Being in touch with your inner body
Creates a clear space of no-mind
Within which the relationship can flower.
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| December 7, 2005 | 21:11:34 |
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<> J A C K F R U I T <> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<>JACKFRUIT <>
Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. Moraceae
Common Names: Jackfruit, Jakfruit, Jaca, Nangka.
<> Related Species: Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis), Breadnut (A. altilis 'Seminifera'), Champedak (A. integer), Lakoocha (A. lakoocha), Marang (A. odoratissimus). Distant affinity: Figs (Ficus spp.), Mulberries (Morus spp.), African Breadfruit (Treculia african).
Origin: The jackfruit is believed indigenous to the rain forests of the Western Ghats of India. It spread early on to other parts of India, southeast Asia, the East Indies and ultimately the Philippines. It is often planted in central and eastern Africa and is fairly popular in Brazil and Surinam.
Adaptation: Jackfruit is adapted to humid tropical and near-tropical climates. Mature trees have survived temperatures of about 27° F in southern Florida, but these were frozen to large limbs. Young trees are likely to be killed at temperatures below 32° F. Unlike its relative, the breadfruit, the jackfruit is not injured by cool weather several degrees above freezing. There are only a dozen or so bearing jackfruit trees today in southern Florida, and these are valued mainly as curiosities. There are also several trees planted in the Asian exhibit at the San Diego Zoo. What they will do or how high they will grow remains a question. The tree is too large to make a suitable container-grown plant.
DESCRIPTION
Growth Habit: The jackfruit tree is handsome and stately. In the tropics it grows to an enormous size, like a large eastern oak. In California it is very doubtful that it would ever approach this size. All parts contain a sticky, white latex.
Foliage: The leaves are oblong, oval, or elliptic in form, 4 to 6 inches in length, leathery, glossy, and deep green in color. Juvenile leaves are lobed.
Flowers: Male and female flowers are borne in separate flower-heads. Male flower-heads are on new wood among the leaves or above the female. They are swollen, oblong, from an inch to four inches long and up to an inch wide at the widest part. They are pale green at first, then darken. When mature the head is covered with yellow pollen that falls rapidly after flowering. The female heads appear on short, stout twigs that emerge from the trunk and large branches, or even from the soil-covered base of very old trees. They look like the male heads but without pollen, and soon begins to swell. The stalks of both male and female flower-heads are encircled by a small green ring.
Fruit: Jackfruit is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world, reaching 80 pounds in weight and up to 36 inches long and 20 inches in diameter. The exterior of the compound fruit is green or yellow when ripe. The interior consists of large edible bulbs of yellow, banana-flavored flesh that encloses a smooth, oval, light-brown seed. The seed is 3/4 to 1-1/2 inches long and 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick and is white and crisp within. There may be 100 or up to 500 seeds in a single fruit, which are viable for no more than three or four days. When fully ripe, the unopened jackfruit emits a strong disagreeable odor, resembling that of decayed onions, while the pulp of the opened fruit smells of pineapple and banana.
There are two main varieties. In one, the fruits have small, fibrous, soft, mushy, but very sweet carpels with a texture somewhat akin to a raw oysters. The other variety is crisp and almost crunchy though not quite as sweet. This form is the more important commercially and is more palatable to western tastes.
CULTURE
Location: The jackfruit tree should have a well-drained, frost-free location that is sunny and warm.
Soil: The jackfruit flourishes in rich, deep soil of medium or open texture. Planting on top of an old compost heap would be ideal. The faster one can force a tropical plant to grow, the better the chance of keeping it alive. The tree needs the best drainage and cannot tolerate "wet feet".
Irrigation: The tree will not tolerate drought. Water frequently during warm months and warm periods in cooler months. Less water is necessary during colder weather.
Fertilization: The jackfruit's requirements are not known, but frequent, weak solutions of all-purpose fertilizer will speed the plant's growth without causing burn. In the regions where it is commonly grown, it succeeds without much care from man, the sole necessity being abundant moisture.
Frost protection: Although mature jackfruit trees will take several degrees of frost, it is prudent to provide young plants with overhead protection if possible and plant them on the south side of a wall or building. Small plants should be given complete protection with a covering on cold nights and even a light bulb if possible.
Propagation:Propagation is usually by seeds, which can be kept no longer than a month before planting. Germination requires 3 to 8 weeks. The seedlings should be moved when no more than 4 leaves have appeared. A more advanced seedling, with its long and delicate tap root is very difficult to transplant successfully. Cutting-grown plants and grafted seedlings are possible. Air-layering is common in India.
Pruning: Little or no pruning is required other than to remove any dead branches from the interior of the tree, so that sufficient light is obtained for the developing fruit.
Pests and diseases: A variety of pests and diseases afflict the jackfruit tree and fruit regions where it is commonly grown. In California the white fly is a minor pest.
Harvest: Jackfruits mature 3 to 8 months from flowering. When mature, there is usually a change of fruit color from light green to yellow-brown. Spines, closely spaced, yield to moderate pressure, and there is a dull, hollow sound when the fruit is tapped. After ripening, they turn brown and deteriorate rather quickly. Cold storage trials indicate that ripe fruits can be kept for 3 to 6 weeks at 52° to 55° F and relative humidity of 85% to 95%. Immature fruit is boiled, fried, or roasted. Chunks are cooked in lightly salted water until tender and then served. The only handicap is copious gummy latex which accumulates on utensils and hands unless they are first rubbed with cooking oil. The seeds can also be boiled or roasted and eaten similar to chestnuts. In Southeast Asia dried slices of unripe jackfruit are sold in the markets. The ripe bulbs, fermented and then distilled, produce a potent liquor.
CULTIVARS
In Malaysia and India there are named types of fruit. One that has caused a lot of interest is Singapore, or Ceylon, a remarkable yearly bearer producing fruit in 18 months to 2-1/2 years from transplanting. The fruit is of medium size with small, fibrous carpels which are very sweet. It was introduced into India from Ceylon and planted extensively in 1949. Other excellent varieties are Safeda, Khaja, Bhusila, Bhadaiyan and Handia. In Australia, some of the varieties are: Galaxy, Fitzroy, Nahen, Cheenax, Kapa, Mutton, and Varikkha. None of these appear to be available in the US at this time.
| December 6, 2005 | 17:32:16 |
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Part # [3] LISBON'S OLD CHARMS :- - Posted By: NaBeeel
Part # [3] LISBON'S OLD CHARMS :-
[3] LISBON'S OLD CHARMS :-
Lisbon's old charms and way of life haven't diminished, but the city has thrown itself into the new millennium with gusto. The theme of the moment, once again, seems to be renovation. As the city again embraces the river and the sea, old docks along the river have been transformed into some of the city's hottest restaurants and nightspots. Lisbon hosted the World Expo 98, and used the occasion to reinvigorate the run-down industrial eastern section of the city along the river (today the parque das Na¢oes, a high-tech architectural showcase). The Expo brought worldwide attention to Lisbon and portugal, as did the pope's visit to the famous pilgrimage site of Fatima in May 2000.
Like Madrid, Lisbon is surrounded by some of the country's most appealing towns, easy excursions by car or public transportation. To really experience Lisbon as its residents do, you'll need to get out of town. Within a half hour are the beautiful green countryside; the sparkling beach resorts Estoril and Cascais west of Lisbon; and legendary Sintra, one of the most charming towns in Europe, with palaces and aristocratic quintas ( estates) lodged in the mountains with views of the coast.
Even closer to Lisbon, the handsome Versailles-style palace at Queluz is a draw for visitors,
including heads of state.
North of the capital are øbidos, enclosed by a pristine medieval wall and fortress, too perfect
to be true; two of the country's most impressive monasteries, Alcoba~a and Batalha; and Fatima, which has drawn religious pilgrims since 1917. A relatively short trip to Lisbon - as little as a week - can take in a surprisingly large section of westencentral portugal .
You should visit Porto in the North, where LUKE cholerton -bozier lived for a year and you will visit it regularly. It's a wonderful city, with a distinctively different feeling to Lisbon at all time of the years
But this part of the world is best discovered at an unhurried pace. One of the great joys is enjoying portuguese cuisine and wine, whether at a simple country inn or at one of Lisbon's chic new spots swathed in modernist design. Local cooking owes to much to the country's close ties to the sea: fresh fish, seafood, and soups hearty enough for a tired sailor's homecoming. One of the country's great secrets are its table wines, produced in virtually every region. They're affordable, unpretentious, and memorable - which, come to think of it, is not a bad description of Lisbon and its environs.
Seafood fans are in luck in Lisbon, with a surfeit of justcaught fish and shellfish. Not that restaurants skimp on meat: you can find delicious pork and lamb dishes and steak. More adventurous palates can try cuisines imported from Portugal's former African and Asian colonies. You'll also enjoy freshly picked fruit and vegetables, not to mention Portuguese wines, which are eminently drinkable. Portions in Portuguese restaurants tend to be rather large. You can ask for a half portion (which is usually charged at around two-thirds the full price).
Government inspectors rate all Portuguese restaurants in four categories or classe.
In descending order the classes are: luxo (luxury), primeira (first), segunda (second),
and terceira (third). The scale is as much as anything an indicator of how costly a meal is likely to be.
A rating sign is often displayed outside restaurants, while menus shown in the window or beside the door let you know what to expect in variety and price. Prices normally include taxes and a service charge, but you are expected to leave an additional 5 to 10 percent tip for good service.
Whether you indulge in one of Lisbon's chic new riverfront restaurants or absorb some local color in a humble fishermen's hangout (where you'll often find the best food), you are likely to come across a variety of dishes and preparations entirely new to you.
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| November 30, 2005 | 23:11:03 |
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<> Part # [2] LISBON'S CITIZENS <> - Posted By: NaBeeel
[2] LISBON'S CITIZENS
Lisbon's citizens have a quiet, modest dignity about them self and are the most gracious of hosts. The streets teem with people of diverse ethnicity and dress. Many are recent immigrants from the African colonies of portugal's imperial past - Mozambique, Goa, Cape Verde, Macau, or Angola -
who arrived in Lisbon and soon founded their own little colonies, speaking a slightly softer portuguese. Other major cities on the Iberian Peninsula, like Barcelona and Madrid, are rather homogenous
by comparison. It's also remarkable, compared to other southern European cities, how many ordinary citizens are fluent in English.
The sadly erroneous image of portugal as a poor rural cousin of Spain is quickly being washed away. Travelers arriving to experience it for the first time, or their first visit in a long time, will find a city and country still in tune with portugal's glorious past, but invigorated by possibility in the new Europe.
Lisbon may be one of Europe's most ancient settlements, but the cataclysmic 1755 earthquake destroyed many of the city's finest churches and palaces. A prominent survivor is the Castelo de Sao Jorge (St. George's Castle), perched on top of Lisbon's highest hill. It was begun by the Visigoths, and expanded by the Moors, before being captured by Christian crusaders in 1147 after a four-month siege. The ramparts now protect quiet gardens with fabulous views.
The castle overlooks Lisbon's oldest and most picturesque neighborhood, Alfama.
The working-class quarter, once home to the city's elite, survived the tremendous earthquake,
but only the labyrinthine layout of the Moors remains. Belem, a residential suburb, is the city's most monumental district. It proclaims Portugal's Golden Age of Discovery, with the city's finest Manueline monuments.
The Baixa is lower, downtown Lisbon - a business district of Neo-Classical buildings, the stock exchange and government ministries, the city's principal thoroughfare. and grand squares. Most of the Baixa was lost to the natural disaster, but was quickly rebuilt on a grid.
The upper city, reached by trolley, elevator, or steep climb, is called the Bairro Alto. One of Lisbon's favorite mode of transport for quintessential neighborhoods, it Lisboetas and visitors alike. Is home to much of the city's nightlife, including fado clubs, restaurants, and bars. Within the upper city is the chic district of Chiado. Though much of Chi ado was razed by a devastating 1988 fire, it has been impeccably rebuilt and once again houses some of Lisbon's most elegant shops.
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| November 25, 2005 | 19:45:11 |
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CONFLICT BEYOND BELIEF - Posted By: NaBeeel
SO MANEY
<> CONFLICT BEYOND BELIEF <>
THOSE SAYS
IT WAS ZEALOT OF FIRE
Where the act of creation took place
As a celebration of the beauty and terror of life.
More to life in the Promised Land,quest for fire
WHAT A SAD THING
and Meaning as to what happing to the of terror of life. :-
[1] "otto vass"who died by cold squared in the parking lot of 9/11 Store
For haven a BBQ party and went for Baying TABASCO and
His daughter Anne,18 and Katherine,17
said to "Cold Squared".
ITS BEYOND BELIEF
[2] To subway jumper shocking tragedy Act
Dr. Suzan Killinger Johnson,is unspeakable
The truth of her final conflict
Beyond Belief to the most critical time
in mother "Baby Blue's" and child life "cuyler/
it's shocking tragedy, (Cuyler Killinger Johnson"
who died Friday Morning Aug.ll, 2000
at his mother's suicide bid
and she died Aug. 19, 2000, 8:00 pm.
ITS HERE FINAL CONFLICT
BEYOND BELIEF
The Doctor who Jumped in
front of the subway train
Holding her infant son cuyles (has died Aug .11, 2000)
and the mother injured in the subway tragedy
died as well: so how a successful,
professional woman who had helped others
cope with depression had not been able
to get the help she needed.
It is a question about what happened, why ?
what is to say. .
[3] THE FAMILY OF THE LOST RUSSIAN
KURSK SUB CATASTROPHE
As there son are dying Inside a
Tin cans its ocean tomb.
The grief is immeasurable as
Russia mourns the Sailor and
Nobody seems to know what happened,
Thats the saddest thing.
"That is to say":
WHAT A SAD THING,
THAT HAD TO HAPPENED !
[4] AS TURKS BOMB lRAQUI KURDS
and they say
we do not know
why they bombed us.
WHAT A SAD THING,
THAT HAD TO HAPPENED AGINE !
[5] September 11, 2001
I am as I feel above me the sky- blind stars,
Waiting for their light as the brilliantly,
Funny thing that had happened so far,
It's a wild thing everything ~@ a puree with a lot's of grief.
It draws rally, cry grief, trouble, anger,
Fear, and heart break, full of sadness.
Full of question, disappointment, disbelief,
Mourning, devastation to the World and national disaster,
Whose affair is this? Requiring concern,
Attention and effort of that particular event.
Where is the hidden hand behind that cover story?
It’s horrendous, the day of September 11th, 2001,
Whose Affair is this Anyhow?
It's a bad day’s wild thing,
With a lot of grief and sadness.
WHAT A SAD THING
[6] Deep Space Voyage of Rediscovery,
Star Trek Generation, in deep space,
Its a New Day, to the Ray's of light
Which fell from the sun,
That man and women are
The "offspring of light", to
The Rays of light
Which fell from the sun as
"The act of creation took place",
"That's to say"
Dream on Skylight
Even after with Guiding Light".
To the Ray"s of light which fell from the sun,
That men and women are the "off spring " of light"to
The ray"s of light falling from the sun as
The act of creation "took place in Primeval time.
THAT'S TO SAY"
AND YOU WILL BE FIRST ON THE MOON
that could be dangerous moonlight
"Hello, Hello -
Any life out there,
it could also explain
Why in the World all all this has to happened.
WHAT A SAD THING
That had to happened,
With a fire in the eyes,
It was a Zealot of fire,
To the third rock from the sun,
R a b b a Amen El k h e p e r a
From into the beginning of becoming
In primeval time, in primeval matters.
Where the act of creation "took place to as,
The work of a lifetime is the process of returning to light and life.
THATS IS TO SAY
For a time I rest In the grace of the world peace and I am free but nothing noteworthy has happened so far to the final day of the end of the World. That is to say ¡¡¡Ù
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| November 22, 2005 | 23:15:47 |
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<> BEYOND BELIEF <> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<> BEYOND BELIEF <>
<*> IT WAS ZEALOT OF FIRE <*>
More to life in the Promised Land,
quest for fire and Mening as to what happing to:
"otto vass" and his daughter Anne,18 and Katherine,
17 said to "Cold Squared".
BEYOND BELIEF
To subway jumper shocking tragedy Act
Dr. Suzan Killinger Johnson,is unspeakable
(Aug.ll, 2000) The truth of her final conflict
Beyond Belief to the most critical time
in mother "Baby Blue's" and child life "cuyler/
it's shocking tragedy, (Cuyler Killinger Johnson"
who died Friday Morning Aug.ll, 2000
at his mother's suicide bid
and she died Aug. 19, 2000, 8:00 pm.
ITS HERE FINAL CONFLICT
BEYOND BELIEF
The Doctor who Jumped in
front of the subway train
Holding her infant son cuyles (has died Aug .11, 2000)
and the mother injured in the subway tragedy
died as well: so how a successful,
professional woman who had helped others
cope with depression had not been able
to get the help she needed.
It is a question about what happened, why ?
what is to say. .
[2]TO THE FAMILY OF THE LOST RUSSIAN
KURSK SUB CATASTROPHE
As there son are dying Inside a
tin cans
its ocean tomb.
the grief is immeasurable
as Russia mourns the Sailor
and nobody seems to know what happened,
thats the saddest thing.
"That is to say":
WHAT, WHAT, WHAT,& WHY
WHAT A SAD THING,
THAT HAD TO HAPPENED !
[3] Star Trek Generation, in deep space,
To Deep Space Voyage of Rediscovery,
its a New Day, to the Ray's of light
which fell from the sun,
that man and women are
the "offspring of light",
to the Rays of light
which fell from the sun as
"the act of creation took place",
"That's to say"
or Dream on Skylight
even after with Guiding Light".
To the Ray"s of light which fell from the sun,
that men and women are the "off spring " of light",
to the ray"s of light falling from the sun as
the act of creation "took place.
THAT'S TO SAY"
AND YOU WILL BE FIRST ON THE MOON
that could be dangerous moonlight
"Hello, Hello -
any life out there,
it could also explain
why in the World all all this has to happened.
[3] AS TURKS BOMB lRAQUI KURDS
and they say
we do not know
why they bombed us.
WHAT A SAD THING
that had to happened,
with a fire in the eyes,
it was a Zealot of fire,
or the third rock from the sun,
R a b b a Amen El k h e p e r a
| November 18, 2005 | 12:49:13 |
|
|
<> I WHISTLED FINLANDIA <>I whistled 'Finlandia'. - Posted By: NaBeeel
I WHISTLED FINLANDIA <>I whistled 'Finlandia'.
THE MIDNIGHT SUN
This entry is about: Let's Share Our Differences | Finland | Cultural Diversity & Equity
THE MIDNIGHT SUN
The TRIP TO THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN
HELSINKI ON THE BALTIC
IN Espoo, just west of Helsinki, I saw what still strikes me as the most characteristically
Finnish sight ever: I saw a man ering his cellphone on his head yap, that may not sound very
Finnish to you, but it was a Nokia phone and it was ringing with the un-mis-takeable electronic
tones of Sibelius's 'Finlandia' and, although I couldn't swear to it, I'm fairly sure that it was
clipped to the man's belt in a little holster made from reindeer leather.
Only once you have spent time in Finland can you appreciate how much they love Sibelius.
Helsinki has Sibelius Park, a , green and lovely public space near the grey-blue sea, home to the Sibelius Monument - a vast, abstract and somehow emotional arrangement of steel tubes suspended
to resemble organ pipes, or northern lights, you hear his music in elevators, on the telephone, piped through PA systems on buses and trains. Every house the man ever visited is a national monument. In the former capital of Turku there is the Sibelius Museum, exhibiting items of clothing and manuscripts and even a half-smoked cigar, where music-loving Finns take their lunch hours and listen to recordings of selected Sibelian symphonic highlights.
Oh yes, Sibelius is big in Finland. a country for centuries the pawn of territorial power struggles between Sweden and Russia, only achieving independence for the first time in 1917, she is intensely proud of her national heroes. Or hero, really.
You know Finland is a difficult country to get to know, the Finns are a friendly, open-hearted people, but wrapped in almost impenetrable foreignness. No-one in the world but a Finn can speak Finnish, with its 15 tenses and comically compounded vocabulary. As a culture, they have spent so long struggling merely to survive that they are only just beginning to think about the rest of the world but the landscape itself is aloof and difficult, yet strangely, almost eerily, compelling.
Helsinki is on the Baltic, in the south the most featureless part of Finland but they have a very efficient railway system takes you quickly through the lakes and the forests of the midland, up to that mystical mysterious place the stark: haunting reaches of the north , the land of lapps. it is a trip that must be taken I was there in the summer, so I packed my walking shoes and bought a ticket and went in search of the midnight sun directly north of of Helsinki.
I found Directly north of of Helsinki is the lake Region a mazy and at times when the wind is still and the lakes hold the sky in their steel surfaces - hallucinatory chain of mirrored water and inlets and Islets bays and rapids and channels, all set against the backdrop of thick green forest, toward the Russian border in the east there is more water than land - it become hard to remember whether one is inland or part of some: northern ocean archipelago.
The industrial towns and settlements of the region rose to service the timber industry and paper
mill and in places they achieve a weirdly attractive harmony with the land. I passed through
Tamper the region's most important town and a place billing it self , incredibly, as
'Finland's Manchester' I don't know if you been to-Manchester, but if you have the choice; go for it, the Tamper, Bordered by two lovely lakes - Nasijarvi and Pyhajardi, give or take a couple of Finnish punctuation marks - it's weirdly scenic. The Tammerkoski rapids are in the centre of the town, fringed on either side by a pair of wood-processing factories that look so right you have to shake your head and remind yourself that factories are not a part of nature.
It's a long way north. The track rolls up with the Gulf of Bothnia, through Ostrobothnia with its scattered fishing villages and hard-drinking trans-border Swedish communities and numbingly dull landscape. A fellow named Paavo, I think, across from me in the carriage, glared through the window and muttered dark Finnish imprecations and reached furtively for a bottle of Koskenkorva, a brutal type of local vodka. He wrapped it in his jacket and drank heavily, then passed it on to me. There are iron-fisted drinking laws in Finland and for once I wished they had been applied a little more strictly. I nearly wept as the Koskenkorva went down. It was like swallowing a length of pine bark that had been studded with nails and set on fire'Aaarghhnew,' said Paavo, or something similar. I could only gulp and nod weakly.
The heartland of Finland is called Kainuu,lightly populated and tightly forested, trees dense as the
pile of a plush green carpet. But past it all I went, ever north, onward to the midnight Sun.
I disembarked at Rovaniemi, the official home of Santa Claus and the closest town to the Arctic Circle the official marker post for the circle is permanently 8km north of Rovaniemi, and there I like every other tourist and day-tripper who has ever passed that way, posed with one foot shivering in the Arctic, the other safely in warm and balmy climes. It's a bit of a cheat, of course. The Arctic Circle is not fixed or static, like the equator - it is defined as the southern limit of where the midnight sun can be seen in a given season, and moves around each year by some 100m or so but it close enough.
R o v a n i e m i is a peculiar and not especially scenic place. Its streets are designed, apparently, to resemble reindeer horns from above, which is one good reason to fly over the place rather than walk around there. There is a museum of artefacts documenting the natural history of the Sami - the seminomadic reindeer herders who still roam the tundra and northern forests, making clothing from polar bear fur and raincoats from seal guts and tents from reindeer hide - but the interest lies in Santa Claus Village, where you can meet Santa Claus (who lives in a suspiciously well insulated log cabin) and wave to the reindeer team grazing in the adjoining meadow. There are polite signs discouraging tender hearts and the Christmas hopeful from feeding or bribing the reindeer. Even, presumably, with a glass of milk and cookies.
Lapland stretches a good deal further, way up to impossible Norway, but you needn't go far into the Arctic north to feel the place. I hired a car and made my way some 120km up the Arctic Highway
to south of Sodankyla, to the Pyhatunturi National Park. I stayed a day at the hotel there, spending the morning and then the night rambling across the marshland and pine forests, climbing craggy fells, listening to the loud, keening solitude of the wind, the kind of noise that makes a place seem more silent.
And there, near the top of the world, I walked across a landscape so strange and movingly desolate, and watched the pale sun move across the horizon like a raw egg in a bowl of milk, and felt how wide the world is, and how alien it can be. And I felt tremendously happy to be hear, wrapped tight, cheeks flushed and exultant, feeling the fleet, Sweet illusion of glimpsing - just for a moment - got something of the Finnish soul. And as I walked back to the hotel, so help me,
I whistled 'Finlandia'.
<><><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>end
| November 14, 2005 | 16:19:25 |
|
|
<> THE MIDNIGHT SUN <> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<> THE MIDNIGHT SUN <>
This entry is about: Let's Share Our Differences | Finland | Cultural Diversity & Equity
THE MIDNIGHT SUN
TRIP TO THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN
HELSINKI ON THE BALTIC
IN Espoo, just west of Helsinki, I saw what still strikes me as the most characteristically
Finnish sight ever: I saw a man ering his cellphone on his head yap, that may not sound very
Finnish to you, but it was a Nokia phone and it was ringing with the un-mis-takeable electronic
tones of Sibelius's 'Finlandia' and, although I couldn't swear to it, I'm fairly sure that it was
clipped to the man's belt in a little holster made from reindeer leather.
Only once you have spent time in Finland can you appreciate how much they love Sibelius.
Helsinki has Sibelius Park, a , green and lovely public space near the grey-blue sea, home to the Sibelius Monument - a vast, abstract and somehow emotional arrangement of steel tubes suspended
to resemble organ pipes, or northern lights, you hear his music in elevators, on the telephone, piped through PA systems on buses and trains. Every house the man ever visited is a national monument. In the former capital of Turku there is the Sibelius Museum, exhibiting items of clothing and manuscripts and even a half-smoked cigar, where music-loving Finns take their lunch hours and listen to recordings of selected Sibelian symphonic highlights.
Oh yes, Sibelius is big in Finland. a country for centuries the pawn of territorial power struggles between Sweden and Russia, only achieving independence for the first time in 1917, she is intensely proud of her national heroes. Or hero, really.
You know Finland is a difficult country to get to know, the Finns are a friendly, open-hearted people, but wrapped in almost impenetrable foreignness. No-one in the world but a Finn can speak Finnish, with its 15 tenses and comically compounded vocabulary. As a culture, they have spent so long struggling merely to survive that they are only just beginning to think about the rest of the world but the landscape itself is aloof and difficult, yet strangely, almost eerily, compelling.
Helsinki is on the Baltic, in the south the most featureless part of Finland but they have a very efficient railway system takes you quickly through the lakes and the forests of the midland, up to that mystical mysterious place the stark: haunting reaches of the north , the land of lapps. it is a trip that must be taken I was there in the summer, so I packed my walking shoes and bought a ticket and went in search of the midnight sun directly north of of Helsinki.
I found Directly north of of Helsinki is the lake Region a mazy and at times when the wind is still and the lakes hold the sky in their steel surfaces - hallucinatory chain of mirrored water and inlets and Islets bays and rapids and channels, all set against the backdrop of thick green forest, toward the Russian border in the east there is more water than land - it become hard to remember whether one is inland or part of some: northern ocean archipelago.
The industrial towns and settlements of the region rose to service the timber industry and paper
mill and in places they achieve a weirdly attractive harmony with the land. I passed through
Tamper the region's most important town and a place billing it self , incredibly, as
'Finland's Manchester' I don't know if you been to-Manchester, but if you have the choice; go for it, the Tamper, Bordered by two lovely lakes - Nasijarvi and Pyhajardi, give or take a couple of Finnish punctuation marks - it's weirdly scenic. The Tammerkoski rapids are in the centre of the town, fringed on either side by a pair of wood-processing factories that look so right you have to shake your head and remind yourself that factories are not a part of nature.
It's a long way north. The track rolls up with the Gulf of Bothnia, through Ostrobothnia with its scattered fishing villages and hard-drinking trans-border Swedish communities and numbingly dull landscape. A fellow named Paavo, I think, across from me in the carriage, glared through the window and muttered dark Finnish imprecations and reached furtively for a bottle of Koskenkorva, a brutal type of local vodka. He wrapped it in his jacket and drank heavily, then passed it on to me. There are iron-fisted drinking laws in Finland and for once I wished they had been applied a little more strictly. I nearly wept as the Koskenkorva went down. It was like swallowing a length of pine bark that had been studded with nails and set on fire'Aaarghhnew,' said Paavo, or something similar. I could only gulp and nod weakly.
The heartland of Finland is called Kainuu,lightly populated and tightly forested, trees dense as the
pile of a plush green carpet. But past it all I went, ever north, onward to the midnight Sun.
I disembarked at Rovaniemi, the official home of Santa Claus and the closest town to the Arctic Circle the official marker post for the circle is permanently 8km north of Rovaniemi, and there I like every other tourist and day-tripper who has ever passed that way, posed with one foot shivering in the Arctic, the other safely in warm and balmy climes. It's a bit of a cheat, of course. The Arctic Circle is not fixed or static, like the equator - it is defined as the southern limit of where the midnight sun can be seen in a given season, and moves around each year by some 100m or so but it close enough.
R o v a n i e m i is a peculiar and not especially scenic place. Its streets are designed, apparently, to resemble reindeer horns from above, which is one good reason to fly over the place rather than walk around there. There is a museum of artefacts documenting the natural history of the Sami - the seminomadic reindeer herders who still roam the tundra and northern forests, making clothing from polar bear fur and raincoats from seal guts and tents from reindeer hide - but the interest lies in Santa Claus Village, where you can meet Santa Claus (who lives in a suspiciously well insulated log cabin) and wave to the reindeer team grazing in the adjoining meadow. There are polite signs discouraging tender hearts and the Christmas hopeful from feeding or bribing the reindeer. Even, presumably, with a glass of milk and cookies.
Lapland stretches a good deal further, way up to impossible Norway, but you needn't go far into the Arctic north to feel the place. I hired a car and made my way some 120km up the Arctic Highway
to south of Sodankyla, to the Pyhatunturi National Park. I stayed a day at the hotel there, spending the morning and then the night rambling across the marshland and pine forests, climbing craggy fells, listening to the loud, keening solitude of the wind, the kind of noise that makes a place seem more silent.
And there, near the top of the world, I walked across a landscape so strange and movingly desolate, and watched the pale sun move across the horizon like a raw egg in a bowl of milk, and felt how wide the world is, and how alien it can be. And I felt tremendously happy to be hear, wrapped tight, cheeks flushed and exultant, feeling the fleet, Sweet illusion of glimpsing - just for a moment - got something of the Finnish soul. And as I walked back to the hotel, so help me,
I whistled 'Finlandia'.
<><><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>end
| November 10, 2005 | 21:21:26 |
|
|
<> THE MIDNIGHT SUN <> - Posted By: NaBeeel
THE MIDNIGHT SUN
TRIP TO THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN
HELSINKI ON THE BALTIC
IN Espoo, just west of Helsinki, I saw what still strikes me as the most characteristically
Finnish sight ever: I saw a man ering his cellphone on his head yap, that may not sound very
Finnish to you, but it was a Nokia phone and it was ringing with the un-mis-takeable electronic
tones of Sibelius's 'Finlandia' and, although I couldn't swear to it, I'm fairly sure that it was
clipped to the man's belt in a little holster made from reindeer leather.
Only once you have spent time in Finland can you appreciate how much they love Sibelius.
Helsinki has Sibelius Park, a , green and lovely public space near the grey-blue sea, home to the Sibelius Monument - a vast, abstract and somehow emotional arrangement of steel tubes suspended
to resemble organ pipes, or northern lights, you hear his music in elevators, on the telephone, piped through PA systems on buses and trains. Every house the man ever visited is a national monument. In the former capital of Turku there is the Sibelius Museum, exhibiting items of clothing and manuscripts and even a half-smoked cigar, where music-loving Finns take their lunch hours and listen to recordings of selected Sibelian symphonic highlights.
Oh yes, Sibelius is big in Finland. a country for centuries the pawn of territorial power struggles between Sweden and Russia, only achieving independence for the first time in 1917, she is intensely proud of her national heroes. Or hero, really.
You know Finland is a difficult country to get to know, the Finns are a friendly, open-hearted people, but wrapped in almost impenetrable foreignness. No-one in the world but a Finn can speak Finnish, with its 15 tenses and comically compounded vocabulary. As a culture, they have spent so long struggling merely to survive that they are only just beginning to think about the rest of the world but the landscape itself is aloof and difficult, yet strangely, almost eerily, compelling.
Helsinki is on the Baltic, in the south the most featureless part of Finland but they have a very efficient railway system takes you quickly through the lakes and the forests of the midland, up to that mystical mysterious place the stark: haunting reaches of the north , the land of lapps. it is a trip that must be taken I was there in the summer, so I packed my walking shoes and bought a ticket and went in search of the midnight sun directly north of of Helsinki.
I found Directly north of of Helsinki is the lake Region a mazy and at times when the wind is still and the lakes hold the sky in their steel surfaces - hallucinatory chain of mirrored water and inlets and Islets bays and rapids and channels, all set against the backdrop of thick green forest, toward the Russian border in the east there is more water than land - it become hard to remember whether one is inland or part of some: northern ocean archipelago.
The industrial towns and settlements of the region rose to service the timber industry and paper
mill and in places they achieve a weirdly attractive harmony with the land. I passed through
Tamper the region's most important town and a place billing it self , incredibly, as
'Finland's Manchester' I don't know if you been to-Manchester, but if you have the choice; go for it, the Tamper, Bordered by two lovely lakes - Nasijarvi and Pyhajardi, give or take a couple of Finnish punctuation marks - it's weirdly scenic. The Tammerkoski rapids are in the centre of the town, fringed on either side by a pair of wood-processing factories that look so right you have to shake your head and remind yourself that factories are not a part of nature.
It's a long way north. The track rolls up with the Gulf of Bothnia, through Ostrobothnia with its scattered fishing villages and hard-drinking trans-border Swedish communities and numbingly dull landscape. A fellow named Paavo, I think, across from me in the carriage, glared through the window and muttered dark Finnish imprecations and reached furtively for a bottle of Koskenkorva, a brutal type of local vodka. He wrapped it in his jacket and drank heavily, then passed it on to me. There are iron-fisted drinking laws in Finland and for once I wished they had been applied a little more strictly. I nearly wept as the Koskenkorva went down. It was like swallowing a length of pine bark that had been studded with nails and set on fire'Aaarghhnew,' said Paavo, or something similar. I could only gulp and nod weakly.
The heartland of Finland is called Kainuu,lightly populated and tightly forested, trees dense as the
pile of a plush green carpet. But past it all I went, ever north, onward to the midnight Sun.
I disembarked at Rovaniemi, the official home of Santa Claus and the closest town to the Arctic Circle the official marker post for the circle is permanently 8km north of Rovaniemi, and there I like every other tourist and day-tripper who has ever passed that way, posed with one foot shivering in the Arctic, the other safely in warm and balmy climes. It's a bit of a cheat, of course. The Arctic Circle is not fixed or static, like the equator - it is defined as the southern limit of where the midnight sun can be seen in a given season, and moves around each year by some 100m or so but it close enough.
R o v a n i e m i is a peculiar and not especially scenic place. Its streets are designed, apparently, to resemble reindeer horns from above, which is one good reason to fly over the place rather than walk around there. There is a museum of artefacts documenting the natural history of the Sami - the seminomadic reindeer herders who still roam the tundra and northern forests, making clothing from polar bear fur and raincoats from seal guts and tents from reindeer hide - but the interest lies in Santa Claus Village, where you can meet Santa Claus (who lives in a suspiciously well insulated log cabin) and wave to the reindeer team grazing in the adjoining meadow. There are polite signs discouraging tender hearts and the Christmas hopeful from feeding or bribing the reindeer. Even, presumably, with a glass of milk and cookies.
Lapland stretches a good deal further, way up to impossible Norway, but you needn't go far into the Arctic north to feel the place. I hired a car and made my way some 120km up the Arctic Highway
to south of Sodankyla, to the Pyhatunturi National Park. I stayed a day at the hotel there, spending the morning and then the night rambling across the marshland and pine forests, climbing craggy fells, listening to the loud, keening solitude of the wind, the kind of noise that makes a place seem more silent.
And there, near the top of the world, I walked across a landscape so strange and movingly desolate, and watched the pale sun move across the horizon like a raw egg in a bowl of milk, and felt how wide the world is, and how alien it can be. And I felt tremendously happy to be hear, wrapped tight, cheeks flushed and exultant, feeling the fleet, Sweet illusion of glimpsing - just for a moment - got something of the Finnish soul. And as I walked back to the hotel, so help me,
I whistled 'Finlandia'.
<><><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>end
| November 9, 2005 | 12:44:05 |
|
|
<> When Despair Grows In me<> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<> When Despair Grows In me <>
The Peace of Wild Thing
I wake in the middle of the night at least sound in fear of what my life and my children. Maybe me.
least sound in fear.
I rest in this beauty on the water and the great heron feeds, I come into the presence of still water, I am into the peace of wild things, but nothing noteworthy has happened so far and what else I might have seen, make the sound and the round on other chaste.
With all the time in the world, to have, I go and lie down where the shadow of the wood darkens,
Rest in this beauty on the water and the heron feeds, I come into the peace of wild things.
Who do not tax their lives with fore thought of grief, become aware that there was, but nothing, noteworthy has happened so far.
<> September 11, 2001 <>
I am as I feel above me the day- blind stars,
Waiting for their light as the brilliantly, funny thing that had happened so far,
It's a wild thing everything ~@ a puree with a lot's of grief.
It draws rally, cry grief, trouble, anger, fear, and heart break, full of sadness.
Full of question, disappointment, disbelief, mourning, devastation to the World and national disaster, Whose affair is this? Requiring concern, attention and effort of that particular event.
Where is the hidden hand behind the cover story?
It’s horrendous,
<> the day of September 11th, 2001, <>
The big lie, fantasy of untruth, manipulation, contradiction and abnormality,
with the war that draws the "peace of wild thing" or that is performance or affect war game that strife conflict performance, between parties lick war dance, or war whoop by primitive people to arouse warlike emotional for frighten an enemy for that particular event "'performance" or conflict that make war show cry like Aerosol, a like.
Whose Affair is this Anyhow?
It's a bad day’s wild thing,
with a lot of grief and sadness.
For a time I rest In the grace of the world peace and I am free but nothing noteworthy has happened so far.& That is to say ¡¡¡Ù
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
| November 5, 2005 | 14:49:38 |
|
|
IT WAS ZEALOT OF FIRE - Posted By: NaBeeel
IT WAS ZEALOT OF FIRE
More to life in the Promised Land,
quest for fire and Mening as to what happing to:
"otto vass" and his daughter Anne,18 and Katherine,17 said to "Cold Squared".
BEYOND BELIEF
To subway jumper shocking tragedy Act
Dr. Suzan Killinger Johnson,is unspeakable
(Aug.ll, 2000) The truth of her final conflict
Beyond Belief to the most critical time
in mother "Baby Blue's" and child life "cuyler/
it's shocking tragedy, (Cuyler Killinger Johnson"
who died Friday Morning Aug.ll, 2000
at his mother's suicide bid
and she died Aug. 19, 2000, 8:00 pm.
ITS HERE FINAL CONFLICT
BEYOND BELIEF
The Doctor who Jumped in
front of the subway train
Holding her infant son cuyles (has died Aug .11, 2000)
and the mother injured in the subway tragedy
died as well: so how a successful,
professional woman who had helped others
cope with depression had not been able
to get the help she needed.
It is a question about what happened, why ?
what is to say. .
TO THE FAMILY OF THE LOST RUSSIAN
KURSK SUB CATASTROPHE
As there son are dying Inside a
tin cans
its ocean tomb.
the grief is immeasurable
as Russia mourns the Sailor
and nobody seems to know what happened,
thats the saddest thing.
"That is to say":
WHAT?, WHAT?, WHAT?,& WHY
WHAT A SAD THING,
THAT HAD TO HAPPENED !
Star Trek Generation, in deep space,
To Deep Space Voyage of Rediscovery,
its a New Day, to the Ray's of light
which fell from the sun,
that man and women are
the "offspring of light",
to the Rays of light
which fell from the sun as
"the act of creation took place",
"That's to say"
or Dream on Skylight
even after with Guiding Light".
To the Ray"s of light which fell from the sun,
that men and women are the "off spring " of light",
to the ray"s of light falling from the sun as
the act of creation "took place.
THAT'S TO SAY"
AND YOU WILL BE FIRST ON THE MOON
that could be dangerous moonlight
"Hello, Hello -
any life out there,
it could also explain
why in the World all all this has to happened.
AS TURKS BOMB lRAQUI KURDS
and they say
we do not know
why they bombed us.
WHAT A SAD THING
that had to happened,
with a fire in the eyes,
it was a Zealot of fire,
or the third rock from the sun,
R a b b a Amen El k h e p e r a
from into the beginning
in primeval time,
in primeval matters.
where the act of creation "took place.
THATS IS TO SAY
»XXXXXXXX>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
| November 3, 2005 | 21:29:37 |
|
|
I LOVE PARIS - Posted By: NaBeeel
I LOVE PARIS
PEARIS OF PARIS
''' My Quest Trip to Paris
The Parisian summer is just ending,
exhausted trees hanging onto their remaining foliage with difficulty.
Outside the Place St-Michel Metro stop,
the oaks have pretty much given up the fight.
The Seine too looks ready for a quiet spell,
thick with the churn of summer's hordes.
As I wander away from the river,
I spy my goal, Rue de la Huchette,
one of the Left Bank's most famous streets.
It reminds me of my quest -
nothing less than to find the literary
heart of the world's most literary city.
It's a daunting task.
Almost every great writer in history
waxed lyrical about Paris and many lived in its complex layers.
But I've started well.
The scruffY mid-20th century bohemians of the Left Bank
were immortalised not far away in Elliot Paul's
The Last Time I Saw Paris.
It was around here too that the -
Beat Generation hung out,
most notably Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
I try to find Kerouac's Cafe Gentilhomme,
so beautifully evoked in his book Sa tori in Paris.
I have no luck, running into the infamous Parisian 'non' at every turn.
Undeterred, I make for the grottier end of the suburb and suddenly,
unintentionally, hit the jackpot
when I accidentally land up outside Ginsberg's favourite hotel,
the Hotel du VieuxParis, at 9 rue Glt-Ie-Coeur.
It still looks just as I had imagined it to be,
a glorified pension heaped atop a filthy pavement
with only history to hold it up. Pure Ginsberg.
Inside things are a little less authentic.
Ginsberg's presence is not so much felt as read,
on a much too neat noticeboard about his time at the hotel.
I tick one off my list for the day.
Next is Rue Monsieur-Ie-Prince,
called Yankee alleyway
because American literary refugees
seem to have congregated around here through history.
I pass the now recorded homes of Whistler,
Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Kerouac and Hemingway.
Hemingway's favoured restaurant,
the Cremerie Restaurant Polidor,
at 41 rue Monsieur Ie Prince, 6 E.,
is still making excellent stroganoff.
After a bowl of the piquant dish,
I head for the Crillon Hotel with its remarkable history.
The bar is popular among movie stars and other famous figures -
and Hemingway set a, dramatic scene in the The Sun Also Rises here.
The hotel is very glitzy -
the Crillion obviously knows it's famous.
Instead of feeling like F. Scott Fitz-gerald ,
who also dined there, I sense that I am out-of-place,
Little plastic and slightly embarrassed.
So I take my leave and head over to the literary equivalent of Piccadilly Circus, a bookshop back on the Left Bank within spitting distance of Notre Dame called, oddly enough, Shakespeare and Company.
Its owner George Whitman,
who has nothing to do with Walt,
has made it his mission to stock his shop with writers
who've lived in or been synonymous with Paris.
It's scruffy and wonderful inside. And authentic.
It smells like the starving poets who are allowed
to spend the night in the shop if they've nowhere else to go.
They're in good company.
Orwell starved in Paris once, as did Hemingway.
My resolve fortified and poetry on my mind,
I head for the Luxembourg Gardens.
If elegance were a flower,
it'd grow in the Luxembourg Gardens.
Umpteen writers and poets have immortalised it.
Victor Hugo used it in Les Miserables and Hemingway in A Moveable Feast.
Up the road I find a plaque on a tatty building
on Rue de Fleurus in homage to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.
It was here that Stein held her famous afternoon workshops
while Alice poured the tea.
Having seen the plaque,
I go in search of the spirit of the past as reinterpreted
by the new generation and head back to
the cafes of the Left Bank.
Two of them have succeeded in re-establishing themselves
as modern-day hotbeds -of literary cacophony.
The Cafe de Flore and the Cafe Aux Deux Magots are both loud, polluted and awash with literary life.
I ascend to the second floor of the Deux Magots, away from the tourists, and join the writers and editors, publishers and failures drinking thick coffee and discussing the Next Big thing.
There's a display case against the wall which startles me when I look at it. <>
It appears I'm sitting in Jean Paul Sartre's seat!
I have a minor existential moment looking at the faded picture
of the odd little man perched on my chair.
The caption says that the cafe became his study and living room.
I try to think how anyone could have come up with anything
as explosive as existentialism in such a raucous environment.
Perhaps you have to be French.
When I put down my coffee cup,
I notice a scrawl on the table.
Someone has pencilled Jean Cocteau's quote to Picasso
about poetry on the tabletop.
'Poets don't draw.
They untie handwriting and then retie it in another way.'
After my Sartrean moment, I'm feeling very in sync with alternative Paris
and decide to finish my day's literary
ramble at the shrine of Cocteau.
The shrine of Cocteau? It's all of Paris.
Fittingly I think, as I re-cross the Seine,
because Cocteau was the ultimate expression of artistic Paris.
He knew no borders.
His work crossed over so many it tied itself in knots.
Cocteau knew everybody and did everything.
He was photographed by Man Ray,
sketched by Picasso, wrote a libretto for Stravinsky,
joined forces with Erik Satie and Picasso to produce Parade,
wrote beautiful poetry and then,
to confound his critics,
briefly managed the career of
bantamweight boxing champ Panama AI Brown.
But then I succeed in finding a physical shrine to Cocteau.
It's the remainder of the Cocteau retrospective at the
hi-tech steel-and-glass modern art
museum, the Pompidou Centre, held to great acclaim in 2003.
There in the cool halls,
Cocteau's exquisite 'Le Testament d'Orphee'
stares me in the face. Part poem,
part drawing,
it is achingly beautiful.
An appropriate heart of Paris, I think.
PEARIS OF PARIS I GUESS :-
Whether your preference is for art and culture or shopping, Paris offers sophistication and glamour for every taste. No matter how many times you have visited the city, you simply have to return to the famous Champs Elysees Boulevard, walking its length from the Arc de Triomphe monument to the famous Place de la Concorde. If walking is not your scene, orientate yourself by taking a cruise on the River Seine, which divides the city into the Right and Left Bank.
This way, you will glimpse the spectacular Notre Dame cathedral and other landmarks.
No visit to Paris is complete without a trip to the Montmartre district
and the prominent, white- domed Sacre Coeur cathedral
The Pompidou Centre is great for modern art, but the Louvre
is considered by many as the world's greatest art museum for good reason.
You simply have to join the queue, even if it's to see just a fraction
of its more than 300 000 works of art. And there's always shopping -
Chanel, Gucci, Valentino, Hermes and Ralph Lauren on the Left Bank
and the elegant jewellers on Place Vend6me. Or join the rich and famous
at the Galleries Lafayette department store, with its art nouveau finishings.
For more relaxed shopping,
there are numerous street stalls,
second-hand shops and markets
with clothes, flowers, food, stamps and bric-a-brac to explore.
End the day with a meal at one of Paris's wonderful restaurants-
- not for nothing is the city known as the home of gourmet eating in the World -
and then take to the bustling streets,
go to a show or mingle with the club or bar crowds.
If you cannot make it into the trendy
but packed Buddha Bar
just off the Champs Elysees,
pop into nearly any of the many others in
the area to get the vibe of nightlife.
><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>~
| November 3, 2005 | 20:52:37 |
|
|
<> THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENY <> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<> THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS <>
<> O GREAT GREATOR <>
<> CREATING MATTER <>
By:- ∫¥ ∑æ˙øø∂ | æ∫∂∂∂
<> Warring: All this name is Holy if you miss with it ,
in essence it cast a type of spell you will be punching,
up to your head , Read it with respect <>
<> What has survived of Egyptian literature is primarily texts of religious rites,
Hymns, love songs and work songs.
(Some notable exceptions include The Tale of Two Brother-sand
A wonderful dialogue between a man weary of life and his soul,
Which was beautifully translated by Bika Reed as The Rebel in the Sou1.)
<> Little poetry or fiction as we tend to think of it has survived.
Although rhyme was not a consideration,
Certain poetic elements appear such as repetition,
Alliteration, assonance, allusion, imagery and parallel structure.
<> These were enhanced by a strong meter and rhythm in the work.
The Egyptians loved puns of all types and even their religious texts are full of humor.
Many times they intertwined sacred and profane images.
It is interesting to note the many uses of . the anagram;
That is, how one word expressing a particular idea may
Have been spelled backward to represent an opposing idea.
<> For example, kha indicates a corpse, while akh indicates a thing radiant or spiritual. .
Language was of primary importance; in essence it cast a type of spell.
The ancient Egyptians felt that if words could be uttered precisely,
In proper sequence and with proper intonation,
Those words could produce magical effects.
The Fourth Gospel begins: "In the beginning was the Word."
In like manner the Egyptian History of
The Creation of the Gods and
The World begins with the words of Temu:-
<> I am he who came into being,
<> being what I createdthe creator of the creations.
. <> After I created my own becoming,
<> I created many things that came forth from my mouth.
<> Illuminate the insights which the hieroglyphs offered <>
<> These understandable. <>
<> (Nuk pu kheper em Khepera
<> kheper-na kheper kheperu
<> kheper kheperu
<> neb em-khet kheper-a asht kheperu
<> em per em re-a)
~: . ',,', .C . ~.
<> Still, there seems to have been a time early in the development of the religion where the gods were one. The text often refers to one god-sometimes Temu, sometimes Ptah, sometimes Ra, depending on th( interpretations of the priests that have been passed down ~ to us. This one god was the creator of himself and all things therein.
His name is secret and hidden.
<> All the other gods and goddesses issue forth from him.
One might think, then, of the other multitudes as aspects of the one god.
The Egyptian word which we have translated as "god" is neter,
as in the "neterworld.1I But the word god, though common to us,
seems imprecise when applied to Egyptian religion.
N e t e r refers primarily to a spiritual essence, or principle.
Our word "nature" may derive from it through the Latin.
The multitudes of neters, then, represent the multitudinous natures of supreme being.
As John West pointed out in his book, Serpent in the Sky, the various religious centers of Heliopolis, Memphis, Hermopolis and Thebes, for example,
Were not advocating different gods.
They were advocating differing aspects of god.
From the mouth of one supreme god came what is known as the Great Ennead,or
The nine gods (neters) of the one.
In Heliopolis these were:
Temu, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys.
In Memphis,
Ptah and Hathor play major roles.
In Hermopolis,
Thoth is elevated. Ra, as a principle of light,
eternity, power and rebirth, attained prominence nearly everywhere
.
<> Temu and Ptah are aspects of one neter.
Temu may be thought of as the primordial act,
the first creation, pure essence and spirit.
Ptah is Temu come to earth: the same principle of spirit,
but in this instance he is the manifestation of the act of creating matter.
The remaining neters of the great ennead are paired male and female.
They are unified dual natures.
Shu and Tefnut are the twin children of Ra,
the breath of light one might say.
He personifies the dry air and she the mist.
Geb, the father, is earth; Nut, the mother, is sky.
<> From the belly of Nut sprang the other gods and goddesses and Horus, the twice-born.
Horus was born once of heaven through Nut and once of earth through his mother, Isis.
He represents both the divine and mortal aspects of man, and his
Presence in the Book of the Dead is always as that of the great spiritual warrior.
As the avenger of his father's death, he best represents
The strength of the individual in his necessary battle
Against the power of darkness.
<> Osiris and Isis represent the dawning of the world of men.
All the descendents of the world are children of their ~on, Horus.
The History of Creation/l and The Duell explain these myths in more detail.
<> For a more in-depth look at all the gods and goddesses,
I recommend E.A. Wallis Budge's two-volume set,
The Gods of the Egyptians.
Suffice it to say here that Osiris was murdered and
Hacked into 14 pieces by his envious brother Set.
According to Plutarch, Isis, the wife of Osiris,
gathered the severed parts of her husband to facilitate his unification in the afterlife.
Osiris became neither a god of heaven nor of earth,
but a god of the nebulous world between.
His importance in The Book of the Dead as judge in the neterworld is primary.
All those who died after him called themselves an Osiris,
for they wanted to be like him-a god who rose from death.
Osiris is the principle of regeneration as Set is the principle of destruction.
In psychological terms Osiris represents the recollecting of
The diverse aspects of oneself into a unified whole.
<> In researching this text I perceived certain
Etymological resonances which indicated,
to me at least, that the ancient Egyptian culture and language
are not as obscure as we modems tend to believe. For example,
I found common roots between the Egyptian language and
certain words in the English language which are derived from Latin and Greek.
As an example I offer the following connections between Egyptian and English:
* iirmen/ arm heku (magic utterance)
* /hex neb (spiraling force of the universe)
* /nebulous Satis (goddess of the flood, or meaning enough)
* / satisfy aor (magic light)/ aura.
* According to Egyptian theology,
The structure of a man is not limited to only his mortal shell and spiritual self,
But is a complex and interconnected structurj} where his physical body,
Spiritual body, mental and emotional states play one off the other.
His physical body, the corpse, or that which corrupts after death is the khat.
It is easy enough to define.
<> Where trouble often arises is in defining the various spiritual aspects which are loosely attributed to what we think of as the soul. The sekhem is, I believe, the form that a spiritual being assumes. It exists in heaven and is more or less that power which a man possesses to assume incarnation. In addition, a man's ren, or his name, is powerful and holy. To blot a man's name from history, to forget him, was to effectively destroy him.
<> The æb is the heart, the seat of knowledge, wisdom and understanding; it is the link between the physical body and the spiritual body. In contrast, the khu has been called a man's divine intelligence and is described as that which is radiant or shining. Ab represents what a man may come to know of the world and himself in silent meditation. Khu represents more or less the inspiration,
the message of the gods. "I am not simply a human being. I am a human becoming
<> The work which follows has been for me a process of transformation.
I offer it as a record. of my own study of the text and illumination by it.
I have tried to remain true to the intent of the original,
to illuminate the insights which the hieroglyphs offered,
and to revive the sense of literature and song
which seemed to me to have been lost in any strictly literal translation.
I hesitate even to call this a translation. It is a meditation.
Certainly the writing of it was a transformation.
<> I encourage anyone interested in the subject to read
the work in the original, if possible, along with a good "strict" translation.
I relied on the Budge version of The Papyrus of Ani.
As YOU says, it is one of the most complete texts of the Book of the Dead,
but the implication is, of course, that even that papyrus is not complete.
<> As I read I found references to chapters
which should have been included, but were not.
I included them, therefore, using the Egyptian language of
Myth µ¥™˙ and the English ∂ © πß˙words of the imagination.
I inserted a few I thought should be there.
* For those interested in comparing my versions with the hieroglyphs,
I've included a concordance at the end of this Study
I took Pound at his word and tried to "make it new."
I wanted to once again offer it up as a celebration of the beauty and terror of life.
The awe of awakening unto a new day, or perhaps a new self.
The wisdom of the ancients seems eternal,
Yet we are all men affecting our changes.
The work of a lifetime is the process of returning to light and life.
So it seemed right to blow a little dust off the old Egyptian book and
let it shine anew in a more modern era.
<><><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>∂ ª
| November 2, 2005 | 15:14:14 |
|
|
<><> ORGANIC ABUNDANCE <><> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<><> ORGANIC ABUNDANCE <><>
<> THERE IS PLENTY OF FEASTING ON
GOOD WHOLESOME FOOD ,
PREFERABLY INDOORS
AS WELL OUTDOORS IN TIME OF SUNSHINE <>
<><> Winter is COMING, but as we contemplate lazy days by the pool or on the beach is going for
a wile , its hearty dishes sadly tend to linger in the form of an extra kilogram or two.
<><> Contemplating a weight-loss diet with the festive season looming is no fun, but fortunately there
is an alternative that is much more pleasing to the senses:
re-Looking the type of food you eat and simply changing your eating habits
(with a little exercise thrown in, of course!).
<><> In this country, we are blessed with an abundance of fresh products and healthy ingredients to
make superb salads and lovely crisp vegetables, not to mention a whole range of organic foods
on offer to make reshaping your body a pleasant experience. An old joke goes: 'What has a
hundred legs and lives on yoghurt?' The answer? 'An aerobics class!'
<><> But you certainly don't have to stick to yoghurt, or even to what used to be called a 'plain old
salad', to cut down on kilojoules - local supermarkets offer so many different types of lettuce,
tomatoes, peppers, raw sprouts and onions that you need never get bored.
<><> Speaking of organic foods, this is certainly the latest worldwide trend,
with the range available growing steadily.
<><> A greater health-consciousness, combined with a number of recent food scandals, have made
consumers much more aware of what they eat - and where it comes from. It has been
recognised that fresh fruit and vegetables grown in living soil and protected from pests by
natural means contain a wealth of vital substances for our wellbeing.
<><> And there is a whole new world of flavours waiting to be discovered within the organic garden.
But what exactly does organic mean? When applied to agriculture, the word loosely means that
farm production is based on the philosophy of working in harmony with nature, comprising a
respect of plants, animals and human b~ings .
<><> In everyday conversation, organic food refers to all 'naturally produced' foods, or the product
of organic farming. Fresh produce - vegetables and fruit - is the most available type of organic
food. But there is a long way to go: the availability of organic foods does depend on consumer
demand, as well as dedication by farmers, gardeners.
<><> Here's how to make organic food work for you:-
<> start your day with a healthy cereal - homemade granola and muesli are great choices.
These days there is also a wide range of wonderful breads available, from rye bread with pumpkin
seeds and walnut bread to sunflower seed bread.
Round off breakfast with some fresh fruit.
Keep the skin on and add a dollop of natural,
plain yoghurt with a suggestion of organic honey.
and Fresh berries, when available, are healthy, nutritious and delicious.
<><> A great wholesome lunch option is organic pasta with wild mushrooms and stir-fried vegetables,
served with fresh ricotta cheese. For dinner, a lovely option is a skinless chicken breast, lightly
steamed with fresh herbs, young spinach and baby carrots, all served with a lemon grass sauce.
Wash down your delicious figure-friendly meal with a glass or two of fine Egyptian organic grape
Juice. Cheers!
<><> If you are interested in learning more about organic foods, contact the Organic Farms Group
(go to the website www.organicfarmsgroup.com and Les or Quentin will answer any queries
electronically).. from south Africa, If you are in Alexandria
where you can try out the wholesome organic
breakfast selection at the sheraton hotel .
<><> LETTUCE HINTS <><>
** Treat lettuce very gently. The rule is not to use a knife, but rather break the leaves with your hands.
If you really do have to use a knife, use only a stainless steel blade. .
** After you have washed the lettuce in gently running water, make sure that you dry it well and shake
off all excess water. Keep the lettuce in the fridge, in an airtight container.
** Be creative with lettuce: mix different types of leaves together and throw in some fresh herbs and
different kinds of bean sprouts, nuts and fruit. .
** When dressing the salad, make sure that you do not overdress it - and that the dressing is not so
strong that it overpowers the salad. It is merely meant to bring out the flavour of the salad.
<><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> END
| October 31, 2005 | 21:53:50 |
|
|
<> VISITING DURBAN IN SOUTH AFRICA <> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<> VISITING DURBAN IN SOUTH AFRICA <>
This entry is about: Let's Share Our Differences | South Africa | Cultural Diversity & Equity
≤≥≤≥ VISITING DURBAN ≤≥≤≥
IN SOUTH AFRICA
≤≥ It was a dream, down there. <>
<> That waves and warps through clear shallow water <>
<> Yearning wonder at all the beauty that is out there. <>
<> But it is vibrant and real and alive, <>
≤≥ WET YOURSELF ! ≤≥
<><> A whole New world more fun. <><>
<><><><> <><> <><><><>
<><> Durban's latest tourist attraction is an
aquatic wonderworld of thrilling theme
parks, breathtaking marine life and
dreamy underwater adventure,.
<><> If you get eaten by a shark, don't come crying to me,
I said, blushing furiously as I realised immediately what I'd said.
If you substitute 'fall off that bike
and break your neck' for 'get eaten by a shark',
I might have been my father, 25 years ago.
Still, kids will be kids.
Or maybe boring grown-ups
will just be boring grownups.
<><> I was talking to Eid, my eight-year-old nephew,
who was clambering on the low wooden fence
surrounding the surface of the shark tank at
uShaka Marine World,
the new and rather thrilling watery theme park
that opened this year at Durban's Point.
<> Formerly the seedy, seamier part of town,
the Point is being renovated with restaurants,
sundowner bars and now uShaka,
the world's fifth-largest marine park,
in which the municipality has invested
R 735m in the expectation of
generating 1,5 million visitors in the first year.
None of which was of the slightest interest to Eid ,
<> Eid wanted to see sharks. <>
<> 'It's a bit unsafe;
said a woman pushing a baby in a pram.
'Your son could fall in.'
'A couple of bites and he'll learn his lesson;
I assured her, trying to sound like a parent.
She gave me a peculiar look as I dragged- Eid
toward the Phantom Ship. uShaka
<> is actually three theme parks in one. <>
<><> First there is the Village Walk retail section,
a kind of Lost City by the sea without the casino.
Themed to suggest a Zulu village
(with what is proudly described as 'the biggest thatched roof in the country'),
Village Walk is the kind of large-scale retail heaven
the rich and famous would feel at home in,
with metal Zulushield light fittings
and banisters shaped like geckos.
<><> The second park is Wet 'n Wild,
with its water-rides and super-tubes,
but it was an uncharacteristically chilly day in Durban,
so we skipped Wet 'n Wild.
<><> Besides, there are no sharks there
and E i d had only one thing on his mind.
Entrance to Sea World,
the third and best part of the uShaka complex,
is through the Phantom Ship,
an extraordinary 80m replica of a 1920s cargo steamer
whose hull I had to physically touch before
I would believe it wasn't an actual ship driven ashore
by an Indian Ocean tempest and
rusting in stately retirement amid the palm trees.
<><> The upper decks and stern are
home to a variety of restaurants
with views into the tanks,
but we raced down the staircase,
down below the water line,
down to where the fishes live.
<> It is wonderful down there. <>
<>≤≥ The aquarium spreads out through tunnels
and ghosdy blue chambers.
Atmospheric maritime sounds play over the PA -
gurgles and creaks and moans;
morse-code transmissions;
<> distant eerie music, <>
as though from some spectral Marie Celeste.
≤≥≤≥ The galleries resemble the holds of ships -
you walk between coiled ropes and hawsers,
cargo in wooden boxes,
rivets in the grey-steel walls and water-tight doors, and
you don't have to be eight to dream you are in a sunken ship,
saved by a trapped air bubble,
looking out through the portholes at the bottom of the ocean.
<> E I D's eyes were wide. <>
≤≥≤≥ He stared for hours at the eels and the octopus,
and for days at the turdes in their large tank,
those wise old men of the sea
who always look as though they're taking their morning dip
before retiring to the nearest teashop to smoke pipes and play dominoes.
E I D stared agog at the devil firefish -
the gauzy, red-white-and-black phantoms often found haunting actual wrecks.
≤≥≤≥ Their tank is designed like a flooded cabin on an old liner -
they hang against the walls and furniture like hellish
Christmas decorations in the Bermuda Triangle.
≤≥ But it was the sharks that held E I D ,
as they hold us all.
uShaka has the largest collection of sharks in the southern hemisphere,
even after the unfortunate recent events
when a number died in one of the tanks
after teething problems with algae control and oxygenation. yap..
≤≥ One tank holds the reef sharks -
fast, darty, nippy, like terriers on a Sunday walk -
but it is the big fellows that hold a dark fascination.
We stood in the blue gloom,
staring out at the heavy solemnity of the Zambezis
and Ragged - Tooths.
<. > E I D held his breath and his eyes shone darkly. <>
≤≥≤≥ Finally we made our way up to the light like returning deep-sea divers,
not rushing up too fast for fear of the bends. Outside,
Sea World is a sprawling series of interconnected lagoons -
the surfaces of the larger tanks -
winding between green grass and walkways and palms.
≤≥ We wandered to the penguin enclosure,
where the birds stood dolefully like London commuters at a station,
then to the 1 200-seat canvas-topped auditorium for the dolphin show.
≤≥ When I was E I D's age, <>
<> I used to visit the old dolphinarium to watch Gambit,
the world's largest captive dolphin. He's still there,
still breathtakingly massive,
still displacing vast amounts of water
onto the first 10 rows of the auditorium,
to the amusement of everyone sitting further back.
Of course we sat in the front row.
There is something about an eight-year-old's cry of delight
when he is unexpectedly drenched by a dolphin
that simply should not be resisted.
≤≥ Besides, we were going to get even wetter.
Best of all at Sea World is the opportunity to snorkel in the coral lagoon -
the huge tank with reef fishes and man-made coral,
fronting through a glass window onto the reef-shark tank.
R40 affords 45 minutes of snorkelling
and there is no better way to introduce a small child
to the giddy delights of the marine world.
≤≥ Supervision and mandatory buoyancy vests cuts out safety worries;
within mere seconds you are drifting weightless
in a wonderworld of angelfish and triggerfish, p a r r o to f i s h and rays.
Of all the modern innovations that would have enlivened my own youth,
it is the snorkelling lagoon I envy the most.
≤≥ It is designed to resemble the reef around
a desert Indian Ocean island
where pirates have scuttled their treasure.
On the seabed there are chests overflowing with jewels and doubloons,
replica ivory tusks and gold ingots strewn across the white sandy "'bottom,
and even, for some reason,
a World War II jeep rusting away in sunny silence.
≤≥ It was a dream, down there. <>
I bobbed and breathed and watched E I D
while he giggled underwater at the fish brushing against his feet.
He would have stayed there all day and through the night too.
For E I D it was a new world,
a day his horizons not only broadened but deepened,
when his eyes lit with the light that dances on the sea,
<> that waves and warps through clear shallow water <>
≤≥ I doubt he will ever get over it.
For me it was a day of being eight all over again
and rediscovering that aching,
<> yearning wonder at all the beauty that is out there. <>
≤≥≤≥ To compare uShaka Marine World to the V&A Aquarium
is like comparing Durban and Cape Town themselves -
some parts are a little tacky, even kitsch.
≤≥≤≥ Sophisticates may smirk and snoot.
But it is vibrant and real and alive,
and it quickens the pulse and
inspires daydreams far more than Cape Town ever does.
Cape Town may be more elegant, more ethereal,
but Durban is, quite fiankly,
<><> a whole world more fun. <><>
≤≥≤≤≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥ END
| October 27, 2005 | 12:21:59 |
|
|
<> VISITING DURBAN IN SOUTH AFRICA <> - Posted By: NaBeeel
≤≥≤≥ VISITING DURBAN ≤≥≤≥
IN SOUTH AFRICA
≤≥ It was a dream, down there. <>
<> That waves and warps through clear shallow water <>
<> Yearning wonder at all the beauty that is out there. <>
<> But it is vibrant and real and alive, <>
≤≥ WET YOURSELF ! ≤≥
<><> A whole New world more fun. <><>
<><><><> <><> <><><><>
<><> Durban's latest tourist attraction is an
aquatic wonderworld of thrilling theme
parks, breathtaking marine life and
dreamy underwater adventure,.
<><> If you get eaten by a shark, don't come crying to me,
I said, blushing furiously as I realised immediately what I'd said.
If you substitute 'fall off that bike
and break your neck' for 'get eaten by a shark',
I might have been my father, 25 years ago.
Still, kids will be kids.
Or maybe boring grown-ups
will just be boring grownups.
<><> I was talking to Eid, my eight-year-old nephew,
who was clambering on the low wooden fence
surrounding the surface of the shark tank at
uShaka Marine World,
the new and rather thrilling watery theme park
that opened this year at Durban's Point.
<> Formerly the seedy, seamier part of town,
the Point is being renovated with restaurants,
sundowner bars and now uShaka,
the world's fifth-largest marine park,
in which the municipality has invested
R 735m in the expectation of
generating 1,5 million visitors in the first year.
None of which was of the slightest interest to Eid ,
<> Eid wanted to see sharks. <>
<> 'It's a bit unsafe;
said a woman pushing a baby in a pram.
'Your son could fall in.'
'A couple of bites and he'll learn his lesson;
I assured her, trying to sound like a parent.
She gave me a peculiar look as I dragged- Eid
toward the Phantom Ship. uShaka
<> is actually three theme parks in one. <>
<><> First there is the Village Walk retail section,
a kind of Lost City by the sea without the casino.
Themed to suggest a Zulu village
(with what is proudly described as 'the biggest thatched roof in the country'),
Village Walk is the kind of large-scale retail heaven
the rich and famous would feel at home in,
with metal Zulushield light fittings
and banisters shaped like geckos.
<><> The second park is Wet 'n Wild,
with its water-rides and super-tubes,
but it was an uncharacteristically chilly day in Durban,
so we skipped Wet 'n Wild.
<><> Besides, there are no sharks there
and E i d had only one thing on his mind.
Entrance to Sea World,
the third and best part of the uShaka complex,
is through the Phantom Ship,
an extraordinary 80m replica of a 1920s cargo steamer
whose hull I had to physically touch before
I would believe it wasn't an actual ship driven ashore
by an Indian Ocean tempest and
rusting in stately retirement amid the palm trees.
<><> The upper decks and stern are
home to a variety of restaurants
with views into the tanks,
but we raced down the staircase,
down below the water line,
down to where the fishes live.
<> It is wonderful down there. <>
<>≤≥ The aquarium spreads out through tunnels
and ghosdy blue chambers.
Atmospheric maritime sounds play over the PA -
gurgles and creaks and moans;
morse-code transmissions;
<> distant eerie music, <>
as though from some spectral Marie Celeste.
≤≥≤≥ The galleries resemble the holds of ships -
you walk between coiled ropes and hawsers,
cargo in wooden boxes,
rivets in the grey-steel walls and water-tight doors, and
you don't have to be eight to dream you are in a sunken ship,
saved by a trapped air bubble,
looking out through the portholes at the bottom of the ocean.
<> E I D's eyes were wide. <>
≤≥≤≥ He stared for hours at the eels and the octopus,
and for days at the turdes in their large tank,
those wise old men of the sea
who always look as though they're taking their morning dip
before retiring to the nearest teashop to smoke pipes and play dominoes.
E I D stared agog at the devil firefish -
the gauzy, red-white-and-black phantoms often found haunting actual wrecks.
≤≥≤≥ Their tank is designed like a flooded cabin on an old liner -
they hang against the walls and furniture like hellish
Christmas decorations in the Bermuda Triangle.
≤≥ But it was the sharks that held E I D ,
as they hold us all.
uShaka has the largest collection of sharks in the southern hemisphere,
even after the unfortunate recent events
when a number died in one of the tanks
after teething problems with algae control and oxygenation. yap..
≤≥ One tank holds the reef sharks -
fast, darty, nippy, like terriers on a Sunday walk -
but it is the big fellows that hold a dark fascination.
We stood in the blue gloom,
staring out at the heavy solemnity of the Zambezis
and Ragged - Tooths.
<. > E I D held his breath and his eyes shone darkly. <>
≤≥≤≥ Finally we made our way up to the light like returning deep-sea divers,
not rushing up too fast for fear of the bends. Outside,
Sea World is a sprawling series of interconnected lagoons -
the surfaces of the larger tanks -
winding between green grass and walkways and palms.
≤≥ We wandered to the penguin enclosure,
where the birds stood dolefully like London commuters at a station,
then to the 1 200-seat canvas-topped auditorium for the dolphin show.
≤≥ When I was E I D's age, <>
<> I used to visit the old dolphinarium to watch Gambit,
the world's largest captive dolphin. He's still there,
still breathtakingly massive,
still displacing vast amounts of water
onto the first 10 rows of the auditorium,
to the amusement of everyone sitting further back.
Of course we sat in the front row.
There is something about an eight-year-old's cry of delight
when he is unexpectedly drenched by a dolphin
that simply should not be resisted.
≤≥ Besides, we were going to get even wetter.
Best of all at Sea World is the opportunity to snorkel in the coral lagoon -
the huge tank with reef fishes and man-made coral,
fronting through a glass window onto the reef-shark tank.
R40 affords 45 minutes of snorkelling
and there is no better way to introduce a small child
to the giddy delights of the marine world.
≤≥ Supervision and mandatory buoyancy vests cuts out safety worries;
within mere seconds you are drifting weightless
in a wonderworld of angelfish and triggerfish, p a r r o to f i s h and rays.
Of all the modern innovations that would have enlivened my own youth,
it is the snorkelling lagoon I envy the most.
≤≥ It is designed to resemble the reef around
a desert Indian Ocean island
where pirates have scuttled their treasure.
On the seabed there are chests overflowing with jewels and doubloons,
replica ivory tusks and gold ingots strewn across the white sandy "'bottom,
and even, for some reason,
a World War II jeep rusting away in sunny silence.
≤≥ It was a dream, down there. <>
I bobbed and breathed and watched E I D
while he giggled underwater at the fish brushing against his feet.
He would have stayed there all day and through the night too.
For E I D it was a new world,
a day his horizons not only broadened but deepened,
when his eyes lit with the light that dances on the sea,
<> that waves and warps through clear shallow water <>
≤≥ I doubt he will ever get over it.
For me it was a day of being eight all over again
and rediscovering that aching,
<> yearning wonder at all the beauty that is out there. <>
≤≥≤≥ To compare uShaka Marine World to the V&A Aquarium
is like comparing Durban and Cape Town themselves -
some parts are a little tacky, even kitsch.
≤≥≤≥ Sophisticates may smirk and snoot.
But it is vibrant and real and alive,
and it quickens the pulse and
inspires daydreams far more than Cape Town ever does.
Cape Town may be more elegant, more ethereal,
but Durban is, quite fiankly,
<><> a whole world more fun. <><>
≤≥≤≤≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥≥ END
| October 24, 2005 | 22:15:25 |
|
|
B A C K A L L E Y, History of the BBQ - Posted By: NaBeeel
B A C K A L L E Y, History of the BBQ
B A C K A L L E Y
WOOD FIRE BBQ AND AND GRILL
HAUTE RESTAURANT
History of the BBQ
O U R S T O R Y
I want you to hear about
In the beginning, there was fire.
<> Then somebody tossed a hunk of antelope into the embers, and,
àL0, there was barbecue.
I am an ember burning in the heartland of Egypt.
Opening the Mouth of Osiris
I am I. I am Osiris.
I have come because I wish to have come.
Build a bright fire of rags on the west bank of the Nile.
we shall roast the leg of an antelope
Give me charms and incense and saffron cake.
Give all the gods mouths to sing and Dance
Give me raisin cake and beer.
Give me songs green as earth.
Give all the gods mouths to sing
and Bless me with ancient dreams.
<> Now a days, if you wander through the back alleys of the BBQ Restaurant mecca of the world, you'll find BBQ joints hidden away doing their smoky flavor-empowering rituals of grilling, smoking, roasting, and baking, all in traditional wood~fired ovens. We at BackAlley Woodfire BBQ & Grill also cook in this time--honored our way, using well-seasoned Canadian hardwood, such as maple and oak, to infuse the food with a natural wood smoke tang.
<> They have been inspired by the many cultures, past arid-present, that have used woodfires for cooking, and they seek to unite their food traditions to bring you a new way of eating. there menu locks to the countries along the Silk Road, where so many great BBQ dishes originated thousands of years ago.
<> The Silk Road connected ancient China's capital city, Xian, to ancient Rome-a 5000mile journey through Central Asia and EGYPT the Middle East. Not only were spices and goods exchanged between East and West, but also religions, cultures, and most important to there philosophy, foods. The foods found on the Silk Road incorporate diverse flavors and cultural blends. Recipes moved in both directions, and it was along this route that Chinese noodles traveled to become Italian pasta and where mezze, kebabs, flatbreads and pit-roasting were omnipresent, albeit under a vast array of names.
<> With many etlulic groups living their unique lifestyles through food, clothing, music, and arts, Kensington Market is a cultural microcosm of Toronto,. Not only does the Market allow to buy fresh local ingredients just~in~time, but it is itself a crossroad of mixed food tastes reflecting the many Silk Road cuisines.
<> They Blend past and present, Silk Road and Toronto. there wood fire ovens are the focus of quest for the ultimate in authentic HATUI, BBQ taste, AND NATURAL FALAVORE , and organic food list, Speaking of organic foods, this is certainly the latest worldwide trend with the range available growing steadily. is what they believe that you will find them as Well as there simple cooking style, unique and memorable in this fine Restaurant.
<> They have just begun the journey. Join them ! <>
Special prieces for TIG members code Wahooe
Frank Hsu, Chief Grill Jockey & Pit Master
188 AUGUSTA AVENUE, TORONTO ,ON -416- 979 -5557
WWW.BACKALLEYBBQ.COM-
<><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
| October 23, 2005 | 12:17:28 |
|
|
<*> IT WAS ZEALOT OF FIRE <*> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<*> IT WAS ZEALOT OF FIRE <*>
IT WAS ZEALOT OF FIRE
More to life in the Promised Land,
quest for fire and Mening as to what happing to:
"otto vass" and his daughter Anne,18 and Katherine,17
said to "Cold Squared".
BEYOND BELIEF
To subway jumper shocking tragedy Act
Dr. Suzan Killinger Johnson,is unspeakable
(Aug.ll, 2000) The truth of her final conflict
Beyond Belief to the most critical time
in mother "Baby Blue's" and child life "cuyler/
it's shocking tragedy, (Cuyler Killinger Johnson"
who died Friday Morning Aug.ll, 2000
at his mother's suicide bid
and she died Aug. 19, 2000, 8:00 pm.
ITS HERE FINAL CONFLICT
BEYOND BELIEF
The Doctor who Jumped in
front of the subway train
Holding her infant son cuyles (has died Aug .11, 2000)
and the mother injured in the subway tragedy
died as well: so how a successful,
professional woman who had helped others
cope with depression had not been able
to get the help she needed.
It is a question about what happened, why ?
what is to say. .
TO THE FAMILY OF THE LOST RUSSIAN
KURSK SUB CATASTROPHE
As there son are dying Inside a
tin cans
its ocean tomb.
the grief is immeasurable
as Russia mourns the Sailor
and nobody seems to know what happened,
thats the saddest thing.
"That is to say":
WHAT?, WHAT?, WHAT?,& WHY
WHAT A SAD THING,
THAT HAD TO HAPPENED !
Star Trek Generation, in deep space,
To Deep Space Voyage of Rediscovery,
its a New Day, to the Ray's of light
which fell from the sun,
that man and women are
the "offspring of light",
to the Rays of light
which fell from the sun as
"the act of creation took place",
"That's to say"
or Dream on Skylight
even after with Guiding Light".
To the Ray"s of light which fell from the sun,
that men and women are the "off spring " of light",
to the ray"s of light falling from the sun as
the act of creation "took place.
THAT'S TO SAY"
AND YOU WILL BE FIRST ON THE MOON
that could be dangerous moonlight
"Hello, Hello -
any life out there,
it could also explain
why in the World all all this has to happened.
AS TURKS BOMB lRAQUI KURDS
and they say
we do not know
why they bombed us.
WHAT A SAD THING
that had to happened,
with a fire in the eyes,
it was a Zealot of fire,
or the third rock from the sun,
R a b b a Amen El k h e p e r a
from into the beginning
in primeval time,
in primeval matters.
where the act of creation "took place.
<> THATS IS TO SAY <>
»XXXXXXXX>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
| October 23, 2005 | 12:02:29 |
|
|
B A C K A L L E Y, History of the BBQ - Posted By: NaBeeel
B A C K A L L E Y
WOOD FIRE BBQ AND AND GRILL
HATUI RESTAURANT
History of the BBQ
O U R S T O R Y
I want you to hear about
In the beginning, there was fire.
<> Then somebody tossed a hunk of antelope into the embers, and,
àL0, there was barbecue.
I am an ember burning in the heartland of Egypt.
Opening the Mouth of Osiris
I am I. I am Osiris.
I have come because I wish to have come.
Build a bright fire of rags on the west bank of the Nile.
we shall roast the leg of an antelope
Give me charms and incense and saffron cake.
Give all the gods mouths to sing and Dance
Give me raisin cake and beer.
Give me songs green as earth.
Give all the gods mouths to sing
and Bless me with ancient dreams.
<> Now a days, if you wander through the back alleys of the BBQ Restaurant mecca of the world, you'll find BBQ joints hidden away doing their smoky flavor-empowering rituals of grilling, smoking, roasting, and baking, all in traditional wood~fired ovens. We at BackAlley Woodfire BBQ & Grill also cook in this time--honored our way, using well-seasoned Canadian hardwood, such as maple and oak, to infuse the food with a natural wood smoke tang.
<> They have been inspired by the many cultures, past arid-present, that have used woodfires for cooking, and they seek to unite their food traditions to bring you a new way of eating. there menu locks to the countries along the Silk Road, where so many great BBQ dishes originated thousands of years ago.
<> The Silk Road connected ancient China's capital city, Xian, to ancient Rome-a 5000mile journey through Central Asia and EGYPT the Middle East. Not only were spices and goods exchanged between East and West, but also religions, cultures, and most important to there philosophy, foods. The foods found on the Silk Road incorporate diverse flavors and cultural blends. Recipes moved in both directions, and it was along this route that Chinese noodles traveled to become Italian pasta and where mezze, kebabs, flatbreads and pit-roasting were omnipresent, albeit under a vast array of names.
<> With many etlulic groups living their unique lifestyles through food, clothing, music, and arts, Kensington Market is a cultural microcosm of Toronto,. Not only does the Market allow to buy fresh local ingredients just~in~time, but it is itself a crossroad of mixed food tastes reflecting the many Silk Road cuisines.
<> They Blend past and present, Silk Road and Toronto. there wood fire ovens are the focus of quest for the ultimate in authentic HATUI, BBQ taste, AND NATURAL FALAVORE , and organic food list, Speaking of organic foods, this is certainly the latest worldwide trend with the range available growing steadily. is what they believe that you will find them as Well as there simple cooking style, unique and memorable in this fine Restaurant.
<> They have just begun the journey. Join them ! <>
Special prieces for TIG members code Wahooe
Frank Hsu, Chief Grill Jockey & Pit Master
188 AUGUSTA AVENUE, TORONTO ,ON -416- 979 -5557
WWW.BACKALLEYBBQ.COM-
<><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
| October 21, 2005 | 11:28:52 |
|
|
<>PRARIS OF P A R I S <><> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<><> PEARIS OF PARIS <><>
<> I LOVE PARIS <> ''' My Quest Trip to Paris '"<>
<><> The Parisian summer is just ending, <>
exhausted trees hanging onto their remaining foliage with difficulty.
Outside the Place St-Michel Metro stop,
the oaks have pretty much given up the fight.
The Seine too looks ready for a quiet spell,
thick with the churn of summer's hordes.
<><> As I wander away from the river,
I spy my goal, Rue de la Huchette,
one of the Left Bank's most famous streets.
It reminds me of my quest -
nothing less than to find the literary
heart of the world's most literary city.
<><> It's a daunting task.
Almost every great writer in history
waxed lyrical about Paris and many lived in its complex layers.
But I've started well.
The scruffY mid-20th century bohemians of the Left Bank
were immortalised not far away in Elliot Paul's
The Last Time I Saw Paris.
<><> It was around here too that the -
Beat Generation hung out,
most notably Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
I try to find Kerouac's Cafe Gentilhomme,
so beautifully evoked in his book Sa tori in Paris.
<><> I have no luck, running into the infamous Parisian 'non' at every turn.
Undeterred, I make for the grottier end of the suburb and suddenly,
unintentionally, hit the jackpot
when I accidentally land up outside Ginsberg's favourite hotel,
the Hotel du VieuxParis, at 9 rue Glt-Ie-Coeur.
It still looks just as I had imagined it to be,
a glorified pension heaped atop a filthy pavement
with only history to hold it up. Pure Ginsberg.
<><> Inside things are a little less authentic.
Ginsberg's presence is not so much felt as read,
on a much too neat noticeboard about his time at the hotel.
I tick one off my list for the day.
<><> Next is Rue Monsieur-Ie-Prince,
called Yankee alleyway
because American literary refugees
seem to have congregated around here through history.
I pass the now recorded homes of Whistler,
Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Kerouac and Hemingway.
<><> Hemingway's favoured restaurant,
the Cremerie Restaurant Polidor,
at 41 rue Monsieur Ie Prince, 6 E.,
is still making excellent stroganoff.
After a bowl of the piquant dish,
I head for the Crillon Hotel with its remarkable history.
The bar is popular among movie stars and other famous figures -
and Hemingway set a, dramatic scene in the The Sun Also Rises here.
<><> The hotel is very glitzy -
the Crillion obviously knows it's famous.
Instead of feeling like F. Scott Fitz-gerald ,
who also dined there, I sense that I am out-of-place,
Little plastic and slightly embarrassed.
<><> So I take my leave and head over to the literary equivalent
of Piccadilly Circus, a bookshop back on the Left Bank
within spitting distance of Notre Dame called,
oddly enough, Shakespeare and Company.
Its owner George Whitman,
who has nothing to do with Walt,
has made it his mission to stock his shop with writers
who've lived in or been synonymous with Paris.
<><> It's scruffy and wonderful inside. And authentic.
It smells like the starving poets who are allowed
to spend the night in the shop if they've nowhere else to go.
They're in good company.
Orwell starved in Paris once, as did Hemingway.
<><> My resolve fortified and poetry on my mind,
I head for the Luxembourg Gardens.
If elegance were a flower,
it'd grow in the Luxembourg Gardens.
Umpteen writers and poets have immortalised it.
Victor Hugo used it in Les Miserables and Hemingway in A Moveable Feast.
<><> Up the road I find a plaque on a tatty building
on Rue de Fleurus in homage to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.
It was here that Stein held her famous afternoon workshops
while Alice poured the tea.
Having seen the plaque,
I go in search of the spirit of the past as reinterpreted
by the new generation and head back to
the cafes of the Left Bank.
Two of them have succeeded in re-establishing themselves
as modern-day hotbeds -of literary cacophony.
<><> The Cafe de Flore and the Cafe Aux Deux Magots
are both loud, polluted and awash with literary life.
I ascend to the second floor of the Deux Magots,
away from the tourists, and join the writers and editors,
publishers and failures drinking thick coffee
and discussing the Next Big Thing.
<> There's a display case against the wall which startles me when I look at it. <>
<> <> It appears I'm sitting in Jean Paul Sartre's seat!
I have a minor existential moment looking at the faded picture
of the odd little man perched on my chair.
The caption says that the cafe became his study and living room.
I try to think how anyone could have come up with anything
as explosive as existentialism in such a raucous environment.
<><> Perhaps you have to be French.
When I put down my coffee cup,
I notice a scrawl on the table.
Someone has pencilled Jean Cocteau's quote to Picasso
about poetry on the tabletop.
'Poets don't draw.
They untie handwriting and then retie it in another way.'
<><> After my Sartrean moment,
I'm feeling very in sync with alternative Paris
and decide to finish my day's literary
ramble at the shrine of Cocteau.
<><> The shrine of Cocteau? It's all of Paris. <>
Fittingly,
I think, as I re-cross the Seine,
because Cocteau was the ultimate expression of artistic Paris.
<><> He knew no borders.
His work crossed over so many it tied itself in knots.
Cocteau knew everybody and did everything.
He was photographed by Man Ray,
sketched by Picasso, wrote a libretto for Stravinsky,
joined forces with Erik Satie and Picasso to produce Parade,
wrote beautiful poetry and then,
to confound his critics,
briefly managed the career of
bantamweight boxing champ Panama AI Brown.
<><> But then I succeed in finding a physical shrine to Cocteau.
It's the remainder of the Cocteau retrospective at the
hi-tech steel-and-glass modern art
museum, the Pompidou Centre, held to great acclaim in 2003.
<><> There in the cool halls,
Cocteau's exquisite 'Le Testament d'Orphee'
stares me in the face. Part poem,
part drawing,
it is achingly beautiful.
An appropriate heart of Paris, I think.
XXX>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
PEARIS OF PARIS I GUESS :-
Whether your preference is for art and culture or shopping, Paris offers sophistication and glamour for every taste. No matter how many times you have visited the city, you simply have to return to the famous Champs Elysees Boulevard, walking its length from the Arc de Triomphe monument to the famous Place de la Concorde. If walking is not your scene, orientate yourself by taking a cruise on the River Seine, which divides the city into the Right and Left Bank.
<><> This way, you will glimpse the spectacular Notre Dame cathedral and other landmarks.
No visit to Paris is complete without a trip to the Montmartre district
and the prominent, white- domed Sacre Coeur cathedral
The Pompidou Centre is great for modern art, but the Louvre
is considered by many as the world's greatest art museum for good reason.
<><> You simply have to join the queue, even if it's to see just a fraction
of its more than 300 000 works of art. And there's always shopping -
Chanel, Gucci, Valentino, Hermes and Ralph Lauren on the Left Bank
and the elegant jewellers on Place Vend6me. Or join the rich and famous
at the Galleries Lafayette department store, with its art nouveau finishings.
<><> For more relaxed shopping,
there are numerous street stalls,
second-hand shops and markets
with clothes, flowers, food, stamps and bric-a-brac to explore.
<><> End the day with a meal at one of Paris's wonderful restaurants-
- not for nothing is the city known as the home of gourmet eating in the World -
and then take to the bustling streets,
go to a show or mingle with the club or bar crowds.
<><> If you cannot make it into the trendy
but packed Buddha Bar
just off the Champs Elysees,
pop into nearly any of the many others in
the area to get the vibe of nightlife.
><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> end-----~~~
| October 20, 2005 | 20:51:47 |
|
|
<> <> PEARIS OF PARIS <><> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<><> PEARIS OF PARIS <><>
<> I LOVE PARIS <> ''' My Quest Trip to Paris '"<>
<><> The Parisian summer is just ending, <>
exhausted trees hanging onto their remaining foliage with difficulty.
Outside the Place St-Michel Metro stop,
the oaks have pretty much given up the fight.
The Seine too looks ready for a quiet spell,
thick with the churn of summer's hordes.
<><> As I wander away from the river,
I spy my goal, Rue de la Huchette,
one of the Left Bank's most famous streets.
It reminds me of my quest -
nothing less than to find the literary
heart of the world's most literary city.
<><> It's a daunting task.
Almost every great writer in history
waxed lyrical about Paris and many lived in its complex layers.
But I've started well.
The scruffY mid-20th century bohemians of the Left Bank
were immortalised not far away in Elliot Paul's
The Last Time I Saw Paris.
<><> It was around here too that the -
Beat Generation hung out,
most notably Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
I try to find Kerouac's Cafe Gentilhomme,
so beautifully evoked in his book Sa tori in Paris.
<><> I have no luck, running into the infamous Parisian 'non' at every turn.
Undeterred, I make for the grottier end of the suburb and suddenly,
unintentionally, hit the jackpot
when I accidentally land up outside Ginsberg's favourite hotel,
the Hotel du VieuxParis, at 9 rue Glt-Ie-Coeur.
It still looks just as I had imagined it to be,
a glorified pension heaped atop a filthy pavement
with only history to hold it up. Pure Ginsberg.
<><> Inside things are a little less authentic.
Ginsberg's presence is not so much felt as read,
on a much too neat noticeboard about his time at the hotel.
I tick one off my list for the day.
<><> Next is Rue Monsieur-Ie-Prince,
called Yankee alleyway
because American literary refugees
seem to have congregated around here through history.
I pass the now recorded homes of Whistler,
Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Kerouac and Hemingway.
<><> Hemingway's favoured restaurant,
the Cremerie Restaurant Polidor,
at 41 rue Monsieur Ie Prince, 6 E.,
is still making excellent stroganoff.
After a bowl of the piquant dish,
I head for the Crillon Hotel with its remarkable history.
The bar is popular among movie stars and other famous figures -
and Hemingway set a, dramatic scene in the The Sun Also Rises here.
<><> The hotel is very glitzy -
the Crillion obviously knows it's famous.
Instead of feeling like F. Scott Fitz-gerald ,
who also dined there, I sense that I am out-of-place,
Little plastic and slightly embarrassed.
<><> So I take my leave and head over to the literary equivalent
of Piccadilly Circus, a bookshop back on the Left Bank
within spitting distance of Notre Dame called,
oddly enough, Shakespeare and Company.
Its owner George Whitman,
who has nothing to do with Walt,
has made it his mission to stock his shop with writers
who've lived in or been synonymous with Paris.
<><> It's scruffy and wonderful inside. And authentic.
It smells like the starving poets who are allowed
to spend the night in the shop if they've nowhere else to go.
They're in good company.
Orwell starved in Paris once, as did Hemingway.
<><> My resolve fortified and poetry on my mind,
I head for the Luxembourg Gardens.
If elegance were a flower,
it'd grow in the Luxembourg Gardens.
Umpteen writers and poets have immortalised it.
Victor Hugo used it in Les Miserables and Hemingway in A Moveable Feast.
<><> Up the road I find a plaque on a tatty building
on Rue de Fleurus in homage to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.
It was here that Stein held her famous afternoon workshops
while Alice poured the tea.
Having seen the plaque,
I go in search of the spirit of the past as reinterpreted
by the new generation and head back to
the cafes of the Left Bank.
Two of them have succeeded in re-establishing themselves
as modern-day hotbeds -of literary cacophony.
<><> The Cafe de Flore and the Cafe Aux Deux Magots
are both loud, polluted and awash with literary life.
I ascend to the second floor of the Deux Magots,
away from the tourists, and join the writers and editors,
publishers and failures drinking thick coffee
and discussing the Next Big Thing.
<> There's a display case against the wall which startles me when I look at it. <>
<> <> It appears I'm sitting in Jean Paul Sartre's seat!
I have a minor existential moment looking at the faded picture
of the odd little man perched on my chair.
The caption says that the cafe became his study and living room.
I try to think how anyone could have come up with anything
as explosive as existentialism in such a raucous environment.
<><> Perhaps you have to be French.
When I put down my coffee cup,
I notice a scrawl on the table.
Someone has pencilled Jean Cocteau's quote to Picasso
about poetry on the tabletop.
'Poets don't draw.
They untie handwriting and then retie it in another way.'
<><> After my Sartrean moment,
I'm feeling very in sync with alternative Paris
and decide to finish my day's literary
ramble at the shrine of Cocteau.
<><> The shrine of Cocteau? It's all of Paris. <>
Fittingly,
I think, as I re-cross the Seine,
because Cocteau was the ultimate expression of artistic Paris.
<><> He knew no borders.
His work crossed over so many it tied itself in knots.
Cocteau knew everybody and did everything.
He was photographed by Man Ray,
sketched by Picasso, wrote a libretto for Stravinsky,
joined forces with Erik Satie and Picasso to produce Parade,
wrote beautiful poetry and then,
to confound his critics,
briefly managed the career of
bantamweight boxing champ Panama AI Brown.
<><> But then I succeed in finding a physical shrine to Cocteau.
It's the remainder of the Cocteau retrospective at the
hi-tech steel-and-glass modern art
museum, the Pompidou Centre, held to great acclaim in 2003.
<><> There in the cool halls,
Cocteau's exquisite 'Le Testament d'Orphee'
stares me in the face. Part poem,
part drawing,
it is achingly beautiful.
An appropriate heart of Paris, I think.
XXX>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
PEARIS OF PARIS I GUESS :-
Whether your preference is for art and culture or shopping, Paris offers sophistication and glamour for every taste. No matter how many times you have visited the city, you simply have to return to the famous Champs Elysees Boulevard, walking its length from the Arc de Triomphe monument to the famous Place de la Concorde. If walking is not your scene, orientate yourself by taking a cruise on the River Seine, which divides the city into the Right and Left Bank.
<><> This way, you will glimpse the spectacular Notre Dame cathedral and other landmarks.
No visit to Paris is complete without a trip to the Montmartre district
and the prominent, white- domed Sacre Coeur cathedral
The Pompidou Centre is great for modern art, but the Louvre
is considered by many as the world's greatest art museum for good reason.
<><> You simply have to join the queue, even if it's to see just a fraction
of its more than 300 000 works of art. And there's always shopping -
Chanel, Gucci, Valentino, Hermes and Ralph Lauren on the Left Bank
and the elegant jewellers on Place Vend6me. Or join the rich and famous
at the Galleries Lafayette department store, with its art nouveau finishings.
<><> For more relaxed shopping,
there are numerous street stalls,
second-hand shops and markets
with clothes, flowers, food, stamps and bric-a-brac to explore.
<><> End the day with a meal at one of Paris's wonderful restaurants-
- not for nothing is the city known as the home of gourmet eating in the World -
and then take to the bustling streets,
go to a show or mingle with the club or bar crowds.
<><> If you cannot make it into the trendy
but packed Buddha Bar
just off the Champs Elysees,
pop into nearly any of the many others in
the area to get the vibe of nightlife.
><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> end-----~~~
| October 17, 2005 | 14:44:49 |
|
|
<><> IT WAS ZEALOT OF FIRE <><> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<><> IT WAS ZEALOT OF FIRE <><>
<> More to life in the Promised Land,
quest for fire and Mening as to what happing to:
"otto vass" and his daughter Anne,18 and Katherine,17
said to "Cold Squared".
<> BEYOND BELIEF <>
<> To subway jumper shocking tragedy Act
Dr. Suzan Killinger Johnson,is unspeakable
(Aug.ll, 2000) The truth of her final conflict
Beyond Belief to the most critical time
in mother "Baby Blue's" and child life "cuyler/
it's shocking tragedy, (Cuyler Killinger Johnson"
who died Friday Morning Aug.ll, 2000
at his mother's suicide bid
and she died Aug. 19, 2000, 8:00 pm.
<><> ITS HERE FINAL CONFLICT <><>
<> BEYOND BELIEF <>
<> THE DOCTOR WHO JUMPED
IN FRONT OF SUBWAY TRAIN,
˙Holding her infant son cuyles (has died Aug .11, 2000)
and the mother injured in the subway tragedy
died as well: so how a successful,
professional woman who had helped others
cope with depression had not been able
to get the help she needed.
It is a question about what happened, why ?
what is to say. .
<><> TO THE FAMILY OF THE LOST RUSSIAN
KURSK SUB CATASTROPHE
AS THERE SON ARE DYING
INSIDE A TIN CAN'S,
its ocean tomb.
The grief is immeasurable
as Russia mourns the Sailor
and nobody seems to know what happened,
thats the saddest thing.
"That is to say":
<><> WHAT?, WHAT?, WHAT?,& WHY
WHAT A SAD THING,
<> THAT HAD TO HAPPENED ! <>.
<> STAR TREK GENERATION, IN DEEP SPACE <>
<> Deep Space Voyage of Rediscovery,
its a New Day, to the Ray's of light
which fell from the sun,
that man and women are
the "offspring of light",
to the Rays of light
which fell from the sun as
"the act of creation took place",
"That's to say"
or Dream on Skylight
even after with Guiding Light".
( To the Ray"s of light which fell from the sun,
that men and women are the "off spring " of light",
to the ray"s of light falling from the sun as
the act of creation "took place. )
<><> THAT'S TO SAY"<><>
<> AND YOU WILL BE FIRST ON THE MOON
THAT COULD BE DANGEROUS MOONLIGHT
"HELLO, HELLO -
ANY LIFE OUT THERE"
"IT WOULD ALSO EXPLAIN
WHY IN THE WORLD ALL THIS HAS TO HAPPENED..
<> AS TURKS BOMB lRAQUI KURDS <>
AND THRY SAY:
WE DON'T KNOW
WHY THEY BOMBED US.
<> WHAT A SAD THING
THAT HAD TO HAPPENED,
WITH A FIRE IN THE EYES...
IT WAS ZEALOT OF FIRE
or third rock from the sun,
R a b b a Amen El K h e p e r a
into beginning in primeval time,
in primeval matters.
to the act of creation "took place.
<> THATS IS TO SAY <>
»XXXXXXXX>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
| October 15, 2005 | 22:45:33 |
|
|
<><> THAT°S I S TO SAY <><> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<><> THAT'S IS TO SAY"<><>
<> .RED HEAT STIR OLD FEELING
IN COMA OF "SHARING CIRCLE",
"IN VIEWER FORUM"
BY BREAKING THE CODES
OF "THE WORD OF POWER"
"H E K A U",
TO THE HOUR OF HEALING
FOR THE NEW EDGE BEFORE
THE STORM WARNING IN
Alberta, and it's a miserable Summer
(the year's 2000) with flatten crop,
.<><> THAT'S IS TO SAY"<><>
<><> TO THE WATER CRIS WITH
BEST WALKERTON,ONTARIO,<>
AND TO "THE REPAIR BANKRUPT
HEALTH SYSTEM"
MD'S SAY, WHAT A SAD
THING THAT HAVE HAPPENING.
<><> THAT'S IS TO SAY"<><>
FEED YOUR INNER CHILD CAKE
RECHARGE YOUR MOJO
REALIGN YOUR CHAKRAS
<><> THAT'S IS TO SAY"<><>
<><> AS A TOUR OF DUTY IN ADDAMS FAMILY<><>
<><> THAT'S IS TO SAY"<><>
<> "Are you being served all your needs"
"with Rapid Fire to change your heart",
in the Driver'seat/to the pool,
patios and decks, (and) Tornado
or earthquake on the way. .
<><> THAT'S IS TO SAY"<><>
<> In cold journey in your life on earth's
with the last word in 48 hours
to "the war of the roses" with Danny Devito,
"Do you know where you come from
and where you are going" .
. <> <> Ask yourself how did they do that!
in the Blue Reef Adventures
in the Universe for Wild Discovery,
and asked yourself
why in the world all this have to happening.
<><> THAT'S IS TO SAY"<><>
XXXX>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
| October 14, 2005 | 12:07:34 |
|
|
<><> THREE CANADIAN J O K E TO DAY : - <><> - Posted By: NaBeeel
LETS BE FRIEND TO DAY AND YOU SEE TO THAT :-
<><> Three Canadians joke Today: <><> AAA
Chat, dine, with The pope. its
getting worse every day":
Federal report author say"s:
<><> LOW-INCOME CANADIANS
<> BEING LEFT IN THE DIGITAL DUST
IS INTERNET ENHANCING YOUR LIFE:
WWW. STOP WAITING START SURFING,
GO A HEAD SHOPPING FREE,
MAKE YOUR DAY.
COM MP3 PLAYER, CD BURNERS,
SCANNER, DIGITAL CAMERAS,
IT MAKE YOUR INTERNET
EXPERIENCE THE BEST,
IT CAN BE,
<><> WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!
<> DOES THAT HAVE TO HAPPENING
AND TAKE PLACES IN OUR TIME NOW .
WHEN THE SPIRIT"S IS QUIETLY LINGERS
TO SURVIVOR, THE FINAL PARTY.
<><> With no relief for your moto intelligence,
when the pain is too much to bear.
Coon come offers natives support before Lobster Lunch!
It"s crying shame"
That is unacceptable in Canada.
. <> TO double standard for poor womans,
wheres ~The affordable housing:
all of god children deserve housing
as basic Human Rights,
all people living in Canada
are entitled to safe affordable housing.
Wheres the affordable housing?
Do we have a National Policy or Housing Charter,
Canada is now the only developed country
in the world without a national affordable housing program. Why?
<><> FEED THE CHILDREN..
WHY ALL THIS HAS TO HAPPENING
THAT IS TO SAY :-
WHY IN THE WORLD ALL
THIS HAS TO HAPPENED.
ITS WILD DISCOVERY,
AND SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY
WE HAVE TO CHANG BUD ASK OUR SELFS
<><> "that is to say"SAYING <><>
<> Saying you have developing a fun-ny
way of "serving pies"these days"
. I am not that hungry! that when the pie hits our P.M.
eye, its a disgrace and what a waste of food.
<><> "THIS IS IT, <><>
THE WORLD I USED TO KNOW
"OR THE UNIVERSE YOU CAME TO
<><> AS A VISITOR <><>
FOR A SHORT TIME IN YOUR LIFE
WAIT AND SEE OR HAVE YOU SEEN
YOURSELF the skylight inside
The pyramids in line,
<><> THAT IS TO SAY <><>
TO THE CREATOR OF WHAT
CAME INTO BEING
IN THE PRIMEVAL MATTER,
INTO The PRIMEVAL WATER
<><> THAT IS TO ALL<><>
THE ISSUE TAKES PLACE,
AND SPEAK FOR ITSELF
THE NEW"S IT! FIT TO PRINT,
AND SPEAK FOR ITSELF.
| October 11, 2005 | 20:45:00 |
|
|
<><> JUST FOR LAUGHS <><> - Posted By: NaBeeel
" JUST FOR Laughs,
More to life in the Promised Land,
quest for fire and Mening as to what happing to:
"otto vass" and his daughter Anne,18 and Katherine,17
said to "Cold Squared".
<> To subway jumper shocking tragedy Act
Dr. Suzan Killinger Johnson,is unspeakable
(Aug.ll, 2000) The truth of her final conflict
Beyond Belief to the most critical time
in mother "Baby Blue's" and child life "cuyler/
it's shocking tragedy, (Cuyler Killinger Johnson"
who died Friday Morning Aug.ll, 2000
at his mother's suicide bid
and she died Aug. 19, 2000, 8:00 pm.
<><> ITS HERE FINAL CONFLICT
<> BEYOND BELIEF <>
<> THE DOCTOR WHO JUMPED
IN FRONT OF SUBWAY TRAIN,
holding her infant son cuyles (has died Aug .11, 2000)
and the mother injured in the subway tragedy
died as well: so how a successful,
professional woman who had helped others
cope with depression had not been able
to get the help she needed.
It is a question about what happened,
why ? and what is to say. .
<><> TO THE FAMILY OF THE LOST RUSSIAN
KURSK SUB CATASTROPHE
AS THERE SON ARE DYING
INSIDE A TIN CAN'S,
its ocean tomb.
The grief is immeasurable
as Russia mourns the Sailor
and nobody seems to know what happened,
thats the saddest thing.
"That is to say":
<><> WHAT?, WHAT?, WHAT?,
WHAT A SAD THING,
THAT HAD TO HAPPENED !<>.
<> STAR TREK GENERATION,
<> Deep Space Voyage of Rediscovery, its a New Day, to the Ray's of light which fell from the sun, that man and women are the "offspring of light", to the Rays of light which fell from the sun as "the act of creation took place", "That's to say" or Dream on Skylight even after with Guiding Light". (To the Ray"s of light which fell from the sun, that men and women are the "off spring " of light", to the ray"s of light falling from the sun as the act of creation "took place.
<><> THAT'S TO SAY"<><>
<> AND YOU BE FIRST ON THE MOON
THAT COULD BE DANGEROUS MOONLIGHT
"HELLO, HELLO - ANY LIFE OUT THERE"
"IT WOULD ALSO EXPLAIN
WHY IN THE WORLD ALL THIS HAS TO HAPPENED..
<> AS TURKS BOMB lRAQUI KURDS
AND THRY SAY: WE DON'T KNOW
WHY THEY BOMBED US.
<> WHAT A SAD THING THAT HAD HAPPENED.
WITH A FIRE IN THE EYES...
IT WAS ZEALOT FIRE
or third rock from the sun,
R a b b a Amen El K h e p e r a
into beginning in primeval time, in primeval matters.
<><> THAT'S IS TO SAY"<><>
<> .RED HEAT STIR OLD FEELING
IN COMA OF "SHARING CIRCLE",
"IN VIEWER FORUM"
BY BREAKING THE CODES
OF "THE WORD OF POWER"
"H E K A U", TO THE HOUR OF HEALING
FOR THE NEW EDGE BEFORE
THE STORM WARNING IN
Alberta, and it's a miserable Summer
(the year's 2000) with flatten crop,
.
<><> TO THE WATER CRIS WITH BEST WALKERTON,ONTARIO,<>
AND TO "THE REPAIR BANKRUPT
HEALTH SYSTEM"
MD'S SAY, WHAT A SAD
THING THAT HAVE HAPPENING.
FEED YOUR INNER CHILD CAKE
RECHARGE YOUR MOJO
REALIGN YOUR CHAKRAS
<><> AS A TOUR OF DUTY IN ADDAMS FAMILY<><>
<> "Are you being served all your needs"
"with Rapid Fire to change your heart",
in the Driver'seat/to the pool,
patios and decks, (and) Tornado
or earthquake on the way. .
<> In cold journey in your life on earth's
with the last word in 48 hours
to "the war of the roses" with Danny Devito,
"Do you know where you come from
and where you are going" .
. <> <> Ask yourself how did they do that!
in the Blue Reef Adventures
in the Universe for Wild Discovery,
and asked yourself
why in the world all this have to happening.
<><> "that is to say"SAYING <><>
<> Saying you have developing a fun-ny
way of "serving pies"these days"
. I am not that hungry! that when the pie hits our P.M.
eye, its a disgrace and what a waste of food.
, <><> Three Canadians joke Today: <><>
Chat, dine, with The pope. its
getting worse every day":
Federal report author say"s:
<><> LOW-INCOME CANADIANS
<> BEING LEFT IN THE DIGITAL DUST
IS INTERNET ENHANCING YOUR LIFE:
WWW. STOP WAITING START SURFING,
GO A HEAD SHOPPING FREE,
MAKE YOUR DAY.
COM MP3 PLAYER, CD BURNERS,
SCANNER, DIGITAL CAMERAS,
IT MAKE YOUR INTERNET
EXPERIENCE THE BEST,
IT CAN BE,
<><> WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!
<> DOES THAT HAVE TO HAPPENING
AND TAKE PLACES IN OUR TIME NOW .
WHEN THE SPIRIT"S IS QUIETLY LINGERS
TO SURVIVOR, THE FINAL PARTY.
<><> With no relief for your moto intelligence,
when the pain is too much to bear.
Coon come offers natives support before Lobster Lunch!
It"s crying shame"
That is unacceptable in Canada.
. <> TO double standard for poor womans,
wheres ~The affordable housing:
all of god children deserve housing
as basic Human Rights,
all people living in Canada
are entitled to safe affordable housing.
Wheres the affordable housing?
Do we have a National Policy or Housing Charter,
Canada is now the only developed country
in the world without a national affordable housing program. Why?
<><> FEED THE CHILDREN..
WHY ALL THIS HAS TO HAPPENING
THAT IS TO SAY :-
WHY IN THE WORLD ALL
THIS HAS TO HAPPENED.
ITS WILD DISCOVERY,
AND SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY
WE HAVE TO CHANG BUD ASK OUR SELFS
<><> "THIS IS IT, <><>
THE WORLD I USED TO KNOW
"OR THE UNIVERSE YOU CAME TO
<><> AS A VISITOR <><>
FOR A SHORT TIME IN YOUR LIFE
WAIT AND SEE OR HAVE YOU SEEN
YOURSELF the skylight inside
The pyramids in line,
<><> THAT IS TO SAY <><>
TO THE CREATOR OF WHAT
CAME INTO BEING
IN THE PRIMEVAL MATTER,
INTO The PRIMEVAL WATER
<><> THAT IS TO ALL<><>
THE ISSUE TAKES PLACE,
AND SPEAK FOR ITSELF
THE NEW"S IT! FIT TO PRINT,
AND SPEAK FOR ITSELF.
| October 6, 2005 | 21:19:03 |
|
|
'"'" <><> THE J A C K F R U I T <><> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<>The Jackfruit <>/
<>Plants of Asian Rainforests: <>
<> The Jackfruit ( Artocarpus heterophylus Lamk) is a fruit found mainly in the rainforests of Thailand. They are as a yellow or greenish color. On the surface Jackfruits feel rough, and sometimes "warty". Each of the seeds of a Jackfruit are about the size of a pigeons egg , and there are about 100 of them in just one Jackfruit! The smell of a Jackfruit is extremely sweet and has the distinct smell of bananas. One Jackfruit can weigh from 30 to 40 pounds!
<> Jackfruit
<> Jackfruit is the worlds largest tree fruit and loved in many parts of the world for it's sweet unique flavor
(kathal) a large fruit of a milky-juice tree, Artocarpus heterophyllus, of family Moraceae. The fruit, botanically named sorosis, is a modification of the entire pistillate catkin and contains 100-500 large, oily seeds. The edible, pulpy part represents the parianth. It is designated as the national fruit of Bangladesh. The close relatives of jackfruit are champedak (A. champenden), monkey jack (A. lakoocha), and breadfruit (A. altilis). Of these, monkey jack is grown in Bangladesh. Jackfruit originated in the forests of the Western Ghats (India), where it still grows in the wild, as well as in the evergreen forests of Assam and Myanmar. The plant is now grown throughout the lowlands of the tropics and the subtropics. It is seen throughout Bangladesh but is grown in abundance in Naogaon, Dinajpur, Savar, Madhupur and Sylhet.
<> The jackfruit plant is an evergreen tree, 9 to 25 m high, and possesses milky latex in all parts. Its stems are straight, branching near the base, and forming dense, irregular crowns. The staminate flowers are borne in slender, dropping catkins formed at the end, or leaf axils of small branches. The jack plant flourishes best in a humid, warm climate, requires plenty of soil moisture, open textured deep-alluvial soil, and good drainage. Fruits contain vitamins A and C, while the seeds contain carbohydrate, protein and fat. The juicy pulp of the ripe fruit is eaten fresh, as a dessert, or is preserved in syrup. The seeds are eaten cooked, roasted or fried. The young fruit is consumed as a vegetable and also made into pickles. The leaves and rind of the fruit are fed to livestock. The wood is used for making furniture and musical instruments.
<><> JACKFRUIT<><>
<>Artocarpus heterophyllus LamMoraceae,<>
<> Common Names: Jackfruit, Jakfruit, Jaca, Nangka.
Related Species: Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis), Breadnut (A. altilis 'Seminifera'), Champedak (A. integer), Lakoocha (A. lakoocha), Marang (A. odoratissimus). Distant affinity: Figs (Ficus spp.), Mulberries (Morus spp.), African Breadfruit (Treculia african).
<> Origin: The jackfruit is believed indigenous to the rain forests of the Western Ghats of India. It spread early on to other parts of India, southeast Asia, the East Indies and ultimately the Philippines. It is often planted in central and eastern Africa and is fairly popular in Brazil and Surinam.
<> Adaptation: Jackfruit is adapted to humid tropical and near-tropical climates. Mature trees have survived temperatures of about 27? F in southern Florida, but these were frozen to large limbs. Young trees are likely to be killed at temperatures below 32? F. Unlike its relative, the breadfruit, the jackfruit is not injured by cool weather several degrees above freezing. There are only a dozen or so bearing jackfruit trees today in southern Florida, and these are valued mainly as curiosities. There are also several trees planted in the Asian exhibit at the San Diego Zoo. What they will do or how high they will grow remains a question. The tree is too large to make a suitable container-grown plant.
<> DESCRIPTION
<> Growth Habit: The jackfruit tree is handsome and stately. In the tropics it grows to an enormous size, like a large eastern oak. In California it is very doubtful that it would ever approach this size. All parts contain a sticky, white latex.
Foliage: The leaves are oblong, oval, or elliptic in form, 4 to 6 inches in length, leathery, glossy, and deep green in color. Juvenile leaves are lobed.
<> Flowers: Male and female flowers are borne in separate flower-heads. Male flower-heads are on new wood among the leaves or above the female. They are swollen, oblong, from an inch to four inches long and up to an inch wide at the widest part. They are pale green at first, then darken. When mature the head is covered with yellow pollen that falls rapidly after flowering. The female heads appear on short, stout twigs that emerge from the trunk and large branches, or even from the soil-covered base of very old trees. They look like the male heads but without pollen, and soon begins to swell. The stalks of both male and female flower-heads are encircled by a small green ring.
<> Fruit: Jackfruit is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world, reaching 80 pounds in weight and up to 36 inches long and 20 inches in diameter. The exterior of the compound fruit is green or yellow when ripe. The interior consists of large edible bulbs of yellow, banana-flavored flesh that encloses a smooth, oval, light-brown seed. The seed is 3/4 to 1-1/2 inches long and 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick and is white and crisp within. There may be 100 or up to 500 seeds in a single fruit, which are viable for no more than three or four days. When fully ripe, the unopened jackfruit emits a strong disagreeable odor, resembling that of decayed onions, while the pulp of the opened fruit smells of pineapple and banana.
<> There are two main varieties. In one, the fruits have small, fibrous, soft, mushy, but very sweet carpels with a texture somewhat akin to a raw oysters. The other variety is crisp and almost crunchy though not quite as sweet. This form is the more important commercially and is more palatable to western tastes.
<> <>Harvest: Jackfruits mature 3 to 8 months from flowering. When mature, there is usually a change of fruit color from light green to yellow-brown. Spines, closely spaced, yield to moderate pressure, and there is a dull, hollow sound when the fruit is tapped. After ripening, they turn brown and deteriorate rather quickly. Cold storage trials indicate that ripe fruits can be kept for 3 to 6 weeks at 52? to 55? F and relative humidity of 85% to 95%. Immature fruit is boiled, fried, or roasted. Chunks are cooked in lightly salted water until tender and then served. The only handicap is copious gummy latex which accumulates on utensils and hands unless they are first rubbed with cooking oil. The seeds can also be boiled or roasted and eaten similar to chestnuts. In Southeast Asia dried slices of unripe jackfruit are sold in the markets. The ripe bulbs, fermented and then distilled, produce a potent liquor.
<><> CULTIVARS
In Malaysia and India there are named types of fruit. One that has caused a lot of interest is Singapore, or Ceylon, a remarkable yearly bearer producing fruit in 18 months to 2-1/2 years from transplanting. The fruit is of medium size with small, fibrous carpels which are very sweet. It was introduced into India from Ceylon and planted extensively in 1949. Other excellent varieties are Safeda, Khaja, Bhusila, Bhadaiyan and Handia. In Australia, some of the varieties are: Galaxy, Fitzroy, Nahen, Cheenax, Kapa, Mutton, and Varikkha. None of these appear to be available in the US at this time.
<><><><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> end
| September 25, 2005 | 18:19:42 |
|
|
<><> L E J O U R N A R L <><><> I F IT MRTTERS, WE'RE T O L K I NG ABOUT IT <> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<><> L E J O U R N A R L <><>
<><> "NEW'S TOKING OPERR,<><>
<><><> L E J O U R N A R L <><>
<><> "NEW'S TOKING OPERR,<><>
<> I F IT MRTTERS, WE'RE T O L K I NG ABOUT IT <>
" JUST FOR Laughs,
More to life in the Promised Land,
quest for fire and Mening as to what happing to:
"otto vass" and his daughter Anne,18 and Katherine,17
said to "Cold Squared".
<> To subway jumper shocking tragedy Act
Dr. Suzan Killinger Johnson,is unspeakable
(Aug.ll, 2000) The truth of her final conflict
Beyond Belief to the most critical time
in mother "Baby Blue's" and child life "cuyler/
it's shocking tragedy, (Cuyler Killinger Johnson"
who died Friday Morning Aug.ll, 2000
at his mother's suicide bid
and she died Aug. 19, 2000, 8:00 pm.
<><> ITS HERE FINAL CONFLICT
<> BEYOND BELIEF <>
<> THE DOCTOR WHO JUMPED
IN FRONT OF SUBWAY TRAIN,
holding her infant son cuyles (has died Aug .11, 2000)
and the mother injured in the subway tragedy
died as well: so how a successful,
professional woman who had helped others
cope with depression had not been able
to get the help she needed.
It is a question about what happened,
why ? and what is to say. .
<><> TO THE FAMILY OF THE LOST RUSSIAN
KURSK SUB CATASTROPHE
AS THERE SON ARE DYING
INSIDE A TIN CAN'S,
its ocean tomb.
The grief is immeasurable
as Russia mourns the Sailor
and nobody seems to know what happened,
thats the saddest thing.
"That is to say":
<><> WHAT?, WHAT?, WHAT?,
WHAT A SAD THING,
THAT HAD TO HAPPENED !<>.
<> STAR TREK GENERATION,
<> Deep Space Voyage of Rediscovery, its a New Day, to the Ray's of light which fell from the sun, that man and women are the "offspring of light", to the Rays of light which fell from the sun as "the act of creation took place", "That's to say" or Dream on Skylight even after with Guiding Light". (To the Ray"s of light which fell from the sun, that men and women are the "off spring " of light", to the ray"s of light falling from the sun as the act of creation "took place.
<><> THAT'S TO SAY"<><>
<> AND YOU BE FIRST ON THE MOON
THAT COULD BE DANGEROUS MOONLIGHT
"HELLO, HELLO - ANY LIFE OUT THERE"
"IT WOULD ALSO EXPLAIN
WHY IN THE WORLD ALL THIS HAS TO HAPPENED..
<> AS TURKS BOMB lRAQUI KURDS
AND THRY SAY: WE DON'T KNOW
WHY THEY BOMBED US.
<> WHAT A SAD THING THAT HAD HAPPENED.
WITH A FIRE IN THE EYES...
IT WAS ZEALOT FIRE
or third rock from the sun,
R a b b a Amen El K h e p e r a
into beginning in primeval time, in primeval matters.
<><> THAT'S IS TO SAY"<><>
<> .RED HEAT STIR OLD FEELING
IN COMA OF "SHARING CIRCLE",
"IN VIEWER FORUM"
BY BREAKING THE CODES
OF "THE WORD OF POWER"
"H E K A U", TO THE HOUR OF HEALING
FOR THE NEW EDGE BEFORE
THE STORM WARNING IN
Alberta, and it's a miserable Summer
(the year's 2000) with flatten crop,
.
<><> TO THE WATER CRIS WITH BEST WALKERTON,ONTARIO,<>
AND TO "THE REPAIR BANKRUPT
HEALTH SYSTEM"
MD'S SAY, WHAT A SAD
THING THAT HAVE HAPPENING.
FEED YOUR INNER CHILD CAKE
RECHARGE YOUR MOJO
REALIGN YOUR CHAKRAS
<><> AS A TOUR OF DUTY IN ADDAMS FAMILY<><>
<> "Are you being served all your needs"
"with Rapid Fire to change your heart",
in the Driver'seat/to the pool,
patios and decks, (and) Tornado
or earthquake on the way. .
<> In cold journey in your life on earth's
with the last word in 48 hours
to "the war of the roses" with Danny Devito,
"Do you know where you come from
and where you are going" .
. <> <> Ask yourself how did they do that!
in the Blue Reef Adventures
in the Universe for Wild Discovery,
and asked yourself
why in the world all this have to happening.
<><> "that is to say"SAYING <><>
<> Saying you have developing a fun-ny
way of "serving pies"these days"
. I am not that hungry! that when the pie hits our P.M.
eye, its a disgrace and what a waste of food.
, <><> Three Canadians joke Today: <><>
Chat, dine, with The pope. its
getting worse every day":
Federal report author say"s:
<><> LOW-INCOME CANADIANS
<> BEING LEFT IN THE DIGITAL DUST
IS INTERNET ENHANCING YOUR LIFE:
WWW. STOP WAITING START SURFING,
GO A HEAD SHOPPING FREE,
MAKE YOUR DAY.
COM MP3 PLAYER, CD BURNERS,
SCANNER, DIGITAL CAMERAS,
IT MAKE YOUR INTERNET
EXPERIENCE THE BEST,
IT CAN BE,
<><> WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!
<> DOES THAT HAVE TO HAPPENING
AND TAKE PLACES IN OUR TIME NOW .
WHEN THE SPIRIT"S IS QUIETLY LINGERS
TO SURVIVOR, THE FINAL PARTY.
<><> With no relief for your moto intelligence,
when the pain is too much to bear.
Coon come offers natives support before Lobster Lunch!
It"s crying shame"
That is unacceptable in Canada.
. <> TO double standard for poor womans,
wheres ~The affordable housing:
all of god children deserve housing
as basic Human Rights,
all people living in Canada
are entitled to safe affordable housing.
Wheres the affordable housing?
Do we have a National Policy or Housing Charter,
Canada is now the only developed country
in the world without a national affordable housing program. Why?
<><> FEED THE CHILDREN..
WHY ALL THIS HAS TO HAPPENING
THAT IS TO SAY :-
WHY IN THE WORLD ALL
THIS HAS TO HAPPENED.
ITS WILD DISCOVERY,
AND SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY
WE HAVE TO CHANG BUD ASK OUR SELFS
<><> "THIS IS IT, <><>
THE WORLD I USED TO KNOW
"OR THE UNIVERSE YOU CAME TO
<><> AS A VISITOR <><>
FOR A SHORT TIME IN YOUR LIFE
WAIT AND SEE OR HAVE YOU SEEN
YOURSELF the skylight inside
The pyramids in line,
<><> THAT IS TO SAY <><>
TO THE CREATOR OF WHAT
CAME INTO BEING
IN THE PRIMEVAL MATTER,
INTO The PRIMEVAL WATER
<><> THAT IS TO ALL<><>
THE ISSUE TAKES PLACE,
AND SPEAK FOR ITSELF
THE NEW"S IT! FIT TO PRINT,
AND SPEAK FOR ITSELF.
OCTOBER 6, 2000 WAHOOE .*
XXXX>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
<>
" JUST FOR Laughs,
More to life in the Promised Land,
quest for fire and Mening as to what happing to:
"otto vass" and his daughter Anne,18 and Katherine,17
said to "Cold Squared".
<> To subway jumper shocking tragedy Act
Dr. Suzan Killinger Johnson,is unspeakable
(Aug.ll, 2000) The truth of her final conflict
Beyond Belief to the most critical time
in mother "Baby Blue's" and child life "cuyler/
it's shocking tragedy, (Cuyler Killinger Johnson"
who died Friday Morning Aug.ll, 2000
at his mother's suicide bid
and she died Aug. 19, 2000, 8:00 pm.
<><> ITS HERE FINAL CONFLICT
<> BEYOND BELIEF <>
<> THE DOCTOR WHO JUMPED
IN FRONT OF SUBWAY TRAIN,
holding her infant son cuyles (has died Aug .11, 2000)
and the mother injured in the subway tragedy
died as well: so how a successful,
professional woman who had helped others
cope with depression had not been able
to get the help she needed.
It is a question about what happened,
why ? and what is to say. .
<><> TO THE FAMILY OF THE LOST RUSSIAN
KURSK SUB CATASTROPHE
AS THERE SON ARE DYING
INSIDE A TIN CAN'S,
its ocean tomb.
The grief is immeasurable
as Russia mourns the Sailor
and nobody seems to know what happened,
thats the saddest thing.
"That is to say":
<><> WHAT?, WHAT?, WHAT?,
WHAT A SAD THING,
THAT HAD TO HAPPENED !<>.
<> STAR TREK GENERATION,
<> Deep Space Voyage of Rediscovery, its a New Day, to the Ray's of light which fell from the sun, that man and women are the "offspring of light", to the Rays of light which fell from the sun as "the act of creation took place", "That's to say" or Dream on Skylight even after with Guiding Light". (To the Ray"s of light which fell from the sun, that men and women are the "off spring " of light", to the ray"s of light falling from the sun as the act of creation "took place.
<><> THAT'S TO SAY"<><>
<> AND YOU BE FIRST ON THE MOON
THAT COULD BE DANGEROUS MOONLIGHT
"HELLO, HELLO - ANY LIFE OUT THERE"
"IT WOULD ALSO EXPLAIN
WHY IN THE WORLD ALL THIS HAS TO HAPPENED..
<> AS TURKS BOMB lRAQUI KURDS
AND THRY SAY: WE DON'T KNOW
WHY THEY BOMBED US.
<> WHAT A SAD THING THAT HAD HAPPENED.
WITH A FIRE IN THE EYES...
IT WAS ZEALOT FIRE
or third rock from the sun,
R a b b a Amen El K h e p e r a
into beginning in primeval time, in primeval matters.
<><> THAT'S IS TO SAY"<><>
<> .RED HEAT STIR OLD FEELING
IN COMA OF "SHARING CIRCLE",
"IN VIEWER FORUM"
BY BREAKING THE CODES
OF "THE WORD OF POWER"
"H E K A U", TO THE HOUR OF HEALING
FOR THE NEW EDGE BEFORE
THE STORM WARNING IN
Alberta, and it's a miserable Summer
(the year's 2000) with flatten crop,
.
<><> TO THE WATER CRIS WITH BEST WALKERTON,ONTARIO,<>
AND TO "THE REPAIR BANKRUPT
HEALTH SYSTEM"
MD'S SAY, WHAT A SAD
THING THAT HAVE HAPPENING.
FEED YOUR INNER CHILD CAKE
RECHARGE YOUR MOJO
REALIGN YOUR CHAKRAS
<><> AS A TOUR OF DUTY IN ADDAMS FAMILY<><>
<> "Are you being served all your needs"
"with Rapid Fire to change your heart",
in the Driver'seat/to the pool,
patios and decks, (and) Tornado
or earthquake on the way. .
<> In cold journey in your life on earth's
with the last word in 48 hours
to "the war of the roses" with Danny Devito,
"Do you know where you come from
and where you are going" .
. <> <> Ask yourself how did they do that!
in the Blue Reef Adventures
in the Universe for Wild Discovery,
and asked yourself
why in the world all this have to happening.
<><> "that is to say"SAYING <><>
<> Saying you have developing a fun-ny
way of "serving pies"these days"
. I am not that hungry! that when the pie hits our P.M.
eye, its a disgrace and what a waste of food.
, <><> Three Canadians joke Today: <><>
Chat, dine, with The pope. its
getting worse every day":
Federal report author say"s:
<><> LOW-INCOME CANADIANS
<> BEING LEFT IN THE DIGITAL DUST
IS INTERNET ENHANCING YOUR LIFE:
WWW. STOP WAITING START SURFING,
GO A HEAD SHOPPING FREE,
MAKE YOUR DAY.
COM MP3 PLAYER, CD BURNERS,
SCANNER, DIGITAL CAMERAS,
IT MAKE YOUR INTERNET
EXPERIENCE THE BEST,
IT CAN BE,
<><> WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!
<> DOES THAT HAVE TO HAPPENING
AND TAKE PLACES IN OUR TIME NOW .
WHEN THE SPIRIT"S IS QUIETLY LINGERS
TO SURVIVOR, THE FINAL PARTY.
<><> With no relief for your moto intelligence,
when the pain is too much to bear.
Coon come offers natives support before Lobster Lunch!
It"s crying shame"
That is unacceptable in Canada.
. <> TO double standard for poor womans,
wheres ~The affordable housing:
all of god children deserve housing
as basic Human Rights,
all people living in Canada
are entitled to safe affordable housing.
Wheres the affordable housing?
Do we have a National Policy or Housing Charter,
Canada is now the only developed country
in the world without a national affordable housing program. Why?
<><> FEED THE CHILDREN..
WHY ALL THIS HAS TO HAPPENING
THAT IS TO SAY :-
WHY IN THE WORLD ALL
THIS HAS TO HAPPENED.
ITS WILD DISCOVERY,
AND SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY
WE HAVE TO CHANG BUD ASK OUR SELFS
<><> "THIS IS IT, <><>
THE WORLD I USED TO KNOW
"OR THE UNIVERSE YOU CAME TO
<><> AS A VISITOR <><>
FOR A SHORT TIME IN YOUR LIFE
WAIT AND SEE OR HAVE YOU SEEN
YOURSELF the skylight inside
The pyramids in line,
<><> THAT IS TO SAY <><>
TO THE CREATOR OF WHAT
CAME INTO BEING
IN THE PRIMEVAL MATTER,
INTO The PRIMEVAL WATER
<><> THAT IS TO ALL<><>
THE ISSUE TAKES PLACE,
AND SPEAK FOR ITSELF
THE NEW"S IT! FIT TO PRINT,
AND SPEAK FOR ITSELF.
OCTOBER 6, 2000 WAHOOE .*
XXXX>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
| September 22, 2005 | 14:03:14 |
|
|
L E J O U R N R L NEWS TOKING OPERA <><> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<><> L E J O U R N R L <><>BY WAHOOE '"'"<><>
<><> "NEW'S TOKING OPERA, <><>
<> I F IT MRTTERS, WE'RE T O L K I NG ABOUT IT <>
" JUST FOR Laughs,
<> More to life in the Promised Land,
quest for fire and Mening as to what happing to:
"otto vass" and his daughter Anne,18 and Katherine,17
said to "Cold Squared".
<> To subway jumper shocking tragedy Act
Dr. Suzan Killinger Johnson,is unspeakable
(Aug.ll, 2000) The truth of her final conflict
Beyond Belief to the most critical time
in mother "Baby Blue's" and child life "cuyler/
it's shocking tragedy, (Cuyler Killinger Johnson"
who died Friday Morning Aug.ll, 2000
at his mother's suicide bid
and she died Aug. 19, 2000, 8:00 pm.
<><> ITS HERE FINAL CONFLICT
<> BEYOND BELIEF <>
<> THE DOCTOR WHO JUMPED
IN FRONT OF SUBWAY TRAIN,
holding her infant son cuyles (has died Aug .11, 2000)
and the mother injured in the subway tragedy
died as well: so how a successful,
professional woman who had helped others
cope with depression had not been able
to get the help she needed.
It is a question about what happened,
why ? and what is to say. .
<><> TO THE FAMILY OF THE LOST RUSSIAN
KURSK SUB CATASTROPHE
AS THERE SON ARE DYING
INSIDE A TIN CAN'S,
its ocean tomb.
The grief is immeasurable
as Russia mourns the Sailor
and nobody seems to know what happened,
thats the saddest thing.
"That is to say":
<><> WHAT?, WHAT?, WHAT?,
WHAT A SAD THING,
THAT HAD TO HAPPENED !<>.
<> STAR TREK GENERATION,
<> Deep Space Voyage of Rediscovery, its a New Day, to the Ray's of light which fell from the sun, that man and women are the "offspring of light", to the Rays of light which fell from the sun as "the act of creation took place", "That's to say" or Dream on Skylight even after with Guiding Light". (To the Ray"s of light which fell from the sun, that men and women are the "off spring " of light", to the ray"s of light falling from the sun as the act of creation "took place.
<><> THAT'S TO SAY"<><>
<> AND YOU BE FIRST ON THE MOON
THAT COULD BE DANGEROUS MOONLIGHT
"HELLO, HELLO - ANY LIFE OUT THERE"
"IT WOULD ALSO EXPLAIN
WHY IN THE WORLD ALL THIS HAS TO HAPPENED..
<> AS TURKS BOMB lRAQUI KURDS
AND THRY SAY: WE DON'T KNOW
WHY THEY BOMBED US.
<> WHAT A SAD THING THAT HAD HAPPENED.
WITH A FIRE IN THE EYES...
IT WAS ZEALOT FIRE
or third rock from the sun,
R a b b a Amen El K h e p e r a
into beginning in primeval time, in primeval matters.
<><> THAT'S IS TO SAY"<><>
<> .RED HEAT STIR OLD FEELING
IN COMA OF "SHARING CIRCLE",
"IN VIEWER FORUM"
BY BREAKING THE CODES
OF "THE WORD OF POWER"
"H E K A U", TO THE HOUR OF HEALING
FOR THE NEW EDGE BEFORE
THE STORM WARNING IN
Alberta, and it's a miserable Summer
(the year's 2000) with flatten crop,
.
<><> TO THE WATER CRIS WITH BEST WALKERTON,ONTARIO,<>
AND TO "THE REPAIR BANKRUPT
HEALTH SYSTEM"
MD'S SAY, WHAT A SAD
THING THAT HAVE HAPPENING.
FEED YOUR INNER CHILD CAKE
RECHARGE YOUR MOJO
REALIGN YOUR CHAKRAS
<><> AS A TOUR OF DUTY IN ADDAMS FAMILY<><>
<> "Are you being served all your needs"
"with Rapid Fire to change your heart",
in the Driver'seat/to the pool,
patios and decks, (and) Tornado
or earthquake on the way. .
<> In cold journey in your life on earth's
with the last word in 48 hours
to "the war of the roses" with Danny Devito,
"Do you know where you come from
and where you are going" .
. <> <> Ask yourself how did they do that!
in the Blue Reef Adventures
in the Universe for Wild Discovery,
and asked yourself
why in the world all this have to happening.
<><> "that is to say"SAYING <><>
<> Saying you have developing a fun-ny
way of "serving pies"these days"
. I am not that hungry! that when the pie hits our P.M.
eye, its a disgrace and what a waste of food.
, <><> Three Canadians joke Today: <><>
Chat, dine, with The pope. its
getting worse every day":
Federal report author say"s:
<><> LOW-INCOME CANADIANS
<> BEING LEFT IN THE DIGITAL DUST
IS INTERNET ENHANCING YOUR LIFE:
WWW. STOP WAITING START SURFING,
GO A HEAD SHOPPING FREE,
MAKE YOUR DAY.
COM MP3 PLAYER, CD BURNERS,
SCANNER, DIGITAL CAMERAS,
IT MAKE YOUR INTERNET
EXPERIENCE THE BEST,
IT CAN BE,
<><> WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!
<> DOES THAT HAVE TO HAPPENING
AND TAKE PLACES IN OUR TIME NOW .
WHEN THE SPIRIT"S IS QUIETLY LINGERS
TO SURVIVOR, THE FINAL PARTY.
<><> With no relief for your moto intelligence,
when the pain is too much to bear.
Coon come offers natives support before Lobster Lunch!
It"s crying shame"
That is unacceptable in Canada.
. <> TO double standard for poor womans,
wheres ~The affordable housing:
all of god children deserve housing
as basic Human Rights,
all people living in Canada
are entitled to safe affordable housing.
Wheres the affordable housing?
Do we have a National Policy or Housing Charter,
Canada is now the only developed country
in the world without a national affordable housing program. Why?
<><> FEED THE CHILDREN..
WHY ALL THIS HAS TO HAPPENING
THAT IS TO SAY :-
WHY IN THE WORLD ALL
THIS HAS TO HAPPENED.
ITS WILD DISCOVERY,
AND SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY
WE HAVE TO CHANG BUD ASK OUR SELFS
<><> "THIS IS IT, <><>
THE WORLD I USED TO KNOW
"OR THE UNIVERSE YOU CAME TO
<><> AS A VISITOR <><>
FOR A SHORT TIME IN YOUR LIFE
WAIT AND SEE OR HAVE YOU SEEN
YOURSELF the skylight inside
The pyramids in line,
<><> THAT IS TO SAY <><>
TO THE CREATOR OF WHAT
CAME INTO BEING
IN THE PRIMEVAL MATTER,
INTO The PRIMEVAL WATER
<><> THAT IS TO ALL<><>
THE ISSUE TAKES PLACE,
AND SPEAK FOR ITSELF
THE NEW"S IT! FIT TO PRINT,
AND SPEAK FOR ITSELF.
OCTOBER 6, 2000 WAHOOE .*
<><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
| September 20, 2005 | 22:47:45 |
|
|
<><> THE PEACE OF THE WILD THING # 2<><> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<><> THE PEACE OF THE WILD THING # 2<><> ]
This entry is about: Let's Share Our Differences | Canada
<> World Peace<>By WAHOOE
<><> The Peace of Wild Thing <><>
<><><> When Despair Grows In me <><><>
<> I Wake In the Middle Of The Night at Least Sound In Fear Of What My LIfe and My Childern My be. Me. Least Sound In Fear.
<> I Rest In This beauty on the the Water, and the great heron feeds, I Come Into the Presence of Still Water, I AM Into the Peace of Wild Things. but Nothing Noteworthy has Happened so Far and What else I might have seen, Make the Sound and the Round on other Chate.
<> With all the Time In the World, to have, I go and Lie down Where the chadow of the wood darknse, Rest In this beauty on the Water and the heron feeds, I come Into the Peace of Wild things. Who do not tax their lives with forethough of grief, become awere that there was, but nothing, noteworthy has happened so far.
SEPTEMBER 11 / 2OO1
I am as I feel above me the day- blind stars, Waittlng for their light as the brilliantly, funny thing that had happened so far,lt's a Wild Thing everything ~@ a Puree With a Lot's of grief. it draw Rally, Cry Grief, Trouble, Anger, Fear, Heart Break, Full of Saddness.Full of Question, Dlsapointment., Disbelief, Mouring, Devostetion,to the World and National Disaster, Who affairs is this.?? that Requiring concern or attention ,and effort of that particular event.
Where Is the Hidden hand behind the Cover Story,lt's Horrendous the day of September 11Th 2001 the Big Lie,Fantasy of Untruth, Manipulation,Contradlction and aNomaly, abnormal or Irregular, with theWAR,that drawe the""peace of wild thing"" or that is preformance or affect wargame that strife conflict performance, between parties Lick war dance,or war whoop by primitive people to arous warlike emotional for frighten an enemy for that particular event "'performance"OR CONFLIC that make war show cry like Aerosol, a like.
* * * * WHOS AFFAIR IS THIS ANY HOW *
it's a bad day's ,Wild Thing ,With a lot of grief and Saddness. For a time I Rest In the grace of the World Peace, and I am Free but nothing noteworthy has happened so Far.
*** (9 / 11 /2001) Change You Life,***
<> Start Walking, I t Is not Imp 0 S sib Ie, I T P 0 S SIB L E,<> <><> <> Copy Right<
| September 17, 2005 | 15:47:03 |
|
|
<><> THE PEACE OF THE WILD THING<><> - Posted By: NaBeeel
<> World Peace<>By WAHOOE
<><> The Peace of Wild Thing <><>
<><><> When Despair Grows In me <><><>
<> I Wake In the Middle Of The Night at Least Sound In Fear Of What My LIfe and My Childern My be. Me. Least Sound In Fear.
<> I Rest In This beauty on the the Water, and the great heron feeds, I Come Into the Presence of Still Water, I AM Into the Peace of Wild Things. but Nothing Noteworthy has Happened so Far and What else I might have seen, Make the Sound and the Round on other Chate.
<> With all the Time In the World, to have, I go and Lie down Where the chadow of the wood darknse, Rest In this beauty on the Water and the heron feeds, I come Into the Peace of Wild things. Who do not tax their lives with forethough of grief, become awere that there was, but nothing, noteworthy has happened so far.
SEPTEMBER 11 / 2OO1
I am as I feel above me the day- blind stars, Waittlng for their light as the brilliantly, funny thing that had happened so far,lt's a Wild Thing everything ~@ a Puree With a Lot's of grief. it draw Rally, Cry Grief, Trouble, Anger, Fear, Heart Break, Full of Saddness.Full of Question, Dlsapointment., Disbelief, Mouring, Devostetion,to the World and National Disaster, Who affairs is this.?? that Requiring concern or attention ,and effort of that particular event.
Where Is the Hidden hand behind the Cover Story,lt's Horrendous the day of September 11Th 2001 the Big Lie,Fantasy of Untruth, Manipulation,Contradlction and aNomaly, abnormal or Irregular, with theWAR,that drawe the""peace of wild thing"" or that is preformance or affect wargame that strife conflict performance, between parties Lick war dance,or war whoop by primitive people to arous warlike emotional for frighten an enemy for that particular event "'performance"OR CONFLIC that make war show cry like Aerosol, a like.
* * * * WHOS AFFAIR IS THIS ANY HOW *
it's a bad day's ,Wild Thing ,With a lot of grief and Saddness. For a time I Rest In the grace of the World Peace, and I am Free but nothing noteworthy has happened so Far.
*** (9 / 11 /2001) Change You Life,***
<> Start Walking, I t Is not Imp 0 S sib Ie, I T P 0 S SIB L E,<> <><> <> Copy Right<>
************************* By Wahooe only
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| September 15, 2005 | 19:05:36 |
|
|
PASSION AND POWER - Posted By: NaBeeel
PASSION AND POWER
This entry is about: Let's Share Our Differences , Japan Cultural Diversity & Equity
Roy Thomson Hall & Asian Television Network present
<><><> Passion AND POWER><
<> An eclectic mix of music and dance from India, Hungary, Japan and Spain is Celebrated at RTH and MH><
music propelled by its rhythmic qualities is the essence of yamato the drummers of Japan at RTH November 26 the group powerful .performances are as much for the eyes for the ears
As for the latter, therès no question the drumming lives up to the name of Yamato 2005 world tour, Kami- Nari , which means<><> thunder. as founded in 1993 in Nara, the Land of Yamato it considered the Birthplace of Japanese culture, the group eventually began .touring the world, very Impressing
For 12 years, Yamato has brought the artistry of traditional Japanese wadaiko drums to over a million people. Current tour<><>
.ami-Nari” explores the power of thunder with several dozen drums of various sizes, displaying the instruments’ versatility and appealK“
Yamato was founded by Masa Ogawa in 1993 in Nara, 'the land of Yamato', which is said to be the birthplace of Japanese'"'" <><> culture. Presently based in Asuka Village, Nara Prefecture, we travel all over the world with Japan's traditional Wadaiko drums. We put our very souls into these unusual instruments, whose sound stir the hearts of people everywhere, and our performances are infused with the idea that the drumbeat, like the heartbeat, is the very pulse of life. Since its formation almost 10 years ago, Yamato has played to more than a million people, giving over 900 performances in about a dozen different countries, and yet our enthusiasm remains .undiminished
),We continue to travel with several dozen large and small drums (including an odaiko made from a huge tree over 400 years old<><> displaying the instruments' versatility and instinctive appeal, both in extemporized street performances and in concert halls holding ,several thousand people. Besides our travels throughout Japan, we have been on numerous overseas tours to China, South Korea . Indonesia and Singapore, as well as to South America and Europe
Theres world travels began in August 1998, when we took part in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was a huge success, and™<><> although the theatre was small, we performed to full houses and won the Spirit of Fringe award. From February to May 1999, we toured ,five European countries; Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Austria, giving a total of 70 concerts. In June of that year . we were invited to the Israel Festival, performing five times in Jerusalem and elsewhere
We were invited back to the Netherlands in August, playing at the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam. We made a third tour, from late<><> August to October, this time to South America. It was an important year for us; traveling long distances and performing for several hundred thousand people. In the year 2000, after performing in Osaka and Tokyo in February, we had an especially challenging tour of Britain, in March, where we played 27 times in the course of the month. The tour was a great success, attracting 30,000 people. Back in .Japan, we toured and performed in 60 schools between September and November
,The first year of the 21st century, 2001, was a memorable one for Yamato. We went on a world tour, from January to November<><> comprising 100 concerts in 6 countries in America, which was both the culmination of our pervious activities and a fresh start to our future. Our concert tour of Japan, in December, brought down the curtain on a very successful year. Last year, 2002, we performed in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This tour was organized in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and Japan, and of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between India and Japan, and Sri Lanka and Japan. In July and August 2002, we performed in Germany, Italy and Spain, In 2003, we performed in Europe. We gave 170 shows in Europe in this year. And . we went to USA and CANADA, and we had 26 peformance
. YAMATO was born, it became the 10th anniversary, and we performed the 10th anniversary in Japan in August<><>
,In 2004, we went 23 countries from January to September, Qatar, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Portugal, Spain, Germany, slovene Switzerland, Greece, Austria, and Holland.We had just 100 peformance. In Nobember we went to Mexico and we had 11 peformanced. In . December we went to HongKong and Macau and They had 5 peformance
. In 2005, They will go to 10 countries from February to September and they have 133 peformance. And then we will to USA
><><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><><><><<
| September 13, 2005 | 17:08:30 |
|
|
PASSION AND POWER - Posted By: NaBeeel
Roy Thomson Hall & Asian Television Network present
<><> Passion AND POWER<><>
<><> An eclectic mix of music and dance from India, Hungary, Japan and Spain is Celebrated at RTH and MH
music propelled by its rhythmic qualities is the essence of yamato the drummers of Japan at RTH November 26 the group powerful performances are as much for the eyes for the ears.
<><> As for the latter, therès no question the drumming lives up to the name of Yamato 2005 world tour, Kami- Nari , which means thunder. as founded in 1993 in Nara, the Land of Yamato it considered the Birthplace of Japanese culture, the group eventually began touring the world, very Impressing .
<><> For 12 years, Yamato has brought the artistry of traditional Japanese wadaiko drums to over a million people. Current tour
“Kami-Nari” explores the power of thunder with several dozen drums of various sizes, displaying the instruments’ versatility and appeal.
'"'" <><> Yamato was founded by Masa Ogawa in 1993 in Nara, 'the land of Yamato', which is said to be the birthplace of Japanese culture. Presently based in Asuka Village, Nara Prefecture, we travel all over the world with Japan's traditional Wadaiko drums. We put our very souls into these unusual instruments, whose sound stir the hearts of people everywhere, and our performances are infused with the idea that the drumbeat, like the heartbeat, is the very pulse of life. Since its formation almost 10 years ago, Yamato has played to more than a million people, giving over 900 performances in about a dozen different countries, and yet our enthusiasm remains undiminished.
<><> We continue to travel with several dozen large and small drums (including an odaiko made from a huge tree over 400 years old), displaying the instruments' versatility and instinctive appeal, both in extemporized street performances and in concert halls holding several thousand people. Besides our travels throughout Japan, we have been on numerous overseas tours to China, South Korea, Indonesia and Singapore, as well as to South America and Europe.
<><> ™Theres world travels began in August 1998, when we took part in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was a huge success, and although the theatre was small, we performed to full houses and won the Spirit of Fringe award. From February to May 1999, we toured five European countries; Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Austria, giving a total of 70 concerts. In June of that year, we were invited to the Israel Festival, performing five times in Jerusalem and elsewhere.
<><> We were invited back to the Netherlands in August, playing at the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam. We made a third tour, from late August to October, this time to South America. It was an important year for us; traveling long distances and performing for several hundred thousand people. In the year 2000, after performing in Osaka and Tokyo in February, we had an especially challenging tour of Britain, in March, where we played 27 times in the course of the month. The tour was a great success, attracting 30,000 people. Back in Japan, we toured and performed in 60 schools between September and November.
<><> The first year of the 21st century, 2001, was a memorable one for Yamato. We went on a world tour, from January to November, comprising 100 concerts in 6 countries in America, which was both the culmination of our pervious activities and a fresh start to our future. Our concert tour of Japan, in December, brought down the curtain on a very successful year. Last year, 2002, we performed in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. This tour was organized in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and Japan, and of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between India and Japan, and Sri Lanka and Japan. In July and August 2002, we performed in Germany, Italy and Spain, In 2003, we performed in Europe. We gave 170 shows in Europe in this year. And we went to USA and CANADA, and we had 26 peformance.
<><> YAMATO was born, it became the 10th anniversary, and we performed the 10th anniversary in Japan in August.
In 2004, we went 23 countries from January to September, Qatar, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Portugal, Spain, Germany, slovene, Switzerland, Greece, Austria, and Holland.We had just 100 peformance. In Nobember we went to Mexico and we had 11 peformanced. In December we went to HongKong and Macau and They had 5 peformance.
In 2005, They will go to 10 countries from February to September and they have 133 peformance. And then we will to USA.
<><><>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><><><><
| September 13, 2005 | 13:57:16 |
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DEFINITION OF TERRORISM - Posted By: NaBeeel
Annan calls for universal definition of "terrorism"
>< ><
UN chief Kofi Annan is seeking a globally defined and accepted definition of terrorism.
The UN chief Kofi Annan is urging world leaders to come to an agreement on a universal definition for 'terrorism'.
The international body’s Secretary General believes there is a dire need for a definition with “moral clarity” and for a UN convention against terrorism following the devastating bomb attacks in Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh and London.
A UN treaty has been held up for years over the definition of a terrorist.
A new UN proposal calls terrorism any act intended to intimidate a population or to compel a government or an international body to act.
"The targeting and deliberate killing of civilians and non-combatants cannot be justified or legitimised by any cause or grievance," it adds.
Annan is hoping the proposed UN terrorism convention will be agreed on by world leaders in time for a UN world summit in September.
"A simple, clear statement bringing in moral clarity that maiming and killing of civilians is unacceptable regardless of one's cause I think will satisfy all of us," he added.
The proposed convention on terrorism has been stuck in a committee since 1996 with the debate focusing on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, where some countries see groups as “terrorist”, others view them as as freedom or resistance fighters.
Reacting to the terrorism chapter in a revised draft blueprint on sweeping UN reform released Friday by Jean Ping, the current president of the General Assembly, Annan said: “All the key elements are in there, and I hope the definition of terrorism will be agreed to by the member states.”
“I don’t think it will be understood by their own citizens and by the world if the UN is unable to act on that. I think the president’s definition is acceptable. I thought mine was a little stronger but we can live with that,” said Annan.
The latest draft by Ping would commit member states “to conclude a comprehensive convention on international terrorism, including a legal definition of terrorism” during the upcoming General Assembly session.
The Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, has also backed Annan's latest definition, telling a news agency that it could serve as the "basis for consensus".
However, "resisting occupation is a different issue altogether", he said.
According to Annan's chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, the UN is mindful of objections to the definition on the basis that people who take up arms against a state to protect their freedoms do not have equal rights to strike back.
The UN needed to be understanding and protective of issues of political freedom and political participation, he said.
However, the behaviour of states was already heavily circumscribed by conventions governing the use of force, such as the Geneva conventions, he added.
"The argument now is that individuals who use violence for political purposes must similarly be constrained by similarly unambiguous definitions, and that there must be clear straightforwardness in condemning them," he said.
America wants to put an end to Iraq’s attempts to threaten its neighbors (a.k.a. Israel) with weapons of mass destruction. The US is acting as the champion of good against evil. But America forgets that the reality is that no other nation used weapons of mass destruction against CIVILIAN populations as the US did to Japan. Is this not terrorism? America politicians should set an example by attempting to repent for America’s past wrongs.
They should attempt to deter weapons proliferation EVERYWHERE in the Middle East. The US should also ask Israel to rid itself of its 200 or so estimated stock of nuclear warheads. Already one of the right wing politicians who recently resigned from the Sharon government suggested using them against the High Dam in Aswan, Egypt. That would kill many in the CIVILIAN population of Egypt. Terrorism, do you think?
| August 6, 2005 | 14:40:28 |
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CONCERNED CITIZENS - Posted By: NaBeeel
Algeria says 2 diplomats killed
SPRERD THE WORD, We are Compelled to Speak out to :-
Worldwid organizations of HOPE for peace on Earth
*** SPRERD THE WORD ***
**we are compelled to speak out To:-?
The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United State
White House Presidental whitehouse.gov
Washington, DC 20500 Hand Fax:1- 202 456 2461
* Mr. President As friends of the United States, we respect your country’s strength, creativity and generosity.
* At this point in history however, Our world have going , through its history, has seen massacres, bloodbaths, terrorism, genocide, injustice, slaughtering and torture of innocent women, children and elders.
In each era, the positions of leader of our world has gone to the most prosperous, the most systematic, the most religious, the most hard-worker, and sometimes the most vicious and violent….
we are compelled to speak out to you :- .
Nintey per cent of the people of the worldwide Country oppose to the U.S.-led war on Iraq and there government has failed to clearly express the majority opinion of its people.
* We Clearly Speak out our opinion and Concern about the War in Iraq , Israel State, Suedan State, Palestinian State living Peacefully alongside Israeli ,It all make sense in terms of political tactics for the ’ disengagement ’, Is the israeli tail is wagging the American dog , As you know one Issue is completely off -limits:The Israeli- Palestinian conflict.
What is happening now on the land of Iraq, is by all means an
uncivilized large-scale atrocity, committed by those who consider
themselves as the legal protectors of liberty, justice, freedom, and
human rights.
** Mr. President – we urge you to change your foreign policy. To pursue a flawed and failed policy is a sign of weakness.
What does it mean if the “most free country” is giving its army the
permission to kill children in such a way, under whatever reason?
What if that “whatever reason” is “the Freedom of Iraqi people”?
What can Mr President : Bush say to his American children if he is asked why is he
very happy while his troops demolish a whole country with cruise
missiles, and MOAB bombs?
Yes, Saddam is bad... but the worst is the way in which you Mr President:- .G.W.Bush
wants to replace him, which can be summarized as bombing and brutalizing civilians to encourage them to revolt against Saddam by "thinking" that what is happening to them is because of Saddam's previous mistakes...
If Saddam killed people through his long history of leadership under
the title of "protecting the Iraqi national security", then
Mr President:- George W. Bush continues to spoil lots and lots of human lives in
his short period of leadership, under many titles:
(1)"preserving world peace,"
(2) "limiting weapons of mass destruction,"
(3) "combating terrorism," and
(4)"liberating Iraqi people"!
Could it be reasonable now to study and say that Saddam Hussein is more
merciful for the Iraqis than his master in torture, Mr President :- George Walker
Bush? You don a greats Jobs, but no one could see to its .
* Why didn’t the Iraqis welcome the U.S. heroic troops, while they did
no more than killing Iraqi children, burning Housing and people alive in crowded
markets of Baghdad, shelling provision warehouses in Basra,
exploding some “Tomahawk fireworks” upon the heads of Iraqi
civilians, attacking Iraq bilaterally with “GREAT” Britain without
U.N. permission, derailing homes, hospitals, schools, and orphanage
residences? What on Earth are these Iraqis? Terrorists? Fanatics Egos Doing ?
**We want the United States to be strong and creative enough to apologize to the Iraqi people for an unjust war, and to the Allies for having misled them.
** We want the USA to be generous enough to compensate the innocent victims of violence, looting and trauma inflicted by torture Well Is Iraqis are definitely war criminals; the answer IS No , they defend their land from a “liberation army ” they didn’t welcome their liberators, they commit
suicide-bombings Did they,and THAT Liberators Guests broke the Geneva Conventions on
prisoners-of Irqaris war and More to Say ,Counting for... for Peace or More wars . .
** We firmly believe that the quest for peace in Iraq is best led by the United Nations and a democratically-elected Iraqi government.
**Finnally Mr. President – your country can once again be a leading example of democracy and freedom, inspiring a world where terrorism can no longer breed .
** By the way Your present policy only fosters resistance, Initiation Terrorists more than ever last Algeria says 2 diplomats killed
The Algeria government Wednesday said that its two diplomats abducted last week in Iraq were killed by their kidnappers.
Algerian charge d' affaires, Ali Belarouci, and colleague Azzedine Belkadi were seized Thursday in Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood, which is home to a number of Arab embassies.
An Internet statement posted Wednesday said the group al Qaeda in Iraq, the Islamic militant group led by terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had killed the diplomats.
The office of Algeria's president said the men "are considered martyrs because they were killed while they were serving their country as diplomats." everywhere. Mr. President – the choice is yours.
** Sincerely Concerned citizens Of Worldwid organizations of HOPE for peace on Earth taken care of MY C h i l d e r n .
*** Mr. president- the choice is all yours only, you still Could be a
great Leaders . .
** Thank you God Blessed America
BEAST REGAEDS”
***** SPRERD THE WORD
***** Send an email and tell people about this Initiative.
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UNESCO develops international projects in support of education for all, the advancement of science, cultural diversity, and communication and expression. Activities include conferences, development of international standards and laws, and management of and funding of projects on topics ranging...
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