Mauritania shows risks in US strategy
By Nick Tattersall
Reuters
DAKAR — When it comes to fighting militants in Africa, choosing allies is a risky business.
Soldiers who overthrew Mauritania's president this month may have ended 21 years of authoritarian rule and triggered dancing in the streets, but they also deprived the United States of a key ally in its “war on terror”.
Maaouyia Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya assiduously curried Washington's favour in the later years of his rule, shifting support from former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to Israel and the United States in a stunning diplomatic about-turn. He made Mauritania only the third member of the Arab League to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel and leapt at the chance to jail scores of Islamist critics in the name of the “war on terror.” The strategy may have won him friends in Washington but it infuriated many in a country straddling black and Arab Africa, who say it played a large part in contributing to his demise.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news7.htm
Morocco to welcome home last PoWs
RABAT (Reuters) — Morocco prepared to welcome home on Thursday the last 404 prisoners of war (PoW) who were held by Western Sahara's exiled Polisario Front independence movement, many of them for almost two decades.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the release in Tindouf, Algeria, followed US mediation. The men were being flown to Morocco to be reunited with their families.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news6.htm
Nuke programme advancing despite suspensions
By Michael Adler
Agence France-Presse
VIENNA — Despite suspending sensitive nuclear activities due to Western fears it is seeking to make atomic bombs, Iran has still managed to make progress on its programme but analysts differ on just how far along it has got.
The question is critical, as Iran this month resumed work on part of the nuclear fuel cycle and wants to negotiate further agreement to develop enriched uranium, the reactor fuel that can also be used to make bombs.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news5.htm
Iraqi Lawmakers seek constitution compromise with Sunnis
A boy, surrounded by family members, lies Thursday at the Kindi Hospital after being injured in a Baghdad car bombing on Wednesday (AFP photo by Karim Sahib)
BAGHDAD (AP) — A spokesman for the biggest Shiite party Thursday predicted a breakthrough on the constitution within the next two days, as negotiators scrambled to finish the draft by next week's deadline. A roadside bomb killed four more US soldiers in a city north of Baghdad.
Four days before the deadline, Sunni Arab members of the drafting committee met with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari to present their objections to federalism and other issues blocking an agreement.
Afterward, leaders of the factions — Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds — conferred late into Thursday night at the home of Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi in the heavily fortified Green Zone. No statement was issued after the meeting, but representatives of all three factions spoke optimistically about prospects for finishing by the new deadline Monday.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news2.htm
MAKANA empowers women to achieve positive change
By Mahmoud Al Abed
AMMAN — For the past 30 years, the residents of the southern town of Muta have been suffering from an environmental problem that authorities have failed to address.
A low-lying swamp, referred to by the local people as “the old bond,” throughout this time constituted a source of disease and threat to the health of the community of this town, situated about 15km south of Karak.
But much has changed over the past 18 months, thanks to a group of local female activists working under the Women's Empowerment for Democracy and Governance Project — MAKANA.
The project, sponsored by CARE Jordan, is a joint initiative by the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD) and the Queen Zein Al Sharaf Institute for Development (ZENID).
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews6.htm
Cleanup campaign warns of environmental impact of littering
By Mohammad Ghazal
AMMAN — The Ministry of Environment, in cooperation with the Greater Amman Municipality, will organise a cleanup campaign on Aug. 28 in Zai National Park, a popular tourist destination in the summer months.
Isa Shboul, the ministry's spokesperson, told The Jordan Times on Thursday that several ambassadors and ministers, along with schoolchildren will take part in the campaign.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews8.htm
Another way of looking at Iraq
Jonathan Power
We are all, left and right, pro war and anti war, frozen in the headlights of Iraq. Even many of those who campaigned vigorously against the war are frightened to be bold and say the troops should come out. Anarchy is the state of political disarray we have long been acculturated to fear. “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,” wrote Yeats. To walk away is the height of irresponsibility. But is it?
An insurgency working in its home terrain enjoys advantages that are just as formidable as any precision-guided weaponry that soldiers of the coalition can deploy. The insurgents may not have ground down the American and British troops but they have certainly created enough mayhem to instil sufficient fear in every Iraqi and expatriate workman so that the economy remains almost where years of sanctions and two aerial bombardments left it — in ruins. The guerrillas have the advantage of being able to put the occupying forces in situations where they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. They have also succeeded in chasing the UN out of Iraq, the one institution that might have been able, over time, to become a viable alternative to the invaders.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/opinion/opinion4.htm
Cooperation will bring benefits
The announcement by Prime Minister Adnan Badran that Jordan and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) will set up a joint industrial zone in the Jordan River area is an ambitious plan that deserves support.
The prime minister made this announcement earlier this week at the meeting of the 4th Arab Business Community Forum in Amman.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/opinion/opinion1.htm
Immorality of occupation
George S. Hishmeh
WASHINGTON — The Israeli settlers who are being evacuated from the Gaza Strip's 21 settlements in fulfilment of the Israeli government's unilateral “disengagement” plan, a process that is due to end in three weeks time, are receiving an unbelievably sympathetic but myopic coverage in the media.
Here is how one writer in The New York Times put it last Sunday: “(The evacuation) is an admission not of error but of failure. Their (supporters') cherished goal — the resettlement of the full biblical land of Israel by contemporary Jews — is not to be. The reason: Not enough of them came.”
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/opinion/opinion5.htm
The Jerusalem Post
Pope warns of rising anti-Semitism
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLOGNE, Germany
href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1124331702454"TARGET="_blank">Pope Benedict XVI warned Friday of rising anti-Semitism and hostility to foreigners, winning a standing ovation from Germany's oldest Jewish community as he made only the second visit by a pope to a synagogue.
Speaking in a Cologne synagogue rebuilt after it was destroyed by the Nazis, Benedict said that "today, sadly, we are witnessing the rise of new signs of anti-Semitism and various forms of a general hostility toward foreigners."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1124417949297
Halutz condemns evacuation violence
By YAAKOV KATZ
Chief of Staff Dan Halutz declared Friday that the "rooftop youths" arrested for attacking security forces during the evacuation of Gush Katif settlements would not be drafted into the IDF.
"As long as I'm chief of staff, no one who dared attack a soldier or police officer will serve in the army," Halutz avowed to Israel Radio.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1124331704933
Home demolitions to begin Sunday
By HERB KEINON
The evacuation of the Gaza Strip settlements is expected to be completed by Monday or Tuesday, and the demolition of homes is scheduled to be in full swing by Sunday, security officials told the disengagement cabinet Thursday.
The officials said homes in Kerem Atzmona were the first slated for demolition, and demolition of homes in Rafiah Yam, Gan Or and Pe'at Sadeh would begin Sunday.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1124331702878
Iraq criticizes Arab media outlets
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq
The Iraqi government criticized the state-run television network Thursday for "whipping up emotions" by airing footage from the bombings at a Baghdad bus station and accused a leading Arab satellite station of airing false reports.
Criticism of the satellite station Al-Jazeera is not unusual but such comments against Iraq's television network Iraqiya are rare, especially since its news reporting follows the government line.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1124331702887
Eye of the Storm: Behind the scenes in Teheran
By AMIR TAHERI
Moments after it was presented to the Islamic Majlis in Teheran on Sunday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first cabinet was labeled by his defeated rivals and most Iran-watchers as a group of "hard-liners" handpicked by the "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei.
Former majlis member Behzad Nabavi, a theorist of the Rafsanjani-Khatami faction which lost the presidential election to Ahamdinejad, has described him as nothing but "a presidential secretary to the supreme guide."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1124072335640
Al-Qaida-linked group claims Aqaba, Eilat attacks
By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH, JPOST STAFF, AND AP
A Katyusha rocket landed near a car at 9:30 a.m. Friday morning in the tourist district of Eilat, and two rockets hit a warehouse near an American battleship in Aqaba port in Jordan.
An Internet statement released by the al-Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades militant group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1124417948754
The Katyusha Rocket Threat
Katyusha rockets are from time to time launched into towns in northern Israel by the Hizbullah Islamic fundamentalist group stationed in southern Lebanon. Residents are forced to sleep in bomb shelters, sometimes for days on end, in fear of the attacks.
It is rarely realized, however, the potential danger such rockets could pose to Israel's main population centers should they fall into the wrong hands.
http://www.iris.org.il/katyusha.htm
Israel's decision to disengage from the Gaza Strip has placed the future of the disputed West Bank at the top of the international agenda. Prominent voices have called on Israel to withdraw fully from the West Bank and return to the 1949 Armistice Lines (1967 borders) – a move that would undermine Israel's security and even pose an existential threat. It is therefore a matter of urgency that while the debate over the future of the Middle East addresses Palestinian claims for an independent state, Israel's rights and requirements for defensible borders, as proposed by President George W. Bush, are now placed squarely on the global diplomatic agenda.
http://www.defensibleborders.org/
Chicago Sun Times
The weather in Chicago is "GHASTLY."
Ex-Sun-Times boss charged with fraud
August 18, 2005
BY MAURA KELLY LANNAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Former Chicago Sun-Times publisher David Radler, a lawyer for the newspaper's parent company and a media holding company controlled by Conrad Black were indicted on federal fraud charges Thursday for allegedly diverting $32 million through a series of bogus deals.
The indictment alleged the three diverted the money through a series of secret deals by disguising it as noncompete fees connected to the sale of newspaper publishing groups.
Soft drink industry cuts back in schools
August 18, 2005
BY JANET RAUSA FULLER Staff Reporter
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Soft drinks would be banned in elementary and middle schools and would be harder to find in high schools under a policy announced Wednesday by the soft drink industry, long criticized by public health advocates as a major contributor to the nation's obesity crisis.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-soda18.html
Report says Brazilian wasn't fleeing cops
August 18, 2005
BY MICHAEL MCDONOUGH
Advertisement
LONDON -- A leaked report into the death of a Brazilian man mistaken for a bomber and shot to death by police sparked outrage Wednesday because it said the victim was not wearing a heavy jacket and did not jump the ticket gate, as had been previously claimed.
Electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head by police who tailed him to the station the day after the failed July 21 transit bombings in London.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/terror/cst-nws-brit18.html
Nationwide vigils call for end to Iraq war
August 18, 2005
BY ANGELA K. BROWN
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CRAWFORD, Texas -- Hundreds of candlelight vigils calling for an end to the war in Iraq got under way Wednesday in a national effort spurred by one mother's anti-war demonstration near President Bush's ranch.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/cst-nws-mom18.html
Biggest Sunni group criticizes constitution talks
August 18, 2005
BY ANTONIO CASTANEDA ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq-- Lawmakers tried to reach compromises with Sunni Arab leaders Thursday on Iraq's draft constitution, and a roadside bomb north of Baghdad killed four American soldiers, the U.S. military said.
Government officials said that Wednesday's synchronized car bombings at a bus station and nearby hospital that killed up to 43 people in Baghdad were an attempt to target Shiites and stoke civil war between religious groups in the country.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/cst-nws-iraq18.html
Sydney Morning Herald
Three sought after attack on US ships
August 20, 2005
Amman: Three rockets were fired at two US Navy ships in Jordan's Aqaba port yesterday but they missed their targets, hitting a hospital, a warehouse - killing a Jordanian soldier - and the nearby Israeli port of Eilat.
A Jordanian security source said authorities were searching for three men over the Katyusha missile attack, which was launched from an industrial warehouse area near the entrance to the city.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/three-sought-after-attack-on-us-ships/2005/08/19/1124435146871.html
Koranic TV next step for radical sheik
By Tom Allard
August 20, 2005
The Koran is also a book of legislation, says Sheik Khalid Yasin.
Photo: Wade Laube
An Islamic preacher who advocates the execution of homosexuals, adulterers and armed robbers plans to start broadcasting his message in Australia on radio, TV and through the internet.
Sheik Khalid Yasin, who was born in the US, gained notoriety when his views on homosexuals - and that the Koran endorsed beatings of spouses - were aired last month, bringing condemnation from the then premier, Bob Carr.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/koranic-tv-next-step-for-radical-sheik/2005/08/19/1124435144954.html
Washington shrugs off Putin's call for Iraq pullout timetable
August 20, 2005
Sochi, Russia: President Vladimir Putin of Russia has called for an international conference on Iraq by the end of the year and a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops, saying many Iraqis considered them occupying forces.
"We consider that holding an international conference this year would give a new impulse to the normalisation of the situation" in Iraq, Mr Putin said on Thursday following talks with King Abdullah of Jordan.
"We deem it necessary to work out a schedule for the staged withdrawal of foreign troops," he said. "Many Iraqis perceive these forces as occupying forces, and this is a reality that should be taken into account."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/washington-shrugs-off-putins-call-for-iraq-pullout-timetable/2005/08/19/1124435141727.html
Hopes fade for cut in Corby's sentence
By Mark Forbes Herald Correspondent in Jakarta and agencies
August 20, 2005
Schapelle Corby's hopes of overturning a 20-year drug smuggling conviction have dimmed, with Indonesian courts indicating they will not allow fresh testimony to support claims that four kilograms of marijuana were planted in her luggage.
Rumours that her sentence was about to be cut by Bali's High Court were dismissed by both Corby's lawyers and Australian officials.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hopes-fade-for-cut-in-corbys-sentence/2005/08/19/1124435146874.html
Coming soon: electric cars you charge at home
August 19, 2005 - 12:34AM
Mitsubishi Motors Corp is planning to develop small electric vehicles that drivers will be able to charge up from power sockets at home.
The mini-vehicle will have electric motors in each of its four wheels and will be able to cover 250 kilometres on a four-hour charge from a residential power outlet, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported on Thursday.
It is to go on the Japanese market by 2008 at a likely price of less than Y2 million ($24,000).
Mitsubishi is forming a partnership with Tokyo Electric, which will develop battery technology for the project.
Kyodo
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/coming-soon-electric-cars-you-charge-at-home/2005/08/19/1123958189478.html
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
"My son is 26. It could've been him."
Vigils Calling for End to Iraq War Begin
By Angela K. Brown / Associated Press
CRAWFORD, Texas -- Hundreds of candlelight vigils calling for an end to the war in Iraq lit up the night Wednesday, part of a national effort spurred by one mother's anti-war demonstration near President Bush's ranch.
The vigils were urged by Cindy Sheehan, who has become the icon of the anti-war movement since she started a protest Aug. 6 in memory of her son Casey, who died in Iraq last year.
Sheehan says she will remain outside the president's ranch until he meets with her and other grieving families, or until his monthlong vacation there ends.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3752
Montgomery, AL, Mesa, AZ, Little Rock, AR, Costa Mesa, CA, Fremont, CA, Marin County, CA, Monterey County, CA, Oakland, CA, Palm Springs, CA, San Diego, CA, San Luis Obispo, CA, Santa Cruz, CA, Vallejo, CA, Colorado Springs, CO, Denver, CO, Milford, CT, New London, CT, Norwalk, CT, Westport, CT, Wilmington, DE, Washington, DC, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Fort Myers, FL, Sarasota, FL, Tallahassee, FL, Atlanta, GA, Decatur, GA, Savannah, GA, Honolulu, HI, Cedar Falls, IA, Homewood, IL, Fort Wayne, IN, Indianapolis, IN, Muncie, IN, Kansas, KY, Lexington, KY, Louisville, KY, Skowhegan, ME, Baltimore, MD, Bethesda, MD, Hagerstown, MD, Orleans, MA, Sommerville, MA, Detroit, MI, Grand Rapids, MI, Ironwood, MI, Kalamazoo, MI, Burnsville, MN, Minneapolis/St.Paul, MN, Kansas City, MO, Springfield, MO, Webb City, MO, Jackson, MS, Oxford, MS, Lincoln, NE, Portsmouth, NH, Eastontown, NJ, Evesham, NJ, Hackensack, NJ, Highland Park, NJ, Trenton, NJ, Albany, NY, Brighton, NY, Great Neck, NY, Ithaca, NY, Nanuet, NY, Syracuse, NY, Charlotte, NC, Durham, NC, Akron, OH, Cincinnati, OH, Cleveland, OH, Tulsa, OK, Aliquippa, PA, Bethlehem, PA, Doylestown, PA, Harrisburg, PA, Lansdale, PA, Philadelphia, PA, Reading, PA, York, PA, Providence, RI, Nashville, TN, Austin, TX, Chesterfield County, VA, Roanoke City, VA, Montpelier, VT, Bellingham, WA, Seattle, WA, Charleston, WV, Madison, WI, Waukesha, WI
The Peaceful Occupation of Crawford (Day 12); Vigils
-- a message from Cindy Sheehan, Crawford, TX
Our candlelight vigil at Camp Casey was beautiful tonight. There were hundreds of people here and we are hearing that hundreds of people were involved in vigils around the country. We at Camp Casey are so amazed and gratified that there were almost 1700 vigils around the country.
CNN followed me around for the morning to do a 'Day in the Life' of Cindy Sheehan. I kept asking them if they were falling asleep from boredom yet. I was on Anderson Cooper and it was pretty good. Anderson didn't ask me about the Israel thing because he had checked with Nightline. But he followed with a talk show, hate monger host, Darrell Ankarlo who I have had problems with in the past. He said that I have said that I believe all of the troops are murderers and I have never said that, either. Darrell Ankarlo wanted me to be on his show, but I don't think so.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php
Blaming The Anti-War Messengers
By Norman Solomon / Tom Paine
This article is adapted from Norman Solomon’s new book, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. For information, go to: www.WarMadeEasy.com
The surge of antiwar voices in U.S. media this month has coincided with new lows in public approval for what pollsters call President Bush’s “handling” of the Iraq war. After more than two years of a military occupation that was supposed to be a breeze after a cakewalk into Baghdad, the war has become a clear PR loser. But an unpopular war can continue for a long time—and one big reason is that the military-industrial-media complex often finds ways to blunt the effectiveness of its most prominent opponents.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3754
Bad Iraq News Worries Some in G.O.P. on '06
By Adam Nagourney and David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 - A stream of bad news out of Iraq, echoed at home by polls that show growing impatience with the war and rising disapproval of President Bush's Iraq policies, is stirring political concern in Republican circles, party officials said Wednesday.
Some said that the perception that the war was faltering was providing a rallying point for dispirited Democrats and could pose problems for Republicans in the Congressional elections next year.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3759
State Department memo warned of post-war 'planning gaps'
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Little more than a month before the start of the Iraq war, State Department officials said they warned U.S. military planners about possible "serious planning gaps" for the post-war period, according to newly declassified documents obtained by George Washington University.
In a memo dated February 7, 2003, three senior department officials -- noting the U.S. Central Command's focus on military objectives and reluctance to take on policing roles -- warned that "a failure to address short-term public security and humanitarian assistance concerns could result in serious human rights abuses which would undermine an otherwise successful military campaign, and our reputation internationally."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3756
BBC
Tamil Tigers agree to peace talks
The emergency powers allow the government to deploy troops freely
Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka have agreed to hold direct talks with the Colombo government.
The move comes less than a week after the killing of the country's Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, near his heavily-guarded home in the capital.
The talks will be the first high-level meeting between the two sides since the peace process stalled in 2003.
Norwegian mediators described the talks as a significant
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4164150.stm
Rapturous German welcome for Pope
Pope Benedict XVI was greeted by thousands at Cologne airport
Pope Benedict XVI has arrived in his native Germany for a Catholic youth festival in the city of Cologne.
The Pope's plane was met by cheering crowds as it landed at Cologne-Bonn airport, where Germany's chancellor and president were waiting to greet him.
The assembled crowds also performed a Mexican wave to welcome their visitor.
It is the Pope's first major foreign trip since his election in April. The engagement was originally scheduled for his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4161706.stm
China-Russia war games under way
Russian and Chinese commanders laid wreaths at a war memorial
Russian and Chinese armed forces have begun their first joint exercises, involving some 10,000 personnel.
Marines will storm beaches, to be joined by paratroopers in a mock invasion of an imaginary country.
The eight-day operation got under way in Vladivostok, in Russia's far east, with consultations between military delegations from the two countries.
Analysts say the two sides are signalling they are prepared to counter US dominance in international affairs.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4162054.stm
US shuttles grounded until March
The next shuttle flight will not be until at least next March
The US space shuttle fleet is to remain grounded until March at the earliest, Nasa officials have said.
Engineers need to find a solution to the foam debris problem which re-emerged during Discovery's launch.
Seven members of an oversight panel also say Nasa's latest shuttle efforts were tainted by some of the problems that caused the Columbia disaster.
The official heading the team looking at the issue said it would take until early next year at least to find a fix.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4163908.stm
Zimbabwe to speed up land seizure
Legal battles have slowed down the transfer of land to new farmers
Zimbabwe's government has tabled a constitutional amendment bill to speed up the acquisition of white-owned land.
The proposals would nationalise all land and stop appeals to the courts.
Some 4,000 white farmers have been evicted from their land since 2000, but the government says legal battles are slowing up the transfer of ownership.
President Robert Mugabe's party gained the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed for constitutional change in March's disputed elections.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4163700.stm
Strange fossil defies grouping
By Julianna Kettlewell
BBC News science reporter
A strange 525 million-year-old fossil creature is baffling scientists because it does not fit neatly into any existing animal groups.
The animal, from the early Cambrian Period, might have belonged to a now extinct mollusc-like phylum, academics from America and China say.
Other researchers have suggested the creature could represent an early annelid or arthropod.
Details are published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4156544.stm
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