Al Jazeera
Kandahar was the last place Omar was known to be.
US to probe torching of Taliban corpses
Thursday 20 October 2005, 12:27 Makka Time, 9:27 GMT
The US military has said it found "repugnant" and would investigate a television report that claimed American soldiers in Afghanistan burned the bodies of two Taliban fighters and then used the action to taunt other fighters.
Afghanistan's government has demanded that those responsible be punished and top Muslim clerics have warned that anti-American demonstrations may break out.
Australia's SBS television network broadcast video footage that purportedly showed US soldiers burning the bodies of the suspected Taliban fighters in the hills outside the southern village of Gonbaz, near the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D43262FF-E131-4954-A772-DA174E2CCBA7.htm
Sudan bans poultry imports
Thursday 20 October 2005, 12:33 Makka Time, 9:33 GMT
Sudan has taken a precautionary measure of halting all poultry imports, totalling 35% of its consumption, to prevent the spread of bird flu after the UN food agency said the disease could move to east Africa.
"This is a precautionary measure and of course it will adversely affect the poultry industry in Sudan," said a senior official on Thursday.
Ahmed Mustafa Hassan, under-secretary at the ministry of animal resources said the risk was serious in Sudan as migratory birds from the north pass through the areas along the Nile, where most of Sudan's population lives.
He added that the price of poultry in Sudan would rise as a result of the ban.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9624EF12-392A-463D-AAE2-C5DCA9CE97D1.htm
Earthquake toll may go beyond 79,000
Thursday 20 October 2005, 9:55 Makka Time, 6:55 GMT
Helicopters and foot soldiers headed out of the main city in Pakistani Kashmir at daybreak Thursday in a frantic attempt to get medical aid and supplies to remote villages damaged in an earthquake that killed more than 79,000 people.
The death toll in South Asia's 8 October quake jumped dramatically after regional authorities reported new figures based on bodies recovered and information from outlying areas, making it one of the deadliest temblors of the past century.
The Pakistani government's official death toll is lower, still at 47,700, but central figures have lagged behind regional numbers. Those figures, from Pakistan's northwest province and the portion of Kashmir it controls, add up to about 78,000. India has reported 1360 deaths in its part of Kashmir.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D547100C-DBF7-416E-B5DD-2818227E9C57.htm
Indonesia to scan Islamic schools
Thursday 20 October 2005, 8:28 Makka Time, 5:28 GMT
Indonesia will crack down on Islamic boarding schools that are breeding terrorists, the country's vice-president has said, but also emphasised that he thought there were only "one or two" such establishments in the sprawling country.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has vowed to do more to crack down on terrorism following this month's suicide bombings on Bali island - the fourth major attack in the country since 2002.
"Almost all the people behind the last four terror attacks came from a hardline group that studied at certain Islamic boarding schools," Yusuf Kalla told reporters late on Wednesday.
"Out of the 17,000 boarding schools (in Indonesia) there are one or two, I repeat one or two, that are extreme and not in line with the teachings of Islam. We will have to investigate and control (them)."
Moves to monitor Islamic establishments are sensitive in Indonesia.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BF5AE945-3A76-418D-A5E5-31D2CD6163F1.htm
Spain judge orders US soldiers' arrest
Wednesday 19 October 2005, 19:50 Makka Time, 16:50 GMT
A judge in Spain has issued an international arrest order for three US soldiers whose tank fired at a Baghdad hotel during the war in Iraq, killing a Spanish journalist.
National Court Judge Santiago Pedraz issued the arrest warrant for Sgt. Shawn Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford and Lt. Col. Philip de Camp, all of the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division, a court official said on Wednesday.
Pedraz had sent two requests to the United States - in April 2004 and June 2005 - to have statements taken from the suspects or to obtain permission for a Spanish delegation to quiz them. Both went unanswered.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A3718954-5249-4E29-99A4-478370F57DB3.htm
US detainee death probes slammed
Thursday 20 October 2005, 2:33 Makka Time, 23:33 GMT
An analysis by human rights lawyers has found numerous flaws in US military investigations into deaths of prisoners in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Pentagon said about 108 detainees have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002, not counting those killed in insurgent mortar attacks on detention facilities.
A report by the New York-based group Human Rights First, made available on Wednesday, also faulted "scattershot" military record-keeping on prisoner deaths and failures by some commanders to report deaths in a timely way.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/80CC39C7-AF27-4D11-B424-F9D4BF608582.htm
Dozens of Iraqis die in US air strikes
Monday 17 October 2005, 14:40 Makka Time, 11:40 GMT
US warplanes and helicopters have bombed two villages near the city of Ramadi where witnesses say at least 39 civilians have been killed, while the US army says the air strike has killed an estimated 70 fighters.
On Sunday, a group of about two dozen Iraqis gathered around the wreckage of a US vehicle destroyed the previous day by a roadside bomb. The people were hit by the US air strikes, the military and witnesses said.
The air strike hit the crowd which had gathered around to look at the wreckage of the vehicle and to pick pieces off it - as often occurs after an American vehicle is hit. The vehicle was destroyed on election day.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/158E08C0-33D3-4160-9AB5-9E1B6B166560.htm
Irish journalist missing in Iraq
Thursday 20 October 2005, 13:55 Makka Time, 10:55 GMT
The London-based Guardian newspaper says that one of its reporters has disappeared in Iraq and believes he has been kidnapped.
Rory Carroll, 33, who is the Guardian's Baghdad correspondent, was on assignment when he vanished, the paper said in a statement on Wednesday.
"It is believed Mr Carroll may have been taken by a group of armed men," the statement said. "The Guardian is urgently seeking information about Mr Carroll's whereabouts and condition."
Carroll's father, Joe, said The Guardian told him three people had been with his son when he was abducted, "and one of them did get a bit roughed up but he was the only one kidnapped".
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/258AC778-1B5E-4C23-AC7A-BF1451754725.htm
Anti-Intellectualism
Anti-US writer voted top thinker
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Professor Noam Chomsky, a leading critic of United States foreign policy since before the Vietnam War, has been voted the world's top public intellectual in a poll run by two international magazines.
The magazines, Britain's 'Prospect' monthly and the Washington-based 'Foreign Policy' monthly, ran the poll, in which more than 20,000 readers voted. Chomsky was chosen from a list of 100 nominees, who had to be active in their respective fields while also able to communicate ideas to a general audience and influence public debate.
Chomsky, author of "Hegemony or Survival; America's quest for global dominance," was the overwhelming choice for the top spot. He won almost twice as many votes (4,824) as Italian novelist Umberto Eco, who finished second with 2,464 votes. British biologist Richard Dawkins, former Czech Republic President Václav Havel, and U.S.-based British writer Christopher Hitchens round out the top five.
While hailing one of the most prominent critics of America in international debate, observers noted that the vote was not rigged by anti-Americans. Voters were also given the option of a write-in vote for one other name they felt should be included, and Nobel Prize-winning American economist Milton Friedman, the intellectual father of modern monetarism and a prominent conservative, received the most write-in votes.
Friedman was followed by British scientist Stephen Hawking, Indian writer Arundhati Roy, left-wing American historian Howard Zinn, and former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20051018-052720-6548r
Conservatives losing patience with Bush
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Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
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(KRT) - The following editorial appeared in the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader on Saturday, October 15:
The most curious criticism from conservatives upset about President Bush's choice for a second Supreme Court seat is that he failed to select a judge with strong intellectual credentials.
But Bush campaigned as an anti-intellectual, against the brainiac images of Al Gore and John Kerry. The president makes clear that he is guided by faith and his guts. He tries to look into people's souls rather than get into their heads.
Bush has shunned experts in many disciplines to heed the advice of his cronies who run the government.
Scientific expertise on issues as far-ranging as the environment and stem-cell research has been ignored. Skilled diplomats and military leaders have been demoted, fired or punished for giving him diverse advice on the Iraq war. Budget experts are ordered not to give the true costs of his proposals.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/12931257.htm
Men falling behind in a woman's world
12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, October 18, 2005
David Brooks
Once upon a time, it was a man's world. Men possessed most of the tools one needed for power and success: muscles, connections, control of the crucial social institutions.
But then along came the information age to change all that. In the information age, education is the gateway to success. And that means this is turning into a woman's world because women are better students than men.
From the first days of school, girls outperform boys. The gap is sometimes small, but over time, slight advantages grow larger. In surveys, kindergarten teachers report that girls are more attentive than boys and more persistent at tasks. Through elementary school, girls are less likely to be asked to repeat a grade. They are much less likely to be diagnosed with a learning disability.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-brooks_1018edi.ART.State.Edition1.e6d64e9.html
Children Imprisoned Through Ignorance
Imagine the feeling of impending failure spread over whole days, every day and you will come close to understanding how a child who can't cope with the social and intellectual demands of childhood or adolescence feels. When one commits suicide, takes drugs, joins a gang or steals a car, we wonder why.
(PRWEB) October 19, 2005 -- For some kids, school combines the strict discipline of a prison with the oppression of living in an iron lung. No matter what they do, they have no chance of succeeding.
They're troubles waiting to happen. When one of them commits suicide, robs a store, starts a fight or bad mouths a teacher, we label them delinquents.
Most of us know what it's like to sit down to a classroom test we know we won't do well on. Imagine that feeling of impending failure spread over whole days, almost every school day and most non-school days. Think for a moment about how you would act if you were trapped in this never-ending cycle.
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/10/emw299073.htm
New Zealand Herald
Iran bans UK and S Korea trade over atomic issue
20.10.05 1.00pm
By Paul Hughes and Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN - Iran is blocking imports from Britain and South Korea as an apparent punishment for their opposition to Iran's nuclear programme, diplomatic and industry sources say.
Iran said last month it could use trade to punish countries that voted for an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution on referring Tehran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions over its nuclear programme.
"We have received a verbal order from the Commerce Ministry, about a trade ban imposed on South Korean and British companies," an official at a state manufacturing company said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10351216
Quake survivors queue for food
20.10.05 4.00pm
The line dividing Kashmir remained closed today despite dramatic offers by Pakistan and India to allow help for thousands of earthquake victims to flow across their war-scarred, disputed border.
South Asia's old rivals needed time to carry out their plan, underlining the political sensitivity of such a move and the logistical difficulties in a mountainous area where the death toll from the October 8 quake has risen to nearly 50,000.
But they were quick to restore telephone links between the two Kashmirs, India opening lines blocked 16 years ago after the eruption of a rebellion New Delhi accuses Pakistan of backing.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10351223
Customs brave knives, machetes to board boat
20.10.05 9.20am
Customs officers have braved burning poles, knives, machetes and flaming missiles to board an Indonesian boat fishing illegally off the Northern Territory.
An Australian Customs Service patrol boat spotted the Indonesian ice boat yesterday afternoon near the Wessel Islands in the Arafura Sea and fired warning shots.
The boat failed to respond and Customs gave chase.
When Customs and Navy officers tried to board the boat, the crew allegedly used burning anti-boarding poles, as well as knives and machetes, to try to stop them.
When Customs and Navy officers eventually boarded the boat they found a large quantity of shark fin on board, as well as a global-positioning system and a satellite phone.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10351134
The Washington Post
I have to agree. There is a real 'sport,' a bloodsport in thrashing The New York Times about. So much so that it has resorted to cannabalizing it's own to keep from being bashed in the first place. It is a form of Conservative Harassment that has exploded in this society resulting in even Mattel and Girls, Inc. becoming the focus of slander. The Liberal Media is being marginalized and it is never more evident than the scrutinized and at times pablamed journalism of the N Y Times.
Seeing Right Through The Times's Transparency
By Tina Brown
Thursday, October 20, 2005; Page C01
The age of the blogosphere has produced a new genre of mainstream journalism: fake transparency. The New York Times has become its foremost practitioner. The paper of record has been arraigned for arrogance so many times in the past three years that it has forgotten how useful arrogance can be. The Gulliver of West 43rd Street has gotten so spooked that now it preemptively lies down, affixes bonds to its wrists and ankles, and invites the Lilliputians of cyberspace to walk all over it.
After reading the 6,000-word takeout in Sunday's Times on the Judith Miller/I. Lewis Libby farrago in the Valerie Plame/CIA leak case, accompanied by Miller's own strangely cryptic narrative of her belated grand jury testimony, I know even less than I thought I knew before. Thinking I knew was actually more satisfying. It meant I could exude a vague insiderly outrage without having to penetrate the clues. For Arianna Huffington, the Miller story has been to her newly birthed blog, the Huffington Post, a miniature version of what O.J. Simpson was to cable news.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/19/AR2005101901963.html
Rove Told Jury Libby May Have Been His Source In Leak Case
Top Aides Talked Before Plame's Name Was Public
By Jim VandeHei and Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 20, 2005; Page A01
White House adviser Karl Rove told the grand jury in the CIA leak case that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, may have told him that CIA operative Valerie Plame worked for the intelligence agency before her identity was revealed, a source familiar with Rove's account said yesterday.
In a talk that took place in the days before Plame's CIA employment was revealed in 2003, Rove and Libby discussed conversations they had had with reporters in which Plame and her marriage to Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson IV were raised, the source said. Rove told the grand jury the talk was confined to information the two men heard from reporters, the source said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/19/AR2005101902431.html?nav=hcmodule
Miller's Lawyer Says Aide May Face 'Problem' in Probe
Attorney for Reporter Cites Possibility of Conflicting Testimony
By Walter Pincus and Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, October 17, 2005; Page A03
Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, has "a problem" in the investigation of the leak of a CIA operative's identity if his testimony conflicts with information given to the grand jury by New York Times reporter Judith Miller, her lawyer said yesterday.
Robert S. Bennett, speaking on the ABC program "This Week" on the day the Times disclosed new information about three conversations Miller had with Libby about the CIA employment of a White House critic's wife, said that "much would depend upon what Mr. Libby said to the grand jury.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/16/AR2005101601228.html?nav=hcmodule
One cannot send too much to the Faith Based Home front with Republican appeal being as weak as it is.
House GOP Leaders Postpone Vote on Reductions in Spending
By Shailagh Murray and Dan Morgan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 20, 2005; Page A06
Scrambling to salvage a tough new spending reduction plan, House Republican leaders delayed a vote on deeper cuts until next week and said they would broaden their list of targets to win the GOP votes needed for passage.
The House and Senate are in the process of slicing $35 billion in mandatory spending over five years, and House GOP leaders had intended to vote today to increase the total to $50 billion. But the proposal ran into problems with conservatives, who did not think it went far enough, as well as moderate Republicans, who objected to further trims in programs such as health care for the poor and elderly, student loans, and food stamps, while discretionary spending was ignored.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/19/AR2005101902169.html?nav=hcmodule
The courts are still upholding separation of church and state. Faith Based funding cannot be used for promoting or religious purposes so much as providing social services. The hiring practices of non-discrimination cannot be imposed. So, the Christian Ministries can get monies to promote social reform or otherwise but not carry out religious directives that promote their religion. That has to be done with monies other than government monies. One could literally have an entire nation of Christian Employers hiring nothing but Christians but providing generic services to people without jobs who are not Christian. There is something wrong with this picture.
Bush's Faith Plan Faces Judgment
Courts Assess Mission to Give Federal Funds to Religious Charities
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 20, 2005; Page A25
Chalk up a big legal victory for President Bush's effort to help religious charities get taxpayer funding. And score a symbolic win, too, for those who think Bush's "faith-based initiative" is just pork-barrel politics in disguise.
Bush's big victory came Sept. 30 in New York, where a federal judge threw out most elements of a religious discrimination lawsuit against the Salvation Army. Eighteen employees claimed they were fired or demoted because they refused to pledge support to the Salvation Army's mission of "proclaiming Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord," disclose what church they attended or name gay co-workers.
U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein noted that all the plaintiffs worked for a children's services division of the Salvation Army that gets 95 percent of its $50 million budget from government grants.
But the judge's 48-page opinion upheld the principle that a religious group can hire and fire employees on the basis of their religious beliefs and practices, even if their salaries come from taxpayer funds. That principle is at the heart of the Bush administration's policy.
"It's huge," H. James Towey, head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said of the decision. "It's certainly a vindication of what President Bush has been saying from Day One -- that religious groups do not have to sell their soul, compromise their hiring practices, in order to partner with government in providing social services."
On the other hand, critics of the faith-based initiative got a boost last week when the U.S. Department of Education suspended a $435,000 grant for Alaska Christian College, an unaccredited, one-year school run by the Evangelical Covenant Church.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based group, had filed a lawsuit contending that the grant amounted to an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. After sending an inspector to visit the Alaskan school in July, the Education Department agreed. The inspector's report said the curriculum was "almost entirely religious."
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said that over the past two years, Congress earmarked nearly $1 million for the bible school, about $20,000 per student. She called the money "religious pork" brought home by Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who took credit for this year's $435,000 grant in a November press release.
Gaylor's group agreed to drop its lawsuit following the grant's suspension. In a letter to the Alaska school, the Education Department explained that it can provide funds to schools with religious affiliations, but the money must be used for secular purposes.
Robert Tuttle, a professor at George Washington University Law School, said the two cases provide "a really nice example of where the faith-based initiative is -- and is not -- likely to run up against legal problems."
Tuttle noted that "a lot of the political action and opposition has revolved around discrimination in hiring." But the legal weak point of the administration's effort to dole out more money to religious charities, he said, is "the lack of clarity about what the government may or may not fund."
Another lawsuit on that question is scheduled to go to trial in Iowa on Monday, 2 1/2 years after it was filed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. It challenges the constitutionality of the InnerChange program, a prison ministry run by Charles Colson's Prison Fellowship.
Iowa prison officials maintain that public funds are not used to pay for the religious elements of the program. But Americans United says it is impossible to separate the religious and secular portions of a program that describes itself as "Christ-centered."
There are lingering questions, too, about the Salvation Army. While the judge in New York dismissed the key claim of religious discrimination, he allowed the employees to pursue other allegations. One is that the Salvation Army's social services division gave 10 percent -- a tithe -- of its revenue to the parent organization. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs can sue as ordinary taxpayers if they have evidence that the charity thereby diverted government funds for religious purposes.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/19/AR2005101902122.html
The Australian
Saddam: this court is not fit to judge me
Martin Chulov, Middle East correspondent
October 20, 2005
SADDAM Hussein refused to give his name and challenged the authority of an Iraqi court as he pleaded not guilty to the first of 12 charges of abuse spanning three decades.
Insisting he was still the president, the deposed dictator said he did not respect the authority of the Iraqi Special Tribunal or the presiding judge.
"I don't acknowledge the entity that authorised you, or the aggression that brought me here, because everything is based on falsehoods," Saddam said. "I am the president of Iraq. I am not a collaborator."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16976028%5E601,00.html
E Timor border at 'flashpoint'
Mark Dodd
October 20, 2005
A MOB backed by Indonesian troops has crossed into East Timor, attacked a border patrol and set fire to buildings, threatening the fragile peace between the two nations.
The incident on Saturday in the Oecussi enclave, detailed in a UN cable seen by The Australian, poses a nightmare scenario for Canberra.
The cable - sent on Monday by UN chief in East Timor Sukehiro Hasegawa to head of peacekeeping operations Jean Marie Guehenno in New York - accuses the Indonesian military (TNI) of provoking multiple border violations in Oecussi.
Mr Hasegawa warns Dili has threatened to pull out of the East Timor-Indonesia Truth and Friendship Commission, following the collapse of tense border takes because of Jakarta's failure to stop incursions by the feared "Okto" militia that started at the beginning of the month.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16976036%5E601,00.html
Crackdown nets illegal fishermen
Amanda Banks and Andrea Mayes
October 20, 2005
MORE than 200 Indonesians are being held in a makeshift detention camp in the northwest port of Broome after a crackdown on illegal fishing.
The alleged poachers were reportedly paid up to $60 a month by Chinese-owned fishing syndicates to fish for sharks in Australian waters.
In the latest encounter between Australian Customs and naval officers and fishermen, the crew of a 25m Indonesian fishing vessel intercepted on Tuesday near the Wessell Islands, off the Northern Territory coast, brandished knives and machetes and hurled burning missiles.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16976038%5E601,00.html
Darfur peace talks suspended
From correspondents in Abuja
October 20, 2005
AFRICAN Union-sponsored peace talks between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups from the war torn region of Darfur are to be suspended Thursday until November 20, AU mediators said.
"We're having a plenary session at midday during which an adjournment will be called," said Boubou Niang, an adviser to AU mediator Salim Ahmed Salim.
"This suspension had been agreed since the start of the talks, because of the end of Ramadan," he said. The delegates from both sides in the conflict are Muslims and want to celebrate the end of their holy month of prayer and fasting.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16985456%5E1702,00.html
US readies to challenge Syria
Correspondents in Washington
October 20, 2005
THE US and France are preparing new UN Security Council resolutions critical of Syria ahead of a UN report that is expected to show Syrian complicity in a political assassination in Lebanon.
The timing of the new resolutions - which officials described on condition of anonymity because negotiations are not final - is also intended to highlight recent claims that Syria is funnelling weapons and stirring up trouble in Palestinian camps in Lebanon.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed Syria and Lebanon during a meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday.
"It was a good opportunity for her to raise the issues surrounding the calendar," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Anti-Syrian politicians in Lebanon blame Syria for the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, a charge Damascus denies.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16975620%5E2703,00.html
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