"Okeydoke"
History
1871, Fisk Jubilee Singers begin first concert tour. Eight former slaves, singing spirituals learned in slavery, begin touring the U.S and Europe to raise money for the Fisk School.
1889, the Moulin Rouge in Paris first opened its doors to the public.
1917, Political activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who worked with SNCC to secure voting rights for Black people, is born in Montgomery County Mississippi.
1924, Joseph E. Lowery, who will serve as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is born in Huntsville , AL
1927, the era of talking pictures arrived with the opening of "The Jazz Singer," a movie starring Al Jolson that featured both silent and sound-synchronized scenes.
1949, President Truman signed the Mutual Defense Assistance Act, totaling $1.3 billion in military aid to NATO countries.
1973, war erupted in the Middle East as Egypt and Syria attacked Israel during the Yom Kippur holiday.
1976, in his second debate with Jimmy Carter, President Ford asserted there was "no Soviet domination of eastern Europe." (Ford later conceded he'd misspoken.)
1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was shot to death by extremists while reviewing a military parade.
Missing in Action
1962 ANDERSON THOMAS EDWARD SPENARD AK
1966 JOHNSON WILLIAM EDWARD TALLAHASSEE FL 01/14/69 REMAINS RECOVERED
1966 MAKOWSKI LOUIS FRANK WAUCHULA FL 03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1966 MOSER DAVID LLOYD GEORG MCKEESPORT PA 01/69 REMAINS RECOVERED
1966 PFEIFER RONALD EDWIN BELLEROSE NY 01/69 REMAINS RECOVERED REFNO 2004 1 OF 26
1967 ARMSTRONG FRANK A. III SHREVEPORT LA
1969 BOWER IRVIN LESTER JR. LINGLESTOWN PA
1972 ANDERSON ROBERT D. BATTLE CREEK MI REMAINS IDENTIFIED 10/30/98 NAME WITHHELD
1972 BAKER VETO H. "11/75 AWOL, RELEASED BY SVN" DECEASED
1972 BOLTZE BRUCE E. FLINT MI
1972 LATELLA GEORGE F. NEW YORK NY 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 MC CORMICK CARL O. PEORIA IL
1973 ELM HOMER L. 12/11/73 RELEASED
Los Angeles Times
Agency Seeks to Lift Otter Ban
Federal biologists call for ending efforts to keep them out of Southland waters. They compete with lobster and urchin fishermen.
By Sara Lin, Times Staff Writer
After 18 years of failed attempts to keep sea otters out of most Southern California waters at the behest of fishermen, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday recommended abandoning the effort, saying the move would benefit the threatened species.
The agency also called for ending a program to relocate sea otters from Monterey Bay to San Nicolas Island, 60 miles off the Southern California coast. The program was meant to foster a new population of southern sea otters, but most of the relocated otters left the island, many taking up residence nearer the coast.
"The underlying message is, otters don't stay where we put them," said Greg Sanders, southern sea otter recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"From all we can tell, they all swam away," Sanders said.
Some swam more than 200 miles through shark-infested waters back to Monterey Bay. Others headed toward forbidden waters off the nearby Southern California coast.
Historically, California sea otters could be found as far south as Baja California. They numbered about 16,000 in the 1800s. The otters were nearly wiped out by 19th century fur traders, but about 50 survived in a remote cove off Big Sur. In 1977, they were declared a federally protected species. Today, there are about 2,700 California otters. The population has held steady in recent years.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-otter6oct06,0,2688143.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Fundraising Phenom -- Red Cross -- Is Under Fire
By Josh Getlin, Nicole Gaouette and Jenny Jarvie, Times Staff Writers
BELLE CHASSE, La. -- Amid the destruction and dislocation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the American Red Cross has undertaken a relief effort unlike any in its history. So far, the charity has spent $811 million on emergency cash aid and $110 million on food and shelter.
The results have been mixed.
Despite the ambition of the charity's efforts and the money spent, evacuees complain that Red Cross aid has been slow and unreliable. Other charity groups and relief workers contend that the agency is in over its head.
Guy Richardson, a New Orleans waiter who made it to Atlanta with his family, said he encountered chaos in trying to get cash assistance from the Red Cross. He waited in line for eight hours at a center, without success; the charity later pulled out of the center.
Others, like Liz Tadlock, have grumbled about their inability to get through on an 800 phone line set up to help evacuees register for emergency cash assistance. The Belle Chasse teacher said she spent two days at a center dialing the Red Cross number.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-100605redcross_lat,0,6934504.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Rove to Give Additional Testimony in CIA Leak Case
Federal prosecutors warn they cannot guarantee the presidential adviser won't be indicted.
From Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors have accepted an offer from presidential adviser Karl Rove to give 11th hour testimony in the case of a CIA officer's leaked identity and have warned they cannot guarantee he won't be indicted, according to people directly familiar with the investigation.
The people, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy, said Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has not made any decision yet on whether to file criminal charges against the longtime confidant of President Bush or anyone else.
The U.S. attorney's manual requires that prosecutors not bring witnesses before a grand jury if there is a possibility of future criminal charges unless the witnesses are notified in advance that their testimony can be used against them in a later indictment.
Rove has already made at least three grand jury appearances and his return at this late stage in the investigation is unusual.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-100605rove_wr,0,5814600.story?coll=la-home-headlines
2 Strategies on Policing Homeless
LAPD chief touts arrests for crimes downtown. Sheriff says sweeps won't solve the big problem.
By Cara Mia DiMassa and Stuart Pfeifer, Times Staff Writers
The debate over what to do about the homeless problem in downtown Los Angeles is informed — and complicated — by the decidedly divergent views on the issue voiced by Los Angeles' two top law enforcement officials.
When Sheriff Lee Baca talks about his goal of ending homelessness in Los Angeles County, he sounds more like an idealistic social worker than the head of the largest sheriff's department in the country.
He has set up summits to strategize on how to better serve the homeless and mentally ill and has tried for years to establish a tent city near County Jail for homeless people who have been released. He has said he doesn't believe that arresting the homeless for minor violations is the best way to solve the problem.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dumping6oct06,0,4040252.story?coll=la-home-local
War of attrition
THE WORSENING MILITARY SITUATION in Iraq now threatens to be matched by declining political conditions there. In the last week, more than 140 Iraqis have been killed in a series of bombings, and U.S. Army officials downgraded from three to one the number of Iraqi battalions capable of acting on their own. Meanwhile, Shiites and Kurds attempted to rig the Oct. 15 referendum on the new constitution in an effort to further marginalize the Sunnis, backing down only under strong U.S. and United Nations pressure.
It's difficult if not impossible to reconcile President Bush's upbeat reports of progress, such as the one he delivered Wednesday in the Rose Garden, with reality. We hope for a more clear-eyed assessment in his planned speech today.
The consequences abroad
Success in Iraq is crucial not just for Bush, obviously, but across the Middle East, where the escalating violence is causing alarm. Two weeks ago, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al Faisal, said Iraq was hurtling toward disintegration and could draw other countries in the region into a civil war. While the Bush administration promotes a vision of a democratic Iraq as a beacon for the Middle East, Iraq's neighbors worry about a different beacon: a fractured state that's a magnet for insurgents who train and gain combat experience in Iraq and return home to wreak havoc.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-iraq06oct06,0,3310107.story?coll=la-home-oped
Jerry Juhl, 67; His Scriptwriting Breathed Life Into the Muppets
By Dennis McLellan, Times Staff Writer
Jerry Juhl, the Emmy Award-winning former head writer for the Muppets who provided much of the heart and soul to Jim Henson's iconic troupe of fleece and foam puppets, has died. He was 67.
Juhl, who also co-wrote most of the Muppet feature films and wrote for "Sesame Street" during its early years, died of cancer Sept. 27 in a hospital in San Francisco, said Arthur Novell, executive director of the Jim Henson Legacy. Juhl, who was semiretired, lived in the Northern California town of Caspar.
Juhl co-wrote "The Muppet Movie," which marked the Muppets' move to the big screen in 1979. He later wrote the screenplay for "The Muppet Christmas Carol" and co-wrote "The Great Muppet Caper," "Muppet Treasure Island" and "Muppets From Space."
He also served as head writer and creative producer on the award-winning "Fraggle Rock," Henson's 1983-87 TV series about a race of small creatures that live underground.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-juhl6oct06,0,1874207.story?coll=la-home-obituaries
P C World
Windows XP SP3 Preview Surfaces Online
"Unofficial" preview pack includes log-on improvements and network fixes for Windows XP PCs.
Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Though Microsoft still won't confirm that it will release a third service pack for its Windows XP operating system, a preview version of the software update has been made available on the Web.
An "unofficial" preview pack of Windows XP Service Pack 3 is available at The Hotfix, a software download site and discussion forum that focuses on patches and software updates.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122871,00.asp
Trojan Horse Sneaks Through MS Office Hole
Malicious code can arrive via e-mail as an attached Access file.
Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service
Monday, October 03, 2005
Microsoft says it is investigating a recently released Trojan horse that targets a hole--first identified in April--in its Microsoft Office software suite.
Symantec has issued an advisory that the Trojan horse, named Backdoor.Hesive, can arrive as a Microsoft Access file, exploiting a Microsoft Jet Database Engine buffer overflow. The code can give an unauthorized user access, Symantec says, allowing an intruder to upload files, modify Registry values, and get system and network information.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122811,00.asp
Smart, Free Fixes for Your USB Hassles
Make that kudzu-like array of USB devices and ports work--once and for all.
Steve Bass
From the November 2005 issue of PC World magazine
Posted Monday, September 26, 2005
When USB works, it's great. But half the time, it's as flaky as Boston Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez. Sit tight. I've discovered what could be the sources of your USB problems, and--miracle of miracles--how you can fix them.
The Hassle: Some days, my computer does not see my USB scanner, while on other days it does; the same thing happens with my external hard drive.
The Fix: The culprit here may be overcurrent, either on the PC's USB ports or on a powered USB hub. Overcurrent occurs when too many power-draining USB peripherals are turned on at once, causing some devices not to be seen by the PC. This glitch usually arises with devices that need power from the USB port, such as unpowered hubs, memory card readers, and flash drives.
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,122476,00.asp
The Daily Star (Beirut, Lebanon)
Bush, Blair tighten screws on Syria and Iran for alleged terror support
U.S. President defends iraq war as defense against Islamic empire
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Friday, October 07, 2005
President George W. Bush implicitly accused Syria and Iran of supporting "terrorist" groups and defended the Iraq war as necessary to prevent Islamic militants from gaining a foothold for a sweeping empire. Further stepping up international pressure on Iran, British Prime Minster Tony Blair said London suspected explosives used to kill British troops in Iraq may have come from the Islamic Republic or its Lebanese Hizbullah allies. Both Iran and Hizbullah denied the accusations as "lies."
Trying to reverse a slide in public support for the war in Iraq, Bush said in a major speech on his global anti-terror campaign that Islamic militants have made Iraq their main front in a war against civilized society.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=19122
Remarks on the road to a just Lebanon
Human rights lawyer Nizar Saghieh discusses matters of amnesty and justice
By Jim Quilty
Daily Star staff
Friday, October 07, 2005
INTERVIEW
BEIRUT: "The files on Dinnieh and the Majdel Anjar group are now closed, as are those on Danny Chamoun and Rashid Karami," says Nizar Saghieh. "It is atrocious that these cases are linked. Worse, journalists [generally] didn't question the legal precedent for linking completely unrelated crimes."
"There is no legal precedent for this. The only thing it can be compared to is a prisoner exchange."
Saghieh is addressing an audience at the Masrah Al-Madina, part of a recent round-table discussion called "Amnesty versus justice and where memory dwells." It was staged during "Civil Violence and War Memories," a symposium organized by UMAM Documentation and Research.
"Lebanon's amnesty law was a political document," he continues, "not a legal one."
The amnesty law in question freed Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea after 11 years detention. Rolled into the package were several Sunni detainees, some accused of involvement in the Dinnieh episode of December 1999 to January 2000, others of plotting terror acts against Western targets in Lebanon.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=19109
Annan mulls request to extend probe into Hariri killing
Lebanese Prime Minister called the secretary general for a mandate extension for Mehlis' team
By Mayssam Zaaroura and Nada Bakri
Daily Star staff
Friday, October 07, 2005
NEW YORK/BEIRUT: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is studying the possibility of extending the mandate of the head of the UN probe team into the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri, Detlev Mehlis, to the end of this year, according to top level UN sources. The UN secretary general's spokesman Stephane Dujarric told The Daily Star yesterday "Annan met with Mehlis yesterday in Geneva to be directly briefed by Mehlis on the latest results of his investigations."
Mehlis' report is due to be presented on October 21, three days before his commission's mandate expires.
Lebanese press reports quoted Prime Minister Fouad Siniora Monday as saying that Mehlis was seeking to extend the mission until December 15.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=19121
Lebanon faces illegal cable-TV challenge
Officials must crack down on unlicensed operators to improve wto prospects
By Bechir Saade
Daily Star staff
Friday, October 07, 2005
BEIRUT: The government's chances of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) are remote if it does not take serious measures to crack down on intellectual property (IP) rights violation, according to a legal expert. The thorniest issue may well be cable-TV piracy due to the considerable size of its market. Today, only two cable-TV operators are legally licensed: Cable Vision and Econet.
For the rest, a recent study found that 600 to 800 unauthorized cable operators are feeding as many as 800,000 households at $10 per month, bringing the total of illegal activity to $8 million, according to attorney and legal specialist in IP issues Walid Nasser.
At a time when the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman has shown discontent with the overall status of Lebanese IP rights, Nasser stressed that Lebanon was on America's "301 lists" of countries which potentially violate trade rules of conduct in terms IP rights.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=19108
Israeli firepower and fences won't stop Palestinian sewage
By Ze'ev Schiff
Commentary by
Friday, October 07, 2005
At the end of last month, Israel dedicated its largest desalination plant on the Mediterranean Sea. The facility is located in Ashkelon, not far from the northern border of the Gaza Strip. In the first phase of operation, it is meant to supply 100 million cubic meters of water a year.
But now, as the government is gearing up for a party, a classified report has landed on its desk that was commissioned from the Israel Water Commission prior to Israel's decision to leave the Gaza Strip and portions of northern Samaria. The section relevant to the desalination plant in Ashkelon states that if the Palestinians go ahead with their plans to lay a sewage pipe that drains into the sea in the northern Gaza Strip, it will "paralyze the largest desalination plant in Ashkelon and pollute the nearby beaches."
The wording used by the Israel Water Commission in this report is uncharacteristically harsh: "Crippling the work of the desalination plant by piping sewage into the sea from northern Gaza is intolerable for the water economy. Any attempt to lay a pipe that drains sewage into the sea and pollutes our coastline must be physically stopped." This kind of stern language was not even employed when Syria and the Arab countries tried to divert the headwaters of the Jordan years ago, which eventually led to the outbreak of the 1967 war.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=19095
Terrorism in pursuit of Western values
By Mustafa Malik
Commentary by
Friday, October 07, 2005
Human rights groups around the world are concerned that the UN resolution calling on governments to punish "incitement to terrorist acts" will further stifle the voices of the oppressed, especially because the world body has failed to define what terrorism is.
This resolution has, says Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth, "made it easy for abusive governments to invoke the resolution to target peaceful political opponents, impose censorship and close mosques, churches and schools."
The draft resolution that sought to define terrorism fell through in the UN General Assembly mainly because the United States and Britain opposed clauses that would permit "resistance against occupation" and call for the examination of the "root causes" of terrorism. America and Britain, representing the European Union, apparently were saying that if you have the guns you can not only invade and occupy countries, but should be able to rewrite political science, too.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=19093
FCLD, PA prisoner affairs minister meet with UN officials
By John Thorne
Special to The Daily Star
Friday, October 07, 2005
The Follow-Up Committee for the Support of Lebanese Detainees in Israeli Prisons (FCLD) met UN officials at UN House in Beirut. Also present was Palestinian Authority Minister of Prisoner Affairs Ziad Abu Ein. FCLD chief Mohammad Safa declared the meeting a success, saying the UN representatives had expressed their full support for the Palestinian detainees. They agreed with the FCLD to step up the Red Cross' activity in Israeli prisons and prepare a special, first-of-its-kind report to the UN on the detainees.
Israel holds some 8,600 Palestinian and Arab detainees, two of whom are Lebanese, says Safa, whose committee lobbies Israel on behalf of Arab prisoners in general. Some have been held for over 20 years, including Lebanon's Samir Qantar, imprisoned since 1978.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=19120
The Jordan Times
Queen Rania Distinguished Teacher Award launched
By Mohammad Ghazal
Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania with teachers who participated in a workshop on Wednesday to discuss the characteristics required to excel in the profession (Photo by Yousef Allan)
AMMAN — Marking Teachers' Day, His Majesty King Abdullah on Wednesday launched the Queen Rania Distinguished Teacher Award, seeking to spread the spirit of competitiveness among the Kingdom's educators.
Joining a workshop of 25 teachers yesterday to discuss the characteristics necessary to excel in the profession and to set a strategy for success in the field, Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania voiced their support for teachers in the Kingdom.
“I am aware of your circumstances and I support you and I constantly follow up with the Ministry of Education on how to overcome the challenges and obstacles you face,” King Abdullah told participants at the workshop.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/homenews/homenews1.htm
Help them think
Teachers' Day yesterday represented an occasion for all of us to show appreciation for the work of our 70,000 teachers who, everyday, face the colossal task of facilitating and assisting the intellectual, emotional and physical growth of our children.
In a country where more than one-third of the population is attending elementary or secondary schools, teachers' contribution to the making of Jordan's future cannot be overstated.
This year, the introduction of new curricula, textbooks and assessment criteria and methods for four graders made the work of many educators more challenging, but at the same time more rewarding.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion1.htm
Conflicting interests in Iraq
Michael Jansen
The three-pronged US military offensive in Iraq's restive western Anbar province and the Shiite-dominated Iraqi parliament's decision to change the law governing the Oct. 15th referendum on the constitution in order to prevent its defeat are the iron girders which broke the Sunni camel's back.
On the one hand, the US military, backed up by some Iraqi troops, is attacking three main Sunni enclaves, the first around Qaim on the border with Syria, the second in the Haditha area and the third in Ramadi, on the western approaches to Baghdad. Sunnis claim that these assaults are timed to make it impossible for them to vote in the referendum, denying them the right to cast their ballots against the controversial constitution.
On the other hand, the assembly redefined the three-province veto on the constitution by ruling that it could be rejected only if two-thirds of registered rather than actual voters cast negative ballots. Since only 57 per cent of registered voters took part in last January's parliamentary poll, this means that it is impossible for the Sunnis to defeat a constitution which they consider to be a recipe for the break-up of Iraq.
Under strong UN and US pressure, the Iraqi assembly yesterday abrogated this restrictive measure, but the flip-flop is not likely to convince Sunnis that the referendum will be conducted honestly and transparently.
Instead of coaxing and cultivating Iraq's Sunnis and secularists in order to bring them into the political process, the Bush administration and the Shiite-led Iraqi government are doing their best to drive the Sunnis from the political scene and, perhaps, even from the country.
Having seized power through January's parliamentary election, Washington's Shiite allies are determined to hang on to it even though this means they must contend with both an escalating insurgency and the civil war which killed more than 700 Iraqis last month.
The most amazing aspect of this drive for absolute power is that the US-fostered Shiite United Iraqi Alliance is a coalition of largely Shiite religious factions dominated by Islamic Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Both enjoy close relations with the Iranian government and other power centres in Tehran. It is ironic that Interior Minister Bayan Jabor should criticise the Saudis and others who have warned of this connection to a Shiite clerical regime which seeks to export its Islamic revolutionary ideology to other countries in the Middle East.
So far, Iraq is the only state where the seeds sown by Tehran over the past 25 years seem to be sprouting. Tehran expects Dawa and SCIRI to be victorious in the constitutional referendum and win at least a plurality of seats in a full-term parliament in the December poll. Dawa, a Shiite religious party founded in 1957, is somewhat more independent than SCIRI, a breakaway faction set up in Tehran in 1982. SCIRI's militia, the Badr Corps, was set up under the guidance of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and funded and armed by Iran. The Badr Corps fought on Iran's side during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, and remains in close contact with the Revolutionary Guards.
Senior Dawa and SCIRI officials have top jobs in the central government. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari is the spokesman of Dawa and Jabor, a Shiite Turkoman, is a former commander of the Badr Corps. SCIRI members serve as governors of Baghdad, Najaf and Karbala and have taken up senior posts in the southern provinces. SCIRI militiamen have been inducted into the armed forces and police. SCIRI-affiliated soldiers and police have been accused of murdering political rivals and former Baathists. SCIRI clerics and enforcers impose Iran-style conservative dress and social codes on Basra and southern cities.
SCIRI and the Kurds inserted a provision in the draft constitution permitting two or more provinces to form regions and allowing them control of local resources, including oil. SCIRI seeks to create a region of nine Shiite-majority provinces where 70 per cent of Iraq's developed and proven oil reserves are located. In addition to oil, this region contains a disproportionate number of power plants, its only maritime outlets, Basra and Umm Qasr, lucrative pilgrimage and tourism sites, and rich agricultural land and water resources.
Iran has cultivated connections with religious figures and tribal factions. Tehran funds mosque maintenance and construction, builds religious schools, clinics, and social and sports clubs. Tehran donates mountains of books, particularly on theology, and posters bearing the images of revered Shiite theologians, including Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic. Iran's wealthy charitable foundations, which engage in the export of Iran's Islamic revolutionary ideology, are involved in welfare projects in Iraq.
Sunnis and Kurds accuse Tehran of disguising intelligence agents as Shiite pilgrims and of brainwashing Iraqi Shiites who visit Iranian holy sites. Constant cross-border contact is creating a common sense of identity between Iranian and Iraqi Shiites. This relationship could even become as close as that between the Afghan Taleban and Pakistan.
Nevertheless, the US is committed to its alliance with Dawa and SCIRI. In the short term, Iranian and US interests converge. Both want the Sunni resistance to be crushed, Iraq to attain a modicum of stability, and reconstruction to begin in earnest. But in the medium to long term, the interests of Washington and Tehran diverge. Washington claims it wants Iraq to become a pluralistic democracy and a light onto the nations of the region. Tehran seeks to install a Shiite Islamic regime in the southern Shiite superstate and to exert influence in Iraq's central government through its Shiite political allies. The clerics also want Iraq to be a light unto the peoples of the region, a light guiding them to Islamic statehood.
Thursday, October 6, 2005
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion2.htm
Abbas, Sharon to meet Tuesday — King
JT with agency dispatches
PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon are expected to meet on Tuesday after mediation efforts by His Majesty King Abdullah, a senior Royal Court official said.
The official told The Jordan Times that King Abdullah separately telephoned Abbas and Sharon, urging them to meet and resume peace negotiations.
"Following the King's efforts to help revive the peace process, the Palestinian president and the Israeli prime minister agreed to meet on October 11 and try to find a solution to pending issues," the official said.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news1.htm
MPs make U-turn on charter vote rules
A partially destroyed car is taken away Wednesday from the site where a car bomb exploded in central Baghdad (AFP photo by Ahmad Rubaye)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraq's parliament reversed on Wednesday a ruling that would have helped a new constitution win approval in a referendum, appeasing minority Sunnis after the United Nations hinted it might refuse to endorse the vote.
Sunni politicians, many of whom say the charter favours Shiites and Kurds, and the White House welcomed parliament's move, which changed a decision on Sunday easing conditions for the October 15 referendum to secure a "yes" vote.
The national assembly's Shiite majority insisted it acted by itself and not under pressure of the UN's veiled warnings.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news2.htm
Bomber wrecks Shiite mosque, kills 25
HILLAH (AP) — A bomb exploded at the entrance of a Shiite Muslim mosque south of Baghdad as hundreds of worshippers gathered for prayers and for the funeral of a man killed in an earlier bombing. At least 25 people were killed and 87 wounded.
The explosion hit the Husseiniyat Ibn Nama Mosque, ripping through strings of lightbulbs and green and red flags hung around the entrance to celebrate the start of the holy month. The mosque's facade was ravaged, shops nearby were destroyed and several cars were damaged.
Hundreds of men had gathered at the mosque, located in the centre of Hillah, for prayers before returning home to eat the meal that ends the day's sunrise to sunset fast, when the blast went off at 6:00pm.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news3.htm
Iranian foreign minister puts off Saudi visit amid row
RIYADH (AFP) — Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki put off a planned visit to Saudi Arabia Wednesday after the two countries publicly rowed over the situation in Iraq.
Saudi Arabia has accused Shiite Iran of meddling in the affairs of the violence-ravaged country, but Tehran has denied the charge, which also drew a scathing attack on Riyadh from an Iraqi Shiite minister.
The surprise postponement of Mottaki's visit was reported by Saudi foreign ministry sources and later confirmed by an Iranian foreign ministry source.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news4.htm
Iran's tough nuclear stance causes domestic jitters
TEHRAN (AFP) — The uncompromising stance of Iran's new hardline authorities in a standoff over Islamic republic's nuclear programme is worrying some Iranian officials and leading to overt criticism.
The issue is not whether or not the country should hang on to its nuclear programme, but more on how the regime should go about it.
Since the presidential election victory of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June and the appointment of ultra-conservative Ali Larijani as top negotiator, the crisis has taken a turn for the worse.
Iran has slammed the door on proposals from Britain, France and Germany that it abandon fuel cycle technology in return for incentives, and decided to resume uranium conversion work in defiance of a suspension agreement with the EU-3.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news7.htm
Turkey, Europe and the clash of civilisations
Gwynne Dyer
“What do you gain by adding 99 per cent Muslim Turkey to the European Union?” asked Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan last month. And then he answered his own question: “You gain a bridge between the EU and the 1.5 billion-strong Islamic world. An alliance of civilisations will start.”
You don't have to go very far in Turkey to find people who reject Erdogan's vision: the militant nationalist right, the radical left, religious fanatics and people who just worry that joining the EU will slow down the country's rapid economic growth. And you don't have to go far in the EU to find people who are equally opposed to Turkey's membership. But the official negotiations on Turkey's membership opened nevertheless in Luxembourg on the evening of Oct. 3.
It should have been the morning of Oct. 3, but the bitter argument within the EU went on right down to the wire and beyond, with the Austrian government demanding that Turkey be offered not full membership but only a “privileged partnership”. Since any one of the EU's 25 member countries can block a proposal to admit a new member, it took two days of arm-twisting and bribery to get the Austrians to drop their objections, and by the end the Turks were on the brink of walking away themselves.
This “alliance of civilisations” stuff is not easy to do.
It was hardly surprising that it was Austria that was digging its heels in, for Austria was for several centuries the frontier between Christian Europe and the Turkish-ruled Balkans. It was at the second siege of Vienna, in 1683, that the relentless advance of the Turks into Europe was finally stopped, and for Austrians that crisis of more than 300 years ago remains the event that defines their national identity.
Behind the Austrians' arguments that Turkey is too populous and too poor to fit into the European Union (73 million people and only a third of the EU's average per capita GDP), their basic objection was that Christianity and Islam do not mix. Admitting Turkey would turn the EU into a 20 per cent Muslim entity, which is just a recipe for trouble. And that view was shared by a significant minority of Christian conservatives and other sceptics elsewhere, especially in France and Germany.
Pro-Turkish governments in the EU were just as prone to define the argument in “civilisational” and sometimes apocalyptic terms. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the BBC on Oct. 2 that “we're concerned about a so-called clash of civilisations. We're concerned about this theological-political divide, which could open up even further the boundary between so-called Christian-heritage states and those of Islamic heritage”.
And you just want to tell them all to take their medication and calm down.
There is an attractive symbolism in the idea that Turkish membership in the EU would finally begin to repair the split that tore the old classical Mediterranean civilisation in two with the rise of Islam fourteen centuries ago, but it is not really about an “alliance” between Christianity and Islam. On the contrary, it has become possible only because both Western Europeans and Turks have ceased to define themselves solely or even mainly in religious terms. Many people in Western Europe and most people in Turkey are still believers, but it doesn't swallow up their whole identity.
Rejecting Turkey merely on the grounds that it is Muslim would condemn the EU to being just “a Christian club”, in Erdogan's cutting phrase, but it would not trigger some vast confrontation between the West and the Muslim world. The Turks would be severely miffed, but most people in other Muslim countries already think of Europe as a Christian club, having no idea of how small a role religion plays in the public life of most EU countries. Small disaster, not many hurt.
The real reasons for the EU to want Turkey in are much more specific. The EU will have need of Turkey's relatively young and growing population as its own population ages, and Turkey's high economic growth rate (eight or nine per cent this year) would help bring up the rather modest EU average. A surprising number of Europeans also care about healing the old rift that tore Europe itself apart — for Turkey, although Muslim, was a European great power for five centuries, and was firmly established in the Balkans long before it conquered most of the Arab world.
For Turks, whose free-trade relationship with the EU already gives them most of the economic benefits of membership, the advantages lie mainly in anchoring the country in a web of supranational institutions and laws that guarantee the country's democratic and secular character. Erdogan has already used the requirements of EU membership as a lever with which to force democratic and human rights reforms on a reluctant army and bureaucracy, and membership negotiation will enable him to go further in the same direction.
When will Turkey actually join? Certainly not before 2015, by which time the economic gap between Turkey and the richer EU countries may have narrowed considerably — and maybe never, for the entry negotiations are not guaranteed to succeed. But the fact that negotiations have finally started sends all the right signals, and the talks themselves are a useful tool for Turkish reformers. That's enough for the moment.
The writer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion5.htm
Jerusalem Post
Aksa Martyrs Brigades plan to run in next elections
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Although it has been added to the US State Department's official list of foreign terrorist groups, the armed wing of the ruling Fatah party, Aksa Martyrs Brigades, is planning to run in the next elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council.
The group's decision is likely to embarrass Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who is already under heavy pressure from Israel to prevent Hamas from participating in the vote. Moreover, it is understood that the US and the European Union are opposed to the participation of Hamas and other terrorist groups in the elections.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128565310321
Sharon wants NRP, not Lapid
By GIL HOFFMAN
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would like to see the National Religious Party and not Shinui join the coalition, sources close to Sharon said on Thursday.
Following Sharon's meeting with Shinui head Yosef Lapid on Thursday, Lapid told reporters that Sharon invited him to join the coalition. Lapid said he replied that Shinui would consider it if the government enacted civil marriage and forced haredim to serve in the army.
Sharon's office later denied that such an offer was made to Shinui. Sharon's associates said that Sharon merely offered Shinui "cooperation" and that if any party joins the coalition, it would be the National Religious Party.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128565310749
High Court bans use of 'human shields'
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
In a landmark ruling, Israel's High Court of Justice on Thursday banned the military's use of Palestinian civilians as 'human shields' in arrest operations against suspected Palestinian terrorists, calling the practice a violation of international law.
The unequivocal ruling by the nation's highest court, which was harshly lambasted by right-wing parliamentarians and warmly welcomed by the left, comes three years after it issued a temporary
injunction against the practice following a petition by Israeli human rights groups -- Human Rights Watch, and B'Tselem.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128565305933
Norwegian claims she infiltrated Mossad
By ARIEH O'SULLIVAN AND AP
A Norwegian woman with close ties to the Palestinian community succeeded in infiltrating the Mossad in the 1980s, reports from Oslo claimed Thursday.
The woman, identified by The Associated Press as Karin Linstad, said she decided to expose herself because she was being identified in a book being published next month.
"I can't go into detail about the people and the organizations," the alleged double agent told the AP.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128565309627
Israel: Franklin's trial won't affect us
By NATHAN GUTTMAN
WASHINGTON
Israel alleged that it would not be affected by Lawrence Franklin's plea bargain or by the fact that the names of Israeli diplomats were mentioned in court. Israeli diplomatic sources said Thursday that Naor Gilon, the former political officer at the Israeli embassy in Washington, who was in contact with convicted Pentagon analyst Franklin, had no idea that the information he got from Franklin was classified.
"We are not responsible for what is said to us by American officials", said the diplomatic source, "even if an American official did something he was not authorized to do, we had no way of knowing that."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128565310259
Gulf Coast Jews struggle to celebrate High Holy Days
By RACHEL ZOLL
Bad luck keeps following Stephen Richer. Last year at the start of Rosh Hashana, a hurricane evacuation sent him and a cantor at his tiny Biloxi, Mississippi, synagogue on an odyssey across the state to find a congregation where they could mark the Jewish New Year.
This year, as the High Holy Days began Monday night, Richer once again searched for a spiritual home. His Conservative synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel, is one of many across the Gulf Coast that have been shuttered by extensive damage from Hurricane Katrina
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128478900293
El Al buys Boeing again: Two B777-200 ERs for $246m.
By AVI KRAWITZ
El Al has once again decided to maintain an all-Boeing fleet after it agreed to buy two Boeing 777-200 ER airplanes from the Seattle-based aircraft manufacturer for $246 million.
The company announced the deal on Sunday for the two aircraft, which will each cost $117m. to $123m. depending on the specifications required by the company. They are scheduled to be delivered in 2007.
El Al said that it had the resources to finance 15 percent of the purchase price, while the remainder would be covered through loans, for which it expects to secure commitments by December.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128219510325
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