The Arab News

Iran Standoff: The West Should Work for N-Free Middle East
Hassan Tahsin, hassan_tahsin@hotmail.com
Against the backdrop of mounting US campaigns against Iran over its nuclear program and provocative statements from both sides, Egypt made an effort to bring about an element of sanity among the powers that are busy manufacturing and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
At an international meeting held in Vienna recently, Egypt stressed the need for an agreement to stop the nuclear terrorism that threatens the entire Middle East. It has been Egypt’s long-held stand that the region should be free from all types of weapons of mass destruction.
A meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries held in Riyadh recently called for resolving the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomatic channels. It ruled out any military options against Iran because its consequences will, obviously, engulf the whole region and beyond.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=82415&d=19&m=5&y=2006


Iran N-Standoff Will Be Resolved Through Talks, Hopes Saud
Arab News
WASHINGTON, 19 May 2006 - Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal expressed optimism that the Iranian nuclear issue would be resolved through diplomatic channels, Saudi Press Agency said. Prince Saud, who is currently heading a delegation to the United States to participate in a Saudi-American joint conference for strategic dialogues, addressed the media in Washington on Wednesday.
Yesterday, Prince Saud and his US counterpart Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice co-chaired a meeting of the Saudi American Strategic Dialogue that began at Stateside yesterday. The meeting is scheduled to discuss aspects of strategic cooperation in areas of politics, economy, military, security, culture, science etc.
"The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries will send the foreign minister of Oman to Iran to discuss the issue with the authorities there," said Prince Saud referring to the Iranian nuclear standoff. He said it was not proper to sit idle and watch the situation deteriorate.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=82424&d=19&m=5&y=2006


Rival Palestinian Security Forces Flex Muscles
Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News
GAZA CITY, 19 May 2006 — Rival Palestinian security forces flexed their muscles yesterday as a dangerous standoff between Hamas and Fatah groups showed no sign of a resolution.
Thousands of security officers denounced a rival militia, dispatched by the Hamas government a day earlier in a bid to restore order to the territory, and pledge support for beleaguered Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh insisted the unit was “set up in keeping with the law, the basic law and direct agreement with president Abbas,” drawing quick denial from the presidency.
“You were in the resistance. Today you are protecting the nation, security and the people,” Haniyeh told hundreds of recruits of the new paramilitary.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=82419&d=19&m=5&y=2006


Editorial: Landbridge Revolution
19 May 2006
The announcement that four consortia have been given the go-ahead by the Supreme Economic Council to submit their plans and prices for the landbridge rail link between the Red Sea and the Gulf brings forward in one giant step a project that will have massive consequences for the Saudi economy. The multibillion-riyal project — one of the largest civil engineering schemes ever undertaken in the Middle East, necessitating 28 kilometers of tunnels and 100 bridges — is on par with the massive infrastructural developments of the 1970s oil boom that transformed Saudi Arabia economically, socially, demographically and physically.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=82407&d=19&m=5&y=2006



What About ‘Normal’ Marriages?
Lubna Hussain, lubna@arabnews.com
Over the past few weeks I have read with wide-eyed amazement the heated discourse in the local press dedicated to the concept of marriages of convenience. There has been great uproar in society against the recent legalization of these contracts. So what’s all the fuss about, you may ask. Supposedly, these new fangled forms of wedlock deny Saudi women the basic rights afforded to them through the umbrella of regular matrimony. They allow men to marry without taking any form of responsibility for their wives and also make it very easy for them to divorce without suffering the usual consequences. After all, boys will be boys.
But what stunned me the most was not the fact that the laws of God continue to be violated by men to suit their own lascivious ends but rather the borderline delusion that preponderates when idealizing the current laws that pertain to “normal” marriages. Everyone seems to have been focusing on how such “friendship” or “temporary” or “misyar” marriages seek to deprive a woman of her matrimonial privileges and yet no one has even bothered to realistically analyze the rights of a woman who has been married in a traditional manner. Is our system truly so merciful toward women if they have entered into this kind of “normal” arrangement? I don’t think so.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=9&section=0&article=82430&d=19&m=5&y=2006



The New York Times

U.N. Panel Backs Closing Guantánamo
GENEVA, May 19 — A United Nations panel on torture called on the United States today to close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and expressed concern over reports of secret detention centers and of a practice of sending terror suspects to countries with poor human rights records.
The panel's report came on the same day as American military officers detailed an hourlong melee that occurred after a group of inmates at the detention center tried to commit suicide on Thursday, and other inmates there attacked guards trying to prevent one of the men from hanging himself.
Operations at the prison, opened to hold Al Qaeda, Taliban and other terror suspects after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, have attracted criticism from several nations, and the United States has said it plans to close the facility but cannot yet do so.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/world/19cnd-torture.html?hp&ex=1148097600&en=2d26812555f8c83a&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Coming Down to Earth
TimesSelect subscribers can now listen to a reading of the day's Op-Ed columns.
We shouldn't read too much into a couple of days' movements in stock prices. But it seems that investors are suddenly feeling uneasy about the state of the economy. They should be; the puzzle is why they haven't been uneasy all along.
The rise in stock prices that began last fall was essentially based on the belief that the U.S. economy can defy gravity — that both individuals and the nation as a whole can spend more than their income, not on a temporary basis, but more or less indefinitely.
To be fair, for a while the data seemed to confirm that belief. In 2005, the trade deficit passed $700 billion, yet the dollar actually rose against the euro and the yen. Housing prices soared, yet houses kept selling. The price of gasoline neared $3 a gallon, yet consumers kept buying both gas and other items, even though they had to borrow to keep spending (the personal savings rate went negative for the first time since the 1930's).
Over the last few weeks, however, gravity seems to have started reasserting itself.
The dollar began falling about a month ago. So far it's down less than 10 percent against the euro and the yen, but there's a definite sense that foreign governments, in particular, are becoming less willing to keep the dollar strong by buying lots of U.S. debt.
The housing market seems to be weakening rapidly. As late as last October, the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing market index, a measure of builders' confidence, was still close to the high point it reached last summer. But on Monday the association announced that the index had fallen to its lowest level since 1995.
Finally, there are preliminary indications that consumers, hard-pressed by high gasoline prices, may be reaching their limit.
The National Retail Federation, reporting on a new survey, warns that "while consumers have seemed resilient in the face of higher energy costs, a tipping point may soon be in sight."
I can't resist pointing out that the Bush administration's response to the squeeze on working families has been, you guessed it, to accuse the news media of biased reporting.
On May 10 the White House issued a press release titled "Setting the Record Straight: The New York Times Continues to Ignore America's Economic Progress." The release attacked The Times for asserting that paychecks weren't keeping up with fixed costs like medical care and gasoline. The White House declared, "But average hourly earnings have risen 3.8 percent over the past 12 months, their largest increase in nearly five years."
On Wednesday Treasury Secretary John Snow repeated that boast before a House committee. However, Representative Barney Frank was ready. He asked whether the number was adjusted for inflation; after flailing about, Mr. Snow admitted, sheepishly, that it wasn't. In fact, nearly all of the wage increase was negated by higher prices.
Meanwhile, the return of economic gravity poses a definite threat to U.S. economic growth. After all, growth over the past three years was driven mainly by a housing boom and rapid growth in consumer spending. People were able to buy houses, even though housing prices rose much faster than incomes, because foreign purchases of U.S. debt kept interest rates low. People were able to keep spending, even though wages didn't keep up with inflation, because mortgage refinancing let them turn the rising value of their houses into ready cash.
As I summarized it awhile back, we became a nation in which people make a living by selling one another houses, and they pay for the houses with money borrowed from China.
Now that game seems to be coming to an end. We're going to have to find other ways to make a living — in particular, we're going to have to start selling goods and services, not just I.O.U.'s, to the rest of the world, and/or replace imports with domestic production. And adjusting to that new way of making a living will take time.
Will we have that time? Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, contends that what's happening in the housing market is "a very orderly and moderate kind of cooling." Maybe he's right. But if he isn't, the stock market drop of the last two days will be remembered as the start of a serious economic slowdown.

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/opinion/19krugman.html



Darfur Effort Said to Face Collapse
UNITED NATIONS, May 19 — Jan Egeland, the chief United Nations aid coordinator, told the Security Council today that conditions in Darfur had deteriorated so drastically that the international assistance effort there faced collapse in weeks.
"The next few weeks will make or break," Mr. Egeland said, reporting on a trip he made last week to Sudan and Chad. "We can turn the corner towards reconciliation and reconstruction, or see an even worse collapse of our efforts to provide protection and relief to millions of people."
Among the immediate objectives he said had to be met were getting dissident groups to support a peace agreement that has been signed only by the government and the largest of three major rebel groups; providing immediate and substantial strengthening to the undermanned and underfinanced African Union mission now patrolling Darfur; taking concrete steps to integrate that force into a larger United Nations force; meeting international funding pledges for Darfur and re-establishing aid groups' access that he said represented a lifeline for close to four million people.
On Tuesday, the Security Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for strict observance by all groups of the shaky peace accord, which was adopted in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on May 5. The council also ordered a speedup of plans for the new United Nations force, which is expected to replace the existing 7,000-member African Union force with up to 20,000 troops by October.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/world/asia/19cnd-nations.html?hp&ex=1148097600&en=a4e367e4a8ef95d5&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Vote in House Seeks to Erase Oil Windfall
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: May 19, 2006
WASHINGTON, May 18 — In an attempt to revoke billions of dollars worth of government incentives to oil and gas producers, the House on Thursday approved a measure that would pressure companies to renegotiate more than 1,000 leases for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
The measure, approved 252 to 165 over the objections of many Republican leaders, is intended to prevent companies from avoiding at least $7 billion in payments to the government over the next five years for oil and gas they produce in publicly owned waters.
Scores of Republicans, already under fire from voters about gasoline prices, sided with Democrats on the issue. Eighty-five Republicans voted to attach the provision to the Interior Department's annual spending bill. The measure would require adoption by the Senate, which is less reflexively supportive of the energy industry than the House, and will almost certainly provoke intense opposition from oil and gas producers.
In a raucous debate on the House floor before the vote, Democrats argued that energy companies were shortchanging taxpayers at the same time that soaring prices for crude oil and natural gas had pushed industry profits to record highs.
"Oil companies want to play Uncle Sam for Uncle Sucker," said Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who co-sponsored the amendment with Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, Democrat of New York. "Today, we must put an end to these senseless giveaways."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/washington/19oil.html?hp&ex=1148097600&en=693f471c0b907568&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Bloomberg Critical of Police Union on Contract Talks
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg faulted the police union today in the latest dispute over contract negotiations, calling the union's leaders "a little bit duplicitous" in criticizing the low starting pay for police officers.
A day after his administration proposed raising salaries for new police recruits, Mayor Bloomberg charged that the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association — and not the city — was actually to blame for the low starting salaries. He said union leaders had chosen to push for raises for those in the union already, at the expense of new recruits in the last contract.
"They were very critical of not paying a lot of money for the newer recruits, even though they engineered it — it's a little bit duplicitous but that's what they did," Mr. Bloomberg said on his weekly radio program on WABC-AM. "And now here's a chance for them to rectify it and we'll see what they say."
Mr. Bloomberg also suggested that the union's leaders had "orchestrated" the current salary structure to get more money for the union members who voted for the leadership, rather than getting raises for the new recruits who did not yet have a say in union politics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/nyregion/19cnd-police.html?hp&ex=1148097600&en=32ebe781a831726f&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Iran's Secrecy Widens Gap in Nuclear Intelligence
Correction Appended
South of Tehran, the desert gives way to barbed wire, antiaircraft guns and a maze of buildings, two of them cavernous underground halls roughly half the size of the Pentagon.
International inspectors could once roam the 20 or so main buildings there, at the Natanz uranium enrichment complex. Operating more like detectives than scientists, they combined painstaking sleuthing with physics and engineering in an effort to ascertain the site's true mission, war or peace.
But in February, after three years of unusual openness, Iran drastically reduced access to Natanz and dozens of other atomic sites, programs and personnel.
No longer can the inspectors, from the International Atomic Energy Agency, swab machines, scoop up bits of soil, study invoices, monitor videotapes, peek behind doors and gather seemingly innocuous clues. Now they can track only a narrow range of operations involving radioactive material, and then only with cumbersome restrictions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/world/middleeast/19nukes.html


U.S. Indictment for Big Law Firm in Class Actions
The nation's leading class-action securities law firm, Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman, and two of its partners were charged yesterday with making more than $11 million in secret payments to three individuals who served as plaintiffs in more than 150 lawsuits.
The indictment is the first instance of a law firm with national reach facing criminal charges, and it could prove to be a fatal blow for the firm. The lawsuits cited in the indictment spanned two decades, occurring as recently as 2005, and generated some $216 million in legal fees for the firm.
Its lucrative business made Milberg Weiss a target for political critics who saw the firm as a symbol of a national litigation industry that had gone out of control. These critics said that many of the firm's lawsuits against corporations were frivolous, raising the cost of doing business.
The critics contended that investors, for the most part, saw only pennies on the dollar from any recoveries won by the firm. In the 1990's, Congress raised the legal hurdle for such lawsuits in large part in response to Milberg Weiss. Even so, the firm continued to thrive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/business/19legal.html


As Death Stalks Iraq, Middle-Class Exodus Begins
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 18 — Deaths run like water through the life of the Bahjat family. Four neighbors. A barber. Three grocers. Two men who ran a currency exchange shop.
But when six armed men stormed into their sons' primary school this month, shot a guard dead, and left fliers ordering it to close, Assad Bahjat knew it was time to leave.
"The main thing now is to just get out of Iraq," said Mr. Bahjat, standing in a room heaped with suitcases and bedroom furniture in eastern Baghdad.
In the latest indication of the crushing hardships weighing on the lives of Iraqis, increasing portions of the middle class seem to be doing everything they can to leave the country. In the last 10 months, the state has issued new passports to 1.85 million Iraqis, 7 percent of the population and a quarter of the country's estimated middle class.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/world/middleeast/19migration.html


Panel Backs Vaccine for Cervical Cancer
WASHINGTON, May 18 (AP) — A vaccine that blocks viruses that cause most cervical cancer is safe and effective and should be approved, a federal panel recommended on Thursday. The maker said the vaccine could cut global deaths from the cancer by more than two-thirds.
A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee voted 13 to 0 to endorse the vaccine, Gardasil, produced by Merck. The anticipated cost of the vaccine, which is administered in three shots over six months, is $300 to $500.
The drug protects against the two types of human papillomavirus, or HPV, which scientists believe is responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. It also protects against two other viruses that cause 90 percent of genital warts. All four viruses are sexually transmitted.
The F.D.A. usually follows the recommendations of its outside panels of experts. Experts expect the agency to make a decision by June 8.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/health/19vaccine.html


5 Bird Flu Deaths in Indonesia Not Linked to Human Exchange
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia, May 18 — World Health Organization officials said Thursday that the five avian flu deaths confirmed this week on Sumatra were probably not a result of human-to-human infection and did not suggest that the virus had mutated into a more deadly form.
Five family members were confirmed dead from the A(H5N1) strain of avian influenza by the World Health Organization on Wednesday, the largest such cluster recorded. A sixth family member died of flulike symptoms but was not tested for the virus.
Clusters like the one in Kubu Sembilang village in northern Sumatra, where the victims lived, worry health officials because they indicate that the virus may have been transmitted between humans. Health officials have long feared that such a mutation could set off a worldwide pandemic capable of killing millions.
Gina Samaan, a field epidemiologist for the World Health Organization in Kubu Sembilang investigating the recent cluster, said that the number of deaths had raised eyebrows but that so far the outbreak was similar to others in Indonesia that were caused by close contact with infected poultry.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/world/asia/19birdflu.html



Designing a House to Save a Tree
Published: May 18, 2006
IF Margarita McGrath and Scott Oliver had simply cut down the tree, they would have had room to build a large house — large, at least by New York standards. But they couldn't do it.
For one thing, the maple tree in front of their house in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn had lived far longer than either Ms. McGrath, 41, or Mr. Oliver, 47. For decades, it had dominated the front of the tiny row house on Adelphi Street that they decided to buy in 2001. They are both architects, and at the time, they were considering a major renovation, both to enlarge the house and to show off their design skills. But after 9/11, unsure how much work there would be for architects, they began a more modest renovation.
Other houses on the street were built right up to the sidewalk, and there was no law stopping Ms. McGrath and Mr. Oliver from bringing the front of their house forward. But while the tree diminished the potential size of the house, it also gave the couple a private vest-pocket park. That didn't strike them as something that should be casually destroyed. "We always knew in our gut that it wasn't the house, but the tree and the space in front that made it special," Ms. McGrath said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/garden/18brooklyn.html



Court Begins Reading Verdict in Beslan Raid
VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia (AP) -- The judge reading the verdict of the sole surviving alleged attacker in the Beslan school siege said Tuesday the defendant had taken part in murder and terrorism -- pointing toward a guilty decision in the attack that shocked the country.
But that prospect was little comfort to relatives of the 331 victims, who say authorities are covering up key information about what happened in the September 2004 siege, when some 30 attackers seized the school and demanded that Russian forces end their fight against separatist rebels in nearby Chechnya.
''We still don't know how many people were killed at the hands of the terrorists and how many by the Russian special forces,'' Valiko Margiyev, whose 12-year-old daughter was among the dead, said at a cemetery that he and other relatives visited after the court adjourned following the first day of the verdict reading.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-School-Siege.html?ex=1148443200&en=653e996f7d28fefa&ei=5070&emc=eta1


China Supports Europe's Incentives Plan for Iran
China said today that it supported European efforts to create a new package of incentives for Iran as a way of resolving the standoff over its nuclear program, while Russia repeated its adamant opposition to any United Nations Security Council resolution that could be "a pretext for the use of force."
International efforts to convince Iran to pull back from its nuclear program have stalled, with the United States calling for aggressive action and China and Russia refusing to consider sanctions.
The European Union's proposal, outlined on Monday, would give Iran technology to build nuclear power plants for civilian energy production and other incentives, while requiring that Tehran halt its nuclear enrichment research and clear up questions about past nuclear treaty violations that international inspectors consider unresolved.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/world/middleeast/16cnd-iran.html?ex=1148443200&en=ae82d8053823fbf0&ei=5070&emc=eta1


Iran Mocks European Nuclear Incentives
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's president mocked a package of incentives to suspend uranium enrichment, saying Wednesday they were like giving up gold for chocolate -- defiance that appeared certain to complicate U.S. efforts to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
''Do you think you are dealing with a 4-year-old child to whom you can give some walnuts and chocolates and get gold from him?'' President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked derisively.
He spoke before a huge crowd in the city of Arak, the site of a heavy-water reactor that is scheduled for completion by early 2009. Such facilities produce plutonium as a byproduct usable in building nuclear weapons.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Nuclear.html?ex=1148443200&en=260a01fc920ef49a&ei=5070&emc=eta1



Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles' Foe, It's Fuel
Everyone who has even thought about exercising has heard the warnings about lactic acid. It builds up in your muscles. It is what makes your muscles burn. Its buildup is what makes your muscles tire and give out.
Coaches and personal trainers tell athletes and exercisers that they have to learn to work out at just below their "lactic threshold," that point of diminishing returns when lactic acid starts to accumulate. Some athletes even have blood tests to find their personal lactic thresholds.
But that, it turns out, is all wrong. Lactic acid is actually a fuel, not a caustic waste product. Muscles make it deliberately, producing it from glucose, and they burn it to obtain energy. The reason trained athletes can perform so hard and so long is because their intense training causes their muscles to adapt so they more readily and efficiently absorb lactic acid.
The notion that lactic acid was bad took hold more than a century ago, said George A. Brooks, a professor in the department of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. It stuck because it seemed to make so much sense.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/health/nutrition/16run.html?ex=1148443200&en=3be6113bf4079495&ei=5070&emc=eta1



Skiing Beyond Safety's Edge Once Too Often
LA GRAVE, France, May 15 — Many skiers who brave La Meije, a 13,068-foot peak that towers over this village, pack ropes and harnesses so they can lower themselves onto the steepest runs or rappel when the descent becomes treacherous. Most carry beacons that emit electromagnetic signals in case they need to be dug out after an avalanche.
No boundaries or patrols keep skiers from veering off safe routes. A long tramway simply deposits them at the top of the French Alps, leaving life-and-death decisions to the guides who accompany most of them on the way down.
This wild, unfettered setting is what drew Doug Coombs here from Wyoming. Over the past decade, he transformed himself from a famous daredevil skier to a conscientious mountain guide, making a home with his wife, Emily, and their 2-year-old son, David. They earned a living shepherding skiers around crevasses and away from slopes that creak under the snow's weight.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/sports/othersports/17ski.html?ex=1148529600&en=a4fb533bf0a1cc3f&ei=5070&emc=eta1



Indonesians Ignore Warnings About Volcano
MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia (AP) -- Thousands of villagers fed up with crowded camps have returned to their homes on the slopes of Indonesia's erupting Mount Merapi, ignoring warnings that the peak remains highly dangerous, an official said Thursday.
A camp that held some 2,500 people earlier this week was empty Thursday after a mass departure of refugees, said Insan, an official at the shelter in a government building on the lower slopes of the mountain.
''They said it was like living in a prison,'' said Insan, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name. ''We tried to keep them entertained, but then rumors started spreading that their houses were being looted.''
The 9,800-foot volcano has been shooting out lava and deadly clouds of hot ash and debris for several weeks. It has been rocked by a series of spectacular eruptions since Saturday, with the most recent occurring Wednesday.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Indonesia-Volcano.html?ex=1148356800&en=8d457a3b939b65d7&ei=5070&emc=eta1


New Zealand Herald

N Korea may be preparing missile launch
1.00pm Friday May 19, 2006
TOKYO - North Korea may be preparing to launch a long-range ballistic missile that could have the capacity to reach all of the United States, Japanese national broadcaster NHK reported today.
Quoting unidentified South Korean government officials, NHK said satellite pictures showed there have been signs since early this month around a launch site in northeastern North Korea that pointed to a possible firing in the near future.
South Korea's defence ministry said it could not confirm the report. Japanese officials have not commented.
The missile appeared to be the Taepodong-2, which has the longest range in North Korea's arsenal, and if it is a modified version it may have a range of 15,000 km, which would cover all of the United States, NHK said.
Quoting Japanese government sources, Japan's Kyodo news agency also said a launch could be imminent.
North Korea shocked the international community in August 1998 when it fired a Taepodong missile that flew over Japan before falling into the Pacific Ocean.
The latest development comes amid a deadlock in six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear programmes, and ahead of a visit to China next week by the chief US negotiator to the multilateral talks.
The talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host China.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10382601



Noted director launches attack on Iraq war
1.00pm Friday May 19, 2006
By Louise Jury
The firebrand film director Ken Loach turns 70 next month but proved age has done nothing to dim his political passion as he launched a blistering attack on the Government today for the war in Iraq.
Unveiling his new film, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, at the Cannes Film Festival, Loach, a vociferous opponent of the Iraqi conflict from the start, drew parallels between the British in Ireland more than 80 years ago and the situation in the Middle East today.
The movie stars Cillian Murphy and Liam Cunningham as two brothers during the war of independence in early 1920s Ireland when volunteer guerilla forces took on the soldiers known as the Black and Tans sent from Britain to put down rebellion.
Loach moved quickly to stress the story's contemporary relevance.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10382577



Turks march over judge's killing
1.00pm Friday May 19, 2006
By Hidir Goktas and Inci Ozturk
ANKARA - Some 25,000 Turks have marched to defend secularism, which they said was under threat after a judge was shot dead by a gunman declaring himself a "soldier of God".
Angry crowds directed their anger at Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government which secularists accuse of having a secret Islamic agenda of bringing religion into public life.
Crowds booed and jostled government ministers as they tried to enter the Ankara mosque for the funeral of slain judge Mustafa Ozbilgin.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382602



Dozens die in Afghanistan battles
5.20am Friday May 19, 2006
A dozen police, 30 Taleban militants and a Canadian soldier were killed in heavy fighting in southern Afghanistan, officials said.
A large-scale attack on a police headquarters in Helmand province lasted about eight hours with about a dozen dead, while in a second attack in Kandahar province, a Canadian soldier and about 18 militants were killed.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382522



Video released of kidnapped diplomat
9.10am Friday May 19, 2006
An Iraqi group has issued a video of a United Arab Emirates diplomat kidnapped in Baghdad, and demanded that the Gulf state close its embassy in Iraq, Al Jazeera television reported.
The channel aired the video showing a man standing next to a wall. No audio could be heard on the brief footage.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382573



Baghdad ER... where the truth hurts
Friday May 19, 2006
By Rupert Cornwell
This week, subscribers to the US channel Home Box Office will be treated to a film about the Iraq war unlike any other.
Near the beginning, you see a medical orderly carrying a human arm, amputated above the elbow, which he puts into a red plastic bag.
Welcome to Baghdad ER, the unvarnished, unexpurgated truth of what war is really like.
This has been quite a month for films about September 11 and the war in Iraq that sprung from it.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon finally released video images from a closed circuit camera of American Airlines Flight 77 as it smashed into the Pentagon. The pictures were oddly unmoving - largely because the aircraft was barely distinguishable, just a greyish-white blur in one frame, followed by a flash and a fireball in the next.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382520



Bled dry by Western agencies' goodwill
Friday May 19, 2006
By David Loyn
KABUL - Samihullah is just the kind of returned refugee his country needs. Aged 30, with a wife and two children, he was well educated in the camps across the border in Pakistan. After the Taleban were pushed out in 2001, he returned home and joined the Afghan Ministry of Education, where he helped to rebuild the higher-education sector.
But not any more. I found him working as a guard at the UN's World Food Programme headquarters in Kabul. With allowances, he earns a total of US$270 a month there, compared with US$50 at the ministry. The decision to move jobs was not hard.
But it is the international system that is sucking Afghanistan dry. Any returnee who speaks English is guaranteed a high-paying UN job, or with the myriad non-Government agencies that have set up shop in Kabul.
Ashraf Ghani, who was Finance Minister after the Taleban fell, and is now chancellor of Kabul University, says the international community has failed Afghanistan. Rather than build up the Government, it has created a parallel system that has actively weakened its ability to run its affairs.
Ghani's greatest fear is that by failing to empower the Government, the world could be helping the Taleban to regroup, as they feed on people's resentment at the slow pace of change.
The scale of the international machine has dwarfed the indigenous Government. Large parts of the capital are closed to normal traffic because of security concerns. The remaining traffic paralyses the city for much of the day. To the east of Kabul the UN has built a base the size of a small town.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382474



Europeans knew of CIA flights, say US officials
4.20pm Thursday May 18, 2006
STRASBOURG, France - A wave of CIA flights that secretly transferred terrorist suspects across Europe could only have been carried out with the knowledge of host nations, EU investigators today quoted US officials as saying.
Up to 50 people were moved across the continent to jails in third countries where they faced torture and other abuses, officials from a European Parliament probe into the flights, known as renditions, told a news conference.
"All the people we met (in the United States) suggested or confirmed that the programme of renditions in Europe could not have been carried out without the knowledge and support of the governments," said Carlos Coelho, a Portuguese member of the European Parliament commission probing the flights.
"Officials from the US State Department told us, in more diplomatic terms, that the United States had never violated the sovereignty of European Union member states.
"Others admitted the European governments' involvement more directly," said Coelho of meetings during the commission's trip to the United States from May 8 to 12.
Fellow investigator Claudio Fava of Italy said 30 to 50 people had been handed over by the United States since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and the launch of the US-led war on terrorism.
"We also have confirmation from a reliable source within the CIA that the sequestration of Abu Omar in Milan could not have happened without the knowledge of the Italian intelligence services," Fava said.
Italian and German prosecutors are investigating the case of Omar, an Egyptian man they believe was snatched on a Milan street by a team of CIA agents in February 2003 and flown via Germany to Egypt, where he later said he was tortured.
A German national, Khaled el-Masri, is suing the former head of the CIA over his alleged rendition from Macedonia to Afghanistan, where he says the United States held him in jail for months as a terrorist suspect in 2004. German prosecutors are also probing that case.
Sweden's parliamentary ombudsman has criticised the security services over the expulsion of two Egyptian terrorism suspects who were handed over to US agents and flown home aboard a US government-leased plane in 2001.
Dick Marty, a Swiss investigator from the Council of Europe human rights watchdog which is separately probing the renditions, has branded the transfers as "outsourcing of torture".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382427


Typhoon batters south China
4.00pm Thursday May 18, 2006
HONG KONG - A typhoon which killed 37 people in the Philippines made landfall in south China today, battering coastal Guangdong and Fujian provinces where hundreds of thousands of people had fled to safety.
Typhoon Chanchu, packing winds up to 170 kph and the strongest typhoon on record to enter the South China Sea in May, made landfall between the cities of Shantou and Xiamen and was advancing northeast, the Hong Kong Observatory said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage but Chinese state television said heavy rain would extend as far east as Shanghai and as far inland as Jiangxi province.
Typhoons, drawing power from the warm water, roar into China from the South China Sea every year between May and September, losing strength once they make landfall.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382434


Hundreds want to work on Pitcairn Island
1.00pm Friday May 19, 2006
"Massive" numbers of social workers are lining up to work on Pitcairn Island, drawn by the challenge of its unusual community life.
Auckland-based sexual offender programme Safe is looking for two-person teams of social workers to stay on the isolated Pacific island for three-month stints.
Project manager Diane Jefferson said the response to nationwide advertising has been in the hundreds, but the breadth of experience looked for would limit the number of suitable candidates.
She said many might have been drawn by last May's high profile court cases, where six Pitcairn Island men were convicted of child abuse and rape charges.
"It's more to do with it being such an unusual job for a social worker," she said.
"It's an absolutely fascinating and unique situation, and a social work challenge that you couldn't find anywhere else in the world."
She said the social workers would be involved in community development and education programmes.
"We're educating the community about care and protection matters to ensure that children and other vulnerable members are kept safe."
As well as a daily fee, the agency pays for travel, accommodation and food while on the island.
Safe have been working on Pitcairn for the last 18 months, contracted by the British Government.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382590


Australia wheat board apologises for Iraq payments
Friday May 19, 2006
SYDNEY - Australia's monopoly wheat exporter broke UN sanctions on Iraq by paying Saddam Hussein's government kickbacks for wheat sales, its former chief admitted in a draft apology letter released yesterday.
Former managing director Andrew Lindberg said the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) took a purely "commercial and technical" approach to UN sanctions in order to maximise returns for Australian farmers in UN oil-for-food deals with Iraq.
"AWB accepts that in paying money for inland transportation and after-sales service it paid money to the Iraq government in contravention of the UN sanctions," said the January 1 apology letter released by a federal court.
A 2005 UN report alleged that AWB was one of more than 2,000 firms that had paid kickbacks worth $1.8 billion (NZ$2.2bn) to Saddam's government through the UN-managed "oil-for-food" account.
It said AWB had provided the most kickbacks, paying $222 million via a trucking firm that was a front for Saddam's regime.
An Australian inquiry is investigating whether the AWB broke any Australian laws in its dealings with Iraq. The apology letter was tendered to the inquiry in March but had a suppression order placed on it until the court released it on Thursday.
Lindberg said in February he was stepping down as managing director as internal AWB documents to the inquiry showed AWB had deliberately hidden the Iraqi payments in "service fees".
The inquiry is due to report to the government on June 30.
The inquiry can only recommend prosecution of AWB and other companies and associated individuals, but the Australian government's credibility has been brought into question with the release of diplomatic cables talking of AWB kickbacks.
Prime Minister John Howard and his foreign and trade ministers have all denied seeing at least 21 diplomatic cables between 2000 and 2004 warning of possible AWB kickbacks.
AWB broke the UN sanctions against Iraq at a time when Australian troops were trying to enforce them. Australia was one of the first countries to join the US-led invasion of Iraq and still has about 1,300 troops in the region.
In his letter, Lindberg said AWB had ignored "warning signs" and failed to challenge the Iraqi payments, which AWB has said it thought were initially approved by the United Nations.
He blamed the "culture" of AWB at the time for having no proper checks in place and for failing to realise "the potential consequences of these payments".
"For this we are truly sorry and deeply regret any damage this may have caused to Australia's trading reputation, the Australian government or the United Nations," said the letter.
The Iraqi Grain Board has suspended business with AWB until the inquiry ends. Other Australian companies have set up Wheat Australia to export wheat to Iraq.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382525


US sailors jailed in Australia on drug charges
Friday May 19, 2006
SYDNEY - Two US sailors were sentenced to a total of more than 18 years in jail by an Australian court yesterday for attempting to smuggle drugs into Australia on board a US Navy ship, Australian media reported.
A court in Townsville in the northeastern Queensland state heard that 11 kg of methamphetamine, commonly known as "ice", valued at about A$1 million were hidden in the radar compartment of the USS Boxer last July.
The drugs were taken ashore by sailor Andrew Labanon and given to Chief Petty Officer Daniel Maio in a Townsville motel, Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio reported.
Maio and a third man, Iranian-born Canadian Mehdi Mohammadi, then disguised the drugs as a child's birthday present and attempted to travel to Queensland's Gold Coast before they were arrested by Australian police.
Maio, who changed his plea to guilty during the trial, was sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in jail, with a non-parole period of six years.
Judge Kerry Cullinane sentenced Labanon to six years jail, ordering him to serve to serve at least three years before parole was possible.
Mohammadi was given the harshest sentence of 14 years, with a minimum non-parole period of seven years, the ABC said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382523


Vioxx stroke risk 'could last years'
10.00am Friday May 19, 2006
NEW YORK - Former users of Merck & Co's Vioxx arthritis drug could be at risk of developing strokes for years, a prominent public health expert said on Thursday after examining new data from the drugmaker.
"It may be that Vioxx is causing permanent damage to the cardiovascular system, accelerating atherosclerosis or a sustained increase in blood pressure," said Curt Furberg, a member of the US Food and Drug Administration's Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee.
Furberg, a professor of public health at Wake Forest University, said his stroke concerns stem from a new 107-page report on patients who were followed for a year after they stopped taking Vioxx.
The drug, used by 20 million in the US alone, was recalled in late 2004 after it was shown to double heart attack risk among patients taking it 18 months or longer.
Merck has not made the full report public. The company issued a news release last week that briefly described the lengthy report.
It said 28 people from the 3-year trial had heart attacks and strokes a year after they stopped taking Vioxx, compared with 16 patients from the trial that had taken placebos. The difference, however, was not deemed statistically significant.
Furberg said his examination of the full report shows 7 Vioxx users had strokes, while two Vioxx users had mini-strokes in the year-long followup period -- compared with no such incidents in the placebo group.
"These data raise some very important questions because for a while we assumed Vioxx caused temporary problems, and here it is more than that. It could be causing permanent damage," Furberg said in an interview.
"In the past we weren't quite sure of the stroke risk, so stroke is now back on the agenda in a bigger way."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382574



First look at handwritten records of Nazi killings
Friday May 19, 2006
By Tony Paterson
BERLIN - It is probably the most exhaustive record of human misery ever kept. Yet the details are contained in ordinary hardback writing books that might be found in any school classroom.
There are more than 47 million such files in Germany's central Nazi archive in the quiet town of Bad Arolsen. They fill 26km of shelves in what was once a Nazi SS barracks.
Punctiliously noted in the "Totenbuch" or "Death Book" of Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, for example, is the camp commandant's "present" to Hitler on the occasion of the Fuehrer's birthday on April 20, 1942: Three hundred Russian prisoners were specially selected for execution to mark the event.
The death list covers pages of lined paper recording how each prisoner was taken out into an execution yard and subjected to a so-called "Genickschuss" - a single bullet fired from the muzzle of a pistol pushed against the base of the skull.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382517



Thousands evacuated as typhoon targets China
10.20am Thursday May 18, 2006
HONG KONG - China evacuated more than 600,000 people as the strongest typhoon on record to enter the South China Sea in May bore down on the south coast today, causing flight and shipping delays around the region.
Typhoon Chanchu, packing winds up to 170 kph, was forecast to make landfall northeast of Hong Kong in Guangdong province later today after killing 37 people as it swept across the Philippines last weekend.
Chinese state television news said some 320,000 people were evacuated from their homes along the coast of Guangdong province, while more than 300,000 were moved in neighbouring Fujian province.
Fujian called back all ships to port, and Guangdong called back in more than 58,000 vessels as schools suspended classes, it said, adding that strong rainfalls brought by Chanchu were posing flood threats.
An ore-carrying Belgian ship with eight crew members aboard was trapped some 200 sea miles offshore on the South China Sea and a Chinese rescue vessel was expected to reach it later tonight, the news broadcast said.
In Taiwan, where most areas were lashed by heavy rains, rescuers winched to safety the crew of an oil tanker that had run aground off the coast of Kaoshiung in the south after being hit by a large wave, television footage showed.
According to a forecast map on the Tropical Storm Risk website, the typhoon was skirting the coast of China and would weaken as it advanced north. The eye would make landfall within the next few hours, and the next major city it would pass was Xiamen, in Fujian province, within about 12 hours.
On the southern coast, road workers struggled to keep motorways along the coastline clear of debris including tree branches as large waves crashed over the embankments, television pictures showed.
The government issued warnings to residents in central mountain areas of landslides and flooding caused by the heavy rain, as mountain rivers already had begun to rise, threatening bridges and roads.
Shipping links between Taiwan's outlying islands of Quemoy and Matsu and the Chinese coastline were suspended as the storm approached, media said, with the central weather bureau saying Quemoy and Penghu island's would be directly threatened.
In Hong Kong, winds of up to 65 kph caused flight delays and some shipping services were suspended, but the former British colony's government weather observatory said the threat was receding as Chanchu churned northwards.
In China, rescue ships, helicopters and thousands of paramilitary troops were standing by, and all sea transport to the Chinese island province of Hainan had been halted, state media reported.
In the Philippines, Chanchu killed at least 37 people and "affected" about 53,300 people in wide areas of Luzon and the Visayas, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said in a report yesterday.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382396



Haaretz

Abbas orders probe into Hamas' cash smuggling
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent and Reuters
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas ordered a criminal investigation Friday, after Palestinian border officials confiscated more than 500,000 euros from Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri at Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
According to Hamas government spokesman Razi Hamad, the money was intended to serve as relief for the Palestinian people and prisoners.
The amount of money confiscated is estimated to exceed 500,000 euros, however no official report has specified the exact amount.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/717889.html



Tensions rise between Hamas, Fatah forces in Gaza
By Haaretz Correspondent and AP, By Arnon Regular
Tensions ran high in Gaza City yesterday as Hamas and Fatah forces paraded the streets with assault rifles and stared each other down, vying for control of the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the Hamas-led government has defied Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' demand to remove its new 3,000-strong security force from the Gaza's streets.
About 2,000 Fatah supporters in military formation, many bare-chested, double-timed through a main street of Gaza City shouting, "Jerusalem, the president, the homeland," clapping and whistling as they passed Hamas gunmen. However, no one made a move.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/717598.html


Expert: In past, Tehran said will consult groups on dress code
By Haaretz Service
The Iranian government committed in the past to consult with all ethnic groups in the country before legislating a law requiring mandatory clothing for each group, Haaretz learned Friday.
Earlier Friday, Canada's National Post reported that Iranian expatriates living in Canada confirmed reports that the Iranian parliament passed a law this week that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear colored badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.
According to the Post, Iran's 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on their clothes. Christians would have to adorn red badges and Zoroastrians would be have to wear blue strips of cloth. To go into effect, the law would have to be approved by Iran's supreme leader and highest authority, Ali Khamenei.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/717902.html



Palestinian woman arrested for smuggling data from Hezbollah
By Amos Harel and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents
The Shin Bet security service recently arrested a Palestinian woman for trying to smuggle instructions from the militant Hezbollah organization on how to carry out terrorist attacks.
According to the details of the case, which were released Friday, the woman was detained two weeks ago as she crossed the Allenby Bridge from Jordan into Israel.
The woman was found to be carrying a "disk on key" portable device containing specifications and instructional material pertaining to the execution of bombings.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/717898.html



The Jerusalem Post

New Iranian law to require Jews to wear yellow band
By JPOST.COM STAFF
A new dress-code law reportedly passed in Iran this past week mandates the government to make sure that religious minorities - Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians - will have to adopt distinct colour schemes to make them identifiable in public, the Canadian National Post reported on Friday.
Under the new law, which still awaits final approval from Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Jews will have to wear a yellow band on their exterior in public, while Christians will be required to don red ones.
If the law is approved, it is scheduled to go into effect at the beginning of next year.
Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter responded to the new law Friday night, saying, "Whoever makes Jews anywhere wear the yellow star again, will find themselves in a coffin draped in black."
Furthermore, according to the law, the Iranian government has envisioned that all Iranians wear "standard Islamic garments" designed to remove ethnic and class distinctions.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961377561&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull


Hamas man caught smuggling $1 million
By AP AND JPOST STAFF
President Mahmoud Abbas has asked the Palestinian attorney general to investigate a senior Hamas official who was caught trying to smuggle nearly 1 million dollars into the Gaza Strip, a senior Abbas adviser said Friday.
"President Abbas has sent the money and the file to the attorney general," said the Abbas adviser, legislator Saeb Erekat. "It has become a legal case that requires an investigation."
Earlier Friday, the senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, was caught trying to smuggle €639,000 into Gaza from Egypt, a possible sign of how desperate the cash-starved Hamas government is for money. Abu Zuhri was stopped at the Palestinian-controlled Gaza-Egypt border.
Dozens of armed Hamas activists gathered outside the border crossing in a tense standoff after officials, loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, confiscated the money.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961375817&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Plot to down El Al jet in Geneva foiled
By JPOST.COM STAFF
A terrorist plot to blow up an El Al jet at Geneva airport with an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) in December was uncovered by the Swiss and French intelligence agencies, details released for publication on Friday revealed.
The Yedioth Aharonot newspaper reported that a secret agent working undercover amongst an Islamic terror cell in the city discovered the plan after three immigrants of Arabic origin boasted of their attempts to smuggle weapons from Russia with the ultimate goal of shooting down an Israeli plane at the airport.
When the matter was reported to Israeli security, El Al changed the flight paths of all its Geneva-bound planes, landing them at Zurich Airport the following week.
Swiss officials reported that no arrests were made following the discovery since the plan had yet to reach its final operational stages.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961375334&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull



'Convergence' outcome exaggerated
By ANSHEL PFEFFER
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said this week in a private meeting that his "convergence" plan for a major West Bank withdrawal will involve the removal of fewer than 70,000 settlers, the figure most widely quoted in the media. Other sources in Kadima, meanwhile, now say that the eventual number of settlers to be evacuated will be much lower than 70,000.
The total number of Israelis living in settlements to the east of the separation fence is some 70,000. This has therefore been widely assumed to be the number slated for withdrawal, since the convergence vision presented by Olmert before the elections included moving the settlers from areas beyond the fence into "settlement blocs" within the fence.
But Kadima members involved in the ongoing talks between Olmert and the settlers now say that 70,000 is "a media invention and the actual number will be much lower."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961373582&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull



US fumes as Iraq backs Israel boycott
By MICHAEL FREUND
The US-backed Iraqi government sent an official representative to this week's meeting of the Arab League Boycott Office in Damascus, The Jerusalem Post has learned, prompting criticism from members of Congress and the Bush administration.
Liaison officers from 14 countries met for four days this week to discuss ways of intensifying the Arab embargo against Israel. Among those taking part were delegates from several ostensible US allies, such as Iraq, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.
Tom Casey, a spokesman for the US State Department, told the Post that Washington was unhappy with Baghdad's action.
"We are disappointed by the decision of the Iraqi government to attend this meeting, and will be noting our concerns with Iraqi officials," he said. "We have raised this issue with Iraqi officials in the past and expect to raise it with them again."
"The US position on the Arab League boycott is well known," Casey noted, adding that "perpetuation of the Arab League boycott does greatest harm to those who participate in it by hampering their efforts to develop their economies."
Members of Congress were also critical of the Iraqi move.
Rep. Paul Ryan, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, told the Post that "the US government has been very successful in negotiating the cancellation of Israeli boycotts from many countries throughout the Arab world. This would appear to be a big step in the wrong direction on the part of the new Iraqi government."
Ryan, a Republican, said he expected Washington to bring the matter up with Baghdad. "We should make our position clear, just like we do with every other Arab government," he said.
Contacted by phone, a spokesman for the Iraqi embassy in London declined to comment.
According to figures released this week by the Israel Export Institute, there has been a 46 percent rise in Israeli sales to Iraq (valued at $320,000), with 27 exporters active in that market dealing primarily with the US military.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961373594&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Bush won't set timetable for pullout
By NATHAN GUTTMAN
WASHINGTON
President George Bush will ask Prime Minister Ehud Olmert if his convergence plan was compatible with the idea of a two-state solution when the two leaders will meet next week. According to a senior administration official, Bush will expect Olmert to explain how a unilateral move could be compatible with the US administration's wish for a negotiated final status agreement.
The official told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that President Bush will not express his opinion on the plan at this stage. "We need answers before the President can make a decision. There will be no decisions made at this meeting," the official emphasized.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961373868&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull



Iranian FM meets with Syria's Assad
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND ASSOCIATED PRESS
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki met with Syrian president Bashar Assad in Damascus on Thursday.
The meeting was not planned, and upon his arrival, the Iranian foreign minister said, "Developments in the area require deliberations," Israel Radio reported.
Mottaki was in Jordan Wednesday for talks expected to focus on his country's nuclear program, Iraq and Mideast peacemaking.
The Iranian foreign minister went into a meeting with his Jordanian counterpart, Abdul-Illah al-Khatib, shortly after his arrival in the Jordanian capital for a brief visit. Their meeting was to focus on bilateral relations and regional issues, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961370482&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull



Tennis: Pe'er winning streak comes to an end
By FRANKIE SACHS
Shahar Pe'er's doubles winning streak came to an end after nine matches Wednesday as she and partner Janette Husarova of Slovakia went down 6-4, 6-2 to Australians Nicole Pratt and Bryanne Stewart in the second round of the Internazionali d'Italia in Rome.
Pe'er last lost a doubles match on April 2, in the final qualifying round at Amelia Island. Since then, she teamed with Tzipi Obziler to win four matches during the Europe/Africa Zone Group I Fed Cup tournament in Bulgaria and won four more with Marion Bartoli of France as they took the title last week at the Prague Open. On Tuesday, Pe'er and Husarova playing together for the first time won in the first round in Rome, but it was a different story against Pratt and Stewart.
The Australian duo won 59 of the 100 points played and scored four breaks to Pe'er and Husarova's one on the way to a comprehensive win.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961374727&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull



Soccer: Boca beats Mac TA in centenary match
By ALLON SINAI
Argentinean champion Boca Juniors defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-0 at Bloomfield Stadium on Thursday night in a friendly match celebrating the hosts' centenary.
Boca striker Martin Palermo, one of the few first team players to make the trip to Israel, scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot on the 76th minute.
Maccabi's 100th year was nothing short of disastrous and the loss was a fitting end for the yellow-and-blue who suffered from a season of lows and extreme lows.
A sizeable crowd attended the game, which was organized by Ben Gurion University, with all the proceeds from the match going towards scholarships for students at the institution.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961374718&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull



Michael Moore Today

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

THE UPCOMING 'MICHAEL MOORE FREEDOM OF SPEECH SCHOLARSHIP
AT CAL STATE SAN MARCOS'
Michael Moore's Freedom of Speech Scholarship will be awarded to the student who has done the most to stand up to the administration of Cal State San Marcos in the name of students' rights. In September of 2004 Cal State San Marcos President Karen Haynes rescinded a speaking invitation Michael Moore received from the student body on the grounds that he was too "political." In October of 2004, the student government responded by raising funds themselves and organizing a 10,000-person rally at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. "The Michael Moore Freedom of Speech Scholarship at Cal State San Marcos" was established in honor of those courageous students.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/features/sanmarcos/



4 Guatanamo Prisoners Attempt Suicide in One Day
Also, other detainees assault U.S. guards trying to keep a man from hanging himself.
By Carol J. Williams / Los Angeles Times
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Four terrorism suspects at the sprawling prison network here attempted suicide Thursday, and detainees at a camp for the most compliant prisoners attacked guards with improvised weapons when the guards tried to rescue a man attempting to hang himself, a spokesman for the U.S. military-run prison said.
The disturbance at Camp 4, a communal facility housing 175 prisoners, followed three overdose attempts earlier in the day at Camp 1, where about 180 detainees live in metal mesh cages.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6912



Protest George Bush at West Point
Saturday, May 27th 2006 8:00 AM
Highland Falls, NY USA
Protest the appearance of George W. Bush at the commencement of the graduating class at the US Miliary Academy (USMA) at West Point on May 27, 2006. Send Bush and the media the message that the DECEIT and LIES that led us to the War on IRAQ are known and rejected by the public. Missie Comley Beattie and Elaine Brower of Gold Star Families and Shirley Young of Military Families Speak Out are among the featured speakers.

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/calendar.php?calid=16864



White House knew of payments for Tobin's defense
By John Distaso / Union Leader
The former chairman of the Republican National Committee remembers telling someone at the White House that he had decided to have the RNC pay the legal defense bills for convicted phone-jamming conspirator James Tobin, but he can’t remember who.
Ed Gillespie told the New Hampshire Union Leader yesterday he informed the White House after he decided to authorize payment.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Gillespie told its reporter that he had “informed the White House, without seeking formal approval, before authorizing the payments.”
Gillespie told the Union Leader the two accounts were “consistent” because he decided to authorize the payments before telling the White House and actually authorized the payments after telling the White House.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=49



A bad sign for Republicans in Pennsy loss
By John Farmer / New Jersey Star-Ledger
As an omen, what happened Tuesday in Chester County, a quiet corner of eastern Pennsylvania at the western end of the mink-and-monied Main Line, should send shivers down Republican spines.
Chester ranks as one of the most invulnerable Republican counties in the Keystone State, historically perhaps the most invulnerable. Until recent years, Democrats were lucky even to find credible candidates for local office; election victories were rare. The Democratic nomination in most instances was a kamikaze mission; only the parting sake wine toast was missing.
But Tuesday in a special election to fill the vacant state Senate seat covering Chester and a part of neighboring Montgomery County, a Democrat, Andrew Dinniman, routed Carole Aichele, the Republican favorite who had been dubbed by local GOP leaders as "a slam-dunk candidate."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=48



IRAQ WAR: Council calls for withdrawal
York Daily Record
York City Council called Wednesday for the withdrawal of the Pennsylvania National Guard from the War in Iraq.
The resolution will be sent to Gov. Ed Rendell, U.S. Rep. Todd Platts, R-York County, and U.S. Sens. Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter.
More than 100 cities nationwide have approved similar resolutions. York's vote was 4-1.
Councilman Wm. Lee Smallwood sponsored the resolution on behalf of People for Peace and Justice. He said it was time to bring the troops home to their families and communities.
Councilman Joe Musso voted no. He said he didn't know if a majority of city residents supported the stance and feared it would weaken war efforts and bring the war on terrorism to the United States.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6910



Bush Pledges Vigorous Fight to Retain Republican Control of Congress
By Adam Nagourney / New York Times
WASHINGTON, May 17 — President Bush vowed Wednesday to lead an aggressive campaign this fall to maintain Republican control of Congress, saying there was a "stark difference" between the two parties.
The president, speaking at a Republican National Committee fund-raiser, left little doubt that the White House would return to the same themes it used over the past six years, portraying Democrats as weak on terrorism and committed to higher taxes and government spending. As he did in 2002 and 2004, he repeatedly invoked the memory of the attacks of Sept. 11.
"It's a stark choice," Mr. Bush said. "And I'm going to keep talking about it because we have a record to run on."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=47



We as families of soldiers who have died as a result of war are organizing to be a positive force in our world to bring our country’s sons and daughters home from Iraq, to minimize the “human cost” of this war, and to prevent other families from the pain we are feeling as the result of our losses.

http://gsfp.live.radicaldesigns.org/


Welcome to the Vandenberg Peace Legal Defense Fund home page.
Peace Mission Statement: Funds are to be used to meet expenses of peace protesters
(to include legal fees, fines, and other costs) at Vandenberg Air Force base.

http://www.vpeaceldf.org/



Make Me an Instrument of Peace
Cindy Sheehan's Address to the Spiritual Activism Conference, Washington, DC
Not too long ago I was listening to Air America when a caller to the religious right of war supporter/evangelist Pat Robertson said it didn't bother him that George Bush doesn't follow the law of our land because when we have a man who is a "Christian" in office, we don't need the rule of law! The caller and, I am afraid too many more people in America, are saved from the responsibility of democracy because they believe that George follows a higher law than our constitution. The person who called in really meant that. I found that call disturbing for several reasons, but to think that a man who kills his pretend enemies and is a warmaker with wanton disregard to the teachings of Jesus Christ, is a Christian flies in the face of everything that I was taught about Jesus of Nazareth and about the Christian faith.
Thinking about how unloving, punitive and unjust the brand of Christianity that George Bush practices is reminded me of an experience that I had in Assisi the first time I visited Italy in January of this year. The Franciscan model of Christianity is totally opposite of Bushianity.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=650



Scores killed in Afghan violence
BBC
Up to 100 people have died in some of Afghanistan's fiercest fighting since US-led forces ousted the Taleban regime in 2001.
Taleban fighters are battling police in Helmand province where officials say 50 militants and 13 police died.
Coalition and Afghan troops conducted more operations in Kandahar, and say at least 25 militants died in two separate clashes there.
A US national was killed by a suicide bomber in Herat.
Another bomber blew himself up at an Afghan army base in the city of Ghazni as a US military convoy was passing. The bomber and a civilian were killed.
So far this year there have been at least 20 suicide attacks compared with 17 for the whole of 2005 and five in 2004.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6907



Families angered by Fort Carson GIs' deaths
By Dick Foster / Rocky Mountain News
COLORADO SPRINGS - For more than two months, Fort Carson had a run of luck in Iraq.
None of its deployed troops, now more than 3,700 from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, had been killed since late February.
But the brigade's luck ran out Monday. A roadside bomb exploded in Baghdad, killing Staff Sgt. Marion Flint Jr., 29, of Baltimore, and Pfc. Grant A. Dampier, 25, of Merrill, Wis.
Their deaths brought to 164 the number of Fort Carson troops to die in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.
Flint and Dampier were the seventh and eighth soldiers from the brigade to die since its second Iraq deployment began in December.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6906



"Link of the Week" - the phone service that refused to reveal their client records to the Federal Government regardless of false claims of protecting national security. The FISA court was always at the ready to hear any concerns of the government at any level.

Qwest


http://www.qwest.com/index.html


Qwest's Refusal of N.S.A. Query Is Explained
By John O'Neil and Eric Lichtblau / New York Times
WASHINGTON, May 12 — The telecommunications company Qwest turned down requests by the National Security Agency for private telephone records because it concluded that doing so would violate federal privacy laws, a lawyer for the telephone company's former chief executive said today.
In a statement released this morning, the lawyer said that the former chief executive, Joseph N. Nacchio, made the decision after asking whether "a warrant or other legal process had been secured in support of that request."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6821


Lawsuit Against CIA Is Dismissed
Mistaken Identity Led to Detention
By Jerry Markon / Washington Post
A federal judge yesterday threw out the case of a German citizen who says he was wrongfully imprisoned by the CIA, ruling that Khaled al-Masri's lawsuit poses a "grave risk" of damage to national security by exposing government secrets.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria acknowledged that Masri "has suffered injuries" if his allegations are true and that he "deserves a remedy." Sources have said Masri was held by the CIA for five months in Afghanistan because of mistaken identity. Masri says he was beaten, sodomized and repeatedly questioned about alleged terrorist ties.
But Ellis said the remedy cannot be found in the courts. Masri's "private interests must give way to the national interest in preserving state secrets,'' the judge wrote in dismissing the lawsuit filed last year against former CIA director George J. Tenet and 10 unnamed CIA officials.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6929


Salem man goes AWOL, says Army tricked him
He was falsely assured that he'd receive medications, he says
By Alan Gustafson / Statesman Journal
SALEM, OR -- When Jeremy Crawford joined the Army, going AWOL never crossed his mind.
The Salem man was eager to enlist, coveting a $20,000 bonus that would come to him in future installments.
The 31-year-old divorced father of three children also looked forward to earning college-education benefits.
Mostly, he wanted to make a fresh start in life.
Despite a long history of depression and severe anxiety, Crawford figured he would sail through nine weeks of basic training.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6925



Some Iraq war vets go homeless after return to U.S.
By Daniel Trotta / Reuters
NEW YORK - The nightmare of Iraq was bad enough for Vanessa Gamboa. Unprepared for combat beyond her basic training, the supply specialist soon found herself in a firefight, commanding a handful of clerks.
"They promoted me to sergeant. I knew my job but I didn't know anything about combat. So I'm responsible for all these people and I don't know what to tell them but to duck," Gamboa said.
The battle, on a supply delivery run, ended without casualties, and it did little to steel Gamboa for what awaited her back home in Brooklyn.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6926


Send Me Your Health Care Horror Stories... an appeal from Michael Moore
Friends,
How would you like to be in my next movie? I know you've probably heard I'm making a documentary about the health care industry (but the HMOs don't know this, so don't tell them — they think I'm making a romantic comedy).
If you've followed my work over the years, you know that I keep a pretty low profile while I'm making my movies. I don't give interviews, I don't go on TV and I don't defrost my refrigerator. I do keep my website updated on a daily basis (there's been something like 4,000,000 visitors just this week alone) and the rest of the time I'm... well, I can't tell you what I'm doing, but you can pretty much guess. It gets harder and harder sneaking into corporate headquarters, but I've found that just dying my hair black and wearing a skort really helps.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=193


U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 2453


U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 17648

Iraqi Deaths Uncertain :

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

continued …