The Rooster
Friday, December 15, 2006
Mr. Paulson goes to China.
For being Secretary of the Treasury he spends just about as much time in China as George Herbert Walker Bush did when he was ambassador. How much time has Henry Paulson actually spent at home in his office in Washington, DC? Enough time for them to get his signature right on the USA Currency?
While Mr. Paulson goes to China, the Democrats are planning to raise the minimum wage. That's all fine and good so long as the southern border of the USA is closed to illegal immigration and China hasn't scoffed up all the USA minimum wage jobs. Hello?
This is from Mike's webpage
Every parent that has opposed the war while their young sons and daughters insist on being a part of it only to return home as "A Soldier in a Box" is the worst nightmare they could ever endure.
This is about as aweful as it gets.
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Pamela Fiskus, mother of Army Sgt. Keith Fiscus begged him not to go
Townsend-area soldier laid to rest at Arlington
26-year-old Army Sgt. Keigh Fiscus died Saturday in Iraq
Deleware News Journal
The ashes of 26-year-old Army Sgt. Keith Fiscus, of the Townsend area, were laid to rest today at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Fiscus died Saturday in Baghdad of injuries suffered when a bomb detonated near his vehicle during combat operations.
Fiscus was assigned to the First Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, Third Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, based at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
Pamela Fiscus says her son was raised in Los Angeles but moved with his family to Delaware in 1998.
She says she begged Keith not to join the military, but her son would not be dissuaded. He enlisted in 2002.
Fiscus is the 14th serviceman from Delaware to die in Iraq.
Soldier 'Loved His Country'
Sergeant on 2nd Iraq Tour Had Childhood Interest in Military
By Fredrick Kunkle / Washington Post
A thin shroud of mist veiled Arlington National Cemetery yesterday as a line of soldiers in dress uniforms waited for the mourners to arrive.
A bugler stood at the entrance of a stone funerary vault, muffling his horn with a white-gloved hand while blowing a few practice notes.
Then a car drove up, and the soldiers snapped to attention, presenting arms.
One soldier removed a folded U.S. flag from the car. Another removed a box-like urn containing the remains of Army Sgt. Keith E. Fiscus.
Then Darrell and Pamela Fiscus, who had tried to dissuade their 26-year-old son from joining the military, fell in behind the escorts, followed by other family members and mourners.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8671
Mom's Message to the White House
TO THE CHOIR: If they vote for war, occupy 'em! ... by Mike Ferner
After nearly four years of war I'd wager that a few million Americans have held a candle at a vigil, carried a sign at a rally, passed out a flyer, forwarded an email to friends, or gone to a demonstration in a distant city. If you, Dear Reader, are one of these stout souls, this letter is to you.
But first, may I ask a favor? For the rest of this letter please forget that at least once during these years of protest you, no doubt, mourned that "only the choir" participated. The choir -- people who actually do something for peace -- is precisely who I'm writing to.
No doubt, it's frustrating that, except for a few grand occasions, "only the choir" shows up. But consider this: of the millions of women in the U.S. at the time, relatively few became active suffragists with the staying power to eventually get votes for women. Of the millions of workers suffering from the Great Depression, relatively few answered the call to sit down in the auto factories to win recognition for unions. Of the millions of blacks bearing the weight of segregation, relatively few sat down at lunch counters.
In their day they were "the choir." When they were the only ones who showed up for vigils and rallies, they, no doubt, bemoaned that "only the choir" had come again. They came to action after action, moving things forward imperceptibly each time. But when conditions were right, they acted one more time. And then they made history.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=793
Support the veterans who've served our country by sending them a phone card so they can call their loved ones over the holidays.
Veterans Administration (VA) budget cuts in recent years have left many of our nation's veterans at VA hospitals without the means to call their families over the holidays. These long distance calls are generally not covered by the VA, and many vets just don't have the financial resources to call all their loved ones.
So Working Assets, Veterans for Peace, CODEPINK, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Gold Star Families for Peace have teamed up on a project to thank our veterans by sending them phone cards loaded with 125 minutes of domestic long-distance calling time. We'll purchase these cards and deliver them to VA Medical Facilities all over the country on December 18th.
$10 will cover the cost of phone cards for three veterans. $20 will buy six phone cards. $33 will buy ten cards. $100 will buy phone cards for 30 veterans to call home over the holidays. 100% of your gift will go directly to buying phone cards -- so please give as generously as you can.
https://www.workingforchange.com/Order/index.cfm?OrderFormID=6
Congresswoman Diane Watson's Statement on Signing John Conyers' Impeachment Resolution
The following statement was issued this afternoon to MichaelMoore.com:
I believe that the President must be held accountable for his actions. This past November, the American people affirmed through the ballot their dissatisfaction with the Administration and, in particular, its policies in Iraq.
I have been a steadfast opponent of the President’s Iraq policy. His administration has not been forthcoming with the American people and Congress has failed to conduct effective oversight of the executive branch. That’s why I am a cosponsor of Congressman Conyers' legislation, H. Res. 635, to create a select Congressional committee to examine the Administration’s conduct in prosecuting the Iraq war.
In the New Year, Democrats will gain control of the House of Representatives. Mr. Conyers is slated to chair the Judiciary Committee. I am ready to follow his lead on the issue.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=791
H.RES.635 Title: Creating a select committee to investigate the Administration's intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HE00635:@@@N
Specter of Iraqi proxy war spooks Washington
By Stephen Collinson / AFP
WASHINGTON - The specter of a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran over the bones of an shattered Iraq is being conjured up by veiled warnings the kingdom may bankroll Sunni fighters if US troops go home.
Apparent Saudi anxiety over US intentions -- the idea of which is rejected publicly by US and Saudi officials -- coincides with President George W. Bush's quest for a new strategy to end carnage in Iraq.
Coupled with the sudden resignation and Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prine Turki al-Faisal, talk of frays in the crucial Saudi-US alliance have sent intrigue rippling through Washington.
"We may be on the verge of a Saudi intervention in Iraq on behalf of their (Sunni) kin, we may be on the verge of a proxy war," said Chas Freeman, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Fears of such a scenario intensified after the New York Times reported Tuesday Riyadh may bankroll Iraq's Sunnis against Iran-backed Shiites, should US troops retreat and leave a raging civil war.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8666
W.House defends Bush use of Iraqi body counts
By Steve Holland / Reuters
WASHINGTON - The White House on Thursday defended President George W. Bush's rare use of a body count to describe Iraqi insurgent deaths as a way to show Americans that U.S. troops are fighting hard in Iraq.
Bush said on Wednesday on a visit to the Pentagon that U.S. and Iraqi forces had killed or captured 5,900 of the enemy during the months of October, November and early December.
It was a rare use of a body count by the president and came after public opinion polls said many Americans are concerned about rising U.S. casualties and believe the United States is losing the war in Iraq.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said one reason Bush gave the body count number was to offset concern about U.S. casualties and deaths that included 103 in October alone.
"And there is quite often the impression ... that our people aren't doing anything; they're just targets. And I think there's a certain amount of unease in the American public because they hear about deaths, but they don't hear about what's going on," Snow told reporters.
Presidents have shied away from giving body count numbers ever since the practice was discredited during the Vietnam war.
During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military publicized Vietnam body counts as a way to show progress, but it led to inflated numbers which damaged the Pentagon's credibility.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8664
2 Marines reportedly killed near Baghdad
By Qais al-Bashir / Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen killed a Shiite tribal sheik linked to British forces in a drive-by shooting Friday in the southern city of Basra, and two Marines were reported killed in fighting in a volatile province west of Baghdad.
One Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 and one Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died Thursday after fighting in Anbar province, an insurgent stronghold, the military said.
The deaths raise to 53 the number of American troops who have died in December, which is on track to being one of the deadliest months of the war. At least 2,941 members of the U.S. military have died the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
A senior official from the Iraqi Red Crescent, meanwhile, claimed that harassment from U.S. forces is a greater threat to his group's work than insurgent attacks.
"The main problem we are facing is the American forces more than the other forces," Dr. Jamal Al-Karbouli, vice president of the Iraqi Red Crescent, said in Geneva.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8668
Missing soldier classified as captured
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - An American soldier missing in Iraq since late October probably was captured by the enemy, the Pentagon said Thursday, making official what the U.S. military there has suggested for more than a month.
Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, a 41-year-old Iraqi-born resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., was snatched off the street while he was visiting his Iraqi wife in Baghdad on Oct. 23.
U.S. forces have conducted raids in portions of Sadr City searching for al-Taayie, who worked as a translator. The U.S. government has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to his recovery.
He initially was listed as "whereabouts unknown," but the military generally reviews such cases to rule out all other possibilities, including being absent without leave. He is now considered "missing-captured."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8667
U.S. soldiers lead Iraq children in obscene chant
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/U.S._soldiers_lead_Iraq_children_in_1214.html
Iraqi Kid Runs For Water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9A_vxIOB-I&eurl=
Iraqi Red Crescent accuses U.S. forces of attacks
By Stephanie Nebehay / Reuters
GENEVA - The Iraqi Red Crescent accused U.S. forces on Friday of carrying out a spate of attacks on its offices over the last three years during operations to flush out suspected militants.
Jamal Al Karbouli, vice-president of the Iraqi Red Crescent, said that in the latest incident, U.S forces had occupied and nearly destroyed its Falluja office, held staff for hours, and burned two cars clearly marked with its neutral symbol.
The only Iraqi aid agency working in all 18 provinces, its 1,000 staff and 200,000 volunteers already face extremely difficult conditions because of the growing sectarian violence, he said.
"The main difficulties we are facing, first of all, is the presence of MNF, the multinational forces, which sometimes gives us a hard time. They are attacking some offices and detaining some volunteers," Karbouli told a news conference in Geneva.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8669
Iraqis flee war, run into hostility
As their numbers grow, refugees find that prejudice is growing and compassion is fading.
By Jeffrey Fleishman and Qaisar Ahmed / Los Angeles Times
CAIRO — Strolling the alleys and boulevards of this city, Raaid Lafta sometimes thinks he glimpses his old country: in the barber's face, in the baker's oven, in the way the restaurant chef serves the spiced dishes he's known since boyhood.
Like him, the barber, baker and chef are Iraqis adrift in war. Escaping their battered homeland in crowded cars and lopsided buses, boarding planes and walking stretches of desert, Iraqi refugees are a growing diaspora in Cairo, Damascus, Amman and other Arab cities. With children in tow and life savings hidden in pots and suitcases, they are another precarious burden for the Middle East.
"I see everyone speaking in an Iraq accent," Lafta said. "Iraqi men singing Iraqi songs in the streets, Iraqi cafes, Iraqi shops…. I was opening a bank account here, so when the banker asked for my address, I replied that I live in Cairo's 6th of October neighborhood. He smiled and said, 'You Iraqis have invaded October.'
"http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8661
China Daily
US, China officials work for economic integration
The first high-profile economic talk between top American and Chinese officials in Beijing has achieved tangible results: Beijing will invest in an American-led clean coal technology project; the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ is allowed to open Chinese offices.
And, China's most powerful woman, Vice-Premier Wu Yi, said that Beijing will do more to liberalize its currency valuation regime, which American officials believe is now undervalued and has attributed to the trade imbalance between the two giant economies.
For his part, U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, the head of the Bush administration economic team, promised that America will try to increase its dismal savings rate. American consumers simply cannot spend more than they earn, he said.
Paulson, a well-weathered investor turned politician, knew he couldn't come home to Washington empty-handed, hence the energy, stock exchange and other concrete deals. And, it is his belief and gauge that Chinese leaders are genuine reformers, just more gradual than Americans would like.
"There's no doubt the Chinese were committed to reform," Paulson told Fortune magazine reporters during a brief limousine ride back from his private meeting with President Hu Jintao at the Great Hall of the People on Friday.
Paulson, facing pressure from Democrats on Capitol Hill who blame inexpensive Chinese competition for American trade debt, said the NYSE-NASDAQ deal "a symbolic milestone toward China's further integration into the global marketplace." "This is the beginning of a conversation of a level and scope that hasn't been witnessed before," said a senior Treasury official.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said the American delegation "asked and received assurances" from Beijing that economic reform was not stalling, though she added " there are some voices there that want to turn back the clock.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke tried to drive home American concerns, with a Friday afternoon speech to elite members of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top Beijing think tank. "The fact that Ben Bernanke was there gave a whole new dimension to it," said Paulson.
In his remarks, Bernanke argued that flexible exchange rates were in China's best economic interest, and will also be helpful in addressing the trade debt of the United States. During the two-day session, though Chinese officials responded to U.S. pressure for more currency flexibility by expressing concerns over the country's economic stability if its currency rose in value, the currency, the yuan, did rise to a new record high. And, Chinese domestic money analysts predict it will gain more grounds against the greenback in 2007.
And, there are more demands from the Americans. In his speech, Bernanke said that while a more flexible yuan rate would be helpful, a more direct way to address the global imbalance is to reduce China's savings rates. The country's high savings rates, he said, reflect China's "thin social safety net", that means that families have to save for medical expenses, their old age and children's education.
However, in the language of global economic imbalances, it's hard for Americans to complain about Chinese families saving their earnings without the Chinese bringing up the American practice of spending far more than they earn. Americans are simply over-spending. So, like Paulson, Bernanke lowered his critique of Chinese savings rate with a self soul-searching that the U.S. needs to save more and borrow less.
With a second meeting of the Strategic Economic Dialogue scheduled for Washington in May 2007, officials from both countries agreed to form study groups to address how to further open up China's services sector, improve rural health care, address environmental and energy concerns and inject more transparency into areas like the regulatory process. They also agreed to continue discussing trade concerns, as well as how to better police copyright and trademark piracy.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-12/16/content_760549.htm
China's ultra-wealthy rev up in style
How are rich people in China showing off their success?
Owning one or more luxury and even ultra-expensive cars appears to be one of the most popular ways.
Boosted by the ever-increasing numbers of people getting rich as a result of the nation's booming economy, demand for these cars is in the fast lane, offering rich pickings for the world's top luxury carmakers.
British brand Rolls Royce, owned by German carmaker BMW, said it expects to sell 70 Phantom vehicles this year in China including Hong Kong which will enable the world's most populous country to unseat Japan as the firm's No 3 single market after the United States and the United Kingdom.
On Thursday in Hong Kong, Rolls Royce delivered its largest order yet 14 Phantoms to Sir Michael Kadoorie's Peninsula Hotel.
To further boost China sales, the brand plans to add three dealerships in Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu. It now has one each in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
In a telephone interview on Friday, Jenny Zheng, general manager of Rolls Royce Motor Cars Greater China, said: "China's thriving economy is creating very successful people in all business areas at a staggering pace. This is a big opportunity for us and other luxury car manufacturers."
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-12/16/content_760463.htm
China's economic growth to slow: think tank (AFP)
Updated: 2006-12-16 10:15
China's economic growth will ease moderately next year due to a global slowdown and official efforts to curb investment, a senior government economist has said. Growth in the world's fourth-largest economy will decelerate slightly to 9.5 to 10 percent next year, according to Zhu Baoliang, the vice director of forecasting at the State Information Center, the Cabinet's think tank.
China's economy increased 10.7 percent in the first nine months of this year and the government has said it expects a growth rate for the full year to be 10.5 percent.
The slowdown will reflect decreasing overseas demand for Chinese products due to a less brisk global economy, affecting China's exports, Zhu told a briefing in Beijing.
It will also reflect government efforts to rein in investments, especially in industries that consume a lot of energy or pollute the environment, he said.
A large number of small steel and cement enterprises will be closed down next year as a result of this campaign, he said.
However, the risk of a rebound in fixed-asset investment is still rather high, he warned.
He said abundant funding resources will help fuel next year's investment as many enterprises have large profits that they can use to finance spending on new capacity.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-12/16/content_760552.htm
Nations aim for common development
By Qin Jize (China Daily)Updated: 2006-12-16 06:59
China and the United States reaffirmed their commitment on Friday to promoting strong and balanced economic development and prosperity by pursing Beijing's exchange rate regime reform and increasing Washington's national savings.
The two sides also agreed to let the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ open offices in China while Washington will support China's membership in the Inter-American Development Bank. No timetable has been mentioned yet.
The agreements were announced at the end of the one-and-half-day high-level Sino-US economic strategic dialogue, co-chaired by Vice-Premier Wu Yi and US Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson. It focused on overarching and long-term strategic economic issues.
Through the discussions, the two sides decided to prioritize work during the next six months in areas including service sectors, health care, energy and the environment.
The two governments also pledged to explore the possibility of a bilateral investment agreement and easing of travel restrictions.
Both sides concluded an agreement facilitating financing to support US exports to China and agreed to re-launch bilateral air service negotiations beginning in January 2007.
The second session of the dialogue will be held in Washington next May.
While meeting with the US delegation, which is composed of almost half of Bush's cabinet, President Hu Jintao said he hoped the two countries would take full advantage of the new platform to make the strategic dialogue an efficient mechanism for communication.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-12/16/content_760459.htm
Wu outlines China's economic goals for US
(Xinhua)Updated: 2006-12-15 11:33
Vice Premier Wu Yi told a high-level delegation from the United States yesterday that the country remains committed to economic reform while admitting that China still needs to make more progress in spreading its increasing wealth among all segments of society. In a keynote speech delivered at the groundbreaking session in Beijing, Wu said that while China's overall economy ranked fourth worldwide in 2005, its per capita gross domestic product was below the 100th spot worldwide. "Tapping China's underdeveloped productivity remains a long-term and arduous task," Wu said.
"Only by focusing on development over the long run can China lay the necessary material foundation for the constant improvement of the people's living standard."
The two-day dialogue is aimed at examining strategic issues in trade relations between the two countries.
The US delegation is headed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and includes several other Cabinet secretaries and Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve.
In her remarks, Wu pointed to the many challenges China's economic policy makers are facing.
Among them, up to 150 million Chinese are living in poverty, according to World Bank figures.
The proportion of rural labor to total employment is still much higher than the level in industrialized countries, and even in some developing ones.
State officials estimate that 300 million people will migrate from the rural areas to the cities within the coming two decades.
Over the next 10 years or so, the population will increase as much as 10 million a year.
"Confronted with such a huge challenge, it is imperative that China commit herself to accelerating economic development and gradually realize a smooth transformation from the urban-rural dual economic structure to a modern economic mix," Wu said.
Despite the challenges, the vice premier was optimistic about the future.
From 1979 to 2005, China's economy has grown at an annual average rate of 9.6 percent, and the momentum will be sustained for the next 15 years, Wu predicted.
"China will uphold the scientific concept of development featuring people-oriented, comprehensive, harmonious and sustainable development, and strike a proper balance between urban and rural development, development among different regions, economic and social development, development of man and nature, and domestic development and opening up to the outside world," Wu said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2006-12/15/content_759833.htm
China's car industry on fast track
(Shanghai Daily)Updated: 2006-12-13 10:00
The fast development of China's automotive industry has exceeded all expectations since the nation entered the World Trade Organization five years ago. China established itself as the most shinning example in vehicle sales despite more and more overseas car makers making inroads into the country, banking on price-competitive models to cash in on market potential.
Vehicles are seen along a road in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning province December 11, 2006. November car sales in China, the world's second-largest vehicle market, rose 26.41 percent to 499,700 from a year earlier, the country's official industry association said. [Reuters] With the influx of new players releasing new models, competition became fierce, dragging down prices.
Growing maturity, to accompany the burgeoning sales, may be the best way forward for China, which is the world's second-largest auto market.
Shanghai Daily has selected the top 10 auto news stories of this year to give readers an overview of the whole industry. Numbers six to 10 will be published next Wednesday.
Buoyant vehicle sales help to boost profit
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2006-12/13/content_757691.htm
Economic relationship with China vital to US
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson said Monday that U.S.-China economic relationship is vital to U.S. future prosperity.
"Managing our economic relationship with China to ensure both nations benefit is vital to our nation's future prosperity," Paulson said in his article published Monday by The Washington Post.
"A market-based economy in China, with sustainable economic growth and full participation in rules-based international trade, is in our best interest -- and in the interest of the Chinese people," he said.
The U.S.-China economic relationship epitomizes both the opportunities and challenges of globalization , he said in the article titled "A Broad Dialogue With China."
The secretary said that this week a delegation made up of U.S. cabinet secretaries, agency directors and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, will participate in the first meeting of the Strategic Economic Dialogue between the two countries.
"My colleagues and I will meet with Chinese leaders in Beijing for discussions in three areas: maintaining sustainable growth without large trade imbalances; continuing to open markets to trade, competition and investment; and improving energy security and the environment," he said.
Paulson said that the United States and China "each have a vision of how our relationship will evolve, and in many respects our visions are similar."
"We both want strong commercial ties that produce benefits for workers and consumers in America and China. We both want China to grow in a way that is sustainable economically and environmentally and that contributes to global prosperity," he said.
"By engaging Chinese leaders with an eye to producing long-term benefits for our two nations, we can build a productive and prosperous partnership for the 21st century," said Paulson.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2006-12/12/content_756960.htm
The Cheney Observer - How far have we come from here edition
Blue Dog Democrats Have First Meeting With Bush
Congressman Mike Ross and other centrist Democrats met with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for the first time on Friday.
While the meeting was productive, Ross says it came several years late. He serves a co-chairman of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of Democrats with fiscally conservative ideas. (See link.)
Ross says Bush is receptive to the concerns of Democrats, including those regarding the Iraq war, earmark reform and alternative fuels. To Ross, Bush "really appeared to me he's speaking from the heart."
Ross says Bush wants to make something out of his final years of office. Ross says Bush doesn't want his last years to "be ineffective, and he still has work to be done."
http://www.house.gov/cardoza/BlueDogs/bluedogs.shtml
Iraq Study Group Can't Undo the Failures of Others
By Steve ChapmanDec 14, 2006
The report of the Iraq Study Group was eagerly awaited by many Americans, but no one was more thrilled to get it than staunch supporters of the Iraq war. Not because they agreed with what it said, but because they didn't. After all these years of haplessly defending a war that has been a dismal failure, they leaped at the chance to go on the attack.
Richard Perle, a leading neoconservative advocate of the invasion, sneered at the Baker-Hamilton commission for daring to propose negotiations with Iran and Syria. Middle Eastern scholar Fouad Ajami ridiculed its suggestion that we address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Johns Hopkins University professor Eliot Cohen accused the panel of "sheer fantasy" and said all we need to prevail in Iraq is "energy and competence in fighting the fight."
Energy and competence from an administration that stumbled into this quagmire with no idea what lay in store? Well, look who's fantasizing. He might as well invite Obi-Wan Kenobi and Princess Leia to join the struggle.
The amazing thing is that these great thinkers still have the nerve to show themselves in public, much less feign wisdom about how to conduct the war. Three long years ago, Perle airily assured an interviewer that "we will soon be turning Iraq over to the Iraqis" and that "they are capable of, with our help, handling their own security."
Ajami predicted that when we invaded, the streets of Iraq would "erupt in joy." Last winter, Cohen announced that in Iraq, "we have the right people at the top and the right policies in effect -- and even more importantly, the right philosophy behind it all." And they accuse the Iraq Study Group of not having a clue?
It should come as no surprise that having been given a pig, the commission has no formula for turning it into a princess. Its members don't pretend that our mistakes in Iraq can be undone easily, if they can be undone at all. The panel merely made a game effort to separate the bad options from the worse ones.
Any of the panel's 79 recommendations can be derided, but they deserve to be weighed against the alternatives. During the time we've spurned negotiations, Iran and Syria have fomented considerable violence in Iraq, and Tehran has made great progress toward a nuclear arsenal. Maybe we could do worse by talking to them, but it would be hard. And ignoring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- gee, that's worked out swell for everybody, hasn't it?
If the group's proposals are not likely to produce a happy outcome, that's only because nothing is likely to produce a happy outcome. Had supporters of the war been right about Iraq, we wouldn't need outside advice.
The administration is contemplating disaster partly because it screwed up so many things along the way, but mainly because the invasion was a doomed enterprise from the start. One thing we should have learned from the last century is that people generally detest foreign occupation. Another is that when resistance to occupation flares into full-fledged war or insurgency, the resistance almost always prevails in the end.
Look at the French in Algeria, the Americans in Vietnam, the Israelis in Lebanon (in the 1980s and '90s) or the Soviets in Afghanistan. Each had huge advantages in military might, but all failed.
The administration and its allies learned nothing from this history. So the United States now finds itself in a familiar dilemma. It can withdraw from Iraq, accepting failure and leaving chaos and civil war behind. Or it can stay and keep spending lives and money in a lost cause that has forfeited public support.
Supporters of the war think that's the fault of the public. Former House Republican Leader Tom DeLay complained that what happened in Korea and Vietnam may be happening in Iraq as well: "Our nation lost the will to fight the war."
But you can hardly expect the people to favor a war that is protracted, costly, launched on mistaken premises and so far unsuccessful -- especially when they were told it would be quick and easy. If the administration lacks public support, that's because the public can no longer believe this war will have a happy ending.
On that point, the public is right. The Iraq Study Group can be criticized for not offering a reliable path to victory. But that's like blaming Noah for the flood.
Barnes: Why Not Dick Cheney in 2008?By James Joyner Fred Barnes argues that, even though Vice President Cheney has been Shermanesque in his unwillingness to seek the presidency in 2008, President Bush should do everything he can to change his mind.
In all likelihood, the 2008 election, like last year’s contest, will focus on foreign policy. The war on terror, national security, and the struggle for democracy will probably dominate American politics for a decade or more. Bush’s legacy, or at least part of it, will be to have returned these issues to a position of paramount concern for future presidents. And who is best qualified to pursue that agenda as knowledgeably and aggressively as Bush? The answer is the person who helped Bush formulate it, namely Cheney.
He then notes that Condi Rice, the Bush foreign policy official often mentioned as a presidential possibility, “would face the distinct disadvantage of being a first-time candidate.”
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2005/03/dick_cheney_in_2008/
Economists: Greenspan too optimistic
www.chinaview.cn 2005-03-08 08:21:22
BEIJING, Mar. 8 -- When it comes to the US savings rate, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan may be engaging in a little "irrational exuberance."
Greenspan says Americans are poised to start socking away more savings, cushioning their own future and helping the US economy at the same time. He may be optimistic, say economists including Robert Shiller, a professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the author of the 2000 book "Irrational Exuberance," about the 1990s stock boom and the phrase Greenspan made famous.
Concerning an increase in the savings rate, Shiller says, "I don't see any suggestion of it right now." Efforts to encourage savings "haven't been a big success," he says.
Greenspan told the House Financial Services Committee on February 17 that the national savings rate, "is probably going to prove a low point, and we will start to rise from here." Central bankers care because Americans' appetite to spend their money or invest in housing, rather than to build deposits that banks spread through the economy as loans, means the United States needs to rely more on an influx of foreign cash.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-03/08/content_2665434.htm
Our Common Cause: Money for aid, not war
9 March 2005March 20 marks the second anniversary of the start of the criminal war on Iraq. Today, Iraq lies in ruins; its own people have become prisoners of war and terror. The war and occupation has brought neither freedom nor democracy. The elections have done nothing to change this.
Already more than 100,000 Iraqis have been killed, almost as many as perished in the recent tsunami disaster. Iraq's infrastructure has been devastated and its environment polluted for thousands of years through the use of depleted uranium weapons.
The Iraqi people's resistance to the occupation is proof that the invaders have no legitimacy.
Following the military invasion, designed to secure strategic US economic and political interests, another began — a corporate invasion.
US companies, such as Halliburton and Bechtel, were awarded millions in reconstruction contracts, while qualified Iraqi businesses were sidelined.
Halliburton was awarded contacts by Saddam Hussien’s regime worth over $US70 million while US Vice-President Dick Cheney was CEO of the company. While Cheney has consistently maintained that as the company's CEO he maintained a firm policy that Halliburton would not do business in Iraq, a number of executives have claimed there was no such policy. Halliburton, like many other US companies got around the legal restrictions on dealing with Iraq by operating through subsidiaries. Bechtel, another major US corporation has been awarded 184 contracts out of 279 in Iraq by USAID.
John Howard's government, a key part of the “coalition of the willing”, is complicit in this murderous endeavour, with Australian troops an important part of the occupying forces.
A number of greedy capitalists in Australia were quick to take advantage of the destruction in Iraq. It wasn't long before Woodside announced plans to move into the war-torn country. Woodside CEO Don Voelte has announced that “the board has taken the view that countries like Iraq are special cases. There are just a few countries that have a capacity that if opened up to Western-style contracts we would certainly want to be there.”
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2005/618/35214
Washington close to decision on offering incentives to Iran: report(AFP)
28 February 2005
WASHINGTON - Washington is close to a decision on joining Europe in offering incentives to Iran in exchange for giving up plans to develop nuclear weapons, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
The new willingness comes after President George W. Bush’s talks with German and French leaders in Europe last week and a meeting with key cabinet members and Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday.
“There’s no timetable,” a senior State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, “but we’re looking for a decision.”
Officials told the Post that after “really good” meetings in Europe last week the White House “wants to move quickly to finalize a list of incentives to offer Tehran as part of European talks with Iran,” the daily said.
One of the main arguments for joining the diplomatic efforts was that Washington could be blamed if it does not and they fail, the Post said.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2005/February/middleeast_February841.xml§ion=middleeast
Doggett Upset with Cheney Hunting Trip to Valley
He's in the Valley for a weekend hunting trip, but a Valley lawmaker is sounding off on the vice president Dick Cheney's trip to South texas.
Congressman Lloyd Doggett is voicing his disapproval of Cheney's visit to the 50,000 acre Armstrong Ranch in Willacy County.
Doggett says the only thing that can come out of this is free publicity for hunting in the valley and nothing else.
"South Texas is a great place to hunt, and I hope the Vice President's visit will encourage others to come here. Unfortunately, neither the Vice President nor the President have bothered to come to the Valley on official business since their first election," said Doggett.
"From their recent budget proposal it is apparent that neither has thought much about the Valley either."
Doggett, who was in the Valley for several days, says he didn't even know the vice president was going to be in the Valley until he saw it on news.
Who set energy policy?
California ratepayers' worst suspicions were confirmed when audiotapes were released the other day revealing that Enron plotted in January 2001 to take a power plant offline in a deliberate bid to jack up electricity prices during the worst of the energy crisis.
What few people may realize, though, is that just three months after the company's power-plant conspiracy, which resulted in rolling blackouts throughout Northern California, Enron was making its case to the White House for why the government shouldn't cap energy prices.
And Vice President Dick Cheney, who met with then-Enron Chairman Ken Lay in April 2001 and was handed a secret memo stating the company's policy wishes, subsequently echoed Enron's position on why price caps are unnecessary.
I obtained a copy of the three-page memo in early 2002 and showed that a number of Enron's recommendations either made it into Cheney's energy plan or were reflected in comments by senior Bush administration officials.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/02/09/BUG7RB7VEU1.DTL&type=business
Nethercutt joins lobbying firm
By MATTHEW DALYTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Former Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., and former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles are joining a lobbying firm headed by a former top White House energy adviser.
Nethercutt gave up his U.S. House seat last year to make an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Patty Murray.
Griles, who oversaw the Bush administration's push to open more public land to energy development, announced last month he was stepping down.
The pair are joining a firm headed by Andrew Lundquist, who led Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force in the Bush administration's first term.
The Lundquist Group LLC will be renamed Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles LLC and will remain based in Washington.
In a statement, Nethercutt, who represented the Spokane area for five terms in the U.S. House, said his new job would continue a longtime interest in developing partnerships among the federal government, businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.
Griles earned a reputation as a go-to broker in Bush's program to lease out vast oil, gas and coal reserves below federally owned land in the West.
During nearly half his four-year tenure at the Interior Department, Griles was investigated by the department's inspector general. Inspector General Earl Devaney concluded Griles didn't appear to violate ethics rules by arranging meetings between Interior officials and former clients and partners, or in the award of $1.6 million in contracts to a former client. But Devaney described Griles' behavior as an example of "an institutional failure" among Interior officials who potentially eroded public trust.
Griles continued to receive $284,000 a year, in addition to his Interior salary, as part of a four-year severance package from his former lobbying and consulting firm.
Lundquist also has been a controversial figure. In January 2001, Cheney named the Energy Department employee to direct a task force that wrote a national energy policy.
Environmental groups criticized the task force for holding secret meetings with the energy industry, but Lundquist has said he also met with conservation and consumer groups. The panel called for expanded oil and gas drilling on public land and rejuvenating nuclear power.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/210028_nethercutt31.html
Democrats to raise wages for poor workers
By Thomas FerraroReutersThursday, December 14, 2006; 8:40 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The incoming Democratic-led U.S. Congress intends to give a hand to dishwashers, fast-food cooks and America's other poorest-paid workers by raising the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade.
With the gap between rich and poor widening, Democrats promised such a pay hike as a part of their campaign that saw them win control of both chambers of Congress in the November 7 elections from President George W. Bush's Republicans.
Christer Fuglesang of Sweden reconfigures part of the international space station so the station can someday support a larger crew. ( NASA TV via Associated Press)With the new 110th Congress set to convene on January 4, Democrats vow a vote soon on a bill to raise the minimum wage over two years to $7.25 per hour from $5.15 per hour. And they seem positioned to make the popular measure law.
"This is a moral issue, as well as an issue of economic fairness and justice," said Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who will be the House of Representatives' Democratic majority leader.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/14/AR2006121400402.html
New faiths are represented in 110th Congress
Buddhists and Muslim are firsts in history Monday, December 11, 2006
BY JONATHAN TILOVENEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON -- The new Congress will, for the first time, include a Muslim, two Buddhists, more Jews than Episcopalians and the highest-ranking Mormon in congressional history.
Roman Catholics remain the largest faith group in Congress, ac counting for 29 percent of all members of the House and Senate, followed by Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Jews and Episcopalians. While Catholics in Congress are nearly 2-to-1 Democrats, the most lopsidedly Democratic groups are Jews and those not affiliated with any religion. Of the 43 Jewish members of Congress, there is only one Jewish Republican in the House and two in the Senate. The six religiously unaffiliated members of the House are all Democrats.
The most Republican groups are the small band of Christian Scientists in the House (all five are Republican), and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints (12 Republicans and three Democrats) -- though the top-ranking Mormon in the history of Congress will be Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the incoming Democratic majority leader.
Baptists divide along partisan lines defined by race.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1165815675294600.xml&coll=1
Democrats study proposal for outside ethics panel
WASHINGTON: House Democrats are exploring the creation of an independent ethics arm to enforce new rules on travel, lobbying, gifts and other issues that Democrats intend to put in place on taking power next month.
Senior party officials said Tuesday that Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the incoming speaker, had consulted with Representative John Boehner of Ohio, the minority leader, on forming a bipartisan group to examine outside enforcement. The goal would be to have the group report back in the spring.
An independent congressional monitor, if approved, would be a major break with tradition. Some lawmakers say House and Senate members have sole responsibility for policing themselves when it comes to internal rules.
Some lawmakers have said an independent entity could be unconstitutional.
The Democratic officials, who spoke only if they would not be publicly identified because the proposal for the new panel was being presented to lawmakers, said the prominence of corruption as a concern in the elections last month had given new impetus to such an idea.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/13/news/congress.php
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats taking control of Congress next month say they will try to ban for the remainder of fiscal 2007 the special-interest "pork" projects that got Republicans in so much trouble with voters in the November elections.
"We will place a moratorium on all earmarks until a reformed process is put in place," the incoming Democratic chairmen of the Senate and House appropriations panels, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, said late on Monday.
The recent proliferation of billions of dollars worth of special-interest projects being attached to annual spending bills likely contributed to Republicans losing majority control of Congress in November elections.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2006-12-12T192010Z_01_N12346999_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-CONGRESS-FUNDING.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C3-politicsNews-2
About Face: Soldiers Call for Iraq Withdrawal
For the first time since Vietnam, an organized, robust movement of active-duty US military personnel has publicly surfaced to oppose a war in which they are serving. Those involved plan to petition Congress to withdraw American troops from Iraq.
(Note: A complete version of this report will appear next week in the print and online editions of The Nation.)
After appearing only seven weeks ago on the Internet, the Appeal for Redress, brainchild of 29-year-old Navy seaman Jonathan Hutto, has already been signed by nearly 1,000 US soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen, including dozens of officers--most of whom are on active duty. Not since 1969, when some 1,300 active-duty military personnel signed an open letter in the New York Times opposing the war in Vietnam, has there been such a dramatic barometer of rising military dissent.
Interviews with two dozen signers of the Appeal reveal a mix of motives for opposing the war: ideological, practical, strategic and moral. But all those interviewed agree that it is time to start withdrawing the troops. Coming from an all-volunteer military, the Appeal was called "unprecedented" by Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070101/cooperweb
Middle East questions stump Democrats' intelligence overseer
Suzanne Goldenberg in WashingtonWednesday December 13, 2006
The Guardian
Of all the things on the to-do list before the Democrats take control of Congress next month, one item seemed to have escaped the attention of Congressman Silvestro Reyes: read something about the Middle East.Mr Reyes, a Democrat from Texas, was chosen by party speaker Nancy Pelosi to chair the house intelligence committee, charged with the oversight of the CIA and other agencies.
So there was much chagrin when the congressman was unable to answer even the most rudimentary questions about militant Islamist organisations such as "Who is in al-Qaida", and "What is Hizbullah"?
Mr Reyes's lack of expertise was exposed by a columnist for the Congressional Quarterly, a political magazine. During an interview last week, the columnist, Jeff Stein, set Mr Reyes a quiz on the modern Middle East.The congressman stumbled when asked whether al-Qaida was predominantly a Shia or a Sunni organisation.
Mr Reyes guessed that the followers of the Saudi fugitive, Osama bin Laden, were primarily Shia.
In fact, al-Qaida is an extremist Sunni organisation, and many of its followers see Shia as heretics.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1970943,00.html
AFTER THE WAR: INTELLIGENCE; Expert Said to Tell Legislators He Was Pressed to Distort Some Evidence
By JAMES RISEN AND DOUGLAS JEHLPublished: June 25, 2003A top State Department expert on chemical and biological weapons told Congressional committees in closed-door hearings last week that he had been pressed to tailor his analysis on Iraq and other matters to conform with the Bush administration's views, several Congressional officials said today.
The officials described what they said was a dramatic moment at a House Intelligence Committee hearing last week when the weapons expert came forward to tell Congress he had felt such pressure.
By speaking out, they said, the senior intelligence expert, identified by several officials as Christian Westermann, became the first member of the intelligence community on active service to make this sort of admission to members of Congress.
The House Intelligence Committee was examining questions concerning the Bush administration's handling of prewar reports on evidence that Iraq had illegal weapons and ties to terrorist groups.
Mr. Westermann, officials said, is an analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, a small but important office at the State Department that is intended to provide the secretary of state with intelligence analysis independent of the C.I.A. and other agencies.
Mr. Westermann told lawmakers last week that while he felt pressure, he never actually changed the wording of any of his intelligence reports.
He did not immediately provide lawmakers with details about his complaints, and it remains uncertain the degree to which his concerns related to Iraq or other regional issues.
Administration officials said his most specific complaints concerned issues related to intelligence on Cuba, and he has not yet provided similar specific complaints about the handling of intelligence on Iraq.
Mr. Westermann, who is in his mid-40's, has worked as a State Department expert on unconventional weapons for the last several years and is viewed within the department as a careful and respected analyst of intelligence.
An administration official said he had served previously as a Navy officer and had not worked for the C.I.A. or other intelligence agencies.
Mr. Westermann's decision to speak out has caused a stir inside the House and Senate intelligence committees, even though he did not go into details and indicated he was not comfortable doing so in front of the large group of officials around him in the House hearing. But he said he was prepared to discuss the matter further.
In a second hearing last week with the Senate Intelligence Committee, he made it clear that he had felt pressure from John Bolton, the under secretary of state for arms control and international security, that originally dated to a clash the two had over Mr. Bolton's public assertions last year that Cuba had a biological weapons program. Mr. Westermann argued those assertions were not supported by sufficient intelligence.
Mr. Bolton declined to comment on the matter. Mr. Westermann also declined to comment.
The State Department spokesman, Richard A. Boucher, said tonight, ''We don't comment on closed hearings, but I can tell you that the secretary and deputy secretary have full confidence in John Bolton.''
A number of analysts at the C.I.A. and other agencies have privately complained over the past few months that they felt pressure from administration officials to write reports that they believe overstated evidence that Iraq had illegal weapons programs and terrorist links.
Mr. Westermann was one of a large group of officials from several intelligence agencies who had been summoned to appear at the opening session of the House intelligence panel's review on Iraq last week.
Addressing the group, Representative Silvestro Reyes, a Texas Democrat, asked whether any of them had felt political pressure in the development of their intelligence reports, which are supposed to be objective. All of the intelligence officials remained silent -- except for Mr. Westermann. Staff members from the House and Senate committees have begun to pursue the matter in greater detail with him, Congressional officials said.
Representative Jane Harman, a California Democrat and a ranking member on the House panel, declined to discuss the matter.
A spokesman for Mr. Reyes, Kira Maas, said, ''The congressman does not comment on closed hearing information.''
The failure of the United States to find evidence of Iraq's weapons programs or its links to Al Qaeda has raised questions about whether the administration overstated the threat posed by Baghdad as it made the case for going to war. Both the House and Senate intelligence committees have begun investigations into the matter, and the C.I.A. has begun an internal review of its prewar intelligence reports.
Pressure to politicize intelligence is often subtle and extremely difficult to corroborate or quantify. A number of analysts have said that the pressure they felt came in the form of intensive questioning from senior administration officials, particularly about reports that concluded that there was little evidence of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
A number of analysts have suggested that they felt less direct pressure on reports concerning the status of Iraq's unconventional weapons, but were angered that senior Bush administration officials selectively disclosed classified intelligence reports that supported the worst-case scenario concerning Iraq's weapons programs, making it seem as if there was an imminent threat to the United States.
The analysts believe that in some cases, White House and Pentagon officials made public statements about Iraq's weapons based on intelligence that was far from definitive.
An administration official said that Mr. Westermann had clashed repeatedly with Mr. Bolton.
A State Department official sympathetic to Mr. Bolton's views said of Mr. Westermann, ''He doesn't have anything that he can point to, and he doesn't have anything more recent than Cuba.'' That official added, ''We're in a period where people are looking for particular evidence of intelligence being altered, and he's talking about mood swings.''
But other administration officials said there had been ongoing tensions between the two since the Cuban issue first came up, to the point that Mr. Bolton has unsuccessfully sought to have Mr. Westermann reassigned.
Correction: June 27, 2003, Friday An article on Wednesday about Congressional committee testimony by a top State Department expert on chemical and biological weapons misstated the response of other officials from several intelligence agencies who were asked whether they had been pressured to tailor their analysis on Iraq and other matters to conform with the Bush administration's views. All said no; they did not remain silent.
Correction: June 28, 2003, Saturday An article on Wednesday about Congressional committee hearings on chemical and biological weapons misspelled the given name of a Democratic representative from Texas who questioned officials from intelligence agencies. He is Silvestre Reyes, not Silvestro.
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=FA0F10F8385F0C768EDDAF0894DB404482
Republicans push tax bill through the House before Democrats take over
WASHINGTON – House Republicans, in a final display of majority power, pushed through a major tax break bill Friday, clearing a hurdle to passage before making way for a new Congress under Democratic control. After the 367-45 vote on the tax bill, the House moved to a trade measure that was to become part of a giant package it was sending to the Senate later in the day.
Whether the Senate could vote on Friday was in doubt, however, because of concern about spending and lingering opposition to trade provisions among senators from states with large textile industries. The tax measure includes $38 billion in tax breaks for businesses, higher education costs and schoolteachers as well as credits for alternative energy initiatives.
Congress must also act on a bill to keep federal programs funded through next February, concluding its work for the year. With that, the Republican control of Congress, lasting 12 years in the House, would be over, setting the stage for the 110th Congress to convene in January with Democrats in the majority in both the House and the Senate.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20061208-1253-congressrdp.html
continued ...
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Pamela Fiskus, mother of Army Sgt. Keith Fiscus begged him not to go
Townsend-area soldier laid to rest at Arlington
26-year-old Army Sgt. Keigh Fiscus died Saturday in Iraq
Deleware News Journal
The ashes of 26-year-old Army Sgt. Keith Fiscus, of the Townsend area, were laid to rest today at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Fiscus died Saturday in Baghdad of injuries suffered when a bomb detonated near his vehicle during combat operations.
Fiscus was assigned to the First Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, Third Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, based at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
Pamela Fiscus says her son was raised in Los Angeles but moved with his family to Delaware in 1998.
She says she begged Keith not to join the military, but her son would not be dissuaded. He enlisted in 2002.
Fiscus is the 14th serviceman from Delaware to die in Iraq.
Soldier 'Loved His Country'
Sergeant on 2nd Iraq Tour Had Childhood Interest in Military
By Fredrick Kunkle / Washington Post
A thin shroud of mist veiled Arlington National Cemetery yesterday as a line of soldiers in dress uniforms waited for the mourners to arrive.
A bugler stood at the entrance of a stone funerary vault, muffling his horn with a white-gloved hand while blowing a few practice notes.
Then a car drove up, and the soldiers snapped to attention, presenting arms.
One soldier removed a folded U.S. flag from the car. Another removed a box-like urn containing the remains of Army Sgt. Keith E. Fiscus.
Then Darrell and Pamela Fiscus, who had tried to dissuade their 26-year-old son from joining the military, fell in behind the escorts, followed by other family members and mourners.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8671
Mom's Message to the White House
TO THE CHOIR: If they vote for war, occupy 'em! ... by Mike Ferner
After nearly four years of war I'd wager that a few million Americans have held a candle at a vigil, carried a sign at a rally, passed out a flyer, forwarded an email to friends, or gone to a demonstration in a distant city. If you, Dear Reader, are one of these stout souls, this letter is to you.
But first, may I ask a favor? For the rest of this letter please forget that at least once during these years of protest you, no doubt, mourned that "only the choir" participated. The choir -- people who actually do something for peace -- is precisely who I'm writing to.
No doubt, it's frustrating that, except for a few grand occasions, "only the choir" shows up. But consider this: of the millions of women in the U.S. at the time, relatively few became active suffragists with the staying power to eventually get votes for women. Of the millions of workers suffering from the Great Depression, relatively few answered the call to sit down in the auto factories to win recognition for unions. Of the millions of blacks bearing the weight of segregation, relatively few sat down at lunch counters.
In their day they were "the choir." When they were the only ones who showed up for vigils and rallies, they, no doubt, bemoaned that "only the choir" had come again. They came to action after action, moving things forward imperceptibly each time. But when conditions were right, they acted one more time. And then they made history.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=793
Support the veterans who've served our country by sending them a phone card so they can call their loved ones over the holidays.
Veterans Administration (VA) budget cuts in recent years have left many of our nation's veterans at VA hospitals without the means to call their families over the holidays. These long distance calls are generally not covered by the VA, and many vets just don't have the financial resources to call all their loved ones.
So Working Assets, Veterans for Peace, CODEPINK, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Gold Star Families for Peace have teamed up on a project to thank our veterans by sending them phone cards loaded with 125 minutes of domestic long-distance calling time. We'll purchase these cards and deliver them to VA Medical Facilities all over the country on December 18th.
$10 will cover the cost of phone cards for three veterans. $20 will buy six phone cards. $33 will buy ten cards. $100 will buy phone cards for 30 veterans to call home over the holidays. 100% of your gift will go directly to buying phone cards -- so please give as generously as you can.
https://www.workingforchange.com/Order/index.cfm?OrderFormID=6
Congresswoman Diane Watson's Statement on Signing John Conyers' Impeachment Resolution
The following statement was issued this afternoon to MichaelMoore.com:
I believe that the President must be held accountable for his actions. This past November, the American people affirmed through the ballot their dissatisfaction with the Administration and, in particular, its policies in Iraq.
I have been a steadfast opponent of the President’s Iraq policy. His administration has not been forthcoming with the American people and Congress has failed to conduct effective oversight of the executive branch. That’s why I am a cosponsor of Congressman Conyers' legislation, H. Res. 635, to create a select Congressional committee to examine the Administration’s conduct in prosecuting the Iraq war.
In the New Year, Democrats will gain control of the House of Representatives. Mr. Conyers is slated to chair the Judiciary Committee. I am ready to follow his lead on the issue.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=791
H.RES.635 Title: Creating a select committee to investigate the Administration's intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HE00635:@@@N
Specter of Iraqi proxy war spooks Washington
By Stephen Collinson / AFP
WASHINGTON - The specter of a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran over the bones of an shattered Iraq is being conjured up by veiled warnings the kingdom may bankroll Sunni fighters if US troops go home.
Apparent Saudi anxiety over US intentions -- the idea of which is rejected publicly by US and Saudi officials -- coincides with President George W. Bush's quest for a new strategy to end carnage in Iraq.
Coupled with the sudden resignation and Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prine Turki al-Faisal, talk of frays in the crucial Saudi-US alliance have sent intrigue rippling through Washington.
"We may be on the verge of a Saudi intervention in Iraq on behalf of their (Sunni) kin, we may be on the verge of a proxy war," said Chas Freeman, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Fears of such a scenario intensified after the New York Times reported Tuesday Riyadh may bankroll Iraq's Sunnis against Iran-backed Shiites, should US troops retreat and leave a raging civil war.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8666
W.House defends Bush use of Iraqi body counts
By Steve Holland / Reuters
WASHINGTON - The White House on Thursday defended President George W. Bush's rare use of a body count to describe Iraqi insurgent deaths as a way to show Americans that U.S. troops are fighting hard in Iraq.
Bush said on Wednesday on a visit to the Pentagon that U.S. and Iraqi forces had killed or captured 5,900 of the enemy during the months of October, November and early December.
It was a rare use of a body count by the president and came after public opinion polls said many Americans are concerned about rising U.S. casualties and believe the United States is losing the war in Iraq.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said one reason Bush gave the body count number was to offset concern about U.S. casualties and deaths that included 103 in October alone.
"And there is quite often the impression ... that our people aren't doing anything; they're just targets. And I think there's a certain amount of unease in the American public because they hear about deaths, but they don't hear about what's going on," Snow told reporters.
Presidents have shied away from giving body count numbers ever since the practice was discredited during the Vietnam war.
During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military publicized Vietnam body counts as a way to show progress, but it led to inflated numbers which damaged the Pentagon's credibility.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8664
2 Marines reportedly killed near Baghdad
By Qais al-Bashir / Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen killed a Shiite tribal sheik linked to British forces in a drive-by shooting Friday in the southern city of Basra, and two Marines were reported killed in fighting in a volatile province west of Baghdad.
One Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 and one Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7 died Thursday after fighting in Anbar province, an insurgent stronghold, the military said.
The deaths raise to 53 the number of American troops who have died in December, which is on track to being one of the deadliest months of the war. At least 2,941 members of the U.S. military have died the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
A senior official from the Iraqi Red Crescent, meanwhile, claimed that harassment from U.S. forces is a greater threat to his group's work than insurgent attacks.
"The main problem we are facing is the American forces more than the other forces," Dr. Jamal Al-Karbouli, vice president of the Iraqi Red Crescent, said in Geneva.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8668
Missing soldier classified as captured
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - An American soldier missing in Iraq since late October probably was captured by the enemy, the Pentagon said Thursday, making official what the U.S. military there has suggested for more than a month.
Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, a 41-year-old Iraqi-born resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., was snatched off the street while he was visiting his Iraqi wife in Baghdad on Oct. 23.
U.S. forces have conducted raids in portions of Sadr City searching for al-Taayie, who worked as a translator. The U.S. government has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to his recovery.
He initially was listed as "whereabouts unknown," but the military generally reviews such cases to rule out all other possibilities, including being absent without leave. He is now considered "missing-captured."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8667
U.S. soldiers lead Iraq children in obscene chant
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/U.S._soldiers_lead_Iraq_children_in_1214.html
Iraqi Kid Runs For Water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9A_vxIOB-I&eurl=
Iraqi Red Crescent accuses U.S. forces of attacks
By Stephanie Nebehay / Reuters
GENEVA - The Iraqi Red Crescent accused U.S. forces on Friday of carrying out a spate of attacks on its offices over the last three years during operations to flush out suspected militants.
Jamal Al Karbouli, vice-president of the Iraqi Red Crescent, said that in the latest incident, U.S forces had occupied and nearly destroyed its Falluja office, held staff for hours, and burned two cars clearly marked with its neutral symbol.
The only Iraqi aid agency working in all 18 provinces, its 1,000 staff and 200,000 volunteers already face extremely difficult conditions because of the growing sectarian violence, he said.
"The main difficulties we are facing, first of all, is the presence of MNF, the multinational forces, which sometimes gives us a hard time. They are attacking some offices and detaining some volunteers," Karbouli told a news conference in Geneva.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8669
Iraqis flee war, run into hostility
As their numbers grow, refugees find that prejudice is growing and compassion is fading.
By Jeffrey Fleishman and Qaisar Ahmed / Los Angeles Times
CAIRO — Strolling the alleys and boulevards of this city, Raaid Lafta sometimes thinks he glimpses his old country: in the barber's face, in the baker's oven, in the way the restaurant chef serves the spiced dishes he's known since boyhood.
Like him, the barber, baker and chef are Iraqis adrift in war. Escaping their battered homeland in crowded cars and lopsided buses, boarding planes and walking stretches of desert, Iraqi refugees are a growing diaspora in Cairo, Damascus, Amman and other Arab cities. With children in tow and life savings hidden in pots and suitcases, they are another precarious burden for the Middle East.
"I see everyone speaking in an Iraq accent," Lafta said. "Iraqi men singing Iraqi songs in the streets, Iraqi cafes, Iraqi shops…. I was opening a bank account here, so when the banker asked for my address, I replied that I live in Cairo's 6th of October neighborhood. He smiled and said, 'You Iraqis have invaded October.'
"http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8661
China Daily
US, China officials work for economic integration
The first high-profile economic talk between top American and Chinese officials in Beijing has achieved tangible results: Beijing will invest in an American-led clean coal technology project; the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ is allowed to open Chinese offices.
And, China's most powerful woman, Vice-Premier Wu Yi, said that Beijing will do more to liberalize its currency valuation regime, which American officials believe is now undervalued and has attributed to the trade imbalance between the two giant economies.
For his part, U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, the head of the Bush administration economic team, promised that America will try to increase its dismal savings rate. American consumers simply cannot spend more than they earn, he said.
Paulson, a well-weathered investor turned politician, knew he couldn't come home to Washington empty-handed, hence the energy, stock exchange and other concrete deals. And, it is his belief and gauge that Chinese leaders are genuine reformers, just more gradual than Americans would like.
"There's no doubt the Chinese were committed to reform," Paulson told Fortune magazine reporters during a brief limousine ride back from his private meeting with President Hu Jintao at the Great Hall of the People on Friday.
Paulson, facing pressure from Democrats on Capitol Hill who blame inexpensive Chinese competition for American trade debt, said the NYSE-NASDAQ deal "a symbolic milestone toward China's further integration into the global marketplace." "This is the beginning of a conversation of a level and scope that hasn't been witnessed before," said a senior Treasury official.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said the American delegation "asked and received assurances" from Beijing that economic reform was not stalling, though she added " there are some voices there that want to turn back the clock.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke tried to drive home American concerns, with a Friday afternoon speech to elite members of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top Beijing think tank. "The fact that Ben Bernanke was there gave a whole new dimension to it," said Paulson.
In his remarks, Bernanke argued that flexible exchange rates were in China's best economic interest, and will also be helpful in addressing the trade debt of the United States. During the two-day session, though Chinese officials responded to U.S. pressure for more currency flexibility by expressing concerns over the country's economic stability if its currency rose in value, the currency, the yuan, did rise to a new record high. And, Chinese domestic money analysts predict it will gain more grounds against the greenback in 2007.
And, there are more demands from the Americans. In his speech, Bernanke said that while a more flexible yuan rate would be helpful, a more direct way to address the global imbalance is to reduce China's savings rates. The country's high savings rates, he said, reflect China's "thin social safety net", that means that families have to save for medical expenses, their old age and children's education.
However, in the language of global economic imbalances, it's hard for Americans to complain about Chinese families saving their earnings without the Chinese bringing up the American practice of spending far more than they earn. Americans are simply over-spending. So, like Paulson, Bernanke lowered his critique of Chinese savings rate with a self soul-searching that the U.S. needs to save more and borrow less.
With a second meeting of the Strategic Economic Dialogue scheduled for Washington in May 2007, officials from both countries agreed to form study groups to address how to further open up China's services sector, improve rural health care, address environmental and energy concerns and inject more transparency into areas like the regulatory process. They also agreed to continue discussing trade concerns, as well as how to better police copyright and trademark piracy.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-12/16/content_760549.htm
China's ultra-wealthy rev up in style
How are rich people in China showing off their success?
Owning one or more luxury and even ultra-expensive cars appears to be one of the most popular ways.
Boosted by the ever-increasing numbers of people getting rich as a result of the nation's booming economy, demand for these cars is in the fast lane, offering rich pickings for the world's top luxury carmakers.
British brand Rolls Royce, owned by German carmaker BMW, said it expects to sell 70 Phantom vehicles this year in China including Hong Kong which will enable the world's most populous country to unseat Japan as the firm's No 3 single market after the United States and the United Kingdom.
On Thursday in Hong Kong, Rolls Royce delivered its largest order yet 14 Phantoms to Sir Michael Kadoorie's Peninsula Hotel.
To further boost China sales, the brand plans to add three dealerships in Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu. It now has one each in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
In a telephone interview on Friday, Jenny Zheng, general manager of Rolls Royce Motor Cars Greater China, said: "China's thriving economy is creating very successful people in all business areas at a staggering pace. This is a big opportunity for us and other luxury car manufacturers."
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-12/16/content_760463.htm
China's economic growth to slow: think tank (AFP)
Updated: 2006-12-16 10:15
China's economic growth will ease moderately next year due to a global slowdown and official efforts to curb investment, a senior government economist has said. Growth in the world's fourth-largest economy will decelerate slightly to 9.5 to 10 percent next year, according to Zhu Baoliang, the vice director of forecasting at the State Information Center, the Cabinet's think tank.
China's economy increased 10.7 percent in the first nine months of this year and the government has said it expects a growth rate for the full year to be 10.5 percent.
The slowdown will reflect decreasing overseas demand for Chinese products due to a less brisk global economy, affecting China's exports, Zhu told a briefing in Beijing.
It will also reflect government efforts to rein in investments, especially in industries that consume a lot of energy or pollute the environment, he said.
A large number of small steel and cement enterprises will be closed down next year as a result of this campaign, he said.
However, the risk of a rebound in fixed-asset investment is still rather high, he warned.
He said abundant funding resources will help fuel next year's investment as many enterprises have large profits that they can use to finance spending on new capacity.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-12/16/content_760552.htm
Nations aim for common development
By Qin Jize (China Daily)Updated: 2006-12-16 06:59
China and the United States reaffirmed their commitment on Friday to promoting strong and balanced economic development and prosperity by pursing Beijing's exchange rate regime reform and increasing Washington's national savings.
The two sides also agreed to let the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ open offices in China while Washington will support China's membership in the Inter-American Development Bank. No timetable has been mentioned yet.
The agreements were announced at the end of the one-and-half-day high-level Sino-US economic strategic dialogue, co-chaired by Vice-Premier Wu Yi and US Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson. It focused on overarching and long-term strategic economic issues.
Through the discussions, the two sides decided to prioritize work during the next six months in areas including service sectors, health care, energy and the environment.
The two governments also pledged to explore the possibility of a bilateral investment agreement and easing of travel restrictions.
Both sides concluded an agreement facilitating financing to support US exports to China and agreed to re-launch bilateral air service negotiations beginning in January 2007.
The second session of the dialogue will be held in Washington next May.
While meeting with the US delegation, which is composed of almost half of Bush's cabinet, President Hu Jintao said he hoped the two countries would take full advantage of the new platform to make the strategic dialogue an efficient mechanism for communication.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-12/16/content_760459.htm
Wu outlines China's economic goals for US
(Xinhua)Updated: 2006-12-15 11:33
Vice Premier Wu Yi told a high-level delegation from the United States yesterday that the country remains committed to economic reform while admitting that China still needs to make more progress in spreading its increasing wealth among all segments of society. In a keynote speech delivered at the groundbreaking session in Beijing, Wu said that while China's overall economy ranked fourth worldwide in 2005, its per capita gross domestic product was below the 100th spot worldwide. "Tapping China's underdeveloped productivity remains a long-term and arduous task," Wu said.
"Only by focusing on development over the long run can China lay the necessary material foundation for the constant improvement of the people's living standard."
The two-day dialogue is aimed at examining strategic issues in trade relations between the two countries.
The US delegation is headed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and includes several other Cabinet secretaries and Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve.
In her remarks, Wu pointed to the many challenges China's economic policy makers are facing.
Among them, up to 150 million Chinese are living in poverty, according to World Bank figures.
The proportion of rural labor to total employment is still much higher than the level in industrialized countries, and even in some developing ones.
State officials estimate that 300 million people will migrate from the rural areas to the cities within the coming two decades.
Over the next 10 years or so, the population will increase as much as 10 million a year.
"Confronted with such a huge challenge, it is imperative that China commit herself to accelerating economic development and gradually realize a smooth transformation from the urban-rural dual economic structure to a modern economic mix," Wu said.
Despite the challenges, the vice premier was optimistic about the future.
From 1979 to 2005, China's economy has grown at an annual average rate of 9.6 percent, and the momentum will be sustained for the next 15 years, Wu predicted.
"China will uphold the scientific concept of development featuring people-oriented, comprehensive, harmonious and sustainable development, and strike a proper balance between urban and rural development, development among different regions, economic and social development, development of man and nature, and domestic development and opening up to the outside world," Wu said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2006-12/15/content_759833.htm
China's car industry on fast track
(Shanghai Daily)Updated: 2006-12-13 10:00
The fast development of China's automotive industry has exceeded all expectations since the nation entered the World Trade Organization five years ago. China established itself as the most shinning example in vehicle sales despite more and more overseas car makers making inroads into the country, banking on price-competitive models to cash in on market potential.
Vehicles are seen along a road in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning province December 11, 2006. November car sales in China, the world's second-largest vehicle market, rose 26.41 percent to 499,700 from a year earlier, the country's official industry association said. [Reuters] With the influx of new players releasing new models, competition became fierce, dragging down prices.
Growing maturity, to accompany the burgeoning sales, may be the best way forward for China, which is the world's second-largest auto market.
Shanghai Daily has selected the top 10 auto news stories of this year to give readers an overview of the whole industry. Numbers six to 10 will be published next Wednesday.
Buoyant vehicle sales help to boost profit
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2006-12/13/content_757691.htm
Economic relationship with China vital to US
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson said Monday that U.S.-China economic relationship is vital to U.S. future prosperity.
"Managing our economic relationship with China to ensure both nations benefit is vital to our nation's future prosperity," Paulson said in his article published Monday by The Washington Post.
"A market-based economy in China, with sustainable economic growth and full participation in rules-based international trade, is in our best interest -- and in the interest of the Chinese people," he said.
The U.S.-China economic relationship epitomizes both the opportunities and challenges of globalization , he said in the article titled "A Broad Dialogue With China."
The secretary said that this week a delegation made up of U.S. cabinet secretaries, agency directors and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, will participate in the first meeting of the Strategic Economic Dialogue between the two countries.
"My colleagues and I will meet with Chinese leaders in Beijing for discussions in three areas: maintaining sustainable growth without large trade imbalances; continuing to open markets to trade, competition and investment; and improving energy security and the environment," he said.
Paulson said that the United States and China "each have a vision of how our relationship will evolve, and in many respects our visions are similar."
"We both want strong commercial ties that produce benefits for workers and consumers in America and China. We both want China to grow in a way that is sustainable economically and environmentally and that contributes to global prosperity," he said.
"By engaging Chinese leaders with an eye to producing long-term benefits for our two nations, we can build a productive and prosperous partnership for the 21st century," said Paulson.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2006-12/12/content_756960.htm
The Cheney Observer - How far have we come from here edition
Blue Dog Democrats Have First Meeting With Bush
Congressman Mike Ross and other centrist Democrats met with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for the first time on Friday.
While the meeting was productive, Ross says it came several years late. He serves a co-chairman of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of Democrats with fiscally conservative ideas. (See link.)
Ross says Bush is receptive to the concerns of Democrats, including those regarding the Iraq war, earmark reform and alternative fuels. To Ross, Bush "really appeared to me he's speaking from the heart."
Ross says Bush wants to make something out of his final years of office. Ross says Bush doesn't want his last years to "be ineffective, and he still has work to be done."
http://www.house.gov/cardoza/BlueDogs/bluedogs.shtml
Iraq Study Group Can't Undo the Failures of Others
By Steve ChapmanDec 14, 2006
The report of the Iraq Study Group was eagerly awaited by many Americans, but no one was more thrilled to get it than staunch supporters of the Iraq war. Not because they agreed with what it said, but because they didn't. After all these years of haplessly defending a war that has been a dismal failure, they leaped at the chance to go on the attack.
Richard Perle, a leading neoconservative advocate of the invasion, sneered at the Baker-Hamilton commission for daring to propose negotiations with Iran and Syria. Middle Eastern scholar Fouad Ajami ridiculed its suggestion that we address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Johns Hopkins University professor Eliot Cohen accused the panel of "sheer fantasy" and said all we need to prevail in Iraq is "energy and competence in fighting the fight."
Energy and competence from an administration that stumbled into this quagmire with no idea what lay in store? Well, look who's fantasizing. He might as well invite Obi-Wan Kenobi and Princess Leia to join the struggle.
The amazing thing is that these great thinkers still have the nerve to show themselves in public, much less feign wisdom about how to conduct the war. Three long years ago, Perle airily assured an interviewer that "we will soon be turning Iraq over to the Iraqis" and that "they are capable of, with our help, handling their own security."
Ajami predicted that when we invaded, the streets of Iraq would "erupt in joy." Last winter, Cohen announced that in Iraq, "we have the right people at the top and the right policies in effect -- and even more importantly, the right philosophy behind it all." And they accuse the Iraq Study Group of not having a clue?
It should come as no surprise that having been given a pig, the commission has no formula for turning it into a princess. Its members don't pretend that our mistakes in Iraq can be undone easily, if they can be undone at all. The panel merely made a game effort to separate the bad options from the worse ones.
Any of the panel's 79 recommendations can be derided, but they deserve to be weighed against the alternatives. During the time we've spurned negotiations, Iran and Syria have fomented considerable violence in Iraq, and Tehran has made great progress toward a nuclear arsenal. Maybe we could do worse by talking to them, but it would be hard. And ignoring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- gee, that's worked out swell for everybody, hasn't it?
If the group's proposals are not likely to produce a happy outcome, that's only because nothing is likely to produce a happy outcome. Had supporters of the war been right about Iraq, we wouldn't need outside advice.
The administration is contemplating disaster partly because it screwed up so many things along the way, but mainly because the invasion was a doomed enterprise from the start. One thing we should have learned from the last century is that people generally detest foreign occupation. Another is that when resistance to occupation flares into full-fledged war or insurgency, the resistance almost always prevails in the end.
Look at the French in Algeria, the Americans in Vietnam, the Israelis in Lebanon (in the 1980s and '90s) or the Soviets in Afghanistan. Each had huge advantages in military might, but all failed.
The administration and its allies learned nothing from this history. So the United States now finds itself in a familiar dilemma. It can withdraw from Iraq, accepting failure and leaving chaos and civil war behind. Or it can stay and keep spending lives and money in a lost cause that has forfeited public support.
Supporters of the war think that's the fault of the public. Former House Republican Leader Tom DeLay complained that what happened in Korea and Vietnam may be happening in Iraq as well: "Our nation lost the will to fight the war."
But you can hardly expect the people to favor a war that is protracted, costly, launched on mistaken premises and so far unsuccessful -- especially when they were told it would be quick and easy. If the administration lacks public support, that's because the public can no longer believe this war will have a happy ending.
On that point, the public is right. The Iraq Study Group can be criticized for not offering a reliable path to victory. But that's like blaming Noah for the flood.
Barnes: Why Not Dick Cheney in 2008?By James Joyner Fred Barnes argues that, even though Vice President Cheney has been Shermanesque in his unwillingness to seek the presidency in 2008, President Bush should do everything he can to change his mind.
In all likelihood, the 2008 election, like last year’s contest, will focus on foreign policy. The war on terror, national security, and the struggle for democracy will probably dominate American politics for a decade or more. Bush’s legacy, or at least part of it, will be to have returned these issues to a position of paramount concern for future presidents. And who is best qualified to pursue that agenda as knowledgeably and aggressively as Bush? The answer is the person who helped Bush formulate it, namely Cheney.
He then notes that Condi Rice, the Bush foreign policy official often mentioned as a presidential possibility, “would face the distinct disadvantage of being a first-time candidate.”
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2005/03/dick_cheney_in_2008/
Economists: Greenspan too optimistic
www.chinaview.cn 2005-03-08 08:21:22
BEIJING, Mar. 8 -- When it comes to the US savings rate, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan may be engaging in a little "irrational exuberance."
Greenspan says Americans are poised to start socking away more savings, cushioning their own future and helping the US economy at the same time. He may be optimistic, say economists including Robert Shiller, a professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the author of the 2000 book "Irrational Exuberance," about the 1990s stock boom and the phrase Greenspan made famous.
Concerning an increase in the savings rate, Shiller says, "I don't see any suggestion of it right now." Efforts to encourage savings "haven't been a big success," he says.
Greenspan told the House Financial Services Committee on February 17 that the national savings rate, "is probably going to prove a low point, and we will start to rise from here." Central bankers care because Americans' appetite to spend their money or invest in housing, rather than to build deposits that banks spread through the economy as loans, means the United States needs to rely more on an influx of foreign cash.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-03/08/content_2665434.htm
Our Common Cause: Money for aid, not war
9 March 2005March 20 marks the second anniversary of the start of the criminal war on Iraq. Today, Iraq lies in ruins; its own people have become prisoners of war and terror. The war and occupation has brought neither freedom nor democracy. The elections have done nothing to change this.
Already more than 100,000 Iraqis have been killed, almost as many as perished in the recent tsunami disaster. Iraq's infrastructure has been devastated and its environment polluted for thousands of years through the use of depleted uranium weapons.
The Iraqi people's resistance to the occupation is proof that the invaders have no legitimacy.
Following the military invasion, designed to secure strategic US economic and political interests, another began — a corporate invasion.
US companies, such as Halliburton and Bechtel, were awarded millions in reconstruction contracts, while qualified Iraqi businesses were sidelined.
Halliburton was awarded contacts by Saddam Hussien’s regime worth over $US70 million while US Vice-President Dick Cheney was CEO of the company. While Cheney has consistently maintained that as the company's CEO he maintained a firm policy that Halliburton would not do business in Iraq, a number of executives have claimed there was no such policy. Halliburton, like many other US companies got around the legal restrictions on dealing with Iraq by operating through subsidiaries. Bechtel, another major US corporation has been awarded 184 contracts out of 279 in Iraq by USAID.
John Howard's government, a key part of the “coalition of the willing”, is complicit in this murderous endeavour, with Australian troops an important part of the occupying forces.
A number of greedy capitalists in Australia were quick to take advantage of the destruction in Iraq. It wasn't long before Woodside announced plans to move into the war-torn country. Woodside CEO Don Voelte has announced that “the board has taken the view that countries like Iraq are special cases. There are just a few countries that have a capacity that if opened up to Western-style contracts we would certainly want to be there.”
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2005/618/35214
Washington close to decision on offering incentives to Iran: report(AFP)
28 February 2005
WASHINGTON - Washington is close to a decision on joining Europe in offering incentives to Iran in exchange for giving up plans to develop nuclear weapons, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
The new willingness comes after President George W. Bush’s talks with German and French leaders in Europe last week and a meeting with key cabinet members and Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday.
“There’s no timetable,” a senior State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, “but we’re looking for a decision.”
Officials told the Post that after “really good” meetings in Europe last week the White House “wants to move quickly to finalize a list of incentives to offer Tehran as part of European talks with Iran,” the daily said.
One of the main arguments for joining the diplomatic efforts was that Washington could be blamed if it does not and they fail, the Post said.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2005/February/middleeast_February841.xml§ion=middleeast
Doggett Upset with Cheney Hunting Trip to Valley
He's in the Valley for a weekend hunting trip, but a Valley lawmaker is sounding off on the vice president Dick Cheney's trip to South texas.
Congressman Lloyd Doggett is voicing his disapproval of Cheney's visit to the 50,000 acre Armstrong Ranch in Willacy County.
Doggett says the only thing that can come out of this is free publicity for hunting in the valley and nothing else.
"South Texas is a great place to hunt, and I hope the Vice President's visit will encourage others to come here. Unfortunately, neither the Vice President nor the President have bothered to come to the Valley on official business since their first election," said Doggett.
"From their recent budget proposal it is apparent that neither has thought much about the Valley either."
Doggett, who was in the Valley for several days, says he didn't even know the vice president was going to be in the Valley until he saw it on news.
Who set energy policy?
California ratepayers' worst suspicions were confirmed when audiotapes were released the other day revealing that Enron plotted in January 2001 to take a power plant offline in a deliberate bid to jack up electricity prices during the worst of the energy crisis.
What few people may realize, though, is that just three months after the company's power-plant conspiracy, which resulted in rolling blackouts throughout Northern California, Enron was making its case to the White House for why the government shouldn't cap energy prices.
And Vice President Dick Cheney, who met with then-Enron Chairman Ken Lay in April 2001 and was handed a secret memo stating the company's policy wishes, subsequently echoed Enron's position on why price caps are unnecessary.
I obtained a copy of the three-page memo in early 2002 and showed that a number of Enron's recommendations either made it into Cheney's energy plan or were reflected in comments by senior Bush administration officials.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/02/09/BUG7RB7VEU1.DTL&type=business
Nethercutt joins lobbying firm
By MATTHEW DALYTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Former Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., and former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles are joining a lobbying firm headed by a former top White House energy adviser.
Nethercutt gave up his U.S. House seat last year to make an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Patty Murray.
Griles, who oversaw the Bush administration's push to open more public land to energy development, announced last month he was stepping down.
The pair are joining a firm headed by Andrew Lundquist, who led Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force in the Bush administration's first term.
The Lundquist Group LLC will be renamed Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles LLC and will remain based in Washington.
In a statement, Nethercutt, who represented the Spokane area for five terms in the U.S. House, said his new job would continue a longtime interest in developing partnerships among the federal government, businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.
Griles earned a reputation as a go-to broker in Bush's program to lease out vast oil, gas and coal reserves below federally owned land in the West.
During nearly half his four-year tenure at the Interior Department, Griles was investigated by the department's inspector general. Inspector General Earl Devaney concluded Griles didn't appear to violate ethics rules by arranging meetings between Interior officials and former clients and partners, or in the award of $1.6 million in contracts to a former client. But Devaney described Griles' behavior as an example of "an institutional failure" among Interior officials who potentially eroded public trust.
Griles continued to receive $284,000 a year, in addition to his Interior salary, as part of a four-year severance package from his former lobbying and consulting firm.
Lundquist also has been a controversial figure. In January 2001, Cheney named the Energy Department employee to direct a task force that wrote a national energy policy.
Environmental groups criticized the task force for holding secret meetings with the energy industry, but Lundquist has said he also met with conservation and consumer groups. The panel called for expanded oil and gas drilling on public land and rejuvenating nuclear power.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/210028_nethercutt31.html
Democrats to raise wages for poor workers
By Thomas FerraroReutersThursday, December 14, 2006; 8:40 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The incoming Democratic-led U.S. Congress intends to give a hand to dishwashers, fast-food cooks and America's other poorest-paid workers by raising the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade.
With the gap between rich and poor widening, Democrats promised such a pay hike as a part of their campaign that saw them win control of both chambers of Congress in the November 7 elections from President George W. Bush's Republicans.
Christer Fuglesang of Sweden reconfigures part of the international space station so the station can someday support a larger crew. ( NASA TV via Associated Press)With the new 110th Congress set to convene on January 4, Democrats vow a vote soon on a bill to raise the minimum wage over two years to $7.25 per hour from $5.15 per hour. And they seem positioned to make the popular measure law.
"This is a moral issue, as well as an issue of economic fairness and justice," said Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who will be the House of Representatives' Democratic majority leader.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/14/AR2006121400402.html
New faiths are represented in 110th Congress
Buddhists and Muslim are firsts in history Monday, December 11, 2006
BY JONATHAN TILOVENEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON -- The new Congress will, for the first time, include a Muslim, two Buddhists, more Jews than Episcopalians and the highest-ranking Mormon in congressional history.
Roman Catholics remain the largest faith group in Congress, ac counting for 29 percent of all members of the House and Senate, followed by Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Jews and Episcopalians. While Catholics in Congress are nearly 2-to-1 Democrats, the most lopsidedly Democratic groups are Jews and those not affiliated with any religion. Of the 43 Jewish members of Congress, there is only one Jewish Republican in the House and two in the Senate. The six religiously unaffiliated members of the House are all Democrats.
The most Republican groups are the small band of Christian Scientists in the House (all five are Republican), and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints (12 Republicans and three Democrats) -- though the top-ranking Mormon in the history of Congress will be Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the incoming Democratic majority leader.
Baptists divide along partisan lines defined by race.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1165815675294600.xml&coll=1
Democrats study proposal for outside ethics panel
WASHINGTON: House Democrats are exploring the creation of an independent ethics arm to enforce new rules on travel, lobbying, gifts and other issues that Democrats intend to put in place on taking power next month.
Senior party officials said Tuesday that Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the incoming speaker, had consulted with Representative John Boehner of Ohio, the minority leader, on forming a bipartisan group to examine outside enforcement. The goal would be to have the group report back in the spring.
An independent congressional monitor, if approved, would be a major break with tradition. Some lawmakers say House and Senate members have sole responsibility for policing themselves when it comes to internal rules.
Some lawmakers have said an independent entity could be unconstitutional.
The Democratic officials, who spoke only if they would not be publicly identified because the proposal for the new panel was being presented to lawmakers, said the prominence of corruption as a concern in the elections last month had given new impetus to such an idea.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/13/news/congress.php
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats taking control of Congress next month say they will try to ban for the remainder of fiscal 2007 the special-interest "pork" projects that got Republicans in so much trouble with voters in the November elections.
"We will place a moratorium on all earmarks until a reformed process is put in place," the incoming Democratic chairmen of the Senate and House appropriations panels, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, said late on Monday.
The recent proliferation of billions of dollars worth of special-interest projects being attached to annual spending bills likely contributed to Republicans losing majority control of Congress in November elections.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2006-12-12T192010Z_01_N12346999_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-CONGRESS-FUNDING.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C3-politicsNews-2
About Face: Soldiers Call for Iraq Withdrawal
For the first time since Vietnam, an organized, robust movement of active-duty US military personnel has publicly surfaced to oppose a war in which they are serving. Those involved plan to petition Congress to withdraw American troops from Iraq.
(Note: A complete version of this report will appear next week in the print and online editions of The Nation.)
After appearing only seven weeks ago on the Internet, the Appeal for Redress, brainchild of 29-year-old Navy seaman Jonathan Hutto, has already been signed by nearly 1,000 US soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen, including dozens of officers--most of whom are on active duty. Not since 1969, when some 1,300 active-duty military personnel signed an open letter in the New York Times opposing the war in Vietnam, has there been such a dramatic barometer of rising military dissent.
Interviews with two dozen signers of the Appeal reveal a mix of motives for opposing the war: ideological, practical, strategic and moral. But all those interviewed agree that it is time to start withdrawing the troops. Coming from an all-volunteer military, the Appeal was called "unprecedented" by Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070101/cooperweb
Middle East questions stump Democrats' intelligence overseer
Suzanne Goldenberg in WashingtonWednesday December 13, 2006
The Guardian
Of all the things on the to-do list before the Democrats take control of Congress next month, one item seemed to have escaped the attention of Congressman Silvestro Reyes: read something about the Middle East.Mr Reyes, a Democrat from Texas, was chosen by party speaker Nancy Pelosi to chair the house intelligence committee, charged with the oversight of the CIA and other agencies.
So there was much chagrin when the congressman was unable to answer even the most rudimentary questions about militant Islamist organisations such as "Who is in al-Qaida", and "What is Hizbullah"?
Mr Reyes's lack of expertise was exposed by a columnist for the Congressional Quarterly, a political magazine. During an interview last week, the columnist, Jeff Stein, set Mr Reyes a quiz on the modern Middle East.The congressman stumbled when asked whether al-Qaida was predominantly a Shia or a Sunni organisation.
Mr Reyes guessed that the followers of the Saudi fugitive, Osama bin Laden, were primarily Shia.
In fact, al-Qaida is an extremist Sunni organisation, and many of its followers see Shia as heretics.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1970943,00.html
AFTER THE WAR: INTELLIGENCE; Expert Said to Tell Legislators He Was Pressed to Distort Some Evidence
By JAMES RISEN AND DOUGLAS JEHLPublished: June 25, 2003A top State Department expert on chemical and biological weapons told Congressional committees in closed-door hearings last week that he had been pressed to tailor his analysis on Iraq and other matters to conform with the Bush administration's views, several Congressional officials said today.
The officials described what they said was a dramatic moment at a House Intelligence Committee hearing last week when the weapons expert came forward to tell Congress he had felt such pressure.
By speaking out, they said, the senior intelligence expert, identified by several officials as Christian Westermann, became the first member of the intelligence community on active service to make this sort of admission to members of Congress.
The House Intelligence Committee was examining questions concerning the Bush administration's handling of prewar reports on evidence that Iraq had illegal weapons and ties to terrorist groups.
Mr. Westermann, officials said, is an analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, a small but important office at the State Department that is intended to provide the secretary of state with intelligence analysis independent of the C.I.A. and other agencies.
Mr. Westermann told lawmakers last week that while he felt pressure, he never actually changed the wording of any of his intelligence reports.
He did not immediately provide lawmakers with details about his complaints, and it remains uncertain the degree to which his concerns related to Iraq or other regional issues.
Administration officials said his most specific complaints concerned issues related to intelligence on Cuba, and he has not yet provided similar specific complaints about the handling of intelligence on Iraq.
Mr. Westermann, who is in his mid-40's, has worked as a State Department expert on unconventional weapons for the last several years and is viewed within the department as a careful and respected analyst of intelligence.
An administration official said he had served previously as a Navy officer and had not worked for the C.I.A. or other intelligence agencies.
Mr. Westermann's decision to speak out has caused a stir inside the House and Senate intelligence committees, even though he did not go into details and indicated he was not comfortable doing so in front of the large group of officials around him in the House hearing. But he said he was prepared to discuss the matter further.
In a second hearing last week with the Senate Intelligence Committee, he made it clear that he had felt pressure from John Bolton, the under secretary of state for arms control and international security, that originally dated to a clash the two had over Mr. Bolton's public assertions last year that Cuba had a biological weapons program. Mr. Westermann argued those assertions were not supported by sufficient intelligence.
Mr. Bolton declined to comment on the matter. Mr. Westermann also declined to comment.
The State Department spokesman, Richard A. Boucher, said tonight, ''We don't comment on closed hearings, but I can tell you that the secretary and deputy secretary have full confidence in John Bolton.''
A number of analysts at the C.I.A. and other agencies have privately complained over the past few months that they felt pressure from administration officials to write reports that they believe overstated evidence that Iraq had illegal weapons programs and terrorist links.
Mr. Westermann was one of a large group of officials from several intelligence agencies who had been summoned to appear at the opening session of the House intelligence panel's review on Iraq last week.
Addressing the group, Representative Silvestro Reyes, a Texas Democrat, asked whether any of them had felt political pressure in the development of their intelligence reports, which are supposed to be objective. All of the intelligence officials remained silent -- except for Mr. Westermann. Staff members from the House and Senate committees have begun to pursue the matter in greater detail with him, Congressional officials said.
Representative Jane Harman, a California Democrat and a ranking member on the House panel, declined to discuss the matter.
A spokesman for Mr. Reyes, Kira Maas, said, ''The congressman does not comment on closed hearing information.''
The failure of the United States to find evidence of Iraq's weapons programs or its links to Al Qaeda has raised questions about whether the administration overstated the threat posed by Baghdad as it made the case for going to war. Both the House and Senate intelligence committees have begun investigations into the matter, and the C.I.A. has begun an internal review of its prewar intelligence reports.
Pressure to politicize intelligence is often subtle and extremely difficult to corroborate or quantify. A number of analysts have said that the pressure they felt came in the form of intensive questioning from senior administration officials, particularly about reports that concluded that there was little evidence of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
A number of analysts have suggested that they felt less direct pressure on reports concerning the status of Iraq's unconventional weapons, but were angered that senior Bush administration officials selectively disclosed classified intelligence reports that supported the worst-case scenario concerning Iraq's weapons programs, making it seem as if there was an imminent threat to the United States.
The analysts believe that in some cases, White House and Pentagon officials made public statements about Iraq's weapons based on intelligence that was far from definitive.
An administration official said that Mr. Westermann had clashed repeatedly with Mr. Bolton.
A State Department official sympathetic to Mr. Bolton's views said of Mr. Westermann, ''He doesn't have anything that he can point to, and he doesn't have anything more recent than Cuba.'' That official added, ''We're in a period where people are looking for particular evidence of intelligence being altered, and he's talking about mood swings.''
But other administration officials said there had been ongoing tensions between the two since the Cuban issue first came up, to the point that Mr. Bolton has unsuccessfully sought to have Mr. Westermann reassigned.
Correction: June 27, 2003, Friday An article on Wednesday about Congressional committee testimony by a top State Department expert on chemical and biological weapons misstated the response of other officials from several intelligence agencies who were asked whether they had been pressured to tailor their analysis on Iraq and other matters to conform with the Bush administration's views. All said no; they did not remain silent.
Correction: June 28, 2003, Saturday An article on Wednesday about Congressional committee hearings on chemical and biological weapons misspelled the given name of a Democratic representative from Texas who questioned officials from intelligence agencies. He is Silvestre Reyes, not Silvestro.
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=FA0F10F8385F0C768EDDAF0894DB404482
Republicans push tax bill through the House before Democrats take over
WASHINGTON – House Republicans, in a final display of majority power, pushed through a major tax break bill Friday, clearing a hurdle to passage before making way for a new Congress under Democratic control. After the 367-45 vote on the tax bill, the House moved to a trade measure that was to become part of a giant package it was sending to the Senate later in the day.
Whether the Senate could vote on Friday was in doubt, however, because of concern about spending and lingering opposition to trade provisions among senators from states with large textile industries. The tax measure includes $38 billion in tax breaks for businesses, higher education costs and schoolteachers as well as credits for alternative energy initiatives.
Congress must also act on a bill to keep federal programs funded through next February, concluding its work for the year. With that, the Republican control of Congress, lasting 12 years in the House, would be over, setting the stage for the 110th Congress to convene in January with Democrats in the majority in both the House and the Senate.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20061208-1253-congressrdp.html
continued ...
Basically, this was an entire season of the year that wreaked havoc with Great Britain.
December 15, 2006
United Kingdom
Photographer states :: after 6 weeks of terrible floods, thosends of houses without power after hurricane winds, and the warmest auturm ever the weather is expected to end and turn Cold and Frosty and some snow across the Europe as temputres expected to be 4c max in London on the 20 th december its going to be a shock to the whole of Europe but some hope for the sking resorts!!! just got a pic of the terrible flooding in Western Europe (uk)
Morning Papers - continued
The Jordan Times
Haniyeh stuck at Gaza border as unrest grows
GAZA (Agencies) — Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh crossed into Gaza on Thursday, leaving behind money donated by Muslim states, hours after Israel blocked the Hamas leader from returning after a fund-raising tour with $35 million.
Palestinian officials and Western diplomats said Haniyeh had planned to enter the impoverished Gaza Strip from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing with $35 million of cash in suitcases.
But Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz ordered the crossing closed and European monitors left the area, keeping Haniyeh cooling his heels for hours on the Egyptian side.
The closure sparked the storming of the border terminal by dozens of armed Hamas gunmen who forced their way inside.
At least 13 Palestinians were wounded by gunfire after the militants went on a rampage inside the terminal building, smashing windows and furniture and firing into the air and at the building itself, Agence France-Presse reported.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news1.htm
Gulf Arabs signal intent to equal nuclear Iran
By Andrew HammondReuters
RIYADH — Fearing Shiite Iran is on the verge of becoming a nuclear power, Sunni Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states are warning they will not hesitate to join a rumbling regional arms race, analysts say.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups Arab countries in the world's top oil and gas exporting region, said at a summit meeting on Sunday that it has decided to set up a nuclear energy programme for peaceful purposes.
The announcement by the six countries — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman — came amid concerns in the West and in the Gulf that non-Arab Iran's nuclear enrichment programme could produce an atomic bomb.
Israel, which has its own nuclear reactor, has long been suspected of possessing nuclear weapons, and Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared to admit as much for the first time in a television interview on Monday.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news2.htm
Mass abduction in Iraq, US general demands action
Men cry Thursday during the funeral of their brother, one of the six people killed in a Wednesday shooting in Baghdad's Sadr City (Reuters photo by Kareem Raheem)
BAGHDAD (Agencies) — Gunmen in military uniforms kidnapped shopkeepers and bystanders Thursday from a major commercial area in Baghdad, the second mass abduction in the capital in a month, and nearly 30 people were killed or found dead elsewhere in Iraq.
The attackers drove up to the busy Sanak area in about 10 sport utility vehicles and began rounding up people from the stores and the streets.
Reports on the number of victims varied. Two police officers and some witnesses said 50 to 70 people were abducted, but a policeman later said initial reports showed that 21 store owners were seized along with an undetermined number of bystanders. The interior ministry declined to give a number, saying it was still under investigation.
A security official, meanwhile, said an Iraqi kidnap gang released 29 hostages it had seized earlier Thursday.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news3.htm
League chief says more work needed for Lebanon deal
A worker on Thursday carries a cover during the construction of a huge tent on the 14th day of an open-ended protest in Beirut to force the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora (AP photo by Petros Giannakouris)
BEIRUT (AFP) — Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa said Thursday that more work was needed to settle a protracted political crisis between the Lebanese government and the Syrian-backed opposition.
Musa wrapped up a three-day mediation mission without a deal, hailing progress but urging further talks between the feuding parties over the formation of a national unity government.
The opposition spearheaded by the Tehran- and Damascus-backed Hizbollah has mobilised thousands of protesters in central Beirut since December 1 and threatened to escalate their protests if their demands are not met.
"There was progress, and there is good ground for understanding, but matters demand more efforts," Musa told reporters in the Lebanese capital.
Musa said the Western-backed government and opposition leaders had agreed to form a new commission to discuss a controversial international tribunal into the 2005 assassination of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, widely blamed on Syria.
A UN-proposed Hariri court "is at the top of the agenda because it is an important question linked to finding justice", Musa said.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news4.htm
Police arrest No. 3 of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood
CAIRO (AP) — Police on Thursday arrested the third highest ranking member of Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, security officials and the group said.
The arrest came a few days after student members of the group staged a militia-style demonstration at Azhar University outside of Cairo.
Mohammad Khayrat Shater, 55, was taken from his home early Thursday, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the press.
The Brotherhood said police also arrested more than 180 students and 13 others including Shater's son-in-law.
But security officials could not immediately confirm those arrests.
Shater is the Brotherhood's second deputy and is known as the group's main financier and strategist.
He joined the Brotherhood in 1974 and has been imprisoned four times for a total of seven years on charges relating to his membership in the group.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news5.htm
Saudi divisions on Iraq could strain relations with US
By Salah NasrawiThe Associated Press
CAIRO — Saudi Arabia's royal family and government leaders are deeply divided over how to handle the growing crisis in Iraq and other looming Mideast problems like Iran, with some favouring strong aid to fellow Sunnis and others more cautious.
The split played a key role in this week's abrupt resignation of the Saudi ambassador to Washington. It also could hurt US efforts to forge a new overall strategy to calm Iraq.
More broadly, the internal dispute shows how Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, long key partners in US efforts to stabilise the Middle East, are struggling to decide how to proceed as Iraq boils over and Iran gains influence.
The tension in the region is straining Saudi relations with the United States, despite both countries' assertions that all is fine.
The resignation of Prince Turki Al Faisal, after just 15 months as ambassador to Washington, for example, came after Saudi officials concluded he was not succeeding at building strong ties with the United States, a Saudi official said Wednesday.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news8.htm
Iran elections pose twin test for Ahmadinejad
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iranians vote in double polls Friday that are the first test for conservative allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and vanquished reformists since the president's stunning election victory last year.
Iran is choosing a new assembly of experts, the body that selects and supervises the supreme leader, and voting for municipal councils in elections that will provide a crucial reading of the political temperature.
The local elections will provide the clearest indication of whether Ahmadinejad's conservative allies have reinforced their grip on power or if embattled reformers are on the verge of a comeback.
It was in the last such local vote in February 2003 that conservative forces launched a political resurgence that culminated in Ahmadinejad's defeat of reformists and moderates in the 2005 presidential election.
Turnout Friday will be a crucial factor, since the 2003 conservative victory came on the back of the lowest election participation in the Islamic republic's history — which included a paltry 10 per cent in Tehran.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news7.htm
Pinochet’s death is a wake up call for international law
Jonathan Power
The arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London, in October 1998, was a bolt from the blue. It can be said with near certainty that it had never crossed the mind of senior members of the British judiciary who were soon to be landed with untangling the legal intricacies.
Indeed, it was such an impossible idea that until almost the very last moment it never occurred to the ex-dictator himself that he could be vulnerable in the very country where his great friend and supporter, Margaret Thatcher, had been prime minister.
But when Baltazar Garzón, a senior Spanish magistrate, is on your tail you have to watch out. He has bested Felipe González, the former socialist prime minister, for having been party to the use of a police cell to assassinate leaders of ETA, the violent Basque group. He has also had great success in bringing to quick justice the Al Qaeda-inspired group that blew up a railway station in Madrid on the eve of the last general election.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/opinion/opinion4.htm
Iranian Kurd border refugees reject new proposals
AMMAN (IRIN) — Iranian Kurds stuck on the Iraq-Jordan border for nearly two years say they will not leave their makeshift camp until they are resettled in a third country.
Some 200 Iranian Kurdish refugees living in deteriorating conditions categorically rejected recent proposals by US-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) to resolve their problem.
One of HRW’s proposals was to organise “go and see visits” to Kawa refugee camp in northern Iraq, where other Iranian Kurdish refugees are currently living — the intention being that the border refugees would move to this officially recognised camp and then have the chance to legitimately seek third-country resettlement.
“There is no need to go and visit Kawa refugee camp in Erbil just to see if we like it. Refugees already living there have told us the camp is not what they hoped for, so there is no use for us to go there,” Khabat Mohammadi, acting as spokesman of the group, said.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews7.htm
Taiwan, identity politics and China
Gwynne Dyer
“My generation has had really painful experiences over the past six years, because you suddenly realise you are nobody,” explained Andrew Yang, head of the Chinese Council for Advanced Policy Studies, in Taipei earlier this year.
“My parents come from mainland China, so in their eyes I am a second-generation mainlander. I mean, I was born here; I’m part of the society. I was really astonished to see that people are treating me like a second-generation mainlander.... The identity issue is very polarising here.”
Identity politics were very much in evidence last Saturday, when Taiwan’s two big cities voted in mayoral elections that were widely seen as a trial run for the key presidential elections in early 2008.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should have lost by a landslide, given the under-performing economy, high unemployment and constant crises with mainland China since it won power at the national level six years ago, not to mention the corruption scandal that has engulfed President Chen Shui-bian’s own family. But it didn’t.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/opinion/opinion3.htm
The Houston Chronicle
Millions without power in stormy NorthwestWind, rain cause four deaths, close highways in Washington, Oregon
SEATTLE — Howling windstorms and heavy rains caused at least four deaths, closed bridges and highways and cut power to about 1.5 million homes and businesses in Washington and Oregon, authorities said today.
One of the concourses at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport lost power, and an airport spokesman said some flights were canceled.
About 30 flights were scratched at Portland International Airport, a spokesman said, and Amtrak canceled service between Portland and Seattle.
A 41-year-old Seattle woman died Thursday after she became trapped in her basement while it flooded. Neighbors had called for help after they heard screaming.
A 28-year-old man was killed while he slept when the top of a tree snapped off and crashed into his home in a trailer park in McCleary, 18 miles west of Olympia.
Elsewhere in Washington, two people died in traffic accidents involving windblown trees.
In Edmonds, north of Seattle, about 50 residents of an assisted living facility were evacuated after a tree crashed through the third floor, flooding the building, Snohomish County emergency management officials said. No injuries were reported, and residents were sent to other facilities.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4404332.html
Iraq war architect Rumsfeld honored at Pentagon
WASHINGTON — Architect of the unpopular war in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was praised lavishly for his service to the nation today as he called on Americans to spend more heavily on defense.
President Bush called Rumsfeld "one of America's most skilled, energetic and dedicated public servants."
"We've been through war together," the president said. "We have shared some of the most challenging moments in our nation's history."
"This man knows how to lead and he did," the president said. "And the country is better off for it"
Departing after six years in office, Rumsfeld said he felt "a sense of urgency about the real challenges ahead" in a time of terrorism, unstable dictators and threats of nuclear proliferation.
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, awakened the world to the existence of a global extremist movement whose adherents believe it is their calling to kill Americans and other free people, Rumsfeld said.
"Ours is also a world of many friends and allies, but sadly, realistically, friends and allies with declining defense investment and declining capabilities and, I would add, as a result, with increasing vulnerabilities," Rumsfeld said. "All of which requires that the United States of America invest more."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4405069.html
New stealth fighter jet flies from Fort Worth facility
FORT WORTH — The new stealth fighter jet that will replace an aging fleet of military planes took off for the first time today, landing about 30 minutes into a planned hourlong flight.
The shorter time in the air did not mean the pilot of the Joint Strike Fighter, also known as the F-35, encountered problems, said a spokesman for Lockheed Martin Corp., which is building the planes.
"Right now we are characterizing the flight as hugely successful," Tom Jurkowsky said.
The Bethesda, Md.-based company planned an afternoon news conference to discuss the flight.
Runway tests that began last week were completed earlier this week. Officials had been waiting for good weather for the maiden flight, which almost didn't happen Friday because of fog and windy conditions.
The takeoff was witnessed by hundreds at the Lockheed Martin facility where the planes are being built in possibly the largest defense contract ever, $275 billion over the next two decades.
After 10 years of development, Lockheed Martin is moving to the early stages of production for what could be thousands of fighter jets for the American military and eight countries.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4405480.html
Serial rapist-robber targets men in east Harris County
The serial rapist-robber began his attacks in east Harris County in April and his assaults have occurred every 30 to 60 days.
But what makes this case so unusual is that women are not the target. So far the five victims have all been young, white males in their late teens or early 20s, mostly students still living at their parents' homes.
The attacker is described as a light-skinned black male, clean cut and nicely dressed, in his late 20s. He stands from 5'6" to 6' tall and weighs 200 pounds.
Investigators have released a composite sketch, based on victims' recollections, and are working with the FBI to develop a profile to determine whether the crime spree is racially motivated or what other forces might be driving it.
Investigators also hope the profile paints a picture of the lifestyle of the attacker who has cleverly eluded them.
"I've never seen attacks on males like this in the four years I've worked here," said Harris County Sheriff's Sgt. Bryan Pair.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4405220.html
Serial killer in England may have drugged victims first
LONDON — Their naked corpses showed no signs of struggle, raising questions of whether a suspected serial killer may have drugged the five young women — all addicts and prostitutes — before killing them and dumping their bodies on the outskirts of an English port town.
"The fact that they were drug users will make the work more complicated" for forensic experts, said Sandra Graffham, a Suffolk police spokeswoman.
The fifth victim was identified today as Annette Nicholls, 29, but a coroner was unable to say what caused her death.
One woman died from asphyxiation and another died from what a coroner called "compression to the neck." The causes of death for two others are still unclear because their bodies were found in water.
Forensic psychologists have asked whether the killer lured and then anesthetized the women with drugs. None of the bodies showed signs of significant trauma or sexual assault. However, it will take days to complete toxicology reports that could show whether the women had been drugged or the level of previous drug use, police said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/4405380.html
NASA jostles space station in effort to fix solar panel
HOUSTON — When wiggling a solar array by remote control didn't manage to make it fold up, NASA had an astronaut jostle the space station today by exercising vigorously in an effort to fix the half-retracted wing.
German astronaut Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency was told to do 30 seconds of robust exercise on a bungee-bar machine called the Interim Resistive Exercise Device.
NASA hopes the problem can be fixed from inside the international space station so astronauts don't have to take a fourth, unplanned spacewalk.
Reiter tried it once, but his exercise didn't appear to change the solar array.
"I'm very sorry to hear that," said Reiter, who has been at the space station since July. "I was training for it for a half year."
Mission Control radioed back, "We'll give you a silver medal for that."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4404817.html
After 8 years in prison, inmate walks free for now
Retrial possible in assault he says he didn't commitDespite bureaucratic confusion that threatened to spoil his coming home party and delayed his release by several hours, Gilbert Amezquita walked out of the Harris County Jail a free man early this morning — at least for the time being.
But after spending the past eight years trying to prove that he did not commit the near-fatal assault that sent him to prison, the extra time behind bars did not diminish Amezquita's excitement.
"It's been seven years; so I can deal with a few more hours," said Amezaquita as he and his relatives wept and hugged in the early morning fog outside the Harris County Inmate Processing Center on Commerce in downtown Houston.
"I know that I am innocent, and I know I'm going to have my day in court," he added. "But it's just a slow process, and it's taken too long."
Amezquita said he plans to spend time in the next few days just staying close to his family.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4404282.html
Close door, have a seat, pop a cola
Americans consumed more than twice as much high fructose corn syrup per person as in 1980 and remained the fattest inhabitants of the planet, although Mexicans, Australians, Greeks, New Zealanders and Britons are not too far behind.
At the same time, we spent more of our lives than ever — about 8 1/2 hours a day — watching television, using computers, listening to the radio, going to the movies or reading.
This eclectic portrait of the American people is drawn from the 1,376 tables that make up the Census Bureau's 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, the annual feast for number crunchers that is being served up by the federal government today.
For the first time, the abstract quantifies same-sex sexual contacts (6 percent of men and 11.2 percent of women say they've had them) and learning disabilities (American Indians are most likely to have been told they have them).
The abstract reveals that the floor space in new private one-family homes has expanded to 2,227 square feet in 2005 from 1,905 square feet in 1990.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4404074.html
Nintendo to recall Wii straps after accident reports
TOKYO — Nintendo said today it will replace 3.2 million straps for its popular Wii computer game controllers after receiving a rash of reports that the devices flew out of the hands of overzealous players.
The recall is a bittersweet development for Nintendo — a costly hitch in its three-way battle with Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, but also confirmation of the enthusiastic reception worldwide.
The Wii's signature wand-like remote controller is used to mimic the motions of a tennis racket, golf club or sword, depending on the game. But soon after the Wii went on sale last month, people started reporting cases of the controller's strap breaking as they waved it about vigorously.
Nintendo will allow customers to exchange the old straps, which have a 0.024 inch diameter, for a beefed up strap that has a diameter of 0.04 inch, company spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said. The worldwide recall is expected to cost the company several several million dollars.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4403662.html
IRS to require more proof to claim deductions
WASHINGTON — Beginning in the 2007 tax year, taxpayers must provide bank records or other information when claiming deductions for charitable donations of money, the Internal Revenue Service said in newly released guidelines.
The IRS said that bank records can include canceled checks, bank or credit union statements and credit card statements that show the name of the charity and the transaction posting date.
Taxpayers may also submit a written communication from the charity with the organization's name, the date of the transaction and the amount of the contribution.
Money donations are defined as those made in cash, or by check, electronic funds transfer, credit card or payroll deductions. For payroll deductions, the taxpayer should retain a pay stub, W-2 wage statement or other document showing the amount withheld for charity along with the pledge card showing the name of the charity.
Previously, taxpayers could back up donations of money with personal bank registers, diaries or notes made around the time of the donation. Such records are no longer sufficient.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/4405379.html
Ailing senator opens eyes after brain surgery
Democrats vow Johnson's illness won't endanger their slim majority in the SenateWASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson has opened his eyes and shown other small signs of recovery from brain surgery that are encouraging to his family, a spokeswoman said today.
Congressional visitors continued to come to the hospital and comfort family members as the South Dakota senator's progress was closely watched across Washington. His sudden illness raised questions about the Democrats' one-vote majority in the upcoming Senate session.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid visited Johnson, 59, at George Washington University Hospital again Friday and said he looked "good, fine." Senate Chaplain Barry Black also came by.
Johnson suffered a brain hemorrhage Wednesday that was caused by an uncommon and sometimes fatal condition, and underwent surgery late into the night.
He was responding to the voice of his wife, Barbara, and following directions a few hours after the surgery. When she asked him to open his eyes, he did, and then reached out to hold her hand, said Johnson spokeswoman Julianne Fisher.
"They are just very encouraged by the little things right now," Fisher said Friday.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/4403862.html
Somali leader says al-Qaida gaining ground in Africa
BAIDOA, Somalia — Peace talks with Somalia's Islamic movement are no longer an option, the president said today, warning that the group is allowing al-Qaida terrorists to "set up shop" in the Horn of Africa.
"This is a new chapter and part of the terror group's plan to wage war against the West," Abdullahi Yusuf told The Associated Press during a rare interview at his heavily guarded office in western Somalia.
Tension has mounted in recent weeks between Somalia's government, which has international recognition but little authority, and the Council of Islamic Courts, which controls most of southern Somalia. The United States has said the Islamic movement has links to al-Qaida; Islamic leaders have repeatedly denied it.
"We do not give protection to these criminals," Islamic courts spokesman Abdirahin Ali Mudey said.
Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the country into anarchy. The government was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but it has struggled to assert its authority.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/4405168.html
Kissing Matt Damon was just part of the job, Jolie says
NEW YORK — What's the biggest difference between kissing Matt Damon and kissing Brad Pitt? "One's a friend and one's my love," says Angelina Jolie, who co-stars with Damon in the upcoming drama The Good Shepherd.
"In reality, both the people we're involved with couldn't have cared less about that (love scene) because they know us," Jolie told Diane Sawyer in an interview that aired Friday on ABC's Good Morning America.
"It's one of those things where it's like the least threatening person," the 31-year-old actress said. "Good luck to you guys, I hope it's not too awkward."
Said Damon, who co-starred with Pitt in the Ocean's Eleven and Ocean's Twelve movies: "It's weird. ... We all know each other."
Damon married Luciana Bozan while filming The Good Shepherd. The couple have a 6-month-old daughter, Isabella.
The 36-year-old actor said getting married had more of an impact than he thought it would. "We already had the house in Florida and everything, and so I didn't. ... I didn't think it was going to really change anything necessarily, but it actually did."
Jolie has said that she and Pitt, who will be 43 on Monday, are in no rush to wed. Pitt has wondered why they should marry when gay couples can't.
"I think ... he was commenting just on the state (that) we all wish for," Jolie said. "That's not really a comment on whether or not we would or if we plan to."
The Good Shepherd, a Universal Pictures release, opens in theaters Dec. 22.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/entertainment/4405277.html
Ala. man loses lawsuit against Vioxx maker Merck
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- State court jurors sided with drug manufacturer Merck & Co. today and rejected the claims of an Alabama man who blamed the painkiller Vioxx for a heart attack in 2001.
Attorneys for Gary Albright had told jurors he should receive as much as $5.75 million in his lawsuit, filed last year.
But a jury of eight women and four men rejected Albright's claims that Vioxx caused his heart attack and that the company failed to reveal potential dangers of the drug before pulling it from the market in 2004.
It was Merck's second victory in a court case this week. On Wednesday, a federal jury in New Orleans rejected a Tennessee man's claim that Vioxx should be blamed for his 2003 heart attack.
In the latest case, Albright's attorney, Tim Davis, had asked the jury to make a decision: "Did profits lead over safety?"
Merck denied that Vioxx had anything to do with the heart attack Albright suffered in March 2001. It also denied withholding information about potential side effects of the medication, which Albright took for arthritis.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/4405166.html
Oil prices continue to climb above $62 a barrel
NEW YORK — Crude oil prices extended its climb above $62 a barrel today, capping a week that reignited the market's supply concerns with news of U.S. oil inventories falling and OPEC's decision to cut output in February.
Global crude oil inventories are still abundant, but many energy traders see any potential decline in supplies as a reason to bid up prices — especially against the backdrop of resilient consumer demand.
Light sweet crude for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 27 cents to $62.78 a barrel in midday trading. A day earlier, prices leaped $1.14 after OPEC's announcement.
The delayed cuts by OPEC, spurred by concerns of bulging worldwide inventories and anticipated non-OPEC supply growth in 2007, were seen as a warning to the world's major consuming nations.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said the price of crude did not figure in the decision. "What we're working toward is to rebalance the market and this decision does this," he said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/4405076.html
All Africa
Africa: Drug-Resistant TB More Widespread Than Thought
Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is more widespread than thought, warn researchers, who are calling for improvements to the administration of treatments for the killer disease.
Misusing antimicrobial drugs can lead to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (TB), which is defined as resistant to the two most powerful TB drugs, Isoniazid and Rifampicin.
But researchers warn that multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is only the precursor to extensively drug resistant TB, which is potentially incurable with available drugs as it resists all standard TB drugs and at least one of three second-class drugs.
Looking at four of the six most widely used TB drugs, the scientists -- from the Global Project on Anti-tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance -- found that both multiple and extensive drug resistance were causing growing numbers of new infections, especially in parts of China and the former Soviet Union.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150975.html
Africa: White House Pushing Anti-Malaria Campaign
December 15, 2006Posted to the web December 15, 2006
Charles Cobb Jr.Washington DC
Africans are dying from another killer disease that rivals the devastating effect of HIV/AIDS; and Americans can play a major role in helping to prevent it, says the White House.
"I think our citizens will be amazed to hear that last year, about a million Africans died of malaria," President George W. Bush told a White House Summit on Malaria Thursday.
"The vast majority were children under five—their lives ended by nothing more than a mosquito bite. In some countries, more people die of malaria than HIV/AIDS—and last week, a new study showed that people who contract malaria become more likely to spread HIV."
Both President Bush and his wife, Laura, hosted an all-day meeting at the National Geographic Society, which brought together representatives of African governments, U.S. officials, international business organizations and NGOs. The idea of public-private partnerships drives the effort.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150225.html
Uganda: Gunfire Rocks Juba as Sudan Soldiers Mutiny
HEAVY gunfire rocked Juba, the administrative capital of the South Sudan government yesterday following a mutiny by part of the military over unpaid salaries. The shooting, which began at 8.20a.m at a military barracks at Gumbo, a few kilometers out of Juba town, later spread into the town centre as the loyal forces battled the mutineers.
There were reports of casualties and civilians beaten up on the streets by the mutineers but this could not be confirmed as the situation remained tense in the morning and the military prevented people from moving out of their houses.
A UPDF officer, Lt. Col. Charles Okori , a member of the ceasefire Monitoring Team was assaulted by mutinous soldiers.
At Civicon Oasis Hotel, where the Uganda government peace negotiating team is staying and Juba Bridge Hotel, the residence for the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebel delegation, Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers asked the delegates to remain in the hotels as the situation is put under control.
"Your Excellency don't move to town, there is shooting but we are trying to see what we can do," an SPLA officer told the leader of the government delegation, Ruhakana Rugunda.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150816.html
Sudan: International Criminal Court Prosecutor Says First Darfur Cases Are Almost Ready
The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) informed the Security Council today that he is almost ready to bring cases about some of the worst war crimes committed in the Sudanese region of Darfur during the past three years.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he will submit evidence to ICC judges by February at the latest and, ahead of that step, he is now introducing measures to protect victims and witnesses.
According to the text of his statement to the closed-door Council meeting, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said that his first case will focus on a series of incidents in 2003 and 2004, when conflict emerged in Darfur as Government forces and allied militia clashes with rebel groups seeking greater autonomy.
"The evidence provides reasonable grounds to believe that the individuals identified have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes, including the crimes of persecution, torture, murder and rape, during a period in which the gravest crimes occurred in Darfur," he said.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150001.html
Sudan: UN Human Rights Council to Send High-Level Mission to Darfur
The United Nations Human Rights Council today agreed to dispatch a five-member high-level mission to Darfur to assess the situation in the war-torn Sudanese region, the scene of hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, mass rape, massive forced displacement and other abuses during the past three years.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan immediately welcomed the move, taken in Geneva on the second day of a special Council hearing devoted to Darfur, describing it as "robust action to address the grave human rights situation." The Council decision was adopted by consensus.
"The decision sends a united message that the ongoing violence and killing in Darfur is unacceptable and must stop," Mr. Annan said in a statement released by his spokesman.
The five "highly qualified persons" on the mission to Darfur will be appointed by the Council President, Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico, after consultations with the 47-member Council and Sima Samar, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612130884.html
Côte d'Ivoire: Security Council Extends UN Mission, Renews Diamond and Arms Sanctions
The Security Council today extended by three weeks the mandate of the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) while also renewing the ban on arms and diamond trade with the country, which is divided between a rebel-held north and Government-controlled south.
By a unanimously adopted resolution on UNOCI, the Council also extended the mandate of the French forces supporting the mission until 10 January 2007.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan had recommended a one-year extension, through 15 December 2007, in his latest report to the Council on Côte d'Ivoire.
That report issued a strong call to the parties to restart their stalled peace process and resolve their disputes.
In it, Mr. Annan emphasized that the mandate of Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny and President Laurent Gbagbo was renewed for a "final transition period not exceeding 12 months." He called on Mr. Banny and Mr. Gbagbo to "eschew confrontation and maintain a constructive working relationship."
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150814.html
Central Africa: Museveni Asks Kabila to Deal With Rebels
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has urged Mr Joseph Kabila, the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo to deal with the myriads of criminal forces in his country.
Addressing delegates at the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region in Nairobi yesterday, president Museveni said that the recently concluded general elections in DRC only solved 50 percent of the problems in the Great Lakes Region because there are several negative criminal groups on the DRC territory including the Lords' Resistance Army.
"We have waited for the elections in the DRC. We now want the government to solve the problem,"Museveni said.
He said most of the criminal forces in the DRC are groups linked to former dictators like Idi Amin and Milton Obote who fled to Sudan, and later DRC, after the NRA took power.
President Museveni urged member states of the great Lakes Region to review the draft pact on security, stability and development.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150053.html
Kenya: Regional Presidents in Crucial Peace Talks
Eight regional Heads of State and Governments will today sign an agreement committing themselves to end conflict and promote democracy.
The peace deal will see the leaders committing themselves to mandatory disarmament and extradition of rebel groups.
The agreement, to be signed at Gigiri in Nairobi, will endorse a programme of action that will require the 11 countries of the Great Lakes region, Kenya included, to confiscate arms from all communities possessing illegal weapons.
The leaders, together with a representative of outgoing UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, will also tackle the refugee problem in the Great Lakes region.
They are expected to give a commitment that their Governments will contribute to the proposed Sh67 billion budget for the five-year programme. The leaders attended yesterday's official opening of the conference. They were presidents Kibaki (Kenya), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania), Levy Mwanawasa (Zambia), Pierre Nkurunziza (Burundi) and Joseph Kabila (DRC) and Rwanda's prime minister Bernard Mukuza. Others were African Union Commission chairperson Alpha Konare and Mr Annan's representative, Mr Ibrahim Fall.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150081.html
Congo-Kinshasa: 'Precarious' Situation in Eastern DR Congo Affects Thousands of Displaced People - UN
Cholera is spreading among tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in parts of North Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations has said, warning of a "precarious" situation also involving looting by members of the armed forces.
"Up to 20,000 on the Sake - Goma and Sake - Minova routes have been displaced, but have regained their homes following a stabilization of the security situation," said spokesperson Kemal Saiki from the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC) at yesterday's weekly press briefing.
"Opportunistic elements of the FARDC (Armed Forces of DRC) took the opportunity to loot and take over the abandoned homes. This situation remains precarious close to Sake, where cholera has spread due to lack of drinking water, and where certain residents have still not retaken their homes."
There are more than 550,000 IDPs in North Kivu province in total, according to estimates from the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the World Food Programme (WFP), and local authorities and aid organizations
.http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150003.html
Central Africa: Leaders Meet Over Peace, Development And Humanitarian Crises
The humanitarian crises precipitated by numerous civil wars in Africa's Great Lakes region can best be mitigated by consolidating peace and political stability to promote development, leaders at a summit in Nairobi said on Thursday.
"We need to consolidate the delicate equation of peace and security, and begin to direct our energies towards reconstruction and development," Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki, the incoming Chairman of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, said.
Regional leaders and representatives of the United Nations, the European Commission and various organizations, meeting in the Kenyan capital, said Great Lakes countries had been battered by conflicts for decades. Civil wars in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sudan and northern Uganda, for example, had caused untold suffering to civilian populations.
However, hopes for a more stable period have been raised by elections in Burundi in August 2005 and in the DRC. Presidential poll winner Joseph Kabila, who was inaugurated on 6 December, attended the summit.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612140305.html
Angola: Angola Presents Adhesion Bid to OPEC in Abuja
The Republic of Angola will officially present its adhesion bid to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), as member of full right, during the 143rd extraordinary conference of this world institution, scheduled for next Thursday in Abuja, Nigeria.
ANGOP has learnt on Tuesday in Luanda from the Oil Minister, Desid'rio Costa, who leaves this afternoon bound for Abuja, at the head of a delegation that comprises senior technicians of his ministry.
According to the Government official, the possible adhesion of Angola to OPEC guarantees that, in its capacity of oil producer, the country does not be isolated from the world. "We should head along with the countries that produce crude oil and joining in the sector's protection policy", he underlined.
Asked about the advantages that the country might get from this adhesion, above all in prices, Mr Costa explained that the policy of prices does not depend on the fact that the country is or not affiliated to OPEC. "There is a prices policy established by the international organisation and other countries, and whether they are affiliated or not, they are subjected to respect it", he said.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612121256.html
Angola: Qatar to Support Angola´s Adhesion to Opec
Angolan Premier Fernando da Piedade receives Qatar´s official Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah
Qatar on Monday praised the Angolan Government for its recent decision of an eventual adhesion to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and promised to help the African country in this matter.
This stance was transmitted to the Angolan Prime Minister, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, by Qatar's deputy Premier and Industry and Energy minister, Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, who is in the country since Sunday on a three-day official visit.
The Persian Gulf nation's official said that he also seized the audience to reiterate to the Angolan Prime Minister his country's wish of establishing an interchange with the Southern African nation in various spheres of cooperation, particularly in the oil sector.
Thus, he said that the details of this cooperation will be debated during the talks that he has been holding with the Angolan Oil minister, Desiderio Costa, and other officials of the sector.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612120679.html
Nigeria: Opec Summit Opens in Abuja
The 143rd OPEC (Extraordinary) Session of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) opens on December 14 in Abuja.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and OPEC President, Dr. Edmund Daukoru at a press conference on December 13 2006 ahead of the summit said the cartel would take an in-depth review of the market prices as well as the membership of two African countries - Angola and Sudan.
On the possibility of cutting production by member countries the OPEC President said any position on the matter now would be premature and speculative. He pointed that the decision of the cartel to cut output by 500,000 barrels in Doha Qatar last October needs to be reviewed.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612140731.html
In 2005, the world responded more generously to people's humanitarian needs than at any time in recent history.
Emergency aid towards disaster response undoubtedly outstripped any other year on record. Yet, there were several disasters worldwide, which slipped away – unnoticed and disregarded.
The focus of this year's World Disasters Report, issued by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Federation), is neglected crises. The report, in its 14th year of publication, looks at communities which languish in the shadows of disaster response – overlooked by aid organizations, media, donors and even their own governments. The 2006 World Disasters Report challenges the assumption that most of the world's "forgotten/neglected" crises are conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa. Instead, it analyzes the impact of neglected natural, technological and health-related disasters. The report digs beneath the surface to identify the factors, issues and solutions which, when neglected, push people into disaster. Hard-hitting field reporting is combined with analysis of aid flows and donor preferences.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612140222.html
Zimbabwe: Politburo Paves the Way for Mugabe to Rule Up to 2010
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe inched closer to confirming the extension of his hold on power yesterday after a meeting of the ZANU PF Politburo backed proposals for synchronised elections in 2010.
A Politburo member told The Financial Gazette that the purpose of yesterday's meeting was to agree on a final agenda for the ruling party's national conference, which begins in Goromonzi tomorrow.
ZANU PF deputy secretary for Information, Ephraim Masawi, said yesterday that the Politburo had approved a conference agenda on the economy, state of the party and agriculture, and would present it to the Central Committee for final approval today. But he said resolutions from the party's provinces on the elections, which were discussed at the Politburo meeting, would not be on the agenda.
However, the resolutions could still be presented to conference by the provinces and adopted, he said.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612140173.html
Ghana: Disturbing Findings Come Before Parliament as Asaga Blows Up Secret Oil Deal
The Minority Spokesman on Energy, Moses Asaga yesterday took on the Minister of Energy in Parliament over crude oil liftings from the shores of Ghana, without the knowledge of Ghanaians.
Mr. Asaga, who sought to know from the Energy Minister, why Ghanaians had not been told how much oil was being lifted from the Saltpond Oil fields, since the signing of a production agreement among the Ghana National petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Government of Ghana and Lushann Eternit Energy Limited, a foreign consortium.
Asaga who said he was raising the alarm about the agreement in the house because of the secret nature that the deal had assumed, told The Chronicle in an interview that going by the daily production estimates of the well of 500 to 700 barrels a day, millions of dollars should accrue to the state. This, he said had not been disclosed to Parliament.
Mr. Asaga said after a thorough investigations into the activities and operations of the company, he gathered that the company's production was only known to the GNPC, which he said has failed to establish an oil revenue account.
When he first raised the issue at the committee level, Asaga says the Minister of Energy, Kofi Adda himself declined knowing of any such oil deal.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150672.html
Mozambique: UN Envoy Visits Country
James Morris, the UN Special Envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, ended his eighth and final mission to the region in Maputo on Friday, where he called for increased attention to the needs of orphans and other vulnerable children.
In this tour, Morris, who is also executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), has also visited Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa, repeatedly warning that the future of the region depends on winning the fight against AIDS.
Cited in a UN press release at the end of his visit, Morris said that, although Mozambique has made "tremendous progress", more needed to be done "to guarantee that the next generation can deal with the challenges arising from HIV/AIDS and poverty".
He called for anti-retroviral drugs, that prolong the lives of HIV-positive people, to be made accessible to larger numbers of people "particularly for children and pregnant women so that they may have a better prospect of a longer and productive life".
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150679.html
Blood Diamond Facts
http://www.diamondfacts.org/
continued ...
Haniyeh stuck at Gaza border as unrest grows
GAZA (Agencies) — Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh crossed into Gaza on Thursday, leaving behind money donated by Muslim states, hours after Israel blocked the Hamas leader from returning after a fund-raising tour with $35 million.
Palestinian officials and Western diplomats said Haniyeh had planned to enter the impoverished Gaza Strip from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing with $35 million of cash in suitcases.
But Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz ordered the crossing closed and European monitors left the area, keeping Haniyeh cooling his heels for hours on the Egyptian side.
The closure sparked the storming of the border terminal by dozens of armed Hamas gunmen who forced their way inside.
At least 13 Palestinians were wounded by gunfire after the militants went on a rampage inside the terminal building, smashing windows and furniture and firing into the air and at the building itself, Agence France-Presse reported.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news1.htm
Gulf Arabs signal intent to equal nuclear Iran
By Andrew HammondReuters
RIYADH — Fearing Shiite Iran is on the verge of becoming a nuclear power, Sunni Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states are warning they will not hesitate to join a rumbling regional arms race, analysts say.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups Arab countries in the world's top oil and gas exporting region, said at a summit meeting on Sunday that it has decided to set up a nuclear energy programme for peaceful purposes.
The announcement by the six countries — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman — came amid concerns in the West and in the Gulf that non-Arab Iran's nuclear enrichment programme could produce an atomic bomb.
Israel, which has its own nuclear reactor, has long been suspected of possessing nuclear weapons, and Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared to admit as much for the first time in a television interview on Monday.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news2.htm
Mass abduction in Iraq, US general demands action
Men cry Thursday during the funeral of their brother, one of the six people killed in a Wednesday shooting in Baghdad's Sadr City (Reuters photo by Kareem Raheem)
BAGHDAD (Agencies) — Gunmen in military uniforms kidnapped shopkeepers and bystanders Thursday from a major commercial area in Baghdad, the second mass abduction in the capital in a month, and nearly 30 people were killed or found dead elsewhere in Iraq.
The attackers drove up to the busy Sanak area in about 10 sport utility vehicles and began rounding up people from the stores and the streets.
Reports on the number of victims varied. Two police officers and some witnesses said 50 to 70 people were abducted, but a policeman later said initial reports showed that 21 store owners were seized along with an undetermined number of bystanders. The interior ministry declined to give a number, saying it was still under investigation.
A security official, meanwhile, said an Iraqi kidnap gang released 29 hostages it had seized earlier Thursday.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news3.htm
League chief says more work needed for Lebanon deal
A worker on Thursday carries a cover during the construction of a huge tent on the 14th day of an open-ended protest in Beirut to force the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora (AP photo by Petros Giannakouris)
BEIRUT (AFP) — Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa said Thursday that more work was needed to settle a protracted political crisis between the Lebanese government and the Syrian-backed opposition.
Musa wrapped up a three-day mediation mission without a deal, hailing progress but urging further talks between the feuding parties over the formation of a national unity government.
The opposition spearheaded by the Tehran- and Damascus-backed Hizbollah has mobilised thousands of protesters in central Beirut since December 1 and threatened to escalate their protests if their demands are not met.
"There was progress, and there is good ground for understanding, but matters demand more efforts," Musa told reporters in the Lebanese capital.
Musa said the Western-backed government and opposition leaders had agreed to form a new commission to discuss a controversial international tribunal into the 2005 assassination of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, widely blamed on Syria.
A UN-proposed Hariri court "is at the top of the agenda because it is an important question linked to finding justice", Musa said.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news4.htm
Police arrest No. 3 of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood
CAIRO (AP) — Police on Thursday arrested the third highest ranking member of Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, security officials and the group said.
The arrest came a few days after student members of the group staged a militia-style demonstration at Azhar University outside of Cairo.
Mohammad Khayrat Shater, 55, was taken from his home early Thursday, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the press.
The Brotherhood said police also arrested more than 180 students and 13 others including Shater's son-in-law.
But security officials could not immediately confirm those arrests.
Shater is the Brotherhood's second deputy and is known as the group's main financier and strategist.
He joined the Brotherhood in 1974 and has been imprisoned four times for a total of seven years on charges relating to his membership in the group.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news5.htm
Saudi divisions on Iraq could strain relations with US
By Salah NasrawiThe Associated Press
CAIRO — Saudi Arabia's royal family and government leaders are deeply divided over how to handle the growing crisis in Iraq and other looming Mideast problems like Iran, with some favouring strong aid to fellow Sunnis and others more cautious.
The split played a key role in this week's abrupt resignation of the Saudi ambassador to Washington. It also could hurt US efforts to forge a new overall strategy to calm Iraq.
More broadly, the internal dispute shows how Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, long key partners in US efforts to stabilise the Middle East, are struggling to decide how to proceed as Iraq boils over and Iran gains influence.
The tension in the region is straining Saudi relations with the United States, despite both countries' assertions that all is fine.
The resignation of Prince Turki Al Faisal, after just 15 months as ambassador to Washington, for example, came after Saudi officials concluded he was not succeeding at building strong ties with the United States, a Saudi official said Wednesday.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news8.htm
Iran elections pose twin test for Ahmadinejad
TEHRAN (AFP) — Iranians vote in double polls Friday that are the first test for conservative allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and vanquished reformists since the president's stunning election victory last year.
Iran is choosing a new assembly of experts, the body that selects and supervises the supreme leader, and voting for municipal councils in elections that will provide a crucial reading of the political temperature.
The local elections will provide the clearest indication of whether Ahmadinejad's conservative allies have reinforced their grip on power or if embattled reformers are on the verge of a comeback.
It was in the last such local vote in February 2003 that conservative forces launched a political resurgence that culminated in Ahmadinejad's defeat of reformists and moderates in the 2005 presidential election.
Turnout Friday will be a crucial factor, since the 2003 conservative victory came on the back of the lowest election participation in the Islamic republic's history — which included a paltry 10 per cent in Tehran.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news7.htm
Pinochet’s death is a wake up call for international law
Jonathan Power
The arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London, in October 1998, was a bolt from the blue. It can be said with near certainty that it had never crossed the mind of senior members of the British judiciary who were soon to be landed with untangling the legal intricacies.
Indeed, it was such an impossible idea that until almost the very last moment it never occurred to the ex-dictator himself that he could be vulnerable in the very country where his great friend and supporter, Margaret Thatcher, had been prime minister.
But when Baltazar Garzón, a senior Spanish magistrate, is on your tail you have to watch out. He has bested Felipe González, the former socialist prime minister, for having been party to the use of a police cell to assassinate leaders of ETA, the violent Basque group. He has also had great success in bringing to quick justice the Al Qaeda-inspired group that blew up a railway station in Madrid on the eve of the last general election.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/opinion/opinion4.htm
Iranian Kurd border refugees reject new proposals
AMMAN (IRIN) — Iranian Kurds stuck on the Iraq-Jordan border for nearly two years say they will not leave their makeshift camp until they are resettled in a third country.
Some 200 Iranian Kurdish refugees living in deteriorating conditions categorically rejected recent proposals by US-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) to resolve their problem.
One of HRW’s proposals was to organise “go and see visits” to Kawa refugee camp in northern Iraq, where other Iranian Kurdish refugees are currently living — the intention being that the border refugees would move to this officially recognised camp and then have the chance to legitimately seek third-country resettlement.
“There is no need to go and visit Kawa refugee camp in Erbil just to see if we like it. Refugees already living there have told us the camp is not what they hoped for, so there is no use for us to go there,” Khabat Mohammadi, acting as spokesman of the group, said.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews7.htm
Taiwan, identity politics and China
Gwynne Dyer
“My generation has had really painful experiences over the past six years, because you suddenly realise you are nobody,” explained Andrew Yang, head of the Chinese Council for Advanced Policy Studies, in Taipei earlier this year.
“My parents come from mainland China, so in their eyes I am a second-generation mainlander. I mean, I was born here; I’m part of the society. I was really astonished to see that people are treating me like a second-generation mainlander.... The identity issue is very polarising here.”
Identity politics were very much in evidence last Saturday, when Taiwan’s two big cities voted in mayoral elections that were widely seen as a trial run for the key presidential elections in early 2008.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should have lost by a landslide, given the under-performing economy, high unemployment and constant crises with mainland China since it won power at the national level six years ago, not to mention the corruption scandal that has engulfed President Chen Shui-bian’s own family. But it didn’t.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/opinion/opinion3.htm
The Houston Chronicle
Millions without power in stormy NorthwestWind, rain cause four deaths, close highways in Washington, Oregon
SEATTLE — Howling windstorms and heavy rains caused at least four deaths, closed bridges and highways and cut power to about 1.5 million homes and businesses in Washington and Oregon, authorities said today.
One of the concourses at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport lost power, and an airport spokesman said some flights were canceled.
About 30 flights were scratched at Portland International Airport, a spokesman said, and Amtrak canceled service between Portland and Seattle.
A 41-year-old Seattle woman died Thursday after she became trapped in her basement while it flooded. Neighbors had called for help after they heard screaming.
A 28-year-old man was killed while he slept when the top of a tree snapped off and crashed into his home in a trailer park in McCleary, 18 miles west of Olympia.
Elsewhere in Washington, two people died in traffic accidents involving windblown trees.
In Edmonds, north of Seattle, about 50 residents of an assisted living facility were evacuated after a tree crashed through the third floor, flooding the building, Snohomish County emergency management officials said. No injuries were reported, and residents were sent to other facilities.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4404332.html
Iraq war architect Rumsfeld honored at Pentagon
WASHINGTON — Architect of the unpopular war in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was praised lavishly for his service to the nation today as he called on Americans to spend more heavily on defense.
President Bush called Rumsfeld "one of America's most skilled, energetic and dedicated public servants."
"We've been through war together," the president said. "We have shared some of the most challenging moments in our nation's history."
"This man knows how to lead and he did," the president said. "And the country is better off for it"
Departing after six years in office, Rumsfeld said he felt "a sense of urgency about the real challenges ahead" in a time of terrorism, unstable dictators and threats of nuclear proliferation.
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, awakened the world to the existence of a global extremist movement whose adherents believe it is their calling to kill Americans and other free people, Rumsfeld said.
"Ours is also a world of many friends and allies, but sadly, realistically, friends and allies with declining defense investment and declining capabilities and, I would add, as a result, with increasing vulnerabilities," Rumsfeld said. "All of which requires that the United States of America invest more."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4405069.html
New stealth fighter jet flies from Fort Worth facility
FORT WORTH — The new stealth fighter jet that will replace an aging fleet of military planes took off for the first time today, landing about 30 minutes into a planned hourlong flight.
The shorter time in the air did not mean the pilot of the Joint Strike Fighter, also known as the F-35, encountered problems, said a spokesman for Lockheed Martin Corp., which is building the planes.
"Right now we are characterizing the flight as hugely successful," Tom Jurkowsky said.
The Bethesda, Md.-based company planned an afternoon news conference to discuss the flight.
Runway tests that began last week were completed earlier this week. Officials had been waiting for good weather for the maiden flight, which almost didn't happen Friday because of fog and windy conditions.
The takeoff was witnessed by hundreds at the Lockheed Martin facility where the planes are being built in possibly the largest defense contract ever, $275 billion over the next two decades.
After 10 years of development, Lockheed Martin is moving to the early stages of production for what could be thousands of fighter jets for the American military and eight countries.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4405480.html
Serial rapist-robber targets men in east Harris County
The serial rapist-robber began his attacks in east Harris County in April and his assaults have occurred every 30 to 60 days.
But what makes this case so unusual is that women are not the target. So far the five victims have all been young, white males in their late teens or early 20s, mostly students still living at their parents' homes.
The attacker is described as a light-skinned black male, clean cut and nicely dressed, in his late 20s. He stands from 5'6" to 6' tall and weighs 200 pounds.
Investigators have released a composite sketch, based on victims' recollections, and are working with the FBI to develop a profile to determine whether the crime spree is racially motivated or what other forces might be driving it.
Investigators also hope the profile paints a picture of the lifestyle of the attacker who has cleverly eluded them.
"I've never seen attacks on males like this in the four years I've worked here," said Harris County Sheriff's Sgt. Bryan Pair.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4405220.html
Serial killer in England may have drugged victims first
LONDON — Their naked corpses showed no signs of struggle, raising questions of whether a suspected serial killer may have drugged the five young women — all addicts and prostitutes — before killing them and dumping their bodies on the outskirts of an English port town.
"The fact that they were drug users will make the work more complicated" for forensic experts, said Sandra Graffham, a Suffolk police spokeswoman.
The fifth victim was identified today as Annette Nicholls, 29, but a coroner was unable to say what caused her death.
One woman died from asphyxiation and another died from what a coroner called "compression to the neck." The causes of death for two others are still unclear because their bodies were found in water.
Forensic psychologists have asked whether the killer lured and then anesthetized the women with drugs. None of the bodies showed signs of significant trauma or sexual assault. However, it will take days to complete toxicology reports that could show whether the women had been drugged or the level of previous drug use, police said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/4405380.html
NASA jostles space station in effort to fix solar panel
HOUSTON — When wiggling a solar array by remote control didn't manage to make it fold up, NASA had an astronaut jostle the space station today by exercising vigorously in an effort to fix the half-retracted wing.
German astronaut Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency was told to do 30 seconds of robust exercise on a bungee-bar machine called the Interim Resistive Exercise Device.
NASA hopes the problem can be fixed from inside the international space station so astronauts don't have to take a fourth, unplanned spacewalk.
Reiter tried it once, but his exercise didn't appear to change the solar array.
"I'm very sorry to hear that," said Reiter, who has been at the space station since July. "I was training for it for a half year."
Mission Control radioed back, "We'll give you a silver medal for that."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4404817.html
After 8 years in prison, inmate walks free for now
Retrial possible in assault he says he didn't commitDespite bureaucratic confusion that threatened to spoil his coming home party and delayed his release by several hours, Gilbert Amezquita walked out of the Harris County Jail a free man early this morning — at least for the time being.
But after spending the past eight years trying to prove that he did not commit the near-fatal assault that sent him to prison, the extra time behind bars did not diminish Amezquita's excitement.
"It's been seven years; so I can deal with a few more hours," said Amezaquita as he and his relatives wept and hugged in the early morning fog outside the Harris County Inmate Processing Center on Commerce in downtown Houston.
"I know that I am innocent, and I know I'm going to have my day in court," he added. "But it's just a slow process, and it's taken too long."
Amezquita said he plans to spend time in the next few days just staying close to his family.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4404282.html
Close door, have a seat, pop a cola
Americans consumed more than twice as much high fructose corn syrup per person as in 1980 and remained the fattest inhabitants of the planet, although Mexicans, Australians, Greeks, New Zealanders and Britons are not too far behind.
At the same time, we spent more of our lives than ever — about 8 1/2 hours a day — watching television, using computers, listening to the radio, going to the movies or reading.
This eclectic portrait of the American people is drawn from the 1,376 tables that make up the Census Bureau's 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, the annual feast for number crunchers that is being served up by the federal government today.
For the first time, the abstract quantifies same-sex sexual contacts (6 percent of men and 11.2 percent of women say they've had them) and learning disabilities (American Indians are most likely to have been told they have them).
The abstract reveals that the floor space in new private one-family homes has expanded to 2,227 square feet in 2005 from 1,905 square feet in 1990.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4404074.html
Nintendo to recall Wii straps after accident reports
TOKYO — Nintendo said today it will replace 3.2 million straps for its popular Wii computer game controllers after receiving a rash of reports that the devices flew out of the hands of overzealous players.
The recall is a bittersweet development for Nintendo — a costly hitch in its three-way battle with Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, but also confirmation of the enthusiastic reception worldwide.
The Wii's signature wand-like remote controller is used to mimic the motions of a tennis racket, golf club or sword, depending on the game. But soon after the Wii went on sale last month, people started reporting cases of the controller's strap breaking as they waved it about vigorously.
Nintendo will allow customers to exchange the old straps, which have a 0.024 inch diameter, for a beefed up strap that has a diameter of 0.04 inch, company spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said. The worldwide recall is expected to cost the company several several million dollars.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4403662.html
IRS to require more proof to claim deductions
WASHINGTON — Beginning in the 2007 tax year, taxpayers must provide bank records or other information when claiming deductions for charitable donations of money, the Internal Revenue Service said in newly released guidelines.
The IRS said that bank records can include canceled checks, bank or credit union statements and credit card statements that show the name of the charity and the transaction posting date.
Taxpayers may also submit a written communication from the charity with the organization's name, the date of the transaction and the amount of the contribution.
Money donations are defined as those made in cash, or by check, electronic funds transfer, credit card or payroll deductions. For payroll deductions, the taxpayer should retain a pay stub, W-2 wage statement or other document showing the amount withheld for charity along with the pledge card showing the name of the charity.
Previously, taxpayers could back up donations of money with personal bank registers, diaries or notes made around the time of the donation. Such records are no longer sufficient.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/4405379.html
Ailing senator opens eyes after brain surgery
Democrats vow Johnson's illness won't endanger their slim majority in the SenateWASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson has opened his eyes and shown other small signs of recovery from brain surgery that are encouraging to his family, a spokeswoman said today.
Congressional visitors continued to come to the hospital and comfort family members as the South Dakota senator's progress was closely watched across Washington. His sudden illness raised questions about the Democrats' one-vote majority in the upcoming Senate session.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid visited Johnson, 59, at George Washington University Hospital again Friday and said he looked "good, fine." Senate Chaplain Barry Black also came by.
Johnson suffered a brain hemorrhage Wednesday that was caused by an uncommon and sometimes fatal condition, and underwent surgery late into the night.
He was responding to the voice of his wife, Barbara, and following directions a few hours after the surgery. When she asked him to open his eyes, he did, and then reached out to hold her hand, said Johnson spokeswoman Julianne Fisher.
"They are just very encouraged by the little things right now," Fisher said Friday.
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Somali leader says al-Qaida gaining ground in Africa
BAIDOA, Somalia — Peace talks with Somalia's Islamic movement are no longer an option, the president said today, warning that the group is allowing al-Qaida terrorists to "set up shop" in the Horn of Africa.
"This is a new chapter and part of the terror group's plan to wage war against the West," Abdullahi Yusuf told The Associated Press during a rare interview at his heavily guarded office in western Somalia.
Tension has mounted in recent weeks between Somalia's government, which has international recognition but little authority, and the Council of Islamic Courts, which controls most of southern Somalia. The United States has said the Islamic movement has links to al-Qaida; Islamic leaders have repeatedly denied it.
"We do not give protection to these criminals," Islamic courts spokesman Abdirahin Ali Mudey said.
Somalia has not had an effective government since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, plunging the country into anarchy. The government was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but it has struggled to assert its authority.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/4405168.html
Kissing Matt Damon was just part of the job, Jolie says
NEW YORK — What's the biggest difference between kissing Matt Damon and kissing Brad Pitt? "One's a friend and one's my love," says Angelina Jolie, who co-stars with Damon in the upcoming drama The Good Shepherd.
"In reality, both the people we're involved with couldn't have cared less about that (love scene) because they know us," Jolie told Diane Sawyer in an interview that aired Friday on ABC's Good Morning America.
"It's one of those things where it's like the least threatening person," the 31-year-old actress said. "Good luck to you guys, I hope it's not too awkward."
Said Damon, who co-starred with Pitt in the Ocean's Eleven and Ocean's Twelve movies: "It's weird. ... We all know each other."
Damon married Luciana Bozan while filming The Good Shepherd. The couple have a 6-month-old daughter, Isabella.
The 36-year-old actor said getting married had more of an impact than he thought it would. "We already had the house in Florida and everything, and so I didn't. ... I didn't think it was going to really change anything necessarily, but it actually did."
Jolie has said that she and Pitt, who will be 43 on Monday, are in no rush to wed. Pitt has wondered why they should marry when gay couples can't.
"I think ... he was commenting just on the state (that) we all wish for," Jolie said. "That's not really a comment on whether or not we would or if we plan to."
The Good Shepherd, a Universal Pictures release, opens in theaters Dec. 22.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/entertainment/4405277.html
Ala. man loses lawsuit against Vioxx maker Merck
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- State court jurors sided with drug manufacturer Merck & Co. today and rejected the claims of an Alabama man who blamed the painkiller Vioxx for a heart attack in 2001.
Attorneys for Gary Albright had told jurors he should receive as much as $5.75 million in his lawsuit, filed last year.
But a jury of eight women and four men rejected Albright's claims that Vioxx caused his heart attack and that the company failed to reveal potential dangers of the drug before pulling it from the market in 2004.
It was Merck's second victory in a court case this week. On Wednesday, a federal jury in New Orleans rejected a Tennessee man's claim that Vioxx should be blamed for his 2003 heart attack.
In the latest case, Albright's attorney, Tim Davis, had asked the jury to make a decision: "Did profits lead over safety?"
Merck denied that Vioxx had anything to do with the heart attack Albright suffered in March 2001. It also denied withholding information about potential side effects of the medication, which Albright took for arthritis.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/4405166.html
Oil prices continue to climb above $62 a barrel
NEW YORK — Crude oil prices extended its climb above $62 a barrel today, capping a week that reignited the market's supply concerns with news of U.S. oil inventories falling and OPEC's decision to cut output in February.
Global crude oil inventories are still abundant, but many energy traders see any potential decline in supplies as a reason to bid up prices — especially against the backdrop of resilient consumer demand.
Light sweet crude for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 27 cents to $62.78 a barrel in midday trading. A day earlier, prices leaped $1.14 after OPEC's announcement.
The delayed cuts by OPEC, spurred by concerns of bulging worldwide inventories and anticipated non-OPEC supply growth in 2007, were seen as a warning to the world's major consuming nations.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said the price of crude did not figure in the decision. "What we're working toward is to rebalance the market and this decision does this," he said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/4405076.html
All Africa
Africa: Drug-Resistant TB More Widespread Than Thought
Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is more widespread than thought, warn researchers, who are calling for improvements to the administration of treatments for the killer disease.
Misusing antimicrobial drugs can lead to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (TB), which is defined as resistant to the two most powerful TB drugs, Isoniazid and Rifampicin.
But researchers warn that multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is only the precursor to extensively drug resistant TB, which is potentially incurable with available drugs as it resists all standard TB drugs and at least one of three second-class drugs.
Looking at four of the six most widely used TB drugs, the scientists -- from the Global Project on Anti-tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance -- found that both multiple and extensive drug resistance were causing growing numbers of new infections, especially in parts of China and the former Soviet Union.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150975.html
Africa: White House Pushing Anti-Malaria Campaign
December 15, 2006Posted to the web December 15, 2006
Charles Cobb Jr.Washington DC
Africans are dying from another killer disease that rivals the devastating effect of HIV/AIDS; and Americans can play a major role in helping to prevent it, says the White House.
"I think our citizens will be amazed to hear that last year, about a million Africans died of malaria," President George W. Bush told a White House Summit on Malaria Thursday.
"The vast majority were children under five—their lives ended by nothing more than a mosquito bite. In some countries, more people die of malaria than HIV/AIDS—and last week, a new study showed that people who contract malaria become more likely to spread HIV."
Both President Bush and his wife, Laura, hosted an all-day meeting at the National Geographic Society, which brought together representatives of African governments, U.S. officials, international business organizations and NGOs. The idea of public-private partnerships drives the effort.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150225.html
Uganda: Gunfire Rocks Juba as Sudan Soldiers Mutiny
HEAVY gunfire rocked Juba, the administrative capital of the South Sudan government yesterday following a mutiny by part of the military over unpaid salaries. The shooting, which began at 8.20a.m at a military barracks at Gumbo, a few kilometers out of Juba town, later spread into the town centre as the loyal forces battled the mutineers.
There were reports of casualties and civilians beaten up on the streets by the mutineers but this could not be confirmed as the situation remained tense in the morning and the military prevented people from moving out of their houses.
A UPDF officer, Lt. Col. Charles Okori , a member of the ceasefire Monitoring Team was assaulted by mutinous soldiers.
At Civicon Oasis Hotel, where the Uganda government peace negotiating team is staying and Juba Bridge Hotel, the residence for the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebel delegation, Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers asked the delegates to remain in the hotels as the situation is put under control.
"Your Excellency don't move to town, there is shooting but we are trying to see what we can do," an SPLA officer told the leader of the government delegation, Ruhakana Rugunda.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150816.html
Sudan: International Criminal Court Prosecutor Says First Darfur Cases Are Almost Ready
The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) informed the Security Council today that he is almost ready to bring cases about some of the worst war crimes committed in the Sudanese region of Darfur during the past three years.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he will submit evidence to ICC judges by February at the latest and, ahead of that step, he is now introducing measures to protect victims and witnesses.
According to the text of his statement to the closed-door Council meeting, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo said that his first case will focus on a series of incidents in 2003 and 2004, when conflict emerged in Darfur as Government forces and allied militia clashes with rebel groups seeking greater autonomy.
"The evidence provides reasonable grounds to believe that the individuals identified have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes, including the crimes of persecution, torture, murder and rape, during a period in which the gravest crimes occurred in Darfur," he said.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150001.html
Sudan: UN Human Rights Council to Send High-Level Mission to Darfur
The United Nations Human Rights Council today agreed to dispatch a five-member high-level mission to Darfur to assess the situation in the war-torn Sudanese region, the scene of hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, mass rape, massive forced displacement and other abuses during the past three years.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan immediately welcomed the move, taken in Geneva on the second day of a special Council hearing devoted to Darfur, describing it as "robust action to address the grave human rights situation." The Council decision was adopted by consensus.
"The decision sends a united message that the ongoing violence and killing in Darfur is unacceptable and must stop," Mr. Annan said in a statement released by his spokesman.
The five "highly qualified persons" on the mission to Darfur will be appointed by the Council President, Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico, after consultations with the 47-member Council and Sima Samar, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612130884.html
Côte d'Ivoire: Security Council Extends UN Mission, Renews Diamond and Arms Sanctions
The Security Council today extended by three weeks the mandate of the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) while also renewing the ban on arms and diamond trade with the country, which is divided between a rebel-held north and Government-controlled south.
By a unanimously adopted resolution on UNOCI, the Council also extended the mandate of the French forces supporting the mission until 10 January 2007.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan had recommended a one-year extension, through 15 December 2007, in his latest report to the Council on Côte d'Ivoire.
That report issued a strong call to the parties to restart their stalled peace process and resolve their disputes.
In it, Mr. Annan emphasized that the mandate of Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny and President Laurent Gbagbo was renewed for a "final transition period not exceeding 12 months." He called on Mr. Banny and Mr. Gbagbo to "eschew confrontation and maintain a constructive working relationship."
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150814.html
Central Africa: Museveni Asks Kabila to Deal With Rebels
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has urged Mr Joseph Kabila, the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo to deal with the myriads of criminal forces in his country.
Addressing delegates at the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region in Nairobi yesterday, president Museveni said that the recently concluded general elections in DRC only solved 50 percent of the problems in the Great Lakes Region because there are several negative criminal groups on the DRC territory including the Lords' Resistance Army.
"We have waited for the elections in the DRC. We now want the government to solve the problem,"Museveni said.
He said most of the criminal forces in the DRC are groups linked to former dictators like Idi Amin and Milton Obote who fled to Sudan, and later DRC, after the NRA took power.
President Museveni urged member states of the great Lakes Region to review the draft pact on security, stability and development.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150053.html
Kenya: Regional Presidents in Crucial Peace Talks
Eight regional Heads of State and Governments will today sign an agreement committing themselves to end conflict and promote democracy.
The peace deal will see the leaders committing themselves to mandatory disarmament and extradition of rebel groups.
The agreement, to be signed at Gigiri in Nairobi, will endorse a programme of action that will require the 11 countries of the Great Lakes region, Kenya included, to confiscate arms from all communities possessing illegal weapons.
The leaders, together with a representative of outgoing UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, will also tackle the refugee problem in the Great Lakes region.
They are expected to give a commitment that their Governments will contribute to the proposed Sh67 billion budget for the five-year programme. The leaders attended yesterday's official opening of the conference. They were presidents Kibaki (Kenya), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania), Levy Mwanawasa (Zambia), Pierre Nkurunziza (Burundi) and Joseph Kabila (DRC) and Rwanda's prime minister Bernard Mukuza. Others were African Union Commission chairperson Alpha Konare and Mr Annan's representative, Mr Ibrahim Fall.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150081.html
Congo-Kinshasa: 'Precarious' Situation in Eastern DR Congo Affects Thousands of Displaced People - UN
Cholera is spreading among tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in parts of North Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations has said, warning of a "precarious" situation also involving looting by members of the armed forces.
"Up to 20,000 on the Sake - Goma and Sake - Minova routes have been displaced, but have regained their homes following a stabilization of the security situation," said spokesperson Kemal Saiki from the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC) at yesterday's weekly press briefing.
"Opportunistic elements of the FARDC (Armed Forces of DRC) took the opportunity to loot and take over the abandoned homes. This situation remains precarious close to Sake, where cholera has spread due to lack of drinking water, and where certain residents have still not retaken their homes."
There are more than 550,000 IDPs in North Kivu province in total, according to estimates from the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the World Food Programme (WFP), and local authorities and aid organizations
.http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150003.html
Central Africa: Leaders Meet Over Peace, Development And Humanitarian Crises
The humanitarian crises precipitated by numerous civil wars in Africa's Great Lakes region can best be mitigated by consolidating peace and political stability to promote development, leaders at a summit in Nairobi said on Thursday.
"We need to consolidate the delicate equation of peace and security, and begin to direct our energies towards reconstruction and development," Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki, the incoming Chairman of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, said.
Regional leaders and representatives of the United Nations, the European Commission and various organizations, meeting in the Kenyan capital, said Great Lakes countries had been battered by conflicts for decades. Civil wars in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sudan and northern Uganda, for example, had caused untold suffering to civilian populations.
However, hopes for a more stable period have been raised by elections in Burundi in August 2005 and in the DRC. Presidential poll winner Joseph Kabila, who was inaugurated on 6 December, attended the summit.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612140305.html
Angola: Angola Presents Adhesion Bid to OPEC in Abuja
The Republic of Angola will officially present its adhesion bid to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), as member of full right, during the 143rd extraordinary conference of this world institution, scheduled for next Thursday in Abuja, Nigeria.
ANGOP has learnt on Tuesday in Luanda from the Oil Minister, Desid'rio Costa, who leaves this afternoon bound for Abuja, at the head of a delegation that comprises senior technicians of his ministry.
According to the Government official, the possible adhesion of Angola to OPEC guarantees that, in its capacity of oil producer, the country does not be isolated from the world. "We should head along with the countries that produce crude oil and joining in the sector's protection policy", he underlined.
Asked about the advantages that the country might get from this adhesion, above all in prices, Mr Costa explained that the policy of prices does not depend on the fact that the country is or not affiliated to OPEC. "There is a prices policy established by the international organisation and other countries, and whether they are affiliated or not, they are subjected to respect it", he said.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612121256.html
Angola: Qatar to Support Angola´s Adhesion to Opec
Angolan Premier Fernando da Piedade receives Qatar´s official Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah
Qatar on Monday praised the Angolan Government for its recent decision of an eventual adhesion to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and promised to help the African country in this matter.
This stance was transmitted to the Angolan Prime Minister, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, by Qatar's deputy Premier and Industry and Energy minister, Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, who is in the country since Sunday on a three-day official visit.
The Persian Gulf nation's official said that he also seized the audience to reiterate to the Angolan Prime Minister his country's wish of establishing an interchange with the Southern African nation in various spheres of cooperation, particularly in the oil sector.
Thus, he said that the details of this cooperation will be debated during the talks that he has been holding with the Angolan Oil minister, Desiderio Costa, and other officials of the sector.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612120679.html
Nigeria: Opec Summit Opens in Abuja
The 143rd OPEC (Extraordinary) Session of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) opens on December 14 in Abuja.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and OPEC President, Dr. Edmund Daukoru at a press conference on December 13 2006 ahead of the summit said the cartel would take an in-depth review of the market prices as well as the membership of two African countries - Angola and Sudan.
On the possibility of cutting production by member countries the OPEC President said any position on the matter now would be premature and speculative. He pointed that the decision of the cartel to cut output by 500,000 barrels in Doha Qatar last October needs to be reviewed.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612140731.html
In 2005, the world responded more generously to people's humanitarian needs than at any time in recent history.
Emergency aid towards disaster response undoubtedly outstripped any other year on record. Yet, there were several disasters worldwide, which slipped away – unnoticed and disregarded.
The focus of this year's World Disasters Report, issued by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Federation), is neglected crises. The report, in its 14th year of publication, looks at communities which languish in the shadows of disaster response – overlooked by aid organizations, media, donors and even their own governments. The 2006 World Disasters Report challenges the assumption that most of the world's "forgotten/neglected" crises are conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa. Instead, it analyzes the impact of neglected natural, technological and health-related disasters. The report digs beneath the surface to identify the factors, issues and solutions which, when neglected, push people into disaster. Hard-hitting field reporting is combined with analysis of aid flows and donor preferences.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612140222.html
Zimbabwe: Politburo Paves the Way for Mugabe to Rule Up to 2010
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe inched closer to confirming the extension of his hold on power yesterday after a meeting of the ZANU PF Politburo backed proposals for synchronised elections in 2010.
A Politburo member told The Financial Gazette that the purpose of yesterday's meeting was to agree on a final agenda for the ruling party's national conference, which begins in Goromonzi tomorrow.
ZANU PF deputy secretary for Information, Ephraim Masawi, said yesterday that the Politburo had approved a conference agenda on the economy, state of the party and agriculture, and would present it to the Central Committee for final approval today. But he said resolutions from the party's provinces on the elections, which were discussed at the Politburo meeting, would not be on the agenda.
However, the resolutions could still be presented to conference by the provinces and adopted, he said.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612140173.html
Ghana: Disturbing Findings Come Before Parliament as Asaga Blows Up Secret Oil Deal
The Minority Spokesman on Energy, Moses Asaga yesterday took on the Minister of Energy in Parliament over crude oil liftings from the shores of Ghana, without the knowledge of Ghanaians.
Mr. Asaga, who sought to know from the Energy Minister, why Ghanaians had not been told how much oil was being lifted from the Saltpond Oil fields, since the signing of a production agreement among the Ghana National petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Government of Ghana and Lushann Eternit Energy Limited, a foreign consortium.
Asaga who said he was raising the alarm about the agreement in the house because of the secret nature that the deal had assumed, told The Chronicle in an interview that going by the daily production estimates of the well of 500 to 700 barrels a day, millions of dollars should accrue to the state. This, he said had not been disclosed to Parliament.
Mr. Asaga said after a thorough investigations into the activities and operations of the company, he gathered that the company's production was only known to the GNPC, which he said has failed to establish an oil revenue account.
When he first raised the issue at the committee level, Asaga says the Minister of Energy, Kofi Adda himself declined knowing of any such oil deal.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150672.html
Mozambique: UN Envoy Visits Country
James Morris, the UN Special Envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, ended his eighth and final mission to the region in Maputo on Friday, where he called for increased attention to the needs of orphans and other vulnerable children.
In this tour, Morris, who is also executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), has also visited Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa, repeatedly warning that the future of the region depends on winning the fight against AIDS.
Cited in a UN press release at the end of his visit, Morris said that, although Mozambique has made "tremendous progress", more needed to be done "to guarantee that the next generation can deal with the challenges arising from HIV/AIDS and poverty".
He called for anti-retroviral drugs, that prolong the lives of HIV-positive people, to be made accessible to larger numbers of people "particularly for children and pregnant women so that they may have a better prospect of a longer and productive life".
http://allafrica.com/stories/200612150679.html
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