Maravot News of the World 12:30 PM – San Francisco Mon, Sep 19, 2005 (last post)

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Metric Conversion kilometer: 0.6214 mile meter: 39.37 inches centimetre: 0.3937 inch millimetre: 0.03937 inch foot: 30.48 cm Br. stone: 14 pounds kilogram: 2.2046 pounds litre: 1.0567 US quarts hectare: 2.471 acres – 1 djerib (Turkey) – 1 jerib (Iran) – 1 gong qing (China) 0° Celcius: = 32° F

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Osama bin Laden fatwas.
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More newspapers

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Question: Has Bush caused the US to be outflanked?

The main Trend we have seen at Maravot News is that Bush's hostile policies worldwide have created new alliances among the EU, China, India, Russia and the Middle East. Also, the Monroe Doctrine is being challenged in South America.

News Headlines & Trends

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Historical trend on the New Orleans debacle

09.18.05 Blair 'relished sending British forces to war'

September 18 – For the full article and the serialisation of the most explosive political diaries since Alan Clark buy the Mail on Sunday An explosive political row erupted last night after Downing Street tried to censor a book by one of Tony Blair's most senior former aides, revealing shocking details of how the Prime Minister runs the country.

Ex-No 10 spin doctor Lance Price has enraged Mr Blair by publishing the first-ever first-hand account of the inner workings of New Labour. And he has defied the Cabinet Secretary's attempts to prevent the publication of his devastating memoirs, The Spin Doctor's Diary, serialised in The Mail on Sunday today. They give a blow-by-blow account of endless backbiting, tantrums and rows between senior Ministers and officials and lay bare the cynicism of Blair's team.

But there are further claims which Price was told to remove from the book after intervention by the Government and which we can now reveal, including:

· That Blair appeared privately to "relish" sending British troops to war in Iraq as his "first blooding", while publicly claiming he did it "with a heavy heart".
· That the Government promised media mogul Rupert Murdoch it would not change its policy on Europe without telling him first.
· That the Prime Minister repeatedly bawled out in rage 'f****** Welsh' when an election in the principality was going against Labour.

Two leaked letters obtained by The Mail on Sunday show how the diaries by respected former BBC journalist Price have thrown the Government into a panic. The first, sent by Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell to Price's publishers nine days ago, angrily accuses him of "betrayal" for refusing to be gagged. [More>>dailymail.co.uk]

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09.17.05 Annan warns world of nuclear brinkmanship

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) September 17 – UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, highlighting the growing threat of the spread of nuclear weapons and terrorism, warned the world on Saturday of the danger of "diplomatic brinkmanship." He was addressing the U.N. General Assembly session hours before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was to unveil new proposals intended to ally international suspicions about Tehran's secretive nuclear program.

Annan said the global consensus underlying the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was badly frayed and months of negotiation had ended in failure twice this year. "Yet we face growing risks of proliferation and catastrophic terrorism, and the stakes are too high to continue down a dangerous path of diplomatic brinkmanship."

He was speaking against a backdrop of stalled negotiations over the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran, with potentially far-reaching consequences for security in the fragile regions of Northeast Asia and the Middle East.

Annan took a veiled swipe at the United States, which thwarted agreement at this week's world summit on how to combat weapons of mass destruction because it was unwilling to renew an old pledge by nuclear powers to move toward disarmament. [More>>thestar.com.my]

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09.17.05 Has the world become revolted against Bush Bullying?

SAN FRANCISCO, September 17 (Maravot News, Mel Copeland, editorial) – I received an email on the speech by Hu Jintao, President of China at the UN, which the email entitled, "A message of hope." Maravot News records news trends (those that will end up in the history books) and the email prompted the following answer: Thanks for the message. I saw it and thought about reporting it at Maravot News (China Daily and Xinhua are links in my sidebar, among many), but the President of Korea's speech carried the same conclusion: that a new era is before us, a trend reacting against Bush Bullying around the world. George W. Bush has sullied the US image so badly that new alliances have formed whose intentions are to create a new world order outside of the US. I have reported, for instance, on China's purchase of two new oil companies and she negotiated oil development rights with Venezuela and recently Ecuador. China has been busy in other countries in South America as well. (A late report: "China sets up new oil company.") India also has been quite active and she stands in the middle of the diplomatic battle between the two of driving the economy of this new world order. It is a competition between China and India. On the sidelines Pakistan is trying to continue a peace incentive with India while maintaining a good standing with the Bush administration. Pakistan gets F-16 fighters from the US – to India's consternation – but advocates for Iranian nuclear power plant development, defying US objections. South Korea is in a similar position as Pakistan on the Eastern Front, where hopes are that both Koreas will one day merge back together. China is the broker in the deal, and nuclear proliferation is the wild card being played by North Korea (as is Iran's – today's reports at the UN reveal dismay that the Iranian president offered to spread nuclear technology to other Islamic nations, and another story has Rice again condemning Iran for developing nuclear capabilities). Today, Rice also repeated the US position that it is not against Iran's peaceful use of nuclear energy. Yet, using power politics she threatened Pakistan and India in not developing a pipeline from Iran through Pakistan to India and China. The threat has been ignored and the three are proceeding with the pipeline. [More>>Maravot News page 2]

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09.16.05 Senator Feinstein provides agenda for disaster preparedness

September 16 – In response to Maravot News inquiry Senator Feinstein offered this reply which included her statement on the floor of September 8, 2005. Senator Feinstein was formerly the Mayor of San Francisco and has experience both on the local and Federal levels. She reviews various aspects of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, as they became unveiled in the news media, and she provides recommendations which would appear to be a good outline as agenda for a 9/11-type commission to investigate this national disaster. While several organizations (many focusing through afterdowningstreet.org) have been investigating President Bush's conduct with regard to Iraq – with the view of impeachment – the Hurricane Katrina disaster will only add more fuel to that fire. The issues involving the war in Iraq have to deal with the President's misleading Congress (an impeachable offence) and the American people; the issue unfolding from Katrina involves leaders charged with incompetence, the most noteworthy among them being the Commander in Chief's. Click here for a general editorial comment, how Bush's incompetence has invited and produced disastrous affects upon this nation and the world
Mel Copeland

Statement of Senator Dianne Feinstein
"The Response to Hurricane Katrina"
September 8, 20005

Mrs. FEINSTEIN: Mr. President, I come to the floor today – heart-sick – to speak about the absolute devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. This tragedy represents the worst natural disaster in our nation's history.

This hurricane spared nothing. Estimates of damage now run as high as $200 billion. The cost, in human lives and suffering, is just staggering. Tragically, it will take weeks and weeks to ascertain the true loss of life. As the recovery proceeds, I pledge to do all in my power to help those in need - to rebuild cities, communities, and shattered lives and families across the Gulf Coast. My home state of California knows well the destruction possible from natural disasters. So many times the people of California have been saved by the generosity of the American people. [More>>Maravot News page 2]

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09.16.05 Global warming 'past the point of no return'

September 16 – Steve Connor, Science Editor for The Independent : A record loss of sea ice in the Arctic this summer has convinced scientists that the northern hemisphere may have crossed a critical threshold beyond which the climate may never recover. Scientists fear that the Arctic has now entered an irreversible phase of warming which will accelerate the loss of the polar sea ice that has helped to keep the climate stable for thousands of years.

They believe global warming is melting Arctic ice so rapidly that the region is beginning to absorb more heat from the sun, causing the ice to melt still further and so reinforcing a vicious cycle of melting and heating. The greatest fear is that the Arctic has reached a "tipping point" beyond which nothing can reverse the continual loss of sea ice and with it the massive land glaciers of Greenland, which will raise sea levels dramatically.

Satellites monitoring the Arctic have found that the extent of the sea ice this August has reached its lowest monthly point on record, dipping an unprecedented 18.2 per cent below the long-term average.

Experts believe that such a loss of Arctic sea ice in summer has not occurred in hundreds and possibly thousands of years. It is the fourth year in a row that the sea ice in August has fallen below the monthly downward trend – a clear sign that melting has accelerated. Scientists are now preparing to report a record loss of Arctic sea ice for September, when the surface area covered by the ice traditionally reaches its minimum extent at the end of the summer melting period. [More>>independent.co.uk]

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09.16.05 Bush: Let us 'clear away the legacy of inequality'

September 16 – Efforts to recover from Hurricane Katrina offer the nation the opportunity to bridge the racial and economic divide that became painfully visible during the immediate aftermath of the storm, President Bush said during a national prayer service Friday. "Americans of every race and religion were touched by this storm, yet of the greatest hardship fell upon citizens already facing lives of struggle -- the elderly, the vulnerable and the poor," Bush told those gathered at the National Cathedral in Washington. "And this poverty has roots in generations of discrimination and segregation that closed many doors of opportunity."

Bush along with political and religious leaders from the stricken region spoke in observance of a national day of prayer for the hurricane victims. "As we clear away the debris of a hurricane, let us also clear away the legacy of inequality," the president said. "As we rebuild homes and business, we will renew our promise as a land of equality and decency."

Bush said the nation was thankful for the heroic work of the Coast Guard, firefighters, doctors, nurses and other first responders to the storm and that the nation was committed to the rebuilding efforts. [More>>cnn.com; See separate article, abcnews.go.com, "Many Churches heed Bush's call for prayer, while some won't participate.": Americans across the country joined Friday in a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for victims of Hurricane Katrina, looking for lessons in the vast suffering and seeking the strength to overcome the tragedy. President Bush called for the special day of worship, held nearly three weeks after the storm devastated the Gulf Coast...While many houses of worship planned to participate, several others around the country said they had already held such services and would not join the president. Some said they were so angry over the government's sluggish response to blacks and poor people in New Orleans, who waited days for rescue, that they would not heed Bush's request. "Not to be critical, but the president is a little late," said the Rev. Reginald Jackson, president of the Black Ministers Council of New Jersey...;

See also:

wwltv.com articles, 9.16.05, "Frustration growing for FEMA truck drivers sitting idle" : Frustration is growing among more than 100 sidetracked truck drivers who set out with water and ice for Hurricane Katrina victims but were diverted to a Federal Emergency Management Agency staging area in western Maryland...
wwltv.com ""Poll: Katrina evacuees have faith in God, future but not government"]

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09.16.05 Indonesia confirms fourth human death from bird flu virus; warns more likely

JAKARTA (Agencies) September 16 – Indonesia on Friday confirmed its fourth human death from the bird flu virus, and warned that more cases in the sprawling country were inevitable. The woman, aged 37, died at a private hospital in South Jakarta last Saturday evening after being admitted there on Sept. 6 in a serious condition.

"Yes it's confirmed," Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari told AFP. She declined to give further details.

Tests from a Hong Kong laboratory showed that the woman had contracted the H5N1 bird flu virus, said Nyoman Kandon, the health ministry's director general for illness control and environmental health. He said Indonesia would continue to report cases because the virus was rife in poultry farms across the country. "It will be like in Vietnam and Thailand," Nyoman said as quoted by AP. [More>>thejakartapost.com]

Editorial note: The Netherlands has been taking emergency steps to avoid another outbreak of the bird flu, as recently reported. Today a report shows Italy now preparing itself against the bird flu.

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09.16.05 Sharon snubs Blair over war crime warrants

September 16 – Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, has confronted Tony Blair about recent attempts by British human rights lawyers to have senior Israeli Defence Force generals arrested as they arrive in the UK, it was reported today. Israeli newspapers reported that the two men met on the sidelines of the UN summit in New York yesterday and Mr. Blair extended an invitation to his counterpart to visit the UK.

"I would really like to visit Britain," the Yediot Aharonot newspaper quoted Mr. Sharon as replying, jokingly. "The trouble is that I, like General Almog, also served in the IDF for many years. I too am a general. I have heard that the prisons in Britain are very tough. I wouldn¹t like to find myself in one."

Mr. Sharon was referring to the near-arrest of General Doron Almog, a former Israeli army commander, at Heathrow Airport on Sunday, and the decision of General Moshe Yaalon, the army's former chief of staff, not to attend a speaking engagement in London this weekend because of fears that he too might be arrested.

Israeli military chiefs have been alarmed by the lawsuit filed on behalf of Palestinian victims of alleged war crimes committed by the IDF in 2002 and the issuing of an arrest warrant for General Almog – who stayed on his plane and returned to Israel after being tipped by embassy staff in London.

According to Israeli Army radio, Mr. Blair was said to be have been embarrassed by the exchange and to have promised to "take care of the matter." A spokeswoman for 10 Downing Street confirmed that the meeting took place today but declined to comment on the conversation. [More>>timesonline.co.uk]

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09.16.05 Candidate gunned down in Afghan vote countdown

KABUL (AFP) September 16 – Less than 48 hours before Afghanistan¹s first parliamentary elections for a generation, a seventh candidate was on Friday reported killed by Taleban militants, underlining concerns that violence would mar the polls. Armed men dragged national assembly candidate Abdul Hadi from his house in Hazarjoft, a district in the restive southern province of Helmand, and gunned him down late on Thursday, provincial spokesman Mohammed Wali told AFP. ³It is the work of the enemies of Afghanistan,² Wali said.

Seven candidates and five electoral workers have now died in political violence since early July. Several of the killings have been blamed on the Taleban while others were linked with drugs or local rivalries. The joint UN-Afghan electoral management team confirmed the fatal attack on Hadi. ³He is the seventh candidate to be killed,² spokeswoman Bronwyn Curran told AFP. [More>>khaleejtimes.com; See also separate story, dailystar.com.lb, "Fighting in Afghanistan leaves six dead" : Fighting across Afghanistan ahead of crucial legislative elections left six people dead, three local journalists kidnapped and a women candidate wounded. Despite the bloodshed, the government said it was confident of success in Sunday's polls.

"The enemy is making efforts to threaten people but they don't have the ability to stop the elections," Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said. "They may only be able to create a disturbance."

He said 55,000 police officers, 28,000 soldiers and about 20,000 militia troops and intelligence agents have fanned out across the country to safeguard voting. Some 20,000 troops from a U.S.-led coalition and a separate 11,000-strong NATO-led force are also on alert. Jalali said that more than 100 militant plots to attack the polls have been thwarted, including suicide attacks and roadside bombs.

Taliban insurgents have stepped up attacks and vowed to subvert the elections, seen as a major step toward democracy and stability after a quarter-century of war. Fighting has left more than 1,200 people dead in the past six months, including five candidates and four election workers...

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09.16.05 US threatens North Korea with assets freeze

BEIJING (Reuters) September 16 – The United States threatened to freeze North Korean assets if the reclusive state did not toe the line in talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programme and said it wanted to see progress within five days.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States was not solely dependent on the six-party talks, currently deadlocked in Beijing, to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions. "We're not sitting still, you know, we're working on anti-proliferation measures that help to protect us," Rice said in an interview conducted on Thursday with the New York Post, a transcript of which was released by the State Department.

"The president signed an executive order, if you remember that freezes assets and some entities that we believe that are engaging in proliferation trade," she said. The talks themselves were in disarray after Pyongyang insisted on being supplied a light-water nuclear reactor, and, according to reports, threatened to boost nuclear weapons production if it was not granted. [More>>thestar.com.my]

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09.16.05 Iraq rebels kill worshippers outside mosque

TUZ KHURMATU, Iraq (AFP) September 16 – A suicide car bomber killed 10 Shia worshippers as they left on Friday prayers in central Iraq, bringing the death toll to more than 20 on a third straight day of anti-Shia violence, police said. Police said the bomber blew himself up outside the Al-Rasul Al-Aadham mosque in Tuz Kurmatu, some 170 kilometres (105 miles) north of Baghdad, and that they had arrested a second man about to carry out an attack.

³We arrested a Saudi who was wearing a belt of explosives,² said Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Ali Rashid, adding that police had not yet managed to defuse the bomb.

Al Qaeda¹s frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, called on Wednesday for total war against the majority Shias. His group claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings in Baghdad, including one that killed some 80 Shia day labourers who had gathered in a square to wait for work.

The pattern repeated itself on Friday morning when gunmen in several vehicles drove into another Baghdad square where Shia labourers were gathered, shooting dead at least two and wounding some 15. As the gunmen made their getaway, they shot dead a transportation ministry employee and wounded two others who were driving nearby. And Shia cleric Sheikh Fadel Alami was shot dead in his car in the same neighborhood, a security official said. Iraq¹s main Sunni Arab religious authority, the Committee of Muslim Scholars, condemned the call for total war against the Shias. [More>>khaleejtimes.com; See separate article 9.14.05, aljazeera.net, "Al-Zarqawi declares war on Iraqi Shia."]

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09.16.05 Yushchenko: Fired PM may have used office to wipe out $1.5 billion debt

KIEV, September 13 – Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko may have abused office by arranging to wipe out $1.5 billion debt that her now-defunct company owed the state, President Viktor Yushchenko told The Associated Press Tuesday. The allegations were made in response to charges by Tymoshenko that Yushchenko's top aides, such as Petro Poroshenko, the national security chief, have been using powers for personal gain.

Yushchenko moved to sack both Poroshenko and Tymoshenko on Sept. 8, saying the two have been waging politically motivated attacks to position themselves ahead of the general election in March 2006.

"Many activities which the [former] prime minister participated in were carried out behind the scenes with the aim of solving her problems," Yushchenko said. The allegations add a new twist and shed more light on a sharp political crisis that had led to the government's demise last week. [More>>ukrainianjournal.com]

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09.16.05 President of South Korea warns against 'great power politics'

NEW YORK, September 16 – President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday stressed the world must eradicate the legacies of imperialism and avoid "great power politics" in international affairs during his speech before the U.N. World Summit in New York. He called for the multinational body to undergo reform underscoring the importance of it regaining moral authority.

"The world must completely divest itself of mindsets and vestiges reminiscent of imperialistic tendencies that appear to linger in various forms," Roh said before some 170 heads of states and governments on the opening day of the largest summit gathering ever to be held, on the occasion of the High-level Plenary meeting for the 60th General Assembly.

"The new world order of the 21st century should be defined by all nations, be they a great, small or middle power, coexisting under shared interests to achieve collective prosperity," Roh said.

...Although he used elaborate language, Roh took a pointed shot at Korea's close but often inimical neighbor Japan saying, "The leading nations of contemporary international politics should be more introspective about their past and future and exercise greater self restraint."

Again, in an apparent shot at Japan as well as the United States along with other powerful countries, Roh also said, "Vigilance against a resurgence of major-power centrism in certain circles is also in order." [More>>koreaherald.co.kr]

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09.15.05 Bombs kill at least 31 after Baghdad's deadliest day

BAGHDAD (AP) September 15 – Two suicide car bombers struck within a minute of each other and just a kilometre apart in south Baghdad shortly before noon on Thursday, killing at least seven policemen and raising the day¹s bombing death toll in the capital to at least 31. Earlier on Thursday, the day¹s first suicide car bombing killed sixteen policemen and five civilians in the same neighborhood, signaling a new round bomb violence one day after residents suffered through Baghdad¹s bloodiest day of the war.

Three civilians were killed when a roadside bomb struck a Ministry of Industry bus in eastern Baghdad. Thirteen were injured in the attack, said police Lt. Col. Ahmed Abbod. The US military and Iraqi police drove through Baghdad¹s Dora neighborhood, where the bombings were concentrated Thursday, warning residents to stay indoors because five more car bombers were said to be ready to attack, police Capt. Ali Abdul Hamza said. Streets in the southern neighborhood were abandoned. [More>>khaleejtimes.com]

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09.15.05 Grandmom fired for missing work during Katrina to care for child

KANSAS CITY, Mo., September 15 – When forced to decide between caring for her 18-month-old granddaughter while the toddler's parents were stranded in New Orleans or showing up for her job, Barbara Roberts chose to be a grandma. For that, she was fired.

Roberts, 54, had driven 200 miles from her home in Mount Vernon to Columbia on Aug. 27, the Saturday before Hurricane Katrina came ashore, to care for granddaughter Trisana for a couple of days. Her daughter, Tina Roberts, and son-in-law, Chris Hardin, were in New Orleans. [More>>Maravot News page 2]

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09.15.05 Pakistan busts biggest Al-Qaeda base in tribal region

PESHAWAR, September 15 – Pakistan has busted the biggest Al-Qaeda base in the tribal zone of North Waziristan and recovered 15 truckloads of arms and ammunition, a general said on Thursday. The militant den was in a madrassa and a nearby compound owned by the son of a former minister of the hard line Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan until late 2001, Lieutenant General Safdar Hussain told reporters. He said the owner, Sirajuddin Haqqani, whom he described as a senior Al-Qaeda insurgent, managed to escape from a nearby hideout, which was also raided. "We have recovered 15 truckloads of ammunition and weapons from there and arms and ammunition are still being recovered," he said.

He said 11 of those arrested were foreigners. "Naturally it will reduce violence in Afghanistan," he said. "We also busted a communications centre which was used to coordinate operations in Afghanistan." [jang.com.pk; See more details at Khaleejtimes.com]

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09.15.05 Israel fears unfettered Al-Qaida infiltration into Gaza Strip

September 15 – Border Policemen and Israel Defense Forces trackers in the southern Negev region early Thursday morning arrested 20 Palestinians residents of the Gaza Strip attempting to infiltrate into Israel along the border with Egypt. The Palestinians, who were arrested in three different incidents, said they exited the Strip through the Philadelphi route which borders with Egypt, and where Palestinians have been able to cross unhindered in and out of Egypt since Israel completed its withdrawal from Gaza.

The arrested men were taken for police questioning to establish whether they wished to enter Israel in order to carry out terror attacks. IDF officials said they expected this phenomenon of Palestinian infiltrations from the Sinai into Israel to repeat itself and widen. [More>>haaretzdaily.com]

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09.15.05 US jets bomb Ramadi

September 15 – US warplanes have bombed targets in the Iraqi town of Ramadi while US forces have clashed with fighters in the city, Aljazeera is reporting. US jets struck al-Bufarraj and Sufiya areas in Ramadi city at around 7.30am (0430 GMT) on Thursday, wounding an unknown number of civilians, independent Iraqi journalist Muhammad Hassan said. Fierce clashes erupted following the raids in the eastern gate of Ramadi, near the US military headquarters and in the big mosque area in the city centre. A US military base, nicknamed "the southern palace", in western Ramadi, also came under mortar attack, Hassan told Aljazeera. [More>>aljazeera.net]

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09.15.05 Indian state moves to evacuate 100,000 in flood alert

MUMBAI, Maharashtra, India, September 15 – The Indian state of Maharashtra issued a flood alert and moved to evacuate 100,000 people Thursday as heavy rains and water released from a dam swamped large parts of its eastern regions. More than 1,000 people died in the western state in August after record monsoon rains which caused widespread flooding and massive water damage to state capital Mumbai, India's financial centre. The area, 400 kilometres (250 miles) east of Mumbai, has been lashed by heavy rains over the past two days. The situation worsened after water was released from the Raju Sagar dam in neighboring Madhya Pradesh state to ease rising reservoir levels. [jang.com.pk]

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09.15.05 Iran offers atomic know-how to Islamic states

TEHRAN (Reuters) September 15 – Iran is ready to share its nuclear technology with other Islamic countries, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying on Thursday. ³The Islamic republic never seeks weapons of mass destruction and with respect to the needs of Islamic countries, we are ready to transfer nuclear know-how to these countries,² the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Washington accuses Iran of secretly building atomic weapons and the comments are likely to heighten Western concerns about Iran¹s nuclear programme. They were made during a meeting with Turkey¹s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, IRNA said.

Seeking to avert referral of its nuclear case to the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions on Tehran, Iran is engaged in intense lobbying for support from non-aligned countries at the UN summit. [More>>expressindia.com]

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09.15.05 Japanese citizens missing in Hurricane Katrina area

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana, September 15 – A total of 156 Japanese nationals have been unaccounted for in Mississippi and Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina which devastated the Gulf region in the United States, the Japanese Consulate General in Houston said Wednesday. [More>>japantoday.com]

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09.15.05 Court tells Israel to reroute part of West Bank barrier

JERUSALEM (Reuters) September 15 – Israel's top court ordered the government on Thursday to reroute part of its West Bank barrier to reduce Palestinian hardship, a ruling that could force it to remove a section already built on occupied land.

But Israel's Supreme Court justices sparked Palestinian anger when they declared it legal to build the barrier partly inside the West Bank, rejecting a World Court ruling last year that it breached international law and should be torn down. The barrier remains a major source of tension following Israel's completion of its pullout from the Gaza Strip this week after 38 years of occupation. [More>>thestar.com.my; See also haaretzdaily.com, "High Court: fence can be built beyond Green Line."]

Editorial note: Click on sidebar image of the barrier for historical background.

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09.14.05 EPA: New Orleans floodwaters still unsafe, but few air pollutants

WASHINGTON (AP) September 14 – The floodwaters in New Orleans still pose a health risk because of dangerous levels of sewage-related bacteria and toxic chemicals, according to government test results released Wednesday. A minimal number of air pollutants, such as methanol, isobutylene and freon have been found but at levels that officials don't believe pose health risks.

The chemical samples were taken on Sept. 4 and Sept. 6 by the Environmental Protection Agency and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. Like the previous tests, they turned up high levels of chemicals such as hexavalent chromium, arsenic and lead.

Thallium also was detected at one sampling location at levels slightly elevated, but not enough to harm the public.

It was not immediately clear how the test results might impact plans to begin moving people back into the city. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has said the test results will be a factor in determining how quickly residents are allowed to return. [More>>wwltv.com; See separate report, washingtonpost.com, "Senate Panel opens Katrina response probe." and "Bush takes responsibility for failures of response" : ..."Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at a White House news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. "And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility. I want to know what went right and what went wrong."]

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09.14.05 Chinese group buys Ecuador oil assets

(Reuters) September 14 – EnCana Corp. is selling its oil assets in Ecuador to a Chinese consortium for US$1.42 billion in a deal it said reflects more its own plans to focus on North America than the Andean country's political instability, Reuters reported. The deal with a consortium led by Chinese giant CNPC leaves rival Indian bidder ONGC out in the cold on a major deal for the second time in less than a month. The two nations are locked in an intensifying battle for oil assets to fuel their booming economies. Encana has been trying to sell the assets for more than a year, but was holding out for a better price.

EnCana, North America's biggest independent oil explorer, said the price was near the middle of its target range, and equal to the net book value of the production and pipeline business.

In May, people familiar with talks told Reuters EnCana wanted $1.5 billion, while bids were likely come in at about $1.2 billion from the CNPC grouping and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC). That was when crude oil was priced at about $55 a barrel, some 13 percent below this week's levels above $63.

CHINA 2, INDIA 0

The buyer is a group called Andes Petroleum, which includes CNPC, the parent of PetroChina, the world's fifth-largest listed oil firm. In August, CNPC beat ONGC to Canadian-based PetroKazakhstan, agreeing to acquire it for $4.2 billion. The CNPC consortium will acquire about 75,000 barrels a day of production from five blocks and a 36 percent stake in the OCP pipeline, a new 450,000 barrel a day export line that EnCana spearheaded. [More>>chinadaily.com.cn]

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09.14.05 European Commission does not object to construction of North European Pipeline

BRUSSELS (RIA Novosti) September 14 – The European Commission indirectly supported Wednesday the construction of the North European Pipeline between Russia and Germany. Francoise Le Bail, the spokeswoman for the European Commission, said Russia lacked developed infrastructure in the energy sphere and anything that was done to ease this problem could be called a good cause.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder met on September 8 in Berlin to adopt a statement on energy cooperation and attended the signing of an agreement between Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom and German companies E.ON and BASF on the construction of the North European Natural Gas Pipeline. On the same day, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski called the construction of the pipeline a bad project, having said that in a political sense there were no doubts that Poland needed a diversified supply of oil and natural gas. Construction is scheduled to start in 2005 and to be completed in 2010. The natural gas pipeline, linking Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea, will have an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters and cost two billion euros. [rian.ru]

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09.14.05 Bombs, gunmen kill over 150 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (Reuters) September 14 – A suicide bomber lured a crowd of Shia day labourers to his minivan and blew it up in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 114 people and wounding more than 156 in Iraq¹s second deadliest bombing since the war began. The bomber drew the men to his vehicle with promises of work before detonating the bomb, which contained up to 500 pounds (220 kg) of explosives, an Interior Ministry source said. Another car bomber blew himself up in northern Baghdad, killing 11 people lined up to refill gas canisters, as a wave of bombings rocked the capital. Gunmen also dragged 17 people from their homes and killed them in Taji, a northern suburb. More than 150 people were killed in all the attacks, which police said appeared to have been carefully orchestrated. ³It has been a hectic day with bombs exploding across Baghdad. It is highly likely that these attacks were coordinated,² a police official told Reuters. Iraq¹s Al Qaeda claimed it was waging a nationwide suicide bombing campaign to avenge a military offensive on a rebel town. [More>>khaleejtimes.com]

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09.14.05 Taliban kill seven, Afghan official says

September 14 – Taliban rebels have reportedly shot dead seven Afghan civilians after finding a registration document for Sunday's milestone elections in their car, according to a provincial governor. The attack on Tuesday in the central province of Uruzgan is the latest in a wave of violence in the run-up to the parliamentary and provincial council polls that has left more than 1000 people dead this year. Governor Jan Mohammad Khan said the fighters stopped a vehicle with seven people inside in Gizab district. "They searched everybody, and found an official document, a car registration for election day, on one of them. Then the Taliban killed the seven people," Khan said.

In a separate incident on Tuesday, Taliban fighters hanged an intelligence official in the southeastern province of Zabul, police said. [More>>aljazeera.net]

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09.14.05 Syria facing isolation over Iraq and Lebanon

September 14 – US President George W. Bush warned Syria on Tuesday that it faces growing isolation because of its failure to stop foreign fighters entering Iraq and its actions in Lebanon. "These people are coming from Syria into Iraq and killing a lot of innocent people," Bush told reporters following a meeting at the White House with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. "They're trying to kill our folks as well.

"And the Syrian leader (President Bashar Assad) must [have] understood, we take his lack of action seriously," Bush said. "The [Syrian] government is going to become more and more isolated as a result of two things; one, not being cooperative with the Iraqi government in terms of securing Iraq and, two, not being fully transparent about what they did in Lebanon," the president said.

Bush did not specify what Syrian actions in Lebanon he was referring to but Damascus and its allies in the then-Lebanese government have been widely blamed for the February 14 bomb blast that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. [More>>dailystar.com.lb]

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09.14.05 Another embassy bomber gets death penalty

JAKARTA (Agencies) September 14 – The South Jakarta district court sentenced to death Ahmad Hasan for his involvement in a deadly bombing at the Australian Embassy last year. It was the second death sentence in two days over the Sept. 9 attack which killed 12 people including the suicide bomber.

Chief Judge Achmad Sobari said that Achmad was "legally and convincingly guilty" of helping to plan an act of terrorism and giving refuge to perpetrators of terrorism. "Your actions cannot be forgiven because they were undertaken in the name of Islam but they actually hurt Islam," Achmad Sobari said. "They were savage and lacking in all humanity."

Lawyers for Hasan said they would consider appealing the verdict.

On Tuesday the same court sentenced Iwan Darmawan Mutho, alias Rois, to death for the bombing, which was allegedly funded by Osama bin Laden. [More>>thejakartapost.com]

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09.14.05 'Afghan commanders let bin Laden escape'

KABUL (Reuters) September 14 – Osama bin Laden was provided safe passage to Pakistan in 2001 by Afghan commanders paid by Al Qaeda and sympathetic to its cause, a senior Afghan official told Reuters on Wednesday. Lutfullah Mashal, Afghanistan¹s Interior Ministry spokesman, said commanders helped the Al Qaeda leader escape from the Tora Bora mountains as US warplanes and Afghan forces attacked his hideout near the Pakistan border in late 2001. ²The help was provided because of monetary aid availed by Al Qaeda and also partly because of ideological issues,² Mashal said.

³Osama along with other Al Qaeda people managed to go to Parachinar (in Pakistan) at the time and then Pakistani forces battled the Al Qaeda runaways, killing around 70 of them,² Mashal added, referring to an area in Pakistan¹s Kurram tribal agency. He said commanders loyal to Maulvi Yunus Khalis had helped the Al Qaeda leader escape. The whereabouts of Khalis, a top mujahideen leader from the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, is unknown.

Mashal told private Pakistani television channel Geo on Tuesday that US forces made a mistake in entrusting the capture of bin Laden to Afghan commanders...He said that while 800 or 900 Arabs fled Tora Bora for Pakistan¹s Khyber tribal agency, senior Al Qaeda leaders trekked across to Parachinar on foot, mule and horseback with the help of some Sulemankheil tribal elders. [Full story>>khaleejtimes.com; See related story, thestar.com.my, "US military denies 'bin Laden ill' report."]

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09.14.05 Militants blow Gaza barrier

September 15 – Hamas militants blew a gaping hole overnight in a concrete barrier on the Gaza Strip's southern border, enabling Palestinians to continue surging into Egypt despite pledges to restore order, witnesses said. Under pressure from Israel, Egyptian authorities set a new deadline for all Palestinians to return to the Gaza side after revealing they had uncovered a tunnel stashed with weapons on the border.

Hundreds of people continued to scramble across the divided border town of Rafah after witnesses said Hamas members detonated mines next to concrete slabs dividing Palestinian Rafah from Egypt, blowing a hole which people could clamber through.

The slabs had been placed on the Rafah crossing in an attempt to put a lid on chaos in which thousands of Gaza residents have crossed the border since Israel evacuated the Palestinian territory on Monday. Some teenagers also laced rope over another section of the wall, enabling people to hoist themselves over on to the Egyptian side. Others squeezed through tiny holes in the metal section of the border. [More>>theaustralian.news.com.au]

STILL IN THE NEWS

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09.11.09 When a nation lacks a competent leader it invites disaster – the legacy of Bush
08.13.05 "Using force the George W. Bush way – Bush's crusade"
07.27.05 New security system for Temple Mount: Why the Dome of the Rock is threatened
03.24.05 Temple Mount controversy
02.19.05 'Dog-Deer' clan seen as common Chinese ancestor – relates to European Paleolithic Lion-Deer
02.15.05 Bush & Rice affects upon Iran's liaisons: it's all about oil and gas
12.23.04 US is losing war of ideas
12.21.04 United States attacking itself from behind

Launched: 10.25.04 / 11.02.04
Updated: 9.14.05; 9.15.05; 9.16.05