DISPATCH FROM DOWN UNDER
Egypt pressed over jailed leader
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday expressed "very strong concerns" about Egypt's jailing of opposition leader Ayman Nour and said she wants the situation resolved quickly.She made her comments at a State Department news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit following their first formal talks since Dr Rice took office three weeks ago.
An Egyptian court on February 1 remanded Mr Nour, a member of parliament, in custody for 45 days on allegations he forged documents to set up the Ghad (Tomorrow) Party. The party says the aim of the arrest was to intimidate reformers.
"Yes, I did raise our concerns, our very strong concerns, about this case," Dr Rice told reporters.
She said she talked with Aboul Gheit "at some length about the importance of this issue to the United States, to the American administration, to the American Congress, to the American people."
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12291308-23109,00.html
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Ukraine MP in quit threat
THE US-born justice minister of Ukraine, Roman Zvarych, threatened to quit, complaining that powerful business and political leaders were interfering in his work and that members of his family were being pressured into unspecified "corruption."
"I will not allow businessmen who are also deputies and who have very strong positions in the oil sector to become involved in the work of my ministry," Mr Zvarych said in a telephone interview broadcast on the private Kanal 5 television network.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12291305-23109,00.html
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Kidnapped man pleads for his life
A KIDNAPPED Iraqi Christian politician who holds Swedish nationality was shown in a video broadcast by an Arab television station appealing to the king of Sweden and Pope John Paul II to help save his life.
The captors of Minas Ibrahim al-Yussufi, the secretary general of Iraq's Christian Democratic Party, have threatened to behead him if they do not receive a ransom for his release.
Mr Yussufi was kidnapped on January 28 after he took a taxi to party headquarters in the northern city of Mosul, according to fellow party members.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12291290-23109,00.html
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Wal-Mart posts $4bn profit
WAL-MART, the world's biggest retailer, said today its most recent quarterly profit increased 16.2 per cent from a year ago to $US3.16 billion ($4.03 billion), propelled by strong international sales.
The profit amounted to 75 US cents a share, a penny better than the average analyst forecast based on a survey by Thomson Financial First Call.
In the fourth fiscal quarter to January 31, revenues increased by 10.4 per cent to $US82.2 billion ($104.83 billion), with a lift from currency effects. But that was slightly below the First Call estimate of $US82.8 billion ($105.6 billion).
The retail powerhouse said that same-store sales in the United States were up 1.5 per cent, including a 1.4 per cent rise at Wal-Mart stores and a two per cent increase at its Sam's Club warehouse stores.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12291194-31037,00.html
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Iran to sign nuclear fuel deal
AN Iranian official said today a key agreement with Russia on the return of spent nuclear fuel would be signed on February 26, clearing the way for Moscow to build Iran's first nuclear power plant.
"The agreement under which Russia is to provide Bushehr power plant with the fuel will be signed on February 26," said Asadollah Sabouri, a deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, quoted by state television.
The signing of the agreement which obliges Iran to return spent nuclear fuel to Russia will take place during Russian atomic energy chief Alexander Rumyantsev's three-day visit to Tehran, starting February 25, he said.
Under the agreement, Russia will provide Bushehr power plant's fuel for the next 10 years," Sabouri said, with the first shipment of fuel due to be delivered by plane three months after the signing.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12290450-23109,00.html
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Bush uses Hariri’s death to step up pressure on Syria
The U.S. President George W. Bush used the outrage stirred by the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri to intensify the pressures on Syria, demanding it to withdraw its forces from Lebanon and saying that he will seek the backing of European and NATO leaders to put more pressures on Damascus.
"Syria is out of step with the progress being made in the greater Middle East," Bush told a press conference.
Tensions between the U.S. and Syria intensified since former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who supported the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, was killed in a bomb explosion in Beirut on Monday.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7111
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Shiites secure majority in Iraqs assembly
The Iraqi Electoral Commission certified the results of the landmark election on Thursday and allocated 140 parliament seats to the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance, who won almost half of the votes for the National Assembly.
Based on final results from the Jan. 30 election, the United Iraqi Alliance was allocated 140 seats in the 275-seat National Assembly, the Commission said in a statement.
The seats allocation sets the ground for the first meeting of the new National Assembly, which will be in power for 10 months and write the new constitution.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7107
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U S gaurds blinded Guantanamo prisoner using pepper
A British resident held at U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay was blinded in one eye after American guards tortured him, his lawyer said on Thursday.
Omar Deghayes's family asked the British Government to intervene and secure his release, almost 25 years to the day since his father was assassinated by Colonel Gaddafi’s regime in Libya.
Deghayes, 35, has the right to residency in Britain and his family says he has applied for full citizenship
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7052
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Italy ignores hostage plea, extends presence in Iraq
The tearful plea of a kidnapped journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian Senate voted on Wednesday to extend the presence of Italy's troops in Iraq.
141 senators voted in favour of the extension of the presence of Itlaian troops in Iraq beyond June, whereas 112 voted against the extension.
The Italian government rejected Sgrena’s desperate plea. "It is obvious that the ‘terrorists’ want to influence Italian politics," said Roberto Calderoli, the Minister for Administrative Reforms.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7094
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Iran dismisses as "false" reports of air strike
Iran’s Security Council chief dismissed recent media reports saying that an enemy forces launched air strike against an Iranian nuclear facility, saying that those claims are just “psychological warfare,” the Interfax news agency reported Thursday.
Iranian officials ruled out that Wednesday’s explosion near the southwestern town of Deylam, about 180 kilometers (110 miles) from a nuclear facility, was a foreign attack.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7086
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Australia’s government accused of Iraq cover-up
The Federal Opposition said on Wednesday that according to an evidence given to the Senate estimates hearing, the Government tried to cover-up Australia's involvement in Iraq abuse scandal.
Labor says revelations that at least eight Australians have interviewed Iraqi prisoners should have been released when Iraq prison abuse scandal first broke out last April, but at that time Defence Minister Robert Hill denied Australia's involvement in interrogating Iraqi detainees.
Robert McClelland, Labor's defence spokesman, said that the Government had a clear motive for keeping quiet.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7006
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No corruption charge for Sharon
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will not be indicted in a long-running corruption scandal, officials say.
But Mr Sharon's son Omri will face charges over the illegal funding of a 1999 primary election campaign.
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz will reportedly ask the Knesset to lift Omri Sharon's parliamentary immunity.
Mr Mazuz has decided not to charge Sharon adviser Dov Weisglass, who had also been a subject of the three-year investigation into the scandal.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4273295.stm
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Analysis: Shia Iraq reaps reward
These results confirm a historic shift in Iraqi politics. For the first time in Iraq's modern history, the Shia Muslim majority are likely to take power.
The victory was secured by a remarkably united list of candidates, assembled in the background by the leading religious figure in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.
"It's a great day in Iraq," said a member of the victorious alliance, Muafaq al-Rubai.
"This is a paradigm shift in the history of this nation. This is a new birth of a new nation in a new region."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4262865.stm
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Iraq Conflict Feeds International Terror Threat -CIA
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Islamic militants waging a deadly insurgency against U.S.-led forces in Iraq pose an emerging international terrorism threat, CIA Director Porter Goss said on Wednesday.
In his first public appearance as U.S. spymaster, Goss described Iraqi insurgents, including al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as part of a Sunni militant movement inspired by Osama bin Laden and intent on attacking Americans.
"The Iraq conflict, while not a cause of extremism, has become a cause for extremists," Goss told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
"Those jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced in and focused on acts of urban terrorism. They represent a potential pool of contacts to build transnational terrorist cells, groups and networks in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries," he said.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7653566
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From Baghdad to Beirut
Asia Times " - - Blame it on Syria. Blame it on al-Qaeda. Better yet, blame it both on Syria and al-Qaeda. Without a shred of evidence - or perhaps profiting from "intelligence" amassed by the Pentagon, the Israeli Mossad, or both - the Bush administration immediately blamed Syria for the bombing that killed "Mr Beirut", former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. And Washington recalled its ambassador to Damascus, Margaret Scobey. Taking Baghdad to Beirut may be read for what the denomination implies: the destabilization of Iraq - a key Washington neo-conservative objective - exported to the wider Middle East. What many had feared - the "Lebanonization" of Iraq, bringing back the tragic memories of the Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990 - might be forced, with this assassination, to happen in reverse: the Iraqification of Lebanon.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8092.htm
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"To Change the World..."
Because they've changed today, must we approve the Bush and Sharon of yesterday?
The Beirut assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri reminds us how explosive this region remains even after a truce of fifteen long years in Lebanon. That's why our fingers are crossed that nothing should happen to contradict Mahmoud Abbas's statement in an interview published in The New York Times of Monday, February 14, in which he asserted that a "new era" had opened between the Palestinians and Israel.
What has happened? It's obvious that the strategists of the second Intifada, who praised the transformation of the resistance from stone-throwers to a guerrilla organization, have failed. Some among them are credited with nothing less than the desire to disorganize Israel's military forces and totally ruin the morale of its civilians.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021605H.shtml
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US May Use Proxy To Attack Iran, Says Dr Mahathir
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 (Bernama) -- Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has predicted that the United States may use a proxy to launch an attack against Iran over the nuclear issue.He believed the US would urge Israel to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities just like what the Tel Aviv regime did to Iraq initially before Washington launched the full-scale war in Iraq."US seems to want other people to fight for them," he told reporters here in response to questions on the development of the Iran-North Korea nuclear issues.The US, he said, would attack Iran because it thought that the latter had no weapon of mass destructions although such allegation were made against Tehran."They attacked Iraq because they know Iraq has no weapon of mass destruction," he told reporters here Wednesday
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=119443
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US Democrats to back additional spending
President George W. Bush's $82bn supplemental spending request appeared set for easy approval by Congress, as Democrats on Tuesday pledged to support the measure in spite of complaints about faulty estimates of war costs and lax oversight of Pentagon spending.
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“Democrats are hopeful we are successful” in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Steny Hoyer, House Democratic whip, explaining his plan to support Mr Bush's request for extra funding.
This administration has been extraordinarily wrong” in its cost estimates, he said, but the money proposed as an addition to the annual budget was needed to help stabilise and develop Iraq. The supplemental funds are to be used to cover the costs of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as tsunami relief and some homeland security, intelligence and foreign operations programmes.
John Kerry, the failed presidential candidate, was among Democrats who voiced support for the supplemental spending measure. Mr Kerry was one of 12 Democrats who voted against the Senate version of an $87bn supplemental spending bill in 2003. That vote, and another in support of an alternative measure, prompted Mr Kerry's much-quoted remark, “I actually did vote for the $87bn before I voted against it.” Mr Bush's re-election campaign used the comment to demonstrate what it said was Mr Kerry's weak record on defence.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/dab5e2da-7fb1-11d9-8ceb-00000e2511c8.html
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We Need the Oil, Right? So What's the Problem?
Such openness is rare; it set me back on my heels. The question came last Monday as I finished a lecture in Pewaukee, Wisconsin–the first of a handful of talks I gave for "Great Decisions 2005," a program of the Institute of World Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
With the "weapons of mass destruction" of recent memory having evaporated as casus belli for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, I had decided to experiment with a tutorial on what I believe to be the real reasons behind the war—first and foremost, oil. Passing by a phalanx of late-model gas-guzzlers on my way in, I found myself wondering how my observations on the oil factor would be received. In the end, I was more than a little surprised that none of the 250 folks in that very conservative audience seemed to have much of a problem.
The Most Recent Death
I had thought I was in for a much more difficult time. Among other things, the news had just broken that 22 year-old Lance Cpl. Travis M. Wichlacz of the Milwaukee-based Fox Company had become the fifth from that company, and the 33rd from Wisconsin overall, to be killed in action in Iraq. His stepmother told a reporter, "Travis was kicking down doors. They were going into houses and finding weapons caches and dismantling bombs." Cpl. Wichlacz died in a roadside bombing southwest of Baghdad on February 5.
We began with a moment of silence in his memory, and then imagined ourselves into the scene with the newspaper reporter who had spoken with Wichlacz' father, Dennis. We tried to anticipate questions Mr. Wichlacz might ask us:
Q. "How could our country have had such bad intelligence that President Bush was misled into starting this war?"
A. "I'm afraid it's not that simple, Dennis. The Bush administration decided to attack Iraq many months before any ‘intelligence' was adduced to ‘justify' such an attack. Yes, the intelligence conjured up was bad. But its target was Congress; even Colin Powell has admitted that. And the aim was to deceive our lawmakers into forfeiting to the Executive Congress' constitutional prerogative to authorize war."
Q. "But what about my son?... and the others who died? Why?"
A. "Oil."
Oil
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021405Y.shtml\
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The Fighting Moderates
The Republicans know the America they want, and they are not afraid to use any means to get there," Howard Dean said in accepting the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. "But there is something that this administration and the Republican Party are very afraid of. It is that we may actually begin fighting for what we believe."
Those words tell us what the selection of Mr. Dean means. It doesn't represent a turn to the left: Mr. Dean is squarely in the center of his party on issues like health care and national defense. Instead, Mr. Dean's political rejuvenation reflects the new ascendancy within the party of fighting moderates, the Democrats who believe that they must defend their principles aggressively against the right-wing radicals who have taken over Congress and the White House.
It was always absurd to call Mr. Dean a left-winger. Just ask the real left-wingers. During his presidential campaign, an article in the muckraking newsletter CounterPunch denounced him as a "Clintonesque Republicrat," someone who, as governor, tried "to balance the budget, even though Vermont is a state in which a balanced budget is not required."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021505K.shtml
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A Hireling, a Fraud and a Prostitute By Sidney Blumenthal The UK Guard
Bush's agent in the press corps has given spin a new level of meaning.
The White House press room has often been a cockpit of intrigue, duplicity and truckling. But nothing challenges the most recent scandal there.
The latest incident began with a sequence of questions for President Bush at his January 26 press conference. First, he was asked whether he approved of his administration's payments to conservative commentators. Government contracts had been granted to three pundits, who had tried to keep the funding secret. "There needs to be a nice, independent relationship between the White House and the press," said the president as he called swiftly on his next questioner.
Jeff Gannon, Washington bureau chief of Talon News, rose from his chair to attack Democrats in the Congress. "How are you going to work - you said you're going to reach out to these people - how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"
For almost two years, in the daily White House press briefings Gannon had been called upon by press secretary Scott McClellan to break up difficult questioning from the rest of the press. On Fox News, one host hailed him as "a terrific Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent". Gannon was frequently quoted and highlighted as an expert guest on rightwing radio shows. But who was Gannon? His strange non-question to the president inspired inquiry. Talon News is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a group of Texas Republicans. Gannon's most notable article had asserted that John Kerry "might some day be known as 'the first gay President'".
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021705C.shtml
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States Fall Behind on Voting-System
Improvements By Jim Drinkard USA Today
Repairs to the nation's voting system, already long overdue, are likely to remain uncompleted by the 2006 congressional elections, top state election officials warn.
Hampered by delays in federal guidance and local political complications, officials say the lag could lead to problems in next year's voting. They also fear being penalized for missing deadlines to revamp their voting systems under a 2002 law that has doled out $2.2 billion so far to help them replace antiquated voting machines and improve voter-registration systems.
"We are behind the eight ball here," says Rebecca Vigil-Giron, New Mexico's secretary of state and president of the National Association of Secretaries of State. "Most of the states will not be in compliance with those deadlines."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021705F.shtml
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Rumsfeld to Face a Wary Congress
By Liz Sidoti The Associated Press
Washington - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, in his second consecutive tour of duty, has to sell a half-trillion military budget to a skeptical Congress and answer repeated calls to bring the troops home from Iraq.
It won't be easy. Often testy, his political capital with lawmakers has found new limits.
Old Europe, hillbilly armor and his use of an automatic pen to sign condolence letters were among the Pentagon chief's first-term missteps that have alienated longtime allies, frustrated soldiers and angered military families.
Democrats called for Rumsfeld's resignation after the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. Even some Republicans expressed little confidence in the defense secretary. Said Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi: "I'm not a fan of Secretary Rumsfeld."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021605K.shtml
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Nuclear site 'missing' plutonium
A CIVILIAN nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in north-west England cannot account for enough plutonium to produce seven or eight nuclear bombs, but regulators said today it was due to bookkeeping errors and no material had left the facility."This is material that is unaccounted for, and there is always a discrepancy between the physical inventory and the book inventory," said a spokesman for the British Nuclear Group (BNG) which audited the plant, confirming a report in the The Times newspaper that some 30kg of plutonium could not be traced.
"There is no suggestion that any material has left the site," which is located in Sellafield, north-west England, she added.
"When you have got a complicated chemical procedure, quite often material remains in the plant."
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, the country's nuclear regulatory body, said there was no reason to believe that "real loss" of plutonium had occurred.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12291317%255E1702,00.html
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Negroponte for intelligence role
US President George W. Bush has picked John Negroponte, the US ambassador to Iraq, for the new position of director of national intelligence, an intelligence source said today.Mr Bush will also nominate National Security Agency Director Lieutenant General Michael Hayden as Negroponte's deputy, the source told Reuters.
Mr Negroponte has been ambassador to Baghdad for less than a year and met Mr Bush at the White House this week.
Mr Bush was to make the announcement at 10am (2am Friday AEDT). The newly created intelligence chief position will oversee 15 US intelligence agencies and emerged as a central recommendation of the commission that investigated the September 11, 2001, attacks last year.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12291260%255E1702,00.html
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Iraqi politician kidnapped
ARMED men kidnapped an official of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's party, security sources said today."Seif Abu Meshaal Hassan, in charge of the Iraqi National Accord in Salaheddin, was kidnapped from his house in Dijla," near Samarra, 120km from Baghdad, they said.
Armed and masked men in four cars snatched Hassan late yesterday.
The INA says that more than 20 of its members have been killed this year, and over 40 since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003.
Last month, the group of Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, released a film showing the killing of an INA candidate for the January 30 elections.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12288549%255E1702,00.html
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Pa. Sen. Specter Says He Has Hodgkin's
WASHINGTON - Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., announced Wednesday that he has Hodgkin's disease but expects to continue to work in the Senate while being treated.
I have beaten a brain tumor, bypass heart surgery and many tough political opponents and I'm going to beat this, too," Specter said in a statement.
Hodgkin's disease is a type of cancer involving the lymph nodes. Specter will receive chemotherapy every two weeks for up to 32 weeks at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, a release from his office said.
Specter's doctor, John H. Glick, said he has an "excellent chance of being completely cured."
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&u=/ap/20050216/ap_on_go_co/specter_hodgkin_s_3&printer=1
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Vermonters From Both Parties Back Jeffords
Sen. James Jeffords (news - web sites) may be a man without a party, but he has plenty of high-powered friends. Facing his first re-election bid since leaving the Republican Party, the Vermont independent on Wednesday got an endorsement from Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt., and a boost from Republican Gov. James Douglas, who said he will not campaign against Jeffords because he "has served the state well."
Jeffords, whose first 26 years in Washington were as a Republican, infuriated GOP leaders four years ago when he became an independent, saying the party had become too conservative for him. The move gave Democrats control of the Senate until the 2002 election.
Jeffords often sides with Democrats, and Leahy said he will do everything he can to ensure his re-election next year.
"Jim has shown the kind of independence you expect in Vermont," said Leahy, adding, "I look as this as a Vermonter, not as a Republican or Democrat."
Howard Dean (news - web sites), former Vermont governor and newly elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites), also has endorsed Jeffords.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050217/ap_on_el_se/jeffords__re_election
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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday expressed "very strong concerns" about Egypt's jailing of opposition leader Ayman Nour and said she wants the situation resolved quickly.She made her comments at a State Department news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit following their first formal talks since Dr Rice took office three weeks ago.
An Egyptian court on February 1 remanded Mr Nour, a member of parliament, in custody for 45 days on allegations he forged documents to set up the Ghad (Tomorrow) Party. The party says the aim of the arrest was to intimidate reformers.
"Yes, I did raise our concerns, our very strong concerns, about this case," Dr Rice told reporters.
She said she talked with Aboul Gheit "at some length about the importance of this issue to the United States, to the American administration, to the American Congress, to the American people."
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12291308-23109,00.html
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Ukraine MP in quit threat
THE US-born justice minister of Ukraine, Roman Zvarych, threatened to quit, complaining that powerful business and political leaders were interfering in his work and that members of his family were being pressured into unspecified "corruption."
"I will not allow businessmen who are also deputies and who have very strong positions in the oil sector to become involved in the work of my ministry," Mr Zvarych said in a telephone interview broadcast on the private Kanal 5 television network.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12291305-23109,00.html
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Kidnapped man pleads for his life
A KIDNAPPED Iraqi Christian politician who holds Swedish nationality was shown in a video broadcast by an Arab television station appealing to the king of Sweden and Pope John Paul II to help save his life.
The captors of Minas Ibrahim al-Yussufi, the secretary general of Iraq's Christian Democratic Party, have threatened to behead him if they do not receive a ransom for his release.
Mr Yussufi was kidnapped on January 28 after he took a taxi to party headquarters in the northern city of Mosul, according to fellow party members.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12291290-23109,00.html
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Wal-Mart posts $4bn profit
WAL-MART, the world's biggest retailer, said today its most recent quarterly profit increased 16.2 per cent from a year ago to $US3.16 billion ($4.03 billion), propelled by strong international sales.
The profit amounted to 75 US cents a share, a penny better than the average analyst forecast based on a survey by Thomson Financial First Call.
In the fourth fiscal quarter to January 31, revenues increased by 10.4 per cent to $US82.2 billion ($104.83 billion), with a lift from currency effects. But that was slightly below the First Call estimate of $US82.8 billion ($105.6 billion).
The retail powerhouse said that same-store sales in the United States were up 1.5 per cent, including a 1.4 per cent rise at Wal-Mart stores and a two per cent increase at its Sam's Club warehouse stores.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12291194-31037,00.html
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Iran to sign nuclear fuel deal
AN Iranian official said today a key agreement with Russia on the return of spent nuclear fuel would be signed on February 26, clearing the way for Moscow to build Iran's first nuclear power plant.
"The agreement under which Russia is to provide Bushehr power plant with the fuel will be signed on February 26," said Asadollah Sabouri, a deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, quoted by state television.
The signing of the agreement which obliges Iran to return spent nuclear fuel to Russia will take place during Russian atomic energy chief Alexander Rumyantsev's three-day visit to Tehran, starting February 25, he said.
Under the agreement, Russia will provide Bushehr power plant's fuel for the next 10 years," Sabouri said, with the first shipment of fuel due to be delivered by plane three months after the signing.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12290450-23109,00.html
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Bush uses Hariri’s death to step up pressure on Syria
The U.S. President George W. Bush used the outrage stirred by the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri to intensify the pressures on Syria, demanding it to withdraw its forces from Lebanon and saying that he will seek the backing of European and NATO leaders to put more pressures on Damascus.
"Syria is out of step with the progress being made in the greater Middle East," Bush told a press conference.
Tensions between the U.S. and Syria intensified since former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who supported the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, was killed in a bomb explosion in Beirut on Monday.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7111
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Shiites secure majority in Iraqs assembly
The Iraqi Electoral Commission certified the results of the landmark election on Thursday and allocated 140 parliament seats to the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance, who won almost half of the votes for the National Assembly.
Based on final results from the Jan. 30 election, the United Iraqi Alliance was allocated 140 seats in the 275-seat National Assembly, the Commission said in a statement.
The seats allocation sets the ground for the first meeting of the new National Assembly, which will be in power for 10 months and write the new constitution.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7107
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U S gaurds blinded Guantanamo prisoner using pepper
A British resident held at U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay was blinded in one eye after American guards tortured him, his lawyer said on Thursday.
Omar Deghayes's family asked the British Government to intervene and secure his release, almost 25 years to the day since his father was assassinated by Colonel Gaddafi’s regime in Libya.
Deghayes, 35, has the right to residency in Britain and his family says he has applied for full citizenship
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7052
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Italy ignores hostage plea, extends presence in Iraq
The tearful plea of a kidnapped journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian Senate voted on Wednesday to extend the presence of Italy's troops in Iraq.
141 senators voted in favour of the extension of the presence of Itlaian troops in Iraq beyond June, whereas 112 voted against the extension.
The Italian government rejected Sgrena’s desperate plea. "It is obvious that the ‘terrorists’ want to influence Italian politics," said Roberto Calderoli, the Minister for Administrative Reforms.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7094
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Iran dismisses as "false" reports of air strike
Iran’s Security Council chief dismissed recent media reports saying that an enemy forces launched air strike against an Iranian nuclear facility, saying that those claims are just “psychological warfare,” the Interfax news agency reported Thursday.
Iranian officials ruled out that Wednesday’s explosion near the southwestern town of Deylam, about 180 kilometers (110 miles) from a nuclear facility, was a foreign attack.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7086
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Australia’s government accused of Iraq cover-up
The Federal Opposition said on Wednesday that according to an evidence given to the Senate estimates hearing, the Government tried to cover-up Australia's involvement in Iraq abuse scandal.
Labor says revelations that at least eight Australians have interviewed Iraqi prisoners should have been released when Iraq prison abuse scandal first broke out last April, but at that time Defence Minister Robert Hill denied Australia's involvement in interrogating Iraqi detainees.
Robert McClelland, Labor's defence spokesman, said that the Government had a clear motive for keeping quiet.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=7006
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No corruption charge for Sharon
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will not be indicted in a long-running corruption scandal, officials say.
But Mr Sharon's son Omri will face charges over the illegal funding of a 1999 primary election campaign.
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz will reportedly ask the Knesset to lift Omri Sharon's parliamentary immunity.
Mr Mazuz has decided not to charge Sharon adviser Dov Weisglass, who had also been a subject of the three-year investigation into the scandal.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4273295.stm
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Analysis: Shia Iraq reaps reward
These results confirm a historic shift in Iraqi politics. For the first time in Iraq's modern history, the Shia Muslim majority are likely to take power.
The victory was secured by a remarkably united list of candidates, assembled in the background by the leading religious figure in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.
"It's a great day in Iraq," said a member of the victorious alliance, Muafaq al-Rubai.
"This is a paradigm shift in the history of this nation. This is a new birth of a new nation in a new region."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4262865.stm
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Iraq Conflict Feeds International Terror Threat -CIA
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Islamic militants waging a deadly insurgency against U.S.-led forces in Iraq pose an emerging international terrorism threat, CIA Director Porter Goss said on Wednesday.
In his first public appearance as U.S. spymaster, Goss described Iraqi insurgents, including al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as part of a Sunni militant movement inspired by Osama bin Laden and intent on attacking Americans.
"The Iraq conflict, while not a cause of extremism, has become a cause for extremists," Goss told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
"Those jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced in and focused on acts of urban terrorism. They represent a potential pool of contacts to build transnational terrorist cells, groups and networks in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries," he said.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=7653566
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From Baghdad to Beirut
Asia Times " - - Blame it on Syria. Blame it on al-Qaeda. Better yet, blame it both on Syria and al-Qaeda. Without a shred of evidence - or perhaps profiting from "intelligence" amassed by the Pentagon, the Israeli Mossad, or both - the Bush administration immediately blamed Syria for the bombing that killed "Mr Beirut", former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. And Washington recalled its ambassador to Damascus, Margaret Scobey. Taking Baghdad to Beirut may be read for what the denomination implies: the destabilization of Iraq - a key Washington neo-conservative objective - exported to the wider Middle East. What many had feared - the "Lebanonization" of Iraq, bringing back the tragic memories of the Lebanese civil war of 1975-1990 - might be forced, with this assassination, to happen in reverse: the Iraqification of Lebanon.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8092.htm
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"To Change the World..."
Because they've changed today, must we approve the Bush and Sharon of yesterday?
The Beirut assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri reminds us how explosive this region remains even after a truce of fifteen long years in Lebanon. That's why our fingers are crossed that nothing should happen to contradict Mahmoud Abbas's statement in an interview published in The New York Times of Monday, February 14, in which he asserted that a "new era" had opened between the Palestinians and Israel.
What has happened? It's obvious that the strategists of the second Intifada, who praised the transformation of the resistance from stone-throwers to a guerrilla organization, have failed. Some among them are credited with nothing less than the desire to disorganize Israel's military forces and totally ruin the morale of its civilians.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021605H.shtml
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US May Use Proxy To Attack Iran, Says Dr Mahathir
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 (Bernama) -- Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has predicted that the United States may use a proxy to launch an attack against Iran over the nuclear issue.He believed the US would urge Israel to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities just like what the Tel Aviv regime did to Iraq initially before Washington launched the full-scale war in Iraq."US seems to want other people to fight for them," he told reporters here in response to questions on the development of the Iran-North Korea nuclear issues.The US, he said, would attack Iran because it thought that the latter had no weapon of mass destructions although such allegation were made against Tehran."They attacked Iraq because they know Iraq has no weapon of mass destruction," he told reporters here Wednesday
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=119443
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US Democrats to back additional spending
President George W. Bush's $82bn supplemental spending request appeared set for easy approval by Congress, as Democrats on Tuesday pledged to support the measure in spite of complaints about faulty estimates of war costs and lax oversight of Pentagon spending.
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“Democrats are hopeful we are successful” in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Steny Hoyer, House Democratic whip, explaining his plan to support Mr Bush's request for extra funding.
This administration has been extraordinarily wrong” in its cost estimates, he said, but the money proposed as an addition to the annual budget was needed to help stabilise and develop Iraq. The supplemental funds are to be used to cover the costs of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as tsunami relief and some homeland security, intelligence and foreign operations programmes.
John Kerry, the failed presidential candidate, was among Democrats who voiced support for the supplemental spending measure. Mr Kerry was one of 12 Democrats who voted against the Senate version of an $87bn supplemental spending bill in 2003. That vote, and another in support of an alternative measure, prompted Mr Kerry's much-quoted remark, “I actually did vote for the $87bn before I voted against it.” Mr Bush's re-election campaign used the comment to demonstrate what it said was Mr Kerry's weak record on defence.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/dab5e2da-7fb1-11d9-8ceb-00000e2511c8.html
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We Need the Oil, Right? So What's the Problem?
Such openness is rare; it set me back on my heels. The question came last Monday as I finished a lecture in Pewaukee, Wisconsin–the first of a handful of talks I gave for "Great Decisions 2005," a program of the Institute of World Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
With the "weapons of mass destruction" of recent memory having evaporated as casus belli for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, I had decided to experiment with a tutorial on what I believe to be the real reasons behind the war—first and foremost, oil. Passing by a phalanx of late-model gas-guzzlers on my way in, I found myself wondering how my observations on the oil factor would be received. In the end, I was more than a little surprised that none of the 250 folks in that very conservative audience seemed to have much of a problem.
The Most Recent Death
I had thought I was in for a much more difficult time. Among other things, the news had just broken that 22 year-old Lance Cpl. Travis M. Wichlacz of the Milwaukee-based Fox Company had become the fifth from that company, and the 33rd from Wisconsin overall, to be killed in action in Iraq. His stepmother told a reporter, "Travis was kicking down doors. They were going into houses and finding weapons caches and dismantling bombs." Cpl. Wichlacz died in a roadside bombing southwest of Baghdad on February 5.
We began with a moment of silence in his memory, and then imagined ourselves into the scene with the newspaper reporter who had spoken with Wichlacz' father, Dennis. We tried to anticipate questions Mr. Wichlacz might ask us:
Q. "How could our country have had such bad intelligence that President Bush was misled into starting this war?"
A. "I'm afraid it's not that simple, Dennis. The Bush administration decided to attack Iraq many months before any ‘intelligence' was adduced to ‘justify' such an attack. Yes, the intelligence conjured up was bad. But its target was Congress; even Colin Powell has admitted that. And the aim was to deceive our lawmakers into forfeiting to the Executive Congress' constitutional prerogative to authorize war."
Q. "But what about my son?... and the others who died? Why?"
A. "Oil."
Oil
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021405Y.shtml\
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The Fighting Moderates
The Republicans know the America they want, and they are not afraid to use any means to get there," Howard Dean said in accepting the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. "But there is something that this administration and the Republican Party are very afraid of. It is that we may actually begin fighting for what we believe."
Those words tell us what the selection of Mr. Dean means. It doesn't represent a turn to the left: Mr. Dean is squarely in the center of his party on issues like health care and national defense. Instead, Mr. Dean's political rejuvenation reflects the new ascendancy within the party of fighting moderates, the Democrats who believe that they must defend their principles aggressively against the right-wing radicals who have taken over Congress and the White House.
It was always absurd to call Mr. Dean a left-winger. Just ask the real left-wingers. During his presidential campaign, an article in the muckraking newsletter CounterPunch denounced him as a "Clintonesque Republicrat," someone who, as governor, tried "to balance the budget, even though Vermont is a state in which a balanced budget is not required."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021505K.shtml
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A Hireling, a Fraud and a Prostitute By Sidney Blumenthal The UK Guard
Bush's agent in the press corps has given spin a new level of meaning.
The White House press room has often been a cockpit of intrigue, duplicity and truckling. But nothing challenges the most recent scandal there.
The latest incident began with a sequence of questions for President Bush at his January 26 press conference. First, he was asked whether he approved of his administration's payments to conservative commentators. Government contracts had been granted to three pundits, who had tried to keep the funding secret. "There needs to be a nice, independent relationship between the White House and the press," said the president as he called swiftly on his next questioner.
Jeff Gannon, Washington bureau chief of Talon News, rose from his chair to attack Democrats in the Congress. "How are you going to work - you said you're going to reach out to these people - how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"
For almost two years, in the daily White House press briefings Gannon had been called upon by press secretary Scott McClellan to break up difficult questioning from the rest of the press. On Fox News, one host hailed him as "a terrific Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent". Gannon was frequently quoted and highlighted as an expert guest on rightwing radio shows. But who was Gannon? His strange non-question to the president inspired inquiry. Talon News is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a group of Texas Republicans. Gannon's most notable article had asserted that John Kerry "might some day be known as 'the first gay President'".
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021705C.shtml
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States Fall Behind on Voting-System
Improvements By Jim Drinkard USA Today
Repairs to the nation's voting system, already long overdue, are likely to remain uncompleted by the 2006 congressional elections, top state election officials warn.
Hampered by delays in federal guidance and local political complications, officials say the lag could lead to problems in next year's voting. They also fear being penalized for missing deadlines to revamp their voting systems under a 2002 law that has doled out $2.2 billion so far to help them replace antiquated voting machines and improve voter-registration systems.
"We are behind the eight ball here," says Rebecca Vigil-Giron, New Mexico's secretary of state and president of the National Association of Secretaries of State. "Most of the states will not be in compliance with those deadlines."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021705F.shtml
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Rumsfeld to Face a Wary Congress
By Liz Sidoti The Associated Press
Washington - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, in his second consecutive tour of duty, has to sell a half-trillion military budget to a skeptical Congress and answer repeated calls to bring the troops home from Iraq.
It won't be easy. Often testy, his political capital with lawmakers has found new limits.
Old Europe, hillbilly armor and his use of an automatic pen to sign condolence letters were among the Pentagon chief's first-term missteps that have alienated longtime allies, frustrated soldiers and angered military families.
Democrats called for Rumsfeld's resignation after the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. Even some Republicans expressed little confidence in the defense secretary. Said Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi: "I'm not a fan of Secretary Rumsfeld."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021605K.shtml
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Nuclear site 'missing' plutonium
A CIVILIAN nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in north-west England cannot account for enough plutonium to produce seven or eight nuclear bombs, but regulators said today it was due to bookkeeping errors and no material had left the facility."This is material that is unaccounted for, and there is always a discrepancy between the physical inventory and the book inventory," said a spokesman for the British Nuclear Group (BNG) which audited the plant, confirming a report in the The Times newspaper that some 30kg of plutonium could not be traced.
"There is no suggestion that any material has left the site," which is located in Sellafield, north-west England, she added.
"When you have got a complicated chemical procedure, quite often material remains in the plant."
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, the country's nuclear regulatory body, said there was no reason to believe that "real loss" of plutonium had occurred.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12291317%255E1702,00.html
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Negroponte for intelligence role
US President George W. Bush has picked John Negroponte, the US ambassador to Iraq, for the new position of director of national intelligence, an intelligence source said today.Mr Bush will also nominate National Security Agency Director Lieutenant General Michael Hayden as Negroponte's deputy, the source told Reuters.
Mr Negroponte has been ambassador to Baghdad for less than a year and met Mr Bush at the White House this week.
Mr Bush was to make the announcement at 10am (2am Friday AEDT). The newly created intelligence chief position will oversee 15 US intelligence agencies and emerged as a central recommendation of the commission that investigated the September 11, 2001, attacks last year.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12291260%255E1702,00.html
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Iraqi politician kidnapped
ARMED men kidnapped an official of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's party, security sources said today."Seif Abu Meshaal Hassan, in charge of the Iraqi National Accord in Salaheddin, was kidnapped from his house in Dijla," near Samarra, 120km from Baghdad, they said.
Armed and masked men in four cars snatched Hassan late yesterday.
The INA says that more than 20 of its members have been killed this year, and over 40 since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003.
Last month, the group of Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, released a film showing the killing of an INA candidate for the January 30 elections.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12288549%255E1702,00.html
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Pa. Sen. Specter Says He Has Hodgkin's
WASHINGTON - Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., announced Wednesday that he has Hodgkin's disease but expects to continue to work in the Senate while being treated.
I have beaten a brain tumor, bypass heart surgery and many tough political opponents and I'm going to beat this, too," Specter said in a statement.
Hodgkin's disease is a type of cancer involving the lymph nodes. Specter will receive chemotherapy every two weeks for up to 32 weeks at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, a release from his office said.
Specter's doctor, John H. Glick, said he has an "excellent chance of being completely cured."
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&u=/ap/20050216/ap_on_go_co/specter_hodgkin_s_3&printer=1
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Vermonters From Both Parties Back Jeffords
Sen. James Jeffords (news - web sites) may be a man without a party, but he has plenty of high-powered friends. Facing his first re-election bid since leaving the Republican Party, the Vermont independent on Wednesday got an endorsement from Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt., and a boost from Republican Gov. James Douglas, who said he will not campaign against Jeffords because he "has served the state well."
Jeffords, whose first 26 years in Washington were as a Republican, infuriated GOP leaders four years ago when he became an independent, saying the party had become too conservative for him. The move gave Democrats control of the Senate until the 2002 election.
Jeffords often sides with Democrats, and Leahy said he will do everything he can to ensure his re-election next year.
"Jim has shown the kind of independence you expect in Vermont," said Leahy, adding, "I look as this as a Vermonter, not as a Republican or Democrat."
Howard Dean (news - web sites), former Vermont governor and newly elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites), also has endorsed Jeffords.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050217/ap_on_el_se/jeffords__re_election
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posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 2:08 PM
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