Aljazeera's Iraq correspondents speak out Iraqi officials want neutral coverage from their point of view. They blame us for not presenting the after-Saddam era achievements. But when we ask them what their achievements are, we do not get clear answers. Aljazeera (English)

Dozens killed in Iraq as violence surges Dozens of Iraqis have been killed and scores wounded in attacks in northern Iraq and Baghdad. Three Iraqi policemen were killed on Saturday afternoon south of Baghdad, an interior ministry spokesman said. World Press Review

�

Iraq extends ban on al-Jazeera TV Iraq's interim government has indefinitely extended a month-long ban on Arabic TV news channel al-Jazeera. BBC Newsm UK edition

Three Days of Terror for Russian Child Hostages At first, they treated us okay and gave us water," Azamat Ktsoyev, 14, said of the Chechen separatists who stormed into the building on Wednesday during festivities marking the first day of school. But after that they started to treat us like dogs, shooting above our heads and beating people. Yahoo News

Bush puts Country on World Trade Center Alert in 2004 or If Paul Revere had been in the Bush administation we would all still be British The Bush administration was forced into the embarrassing admission yesterday that "new" intelligence about al-Qa'ida's plans to attack US financial institutions - information that led to an official alert and a slew of fresh security measures - was up to four years old and predated the 11 September attacks. The Independent

NEWSWEEK POLL: DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION 2004 -- Kerry/Edwards Leads Bush/Cheney 52 to 44 Percent Looking at crossover voters from the 2000 election, 92 percent of Gore voters in 2000 support Kerry (5 percent say they will vote for Bush and 3 percent is undecided); 84 percent of Bush voters say they plan to vote for the president again (four percent of Bush 2000 voters are undecided, 10 percent say they will vote for Kerry and 2 percent for Nader). Yahoo Finance

Bush is put on the spot as growth falls to 3% U.S. economic growth slowed more abruptly than expected in the second quarter, as higher energy prices prompted consumers to slow their spending. The news appeared to undermine President George W. Bush's efforts to show solid economic growth as a validation of his administration's policies. International Herald Tribune

Kerry pledges to fight for America
In a clear swipe at President Bush, he said he would bring back what he called the country's time-honoured tradition of never going to war because it wanted to but only "if it had to". BBC News UK Edition

The race to catch the iPod Apple has come up with a product of beauty and, at the same time, changed an entire industry. It has also rejuvenated its own financial fortunes�a more-than-doubling in year-on-year sales of the iPod has contributed to a 30% jump in revenue in the latest quarter, to $2 billion. But Apple-watchers, even its most loyal fans, have been here before. It did the same to personal computing, with the Apple Mac. But Microsoft came along, copied it, and squashed it. Apple will have to fight hard to ensure that doesn�t happen again. The Economist

Africa intervenes to stop Darfur�s slaughter As its observers report further atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan, the African Union says it may send troops to disarm the Arab militiamen there, in what would be the AU�s first military intervention in a member state. The United Nations is expected shortly to discuss possible sanctions against Sudan The Economist

Bush Insists He Has Made America Safer (and the Nazi's made the trains run on time) Faced with polls that show many believe the terror threat against them has increased due to the Iraq war, Bush argued that wars against Iraq, Afghanistan (news - web sites) and al Qaeda have made them safer, as has diplomacy that led Libya to surrender its weapons of mass destruction programs. Yahoo News

I write badly, therefore I am a would-be terroristSuddenly a light went on in my head. I remembered the passenger on my left leaning forward in his seat as I scribbled while we waited for takeoff. Seconds later, he'd clambered hastily over me without apology to make his way to the front of the plane. I'd assumed intestinal complications, but now that I thought about it, he hadn't used the bathroom. He'd spoken briefly with the flight attendants and returned to his seat. As the security woman looked at me, I now realized the passenger had been about as interested in my puzzling prowess as she was. Houston Chronicle

Bush Insists He Has Made America Safer (and the Nazi's made the trains run on time) Faced with polls that show many believe the terror threat against them has increased due to the Iraq war, Bush argued that wars against Iraq, Afghanistan (news - web sites) and al Qaeda have made them safer, as has diplomacy that led Libya to surrender its weapons of mass destruction programs. Yahoo News

America's Chechnya....it has something of Vietnam in its asymmetric nature, something of Algeria in its tactical quality, and there are probably some lessons to be learned from all sorts of comparisons with other wars from history. To make a contemporary comparison, in its domestic political dynamic, and to a degree in its expeditionary, overwhelming-force military technique, U.S. President George W. Bush's venture in Iraq can be compared with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin's war in Chechnya. World Press Review

U.S. Elections 2004 Comment and analysis from the world's press on the upcoming U.S. elections World Press Review

Philippines to pull out of Iraq Philippines to pull out of Iraq World Press Review

Congo uranium mine collapses Part of a uranium mine has collapsed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least nine people. BBC News

High prices for gas, milk push struggling families to brink Last month, the Consumer Price Index, the government's most closely watched inflation barometer, posted its largest increase in more than three years, the Labor Department said. The main culprits were gasoline--which has dipped in recent days but still remains about 30 percent higher than a year ago--and galloping food costs, especially dairy products, which jumped at the most rapid pace since World War II. Chicago Tribune

Will U.S. Foreign Policy Increase Terrorism? As long as American foreign policy remains the same and the Palestinian issue is left unresolved, the U.S. war on terror will increase terrorism by 100 percent, said Lebanese Shiite Muslim leader Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah World Press Review

Polls show a growing progressive electorateNobody thinks it will happen without incredibly hard work against an ugly and well-financed Republican campaign of fear, and victory may still depend on tight votes in swing states. But voters are expressing deepening awareness that America is on the wrong track and growing disapproval of Bush�s performance on the war and the economy. In These Times

Joyce letter smashes sale record
An erotic letter sent by author James Joyce to his wife has fetched a record �240,800 at auction in London. BBC News

Brando's last role: an evil old lady Marlon Brando fulfilled a lifelong ambition in his final film: to play an old lady. True to his Method training, the actor donned a blond wig and full drag for the part, even though the film was animated. Guardian

Bush's helping hands: Media scrubs president from Ken Lay coverage a review of mainstream press coverage since news of the Lay indictment first broke Wednesday afternoon indicates most news outlets, minus the San Francisco Chronicle and a handful of others, have completely downplayed the Bush connection, or simply ignored it all together. That, of course, is good news for the White House, which now wants nothing to do with the disgraced energy executive, once on the short list to be in Bush's cabinet. Salon

Big brother in the bookstore Many legislators on Capitol Hill will own up to supporting the Patriot Act, even with some of its more noxious provisions, in a 9/11-induced haze. But there are a few politicians in Washington -- especially those surrounding President Bush -- who continue to insist that, somehow, keeping track of what books ordinary Americans check out of the library will stop the next al-Qaida plot. Bush himself seems intent on keeping every part of the law on the books, a fact underscored yesterday when the White House threatened to veto a spending bill if it contained amendments weakening the government's power to spy on Americans' reading habits. Salon

Ultimate dot-com survivor faces new challenges WebMD, a health care company forged by two high-profile entrepreneurs at the height of the dot-com boom, is fabulously successful by one important measure: It's still here. CNET News

Turbulent skies Innovative and bold low-cost carriers have transformed the airline industry on both sides of the Atlantic. But are they now doomed to lose their momentum?
The Economist

The big one After more than two years of investigation, prosecutors have filed charges against Kenneth Lay, the former chairman of Enron. But though the bankrupt energy-trading company has become a synonym for corporate fraud, �Kenny Boy� may yet wriggle off the hook. The Economist

American shame; Islamist snuff movies It's a tough call whether Abu Musab al-Zarqawi�the Jordanian "militant" who is reportedly responsible for the videotaped butchery of Nicholas Berg�is more stupid than he is brutal, or whether he is a bigger monster than he is a fool. Zarqawi's own nauseating videotape makes the case for his indescribable brutality. Reason

So much for the moral president Pentagon Admits Iraq Methods Violated Geneva Rules Yahoo News

A failure of leadership at the highest levels Around the halls of the Pentagon, a term of caustic derision has emerged for the enlisted soldiers at the heart of the furor over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal: the six morons who lost the war. The Army Times

Connect music store an 'embarrassment' to Sony Rob Pegoraro of The Washington Post says that Sony's Connect music store, which was launched on Tuesday, is "an embarrassment to the company that gave the world the Walkman." Pegoraro calls Sony's Sonic Stage, the software you must use to download and manage your purchases, "a bloated, bug-ridden beast of a program. Mac Minute

(Bush continues errors of his way) and backs 'superb' defence chief Mr Bush's praise of Mr Rumsfeld came amid growing calls for the defence secretary to resign over the scandal. BBC News

Newspapers See Danger in Text Messaging International editors and publishers warned Friday that nontraditional communications � such as cell phone text messages � are rapidly outflanking radio, television, and print media because of their immediacy and proximity to the public.
Yahoo News

Where has time gone. I have spent all my efforts at my other sties and have not been back here since November. (Imagine all the nonsense W has done in the ensuing five months) Hopefully parties interested in news and admitted fiction (as opposed to W's pre-ported truths) have followed some of the links. Wildmagic7 or Now Just One Minute

Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity put to the Space test The idea of the mission was first proposed in 1959, but the project has been aborted and delayed many times due to budget reviews. BBC News

The Salon Interview: Neal Stephenson The rivalries between the various scientists you write about are so bitter, it's surprising even to someone who already knows that science isn't this Olympian, rational activity totally removed from human pettiness. ( By Laura Miller} Salon

Schwarzenegger promises California 'Hydrogen Highway' by 2010 Schwarzenegger signed the order after driving around a university campus in a Toyota Highlander propelled by a clean-burning hydrogen engine. The University of California at Davis is the site for one of America's most advanced centers for the study of alternative transportation systems. Salon

Granny gorilla knows best on baby-care A captive female gorilla has been spotted teaching her daughter how to tend to her newborn. Gorilla mothers are often seen teaching their young to walk and climb, but primatologists believe this is the first report of a mother instructing her daughter on baby care. NewScientist

A Scary Afghan Road 1. In the two years since the war in Afghanistan, opium production has:

(A) virtually been eliminated by Hamid Karzai's government and American forces.

(B) declined 30 percent, but eradication is not expected until 2008.

(C) soared 19-fold and become the major source of the world's heroin.

2. In Paktika and Zabul, two religiously conservative parts of Afghanistan, the number of children going to school:

(A) has quintupled, with most girls at least finishing third grade.

(B) has risen 40 percent, although few girls go to school.

(C) has plummeted as poor security has closed nearly all schools there.

The correct answer to both questions, alas, is (C). (New York Times) via Common Dreams

U.S. Troops More Hostile With Reporters With casualties mounting in Iraq (news - web sites), jumpy U.S. soldiers are becoming more aggressive in their treatment of journalists covering the conflict.
Media people have been detained, news equipment has been confiscated and some journalists have suffered verbal and physical abuse while trying to report on events. Yahoo News

Global warming, wine quality linked Global warming may become a worldwide catastrophe, but at least the wine should be good. Seatle Post Intelligencer

Conversations With Homeless Vets Living or working in San Francisco, you can't avoid the homeless. Near our office at Fifth and Mission, I walk past many homeless people every day, yet I never talk to them. And, whenever I read about them, it's about the homeless as an issue, not about individual human beings with unique lives.

For many of them, those lives have included service in the military. According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, 33 percent of all homeless men are veterans, as is nearly one-fourth of the homeless population in general.

As the United States ships thousands of troops worldwide to fight the "war on terror," I find myself thinking about what joining the military and fighting for one's country really means. I am fascinated with warriors, probably because as a woman in America, it's an experience I'll probably never have. I wonder particularly what it's like to have served your country and now be living destitute on the streets.

I decided to find out. Over the last few weeks, I spoke with several homeless vets who I met through Dave Hanzel at St. Anthony's Dining Room in downtown San Francisco. Some of them saw combat duty, and others didn't.

I'm not here to weigh in on policy about homeless people -- what care or cash they should be given -- as much as I wish to give a glimpse into their lives. I hope you find the interviews compelling for no other reason than that they reinforce the idea that we are all connected in our humanity. Human life is fragile. We all suffer. And, yet, for some inexplicable reason, most of us carry on.

I've done my best to verify that what the people I talked to told me has some basis in fact. But, with the homeless, it's hard to identify people with certainty and even more difficult to track them down to check the facts. I leave it for you to decide for yourselves. I may even include some obvious tall tales because they're so entertaining. (By Amy Moon, Features Editor, SF Gate ) SF Gate

Age boom hastens the quest to live longer, better lives
Zerline Aronin is blind in one eye and uses a walker for balance even inside her one-bedroom Capitol Hill apartment.
But she still cooks breakfast every morning � oatmeal with fresh fruit � before showering and making up the bed without a wrinkle.
By midday, she's out the door in sensible shoes, pushing her walker to beat the stoplight at a busy Madison Street intersection. It's a few blocks to feed a flock of waiting pigeons, then a few more to the grocery or over to the fire station to have her blood pressure checked. On an occasional Saturday she sets out to synagogue around the corner.
That's several miles a week � not bad for a 102-year-old. By Marsha King ), Seattle Times

Bombings Plunge Iraqi Capital Into Chaos at Start of Ramadan �BAGHDAD, Iraq - A series of suicide bombings shook Baghdad early today, including an attack on the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross and blasts at four Iraqi police stations that punctuated two days of bloody violence in this capital city. Truthout

Civil Rights Groups Blast Bush Court Nominee Civil rights groups, which have been pressing Senate Democrats to filibuster a series of important judicial nominations by President Bush, are now mobilizing opposition to the latest nominee, California Supreme Court justice Janice Rogers Brown.

Brown, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, has also come under fire from other sources, including the New York Times, which on Saturday described her nomination as "among the very worst ...of the many unworthy judicial nominees President Bush has put forward." The D.C. Circuit is widely considered to be the second-most important court in the United States, after the Supreme Court itself. (by Jim Lobe, One world Net via Common Dreams

Ground zero, 2004 "The White House has used Lower Manhattan as a campaign springboard for the president's reelection in 2004, and nothing else," says Margarita Lopez, a Democratic city councilwoman who represents that part of Manhattan. "I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt months ago, but no more. Dealing with this issue has been partisan from beginning to end." Salon

New York City, Two years on Poll after poll shows New Yorkers are still haunted by the attack, and wary that another might follow. Police believe they thwarted a bombing of the Brooklyn Bridge, and large battalions of cops are still often sent into the subways to ward off possible attacks. There was widespread relief last month when the electrical blackout was found to be merely that. The Economist

The Iraqis don't particularly want the UN to manage their money or their security IT IS not just the Americans who question the role of the United Nations in Iraq. The UN questions it itself�and so do the Iraqis. Since May, the World Food Programme has shipped the equivalent of a 25-tonne truck of wheat every minute of every day. On the walls of the Baghdad Convention Centre, home to both the American army's information centre and the American consul, hangs a UN tender for the supply of 841 square metres of glass, part of its emergency assistance programme to Iraq. But the UN's job, say many of its staffers, is to help the world's most vulnerable, not prop up America's occupation of Iraq. The Economist

Two years on ... Wishful thinking is not a policy ONE of President George Bush's best phrases, deployed between the atrocities of September 11th and the American invasion of Afghanistan later that year, was that the effort to win the battle that al-Qaeda's suicide hijackers had launched would consist not of one big victory but rather of �the patient accumulation of successes�. Not everyone, either then or during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq last March, agreed that America's behaviour was truly patient. No matter: it was certainly resolute and pretty relentless, and only the churlish or blinkered could deny that successes were indeed being accumulated. Now, however, on the second anniversary of those terrible events in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, things feel different. �The hapless accumulation of failures� is sounding a more appropriate line. The Economist

The Prewar Intelligence Imbroglio - A Tale of Two Leaders Were politics on either side of the Atlantic burdened with such notions as shame, integrity, or even results, both British Prime Minister Tony Blair and American President George Bush would be struggling for their political survival. Both lied to their electorates in order to prosecute an illegal war against the will of the international community. Neither has a clue how to rebuild the country they have just destroyed, other than with more force, which is resulting in greater loss of life on both sides. World Press Review

Chile commemorates in the pain the inversion of Allende September 11, 1973, a military junta reversed the government of El Salvador Allende and Chile settled during a long time of dictatorship. Arrests, tortures, assassinations: three thousand people died or disappeared during the Pinochet years. Thirty years later, Chilean president Ricardo Lagos, Socialist, chose to commemorate officially the inversion of El Salvador Allende "to show in the world how much Chile changed since the return of the democracy". But this celebration is strongly criticized by the partisans of the Pinochet General, the opposition of right-hand side and the allies of the Christian democracy. The questions of the humans right and of repairs to the victims and to their families remain sensitive. Many denounces "assured immunity" with the of torture ones.
LeMonde

Baghdad blogger: Salam Pax live online on September 12 International media attention focused on Iraq in the run-up to the 2003 Gulf war. But with satellite TV banned and access to the internet heavily censored under the Saddam regime, voices from within the country were few and far between.

Into this vacuum stepped a 29-year-old resident of Baghdad, calling himself Salam Pax. His weblog documenting life in the Iraqi capital before, during and after the US-led invasion achieved world renown, and he now also writes a regular column in the Guardian.
On Friday Salam Pax will be live online on Guardian Unlimited. You can post your your questions and comments for him now, email questions to editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk and join the discussion live at 1.45pm on Friday September 12 Guardian Unlimited

3 Nations Offer Iraq Proposals France and Germany, in a joint proposal, have offered to recognize an Iraqi transition government and endorse a U.S.-led multinational force if the U.S. hands over most of its control over the political transition to the U.N. and the interim Iraqi leaders. Russia presented a separate proposal closer to U.S. and British ideas. LA Times

Dell finally stops using prison labor to dismantle and recycle computers. Last week, the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, an environmental group in California, accused Dell of running a "primitive" recycling system that exposed inmates to dangerous chemicals as they took apart computers and plucked out the reusable parts. CBS News

Pensions for all? For today's captains of industry, the maxim in a crisis seems to be: "To hell with the women and children -- save the lifeboats for us!" Salon

Dead man walking home
Joseph Amrine, a man who spent 18 years on death row for the murder of a fellow prisoner, and whose face was made famous in a Benneton ad, is going home. After years of appeals and execution dates, a period in which he saw the witnesses against him recant their testimony to no legal effect, the 47-year-old's life has been spared in a surprise ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court, which said, among other things: "It is difficult to imagine a more manifestly unjust and unconstitutional result than permitting the execution of an innocent person." Salon

First tests don't match boy found in Illinois Initial tests failed to show whether a boy left at a suburban hospital was the same boy who has been missing from his North Carolina home more than two years, the FBI said Wednesday. Salon

Graft squad ready to seize more Euro Bank big names. Daily Nation, Independent daily of Nairobi, Kenya [Breaking News Headlines from Around the World, Powered by Worldpress.org]

Trying to Restore a Functioning Legal System to the Land of Hammurabi's Code [New York Times: International News]

Los Alamos Safety Breach [SFGate]

Area Man Supports The Troops He Didn't Go To High School With [The Onion]

Himalayan Ice Reveals Climate Warming, Catastrophic Drought. National Science Foundation Apr 19 2003 4:27AM ET [Moreover - moreover...]

42 stolen Iraqi art works seized in Jordan. Deutsche Welle Apr 19 2003 11:33AM ET [Moreover - Jordan news]

White House settles suits, reshapes environmental policy. Nando Times Apr 19 2003 4:55AM ET [Moreover - moreover...]

Chernobyl Victims Protest Unpaid Benefits. Miami Herald Apr 19 2003 8:34AM ET [Moreover - moreover...]

Riot breaks out at Baghdad bank
BAGHDAD, Iraq (April 17, 2003 7:52 a.m. EDT) - A riot broke out at a bank Thursday after thieves blew a hole in the vault and dropped children inside to bring out fistfuls of cash. U.S. troops defused the situation by arresting the thieves and removing the money for safekeeping. [By CHRIS TOMLINSON, Associated Press] Nando Times

Hussein's Last Appearance BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 15 � He was here, and then, like a shadow, he was gone. At the Adhamiya Mosque in northern Baghdad, people have made a legend of the half hour last Wednesday, around the time of the noon prayers, when they say Saddam Hussein appeared in public, in the square outside the mosque, and offered what may prove to have been his last promise, or his last deceit, to the people of Iraq. New York Times via MyWay News

Iraq war, reconstruction stir debate among African-Americans Daryl Jacobs, 31, a truck driver who lives in Northeast Baltimore, said he believed that the money allocated for the war and its aftermath "could have been put in other places, like education, fixing Baltimore's streets, and public housing. It could be spent in other ways than war. There are potholes in Baltimore as big as Jacuzzis." Baltimore Sun

The mysteries of time and sleep It?s that time of year again, when crocuses bloom, the lawn starts to need mowing, and most Americans lose an hour?s sleep setting their clocks ahead. (Remember? Spring forward, fall back.) So here are answers to your questions about the time switch ? and about sleep. MSNBC News

Peter Arnett Now Reporting for Arab TV Since being fired by NBC, Arnett has been hired by a private Belgian TV network, a state-run Greek television channel and The Daily Mirror of London, a tabloid vehemently opposed to the war. Earthlink News

Judge Tosses JonBenet Ramsey Lawsuit A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the parents of JonBenet Ramsey and criticized police and the FBI for what she said was a media campaign aimed at making the family look guilty. Eartlink News

Military Releases Details of POW Rescue "Jessica Lynch," called out an American soldier, approaching her bed. "We are United States soldiers and we're here to protect you and take you home." Peering from behind the sheet as he removed his helmet, she looked up and said, "I'm an American soldier, too." Earthlink News

Doing the dissent thing... Certainly this time some of the public have bowed to patriotism. In the week of the first bombing raid, support for the attack jumped 16 percentage points, according to an ICM/Guardian poll... Of all the countries covering the war, Britain is the most interesting. American media has been unquestionably pro-war, the French and German's anti-war BBC News

Salon Gets a Lifeline Salon Media Group, the publisher of online culture and politics site Salon, said on Friday it received an $800,000 round of funding that would give it the needed breathing room to reach profitability. The funding, led by previous investors Bill Hambrecht and John Warlock, is on top of $1.3 million Salon has raised since last July. The company said the funds would allow it to continue its march to self-sufficiency, which is keyed on its new hybrid subscription and sponsorship model. Internet News

FBI Says Trilogy Program Is Complete FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said Friday the agency has completed a key component of its modernization program, the costly, oft-criticized Trilogy network. The $458 million project, which has been plagued by cost overruns, is expected to allow FBI agents to receive multi-media case files at their desks and to link various law enforcement agency databases.
Internet News

Generals dig in for long war The decision marks a victory for the military over their civilian masters, who have been pressing the political imperative for a swift end to the war. President Bush encouraged his generals to keep their sights fixed on Baghdad, although he is leaving military planning to General Franks. Times Online

The Yank opened up. He had absolutely no regard for human life. He was a cowboy out on a jolly' THREE wounded British soldiers described yesterday how they survived a terrifying attack by an American anti-tank aircraft that killed one of their troop and destroyed two armoured vehicles. Times Online

U.S. Troops Kill Seven Iraqi Women, Children in Car Thirteen women and children were inside the vehicle, four of whom were unhurt, the military said. Yahoo News

In Basra, Panic as a Tactic of War The skirmish, in which the Iraqis made use of human shields, mobile weapons and panic, underscored the problems facing British soldiers as they try to take Basra, Iraq's second-largest city. It also made clear some of the pitfalls U.S. forces would confront in a battle for Baghdad. LA Times

NBC severs ties with journalist Arnett NBC fired journalist Peter Arnett on Monday, saying it was wrong for him to give an interview with state-run Iraqi TV in which he said the American-led coalition's initial plan for the war had failed because of Iraq's resistance. Arnett called the interview a "misjudgment" and apologized Salon

Analysis: US warns Syria and Iran The US appears to be trying to shape the political landscape of the Middle East for the post-war phase. They also raise the question as to whether action in some form against other countries might follow the war against Iraq. BBC News

Can the Pentagon defends its plan of war The New Yorker, in questioning Mr. Rumsfeld's tactics, gives a new turn to these criticisms, The magazine quotes that according to several strategists of the Pentagon Mr. Rumsfeld categorically refused the deployment in the Gulf of four additional divisions, as recommended by the staff. Refusing the application of his commander General Tommy Franks, to delay the invasion to give time to the 4 the 2nd division, hat could not enter the north of Iraq by Turkey, to redeploy in the south. Le Monde

In the heart of the Arab East The town of Baghdad was founded into 752 by Al-Mansour, the Victorious one, twelve years after the introduction of the caliphate abbasside. Le monde

To the victor go the spoils The Defense Department had apparently been thinking of setting up a GSM system in Iraq, but Issa warned Rumsfeld that such a system, which is the standard in Europe, and elsewhere in the Mideast, would benefit "French and European sources, not U.S. patent holders." On Thursday, Issa introduced a bill that would make his policy recommendations law. There are no official co-sponsors, but under the headline "Parlez-vous fran�ais?" on his Web site, a statement says that many lawmakers have already expressed their support for an American cellphone system in Iraq. By Farhad Manjoo Salon

Ah-may-ree-ka No More the Promised Land ...after the bombing started, the worm turned. We were counting on struggling masses yearning to breathe free, but video of the bombs hitting Baghdad, the video of crying children, the reports of dead civilians...these have been played over and over, sometimes with sentimental Enya-like music, and it's just been too much for the people here. They are Kurds and their identity is linked to their Kurdish culture, but, apparently, their religious identity is stronger than this. Our attack on Iraq is being seen as an attack on their Muslim brothers and sisters. It has become a religious war, and Saddam Hussein is now being called a hero, even among the Kurds. In fact, the war has given the Kurds and the Turks a common ground, perhaps the first time they've ever agreed on anything. Mother Jones

Knife fight in a phone booth With the United States' much-hyped air bombardment failing to shock and awe enough members of Saddam Hussein's military or high command into surrender, many observers remain convinced that U.S.-led coalition forces will have to win their military victory in downtown Baghdad. And they'll have to do it by waging dangerous, restricted urban warfare, often compared to a knife fight inside a phone booth. Salon

Rage or Reason The view held by some proponents of direct action embraces the romantic legacy of the '60s and sees the current war largely as a corporate-sponsored evil that defies the will of the people. For them, immediate action against the war profiteers is the necessary next step. Says the Web site for Direct Action to Stop the War, the San Francisco group that coordinated the last week's acts of massive civil disobedience in the city: "We hold corporations including Bechtel, Citigroup, the Carlyle Group and ChevronTexaco accountable for not only their profits from this war, but the fact that they made this war possible through their investments, operations, weapons, lobbying, political contributions and drive for unending profits regardless of the toll on human life, the environment or society."

Moderate groups like MoveOn.org and the National Council of Churches don't wholly disagree with this analysis, but their emphasis is on long-term goals and expansion. They see the war as resulting from a breakdown in education and democracy, and their aim is to spread the word about the Bush administration's foreign policy agenda through teach-ins, Web sites and church meetings. They also plan a parallel effort to work to elect progressive candidates who they hope will return a measure of accountability to government and start mending international institutions like the U.N.

Radicals want to shock people out of their torpor, moderates to coax them. In all likelihood, neither can do much to stop this war, but their successes or failures could help determine what follows it. Salon

Gulf war syndrome research reveals present danger What the soldiers have not been told is that about one in 10 of them are almost as sensitive to nerve agents as the pigeons. There is now mounting evidence that exposure to minuscule amounts of these chemicals can cause permanent brain damage in susceptible people, and that is exactly what happened 12 years ago when thousands of troops returning from Kuwait started to complain of debilitating symptoms. New Scientist

Water could replace spacecraft heat shield tiles Existing heat-shield technology leaves a lot to be desired. In the 1960s Apollo rockets used a heat shield that burnt off slowly - but this is no good for reusable spacecraft like NASA's fleet of space shuttles. And the silica tiles the shuttle uses are fragile and prone to damage. New Scientist

�

NASA Missed Warning Signs hough obsessed with safety, NASA lost its perspective about proper operating conditions for the shuttle, justifying flights despite equipment flaws clearly beyond design parameters, an aerospace expert told shuttle accident investigators Tuesday. Discovery

Domino's driver fired for lecture of D.M. girl "I don't blame Domino's Pizza for firing me. When they told me I was wearing my uniform at the time, I pretty much knew I was going to be fired," McKillop said. "As I walked up to the house, I didn't even know what I was going to say. They have the right to have signs in their yard. I still can't believe I did that." Des Moines Register

Deadly pneumonia linked to China flu The lethal strain of pneumonia that is causing panic in the Far East was linked for the first time yesterday to the outbreak of a mystery flu-like illness in China last year by the World Health Organisation. The Chinese authorities said the disease had killed at least 34 people in China since November 31 in the south and three in Beijing, and 792 people had developed symptoms of pneumonia. Independent

Why the UN is not fading away With the growing mass of ordinary people converging in the streets the world over to protest against a unilateral war and the sudden burst of anti-war activism and "hacktivism" on the Internet, the United States simply cannot ignore the only global instrument available to confront the myriad problems facing humanity today. Daily Nation

The New Iraq A slick Iraqi-American business consultant, full of hip chatter and bogus expertise, stands ready to lead an army of global capital into the "emerging market" of his ancestral homeland. Salon

This is not America In increments, we have become a different nation. Will I have to flee my country as my ancestors did theirs?
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Gregory Dicum

March 25, 2003 �|� Pranas Ancevicius, my maternal grandfather, was intercepted by the German navy while trying to escape the Baltics for Sweden in 1944. An anti-Stalinist intellectual, Pranas had sensed the impending return of the Red Army to his native Lithuania. Caught between two loathsome regimes, he made his way to Nazi Berlin, where he hid with his family under cover of the right combination of documents.

In British Malaya, Lourdes Gnanadicassamy, my other grandfather, had divined the intentions of the Japanese Imperial Army in 1940. He packed the family off to India 18 months before his country descended into four years of Japanese occupation.

Enough of my ancestors have had to make the fateful decision to flee their homes -- and have done so at just the right moment -- that I have often wondered if I have inherited their uncanny sense of timing.

My life is comfortable -- like many of my forebears were, I am a happily married homeowner, a contributing member of civil society. I have suffered somewhat during this economic malaise, but there is food on the table, the occasional vacation, and talk of having a baby. My personal experience of life has been one of security and happiness, but for the first time my genes are getting nervous. As I examine the family histories and read each day's darkening headlines, I find that the question is no longer so abstract, or so leisurely: If it came right down to it, would I know when to go?

By the time my grandmother's family left Siberia, where they had been homesteading when she was born, the Bolshevik revolution was in full swing. Secret denouncements, property seizures, and disappearances were the order of the day. Surely if it came to that, I'd have been packing my bags too, right? Yet under the PATRIOT Act and sundry new regulations, secret military incarcerations, politically directed police forces, and whispers of torture have become daily news in our country. And here I still am, making mortgage payments, buying organic vegetables, listening to Wilco CDs. My great-aunt Anele Tamulevicius, whose husband was "disappeared" in Soviet-occupied Lithuania the day after their wedding, believed to her dying day that the violent vanities of the Old World should never infect the New. It may be too late for that wish.


Stasys Tamulevicius, my great-uncle, perhaps lacked the gene for political timing. A fatalist, he stayed on in Lithuania through the darkness of Soviet rule. In his day, the authorities kept a file on everyone -- following not just their political activities but also the most banal details of one's life, whatever they could get from neighbors or co-workers. It's hard not to think of him when I read about the Office of Information Awareness and its plan for a centralized database that would make a dragnet through all Americans as easy as a Google search. This kind of technology is already being used to screen passengers on Delta Airlines, which, in cooperation with the new Transportation Security Agency, checks passenger credit records and other seemingly irrelevant data prior to letting them fly.


And airlines aren't the only ones eager to facilitate the awareness of information. Recently, eBay's director of "law enforcement and compliance" announced that the company would turn over any of its volumes of information about users -- what they might have bought, or even just looked at -- to government agents without waiting for a subpoena. When the pretense of privacy evaporates, is it time to start pricing (offline) one-way tickets to New Zealand? Could be, but I haven't done it.


Of course, I know that I'm not the primary target of these new regulations. I'm not the one they're looking for. But then again, neither are a lot of other people who have suffered as a result of them -- or as a result of the paranoia that they seem to instill in ordinary citizens. It seems darkly comical when a man is arrested for wearing a "Give Peace a Chance" T-shirt. But it's horrifying when a crowd at a Chicago nightclub is so on edge that they kill 21 people while fleeing what they thought was a terror attack. Is this just our own version of the kind of malignancy that led to my great-uncle Vaclavas' death in 1943? He had constructed a clever escape tunnel beneath his house, but when the time came to use it, he found the exit had been blocked by a jealous neighbor. His body was found in a well a few days later. This is where the escalation of fear leads, and I wonder how far we have already gone down that murky path. Have my economy-class seatmates ever glanced at my dark complexion and silently considered how they might wield a plastic spoon against me to thwart my evil intentions? (I confess I've wondered how I might do the same to them.) Has anyone noticed the stream of leftist fundraising appeals that comes into my mailbox? In what files do essays like this get placed?


In increments we have become a different nation. Each step ruffles our feathers just a bit, but the ruckus dies down quickly and we are on our way to the next. Life goes on, and we find ourselves living in a different country without ever having moved.

In a nation of immigrants, we all have ancestors who decided it was time to go. Around the world, people make the decision every day, packing a few belongings onto a cart and walking away from the action, as is happening now in Kurdistan and Baghdad. What happens when it's our turn? Much has changed already; how much more will have to change before it becomes time for me to sell the house? Sew gold coins into the hem of my jacket as I gather the loved ones around me one last time? It's not here yet, but is the hour approaching when, once again, we might decide to bid farewell to yet another homeland?



For each of us, the point of no return is at a different place -- the subtle moment beyond which you are the one they're looking for. For the hundreds of Pakistanis seeking asylum at the Canadian border, that point has passed. For the desperate mobs jamming the Kuwait City airport, the moment is upon them. For me, it remains just a possibility. Salon

Oscar winner Kidman could do it all again next year Nicole Kidman has one Oscar and this time next year she could have two. The Australian actress has three quality films - Cold Mountain, The Human Stain and Dogville - coming out late this year and any one of the three could score her another invite to the Academy Awards. The Age

Vietnam moves to counter 'cyber-dissidents' on the Web One of Vietnam's best-known dissidents was arrested last week for trying to post documents on the Internet, in a sign of the regime's growing fear of losing control of the Web.
Pro-democracy activist Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, a thorn in Hanoi's side for the past three decades who was released from nearly 20 years' jail in 1998, was arrested at his home in southern Ho Chi Minh City on March 17. Nando Times

Sun's Output Increasing Confounding efforts to determine the Sun's role is the fact that its energy output waxes and wanes every 11 years. This solar cycle, as it is called, reached maximum in the middle of 2000 and achieved a second peak in 2002. It is now ramping down toward a solar minimum that will arrive in about three years. Yahoo News

Andean Glacier Threatens Flooding in Peru [AP World News]

Ontario to double West Nile funding [The Globe And Mail - National]

Canadian laboratory zeros in on SARS virus [The Globe And Mail - National]