6 More American Troops Killed in Iraq, Putting U.S. Toll There Past That of 9/11
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
BAGHDAD, Iraq Dec 26, 2006 (AP)— At least 36 Iraqis died Tuesday in bombings, officials said, including a coordinated strike that killed 25 in western Baghdad. Separately, the deaths of six U.S. soldiers pushed the American toll beyond the number of victims in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The three coordinated car bombs in western Baghdad injured at least 55 people, a doctor at Yarmouk hospital, where the victims were taken, said on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns. The attacks occurred in a mixed Sunni and Shiite neighborhood.
In separate attacks, a bomb exploded in a central Baghdad market, killing four people and wounding 15 others, police said. Two roadside bombs targeted an Iraqi police patrol in an eastern neighborhood of the capital, killing four policemen and injuring 12 people.
In Kirkuk, 180 miles north of the Iraqi capital, another roadside bomb killed three civilians including an 8-year-old girl and wounded six other people, police said.
The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the deaths of six more American soldiers, pushing the U.S. military death toll since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,978 five more than the number killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
The milestone came with military announcement that three soldiers had been killed Monday. Three more service members were killed Tuesday in roadside bombings near Baghdad, the military said.
President Bush has said that the Iraq war is part of the United States' post-Sept. 11 approach to threats abroad. Going on offense against enemies before they could harm Americans meant removing the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, pursuing members of al-Qaida and seeking regime change in Iraq, Bush has said.
Democratic leaders have said the Bush administration has gotten the U.S. bogged down in Iraq when there was no evidence of links to the Sept. 11 attacks, detracting from efforts against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.
The AP count of those killed includes at least seven military civilians. Prior to the deaths announced Tuesday, the AP count was 15 higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday. At least 2,377 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers
http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2751178
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1978674,00.html
Ethiopian forces near Somali capital
Ethiopia today pressed on with its offensive against Somali Islamists and threatened to seize the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
At least two Ethiopian jets fired missiles on retreating Islamist forces, prompting the interim Somali government to claim a partial victory.
Hundreds of troops have been killed during a week of heavy artillery and mortar fighting amid fears that it could spark a wider regional conflict in the Horn of Africa.
"Ethiopian forces are on their way to Mogadishu. They are about 40 miles away and it is possible they could capture it in the next 24 to 48 hours," Somalia's ambassador to Ethiopia, Abdikarin Farah, told reporters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
But the Islamists, who insisted their withdrawal was "tactical", warned that any attempt to take Mogadishu would end in disaster for the attackers.
"It will be their destruction and doomsday," the Islamist spokesman Abdi Kafi said. "We will fight to the last man until we ensure there are no more Ethiopian troops in our country."
The Islamists, who hold most of southern Somalia after seizing Mogadishu in June, claim broad popular support and say their main aim is to restore order under sharia law after years of anarchy since the 1991 ousting of the dictator Siad Barre.
Ethiopia, which fears a hardline Muslim state on its doorstep, accuses the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) of wanting to annex Ethiopia's ethnically Somali Ogaden region. Addis Ababa has sided with the internationally recognised, but weak, transitional government, based in Baidoa.
Diplomats fear the fighting will draw in Eritrea on the side of the Islamists.
"What is happening in Somalia is very, very dangerous and will have consequences in the Horn," the Eritrean information minister, Ali Abdu, told Reuters in Asmara.
The African Union (AU) has backed Ethiopia's right to intervene in what has been seen as a potentially significant endorsement that may further embolden Addis Ababa.
The AU deputy chairman, Patrick Mazimhaka, told the BBC that Ethiopia had given the organisation - set up to stop conflicts across Africa - "ample warning" that it felt threatened.
"It is up to every country to judge the measure of the threat to its own sovereignty," he said. Diplomats say Kenya, which is taking in a flood of Somali refugees across its northern border, is working behind the scenes to broker ceasefire talks.
Thousands of Somali Islamist fighters crammed into camouflage-painted trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns headed out from Mogadishu and elsewhere to reinforce their comrades beaten back from frontlines around the south central town of Baidoa.
The air strikes at Leego and Jama'ada - east of Buur Hakaba, a town recaptured by pro-government forces today - marked the third day of such attacks by Ethiopian planes.
After the Islamist withdrawal, residents and local militiamen looted Buur Hakaba, 20 miles east of Baidoa, stealing boxes of food and medicine, witnesses said.
"The town is in total chaos," said the resident Adan Hassan.
Analysts say Ethiopia's heavy arms and MiG warplanes helped them halt an initial Islamist attack and saved the transitional government from being driven out of Baidoa.
"This is the first stage of victory ... When this is all over, we will enter Mogadishu peacefully," the Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told Reuters by telephone from Baidoa.
Despite its hopes for a quick win, the transitional government fears renewed assaults or a guerrilla campaign, particularly from hardliners within the SICC.
Mysterious teen reappears in Nepal
Reuters
Kathmandu -- A mysterious teenager believed by some to be a reincarnation of Lord Buddha has reappeared in eastern Nepal after nine months, a witness and a television channel said yesterday.
Villagers spotted Ram Bahadur Bamjon, 16, on Sunday in dense forest in Bara district, 150 kilometres east of Kathmandu, according to a local journalist.Mr. Bamjon disappeared in March from the forests in nearby Ratanpuri village where he had reportedly been meditating without food or water for almost 10 months.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061226.WORLD26-3/TPStory/TPInternational/Asia/
'Iran may still be stopped peacefully'
By HERB KEINON
Talkbacks for this article: 17
Nonmilitary steps that began with the UN Security Council's decision to impose sanctions on Iran could eventually lead Teheran to drop its nuclear program, a senior diplomatic official said on Monday, sounding a rarely-heard optimistic note in Jerusalem on efforts to stop the Islamic state's nuclear program.
But all this, the official said, depended on whether Teheran wanted to remain within the community of nations. If, however, it opts to snub the world and to go the way of North Korea, the implication in the official's comments is that military steps may be the only way to stop Iran from gaining a nuclear capability.
Blog - The Persian Abyss: The myth of sanctions
The diplomatic official said he did not know which path Iran would choose.
According to the official, Israel - which for months has been pushing the world in the direction of sanctions - must remain "vigilant" at the diplomatic level to prevent the international community from saying that with this round of sanctions, "We have done everything we can do."
The official said the Iranian issue would remain atop Israel's agenda, and that Israeli diplomats would work to ensure that the sanctions imposed were applied. He said Israel would likely push the countries involved to make sure that if the Iranians did not stop enriching uranium within 60 days, as the UN Security Council Resolution stipulated, a harsher set of sanctions would be imposed.
The official said that while the sanctions alone would not stop Iran, they did give "moral and legal" support for unilateral "financial and commercial" steps that the US and financial institutions around the world have begun taking.
"Saturday's decision rejuvenates the Security Council-bypass efforts," the official said, referring to these unilateral measures. For instance, the official said, a major Iranian bank has been cut off from the banking systems in the US, Japan, and several European countries, and that Iran had been denied lines of credit.
As an indication that these measures were being felt in Teheran, the diplomat the Iranian ambassador in London recently complained that his country was being boycotted by Britain, and Iran's oil minister recently complained that investments in Iranian oil fields were drying up.
"Financial institutions and foreign companies look at all the developments surrounding Iran and wonder whether it is worth the risk," the official said, adding that the Security Council Resolution strengthened the perception that Iran was a "bad risk." And this, the official said, would add to the country's economic woes.
An indication of the depth of these woes was provided on Monday with the release in Washington of a US National Academy of Sciences analysis that indicated Iran was suffering a staggering decline in revenue from its oil exports, and that if the trend continued, the income could virtually disappear by 2015.
Iran's economic problems could cripple its oil industry, rendering the country unstable and vulnerable, Roger Stern, an economic geographer at Johns Hopkins University, said in the report and in an interview with AP.
Iran earns about $50 billion a year from oil exports, which are declining at an estimated 10 percent to 12% annually. Exports could be halved in less than five years and disappear by 2015, Stern predicted.
The country could be destabilized by declining oil exports, hostility to foreign investment needed to develop new oil resources and poor state planning, Stern said
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881976526&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
British military finds 'appalling' Iraqi prison cell
By Marc Santora Published: December 26, 2006
BAGHDAD: A military action against a police station in the southern city of Basra found prisoners being held in conditions that a British military spokesman, Major Charlie Burbridge, described as "appalling."
More than 100 men were crowded into a single cell, about 9 meters by 12 meters, or 30 feet by 40 feet, he said, with two open toilets, two sinks and just a few blankets spread over the concrete floor.
A significant number showed signs of torture. Some had crushed hands and feet, Burbridge said, while others had cigarette and electrical burns and a significant number had gunshot wounds to their legs and knees.
Hundreds of British and Iraqi soldiers assaulted the police station on Monday, killing seven gunmen, rescuing 127 prisoners from what the British said was almost certain execution and ultimately reducing the facility to rubble.
The fetid dungeon was another example of abuses by the Iraqi security forces. The discovery highlighted the continuing struggle to combat the infiltration of the police and army by militias and criminal elements — even in a Shiite city like Basra, where there has been no sectarian violence.
As recently as October, the Iraqi government suspended an entire police brigade in Baghdad on suspicion of participation in death squads. The raid on Monday also raised echoes of the infamous Baghdad prison run by the Interior Ministry, known as Site 4, where more than 1,400 prisoners were subjected to systematic abuse and torture.
The focus of the attack was an arm of the local police called the serious crimes unit, which British officials said had been thoroughly infiltrated by criminals and militias who used it to terrorize local residents and violently settle scores with political or tribal rivals.
"The serious crimes unit was at the center of death squad activity," Burbridge said.
Just a little over a year ago, British troops had stormed the same building seeking to rescue two British special forces soldiers who had been captured by militants. A mob of 1,000 to 2,000 people gathered in protest, and a widely circulated video showed boys throwing stones at a burning British armored fighting vehicle parked outside the station.
The soldiers, who were being held in a nearby building, were eventually freed.
Although some local officials, including Basra's police chief, publicly condemned the action, local residents privately said they were grateful, and painted an image of an organization widely feared for its brutality.
"They are like savage dogs that bite when they are hungry," said one resident, who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution. "Their evaluation of guilt or innocence is how much money you can pay."
Residents said people were afraid to challenge them because they were backed by powerful militia groups including the Mahdi Army, which is led by the rebel cleric Moktada al- Sadr, though the extent of his control is unclear.
"Everyone wants to avoid the mouth of the lion," one resident said. "From this, they became stronger and stronger."
More than 800 British soldiers, supported by five Challenger tanks and roughly 40 Warrior fighting vehicles, began their assault at 2 a.m. on Monday. They were also aided by 600 Iraqi soldiers.
The British force faced the heaviest fighting as it made its way through the city, coming under sporadic attacks by rocket-propelled grenades and small- arms fire. Of the seven guerrillas killed, six were gunned down as the unit made its way to the police station.
Upon reaching the station, British troops killed a guard in a watchtower who had fired on the approaching forces, but there was little other resistance.
The members of the serious crimes unit who had been occupying the building, several dozen according to the British military, fled and were not caught. The British forces turned over the prisoners to the regular Iraqi police, who put them in a new detention facility.
The two-story building, once used by Saddam Hussein's security forces, was then demolished, in an attempt to remove all traces of the serious crimes unit, Burbridge said.
The entire battle lasted nearly three hours. There were no British casualties.
Dozens killed in bombings
At least 36 Iraqis died Tuesday in bombings, officials said, including a coordinated strike that killed 25 in western Baghdad, The Associated Press reported from the capital. Separately, the deaths of six U.S. soldiers pushed the American death toll to at least 2,978 — five more than the number killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
The three coordinated car bombs in western Baghdad wounded at least 55 people, a doctor at Yarmouk hospital, where the victims were taken, said on the condition of anonymity because of safety concerns.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/26/news/iraq.php
$1 billion tab likely to grow in Katrina abuse
Investigators probe contracts awarded with little or no competition
By HOPE YEN
Associated Press
TOOLS
Email Get section feed
Print Subscribe NOW
RESOURCES
UNDER PROBE
Hurricane Katrina contracts being investigated by Congress
• No-bid: Propriety of four no-bid contracts together worth $400 million to Shaw Group Inc., Bechtel Group Inc., CH2M Hill Companies Ltd. and Fluor Corp.
• Rebid: Propriety of 36 trailer contract awards designated for small and local businesses as part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency director's promise to rebid large contracts.
• Minority bids: Whether small and minority-owned businesses were unfairly hurt after the Bush administration initially waived competition requirements.
WASHINGTON — The tally for Hurricane Katrina waste could top $2 billion next year because half of the lucrative government contracts valued at $500,000 or more for cleanup work are being awarded with little competition.
Federal investigators already have determined the Bush administration squandered $1 billion on fraudulent disaster aid to individuals after the 2005 storm. Now they are shifting their attention to the multimillion dollar contracts to politically connected firms that critics long have said are a prime area for abuse.
In January, investigators will release the first of several audits examining more than $12 billion in Katrina contracts. The charges range from political favoritism to limited opportunities for small and minority-owned firms, which initially got only 1.5 percent of the work.
"It wouldn't surprise me if we saw another billion more in waste," said Clark Kent Ervin, the Homeland Security Department's inspector general from 2003-04. "I don't think sufficient progress has been made."
He called it inexcusable that the Bush administration would still have so many no-bid contracts. Under pressure last year, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director David Paulison pledged to rebid many of the agreements, only to backtrack months later and reopen only a portion.
Investigators are now examining whether some of the agreements — which in some cases were extended without warning rather than rebid — are still unfairly benefiting large firms.
"It's a combination of laziness, ineptitude and it may well be nefarious," Ervin said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4425830.html
Stand up for justice, Ellison tells fellow Muslims
DEARBORN, Mich. The first Muslim elected to Congress returned to his of home state of Michigan and told fellow Muslims to observe their faith and work for justice.
Keith Ellison spoke today at a convention of the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America, attended by about three-thousand people.
Born in Detroit, Ellison converted to Islam while in college. He ran successfully as a Democratic candidate for a Minnesota U-S House seat.
Virginia Republican Representative Virgil Goode drew widespread criticism when he challenged Ellison's intention to take the oath of office on the Quran, rather than the Bible. Goode said more Muslims would be elected to office unless immigration was limited.
Ellison says Muslims can expect more attacks in the future but they can help the nation learn about justice and equal protection.
http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=5857341&nav=S6aK
Boom in Rockies for Skiers, Developers and Immigrants
Sign In to E-Mail or Save This Print Share
DiggFacebookNewsvinePermalink
By NEIL GENZLINGER
Published: December 26, 2006
The title deserves an F.C.C. fine for unoriginality, but “In the Shadow of the American Dream,” tonight on NBC, does a decent job of translating one of the year’s most bloviated-upon topics, immigration, into human terms. It may also give anyone on a holiday ski trip to Colorado an extra bit of luggage: a small bag of guilt.
The latest in the “Tom Brokaw Reports” series, the program avoids the statistics-and-sound-bite trap that makes most treatments of the subject so dry. It focuses instead on one particular microcosm, Gould Construction in Glenwood Springs, Colo., a contractor whose territory, the Roaring Fork Valley near Aspen, is a destination for vacationers and the expensive-second-home crowd.
“Americans don’t want this work,” Mark Gould, the company’s president, says bluntly of the ditch-digging and other tough jobs that must be done to enable boom-time buildings to go up. But immigrants, mostly Mexicans, do want it, and so in the Rockies, far from the border and that much-discussed wall, Spanish is taking over. Mr. Brokaw visits a four-bedroom house where one of Mr. Gould’s workers lives with 17 other people. Only one of the 18 is an American, a 2-year-old who was born in the United States.
Mr. Gould talks forthrightly about the frustrations of having more work than he can find workers to do. His staff is shown making what seems to be a good-faith effort to check applicants’ papers, and the police and other local officials talk about legal-vs.-illegal-immigrant issues, but there’s a sense that it’s all a facade: everyone knows the area’s economy wouldn’t run without illegal workers. Certainly Mr. Brokaw’s crew has no trouble not only pinpointing which of Mr. Gould’s workers are illegal but also finding the document-forger they use.
But this is no exposé. It’s an attempt to look at the immigration issue through the eyes of people directly involved, and Mr. Brokaw — despite an annoying interview technique in which he states the ideas he wants his subjects to articulate, then asks them if that’s correct — gets a commendable amount of candor out of people when he lets them talk.
Varied views are dutifully represented, but this is at heart a pro-immigrant program; immigrants are depicted as hard workers, and there is no suggestion that some come to the United States specifically to commit crimes or rip off the system. If nothing else, though, Mr. Brokaw reveals the interconnectedness that takes hold once a community turns to immigrant labor.
The longtime Colorado resident who speaks eloquently about how it feels to have her children now be part of a minority group in the local school, which is 80 percent Hispanic, is a vice president at Gould Construction. One project Mr. Gould is trying to find workers for is a school expansion, made necessary by the influx of immigrants.
Essentially absent, though, are the rich people and vacationers whose demands for creature comforts are presumably fueling all of this. Who is going to be staying in that hotel Gould Construction is working on? How many of those future visitors are charter members of the Close the Border Club?
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/26/arts/television/26genz.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Broadcast radio crosses the century mark
Posted Dec 24th 2006 3:55PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
We'll admit, there's not a whole of gizmos invented 100 years ago that we still rely on (and bicker about) on a near-daily basis, but broadcast radio has managed to stay in our homes, cars, hearts, and complaint letters for a full century. Exactly one hundred years ago today, Reginald Fessenden fired up his transmitting station at Brant Rock, Massachusetts in order to broadcast a "brief speech," followed by an Edison phonograph recording of Handel's Largo." He also sent out a few other holiday jams and well-wishes to those spending Christmas "onboard US Navy and United Fruit Company ships equipped with Fessenden's wireless receivers." Fessenden earned more than 500 patents in his lifetime, including credit for the "radio telephone, a sonic depth finder, and submarine signaling devices." So while the FCC tries to regulate it, and we prefer the cleaner, less ad-filled satellite rendition of radio, we're still raising our glasses to a technology that's changed technology over the past hundred years, and here's to a hundred more.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/24/broadcast-radio-crosses-the-century-mark/
Crude Oil Is Steady on Speculation Iran Won't Curb Shipments
By Mark Shenk
Dec. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil was little changed on speculation Iran won't curb shipments after the country said it will defy United Nations sanctions and pursue nuclear research.
The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Dec. 23 because of Iran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, which the U.S. and its European allies say is geared toward making nuclear weapons. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected the UN resolution as a ``scrap of paper'' and said the world would have to accept Iran as a nuclear power.
``Sanctions were imposed but it doesn't appear that anything will happen immediately, so buyers will be restrained,'' said Michael Fitzpatrick, vice president for energy risk management at Fimat USA in New York. ``There will have to be something more compelling to get us above our top in the $64 range.''
Crude oil for February delivery rose 5 cents to $62.46 a barrel at 10:23 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are up 2.3 percent this year. Futures traded between $58.66 and $64.15 over the past month. The exchange was shut yesterday for Christmas.
Iran has the second-biggest proved oil reserves and almost a quarter of the world's oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
UN Resolution
The UN resolution requires Iran to halt uranium enrichment and heavy-water projects that might lead to the development of nuclear weapons. It freezes the financial assets of 12 named individuals and 11 groups such as the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
The Iranian government wants to review its relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency over the sanctions, the state Islamic Republic News Agency said today. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki expressed the government's support for a parliamentary bill that calls for revising relations with the IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, IRNA said.
A fire at a vandalized oil pipeline in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, killed 200 people, the Nigerian Red Cross told Cable News Network. Thieves who had vandalized the pipeline were trying to steal fuel when it exploded, Red Cross Secretary General Abiodun Orebiyi told CNN by telephone.
Explosions at oil pipelines are recurrent in Nigeria, home of Africa's biggest petroleum industry. In October 1998, a pipeline explosion killed 1,082 people and injured hundreds more at Jesse in the Niger Delta, AFP said.
Brent crude oil for February settlement rose 26 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $62.68 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures exchange.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ac092KFB6SPU&refer=home
Victims of floods starving
Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta correspondent
December 27, 2006
HUNDREDS of thousands of Indonesians forced to flee their homes are threatened by starvation and disease after heavy floods in the nation's west.
As Aceh marked the grim anniversary yesterday of the 2004 tsunami that wiped out much of its coastal society, it was the turn of those further inland on Sumatra island to face having lost everything.
The death toll stood at more than 80 yesterday across west and north Sumatra and on nearby Riau island, with more than 200,000 people made homeless, four days after wild storms brought flooding, believed to have been made worse by the effects of illegal logging.
Several more people were dead and tens of thousands homeless in neighbouring southern Malaysia.
At least 21 central Sumatrans were killed by landslides hours after they returned to their homes on Monday, having fled when an earthquake measuring 5.7 rocked Mandailing Natal district last week.
"From morning to afternoon on Monday we used military vehicles to collect refugees of the earthquake who wanted to return to their homes, and shortly afterwards in the evening the landslide hit," Mandailing Natal police spokesman Syarbani Harahap said.
Medan-based aid worker Herwin Nasution said: "This event has only increased the trauma for people who experienced last week's quake."
Acehnese governor-elect Irwandi Yusuf, a former rebel leader who has been elected to represent his people in the restive province, warned that the illegal logging responsible for frequent landslides during the annual rainy season must be dealt with.
"This activity must be halted so this kind of disaster does not keep happening," Mr Yusuf warned yesterday.
At least 14 bridges were knocked out by the floods, and the Indonesian air force was airlifting food, blankets, tents, mattresses and clothing by helicopter and Hercules transports.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20977279-2703,00.html
Iraqi leader upset by arrest of Iranians by U.S. forces
By Alexandra Zavis and Peter Spiegel, Times Staff Writers
December 26, 2006
BAGHDAD — Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Monday protested the arrest by U.S. forces of two Iranian envoys who were in Iraq at his invitation, a spokesman said.
Officials in Washington confirmed the detentions, first reported in the New York Times, saying the two officials were among an unspecified number of Iranians apprehended in raids last week aimed at groups suspected of plotting attacks against U.S. and Iraqi targets.
ADVERTISEMENT
The incident underscored divergent approaches toward Iran's attempts to expand its role in Iraq and the containment of militant Shiite Muslim groups allegedly funded by Tehran.
President Bush has resisted pressure to open talks with Iran, which the United States accuses of arming and funding Shiite militiamen in Iraq. American officials have also accused Tehran of supplying technology used to make roadside bombs. Iran denies the U.S. charges, saying its ties to Iraq are political and religious.
"We suspect this event validates our claims about Iranian meddling, but we want to finish our investigation of the detained Iranians before characterizing their activities," White House spokesman Alex Conant said.
Iraqi officials have forged ahead with diplomatic contacts with Iran, and are distressed about a possible setback.
Last month, Talabani flew to Tehran to enlist the support of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in quelling the violence in Iraq and rebuilding its shattered economy. The two signed agreements aimed at boosting ties.
It was during the Tehran visit that Talabani extended the invitation to the two envoys who were detained last week, said Hiwa Osman, his spokesman. Talabani "is unhappy about the arrests" and has raised the issue with U.S. officials, Osman said.
He refused further comment. But a Kurdish political insider said the incident suggested a lack of communication between the United States and Iraq over security matters and relations with Iran.
"It seems that each side has their own plans and they are not coordinating with each other," said Mahmoud Othman, a lawmaker and Osman's father. "Of course it is of concern."
A U.S. military official said American troops were not targeting Iranians, and that they happened upon the two envoys during a routine counterinsurgency operation.
"We conducted a raid, we switched on the lights, and there they were," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Conant said the two officials were handed over to the Iraqi government because they had diplomatic immunity, and that Iraqi officials had released them to Iranian authorities.
"We continue to work with the [Iraqi government] on the status of the remaining detainees," Conant said. "That investigation is going well."
Osman said he was not aware of any other arrests. None of the U.S. officials interviewed Monday would specify how many Iranians had been detained or provide details about the raids. Iraqi officials also refused to give details.
In Tehran, the Foreign Ministry called the arrest a "contravention of the code of conduct with diplomats," the official Iranian news agency reported. It quoted a ministry official as saying the arrests could have "unpleasant consequences."
Washington and Tehran broke formal diplomatic ties after Iranian radicals stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which brought to power the world's first Shiite Muslim theocracy.
The New York Times reported Sunday that the U.S. military was holding at least four Iranians, including senior military officials detained in two raids. It said the diplomats were apprehended Thursday while traveling in an Iranian Embassy vehicle. Embassy officials refused to comment Monday.
Hadi Amiri, a leading figure in the political party of Shiite power broker Abdelaziz Hakim, denied the newspaper's report that some of the arrests were made at his home.
Iran has forged close ties to senior members of the Shiite political alliance that leads Iraq's government, including Hakim, who spent years in exile in Iran during the rule of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraqiran26dec26,1,1605360.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true
USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER ARRIVES IN ARABIAN GULF
Release Date: 12/11/2006
Release Number: 06-01-01PS
Description: USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, At sea - The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, flagship of the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, entered the Arabian Gulf Dec. 11, accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio.
While operating in the Arabian Gulf, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and embarked Carrier Air Wing 7, will conduct missions in direct support of troops participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Maritime Security Operations.
CVW-7 began flying missions into Afghanistan Nov. 6 in support of coalition troops on the ground participating in Operation Enduring Freedom. During 33 days of operations, the air wing flew more than 4,000 hours and more than 680 sorties, providing close air support and reconnaissance to International Security Assistance Force troops.
“Our men and women are proud to be serving alongside coalition partners and regional nations in this very important area of the world,” said Rear Adm. Al Myers, commander, Eisenhower Strike Group and Combined Task Force 152. “We are committed to supporting coalition ground forces in OIF to set the conditions for security and stability within Iraq and providing the Iraqi people with the best opportunity for self-determination. We’re grateful for the opportunity to serve and make a difference, whether it’s flying in support of multinational troops operating in Iraq or training alongside coalition and regional navies or conducting maritime security operations in the Arabian Gulf.”
IKE CSG departed Naval Station Norfolk Oct. 3 for a regularly scheduled deployment and began operating alongside coalition maritime forces in the region Oct. 30, conducting MSO to help set the conditions for security and stability in the maritime environment, as well as complement the counter-terrorism and security efforts of regional nations. The focus of these operations is to prevent international terrorist organizations from using the maritime environment as a venue from which to launch attacks, move people, weapons or other material.
CVW-7 includes Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 125 “Tigertails,” Strike Fighter Squadron 103 “Jolly Rogers,” Strike Fighter Squadron 131 “Wildcats,” Strike Fighter Squadron 143 “Pukin’ Dogs,” Strike Fighter Squadron 83 “Rampagers,” Electronic Attack (VAQ) Squadron 140 “Patriots,” and Helicopter Anti-submarine 5 “Nightdippers.”
IKE CSG includes the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, with its embarked air wing, CVW-7, and embarked Destroyer Squadron 28; the guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio; guided-missile destroyers USS Ramage and USS Mason; and the fast attack submarine USS Newport News. All are homeported in Norfolk, Va.
http://www.centcom.mil/sites/uscentcom1/Lists/Press%20Releases/DispForm.aspx?ID=4204
Saddam Hussein Will Be Executed Within 30 Days, AFP Reports
By Tarek al-Issawi
Dec. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Saddam Hussein's appeal against his death sentence failed and the former Iraqi dictator will be executed within 30 days, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the appeals court judge.
``As from tomorrow, the sentence could be carried out at any time,'' Judge Arif Shaheen said today, AFP said.
The appeals court, in Baghdad, upheld the death sentence handed down to Saddam last month. Hussein was found guilty on Nov. 5, following an earlier trial, of crimes against humanity for his role in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslim villagers in Dujail in 1982.
``The appeals court has issued its verdict,'' the judge said, according to AFP. ``What we have decided today is compulsory,'' he said. Iraq's executive arm is obliged to follow the court's finding, the judge said.
Iraqi law stipulates that the sentence of death must be carried out regardless of any other ongoing legal proceedings, AFP reported, citing the judge.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=akOH9u4PRI4s&refer=home
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
BAGHDAD, Iraq Dec 26, 2006 (AP)— At least 36 Iraqis died Tuesday in bombings, officials said, including a coordinated strike that killed 25 in western Baghdad. Separately, the deaths of six U.S. soldiers pushed the American toll beyond the number of victims in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The three coordinated car bombs in western Baghdad injured at least 55 people, a doctor at Yarmouk hospital, where the victims were taken, said on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns. The attacks occurred in a mixed Sunni and Shiite neighborhood.
In separate attacks, a bomb exploded in a central Baghdad market, killing four people and wounding 15 others, police said. Two roadside bombs targeted an Iraqi police patrol in an eastern neighborhood of the capital, killing four policemen and injuring 12 people.
In Kirkuk, 180 miles north of the Iraqi capital, another roadside bomb killed three civilians including an 8-year-old girl and wounded six other people, police said.
The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the deaths of six more American soldiers, pushing the U.S. military death toll since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,978 five more than the number killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
The milestone came with military announcement that three soldiers had been killed Monday. Three more service members were killed Tuesday in roadside bombings near Baghdad, the military said.
President Bush has said that the Iraq war is part of the United States' post-Sept. 11 approach to threats abroad. Going on offense against enemies before they could harm Americans meant removing the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, pursuing members of al-Qaida and seeking regime change in Iraq, Bush has said.
Democratic leaders have said the Bush administration has gotten the U.S. bogged down in Iraq when there was no evidence of links to the Sept. 11 attacks, detracting from efforts against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.
The AP count of those killed includes at least seven military civilians. Prior to the deaths announced Tuesday, the AP count was 15 higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday. At least 2,377 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers
http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2751178
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1978674,00.html
Ethiopian forces near Somali capital
Ethiopia today pressed on with its offensive against Somali Islamists and threatened to seize the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
At least two Ethiopian jets fired missiles on retreating Islamist forces, prompting the interim Somali government to claim a partial victory.
Hundreds of troops have been killed during a week of heavy artillery and mortar fighting amid fears that it could spark a wider regional conflict in the Horn of Africa.
"Ethiopian forces are on their way to Mogadishu. They are about 40 miles away and it is possible they could capture it in the next 24 to 48 hours," Somalia's ambassador to Ethiopia, Abdikarin Farah, told reporters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
But the Islamists, who insisted their withdrawal was "tactical", warned that any attempt to take Mogadishu would end in disaster for the attackers.
"It will be their destruction and doomsday," the Islamist spokesman Abdi Kafi said. "We will fight to the last man until we ensure there are no more Ethiopian troops in our country."
The Islamists, who hold most of southern Somalia after seizing Mogadishu in June, claim broad popular support and say their main aim is to restore order under sharia law after years of anarchy since the 1991 ousting of the dictator Siad Barre.
Ethiopia, which fears a hardline Muslim state on its doorstep, accuses the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) of wanting to annex Ethiopia's ethnically Somali Ogaden region. Addis Ababa has sided with the internationally recognised, but weak, transitional government, based in Baidoa.
Diplomats fear the fighting will draw in Eritrea on the side of the Islamists.
"What is happening in Somalia is very, very dangerous and will have consequences in the Horn," the Eritrean information minister, Ali Abdu, told Reuters in Asmara.
The African Union (AU) has backed Ethiopia's right to intervene in what has been seen as a potentially significant endorsement that may further embolden Addis Ababa.
The AU deputy chairman, Patrick Mazimhaka, told the BBC that Ethiopia had given the organisation - set up to stop conflicts across Africa - "ample warning" that it felt threatened.
"It is up to every country to judge the measure of the threat to its own sovereignty," he said. Diplomats say Kenya, which is taking in a flood of Somali refugees across its northern border, is working behind the scenes to broker ceasefire talks.
Thousands of Somali Islamist fighters crammed into camouflage-painted trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns headed out from Mogadishu and elsewhere to reinforce their comrades beaten back from frontlines around the south central town of Baidoa.
The air strikes at Leego and Jama'ada - east of Buur Hakaba, a town recaptured by pro-government forces today - marked the third day of such attacks by Ethiopian planes.
After the Islamist withdrawal, residents and local militiamen looted Buur Hakaba, 20 miles east of Baidoa, stealing boxes of food and medicine, witnesses said.
"The town is in total chaos," said the resident Adan Hassan.
Analysts say Ethiopia's heavy arms and MiG warplanes helped them halt an initial Islamist attack and saved the transitional government from being driven out of Baidoa.
"This is the first stage of victory ... When this is all over, we will enter Mogadishu peacefully," the Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told Reuters by telephone from Baidoa.
Despite its hopes for a quick win, the transitional government fears renewed assaults or a guerrilla campaign, particularly from hardliners within the SICC.
Mysterious teen reappears in Nepal
Reuters
Kathmandu -- A mysterious teenager believed by some to be a reincarnation of Lord Buddha has reappeared in eastern Nepal after nine months, a witness and a television channel said yesterday.
Villagers spotted Ram Bahadur Bamjon, 16, on Sunday in dense forest in Bara district, 150 kilometres east of Kathmandu, according to a local journalist.Mr. Bamjon disappeared in March from the forests in nearby Ratanpuri village where he had reportedly been meditating without food or water for almost 10 months.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061226.WORLD26-3/TPStory/TPInternational/Asia/
'Iran may still be stopped peacefully'
By HERB KEINON
Talkbacks for this article: 17
Nonmilitary steps that began with the UN Security Council's decision to impose sanctions on Iran could eventually lead Teheran to drop its nuclear program, a senior diplomatic official said on Monday, sounding a rarely-heard optimistic note in Jerusalem on efforts to stop the Islamic state's nuclear program.
But all this, the official said, depended on whether Teheran wanted to remain within the community of nations. If, however, it opts to snub the world and to go the way of North Korea, the implication in the official's comments is that military steps may be the only way to stop Iran from gaining a nuclear capability.
Blog - The Persian Abyss: The myth of sanctions
The diplomatic official said he did not know which path Iran would choose.
According to the official, Israel - which for months has been pushing the world in the direction of sanctions - must remain "vigilant" at the diplomatic level to prevent the international community from saying that with this round of sanctions, "We have done everything we can do."
The official said the Iranian issue would remain atop Israel's agenda, and that Israeli diplomats would work to ensure that the sanctions imposed were applied. He said Israel would likely push the countries involved to make sure that if the Iranians did not stop enriching uranium within 60 days, as the UN Security Council Resolution stipulated, a harsher set of sanctions would be imposed.
The official said that while the sanctions alone would not stop Iran, they did give "moral and legal" support for unilateral "financial and commercial" steps that the US and financial institutions around the world have begun taking.
"Saturday's decision rejuvenates the Security Council-bypass efforts," the official said, referring to these unilateral measures. For instance, the official said, a major Iranian bank has been cut off from the banking systems in the US, Japan, and several European countries, and that Iran had been denied lines of credit.
As an indication that these measures were being felt in Teheran, the diplomat the Iranian ambassador in London recently complained that his country was being boycotted by Britain, and Iran's oil minister recently complained that investments in Iranian oil fields were drying up.
"Financial institutions and foreign companies look at all the developments surrounding Iran and wonder whether it is worth the risk," the official said, adding that the Security Council Resolution strengthened the perception that Iran was a "bad risk." And this, the official said, would add to the country's economic woes.
An indication of the depth of these woes was provided on Monday with the release in Washington of a US National Academy of Sciences analysis that indicated Iran was suffering a staggering decline in revenue from its oil exports, and that if the trend continued, the income could virtually disappear by 2015.
Iran's economic problems could cripple its oil industry, rendering the country unstable and vulnerable, Roger Stern, an economic geographer at Johns Hopkins University, said in the report and in an interview with AP.
Iran earns about $50 billion a year from oil exports, which are declining at an estimated 10 percent to 12% annually. Exports could be halved in less than five years and disappear by 2015, Stern predicted.
The country could be destabilized by declining oil exports, hostility to foreign investment needed to develop new oil resources and poor state planning, Stern said
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881976526&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
British military finds 'appalling' Iraqi prison cell
By Marc Santora Published: December 26, 2006
BAGHDAD: A military action against a police station in the southern city of Basra found prisoners being held in conditions that a British military spokesman, Major Charlie Burbridge, described as "appalling."
More than 100 men were crowded into a single cell, about 9 meters by 12 meters, or 30 feet by 40 feet, he said, with two open toilets, two sinks and just a few blankets spread over the concrete floor.
A significant number showed signs of torture. Some had crushed hands and feet, Burbridge said, while others had cigarette and electrical burns and a significant number had gunshot wounds to their legs and knees.
Hundreds of British and Iraqi soldiers assaulted the police station on Monday, killing seven gunmen, rescuing 127 prisoners from what the British said was almost certain execution and ultimately reducing the facility to rubble.
The fetid dungeon was another example of abuses by the Iraqi security forces. The discovery highlighted the continuing struggle to combat the infiltration of the police and army by militias and criminal elements — even in a Shiite city like Basra, where there has been no sectarian violence.
As recently as October, the Iraqi government suspended an entire police brigade in Baghdad on suspicion of participation in death squads. The raid on Monday also raised echoes of the infamous Baghdad prison run by the Interior Ministry, known as Site 4, where more than 1,400 prisoners were subjected to systematic abuse and torture.
The focus of the attack was an arm of the local police called the serious crimes unit, which British officials said had been thoroughly infiltrated by criminals and militias who used it to terrorize local residents and violently settle scores with political or tribal rivals.
"The serious crimes unit was at the center of death squad activity," Burbridge said.
Just a little over a year ago, British troops had stormed the same building seeking to rescue two British special forces soldiers who had been captured by militants. A mob of 1,000 to 2,000 people gathered in protest, and a widely circulated video showed boys throwing stones at a burning British armored fighting vehicle parked outside the station.
The soldiers, who were being held in a nearby building, were eventually freed.
Although some local officials, including Basra's police chief, publicly condemned the action, local residents privately said they were grateful, and painted an image of an organization widely feared for its brutality.
"They are like savage dogs that bite when they are hungry," said one resident, who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution. "Their evaluation of guilt or innocence is how much money you can pay."
Residents said people were afraid to challenge them because they were backed by powerful militia groups including the Mahdi Army, which is led by the rebel cleric Moktada al- Sadr, though the extent of his control is unclear.
"Everyone wants to avoid the mouth of the lion," one resident said. "From this, they became stronger and stronger."
More than 800 British soldiers, supported by five Challenger tanks and roughly 40 Warrior fighting vehicles, began their assault at 2 a.m. on Monday. They were also aided by 600 Iraqi soldiers.
The British force faced the heaviest fighting as it made its way through the city, coming under sporadic attacks by rocket-propelled grenades and small- arms fire. Of the seven guerrillas killed, six were gunned down as the unit made its way to the police station.
Upon reaching the station, British troops killed a guard in a watchtower who had fired on the approaching forces, but there was little other resistance.
The members of the serious crimes unit who had been occupying the building, several dozen according to the British military, fled and were not caught. The British forces turned over the prisoners to the regular Iraqi police, who put them in a new detention facility.
The two-story building, once used by Saddam Hussein's security forces, was then demolished, in an attempt to remove all traces of the serious crimes unit, Burbridge said.
The entire battle lasted nearly three hours. There were no British casualties.
Dozens killed in bombings
At least 36 Iraqis died Tuesday in bombings, officials said, including a coordinated strike that killed 25 in western Baghdad, The Associated Press reported from the capital. Separately, the deaths of six U.S. soldiers pushed the American death toll to at least 2,978 — five more than the number killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
The three coordinated car bombs in western Baghdad wounded at least 55 people, a doctor at Yarmouk hospital, where the victims were taken, said on the condition of anonymity because of safety concerns.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/26/news/iraq.php
$1 billion tab likely to grow in Katrina abuse
Investigators probe contracts awarded with little or no competition
By HOPE YEN
Associated Press
TOOLS
Email Get section feed
Print Subscribe NOW
RESOURCES
UNDER PROBE
Hurricane Katrina contracts being investigated by Congress
• No-bid: Propriety of four no-bid contracts together worth $400 million to Shaw Group Inc., Bechtel Group Inc., CH2M Hill Companies Ltd. and Fluor Corp.
• Rebid: Propriety of 36 trailer contract awards designated for small and local businesses as part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency director's promise to rebid large contracts.
• Minority bids: Whether small and minority-owned businesses were unfairly hurt after the Bush administration initially waived competition requirements.
WASHINGTON — The tally for Hurricane Katrina waste could top $2 billion next year because half of the lucrative government contracts valued at $500,000 or more for cleanup work are being awarded with little competition.
Federal investigators already have determined the Bush administration squandered $1 billion on fraudulent disaster aid to individuals after the 2005 storm. Now they are shifting their attention to the multimillion dollar contracts to politically connected firms that critics long have said are a prime area for abuse.
In January, investigators will release the first of several audits examining more than $12 billion in Katrina contracts. The charges range from political favoritism to limited opportunities for small and minority-owned firms, which initially got only 1.5 percent of the work.
"It wouldn't surprise me if we saw another billion more in waste," said Clark Kent Ervin, the Homeland Security Department's inspector general from 2003-04. "I don't think sufficient progress has been made."
He called it inexcusable that the Bush administration would still have so many no-bid contracts. Under pressure last year, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director David Paulison pledged to rebid many of the agreements, only to backtrack months later and reopen only a portion.
Investigators are now examining whether some of the agreements — which in some cases were extended without warning rather than rebid — are still unfairly benefiting large firms.
"It's a combination of laziness, ineptitude and it may well be nefarious," Ervin said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4425830.html
Stand up for justice, Ellison tells fellow Muslims
DEARBORN, Mich. The first Muslim elected to Congress returned to his of home state of Michigan and told fellow Muslims to observe their faith and work for justice.
Keith Ellison spoke today at a convention of the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America, attended by about three-thousand people.
Born in Detroit, Ellison converted to Islam while in college. He ran successfully as a Democratic candidate for a Minnesota U-S House seat.
Virginia Republican Representative Virgil Goode drew widespread criticism when he challenged Ellison's intention to take the oath of office on the Quran, rather than the Bible. Goode said more Muslims would be elected to office unless immigration was limited.
Ellison says Muslims can expect more attacks in the future but they can help the nation learn about justice and equal protection.
http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=5857341&nav=S6aK
Boom in Rockies for Skiers, Developers and Immigrants
Sign In to E-Mail or Save This Print Share
DiggFacebookNewsvinePermalink
By NEIL GENZLINGER
Published: December 26, 2006
The title deserves an F.C.C. fine for unoriginality, but “In the Shadow of the American Dream,” tonight on NBC, does a decent job of translating one of the year’s most bloviated-upon topics, immigration, into human terms. It may also give anyone on a holiday ski trip to Colorado an extra bit of luggage: a small bag of guilt.
The latest in the “Tom Brokaw Reports” series, the program avoids the statistics-and-sound-bite trap that makes most treatments of the subject so dry. It focuses instead on one particular microcosm, Gould Construction in Glenwood Springs, Colo., a contractor whose territory, the Roaring Fork Valley near Aspen, is a destination for vacationers and the expensive-second-home crowd.
“Americans don’t want this work,” Mark Gould, the company’s president, says bluntly of the ditch-digging and other tough jobs that must be done to enable boom-time buildings to go up. But immigrants, mostly Mexicans, do want it, and so in the Rockies, far from the border and that much-discussed wall, Spanish is taking over. Mr. Brokaw visits a four-bedroom house where one of Mr. Gould’s workers lives with 17 other people. Only one of the 18 is an American, a 2-year-old who was born in the United States.
Mr. Gould talks forthrightly about the frustrations of having more work than he can find workers to do. His staff is shown making what seems to be a good-faith effort to check applicants’ papers, and the police and other local officials talk about legal-vs.-illegal-immigrant issues, but there’s a sense that it’s all a facade: everyone knows the area’s economy wouldn’t run without illegal workers. Certainly Mr. Brokaw’s crew has no trouble not only pinpointing which of Mr. Gould’s workers are illegal but also finding the document-forger they use.
But this is no exposé. It’s an attempt to look at the immigration issue through the eyes of people directly involved, and Mr. Brokaw — despite an annoying interview technique in which he states the ideas he wants his subjects to articulate, then asks them if that’s correct — gets a commendable amount of candor out of people when he lets them talk.
Varied views are dutifully represented, but this is at heart a pro-immigrant program; immigrants are depicted as hard workers, and there is no suggestion that some come to the United States specifically to commit crimes or rip off the system. If nothing else, though, Mr. Brokaw reveals the interconnectedness that takes hold once a community turns to immigrant labor.
The longtime Colorado resident who speaks eloquently about how it feels to have her children now be part of a minority group in the local school, which is 80 percent Hispanic, is a vice president at Gould Construction. One project Mr. Gould is trying to find workers for is a school expansion, made necessary by the influx of immigrants.
Essentially absent, though, are the rich people and vacationers whose demands for creature comforts are presumably fueling all of this. Who is going to be staying in that hotel Gould Construction is working on? How many of those future visitors are charter members of the Close the Border Club?
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/26/arts/television/26genz.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Broadcast radio crosses the century mark
Posted Dec 24th 2006 3:55PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
We'll admit, there's not a whole of gizmos invented 100 years ago that we still rely on (and bicker about) on a near-daily basis, but broadcast radio has managed to stay in our homes, cars, hearts, and complaint letters for a full century. Exactly one hundred years ago today, Reginald Fessenden fired up his transmitting station at Brant Rock, Massachusetts in order to broadcast a "brief speech," followed by an Edison phonograph recording of Handel's Largo." He also sent out a few other holiday jams and well-wishes to those spending Christmas "onboard US Navy and United Fruit Company ships equipped with Fessenden's wireless receivers." Fessenden earned more than 500 patents in his lifetime, including credit for the "radio telephone, a sonic depth finder, and submarine signaling devices." So while the FCC tries to regulate it, and we prefer the cleaner, less ad-filled satellite rendition of radio, we're still raising our glasses to a technology that's changed technology over the past hundred years, and here's to a hundred more.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/24/broadcast-radio-crosses-the-century-mark/
Crude Oil Is Steady on Speculation Iran Won't Curb Shipments
By Mark Shenk
Dec. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil was little changed on speculation Iran won't curb shipments after the country said it will defy United Nations sanctions and pursue nuclear research.
The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Dec. 23 because of Iran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, which the U.S. and its European allies say is geared toward making nuclear weapons. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected the UN resolution as a ``scrap of paper'' and said the world would have to accept Iran as a nuclear power.
``Sanctions were imposed but it doesn't appear that anything will happen immediately, so buyers will be restrained,'' said Michael Fitzpatrick, vice president for energy risk management at Fimat USA in New York. ``There will have to be something more compelling to get us above our top in the $64 range.''
Crude oil for February delivery rose 5 cents to $62.46 a barrel at 10:23 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are up 2.3 percent this year. Futures traded between $58.66 and $64.15 over the past month. The exchange was shut yesterday for Christmas.
Iran has the second-biggest proved oil reserves and almost a quarter of the world's oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
UN Resolution
The UN resolution requires Iran to halt uranium enrichment and heavy-water projects that might lead to the development of nuclear weapons. It freezes the financial assets of 12 named individuals and 11 groups such as the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
The Iranian government wants to review its relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency over the sanctions, the state Islamic Republic News Agency said today. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki expressed the government's support for a parliamentary bill that calls for revising relations with the IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, IRNA said.
A fire at a vandalized oil pipeline in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, killed 200 people, the Nigerian Red Cross told Cable News Network. Thieves who had vandalized the pipeline were trying to steal fuel when it exploded, Red Cross Secretary General Abiodun Orebiyi told CNN by telephone.
Explosions at oil pipelines are recurrent in Nigeria, home of Africa's biggest petroleum industry. In October 1998, a pipeline explosion killed 1,082 people and injured hundreds more at Jesse in the Niger Delta, AFP said.
Brent crude oil for February settlement rose 26 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $62.68 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures exchange.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ac092KFB6SPU&refer=home
Victims of floods starving
Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta correspondent
December 27, 2006
HUNDREDS of thousands of Indonesians forced to flee their homes are threatened by starvation and disease after heavy floods in the nation's west.
As Aceh marked the grim anniversary yesterday of the 2004 tsunami that wiped out much of its coastal society, it was the turn of those further inland on Sumatra island to face having lost everything.
The death toll stood at more than 80 yesterday across west and north Sumatra and on nearby Riau island, with more than 200,000 people made homeless, four days after wild storms brought flooding, believed to have been made worse by the effects of illegal logging.
Several more people were dead and tens of thousands homeless in neighbouring southern Malaysia.
At least 21 central Sumatrans were killed by landslides hours after they returned to their homes on Monday, having fled when an earthquake measuring 5.7 rocked Mandailing Natal district last week.
"From morning to afternoon on Monday we used military vehicles to collect refugees of the earthquake who wanted to return to their homes, and shortly afterwards in the evening the landslide hit," Mandailing Natal police spokesman Syarbani Harahap said.
Medan-based aid worker Herwin Nasution said: "This event has only increased the trauma for people who experienced last week's quake."
Acehnese governor-elect Irwandi Yusuf, a former rebel leader who has been elected to represent his people in the restive province, warned that the illegal logging responsible for frequent landslides during the annual rainy season must be dealt with.
"This activity must be halted so this kind of disaster does not keep happening," Mr Yusuf warned yesterday.
At least 14 bridges were knocked out by the floods, and the Indonesian air force was airlifting food, blankets, tents, mattresses and clothing by helicopter and Hercules transports.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20977279-2703,00.html
Iraqi leader upset by arrest of Iranians by U.S. forces
By Alexandra Zavis and Peter Spiegel, Times Staff Writers
December 26, 2006
BAGHDAD — Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Monday protested the arrest by U.S. forces of two Iranian envoys who were in Iraq at his invitation, a spokesman said.
Officials in Washington confirmed the detentions, first reported in the New York Times, saying the two officials were among an unspecified number of Iranians apprehended in raids last week aimed at groups suspected of plotting attacks against U.S. and Iraqi targets.
ADVERTISEMENT
The incident underscored divergent approaches toward Iran's attempts to expand its role in Iraq and the containment of militant Shiite Muslim groups allegedly funded by Tehran.
President Bush has resisted pressure to open talks with Iran, which the United States accuses of arming and funding Shiite militiamen in Iraq. American officials have also accused Tehran of supplying technology used to make roadside bombs. Iran denies the U.S. charges, saying its ties to Iraq are political and religious.
"We suspect this event validates our claims about Iranian meddling, but we want to finish our investigation of the detained Iranians before characterizing their activities," White House spokesman Alex Conant said.
Iraqi officials have forged ahead with diplomatic contacts with Iran, and are distressed about a possible setback.
Last month, Talabani flew to Tehran to enlist the support of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in quelling the violence in Iraq and rebuilding its shattered economy. The two signed agreements aimed at boosting ties.
It was during the Tehran visit that Talabani extended the invitation to the two envoys who were detained last week, said Hiwa Osman, his spokesman. Talabani "is unhappy about the arrests" and has raised the issue with U.S. officials, Osman said.
He refused further comment. But a Kurdish political insider said the incident suggested a lack of communication between the United States and Iraq over security matters and relations with Iran.
"It seems that each side has their own plans and they are not coordinating with each other," said Mahmoud Othman, a lawmaker and Osman's father. "Of course it is of concern."
A U.S. military official said American troops were not targeting Iranians, and that they happened upon the two envoys during a routine counterinsurgency operation.
"We conducted a raid, we switched on the lights, and there they were," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Conant said the two officials were handed over to the Iraqi government because they had diplomatic immunity, and that Iraqi officials had released them to Iranian authorities.
"We continue to work with the [Iraqi government] on the status of the remaining detainees," Conant said. "That investigation is going well."
Osman said he was not aware of any other arrests. None of the U.S. officials interviewed Monday would specify how many Iranians had been detained or provide details about the raids. Iraqi officials also refused to give details.
In Tehran, the Foreign Ministry called the arrest a "contravention of the code of conduct with diplomats," the official Iranian news agency reported. It quoted a ministry official as saying the arrests could have "unpleasant consequences."
Washington and Tehran broke formal diplomatic ties after Iranian radicals stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which brought to power the world's first Shiite Muslim theocracy.
The New York Times reported Sunday that the U.S. military was holding at least four Iranians, including senior military officials detained in two raids. It said the diplomats were apprehended Thursday while traveling in an Iranian Embassy vehicle. Embassy officials refused to comment Monday.
Hadi Amiri, a leading figure in the political party of Shiite power broker Abdelaziz Hakim, denied the newspaper's report that some of the arrests were made at his home.
Iran has forged close ties to senior members of the Shiite political alliance that leads Iraq's government, including Hakim, who spent years in exile in Iran during the rule of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraqiran26dec26,1,1605360.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true
USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER ARRIVES IN ARABIAN GULF
Release Date: 12/11/2006
Release Number: 06-01-01PS
Description: USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, At sea - The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, flagship of the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, entered the Arabian Gulf Dec. 11, accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio.
While operating in the Arabian Gulf, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and embarked Carrier Air Wing 7, will conduct missions in direct support of troops participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Maritime Security Operations.
CVW-7 began flying missions into Afghanistan Nov. 6 in support of coalition troops on the ground participating in Operation Enduring Freedom. During 33 days of operations, the air wing flew more than 4,000 hours and more than 680 sorties, providing close air support and reconnaissance to International Security Assistance Force troops.
“Our men and women are proud to be serving alongside coalition partners and regional nations in this very important area of the world,” said Rear Adm. Al Myers, commander, Eisenhower Strike Group and Combined Task Force 152. “We are committed to supporting coalition ground forces in OIF to set the conditions for security and stability within Iraq and providing the Iraqi people with the best opportunity for self-determination. We’re grateful for the opportunity to serve and make a difference, whether it’s flying in support of multinational troops operating in Iraq or training alongside coalition and regional navies or conducting maritime security operations in the Arabian Gulf.”
IKE CSG departed Naval Station Norfolk Oct. 3 for a regularly scheduled deployment and began operating alongside coalition maritime forces in the region Oct. 30, conducting MSO to help set the conditions for security and stability in the maritime environment, as well as complement the counter-terrorism and security efforts of regional nations. The focus of these operations is to prevent international terrorist organizations from using the maritime environment as a venue from which to launch attacks, move people, weapons or other material.
CVW-7 includes Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 125 “Tigertails,” Strike Fighter Squadron 103 “Jolly Rogers,” Strike Fighter Squadron 131 “Wildcats,” Strike Fighter Squadron 143 “Pukin’ Dogs,” Strike Fighter Squadron 83 “Rampagers,” Electronic Attack (VAQ) Squadron 140 “Patriots,” and Helicopter Anti-submarine 5 “Nightdippers.”
IKE CSG includes the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, with its embarked air wing, CVW-7, and embarked Destroyer Squadron 28; the guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio; guided-missile destroyers USS Ramage and USS Mason; and the fast attack submarine USS Newport News. All are homeported in Norfolk, Va.
http://www.centcom.mil/sites/uscentcom1/Lists/Press%20Releases/DispForm.aspx?ID=4204
Saddam Hussein Will Be Executed Within 30 Days, AFP Reports
By Tarek al-Issawi
Dec. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Saddam Hussein's appeal against his death sentence failed and the former Iraqi dictator will be executed within 30 days, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the appeals court judge.
``As from tomorrow, the sentence could be carried out at any time,'' Judge Arif Shaheen said today, AFP said.
The appeals court, in Baghdad, upheld the death sentence handed down to Saddam last month. Hussein was found guilty on Nov. 5, following an earlier trial, of crimes against humanity for his role in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslim villagers in Dujail in 1982.
``The appeals court has issued its verdict,'' the judge said, according to AFP. ``What we have decided today is compulsory,'' he said. Iraq's executive arm is obliged to follow the court's finding, the judge said.
Iraqi law stipulates that the sentence of death must be carried out regardless of any other ongoing legal proceedings, AFP reported, citing the judge.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=akOH9u4PRI4s&refer=home
Comments