05.02.05 Many killed in deadly Baghdad blasts

May 2 – Many Iraqis, several of them policemen, have been killed and injured in three separate explosions in the capital Baghdad. Aljazeera learned that in the latest attack on Monday, a car bomb targeted an Iraqi patrol in Zayyuna neighborhood east of Baghdad. Iraqi journalist Walid Khalid told Aljazeera that a bomber drove an explosive-laden car through a checkpoint in the Zayyuna area north of the Iraqi capital. Khalid said he was told by Iraqi police that the suspect was chased by two police vehicles when he blew up the car, killing and injuring at least six policemen and burning the two vehicles. Earlier on Monday, two separate bombs exploded in Baghdad, including one targeting a US military patrol and a senior Interior Ministry official. The two explosions killed nine people. [More>>aljazeera.net; See also another story, aljazeera.net, "Attack on Kurdish funeral kills many," and nytimes.com, "New round of car bombs kills at least 11 in Baghdad."

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05.02.05 Afghan ammunition blast kills 28, wounds 70

KABUL, May 2 – A blast at an ammunition dump in a northern Afghan village killed 28 people and wounded 70 on Monday, a government spokesman said. "The whole neighborhood around the ammunition dump has been destroyed," said Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal. The cause of the blast in Pajga village in Baghlan province, 120 km (80 miles) north of the capital, Kabul, was being investigated, he said. [jang.com.pk]; See more at khaleejtimes.com]

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05.02.05 Same old sad story: Dams violating Iran's cultural heritage

TEHRAN (MNA) May 2 – ...A total of 42 ancient and historical sites from the Elamite, Parthian, Achaemenid, Sassanid, and Islamic eras will be submerged by the Salman-e Farsi, Mulla Sadra, and Marvast dams in Iranıs southern province of Fars, an expert of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization said on Monday...The Fars Regional Water Authority is also working on 20 more dam projects in the province.

One of the projects is the Sivand Dam at the ancient site of Tang-e Bolaghi, which is located only four kilometers away from Pasargadae, the first capital of the Achaemenids (550-330 BC) and the residence of Cyrus the Great. The dam is scheduled to become operational in March 2006. Several teams of Italian, Japanese, Polish, French, German, and Australian archaeologists have been assigned to save 129 ancient sites from the Neolithic and Paleolithic periods, the early, middle, and late Elamite era (2700-645 BC), and the Sassanid era (224-651 CE) in Tang-e Bolaghi. [More>>mhrnews.ir]

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05.02.05 'No link between North Korean missile test, nukes'

May 2 – Seoul, Tokyo play down significance, saying short-range weapon involved. The South Korean and Japanese governments yesterday played down the significance of North Korea's latest missile test, saying it involved a short-range weapon unable to reach as far as Japan and had no link with the communist North's nuclear program. The top U.S. military commander in South Korea said North Korea is believed to have one or two nuclear warheads and the ability to produce more, a South Korean lawmaker reported.

Gen. Leon J. LaPorte also said the North's conventional weapons as well as its biological and chemical weapons also pose serious threats to South Korea, according to Song Young-sun from the main opposition Grand National Party. Song was among about two dozen South Korean lawmakers who held a security forum with LaPorte at the National Assembly. [More>>koreaherald.co.kr]

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05.01.05 Egypt forces arrest 200 after attacks

May 1 – Egyptian security forces have arrested at least 200 people in the Shubra al-Khaima neighborhood of Cairo. Aljazeera's reporter in Cairo said the arrests followed Saturday's attacks in Abd al-Munaim Riyad square in central Cairo and the gunfight in the al-Sayyida Aisha area that killed three Egyptians and wounded 10 people including foreign tourists.

According to Egyptian sources, security forces arrested at least 200 people in an industrial area in Shubra al-Khaima where the suspects of Saturday's operations as well as the perpetrator of the al-Azhar bomb attack came from. "Around 200 people were arrested, some briefly, during police operations in the slums of Ezbet al-Gabalawi, Al-Amar and Ezbet Rushdi, where the families of the perpetrators and people implicated in the three attacks ... live," said a police source. [More>>aljazeera.net]

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05.01.05 Veiled women in Cairo attacks

May 1 – Two veiled women opened fire on a bus carrying foreign tourists and the fiance of one of the woman blew himself up when he leaped off a bridge during a police chase in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, yesterday. Seven people were hurt by the explosion, three Egyptians, an Israeli couple, a Swedish man and an Italian woman. The blast, a nail bomb, went off in a crowded square between an exclusive hotel on the banks of the Nile and the Egyptian museum.

Two Egyptians were hurt in the shooting when the woman targeted a tour bus headed towards one of Cairo's most prominent historic Islamic sites. The two woman followed the bus by car and fired through the back window. They then shot themselves, although witnesses said police had opened fire. One died at once, the other in hospital. [More>>observer.guardian.co.uk]

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05.01.05 Raids in Iraq yield suspects in British aid worker's death

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – US and Iraqi forces raided homes on the outskirts of Baghdad Sunday and detained several men believed to be linked to the death of British aid worker Margaret Hassan, who was kidnapped and killed late last year. Iraqi police said the morning raids happened not far from Madaen, a town just south of Baghdad where insurgents have been active in recent weeks. They said 11 people were seized, at least five of whom had admitted complicity in Hassan's murder.

The arrests, which may mark a small breakthrough in the effort to bring insurgents to justice in Iraq, came amid a surge in guerrilla activity in the past three days – ever since Iraq formed its first democratically elected government in 50 years. Some of the violence has been focused in Madaen, where three car bombs exploded Friday. At least nine people were killed in car bombings and shootings in Baghdad Sunday. Hassan, a British national who headed CARE International in Iraq, was kidnapped last October. She was killed about a month later after appealing on video tapes made by her abductors for British forces to withdraw from Iraq. Her body was never found. [More>>nytimes.com]

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05.01.05 One policeman killed, four injured in Turkish resort bomb blast

ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) April 30 – One police officer was killed and four others were injured when a parcel bomb exploded in the hands of a bomb disposal expert in a seaside resort town in western Turkey, a local official said. The blast Saturday occurred as a chief superintendent mistook the parcel, left in a public toilet in Kusadasi town in Aydin province, to be harmless and was carrying it back to his vehicle without wearing any protective gear, the province's governor Mustafa Malay said...Malay said there was as yet no information on who had left the package but added that police were conducting a thorough investigation to catch the perpetrators. Underground left-wing organizations have in the past carried out similar bomb attacks in major Turkish cities. [More>>turkishpress.com]

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05.01.05 Sony's Qrio robot attending nursery school in California

TOKYO (Kyodo News) May 1 – Qrio, a humanoid robot developed by a Sony Intelligence Dynamics Laboratories Inc. has been attending a nursery school in California since March to play with children up to 2 years of age in an experiment to help develop a robot that can "live in harmony with humans in the future."

Qrio spends time each day with more than 10 toddlers at the nursery school located in San Diego. Qrio is always accompanied by a researcher, who is in charge of making sure everything goes smoothly. While the children were at first apprehensive about Qrio, they now dance with it and help it get up when it falls. "The children think of Qrio as a feeble younger brother," researcher Fumihide Tanaka said. [japantoday.com; See sony.net/Sonyinfor/QRIO/ for more information on Qrio. Says Sony, "The robot embodies Sony's dreams and most advanced technologies in recognition, motion control, communications, IT and AI."

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05.01.05 US confirms North Korea missile

May 2 – North Korea apparently fired a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card told CNN television, saying Washington was closely monitoring developments. "It appears that there was a test of a short-range missile by the North Koreans and it landed in the Sea of Japan," Card said in an interview with CNN's Late Edition. "We're not surprised by this. The North Koreans have tested their missiles before. They've had some failures," he told the network. [theaustralian.news.com.au; See also japantoday.com, "North Korea may have launched missile toward Sea of Japan."

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05.01.05 Islamic extremism on rise in Bangladesh

NEW DELHI (PTI) May 1 – Rising attacks against scribes, Left and secular elements in the recent past have shown that Islamic extremism is gaining ground in Bangladesh, with the militants seeking formation of a greater Islamic nation covering some areas in India, according to leading strategic journal Jane's Intelligence and Insight. "Victims of their activity are non-mu slims, Leftists and liberal intellectuals, who are conceived as standing in the way of the establishment of a 'greater Islamic nation', one that also includes parts of some adjacent Indian states," the prestigious strategic journal said in its latest issue. [More>>expressindia.com]

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05.01.05 UK document leak shows early plan to topple Saddam

LONDON, May 1 – US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were determined to topple Saddam Hussein at least nine months before they launched the war in Iraq, British documents leaked in a Sunday newspaper say.

The secret documents could have a late impact in Britainıs election next Thursday, in which Iraq – and whether the prime minister told the truth when making his case for war – has resurfaced as an issue in the final week of campaigning. Blair has always maintained that he did not commit Britain to attacking Iraq until Saddam had been given a final chance to abandon banned weapons, and that ³regime change² – overthrowing Saddam – was never his aim. Despite hostility to Blair over his Iraq policy, polls show he is likely to win a third term in the election, though his huge parliamentary majority is expected to shrink. [More>>khaleejtimes.com; See also separate article, observer.guardian.co.uk, "British military chief reveals new legal fears over Iraq war: "The man who led Britain's armed forces into Iraq has said that Tony Blair and the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, will join British soldiers in the dock if the military are ever prosecuted for war crimes in Iraq. In a remarkably frank interview that goes to the heart of the political row over the Attorney General's legal advice, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, the former Chief of the Defence Staff, said he did not have full legal cover from prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC). 'If my soldiers went to jail and I did, some other people would go with me,' said Boyce...Pressed by The Observer on whether he meant the Prime Minister and the Attorney General, Boyce replied: 'Too bloody right.'"

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05.01.05 Syria signals change in policy toward Iraq

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) May 1 – Syria announced plans to restore diplomatic relations with Iraq more than two decades after ties were severed, boosting regional hopes for securing borders and signaling a willingness to change its policy toward the violence-torn country. With Iraqıs neighbors concerned that violence and ethnic instability in Iraq could spread throughout the region, they pledged on Saturday to cooperate with Iraqıs newly elected government on ³overall border security.²

The neighbors - which include Syria and Iran, two countries accused by US officials of failing to prevent insurgents from crossing their borders - also planned an upcoming meeting of their interior ministers to discuss how to better monitor their borders. The announcements were made during a two-day meeting of the foreign ministers of Jordan, Syria, Kuwait, Iran, Turkey and Egypt. Saudi Arabiaıs deputy foreign minister also attended the meeting, held at a former Ottoman palace overlooking the Bosporus. [More>>khaleejtimes.com; See also turkishpress.com, "Eighth meeting of countries neighboring Iraq."

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05.01.05 Over 500 people reconverted in Orissa

SAMBALPUR (PTI) May 1 – In a reconversion ceremony, 567 Christians returned to Hinduism at Bijepur, a block headquarter town in neighboring Bargarh district on Sunday, VHP sources said. The ceremony was organized by the VHP and an elaborate arrangement was made at a local school premises where the people, mostly belonging to SC, had assembled.

A 'yagna' was held to mark the occasion and the people reconverted were provided with new clothes. VHP sources said that activists of the organisation had been in touch with these persons for a long time counselling them to return to Hinduism. Members of 169 families from seven nearby villages were expected to attend the ceremony but all had not turned up, the sources said. [More>>expressindia.com]

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05.01.05 Lebanon weekly magazine: Russia returns to Middle East

BEIRUT (RIA Novosti) May 1 – The Lebanese weekly magazine Al- Kifah Al-Arabi calls the recent visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Middle East "historic." "The purpose of the Middle East tour conducted by Vladimir Putin," the editorial named 'The Return of Russians to the Middle East' says, "was to demonstrate that the political and economic situation in Russia has stabilized and it is becoming a serious player on the global arena."

"After a long break, Russia intends to reestablish its positions in the Middle East," the Lebanese magazine concludes. According to the magazine, with his visit Putin also strengthened his positions on the eve of the May summit with US President George Bush in Moscow. In the framework of his Middle East tour, which lasted from April 26 till April 29, the Russian president visited Egypt, Israel and Palestine Autonomy. [rian.ru]

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05.01.05 Latin America is a promising weapons market for Russia

RIO DE JANEIRO (RIANovosti, Andrei Kurguzov) May 1 – An International Aero & Defense Show (LAAD-2005), which recently took place in Rio de Janeiro, is an important tool for promoting Russian military equipment not only in Brazil, but also in other Latin American countries, announced in an interview with RIA Novosti deputy head of the Russian Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) Alexander Fomin, who led the Russian delegation at the show. "The level of organization of the show has been improving year after year, and Russia continues to increase its presence there," Alexander Fomin said. "We believe LAAD is becoming one of the most important exhibitions of aircraft and weaponry in Latin America." Alexander Fomin said Russia presented the most advanced models of aircraft and weaponry at the LAAD show. [More>>rian.ru]

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05.01.05 Syria welcomes Putin's proposal for Middle East peace conference

DAMASCUS (AP) May 1 – Syria on Sunday welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposal for a Middle East peace meeting in the fall and said the cool American and Israeli reception of the offer exposed their rejection of peace. The government-run Al-Thawra newspaper said the Russian proposal was an opportunity to distinguish between "those who are in the peace trench and those facing the opposite direction."

"The idea was a practical test of the U.S. and Israeli polices and of their credibility," it said, adding that it unmasked their desire to alone decide whether to accept or reject peace. During a visit to Egypt, Putin proposed Wednesday that Russia host an autumn Middle East peace conference, timing it for after Israel withdraws from the Gaza strip. Palestinians embraced the idea, but Israel and the United States brushed it aside. [More>>haaretzdaily.com]

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04.29.05 Cassini photographs swiss cheese on Titan moon

April 27 – An image of Saturn's small moon, Epimetheus (epp-ee-MEE-thee-uss), was captured by the Cassini spacecraft in the closest view ever taken of the pockmarked body.

Epimetheus is irregularly shaped and dotted with soft-edged craters. The many large, softened craters on Epimetheus indicate a surface that is several billion years old. The moon shares an orbit with another of Saturn's small moons, Janus. The two dance in a planetary tango as they move in almost identical orbits, exchanging orbits every four years, instead of colliding. Both play a role in creating intricate waves in Saturn¿s rings; both have densities significantly lower than that of solid ice, suggesting they may be "rubble piles" held together by gravity. At 116 kilometers (72 miles) across, Epimetheus is slightly smaller than Janus at 181 kilometers (113 miles) across. Spectra of Epimetheus from the Cassini visual infrared mapping spectrometer indicate that the moon is mostly water ice.

The new Epimetheus image is available at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov, http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://ciclops.org.

The images for this false color composite were obtained with the Cassini spacecraft narrow- angle camera on March 30, 2005, at a distance of approximately 74,600 kilometers (46,350 miles) from Epimetheus. [More>>http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov]

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03.23.05 Federal Reserve raised new worries about inflation

WASHINGTON, March 22 – The Federal Reserve raised new worries about inflation on Tuesday, setting off alarms in the stock and bond markets that the central bank might drive up interest rates faster than investors had been expecting. The Fed nudged up short-term interest rates for the seventh time in the last year, raising the federal funds rate on overnight loans between banks to 2.75 percent from 2.5 percent. It restated its intention to keep raising them at a "measured" pace in the months ahead.

But in a departure from previous declarations, the central bank said there were rising inflationary pressures beyond those tied directly to the recent jumps in oil prices. [More>>nytimes.com]

Editorial note: What is not being reported is the fact that interest rates are tied to the US National Debt. As the debt increases (this year the deficit is expected to exceed $420 billion, and interest on the debt which exceeds $8.2 trillion, is about $1 billion per day. Because the annual deficits are financed via the bond market, and because the amount of the bonds being sold exceeds demand, it is necessary to raise interest rates to attract investors in the US bonds financing the US debt. This routine of increasing debt on an exponential scale was experienced under the administration of George H. W. Bush. I predicted increasing interest rates "to sell bonds" in my conversation with Wm. F. Buckley Jr. at that time, in 1993, and I have repeated the prediction with regard to the current Bush administration's excesses and need to sell more bonds to finance the extraordinary deficits. The rate increases will continue in order to sell the overabundant US bonds. In a few words, George Bush's debt is causing your mortgage rates to increase, and they will continue to increase until the US assumes fiscal responsibility. Click here for details on this trend.

Postscript: If the EU adopts the practice of allowing large budget deficits, the consequence places a strain on the world bond market, since that market is already flooded with US bonds to the tune of some $9 trillion. Those who are allowing budget deficits also own some of the US debt. It's not a good situation, heralding a world economic collapse. That Greenspan has not reigned in the Bush administration on the US debt is a travesty.

Mel Copeland