………………………………………

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/05/03/sprj.irq.main/index.html

BAGHDAD-- Baghdad's acting police chief made a surprise resignation on Saturday... U.S. officials considered the former acting police chief, Zuhir al-Naimi, a "good guy" who was kicked off the Baghdad police force 18 years ago by friends of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. But problems arose because Naimi did not want to set up the Baghdad police department the American way, "enacting our laws," said Captain Jimmy Brownlee, spokesman for the Army's 3rd Infantry Division.

.......................................

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/289690.html

Saturday, Powell rejected a Syrian proposal that the U.S. immediately support an Arab-backed United Nations resolution on ridding the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction... "I think it is a goal that we have to pursue over time, and not at the moment of any particular declaration that might be put forward for political purposes, or to highlight the issue," Powell told reporters.

...U.S. officials barred the crew of Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah television from a briefing by Powell in Syria, a TV crew member said Saturday... "The woman in charge of the U.S. cultural center in Damascus came to me and asked me are you with al-Manar television? I said yes. She said your presence here is not permitted," a member of the al-Manar crew told Reuters.

...............................................

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/03/1051876891254.html

The battle for Baghdad cost the lives of at least 1,101 Iraqi civilians, many of them women and children, according to records at the city's 19 largest hospitals.The civilian death toll was almost certainly higher. The hospital records say that another 1,255 dead were "probably" civilians, including many women and children. Uncounted others who died never made it to hospitals and now are buried in shallow graves that have been dug throughout the city - in cemeteries, back yards, hospital gardens, city parks and mosque grounds. More than 6,800 civilians were wounded, the hospital records show... The biggest number of deaths appears to have occurred April 5 and 6 when US troops began fighting their way into the city.

...The Baghdad death toll... does not include the hundreds of civilians who died in other parts of Iraq... The Najaf Teaching Hospital reported that as of Sunday it had treated 286 civilian dead during the war. During the same period, the hospital counted 57 military dead. The Bush administration says it will make no effort to tally Iraqi dead, either civilian or military.

................................................................................

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,85785,00.html

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea marked May Day on Thursday by urging its workers to prepare for war with the United States... At a rally in Pyongyang, communist labor leader Ryom Sun Gil called for workers to form regiments and divisions " so that they may be fully ready to defend the country from the enemy's invasion," said the North's official news agency, KCNA.

...Colin Powell said this week the United States was reviewing the North's offer to give up its missiles and nuclear facilities in exchange for substantial U.S. economic benefits... Pyongyang also demands a nonaggression treaty with the United States. The U.S. administration has ruled this out.

.............................................................

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=402676

The Israeli authorities said yesterday that they intended to step up deportations of foreign activists in the occupied territories. They said the alleged British suicide bomber, Asif Mohammed Hanif, and his accomplice, had posed as human shields to travel freely between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

...The attempt by the Israeli authorities to link their crackdown on foreign activists to the suicide bombing appeared purely cosmetic. An Israeli army order to step up deportations of the activists was issued two weeks ago, long before the attack at the bar... "The army issued the order to kick us out over two weeks ago," said Tom Wallace, a spokesman for the [International Solidarity Movement] ISM . "It's hardly surprising. The Israelis have been preventing international observers from entering Israel and Palestine for years."

...................................................................................

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=402715

A British cameraman was shot dead by Israeli troops last night after a group of journalists came under fire in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah. Witnesses said that the Israeli soldiers, who were demolishing a home in the area, shot at the journalists even though they were waving white flags and torches, and shouting in Hebrew and English that they were journalists.

James Miller, a freelance journalist working for a company called Frostbite, was making a documentary about the lives of Palestinian children in Rafah, a refugee flashpoint next to the Egyptian border. His translator, Abd al-Rahman Abdullah, said he, Mr Miller and another British journalist, Sa'ira Sha'a, had just left the home of a Palestinian man when they came under fire. He said: "...We were in one of the houses when the bulldozer began moving forward. We thought the situation was very dangerous so we wanted to get out of there. I was carrying a white flag and a white flashlight. We waved them and shouted 'we are journalists, we are journalists' in both Hebrew and English. They shot at us twice after that. We shouted again 'we are journalists', and they shot at us again. James was hit in the back or the neck... We got his bulletproof vest off... We shouted again and eventually an officer drove up in an armoured car... They took him to a military hospital in Israel, but 20 minutes later we found he was dead."

................................................................................

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/02/1051382098090.html

Residents of the central Iraqi town of Falluja say they will mount further bombing attacks against US troops unless the soldiers evacuate a position they occupy in a former Baath party building... The small city of 300,000 Sunni Arabs was braced for further violence yesterday, the Muslim day of prayer. US tanks checked vehicles entering and leaving town, and a helicopter circled overhead. At the contested position troops scanned the area with binoculars from behind sandbags on the roof.

..."The people here are not part of any organisation, but this area is very tribal and it's very opposed to the American troops being here in our district," said Mustafa Munem, one of a group of men discussing the situation on a street corner. "We have given the Americans a warning to go and gave them three days to leave Falluja."

...................................................................................

http://www.latimes.com/la-war-medics2may02,0,6495697.story

BAGHDAD — No one in the desperate crowd knew what kind of pills Dr. Salaam Gasam was passing through the coils of razor wire. Everyone wanted some and was willing to fight for a share. A boy grabbed his throat with both hands and gagged to demonstrate his need. A woman held up an infant with blast burns. A man pointed to his swollen eye and cried: "Please! Please!" Gasam raised the plastic bottle into the air. It was empty now, the mild, over-the-counter painkillers gone... With many of Baghdad's already understocked and crumbling hospitals now gutted by looters, with nurses washing scalpels in dirty water and surgeons operating by the light of lanterns... medics are teaming up to provide the most basic care. They set up on dirty street corners.

... Iraq, and Baghdad in particular, had a relatively well-functioning health-care system until Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 and the United Nations placed strict sanctions on the country... Common chemotherapy drugs ran out once, Iraqi physicians say. The X-ray machines worked, but there was little X-ray film. Kidney dialysis machines operated, but doctors could not get the necessary solutions to use them. Then came the current war, and the looters.

... For every person with a serious problem there were two wanting a bandage for a small scratch or intentional cut, aspirin for a headache, antibiotics for a cough or upset stomach... Aqil Naji appeared to be one of those… The 27-year-old rolled up his left pant leg to reveal a quarter-size scab and nothing more. Medic Spc. Morgan Burnham cleaned it quickly and placed a small bandage on the area. Then Naji rolled up his right pant leg, then lifted his shirt. His body was riddled with small shards of shrapnel and stone. "Bomb. Boom-boom," he said. "Thank you."

......................................................................................

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=402310

It is hardly surprising that listless six-month-old Sajad Abbas has been suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting for the past 10 days. For an outbreak of gastroenteritis in Sadr City (formerly Saddam City)... owes almost everything to a chronic shortage of clean water, which has been suddenly intensified by the war... In Sajad's case, the problem has been made worse as his desperate parents, like many others... have been using the kind of cheap Chinese-made electric pump you can buy in local markets to suck water from taps that otherwise would provide little more than a few dismal drops. But the paediatric house officer Dr Ahmed Abdul Hassan wearily explained yesterday that the pump also sucks out in concentrated form all the impurities, including residual sewage, that have contaminated the decrepit pipes.

..."We are supposed to have a maximum capacity of 80 but we have 100 children in the wards," he said. "Ninety per cent of the cases are gastroenteritis, many with complications of dehydration." ...The gastroenteritis outbreak started at about the same time that much of the world was celebrating the fall of Baghdad, on 9 April, and when the hospital was working flat out to cope with civilian injuries inflicted by Allied cluster bombs... The Qadisiyah is still admitting between six and 16 cases a day of children injured by unexploded ordnance.

...The US-led Organisation for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance has not provided any help, so it is the Islamic scholastic group Hawza that is paying the doctors, has hired the man at the door with the AK-47 to keep out looters, and is shipping in from Najaf what little medical supplies it can. Green and black flags now fluttering above almost every other building in Sadr City testify to this as a Shia stronghold... The Iraqi officer in charge of Unicef, George Hatim – who with 73 local technical staff has strived to maintain some water supply in the city – won't be drawn on tensions between the UN and the US impeding progress. But he said: "What I know is that Iraq's children are in deep crisis. Every day brings with it an increase in child morbidity and mortality."

..............................................................................

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L02395880.htm

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission and Belgium blamed the United States on Friday for causing the last-minute cancellation of an airlift of critical hospital supplies for Baghdad. The plane -- loaded with 19 tons of surgical equipment, vaccines, anaesthetics, oxygen, syringes, operating tables and pre-natal care supplies -- had been set to leave on Friday from Belgium, which opposed the U.S.-led war on Iraq. Shortly before take-off, the Belgian C-130 transport was held at Melsbroek military airport, with no likelihood of departure before Tuesday, a week after the date originally set. European Commission humanitarian affairs spokesman Michael Curtis said the delay had been caused by U.S. military authorities asking for a change in the flight plan. The Commission said there was no problem landing at Baghdad, but a Belgian military spokesman said U.S. landing permission at the city's airport had not been given.

............................................................................

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2991609.stm

The US Agency for International Development has given a Massachussetts-based company the contract to help restore health services in Iraq. ABT Associates, which provides training and capacity building services to governments and non-governmental organisations world-wide, will be paid $10,000,000.00... The job will include supporting a new Ministry of Health in Iraq, once US authorities or whatever successor government emerges has created one. ABT will also take part in organising the delivery of badly-needed medical supplies.

....................................................................................

did cokie write this crap? ye gods.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7631-2003May2.html

ON THE DEFENSE SECRETARY'S PLANE -- Somewhere between the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, time, place and date all become almost irrelevant... here on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's victory tour of the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan this week, a seven-country, seven-day, 15,300-mile whirlwind that took official U.S. government travel to the edge of combat operations.

...At 70 [Rumsfeld] still shows the stamina and tenacity he demonstrated as a wrestler at Princeton, often scheduling meetings in two or three countries per day before flying through the night to visit two or three more countries the next. Indeed, once seated in the rear compartments of his blue-and-white Boeing 757 with "United States of America" emblazoned across the fuselage... [it is] very different from the way ordinary people travel... There is no waiting in line at passport control, no carrying luggage or fighting traffic, no checking into hotels or arguing with taxi drivers... For the journalists onboard, the mission is not about mixing with the locals, it's about covering Rumsfeld, a man who reached rock star status during the war in Afghanistan and has since soared even higher in popularity among many Americans for the audacious Iraq war plan he dreamed up with Gen. Tommy R. Franks.

..........................................................................................................

http://www.suntimes.com/output/terror/cst-nws-drill02.html

The city of Chicago is seeking volunteers to play starring roles as casualties of a mock bioterror attack scheduled to take place in two weeks as part of a federally mandated terrorism drill. Call the city Office of Emergency Management at (312) 746-6421 to volunteer. The exercise also will feature a simulated plane crash at Midway Airport and a supposed sleeper cell of al-Qaida terrorists (played by former Navy SEALS) sowing confusion and destruction among the crews responding to the emergency. The $16,000,000.00 exercise will take place in Chicago and surrounding counties, and also in Seattle, the week of May 12.

..............................................................................

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=2679727

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Amram Mitzna, the dovish former general crushed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Israel's January election, announced on Sunday his resignation as head of the main opposition Labour Party… His resignation will have no immediate impact on new U.S.-led Middle East peacemaking. With Sharon firmly in power at the head of a right-wing government, Mitzna's star, as well as his center-left party's fortunes, have faded sharply.

…His lackluster campaign in the January election infuriated many Labour insiders who balked at his pledge not to take the party back into a Sharon-led government even after opinion polls showed Mitzna's message had failed to catch on with voters… Mitzna told the news conference, "I came to fight for peacemaking, for the social image of Israel. I believe today, as I did nine months ago, that it is possible to lead Israel to a different reality...but I feel the need to say that in the current circumstances, it is impossible to lead the Labour Party."

… Mitzna, who as a young officer vowed not to shave his beard until Israel and the Arabs made peace, pledged in the election campaign to unilaterally evacuate troops and Jewish settlers from Gaza and revive talks with the Palestinian unconditionally. Born and raised on a kibbutz collective farm, the fount of Labour's Zionist heritage, Mitzna is the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany. He spent 30 years in the army and was wounded twice in four wars. He commanded Israel's West Bank forces in the late 1980s, dealing toughly with militants in an initial Palestinian uprising before retiring as a major-general. As a brigade commander in 1982, he clashed with then-Defense Minister Sharon in protest at Israel's invasion of Lebanon.

.................................................................................

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-05/03/article07.shtml

Jordan can be the new homeland of Palestinians in return for allowing it to have lucrative reconstruction contracts in Iraq, revealed an Israeli plan Saturday, May 3. Israeli Tourism Minister Benny Elon left last night for the United States, where he will present the U.S. officials with the plan based on naturalizing the Palestinians in Jordan and that a Palestinian state in the spirit of President George Bush's vision will only feed terrorism and that Jordan is Palestine, Israeli daily Haaretz said.

…Elon, known for his close relations with fundamentalists and evangelical Christians, will try to convince Washington that the Palestinian Authority should be dismantled and that Israeli sovereignty should be applied from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea, the Israeli paper said… Elon claims his solution is also a two-state formula, saying that Jordan fulfils all the criteria of a Palestinian state.

…Elon’s plan consists of six stages; the first of which is that the Palestinian authority should be dismantled immediately… The second stage calls on Israel to use its military and political power to destroy “all the Palestinian terror infrastructure,” tear down refugee camps and deport what it call ‘terrorist groups’. As for the third stage, Israel, the U.S. and the international community “will recognize Jordan as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people…” The international community will in return concentrate efforts on long-term development of Jordan, to enable it to “absorb a limited number of refugees. The assistance includes giving Jordanian companies part of the lucrative subcontracts in the rebuilding of neighboring Iraq.

“After that, Israel and Jordan-Palestine will declare the end of the dispute and establish neighborly and cooperative relations…” read the last stage of Elon’s plan.

...............................................................................

http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/4631825?source=Evening%20Standard

Saddam Hussein appeared to turn up in London today as dozens of hopefuls attended auditions to find a lookalike of the former Iraqi dictator. Short, thin, clean-shaven, ginger-haired and, in one case, female candidates who thought they bore a resemblance to Saddam, who is still missing after the war in Iraq, assembled at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith. They were handed army jackets, black berets and false moustaches and asked to walk across the stage and wave to an imagined crowd.

…Charlie Schark, 21, a computer support worker from Isleworth, said: "A colleague said it would be a good idea to come down. I have had 13 years of jokes at work ever since Saddam invaded Kuwait." The lookalikes are needed for the West End satirical review Follow My Leader.

............................................................................

how much is the war costing right now? mrs. henry recommends you look at this site at note how much extra the war has cost since i wrote this down-- the actual cost of the war is moving too fast for me to copy-- but here is what else the war could have bought as of 6:29 pm on sunday may 4th.

http://www.costofwar.com/

6,752,960additional children could attend a year of head Start

20,473,098 additional children could be provided with a year of health care

909,786 additional school teachers could be hired for one year

1,211,511 additional four-year scholarships at public universities

11,940,980 additional cars could be converted to use natural gas

682,342 additional affordable housing units could be built

...............................................................

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/05/05/mccarthy.hearings.ap/index.html

Pushing an anti-communist crusade that riveted America a half century ago, Joseph McCarthy manipulated his Senate hearings by calling witnesses he could intimidate and ignoring those likely to oppose him, newly released transcripts show... Nearly 500 witnesses [are] covered in transcripts of closed door meetings, made public Monday by the Senate… The senators who oversaw the project, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Carl Levin, D-Michigan, unveiled the transcripts Monday in the very room that McCarthy used to hold some of his hearings. "We hope that the excesses of McCarthyism will serve as a cautionary tale for future generations," Collins said.

…[Thanks to McCarthy,] Republicans succeeded in portraying Democrats as soft on communism, riding that message to political gains in 1952. The GOP won the White House and Congress that year, making McCarthy chairman of the investigations subcommittee… Republicans began to turn on him when he set his sights on the Eisenhower administration. The Senate censured McCarthy in December 1954, and he lost his chairmanship the following month after Democrats regained the majority.

…McCarthy died in 1957 at 47 . That same year, the Supreme Court ruled that witnesses don't lose their constitutional rights when they testify in a congressional investigation. Some historians say that ruling is McCarthy's most important legacy.

........................................................................................

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_4-5-2003_pg7_5

CRAWFORD (Texas): US President George W Bush proclaimed victory in Iraq on Saturday but said the war on terror was far from over and vowed to hunt down America’s enemies before they could strike… “Our government has taken unprecedented measures to defend our homeland and, more importantly, we will continue to hunt the enemy down before he can strike,” Mr Bush said.

...............................................................................

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0306.green.html

No person can be more rightly credited with making morality and personal responsibility an integral part of the political debate than William J. Bennett. For more than 20 years, as a writer, speaker, government official, and political operative, Bennett has been a commanding general in the culture wars. As Ronald Reagan's chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, he was the scourge of academic permissiveness. Later, as Reagan's secretary of education, he excoriated schools and students for failing to set and meet high standards. As drug czar under George H.W. Bush, he applied a get-tough approach to drug use, arguing that individuals have a moral responsibility to own up to their addiction. Upon leaving public office, Bennett wrote The Book of Virtues, a compendium of parables snatched up by millions of parents and teachers across the political spectrum. Bennett's crusading ideals have been adopted by politicians of both parties, and implemented in such programs as character education classes in public schools--a testament to his impact.

…His relentless effort to push Americans to do good has enabled Bennett to do extremely well. His best-selling The Book of Virtues spawned an entire cottage industry, from children's books to merchandizing tie-ins to a PBS cartoon series. Bennett commands $50,000 per appearance on the lecture circuit and has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from such conservative benefactors as the Scaife and John M. Olin foundations.

Few vices have escaped Bennett's withering scorn. He has opined on everything from drinking to "homosexual unions" to "The Ricki Lake Show" to wife-swapping. There is one, however, that has largely escaped Bennett's wrath: gambling.

…The Washington Monthly and Newsweek have learned that over the last decade Bennett has made dozens of trips to casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, where he is a "preferred customer" at several of them, and sources and documents provided to The Washington Monthly put his total losses at more than $8,000,000.00… A review of one 18-month stretch of gambling showed him visiting casinos, often for two or three days at a time (and enjoying a line of credit of at least $200,000.00 at several of them)… The documents show that in one two-month period, Bennett wired more than $1,400,000.00 to cover losses. His desire for privacy is evident in his customer profile at one casino, which lists as his residence the address for Empower.org (the Web site of Empower America, the non-profit group Bennett co-chairs). Typed across the form are the words: "NO CONTACT AT RES OR BIZ!!!"

…On July 12 of last year… Bennett lost $340,000.00 at Caesar's Boardwalk Regency in Atlantic City. And just three weeks ago, on April 5 and 6, he lost more than $500,000.00 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. "There's a term in the trade for this kind of gambler," says a casino source who has witnessed Bennett at the high-limit slots in the wee hours. "We call them losers." ........................................................................................

http://www.kait8.com/Global/story.asp?S=1263598

Jerusalem-AP -- Israel reportedly rebuffed some recent Syrian peace overtures. An Israeli daily (Maariv) says the brother of Syrian President Bashar Assad met in Jordan with a former director of Israel's foreign ministry before the start of the Iraq war. The paper says Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided not to pursue the offer for peace talks because he thought it was designed to improve Syria's standing with the U.S.

..............................................................................................

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/05/1051987655395.html

Israel's Parliament, the Knesset, interrupted its holiday to hold a special session on the international "roadmap" for the Middle East, public radio said… Israel and the Palestinians edged closer to resuming peace talks on Sunday, with Mr Sharon saying he would head negotiations personally and new Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas saying he was ready to meet the Israeli right-winger.

.................................................................

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/05/1051987657933.html

Hundreds of Palestinian families who have lived in Iraq for more than 50 years are finding themselves on the streets after being evicted from their homes after the fall of Saddam Hussein. More than 35,000 Palestinians who lived in Iraq since they were displaced from their homeland upon Israel's founding in 1948 have enjoyed Saddam's protection, often housed in the homes of Iraqis evicted by authorities for opposing the government… Many have found themselves on the streets after some original homeowners returned to claim their property or when other Iraqis, taking advantage of the legal vacuum after Baghdad's fall last month, have simply taken over government houses, forcing tenants out.

Anwar al-Awawda, who runs a health clinic, said about 350 families had moved into tents set up in the clinic's courtyard around an unexploded US missile in Baghdad's Baladiyat area. "Now there is no government, some 350 Palestinian families have been expelled from their houses and the number is on the rise every hour," Dr Awawda said.

..................................................................................

http://www.itar-tass.com/different/oper_lenta/english/iraq/294104.html

TEHERAN, May 5 (Itar-Tass) - Americans are restructuring special paramilitary units of the former Baath Party of Iraq, intending to use them for suppressing possible protest actions of the Iraqi population. The military intelligence of the U.S. Army, FBI and CIA agents are working on the creation of the new special units… The task of the new Iraqi units will be to find out who of the civilians opposes the U.S. invasion of Iraq, as well as to take part in suppressing anti-American actions in the country.

.................................................................

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1051643376576&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968705899037

KHAN AL-RUBEA, Iraq (AP) — Haidar Mohammed al-Atwan was 29 years old when he was blindfolded, tied up and shot in the back of the head following a failed Shiite uprising against Saddam Hussein in 1991. Sabah Amir Mohammed al-Tamimi was 19. So was Amna Ali. Their remains, complete with ID cards, were dug up with the bodies of 69 others Saturday and Sunday from a shallow mass grave about 20 kilometres northwest of Najaf, one of Shiite Muslims' holiest cities.

…More than 25 bodies were unearthed Saturday, and at least 10 had been identified, local Iraqis said. Forty-seven sets of remains, including those of women, were uncovered Sunday afternoon… [These are] linked to the Shiite uprising that took place [passive voice] after the 1991 Gulf War… Saddam's armed forces used helicopter gunships and tanks to defeat the lightly armed rebels. Thousands of people are believed to have been executed after the failed revolt.

…Later Sunday, the marines handed over control of their site to the Iraqi Unity Association, led by U.S.-appointed Gov. Abdel-Monem Abboud. Before they left, the troops barred local farmers and Supreme Council representatives from approaching the mass graves… Abu Mujahed, a farmer, complained… "They are not letting us see our relatives," he said. "My cousin is there. We prefer to dig them ourselves. We can identify them, from their clothes. We know how to get the remains out intact."

............................................................................................................

from april 2nd, 2003

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/columnists/trudy_rubin/5536143.htm

…I wanted information on a key issue in the war: why the Shiite Muslims of southern Iraq haven't rebelled against Saddam. The Bush administration hoped southern cities like Basra and Najaf would fall quickly and welcome U.S. troops as liberators… I asked al-Khoei [Head of the London-based Al-Khoei Foundation, he is the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Abul-Qasim al-Khoei, who was the highest Shiite religious authority in the world at the time of the Gulf War] what is really going on inside southern Iraq.

"It is not true that the Shia are reluctant to cooperate" in the overthrow of Saddam, says al-Khoei, who has been in touch with local leaders en route. But there are two reasons why they won't do so now… "My town [Najaf] is still under the control of the Baath party and Saddam's Fedayeen," says al-Khoei… The second reason Shiites are passive is that they don't trust U.S. intentions.

"They are worried the same thing might happen that happened in 1991," when the first George Bush called on Iraqis to rise. He let Saddam crush the Shiites after they answered his call. Al-Khoei has bitter memories of the uprising; his father sent him to find out when the Americans were coming. He reached French lines and was told Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf would come to meet him, but then the meeting was canceled. It became clear the Americans were never coming, and he had to tell his father the rebellion was doomed. [note: mass graves occurred (note passive voice de rigeuer). --mrs. h]

…………………………………………

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=403261

He has sent hundreds of people to the gallows… His proudest boast is that he fearlessly put a cousin of Saddam Hussein behind bars… Sami al-Ba'ati… is waiting to learn whether the Americans will allow him to don his black robes anew, to resume the business of meting out punishment to his fellow citizens.

US and British officials pressed forward yesterday with trying to restore Iraq's police and judicial system and end the chaos on the streets. Obeying instructions not to wear their black berets and paramilitary olive green shirts – symbols of the Saddam years – hundreds of Baghdad policemen reported for work for the first time.

Parallel negotiations were held between the allies' Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance and members of Iraq's judiciary to decide how to get the courts running again, and who would be allowed to preside over them. Mr Ba'ati… is 53, and would normally have another 10 years left on the bench… The judge openly admits to membership of the Baath party… Nor are his views on hanging likely to endear him to the Allies, who (ignoring America's illiberal use of the gas chamber and electric chair) have drawn up a list of principles for the Iraqis' law enforcement agencies, which includes a ban on capital and corporal punishment. The judge said he has sent "many, many" people to the gallows… "We in eastern countries think that hanging is just, especially for murderers," [he said].

If he does get his job back, the multitude of thieves of Baghdad – the "Ali Babas" – cannot hope for leniency. Asked what sentence he would give a looter, the judge replied with blood-curdling speed: "Fifteen years in jail."

.............................................................................

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/05/05/nirq05.xml/

Half of the 500 members of a [British] Armed Forces reservist field hospital are ready to quit after being told that they will have to stay in Iraq until September while both regular field hospitals come home… The failure to persuade America to agree to United Nations backing for the stabilisation force will leave Britain providing a long-term force of at least 15,000 troops, putting more pressure on regular forces and leading to further call-ups of reservists. Over-dependence on reservists is even greater in the Defence Medical Service, which cannot operate without them.

…The unit's members are also angry that they did not receive anthrax inoculations until it was too late for them to be effective… By the weekend most had still not been issued with desert clothing, boots, lightweight sleeping bags or personal weapons. Members of an Army medic internet chat site said they had been told that they were to receive desert uniforms withdrawn from troops on their way home.

Since arriving in Kuwait in mid-March, 202(V) field hospital has been mainly treating wounded Iraqis. It will now take over responsibility for all allied forces in the British sector in southern Iraq.

..................................................................

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/05/international/asia/05KORE.html?ex=1053101286&ei=1&en=56672a45de578fad

RAWFORD, Tex., May 4 — Tacitly acknowledging that North Korea may not be deterred from producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, President Bush is now trying to marshal international support for preventing the country from exporting nuclear material, American and foreign officials say.

…Mr. Bush's new focus on blocking the sale of nuclear material to countries or terrorist groups reflects intelligence officials' conclusion that they cannot ascertain whether North Korea was bluffing when it claimed last month that it had already reprocessed enough spent nuclear fuel to make many weapons.

.......................................................................

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2998093.stm

The Pakistani Government says it would get rid of its nuclear arsenal if India were prepared to the same… On Friday the two sides said they would re-establish full diplomatic relations, in what is being seen as a significant first step towards peace.

........................................................................

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/04/1051987611294.html

The Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has called for "careful planning" before any meeting takes place between New Delhi and the Pakistani leadership. Mr Vajpayee also reiterated that "cross-border terrorism" in Kashmir must end before any sustained dialogue could take place… Pakistan rejects Indian charges that it condones and supports cross-border raids into Indian Kashmir by Muslim militants.

................................................................................

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30554.html

The [recording industry association of America] RIAA's president Cary Sherman is lamenting that there's a lack of civility in the debate over sharing the music we love. He's complaining that people object to his effort to plant bombs in your computer. He says such people are irrational.

The New York Times reveals the record companies are preparing a program called "Silent", which "locks up a computer system for a certain duration - minutes or possibly even hours - risking the loss of data that was unsaved if the computer is restarted," the Times tells us. "It also displays a warning about downloading pirated music."

…One other program… deletes all the MP3s it can find on your computer so you have to buy the music again in DRM'd form. [digital rights management-- see http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/wm7/drm/features.aspx] And then your music will truly belong to them.

…The extent of this assault on our valuable culture, when combined with the the labels refusal to release its back catalogs, including works of great artistic merit, is huge. Look at what just one Register [newspaper] reader will be losing. "My great grandfather was born in 1870," he writes: "He learned to build crystal radio sets to listen to the earliest radio broadcasts in the 1920's. He would invite the whole town of about 500 over to listen to them.

"My grandfather was born in 1899. He purchased one of the earliest tape recorders to make copies of radio broadcasts for his friends in the late 1950s. My dad was born in 1924. He had a collection of 78's that he passed around for many years until he died last year. And now I am using the Internet to assemble an MP3 collection of all the tunes on all those LPs, cassette tapes and CD's that I've been buying since 1959.

"I'll be damned in hell before I accept the notion that I and my ancestors who love to listen to the audio arts are in any sense guilty of anything that is illegal, wrong, evil, immoral or improper."

…Imagine the loss if your library agreed only to keep a couple of hundred books which were then only obtainable through a fee… When the RIAA has finished with its good work here, it will be free to do the same thing, only more aggressively, abroad.

Hilary's Rosen involvement in rewriting Iraqi's more liberal copyright law [confirmed] will pave the way for her members to control the distribution of Iraqi culture. Before too long, the new malls of Iraq will have hypermarkets bulging with what small parts of homegrown culture the record labels sees fit to offer.

…The RIAA's assault on our cultural identity - this includes refusing to open the catalogs, as well as bombing or financially crippling computer-using music lovers - is so deep that it's only a surprise that someone hasn't bombed them back. [see http://www.riaa.org/index.cfm]

...............................................................................................

not a satire

http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-999509.html

MSN UK is creating what Microsoft calls the world's first Internet outhouse, or iLoo, complete with flat-screen plasma display, wireless keyboard and broadband access. MSN UK spokesman Matthew Whittingham described the portable toilet as the first "WWW.C," referring to the term W.C., or water closet.

…The portable lavatory is being tested and will debut at festivals around Great Britain this summer. Microsoft plans to build a single prototype MSN iLoo that will travel the festival circuit, and may build more if the response to the pioneering potty warrants it, Whittingham said. MSN UK is negotiating with toilet paper manufacturers for special rolls with Web addresses, or URLs, printed on them. "Reading in the loo, or the bog, is a traditional English pastime," said Jeremy Davies, an analyst with U.K.-based market researcher Context.

…From the outside, the iLoo is little different from other portable toilets. But inside, Microsoft serves up accoutrements that might rival some iLoo users' home PC setups. A Windows XP- powered computer resides under the sink with connection to 6-channel surround audio. A flat-screen plasma display swivels out from the side of the cabin, and a waterproof wireless keyboard can be placed on the lap for comfort.

The iLoo is equipped with 802.11b wireless networking for providing broadband Internet access. The toilet uses vacuum suction to dispose of waste.

…It could induce a certain amount of queuing due to excess browsing on the part of users… Davies also raised concerns about the long lines. "Like my father always said: 'Get in, get it out, get out,'" he said. Whittingham agreed that people might take longer in the toilet because of the Internet access. "If they take too long--say, hours--we'll probably bang on the door or something," he said.

.....................................................................................

http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/233299.htm

Medical researchers at Hong Kong's Chinese University said on Friday the SARS virus is mutating rapidly as health officials announced eight more deaths from the respiratory disease… Their discovery came as the result of weeks of research… The team's research also indicated that there was more than one SARS coronavirus — the virus which has been identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as causing SARS — in Hong Kong… The findings come as some medical experts raised concern about Hong Kong's rapidly rising fatality rate, which has topped 10 percent of all infections in recent days… The deaths in recent weeks of a spate of younger patient who previously had no history of chronic illness has also raised fears among some medical experts that a mutated virus had become more virulent.

.........................................................................................