 Large bundles of cash meant for Iraq's reconstruction were stashed in filing cabinets, handed over without receipts and gambled away, a report has found. The audit, by US-appointed inspectors, paints a picture of the chaotic misuse of millions of dollars of funds. The lack of oversight had a tragic outcome in one case, when a hospital lift, supposed to have been fixed, crashed killing three people. The report said US post-war planning was limited by a desire for secrecy. There were no detailed, overt preparations for the reconstruction of Iraq in the run-up to the 2003 invasion "to avoid the impression that the US government had already decided on [military] intervention", the report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) said. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 09:46:00 01-25-06
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 China's economy continues to soar |
China's economy maintained its stellar growth last year, official figures have confirmed, expanding 9.9% in 2005. Growth has now been about 10% for three consecutive years and the economy shows no signs of slowing despite government efforts to restrain it. Total economic output rose to 18.2 trillion yuan ($2.25 trillion) as soaring exports fuelled the country's growing trade surplus. Experts said China may now be the world's fourth-largest economy. China's economy recently overtook Italy, in terms of size, and may also have leapfrogged the United Kingdom and France, analysts said. The latest growth figures were stronger than were initially expected. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4645874.stm
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Editor - 09:42:00 01-25-06
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| Surge in support for Hamas as voters prepare to reject Fatah at polls |
The armed Islamist group Hamas is expected to break the ruling Fatah movement's 40-year domination of the Palestinian cause in bitterly contested parliamentary elections today.Opinion polls predict that voters will use the first Palestinian national election in which there is a genuine race for power to punish Fatah, the movement founded by Yasser Arafat, for years of corruption and poor administration. Fatah is likely to lose its outright majority in parliament as Hamas emerges as a potential partner in a power-sharing government.But Israel and its western allies have warned that the rise of Hamas, which is on the ballot as the Change and Reform movement because it remains a banned terrorist organisation in Israel, could be a further obstacle to a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian conflict unless the group renounces violence....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1694141,00.html
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Editor - 00:42:00 01-25-06
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| Backlash as Google shores up great firewall of China · US search engine agrees to government restrictions- Firm admits inconsistency with its corporate ethics |
Google, the world's biggest search engine, will team up with the world's biggest censor, China, today with a service that it hopes will make it more attractive to the country's 110 million online users. After holding out longer than any other major internet company, Google will effectively become another brick in the great firewall of China when it starts filtering out information that it believes the government will not approve of. Despite a year of soul-searching, the American company will join Microsoft and Yahoo! in helping the communist government block access to websites containing politically sensitive content, such as references to the Tiananmen Square massacre and criticism of the politburo. Executives have grudgingly accepted that this is the ethical price they have to pay to base servers in mainland China. The ethical price these American Companies boils down to, can they make a Buck. They are just Whores who jump in bed with anyone who waves a few bucks at them ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1694293,00.html
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Editor - 00:32:00 01-25-06
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| Pentagon Planning Document Leaves Iraq Out of Equation |
The U.S. military has long been accused of always planning to fight its last war. But as the Pentagon assesses threats to national security over the next four years, a major blueprint being completed in the shadow of the Iraq war will do largely the opposite.The military went into Iraq with a vision that a small, agile, and lightly armored force could win a quick preemptive war. Although the U.S. easily crushed Saddam Hussein's army, the subsequent occupation has proven far costlier in lives, money and international standing than most expected.As a result, the U.S. military has no appetite for another lengthy war of "regime change."And while some new lessons will be incorporated into the Pentagon review, the spending blueprint for the next four years will largely stick to the script Pentagon officials wrote before the Iraq war, according to those familiar with the nearly final document that will be presented to Congress in early February....
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/news2/latimes2.htm
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Editor - 00:07:00 01-25-06
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| Bush commits US to defence of Israel in face of Iran threat. Just who is the real threat? |
Bush yesterday committed the US to the defence of Israel against threats from Iran, saying he would not allow the world to be "blackmailed" by an Iranian nuclear weapon. The US president's warning, issued in an exchange with students in Kansas, came at a tense time in relations with Iran, after Tehran vowed to restart nuclear research. The US is leading a diplomatic attempt to persuade other countries to refer Iran to the UN security council for failure to cooperate with United Nations inspectors. Tehran insists it is interested only in a civilian nuclear energy programme, and has threatened to return to full-scale production of nuclear fuel if it is referred to the UN. One nation in the Middle East already has Nuclear weapons and has had them for years, but we continue to ignore their nukes and all the UN resolutions against this nation. Fair play is not even given lip service. Is it any wonder we have very little credibility in the area except for those we have bought? ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1693449,00.html
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Editor - 23:49:00 01-24-06
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| post The Good, The Bad and The Ugly |
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