 The leaders of the Czech Republic and Poland say they are in favour of letting the US build parts of its missile defence system on their soil. Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said he agreed with his Polish counterpart that they would probably respond positively to a US request. The US wants to build a missile interceptor site in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic. Russia has condemned the plan, saying it will be able to target the sites. "If the governments of Poland and the Czech Republic take a decision to this effect, the strategic missile troops will be capable of having these facilities as targets," said Gen Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of Russia's missile forces. The US says the missile defence in Central Europe is designed to guard against possible missile attacks from the Middle East or North Korea. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 08:04:00 02-19-07
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 Birdflu study has U.S. students hiding faces |
Heather Vogt has agreed not to show her face around campus these days. But it's not shame that keeps the 23-year-old University of Michigan senior in disguise. Vogt is part of the first U.S. study examining whether surgical masks, hand sanitizer and other preventive measures can slow the spread of the flu. "It's a little warm and it's a little annoying to wear but for the most part it's pretty easy," said Vogt, one of more than 1,000 students who have signed up for the experiment. "You just kind of ignore it after a while." Not everyone Vogt encounters has such a relaxed response to her mask. "It's like the pictures you saw from China when they had the SARS breakout," said Dominique Lee, 21, a fellow student who was visiting Vogt's dorm last week. "It also blocks communication. You're scared to talk to her because she has a barrier on."...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2886810
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Editor - 07:59:00 02-19-07
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| Italy Signals It Won't Seek Extradition of 26 Americans in Alleged CIA Kidnapping |
The Italian government is signaling it will not press Washington for the extradition of 26 Americans mostly CIA agents who were indicted in the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan, according to remarks published Monday. Milan prosecutors want the government to forward to Washington their request for the extradition of the Americans. The previous government of Silvio Berlusconi refused, and Premier Romano Prodi's center-left government has been elusive on the issue. A decision might be announced Thursday, when Justice Minister Clemente Mastella briefs parliament, although Justice Ministry officials declined to say when a decision would be made. Mastella suggested in an interview with an Italian newspaper that the government would not seek the Americans' extradition, saying that the friendship with the United States needed to be safeguarded...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2886799
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Editor - 07:57:00 02-19-07
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| Iran flap exposes public skepticism of US intelligence, intentions |
Unfounded intelligence claims that paved the way for war in Iraq blew back like a ghost last week to haunt US charges that Iran is arming Iraqi extremists. Bush and his top aides had to admit by week's end that they did not know whether Iran's leaders knew that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was supplying Shiite militias with sophisticated bombs and training. And "for the umpteenth time," as US Defense Secretary Gates put it, they denied that the United States was trying to prepare the ground for military action in Iraq. But the flap exposed how deep public suspicion of US intelligence claims runs nearly four years after the United States went to war with Iraq on the strength of erroneous intelligence that it had weapons of mass destruction. "I think this controversy is traceable to one big problem," said Loren Thompson, director of the Lexington Institute, a private Washington research group. "The US intelligence community does not have an adequate network of agents in Iraq or Iran. ...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070218/pl_afp/usiraniraqmilitary_070218110905
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Editor - 22:38:00 02-18-07
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| Iran’s Chance: U.S. Troubles in Iraq Create Opening for Regional Shift |
In recent weeks, Bush and American military officials have increasingly accused Iran of meddling in Iraq’s affairs. But from Iran’s perspective, given its longstanding interests in Iraq, it is the United States that is meddling in its backyard, analysts inside and outside of Iran say. From the very start of the American occupation of Iraq, at least some in the Bush administration saw an opportunity to curtail the influence of Iran’s radical Shiite leaders by producing an alternative, moderate center of Shiite Islam that would effectively neuter Tehran in ideological, political and strategic terms. This was abundantly clear to Iran’s clerical rulers, whose paramount priority since they seized power in 1979 has been to preserve their revolution and their grip on their own country. Faced with more than 100,000 American troops next door and a White House that pursued a policy of pre-emptive war, Iran’s leaders moved quickly to try to prevent the US from gaining a permanent foothold....
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/world/middleeast/18assess.html?ex=1329454800&en=09d1bb7fcd00ba64&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
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Editor - 22:35:00 02-18-07
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| Al Qaeda Chiefs Are Seen to Regain Power |
Senior leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over the past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near the Afghan border, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials. American officials said there was mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan. Until recently, the Bush administration had described Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri as detached from their followers and cut off from operational control of Al Qaeda. The United States has also identified several new Qaeda compounds in North Waziristan, including one that officials said might be training operatives for strikes against targets beyond Afghanistan. ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/19/world/asia/19intel.html?ex=1329541200&en=2a7e4609a99a0ae6&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
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Editor - 22:31:00 02-18-07
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