Iran has replaced Iraq as the country Americans consider to be their greatest enemy, according to a Gallup Poll. Canada & Great Britain were ranked as America's best friends. The percentage of Americans with a positive view of France & Germany has moved up sharply since 2003, the poll said, when the 2 allies challenged Bush's Iraq policy. 31 percent of Americans gave the nod to Iran as the worst enemy in polling of 1,002 adults between Feb. 6-9.This represented an increase from 14 percent last year, & appeared to reflect growing American concern over the potential for the Islamic republic to acquire nuclear weapons. Propaganda works when the public can be fooled into thinking friend and foe can change almost daily based on half truths or outright lies that are repeated many times and we are too lazy to check what is the real truth, from what is meant to deceive us. It has worked to start wars for thousands of years and we say we are an intelligent educated Christian people? ...
http://news.yahoo.com
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Editor - 00:55:00 02-25-06
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 Push for Democracy Loses Some Energy |
When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a high-profile tour of Egypt and Saudi Arabia last June, she confronted those governments about opening up their political systems. Revisiting both countries this week, however, her call for greater democracy appeared more muted, as some of the aftershocks of the democracy push have given autocratic governments more leverage in their dealings with the United States.The Bush administration had advocated legislative elections in the Palestinian territories as a way to reinvigorate Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, but the move resulted in a sweeping victory last month by the radical Islamic group Hamas. Now, in order to restore hopes for reviving stalled peace talks, the United States needs the help of Egyptian and Saudi leaders to press Hamas to moderate its unyielding demand for Israel's destruction....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/24/AR2006022400739_pf.html
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Editor - 23:49:00 02-24-06
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| Tense Iraq extends daytime curfew |
The Iraqi government is extending a curfew it imposed in parts of the country on Friday to calm tensions sparked by an attack on a Shia shrine. PM Ibrahim Jaafari said it was because of the "extraordinary circumstances our beloved country is passing through". At least 130 people - mostly Sunnis - have died since the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, was bombed on Wednesday. US President George W Bush has urged restraint, saying: "This is a moment of choosing for the Iraqi people." The bombing and reprisals have sparked fears of a descent into civil war. The Iraqi authorities announced that the curfew covering Baghdad and the provinces of Diyala, Babil and Salahuddine would be extended from 2000 Friday to 1600 Saturday (1700-1300 GMT). Friday's daytime curfew appeared to have blunted much of the violence, with just a handful of incidents reported. The streets in Baghdad were almost deserted, apart from Iraqis travelling by foot to nearby mosques for weekly prayers. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4749308.stm
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Editor - 19:16:00 02-24-06
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| In the software crusher |
Oracle, the US software and database giant, has a tried and tested policy for dealing with uppity rivals: it buys them. Size is not an issue. Huge firms like Peoplesoft and Siebel have all succumbed to Oracle's advances. So will Salesforce.com - challenger not just to Oracle, but SAP and Microsoft as well - be the next takeover target? "In this case, I think it would be more fun to crush them," says Charles Phillips, the president of Oracle. Getting up Oracle's nose is Salesforce.com's founder and boss Marc Benioff, himself a former top executive at Oracle. Mr Benioff, a laidback Californian with a yearning for the beaches of Hawaii, giggles when he talks about Oracle's threat. He professes not to be worried by his big rivals and reels off the advantages of Salesforce.com's business model. Salesforce.com offers "customer relationship management" (CRM) software that allows businesses to track and analyse all dealings with customers in real-time. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4735944.stm
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Editor - 19:09:00 02-24-06
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| Officials Say Shiite Shrine South of Baghdad Escapes Damage in Rocket Attack, No Injuries Reported |
Gunmen fired two rockets in a village which includes a sacred Shiite tomb south of Baghdad, but there were no casualties nor damage to the shrine, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. U.S. officials said one round exploded around a nearby hotel. The incident occurred near the tomb of Salman Pak, a seventh-century Persian convert to Islam who served as the barber to the Prophet Muhammad. Jamal al-Saghir, an aide to Shiite political leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, said one hit the gate of the tomb and one exploded a few yards away. However, U.S. military spokesman Capt. Steve Stover said neither the tomb nor the surrounding cemetery were hit but that one projectile exploded at a nearby hotel, causing no casualties or damage. He was unsure how far the hotel was from the tomb in the village of Salman Pak, 20 miles southeast of Baghdad. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1660000
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Editor - 19:01:00 02-24-06
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| Problem Halts Tenn. Uranium Tank Project Steel Reinforcement Missing From Tennessee Uranium Storehouse Construction, Inspectors Say |
Reinforcing steel was missing or not installed as designed in some concrete walls and floors in a $350 million storehouse that will hold the nation's largest inventory of bomb-grade uranium, according to federal inspectors. The National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the nation's nuclear weapons program, could not immediately say how significant the problems were at the construction site within the Y-12 nuclear weapons complex in Oak Ridge, about 20 miles west of Knoxville. But the discovery has forced suspension of most work on the new uranium facility since Feb. 3, according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, an independent agency that oversees nuclear weapons programs. "Since that time they have evaluated a number of those things," Bill Wilburn, spokesman for Department of Energy managing contractor BWXT, said Friday. "We have resumed some limited scope work, and we are looking to make a further decision in the next few days." ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1660143
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Editor - 18:52:00 02-24-06
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