 The last time I saw Saddam Hussein was in 1988 when, as a young kid, I was ferried by bus with thousands of others from across Baghdad to line the road under a scorching sun and wave ribbons and Iraqi flags as Saddam and the King of Saudi Arabia waved back from a convertible car.It was not far from the building where yesterday the former president of Iraq was officially charged with crimes against humanity. Then, the building housing the court was the old Ba'ath party headquarters. Now, just across the street is the huge compound of the new fortress-like US embassy where 12 tower cranes soar high in the sky.Bearded US marshals in civilian clothes and machine guns escort you in and out of the court, and through very sophisticated and tight security....
http://www.guardian.co.uk
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Editor - 23:08:00 05-15-06
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 BellSouth denies giving call data to NSA USA Today reported last week that phone carrier turned over information |
BellSouth Corp. said Monday its “thorough review” found no indication it gave telephone records to the National Security Agency as part of a federal anti-terrorism surveillance program.A report last week by USA Today identified BellSouth, along with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., as companies that had complied with an NSA request to turn over millions of customer phone records after the 2001 terror attacks.“Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA,” the Atlanta-based regional Bell said in a statement. BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher said the company’s investigation found “no contract with the NSA and we are confident that we have turned over no phone records.”...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12806653/from/RSS/
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Editor - 23:04:00 05-15-06
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| Nightmares aplenty at NORAD |
Last week, terrorists exploded a radioactive bomb across the river from Detroit, blew up a couple of Michigan railcars full of deadly chemicals, hijacked a U.S. airliner to Canada and triggered a lethal outbreak of plague in Mexico, just as another hurricane was slamming into New Orleans.Fortunately, the mayhem was make-believe, an elaborate drill staged by U.S. and Canadian defense agencies. But the aim was real: to gauge military, medical and humanitarian response to multiple threats and natural catastrophes.The exercise, dubbed Ardent Sentry, began May 8 and ends Thursday. It uses imaginary disasters to test U.S. Northern Command, or NorthCom, the military arm of homeland defense, and its air-defense partner, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Participants include more than 5,000 U.S. and Canadian military personnel and civilians, including dozens of federal agencies and several state teams. They must deal with an onslaught of worst-case scenarios:...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-15-sentry-terror_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 23:02:00 05-15-06
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| 'No to half-baked Iraq cabinet' |
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Monday said he would not support proposals to go ahead with the formation of a much-delayed cabinet without the appointment of the key defence and interior ministers. He said: "The presidency does not wish to see the presentation of an incomplete government lacking the defence and interior posts." He was speaking in response to calls for Iraqi prime minister designate Nuri al-Maliki to temporarily fill the seats in order to break five months of political deadlock. Talabani said: "There is an agreement that these two ministries should go to independents on which all party lists agree. "God willing, the new national unity government will be announced before the end of the week." ...
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1933180,00.html
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Editor - 22:51:00 05-15-06
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| Deadly storm spins closer to China |
Hong Kong urged small ships and fishing boats on the open seas to seek shelter Tuesday as a killer typhoon -- the strongest ever to threaten the city in May -- spun closer on its way to China's southern coast.The storm's eye was expected to miss Hong Kong, but its fringe would begin lashing the city early Wednesday, the Hong Kong Observatory said.Typhoon Chanchu, which means "pearl" in Chinese, was about 600 kilometers (372 miles) south of Hong Kong early Tuesday, the observatory said. It was moving at 16 kph (10 mph) and packing maximum sustained winds of 170 kph (105 mph), the observatory said.Chanchu was the strongest typhoon on record to enter the South China Sea in May, the observatory said. ...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/05/15/typhoon.hk.ap/index.html?section=cnn_world
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Editor - 22:48:00 05-15-06
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| Castro says he's not wealthy, Forbes story untrue |
Cuban President Fidel Castro furiously denied on Monday a story in Forbes magazine that he was worth $900 million and said he would step down if the magazine could prove the assertion. The financial magazine ranked Castro as the seventh wealthiest ruler in the world in its annual tally of the "Fortunes of Kings, Queens and Dictators."Castro went on television brandishing a copy of the U.S.-based magazine to tell Cubans the story was a "repugnant slander" by a capitalist publication.With Communist Cuba's Central Bank governor at his side, Castro challenged Forbes to prove the allegation."If they can prove that I have a bank account abroad, with $900 million, with $1 million, $500,000, $100,000 or $1 in it, I will resign," he said at the end of a four-hour broadcast....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060516/ts_nm/castro_forbes_dc
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Editor - 22:46:00 05-15-06
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