They are the orphans of Iraqi history, grown up and remaking the country's political and social order. But the formidable alliance between the long-marginalized Shiite Muslims and Kurds, a union nurtured by Washington, now threatens to undermine U.S. goals in the new Iraq.The aim of U.S. policymakers has been a united Iraqi state with secular leanings in which the Kurds, who have been strong American allies, would promote a government aligned with the West. Instead, the Kurds appear poised to accept alliances that guarantee them a secular state in Kurdistan in exchange for their acceptance of a more religious order in the rest of Iraq."This was one of the great flaws in the American strategy," said a former diplomat who is close to the Kurds. "They thought that because the Kurds are American allies that they would share their vision of Iraq as a whole, whereas anybody who understood it would see [that] the Kurds wanted out of Iraq and to be left alone."...
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Editor - 00:51:00 01-23-06
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 Virginia parish demands leader 'repent' |
Virginia's largest Episcopal parish, in a letter to the church's 2,200 members, yesterday called on Virginia's the Rt. Rev. Peter J. Lee to "repent and return to the truth" over supporting the ordination of the openly homosexual bishop of New Hampshire. Leaders of the Falls Church Episcopal said in their eight-page, single-spaced letter that "no compromise on this issue is possible," although they refrained from specific threats. In the past, the parish's rector has threatened schism. "A Christian leader does not approve of sin, or purport to declassify it," the letter said to Bishop Lee, who backed the 2003 consecration of the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. "Rather, he calls sinners to repentance and proclaims the Good News that sin can be forgiven and new life can be obtained in Christ." ...
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060123-123255-7755r.htm
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Editor - 00:46:00 01-23-06
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| Iran Sanctions Could Drive Oil Past $100 |
A surge in oil prices last week to almost $70 a barrel on concerns about the restart of Iran's nuclear program only hints at what may lie ahead. Prices could soar past $100 a barrel, experts say, if the U.N. Security Council authorizes trade sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation, which the West accuses of trying to make nuclear bombs, and Iran curbs oil exports in retaliation. A sharp global economic slowdown could follow. That's the dilemma the United States and European nations face as they decide whether to act. But Iran would also pay a hefty price if the petro-dollars that now represent 80 percent of export revenues are reduced, potentially stirring civil unrest in a nation with a 14 percent unemployment rate. "They would shoot themselves in the foot," said Mustafa Alani, director of national security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. "It's one thing to test the market psychology, it's another to take the actual step and stop oil exports."...
http://www.forbes.com/work/feeds/ap/2006/01/22/ap2467049.html
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Editor - 00:41:00 01-23-06
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| Learning Sago's Lessons |
In death, 14 West Virginia coal miners have achieved something that just a month ago seemed an unlikely goal: Labor, industry and lawmakers are united in demanding that a dangerous subterranean occupation be made safer. Hours after the bodies of two missing miners were found Saturday in Aracoma Coal's Alma No. 1 mine at Melville, Gov. Joe Manchin and West Virginia's congressional delegation called for a major overhaul of state and federal mine safety laws. Both the National Mining Association and the United Mine Workers of America said Sunday that they, too, will press for change. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/22/national/main1227447.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=U.S._1227447
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Editor - 00:37:00 01-23-06
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| Gas starts flowing to crisis-hit Georgia |
Gas started flowing to Georgia on Monday after an explosion shut off supplies from Russia which Georgian officials accused of deliberately triggering an energy crisis in its small ex-Soviet neighbor. Two explosions in Russia's North Ossetia province on Sunday knocked out the main pipeline that exports gas across the border to Georgia which is experiencing an unusually cold winter. "This morning, partial supplies of gas to Tbilisi resumed," presidential chief of staff Georgy Arveladze said. "It will take several days to resume gas supplies nationwide." ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1532007
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Editor - 00:29:00 01-23-06
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| Sympathy for al-Qaida Surges in Pakistan |
Sympathy for al-Qaida has surged after a U.S. airstrike devastated this remote mountain hamlet in a region sometimes as hostile toward the Pakistani government as it is to the United States. A week after the attack, villagers insist no members of the terror network were anywhere near the border village when it was hit. But thousands of protesters flooded a nearby town chanting, "Long live Osama bin Laden!"Pakistan's army, in charge of hunting militants, was nowhere to be seen.The rally was the latest in a series of demonstrations across Pakistan against the Jan. 13 attack, which apparently targeted but missed al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri.The military still mans numerous checkpoints in the area, but it appears to be keeping a low profile so it will not inflame villagers still seething over the deaths of 13 civilians, including women and children, in the attack....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060122/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_al_qaida_attack
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Editor - 00:14:00 01-23-06
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