American, Mexican and Canadian cabinet ministers met here on Friday to set the agenda for a meeting later this year by the leaders of the three countries, with the discussions taking an increased focus on protecting cross-border trade in the face of increasing border security measures. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez met their Canadian and Mexican counterparts amid concerns that new United States border restrictions — particularly the requirement of passports, beginning in January 2008, for land and sea crossings — would hamper the $880 billion in annual trade among the countries. No firm agenda emerged for a planned meeting later this year of President Bush, President Felipe Calderón of Mexico and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada. But officials here were optimistic that the countries could continue to increase trade despite concerns by Canada over the passport requirement ...
http://www.nytimes.com
censor News |
Editor - 17:39:00 02-23-07
|
 Homeland Security Funding 'Pork' Under Fire |
In 2005, Kentucky won a $36,300 grant from the Department of Homeland Security to protect bingo halls from terrorist infiltration, and last year, the federal government granted $46,908 in homeland security funds to protect a limo and bus service that transports New Yorkers to the affluent Hamptons region in Long Island. In 2004, five days before Christmas, the government announced a $153 million homeland security grant to provide food and shelter for the homeless, and in the last fiscal year, $15.7 million in homeland security funds went for enforcement of child labor laws. While spending government money on questionable projects isn't especially unusual in Washington, some government watchdogs and other groups say homeland security money should be off limits for pork barrel spending. "Money spent on these projects is money not spent on something we need," Veronique de Rugy, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told Cybercast News Service. ...
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200702/POL20070223b.html
full News |
Editor - 12:17:00 02-23-07
|
| Revealed: The true extent of Britain's failure in Basra |
The partial British military withdrawal from southern Iraq announced by Tony Blair this week follows political and military failure, and is not because of any improvement in local security, say specialists on Iraq. In a comment entitled "The British Defeat in Iraq" the pre-eminent American analyst on Iraq, Anthony Cordesman of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, in Washington, asserts that British forces lost control of the situation in and around Basra by the second half of 2005. Mr Cordesman says that while the British won some tactical clashes in Basra and Maysan province in 2004, that "did not stop Islamists from taking more local political power and controlling security at the neighbourhood level when British troops were not present". As a result, southern Iraq has, in effect, long been under the control of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri) and the so-called "Sadrist" factions. ...
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2296829.ece
full News |
Editor - 11:57:00 02-23-07
|
| Smugglers raise stakes along border |
Rival alien and drug smugglers on the U.S.-Mexico border are targeting each other in a wave of escalating violence to win control of smuggling corridors into the United States, with at least four recent killings tied to efforts to kidnap migrants for ransom. Three of the killings took place Feb. 8 north of Tucson, Ariz., in what federal and state law-enforcement authorities have described as one of the nation's most popular alien- and drug-smuggling corridors. Another occurred Jan. 28, south of Tucson. Authorities said gang members are kidnapping illegal aliens being guided into the United States, demanding ransoms of up to $2,500 a person and killing the illegals, along with gang rivals, who resist. The kidnappings save the gangs the cost of recruiting migrants in Mexico and hiring guides, or "coyotes," to bring them across the border. They also said some gang members are thought to have targeted "stash houses" in Phoenix, where illegal aliens are taken to await ...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070223-124354-8561r.htm
full News |
Editor - 11:28:00 02-23-07
|
| Advanced geometry of Islamic art |
A study of medieval Islamic art has shown some of its geometric patterns use principles established centuries later by modern mathematicians. Researchers in the US have found 15th Century examples that use the concept of quasicrystalline geometry. This indicates intuitive understanding of complex mathematical formulae, even if the artisans had not worked out the underlying theory, the study says. The discovery is published in the journal Science. The research shows an important breakthrough had occurred in Islamic mathematics and design by 1200. "It's absolutely stunning," Harvard's Peter Lu said in an interview. "They made tilings that reflect mathematics that were so sophisticated that we didn't figure it out until the last 20 or 30 years." The Islamic designs echo quasicrystalline geometry in that both use symmetrical polygonal shapes to create patterns that can be extended indefinitely. Until now, the conventional view was that the complicated star-and-polygon patterns of ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6389157.stm
full News |
Editor - 10:59:00 02-23-07
|
| U.S. prison population projected to soar by 200,000 in five years |
Get-tough policies that lock up offenders for longer sentences are propelling a projected increase of nearly 200,000 in the U.S. prison population in the next five years, according to a private study released Wednesday. The increase — projected by the Pew Charitable Trusts' study to be three times faster than the overall population growth in the United States — is expected to cost states more than $27 billion. "As a country, we have a problem," said Susan Urahn, managing director of policy initiatives at the Pew Charitable Trusts, which funded the study by its Public Safety Performance Project. The study is the first of its kind to project prison populations in every state through 2011, based on state projections, current criminal justice policies and demographic trends. Urahn said she hoped states would use the study to prepare for the future, either by building more prisons or by adopting policies to slow the growth through alternative forms of punishment....
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/14/news/prison.php
full News |
Editor - 10:41:00 02-23-07
|
|
| post The Good, The Bad and The Ugly |
|
|
