Agha Nour has had some of his poppy crop eradicated. His neighbour's has remained virtually untouched. Others in the area have lost the lot. The harvest left untouched belongs to his cousin, Haji Abdul Munaf, who just happens to be the Mayor of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, the province that produces around 30 per cent of Afghanistan's poppy.Mr Nour, 77, claims he does not know what influence his cousin had on the eradication. "I think they will come back and finish off what is left. We are poor people, and this is our livelihood. How will we feed our families?"Mr Nour also cultivates wheat, fruit and alfalfa on his two hectares. But while he gets 50 Afghanis (60p) for 4kg of wheat, 4kg of poppy can fetch $400....
http://news.independent.co.uk
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Editor - 22:45:00 03-31-07
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 'US ready to strike Iran on Good Friday' |
The United States will be ready to launch a missile attack on Iran's nuclear facilities as soon as early this month, perhaps "from 4 a.m. until 4 p.m. on April 6," according to reports in the Russian media on Saturday. According to Russian intelligence sources, the reports said, the US has devised a plan to attack several targets in Iran, and an assault could be carried out by launching missiles from fighter jets and warships stationed in the Persian Gulf. Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted a security official as saying, "Russian intelligence has information that the US Armed Forces stationed in the Persian Gulf have nearly completed preparations for a missile strike against Iranian territory." The Russian Defense Ministry rejected the claims of an imminent attack as "myths." There was no immediate response from Washington. The reports come as the Iranian chief of staff, Hassan Fayrouz Abadi, was quoted on Saturday by Iran's Fars news agency warning ...
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173879220977&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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Editor - 22:40:00 03-31-07
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| Hollywood Blaze Spreads, Causing Panic Wildfire Forces Evacuations Of 200 Southern California Homes |
Residents of 200 homes were ordered to evacuate Saturday as a wildfire burned out of control in hills and canyons in this city east of Los Angeles, authorities said. The fire burned about 1,400 acres, or 2.1 square miles, and had burned a shed and the roof of a house in the area where residents were being evacuated, said San Bernardino County Fire spokeswoman Angie Samayoa. The cause was under investigation, and about 400 firefighters were fighting the blaze. Hesperia is about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles. "It's increased substantially," Samayoa said. "Firefighters are doing their very best to protect these homes." On Friday, flames allegedly ignited by two teens sent smoke seeping into the Warner Bros. studios and towering high in the sky behind the famous Hollywood sign before losing intensity. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/30/national/main2631102.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._2631102
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Editor - 22:21:00 03-31-07
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| Boogieman suspect moved to Guantanamo Bay |
A purported al Qaeda terrorist accused in the deadly 2002 bombing of a hotel in Kenya has been transferred to U.S. custody and sent to the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Pentagon officials said yesterday. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman identified the suspect as Abdul Malik. He is the first terrorism suspect to be transferred to Guantanamo Bay since September 2004. Mr. Whitman said Malik would undergo a military hearing to determine whether he is to be classified as an "enemy combatant." Mr. Whitman declined to provide details such as Malik's nationality or how he came into U.S. custody. He called Malik a "dangerous terrorist suspect." Mr. Whitman said Malik admitted to involvement in the November 2002 attack on the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Kikambala, Kenya, in which 13 persons died, and to involvement in the unsuccessful attempted shootdown of an Israeli Boeing 757 civilian jetliner carrying 271 passengers, also in Kenya in 2002....
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070326-103029-1000r.htm
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Editor - 21:49:00 03-31-07
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| U.S. March toll nearly twice Iraq forces |
The US military death toll in March, the first full month of the security crackdown, was nearly twice that of the Iraqi army, which American and Iraqi officials say is taking the leading role in the latest attempt to curb violence in the capital, surrounding cities and Anbar province, according to figures compiled on Saturday. The AP count of US military deaths for the month was 81, including a soldier who died from non-combat causes Friday. Figures compiled from officials in the Iraqi ministries of Defense, Health and Interior showed the Iraqi military toll was 44. The Iraqi figures showed that 165 Iraqi police were killed in March. Many of the police serve in paramilitary units. According to the AP count 3,246 U.S. service members have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. At least 83 American forces died in January and 80 in February, according to the AP tabulation. The Iraqi figures were gathered from officials who released them on condition of anonymity ...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070331/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_march_casualties
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Editor - 21:44:00 03-31-07
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| The Complicated Power of the Vote to Nowhere |
SO it’s yes to timetables for Iraq, both the House and the Senate have now said. But don’t schedule the welcome-home parades yet. For a start, the two very different spending bills passed in the last 10 days have yet to be reconciled and President Bush has promised a veto, with a veto override quite unlikely. But that isn’t to say the votes were meaningless, judging from the last slow-motion collision of a wartime president and the antiwar voices in Congress. Historians of the Vietnam era suggest that those who look to Congress for decisive action to end the current war will be disappointed. But they say that today, just as in the 1960s and 70s, Congress both reflects and amplifies public disillusionment; its votes, however symbolic, could set political limits on the president’s options. “Congress becomes the public voice of opposition,” said Robert Dallek, the presidential historian, who has dissected the interaction of Congress with both Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. “And ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/weekinreview/01shane.html?ex=1333080000&en=0303c870b977c451&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
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Editor - 21:29:00 03-31-07
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| post The Good, The Bad and The Ugly |
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