New Hampshire Health News Digest

Fasting can be good for health, study shows New research with mice indicates several benefits Associated Press WASHINGTON - Periodic fasting can be just as good for the health as sharply cutting back on calories, even if the fasting doesn't mean eating less overall, a new study indicates. Researchers are planning to see if what works in mice is also good for people. Several recent studies have reported a variety of benefits from a sharply restricted diet, including longer life span, increased insulin sensitivity and stress resistance. In the new report, mice that were fed only every other day - but could gorge on the days they did eat - saw similar health benefits to ones that had their diet reduced by 40 percent, a team of researchers reports in today's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Scotsman - International - German Official: Killing ants is punishable by law ALLAN HALL IN BERLIN GERHARD Schr�der�s unpopular government has acted decisively to protect workers� rights - worker ants� rights, that is. In an effort to protect the humble German ant from the nation�s over-zealous gardeners, 85 ant-protection officers have been appointed. German homeowners and gardeners who attempt to destroy an ant hill or subterranean nest will be subject to hefty fines if caught. They must now apply for a permit from their local forestry office to have the ants carefully moved to local woods. "People with an ant hill in their garden must under no circumstances resort to the use of poison," said ant officer Dieter Kraemer. "This is a violation of federal nature protection laws and punishable with hefty fines." He said ants are highly valued by German foresters for eating insects which attack trees. A high ant population can prevent co...

Yahoo! News - Baghdad crowd scorns Saddam's birthday with donkey fete BAGHDAD (AFP) - Joyous crowds in Baghdad showed their scorn for Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), mocking his birthday by dressing up a donkey as the fallen strongman and giving him a cake made of excrement. "Today marks the commemoration of oppression and we will celebrate this anniversary every year," said Jaafar Saadun, the donkey's owner. "We are no longer afraid for the first time in decades," said Saadun, speaking in the impoverished Sadr neighborhood formerly known as Saddam City, home to about two million Shiite Muslims.

WorldNetDaily: Eye in the sky targets illegals Civilian border group tests high-tech remote surveillance vehicle By Jon Dougherty � 2003 WorldNetDaily.com A civilian border-patrol group has enhanced its surveillance capabilities by employing a high-tech, remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, to assist in spotting illegal aliens attempting to sneak into the U.S. Glenn Spencer, head of American Border Patrol, says his organization has successfully field-tested "Border Hawk," a UAV the group hopes to employ as a surveillance tool. WND profiled the potential utility of UAVs in patrolling border areas last month. The purpose of Saturday's test, which took place over a section of the San Pedro River near the U.S./Mexico border, was not to spot border-jumpers but to "test the ability of the system to operate remotely," ABP said. >> UAVs are increasingly becoming more popular as surveillance tools for the U.S. military and for law-enforce...

Free media blossom in Iraq city | csmonitor.com "Now I am a free man," says Salih in halting English. "How could we have lived under this regime?" In the two weeks since Kirkuk fell to a mix of Kurdish and US forces, free media outlets have been busting out all over: An Internet cafe opened its doors; a radio station called the Voice of Kirkuk started broadcasting part time; a newspaper called New Kurdistan, published in the autonomous northern city of Sulaymaniyah, started circulating here; and people are tuning into several Kurdish television channels broadcasting from the self-rule zone, an offense which in the past could have landed a person in jail, at best. The race to let new voices be heard is also on in Baghdad, where a new newspaper began its first run on Tuesday. The offices of what was the state-run Al-Iraq newspaper are being used to put out a new daily called Al-Ittihad, meaning unity. But that paper - as well as the radio, television, and newspaper...

United Press International: Feature: German salute to U.S. warriors By Uwe Siemon-Netto UPI Religion Editor GURAT, France, April 28 (UPI) -- The German government may be at odds with the United States over the Iraq War but German soldiers and civilians welcome wounded U.S. warriors with an outpouring of solidarity, warmth and respect. >> But suddenly, two U.S. military medical buses approached, taking wounded GIs from the air base to the hospital. The lights inside the vehicles were on and McLean could see "I.V. bags hanging." "I certainly wasn't prepared for what happened next," the chaplain went on. "All of the German soldiers ... began walking toward the concrete barriers that divide the inbound and outbound lanes of traffic. As the blue lights neared, more German soldiers appeared from nowhere, lining the road shoulder to shoulder. "Right on cue, without a word spoken, these soldiers snapped a sharp salute as the buses droved p...

The Scotsman - Top Stories - Secret war that undermined Saddam ALEX MASSIE IN WASHINGTON AS THEY roared north to Baghdad, US forces knew that they had a powerful secret weapon on their side - finely-honed insults that would make Iraqi troops� blood boil. Through enormous loudspeakers mounted on their humvees, troops broadcast messages proclaiming that Iraqi men were impotent. The insult had been carefully chosen to so enrage Iraqi troops that they could not resist rushing from their defensive positions to attack the American troops in open battle, with terrible consequences. According to Newsweek, US Central Command was delighted that the carefully constructed plan "to mess with their heads" seemed to be working so well. The strategy is one of many aspects of a war that went almost un-noted - the hidden psychological and special forces operations that helped win the war.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism Security DEBKAfile Exclusive: Iran�s Shiite authority is hit hard by exodus of prestigious religious clerics from Khomeinist ideological center of Qom to Iraqi holy cities of Najef and Karbala. Lebanese Hizballah ideologue Fadlallah joins traffic. >> Tehran-based Iraqi Shiite ayatollah Muhammad Bakir al-Hakim attacks incitement of Shiites against American presence in Iraq, opposes Shiite theocratic regime in Baghdad. Al Hakim�s pronouncement reduces prospects of anti-US Shiite uprising

Glad to see this guy leave! Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage U.S. Imposes Will on Iraq's Kut After 'Mayor' Flees Sun April 27, 2003 08:27 AM ET By Saul Hudson KUT, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces have imposed their will on the strategic eastern Iraqi city of Kut, forcing out a cleric who had taken charge and seizing the mayor's office in a symbolic show of power. Marines stood guard on the perimeter walls at Kut city hall on Sunday and a U.S. administrator held meetings inside it, after self-styled mayor Abbas Abu Ragef -- also known as Saed Abbas -- quit town. Calling himself "the father of the people" and removing a portrait of Saddam Hussein from the mayor's office, Abbas had until late on Friday taken up residence as leader of the 380,000 people in Kut, an agricultural hub near the Iranian border.

Instruction and Methods From Al Qaeda Took Root in North Iraq Instruction and Methods From Al Qaeda Took Root in North Iraq By C. J. CHIVERS ARGA SHARKHAN, Iraq, April 22 � The two-inch-thick manual on killing, discovered in an abandoned bomb laboratory here early this month, offers instruction in Al Qaeda's array of lethal demolition skills. With a text in Arabic complemented by diagrams taken from American military manuals, the document offers lessons for rigging explosives, setting and concealing booby traps, and wiring an alarm clock to detonate a bomb. Advertisement The book is a photocopy of one volume of the Jihad Encyclopedia, the technical manual that American officials have said is used by Al Qaeda in its war against the West. Other copies were found in terrorist training camps and guest houses in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban in 2001. This copy, though, was found not in Afghanistan but in this valley in the Kurdish enclave in northern...

Telegraph | News | The proof that Saddam worked with bin Laden By Inigo Gilmore (Filed: 27/04/2003) Iraqi intelligence documents discovered in Baghdad by The Telegraph have provided the first evidence of a direct link between Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'eda terrorist network and Saddam Hussein's regime. Papers found yesterday in the bombed headquarters of the Mukhabarat, Iraq's intelligence service, reveal that an al-Qa'eda envoy was invited clandestinely to Baghdad in March 1998. The documents show that the purpose of the meeting was to establish a relationship between Baghdad and al-Qa'eda based on their mutual hatred of America and Saudi Arabia. The meeting apparently went so well that it was extended by a week and ended with arrangements being discussed for bin Laden to visit Baghdad.

Lay Off Chalabi - Iraq could do much worse. By Christopher�Hitchens In news stories as well as in opinion columns, it is repeatedly stated that Chalabi hasn't been in the country for many years�or since 1958. This contradicts my own memory and that of several other better-qualified witnesses. They recall him in northern Iraq many times and for long periods in the 1990s, helping to organize opposition conferences and to broker an agreement between the opposing Kurdish factions. He frequently risked his life in this enterprise; indeed it was for criticizing the CIA's own ham-fisted efforts in Kurdistan at the time that he incurred the lasting hatred of the agency. And since his activity on Iraqi soil was reported on several occasions in such journals of record as the New York Times, it must be something more than objectivity (or, dare I hint, something less) that informs the current animus. >> This minor but persistent warp in the coverage is congruent (if a warp can be c...

AP Wire | 04/25/2003 | Captured Iraq spy may have al-Qaida link Captured Iraq spy may have al-Qaida link Associated Press Later in the decade, Hijazi entered the diplomatic corps -Farouk Hijazi was not among the U.S. military's 55 most-wanted Iraqis, but as a one-time spy for Saddam Hussein's regime, he may hold key information: Some call him the main link between Saddam and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network. The former intelligence chief, whose capture was announced Friday, is suspected of meeting bin Laden in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, according to Washington officials. He also may be linked to an Iraqi plot to assassinate former President George Bush in Kuwait in 1993. Former CIA director James Woolsey said Hijazi was a "big catch." "This man was involved in a number of contacts with al-Qaida," Woolsey told CNN.

General Strike Set in Iran In Bid To Topple Mullahs Date of July 9 Puts U.S. on the Spot REZA PAHLAVI: �THIS COULD BE A MAJOR TURNING POINT� By ADAM DAIFALLAH Staff Reporter of the Sun WASHINGTON � Mark the date: July 9. That�s when op-ponents of the Iranian regime have called a general strike that they hope will expand to topple the government there and bring freedom and democracy to the Iranian people. The strike is being organized by profreedom student groups to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the last student uprising in Iran that saw thousands of students take to the streets against the Islamic Republic�s ruling mullahs. The planned event � indeed, the Iranian freedom movement as a whole � could take on a new dimension now that Iran�s western neighbor, Iraq, is free from Saddam Hussein�s tyranny. Policy experts have speculated that a liberated Iraq could embolden Iranian freedom fighters to rise up and mount a serious challenge to the rul...

ABCNEWS.com : Sources: Al Qaeda Fractured, Ineffective Sources: U.S. Intelligence Finds Bin Laden�s Network Splintered, Ineffective By ABCNEWS Investigative Unit April 24 � The al Qaeda terrorist network is becoming increasingly ineffective, according to a written assessment produced by the U.S. intelligence community, sources told ABCNEWS. Analysts who track al Qaeda for the intelligence community believe that evidence is mounting that the terrorist organization may lack the command and control, the resources and coordination to conduct an operation of the same magnitude as 9/11. According to analysts, the terror network has split into two leadership committees. One is said to be operating in Iran and remains in contact with Osama bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan's lawless frontier region.

Chalabi Scrambles for Position as the Political Land Rush Begins AFTER THE WAR The returned exile is trying to get ahead of the crowd by signing up scores of recruits. But keeping their loyalty may be the challenge. BAGHDAD � In the jockeying for control of postwar Iraq, few men have the name recognition � in Washington at least � of Ahmad Chalabi, the businessman whose return to his homeland after nearly half a century in exile was made possible by a Pentagon aircraft. As new political parties spring up across the nation, Chalabi's Iraqi Democratic Conference is attempting to stay ahead of the crowd by signing up scores of recruits every day.

One town's test of Iraqi democracy How the 'founding fathers' of Umm Qasr went from tyranny to town council in days. By Warren Richey | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor UMM QASR, IRAQ - Shortly after US and British forces pushed through this dusty port town in southern Iraq at the start of the coalition invasion, a school administrator got a crazy idea. It was the kind of inspired thought that might have gotten him jailed, beaten, even killed a few days earlier. But now, Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party operatives were on the run, and in Umm Qasr, Najim Abed Mahdi could suddenly think the unthinkable. He and a handful of other Iraqis banded together to form their own town council. They did it because their community needed fresh water, electricity, ice, garbage collection, security from looters, and other essentials. But by taking up the mantle of leadership in a fashion banned by Hussein, the Umm Qasr council may have made history - creating wh...

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage Garner: Work on New Iraq Government to Start Soon Thu April 24, 2003 11:15 AM ET By Mona Megalli BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Formation of a new Iraqi government will start next week, the country's U.S. administrator said on Thursday, after American forces netted four more senior members of Saddam Hussein's old guard. Speaking after talks with some of the country's prospective new leaders, retired U.S. general Jay Garner told a Baghdad news conference: "I think you'll begin to see the governmental process start next week, by the end of next week. It will have Iraqi faces on it. It will be governed by the Iraqis."

Thousands of Iranian agents organizing anti-U.S. rallies in Iraq World Tribune.com--Front Page U.S. officials said the flow of Iranian agents into Iraq began several months prior to the start of the U.S.-led war against Iraq. They said the agents were mostly Shi'ites who held Iraqi citizenship and infiltrated Shi'ite communities in Baghdad, Karbala and Najaf. Iran, the officials said, was suspected of having ordered the assassination of Abdul Majid Al Khoei on April 10 in Najaf. They said Al Khoei, a pro-Western cleric who returned from exile in London a week earlier, was killed by a rival Iranian-backed Shi'ite group that has formed a large militia to control both Karbala and Najaf. Fleischer stressed that Iraq would be reconstructed in accordance with the principles of a democratic society. He said this rules out the formation of a government modeled after neighboring Iran or Syria. Iran is a Shi'ite country and Iraq's population is said to be 60 perce...

Thousands of Iranian agents organizing anti-U.S. rallies in Iraq World Tribune.com--Front Page The United States has formally warned Iran against interference in Iraq. U.S. officials said the warning came in wake of intelligence reports that thousands of Iranian agents are organizing the Shi'ite majority in Iraq to oppose the U.S. military presence in that Arab country. The officials said Iran, with the help of Hizbullah insurgents who arrived from Lebanon, is suspected of playing a leading role in the huge anti-U.S. demonstrations by Iraqi Shi'ites over the last week.

TIME.com: The Turks Enter Iraq The Turks Enter Iraq A Turkish Special Forces team is caught by U.S. troops in Kurdistan By MICHAEL WARE Thursday, Apr. 24, 2003 Even as the U.S. works to stabilize a postwar Iraq, Turkey is setting out to create a footprint of its own in the Kurdish areas of the country. In the days after U.S. forces captured Saddam's powerbase in Tikrit, a dozen Turkish Special Forces troops were dispatched south from Turkey. Their target: the northern oil city of Kirkuk, now controlled by the U.S. 173rd Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade. Using the pretext of accompanying humanitarian aid the elite soldiers passed through the northern city of Arbil on Tuesday. They wore civilian clothes, their vehicles lagging behind a legitimate aid convoy. They'd hoped to pass unnoticed. But at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Kirkuk they ran into trouble. "We were waiting for them," says a U.S. paratroop officer. >> By Wednesday U.S. parat...

Jonah Goldberg's Goldberg File on National Review Online Exporting Switzerland The model Iraq needs to follow. fter a brief, almost bloodless war we have an ethnically and religiously divided nation. Mischievous neighbors on all sides can claim common cause with one or more of the major ethnic and religious groups vying for power. The largest ethnic faction has strong cultural ties to a powerful and expansionist neighbor, and is feared by other great powers nearby. Certain groups within the country are taking orders from religious authorities outside their borders in an attempt to impose a state reflecting their theology. Other nationalist radicals and many minorities are determined not to allow the creation of anything other than a secular state, because that's the only way to guarantee their own security. Iraq 2003? Nope. Switzerland 1847.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: AP - Middle East Even if Iraq never becomes the Silicon Crescent, big money is at stake. Rebuilding the country's telecommunications networks and constructing new facilities from scratch would cost billions. >> American and international companies that want to take part say the biggest beneficiaries would be the Iraqi people, whose connections to the outside world were stunted by Saddam's dictatorship and ravaged by war. "Iraq is now the land of opportunity," said Loay Abu-Osbeh, who oversees the Baghdad office for Abu-Ghazeleh Intellectual Property, a Jordan-based technology consulting firm. "People who were outside Iraq ... have come back to Iraq to make money in Iraq, and I can see it happening. This is a business everybody is interested in, doing Internet, Internet cafes, connecting to big servers (elsewhere) in the world." While Saddam's regime had a now-shuttered Web site, Uruklink, Iraqis had little ...

ABCNEWS.com : Iraqi Shiites Fast Filling Power Vacuum Winning Shiite support is key to U.S. efforts to block the influence of Iran and there are signs this may be possible. Senior Shiite clerics have insisted they want to share power with Iraq's Sunnis and Kurds. Iraqi Shiites are Arab, not Persian like their Iranian counterparts, and have a strong sense of Iraqi nationalism. During the Iran-Iraq war from 1980-88, they did not rise up against Saddam. Many Shiites oppose the idea of an Islamic state run by clerics, including Iraq's top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein al-Sistani. Iraq's largest Shiite group, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, has its headquarters in Tehran, the Iranian capital. The group's leader, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, is still in Iran. But his brother, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who commands the group's armed wing, has come back to Iraq to pave the way for the ayatollah's return. He told al-Jazeera televi...

Fayetteville Online 82nd holds men in bombing plot By Kevin Maurer Staff writer KARBALA, Iraq - Soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division took custody Monday of six men accused of plotting to bomb two Shiite mosques in the center of town. Five of the men are suspected of having ties to the Baath party; the other is allegedly linked to al-Qaida. The local police arrested the men, and the police chief wanted a public execution. An Army Special Forces team persuaded the police chief to turn the men over to the paratroopers. It is unclear how the men planned to carry out the bombing. The suspected al-Qaida member is accused of poisoning food that was distributed to pilgrims, who are in Karbala to mourn two Shiite Imams killed in the 660s.

newsobserver.com - American troops arrest U.S.-backed Iraqi fighters from Chalabi's wing American troops arrest U.S.-backed Iraqi fighters from Chalabi's wing By CHRIS TOMLINSON, , Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. troops arrested fighters of the U.S.-backed Free Iraqi Forces on Tuesday after they were found looting abandoned homes of former members of Saddam Hussein's regime. Fighters of the group have been caught repeatedly while looting homes in an enclave in Baghdad where members of Saddam's Baath Party lived, said Army Staff Sgt. Bryce Ivings, of Sarasota, Fla. On Tuesday, soldiers from A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment detained four suspected looters dressed in the group's desert camouflage uniforms and carrying rocket-propelled grenades, Ivings said.

funny! Flash Fun - The Real Hussein Flash Fun - The Real Hussein A Wartime Parody to the Tune of Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady"

Telegraph | News | Galloway was in Saddam's pay, say secret Iraqi documents Galloway was in Saddam's pay, say secret Iraqi documents By David Blair in Baghdad (Filed: 22/04/2003) George Galloway, the Labour backbencher, received money from Saddam Hussein's regime, taking a slice of oil earnings worth at least �375,000 a year, according to Iraqi intelligence documents found by The Daily Telegraph in Baghdad. A confidential memorandum sent to Saddam by his spy chief said that Mr Galloway asked an agent of the Mukhabarat secret service for a greater cut of Iraq's exports under the oil for food programme. George Galloway: 'I have never in my life seen a barrel of oil, let alone owned, bought or sold one' He also said that Mr Galloway was profiting from food contracts and sought "exceptional" business deals. Mr Galloway has always denied receiving any financial assistance from Baghdad. Asked to explain the document, he said yesterday: "M...

"Let me just get this off my chest," Rumsfeld said in response to a question about the article. "I have no idea who these people talked to. But I'll tell you, if I were a journalist, I would ... remember who they are, and I'd write their name down, and I would rank them right at the bottom in terms of reliability, credibility, judgment [and] knowledge." "The people peddling that stuff are wrong, and the people writing it should check things out better," he added later. Citing "senior Bush administration officials," the Times reported that U.S. military planners were hoping to gain permanent access to as many as four military bases inside Iraq, which would project American power in the region much like the troops stationed in Germany, Japan and South Korea after earlier wars. Such a move would fuel Arab suspicions that the war was launched in Iraq to increase American military and economic influence in the Middle East. "The i...

Discover Current Issue In an industrial park in Philadelphia sits a new machine that can change almost anything into oil. Really. "This is a solution to three of the biggest problems facing mankind," says Brian Appel, chairman and CEO of Changing World Technologies, the company that built this pilot plant and has just completed its first industrial-size installation in Missouri. "This process can deal with the world's waste. It can supplement our dwindling supplies of oil. And it can slow down global warming."

World News Headlines from Reuters UK U.S. troops slay four escaped Iraqi lions By Rosalind Russell BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Crazed with hunger, four lions in Baghdad zoo escaped from their enclosures at the weekend and were shot dead by U.S. troops. The lions, who hadn't been fed for days, clawed their way out of their outdoor pen through a crumbling wall, and two of them made a charge for American soldiers, said Sergeant Matthew Oliver. "Two of them charged our guys," said Oliver of the 3rd Infantry Division. "We had to take them down."

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Saddam 'alive and in Iraq' Saddam Hussein - still noticeable by his absence Saddam Hussein and at least one of his sons are being tracked as they move around Iraq, an opposition leader has told the BBC. Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress says his supporters have not yet caught up with the ousted dictator but reports of his movements arrive within "12 to 24 hours". >> In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Chalabi said his intelligence suggested Saddam Hussein was still in Iraq, and was on the move. While supporters had not yet managed to catch up with the wanted former leader, Mr Chalabi said: "We are aware of his movements between 12 and 24 hours after he has been there." "We received intelligence about his son Qusay yesterday," he said. "The night before he was seen in Aadhamiya." >> Mr Chalabi said the apparent rise of Shia clerics as local lead...

Officials Argue for Fast U.S. Exit From Iraq (washingtonpost.com) Officials Argue for Fast U.S. Exit From Iraq By Jonathan Weisman and Mike Allen Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, April 21, 2003; Page A01 Confronting cost estimates of at least $20 billion a year and fears that Iraq could become permanently dependent on a U.S. military presence, senior officials in the White House and Pentagon are questioning the Bush administration's most ambitious, long-term plans for Iraq's reconstruction. These officials are leaning toward a quick exit from a country that U.S.-led forces conquered in less than a month. The administration remains committed to repairing and rebuilding war-damaged infrastructure, in many cases to standards considerably higher than before the war started, a senior defense official said. Indeed, San Francisco-based Bechtel Group was just awarded an initial $34.6 million contract to rebuild airports, water and electricity systems, roads and railroad...

Yahoo! News - U.S. Does Not Recognize Baghdad 'Governor' U.S. Does Not Recognize Baghdad 'Governor' Mon Apr 21, 2:24 PM ET Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Mona Megalli BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States does not recognize a former exile who says he is governor of Baghdad and Washington thinks his deputy cannot represent Iraq (news - web sites) at an OPEC (news - web sites) meeting this week, a senior U.S. official said on Monday. Barbara Bodine, coordinator for central Iraq in the U.S. civil administration overseeing reconstruction, said the United States did not recognize Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, who said last week he was made chief of an interim council to run the capital. "We don't really know much about him except that he's declared himself mayor," said Bodine, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen. "We don't recognize him. There hasn't been a process of selection. Once there's a process, then whome...

Here's a strange one! A statuete of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed rotting in a squalid prison cell. Brightens up any area! Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Click Images to Enlarge Get this Cast Sculpture of this terrorist who helped mastermind the horrific attacks of 9/11. This sculpture is 6" high X 6" long X 2" wide. Each cast is hand made & painted by our artisans.

so there could be some positive changes in Shi'a Islam as its center of gravity shifts west towards Iraq http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/special_packages/iraq/5641982.htm">Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/16/2003 | Shiite changes in the works Hussein's fall has diminished Iran's influence on the sect. Analysts see U.S.-friendly leaders emerging. By Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson Knight Ridder News Service >> For a quarter of a century, Iran and its top religious leader, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, have defined Shiite Islam for its 120 million followers and for the world. But the liberation of Najaf, Shiite Islam's holiest city, by U.S. forces in Iraq threatens to weaken Iran's influence. Theologians and analysts say a new Arab Shiite face may emerge, represented by spiritual leaders prepared to be friendly to the United States so long as President Bush leaves Iraq to the Iraqis. Since Iran's Islamic revolution brought Khomeini to ...

and on the lighter side! Welcome to www.hotornotafghans.com

really good article about Iranian politics. Amir Taheri on Iran on National Review Online Iran's decision-making elite, consisting of some 100 mullahs and their non-clerical prot�g�s, is divided into two camps with regard to Iraq. One camp, led by former prime minister Mir-Hussein Mussavi, with Khatami as figurehead, could be labeled "accommodationist." Its main argument is that Iran's best interest lies in a partnership with the United States in toppling the Iraqi regime. Saeed Hajjarian, Khatami's chief strategist, recently explained the accommodationist position in a long article. "Change in Iraq has become inevitable," he wrote. "And it is clear that we can neither stop nor go against it. We must thus go along with it and seek two things: a guarantee that the next regime in Baghdad will not be hostile to Iran, and a guarantee that we are not [Washington's] next target." >> Facing the accommodationists is the faction one c...

The Australian: N Korean scientists defect [April 19, 2003] N Korean scientists defect By Martin Chulov and Cameron Stewart April 19, 2003 A SWATH of North Korea's military and scientific elite, among them key nuclear specialists, has defected to the US and its allies through a highly secret smuggling operation involving the tiny Pacific island of Nauru. The defections have taken place since last October and have been made possible through the help of 11 countries that agreed to provide consular protection to smuggle the targets from neighbouring China, according to sources close to the operation, which has now been wound up.

Lots of people, lots of chaos. All Shi'ites. Looks like a prime target for a foreign suicide bomber to me, if they haven't all been killed or run out of the country by now. Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News CoverageBaghdad Shi'ites Taste Freedom on Pilgrimage Road Sun April 20, 2003 01:46 PM ET By Huda Majeed Saleh BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thousands of Shia Muslims marched along Baghdad's streets on Sunday, setting out in freedom for the first time in years on a pilgrimage to the holy city of Kerbala, a few days' walk away. Under Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, Iraq's majority Shias whom he mistrusted could only carry out their rites, if at all, under tight controls that often barred most men. Security forces cracked down on any religious gathering that took on political overtones, as the pilgrimage looks set to now. "Down USA, Down USA," men shouted in English, raising their fists as tanks rumbled past throwing up dust over them. Th...

This blog is going to become the Chalabi blog soon! I am very interested in Chalabi and the INC. They really seem to have a lot of political saavy, and seem to be a moderating influence. I'll be watching them closely. Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage Iraq Opposition Says Saddam Son-In-Law Surrenders Sun April 20, 2003 02:19 PM ET BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The long-exiled Iraqi National Congress said on Sunday that Saddam Hussein's son-in-law Jamal Mustafa Sultan had surrendered to them and would be handed over into U.S. custody within hours. "He is the first close member of the family to be detained," INC spokesman Zaab Sethna told Reuters by telephone. He said that Sultan had been in Syria but the INC had persuaded him to come back to Baghdad and give himself up. Sultan is the nine of clubs on the U.S. list of 55 most wanted Iraqis.

Telegraph | News | German spies offered help to Saddam in run-up to war By David Harrison in Baghdad (Filed: 20/04/2003) Germany's intelligence services attempted to build closer links to Saddam's secret service during the build-up to war last year, documents from the bombed Iraqi intelligence HQ in Baghdad obtained by The Telegraph reveal. >> During the meeting, on January 29, 2002, Lt Gen Haboosh says that the Iraqis are keen to have a relationship with Germany's intelligence agency "under diplomatic cover", adding that he hopes to develop that relationship through Mr Hoffner. The German replies: "My organisation wants to develop its relationship with your organisation." In return, the Iraqis offered to give lucrative contracts to German companies if the Berlin government helped prevent an American invasion of the country.

Russia briefed Iraq on US tactics to justify invasion - War on Iraq - smh.com.au Russia briefed Iraq on US tactics to justify invasion By David Harrison in Baghdad April 21 2003 Russian agents reported to Iraq that the US President, George Bush, hoped to justify war by provoking a conflict with United Nations weapons inspectors, according to Iraqi intelligence documents. The documents were found in the smoking ruins of the headquarters of the Iraqi Intelligence Service in Baghdad and showed that only months before war began, the Russian Federal Security Bureau briefed Saddam that the White House was pinning its hopes on Iraq obstructing the weapons inspection teams. The information, which appears to draw on intelligence from Russian agents and diplomats around the world, is likely to have helped Saddam formulate his strategy of "hide and seek" with weapons inspectors, rather than obstruct them openly as he had done during previous inspections.

Baghdad's Self-Proclaimed Mayor Promises Islamic Law Sunday, April 20, 2003 BAGHDAD, Iraq � A longtime Iraqi exile who has proclaimed himself in charge of Baghdad pledged Sunday that the country's new constitution would be derived from Islamic law and promised to try anyone whose "hands are stained with the blood of the Iraqi people." Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi also announced ambitious plans get Baghdad's civil administration moving again. "We have met with lawmen to create laws, and to open the courts so that life can begin to take on legitimacy," he said at a news conference. "The security situation in Baghdad is considered first priority in our agenda." Days after al-Zubaidi essentially proclaimed himself mayor, it remained unclear where his authority comes from or if it exists at all. No U.S. forces or officials were present at his news conference, held in a sweltering room that was once the coffee shop of the battle-pocked ...

Uh, is this really a good idea? VOANews.com Turkey Agrees to Send Peacekeepers to Iraq VOA News 20 Apr 2003, 11:43 UTC Turkey has agreed to send troops to Iraq for peacekeeping missions, while a long-time Iraqi exile who has proclaimed himself in charge of Baghdad says committees have been set up to run the capital. As the effort in war-torn Iraq turns toward reconstruction, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Sunday that Ankara has agreed to a U.S. request to help in peace-keeping efforts, and will inform Washington of its readiness in the coming days.

GoMemphis: America At War Iraqis work on writing guarantee of rights Among those at the Ur conference was Kanan Makiya, an Iraqi exile who lives in Boston and is affiliated with the Iraqi National Congress, headed by Ahmad Chalabi. Makiya, whose writings have focused on the horrors under Saddam, has been a prime mover in trying to shape a new constitution. He is also a favorite of the Bush administration. In Makiya's view, a new constitution should be based on an amended form of the 1925 Iraqi Constitution that was adopted under the monarchy. This was his favorite template, he wrote in the report, because the 1925 document was discussed among Iraqis and included important basics: no torture, a right to property, no discrimination, freedom of expression and community rights. He also proposed procedures for establishing a permanent new constitution. A committee within a constituent assembly of jurists and constitutional experts should be established to begin drafting ...

News Independent UK Foreigners who came to fight for Saddam turn guns on Shias Sectarian violence By Kim Sengupta in Saddam City 20 April 2003 "What is your first name?" the young man with blood on his face was asked. "Saddam," came the answer. What is your family name? Again: "Saddam." Who do you fight for? "Saddam." The man being questioned, with his arms tied behind his back, admitted to being a Fedayeen, but he refused to say which country he was from. His captors, Shia Muslim militia in Saddam City, thought his accent was that of a Yemeni. In the past 10 days, they claimed, they had also captured Algerians, Palestinians and Pakistanis � Sunni Muslim "Wahabi terrorists" sent to carry out murderous sectarian attacks. A vicious secret war is taking place in Saddam City, the vast Shia slum just 20 minutes' drive from the centre of Baghdad. Local people say they are the victims of the "Wahabis", Sunnis who ca...

theage.com.au - The Age Banker in, cleric out in struggle to create leadership April 19 2003 Picking Iraqis who are capable of running the country acceptable to the population is proving a delicate task. Robyn Dixon reports from Basra. A week ago, British military commanders chose a Shiite religious leader to help steer the future of this southern city of 1.5 million, describing Sheik Muzahim al-Tamimi as a unifying figure. But the selection sparked demonstrations and rock-throwing outside Sheik Muzahim's house. Residents decried his links to Saddam Hussein's regime and some complained that a religious figure would prove divisive. This week, the British quietly nudged him aside in favour of the city's wealthiest businessman, Ghalib Kubba, who was named to head an interim council advising the British commander. Yet some residents immediately criticised Mr Kubba - saying he was also too close to Saddam's regime. The reactions underscore the deli...

U.S. general brings tribal leaders together to lay down law U.S. general brings tribal leaders together to lay down law BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer Saturday, April 19, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (04-19) 13:30 PDT KUT, Iraq (AP) -- A U.S. Marine commander called tribal leaders together Saturday to seek their support in running their city but emphasized that he considers himself to be in charge. Patrols of low-flying attack helicopters drove home the point. Kut, about 45 miles west of the Iranian border, has been of particular concern to U.S. officials since a Shiite Muslim cleric occupied city hall and claimed to control the city. They contend he is backed by Iran and has only minority support. U.S. officers had said they planned to force cleric Said Abbas out of City Hall, which has been surrounded by his followers, to deprive him of symbolic standing in the community. Now, the strategy ...

Telegraph | News | America nervous as militant cleric's rallies attract mass support America nervous as militant cleric's rallies attract mass support By Julian Coman in Washington and Sean Rayment in Kuwait (Filed: 20/04/2003) Every day, the rallies held by Battle to prevent Chalabi taking power grow bigger. Every day the American marines in the eastern Iraqi town of Kut, close to the Iranian border, become more nervous. Mr Abbas is a militant Shia cleric with an unnervingly fine grasp of the political possibilities of post-war Iraq. Some days ago, he walked into Kut town hall and simply took it over, accompanied by hundreds of supporters, many of whom had crossed the border from Iran. Now thousands attend his meetings, while the marines consult with rival tribal leaders on how to get him out. Yesterday's rally was bigger than ever. As he spoke, Mr Abbas voiced what are quickly becoming the standard demands: an Islamic, Shia-dominated state for Iraq, and an ...

Islam Online- News Section Talk about betrayal by some Iraqi army members were also rumored among the thick palls of smoke that turned reality of the situation there as blurry. "Arab volunteers were put in the frontlines while the Republican Guard units were in the back in the battle around Baghdad�s Saddam International airport," said Al-Assad Jirad in disgruntle, adding 400 Arab volunteers breathed their last during the fighting. We were stun-founded when a Yemeni was about to "fire on a U.S. Apache helicopter gunship only to be ordered by an Iraqi officer 'Do not shoot� it is an Iraqi aircraft', he recalled. To add up to the plight of people leaving their country for the defense of another, the inhabitants of southern town of Nassiriyah welcomed Arab volunteers with nothing but gunfire. "We were fired at by the town residents, who killed three of us. They just shouted asking us 'why you are here? Did you came to defend Saddam?'" Emad, an...

Train to Basra restarts, to be aid link into Iraq Train to Basra restarts, to be aid link into Iraq By Paul Casciato UMM QASR, Iraq, April 19 � British forces in southern Iraq relaunched a train service from the port of Umm Qasr on Saturday and aim to use it as an aid supply lifeline into the heart of Iraq. The train will be a key link between Iraq's only major port -- where thousands of tonnes of food aid is sitting -- and the southern town of Basra. British forces hope the track beyond Basra will soon be secure enough to carry on up to Baghdad. ''The aspiration is to open the line from Umm Qasr through Basra and all the way to Baghdad,'' said Lieutenant Colonel Paul Ash, commanding the regiment which has been working with Royal Engineers and local Iraqis to make the train and tracks usable.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Footballers who paid the penalty for failure Footballers who paid the penalty for failure How Uday's terror made the game a matter of life or death Suzanne Goldenberg in Baghdad Saturday April 19, 2003 The Guardian It was a qualifying match in Jordan, and at full time Iraq were drawing three-all against the United Arab Emirates. Arab League rules called for a penalty shoot-out. Abbas Rahim Zair walked up to the penalty spot with a prayer on his lips and his heart in his boots. Any player knows the pain of missing a penalty, but for a member of the national team, it carried the certainty of ritual humiliation, imprisonment, and torture. Only three Iraqis dared to take penalties, and Zair was one of them.

CNN.com - Irish pub kickstarts Kabul nightlife - Apr. 17, 2003 Irish pub kickstarts Kabul nightlife Thursday, April 17, 2003 Posted: 2:30 AM EDT (0630 GMT) Kabul's new Irish Club -- the country's only bar -- is a booming business. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Story Tools -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our families know what we do, but we tell other people we just work in a restaurant or a guesthouse selling food and soft drinks -- 'Paddy', Afghan member of bar staff KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- In Taliban times, it would have been unimaginable: a fully stocked Irish pub serving whiskey and cold beer in the heart of Afghanistan's ultra-Islamic capital. In the post-Taliban era, Kabul's new Irish Club -- the country's only bar -- is still unthinkable, at least for Afghans. But it's a huge success with the m...

US marines hunt gazelles with rocks US marines in Iraq are hunting gazelles with rocks and pistols - to avoid having to eat ready-made US army meals. The soldiers at a base outside Tikrit say they are enjoying eating the unusual meat from Saddam Hussein's personal hunting preserve. Marine Wing Support Squadron 271 are venturing into the woods to hunt the animals before hauling them back as a welcome substitute for the pre-packaged Meals Ready to Eat rations. "It was delicious. I don't know if it's because we have been eating MREs for two months, but everyone has enjoyed it a lot," said army cook Cpl Joshua Wicksell, 26. Each of the squadron's platoons has been limited to killing one gazelle a day to make sure the herd is not depleted. The soldiers have been allowed to use 9mm pistols to hunt after initially being forbidden to use firearms for fear that gunshots in the woods might be mistaken for enemy fire. "We hunted them with rocks (at first...

DID RUSSIANS USE BLOG TO AID IRAQIS? by Daniel Forbes in Progressive Review Daniel Forbes The U.S. and British military won't have the Russian secret services to contend with in Iraq anymore, at least not on the Net. Early last week, the Russian military analysis Web site, Iraqwar.ru, discontinued its daily "Russian military intel update." The three-week-old, daily feature - was it real-world intelligence useful to the Iraqis or merely the product of a fertile imagination? - claimed to be based on leaks from senior Russian intelligence officials. It offered detailed predictions about coalition troop movements many hours or even days in advance. It also quoted "intercepted" U.S. radio traffic, toted casualties on both sides and - with what perhaps its raison detre, the rest conceivably nothing but necessary ballast - provided strategic advice to the Iraqi military. It was a combustionable mix that was enjoying steadily increasing traffic, applause, and scor...

Victor Davis Hanson on Iraq on National Review Online Anatomy of the Three-Week War It was more that we were good rather than they were bad. n the aftermath of the incredible three-and-a-half week victory we should not post facto make the mistake of assuming that Operation Iraqi Freedom was necessarily an easy task. The Soviets learned that trying to take an Islamic city is not an easy thing and can lead to thousands of dead and hundreds of lost tanks, planes, and armored vehicles. More Americans were killed in Lebanon in a single day than all those lost in the present campaign. In 1991 six weeks were necessary to soften up Iraqi troops � along with nearly a million allied soldiers. The British learned that attempting an invasion of the Dardanelles against a supposedly "weak" Turkey led to a bloodbath. A fair historical assessment will soon emerge that attributes our victory not to Iraqi weaknesses per se. ...

Iraqi Shiites protest against Chalabi NASIRIYAH, Iraq, (AFP) - Dozens of Shiite Muslims in the heart of this tense southern city staged Tuesday an angry protest against Iraqi opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi. "No, no Chalabi," about 150 protesters chanted as US troops tried to clear a lane of at least three vehicles near Haboby Square, a gathering point with markets and a bus station close by. The US soldiers were on the verge of using tear gas as the protesters grew increasingly agitated and closed around the vehicles to prevent them from leaving, but the troops finally pulled back as the tension eased. "He (Chalabi) knows nothing about here," one of the protesters, Muhsin Fiadh, told AFP. "He came with America to control our country. We don't know Chalabi. We want someone who knows us." Chalabi is a wealthy Shiite Muslim who lived in exile during Saddam's reign and heads the umbrella Iraqi National Congress. He recently retur...

THE ROVING EYE Direct democracy in action By Pepe Escobar HILLA - Mr Iskander, a lawyer and former officer in the Iraqi air force, married with four sons and five daughters, sits behind his desk in a nondescript building formerly used for religious meetings for Sunni and Shi'ite alike, now guarded by five Marines. He receives a non-stop string of visitors, juggling between as many as four conversations simultaneously. Iskander is now the de facto mayor of Hilla, a poor sprawling city of 2 million, 80 kilometers south of Baghdad, chosen through consensus by the local population. This is Iraqi democracy in action, the post-Saddam Hussein version. Hilla is now largely peaceful. People are still intrigued by the meaning of the letters "TV" spelled out in black tape all over our car. Kids play soccer oblivious to a passing sandstorm and next to a miraculously non-defaced mural of Saddam, where he is pictured between al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and Ishtar Gate in Bab...

Political Party in Mosul Emerges With Own Army By DAVID ROHDE MOSUL, Iraq, April 17 � Across this battered city, Iraqi political parties have slowly begun opening up new offices this week. But only one group shares a base with American Special Forces soldiers, has a private army trained by the Americans and is guarding a local hospital alongside American troops. "I believe the I.N.C. will succeed," predicted Nabeel Musawi, the 41-year-old deputy director of the Iraqi National Congress. "I believe the I.N.C. is the future of Iraq." >> But in Mosul and other cities, local leaders have already expressed vehement opposition to a government headed by exiles. Two weeks ago, the American military airlifted Mr. Chalabi and 600 of his self-declared Free Iraqi Fighters into southern Iraq near the city of Nasiriya. Earlier this week, military officials appointed Dr. Muhammad Zobaidi, a representative of the Iraqi National Congress, to manage Baghdad and serv...

Telegraph | News | Chalabi's fighters accused of lawlessness By Sandra Laville in Nasiriyah (Filed: 18/04/2003) Elements of Ahmad Chalabi's Pentagon-backed army have been accused by American troops of lawlessness. US marines stationed in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah complain that they have been ordered to hand assault rifles taken from groups of looters and remnants of the old regime to members of Mr Chalabi's Free Iraqi Forces. "You can imagine, it's a bit of a heartbreaker," said a sergeant. "We take the weapons off one lot and hand them over to these guys." Mr Chalabi, the former banker favoured by the Pentagon to lead post-Saddam Iraq, has left his headquarters in an old Iraqi army base near Ur, where more than 600 of his fighters were stationed, to set himself up in Baghdad. While many of his men are Iraqi exiles trained by the Americans others have been hired since the war ended. Local people say young men hired for $200 (�...

Chalabi sets up base in Uday's palace By Sharon Behn THE WASHINGTON TIMES Iraqi opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi, who spent years fighting for the ouster of Saddam Hussein, yesterday moved into one of the playground palaces of the deposed dictator's brutal son Uday. Top Stories Mr. Chalabi, a wealthy Shi'ite businessman who fled Baghdad with his family 45 years ago, returned to the capital, where he settled into the exclusive party house with a contingent of bodyguards and his armed fighters, known as the Free Iraqi Forces. "I think he wanted to show that he can do many things and that he runs the show in Baghdad," said Mohammed Sabir, Washington-based spokesman for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which contributed fighters to Mr. Chalabi's force. Mr. Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress umbrella opposition group that until recently was based in London, rolled into Baghdad from the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on Tues...