New Hampshire Health News Digest

CNN.com - Iraqi missile targeted coalition HQ during war - May. 29, 2003 The attack came as Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, coalition ground forces commander, was meeting with other top military officials. CAMP DOHA, Kuwait (CNN) -- The Iraqi military came within seconds of possibly wiping out the headquarters of the coalition ground forces with a missile on March 27, U.S. military officials said. The missile was intercepted and destroyed by a U.S. Patriot missile shortly before it could have hit its target. A CNN crew embedded at ground forces headquarters witnessed the incident. At the time of the incident, the material from the crew was embargoed under an agreement with the U.S. military until major hostilities in Iraq were over. "This was Saddam's decapitation strike," said CNN national security analyst Ken Robinson, part of the CNN crew embedded at ground forces headquarters.

Riot Chases Troops Out of Iraqi Town 'They were terrifying the women and children,' one protester says after U.S. soldiers search homes for weapons. HIT, Iraq � In the third straight day of Iraqi violence against the U.S. military occupation of the country, residents enraged over house-to-house searches in this western town ransacked the police station, stoned U.S. armored military vehicles and set police cars on fire Wednesday. With a large, uncontrolled mob still roaming the streets as dusk fell, it was impossible to determine exactly what triggered the riot, but in a series of chaotic interviews laced with anti-American rage and threats of vengeance, residents said the problems began when police assisted the U.S. troops in searching local homes for weapons.

What Matrix Persona Are You? - Quizilla What Matrix Persona Are You?

U.S. Eyes Pressing Uprising In Iran (washingtonpost.com) The Bush administration, alarmed by intelligence suggesting that al Qaeda operatives in Iran had a role in the May 12 suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia, has suspended once-promising contacts with Iran and appears ready to embrace an aggressive policy of trying to destabilize the Iranian government, administration officials said. Senior Bush administration officials will meet Tuesday at the White House to discuss the evolving strategy toward the Islamic republic, with Pentagon officials pressing hard for public and private actions that they believe could lead to the toppling of the government through a popular uprising, officials said. U.S. officials have also been deeply concerned about Iran's nuclear weapons program, which has the support of both elected reformers and conservative clerics. The Bush administration has pressed the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, to issue a critical report ...

BBC NEWS | Health | Buddhists 'really are happier' Buddhism may be good for your mental health. Scientists say they have evidence to show that Buddhists really are happier and calmer than other people. Tests carried out in the United States reveal that areas of their brain associated with good mood and positive feelings are more active. The findings come as another study suggests that Buddhist meditation can help to calm people. Researchers at University of California San Francisco Medical Centre have found the practise can tame the amygdala, an area of the brain which is the hub of fear memory. They found that experienced Buddhists, who meditate regularly, were less likely to be shocked, flustered, surprised or as angry compared to other people.

Wired News: Shocking New Jacket Hits Street A new anti-assault device for women wards off potential assailants with an 80,000-volt electric shock. Dubbed "exo-electric armor," the No-Contact Jacket looks like an ordinary fashionable women's coat. But an inner layer of conductive fiber carries a low-amp charge that delivers a nasty but non-lethal shock to anyone who messes with its wearer. "It's kind of like sticking your finger in a wall socket," said Adam Whiton, one of its designers. "It hurts. If someone tries to grab you from behind, they get the full, hefty shock out of it. That's really painful."

Times Online Pygmies beg UN for aid to save them from Congo cannibals PYGMY leaders have called on the UN to set up an international tribunal to put government and rebel fighters from the Democratic Republic of Congo on trial for acts of cannibalism against their people. Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of Mbuti pygmies, told the UN�s Indigenous People�s Forum that during the four-year civil war his people had been hunted down and eaten. �In living memory, we have seen cruelty, massacres, and genocide, but we have never seen human beings hunted down as though they were game animals,� he said. �Pygmies are being pursued in the forests. People have been eaten. This is nothing more, nothing less, than a crime against humanity.� More than 600,000 pygmies are believed to live in the Congo�s vast jungles, where they eke out a subsistence existence. Both sides in the war regard them as �subhuman�, and believe that their flesh can confer magical powers. UN human rights a...

Allies to Begin Seizing Weapons From Most Iraqis Allies to Begin Seizing Weapons From Most Iraqis By MICHAEL R. GORDON AGHDAD, May 20 � Iraqi citizens will be required to turn over automatic weapons and heavy weapons under a proclamation that allied authorities plan to issue this week, allied officials said today. The aim of the proclamation is to help stabilize Iraq by confiscating the huge supply of AK-47's, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons that are used by criminal gangs, paramilitary groups and remnants of the Saddam Hussein government. Iraqis who refuse to comply with the edict will be subject to arrest. Only Iraqis authorized to use military-type weapons because of their police or military duties will be exempt.

Psyop: The Love�s Not Mutual The U.S. military is using Metallica and the �Barney� theme song as instruments of coercion in Iraq May 26 issue � Your parents aren�t the only ones who hate your music�some Iraqis hate it, too. U.S. military units have been breaking Saddam supporters with long sessions in which they�re forced to listen to heavy-metal and children�s songs. �Trust me, it works,� says one U.S. operative.

HoosierTimes: Defendants refer to 'The Matrix' Defendants refer to 'The Matrix' Washington Post Josh Cooke wasn't merely a fan of the hit movie The Matrix. He believed he lived inside The Matrix, his lawyers say. The 19-year-old had a huge movie poster hanging in his Oakton, Va., bedroom and a trench coat like the one worn by Neo, Keanu Reeves's character. He bought a 12-gauge shotgun, similar to one of the weapons Neo uses to fight the "agents" in the movie. And on Feb. 17, Fairfax County police say, he walked into his family's basement and shot his father seven times with the shotgun and his mother twice. He then called the police � twice � to calmly report the killings.

Park's Pot Problem Explodes Number of marijuana plants seized at Sequoia has soared. Officials say Mexican cartels linked to Mideast terrorists run the operation. SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, Calif. � On the brink of the summer tourist season, officials here are confronting an ominous reality � multimillion-dollar stands of marijuana tended by armed growers who have menaced visitors, killed wildlife, polluted streams and trashed pristine countryside. Marijuana cultivation in the park has increased steadily over the last 10 years. Since 2001, however, the number of plants seized in the state's oldest national park has jumped eightfold. The pot fields are financed by the Mexican drug cartels that dominate the methamphetamine trade in the adjacent Central Valley, drug enforcement officials say. The officials say there is evidence that the cartels, in turn, have financial ties to Middle Eastern smugglers linked to Hezbollah and other groups accused of terrorism.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Martian aircraft to be built Soon, a small aircraft laden with sensors and a high-speed datalink could be flying over the mountains of Mars - the first aircraft to fly over the terrain of another world. A pre-programmed scientific flight over Mars Called Ares (Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey of Mars), it could, if all goes well, be flying over the Red Planet's southern uplands in just five years' time. After a successful series of half-scale tests, the US space agency (Nasa) has ordered a full-scale prototype to be built. Ares is in competition with three other Mars exploration proposals for a Nasa launch in 2007. The final selection of one, or possibly two, missions will be made later this year.

Here's one theory on the lack of WMD finds in Iraq Saddam thought he had them, but really didn't. Hmm. Jim Lacey on Iraq & Weapons of Mass Destruction on National Review Online In the event that we do not find the WMD smoking gun this is the only explanation that would make any sense. Saddam wanted the program and was willing to endure crippling sanctions to have it. However, his henchmen were unable to deliver and, unwilling to be on the receiving end of Saddam's zero-defects program, they faked it. In the process of making Saddam believe he had a functioning program they could easily have sucked U.S. intelligence into the deception. In fact, deceiving U.S. intelligence in this way would have been important to them. It would not have been conducive to a long life if the United States had come to Saddam and told him they had discovered he had no WMD program and all of his most trusted advisers were lying.

SAS partly lifts veil on a different approach to war - War on Iraq - smh.com.au Major Withycombe said that, after securing the airport, he and his US colleagues were the first allied troops to move into Baghdad's suburbs, where it was extremely tense and dangerous. How did he cope? "Dare I say it - I'm pretty comfortable in that environment. Our special forces are the best in the world and our level of physical and psychological training is very high so we can cope with that sort of thing . . . easily, really. The Americans know that too and they love working with us for that reason. From our point of view, it is excellent to work with the Americans because . . . we get a reach into their intelligence and equipment, which is first rate." Nonetheless, the approaches of the Australian and US special forces differ greatly, he said. "The US special forces are very big and good at operating in chaos - and that's largely because creating chaos is one ...

U.S. News: Michael Barone: A tale of two Americas(5/12/03) One of the peculiar features of our country is that we produce incompetent 18-year-olds and remarkably competent 30-year-olds. Americans at 18 typically score lower on standardized tests than 18-year-olds from other advanced countries. Watch them on their first few days working at McDonald's or behind the counter in chain drugstores, and it's obvious that they don't really know how to make change or keep the line moving. But by the time Americans are 30, they are the most competent people in the world. They produce a stronger and more vibrant private-sector economy; they produce scientific and technical advances that lead the world; they provide the world's best medical care; they create the strongest and most agile military the world has ever seen. And it's not just a few meritocrats at the top: American talent runs wide and deep. Why? Because from the age of 6 to 18, our kids live mostly in what I cal...

Klingon Interpreter Needed for Ore. Mental Patients PORTLAND, Ore. � Position Available: Interpreter, must be fluent in Klingon The language created for the Star Trek TV series and movies is one of about 55 needed by the office that treats mental health patients in metropolitan Multnomah County. "We have to provide information in all the languages our clients speak," said Jerry Jelusich, a procurement specialist for the county Department of Human Services, which serves about 60,000 mental health clients. Although created for works of fiction, Klingon was designed to have a consistent grammar, syntax and vocabulary. And now Multnomah County research has found that many people � and not just fans � consider it a complete language. "There are some cases where we've had mental health patients where this was all they would speak," said the county's purchasing administrator, Franna Hathaway. County officials said that obligates them to respond with a K...

U.S. Official in Charge of Baghdad Leaving Position BAGHDAD, Iraq � The U.S. official sent in to oversee Baghdad and a large swath of its surrounding territory is leaving her position immediately after less than a month, a spokesman for the postwar American administration said Sunday. Barbara Bodine, the coordinator for central Iraq, planned to depart Baghdad later Sunday, according to U.S. Army Maj. John Cornelio, a spokesman for the U.S. Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, the reconstruction effort's civilian wing. No replacement has been named yet, Cornelio said in an interview. Bodine has been in Iraq for less than three weeks. Cornelio could not say what the next assignment might be for Bodine, a former American ambassador to Yemen. However, The Washington Post, in its Sunday editions, called the move a reassignment and reported she would become deputy director of the U.S. State Department's political-military division. Bodine did not know...

Frustrated, U.S. Arms Team to Leave Iraq (washingtonpost.com) BAGHDAD -- The group directing all known U.S. search efforts for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is winding down operations without finding proof that President Saddam Hussein kept clandestine stocks of outlawed arms, according to participants. The 75th Exploitation Task Force, as the group is formally known, has been described from the start as the principal arm of the U.S. plan to discover and display forbidden Iraqi weapons. The group's departure, expected next month, marks a milestone in frustration for a major declared objective of the war.

C4 News - World - Iraq - Al-Jazeera allegations Documents have come to light which suggest three Al Jazeera employees in Baghdad were also working for Saddam Husseins regime. Al Jazeera deny any wrong doing. The files keep coming. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi intelligence agency documents are now in the hands of the CIA and Iraqi opposition groups, who�ve collected them from ministries across Baghdad. Though most are still under CIA control, their contents are beginning to emerge: The latest, the secret police files on Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite news channel, described by the Iraqis as �a mobilised instrument of our propaganda�. The Files boast of what they call �close cooperation� with Al Jazeera executives.

TCS: Defense - Weapons of Mass Distortion "One 'top Egyptian editor' told the Wall Street Journal back in 1991 about a conversation he had with Saddam. "I remember his saying, 'Compared to tanks, journalists are cheap - and you get more for your money.'" True. Arab publics, still reeling from the reality inversions they'd been fed during Gulf War II, should brace themselves for another set of shocks. They probably won't be the only ones. (Just ask CNN.) Nor is this the end of the matter. Like the Soviet and Nazi states upon which Ba'athist ideology was based, Saddam's bureaucracy kept documents. Lots and lots of documents. Sifting through the haystacks has just begun, and there are sharp needles aplenty to be found, with help of course from Iraqi factions and Western intelligence agencies. They, too, have reasons to cultivate journalists. Shifting Sands If Anglosphere intelligence agencies wish to become involved in amelior...

Palestinian students recreate paradise to show what awaits ``martyrs'' Plastic trees, goldfish swimming in a generator-powered fountain, posters of the dead on the wall: This is a model of the paradise Islamic militants say awaits those killed in fighting with Israel, including suicide bombers. The display at the West Bank's largest university, An Najah, was assembled by supporters of the violent Hamas group who said they wanted to raise students' morale after 31 months of fighting with Israel. The university -- a hotbed of Palestinian nationalism and a Hamas stronghold -- said it officially opposes bombings but didn't want to stifle the students' views. ... Palestinian Muslims widely believe that suicide bombers and others killed fighting Israel will spend eternity in paradise, in the company of 72 virgins. That promise has been used as a recruiting tool, relatives of some of the bombers have said. The model paradise on display at An Najah, which...

The GROM Factor Radek Sikorski, Poland's former deputy minister of defense and now executive director of the New Atlantic Initiative, recently told me he witnessed the snipers at their best during a training exercise in 1999. "The GROM operators were working alongside the Delta Force and were tasked with rescuing the chairman of the National Bank of Poland. He was being held hostage by terrorists in possession of a nuclear device." Sikorski says the snipers waited for days in complete disguise. "They just followed the terrorists' routines and then started to pick them off one by one." GROM operators are said to be martial arts experts and capable of "cold killing." "We created our own style of martial arts," says Petelicki. "I have an old friend who is a master of karate and jujitsu and is a sixth degree black belt. He created the style with other specialists--it is most similar to what the Israelis do." And what about ...

Wired News: Flexible E-Paper on Its Way In a step toward electronic newspapers and wearable computer screens, scientists have created an ultra-thin screen that can be bent, twisted and even rolled up and still display crisp text. The material, only as thick as three human hairs, displays black text on a whitish-gray background with a resolution similar to that of a typical laptop computer screen. The screen is so flexible it can be rolled into a cylinder about a half-inch wide without losing its image quality. Although it's not quite the dream of single-sheet, electronic newspapers or books that can display hundreds of pages of text, its creators said it's the first flexible computer screen of its kind. "I think it's a major step forward. We have cleared a big obstacle in electronic paper development," said Yu Chen, a research scientist with E Ink of Cambridge, Massachusetts. E Ink is one of several companies working to develop electronic ...

Newsday.com - Rough Exit From Iraq "I was kicked out [of Palestine] with my mother and father 55 years ago - now I've been kicked out [of Iraq] with my wife and children," said Ahmed Kadoura, 60, sitting in the shade of one of many tents pitched on a soccer field in Baghdad. Like hundreds of other Palestinians in Iraq, Kadoura is facing the wrath of an Iraqi population that sees the Palestinians in Iraq as collaborators with the regime of Saddam Hussein. "We're going in circles," said Kadoura, whose neighbor stabbed him twice with a long knife to encourage him to leave his Baghdad home. "It's pointless to stay in an Arab country." Hussein created a militia devoted to liberating Jerusalem for the Arabs. He sent thousands of dollars to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, allowed Palestinian militant groups to operate training camps in Iraq and recruited many for his security services, and he gave many ordinary Palestinians in Ir...

Hackworth evaluates the performance of the Apache helicopter in the Iraq war -favorable But a closer look at the March 24 Little Bighorn reveals that the overconfident � some say even rash � commanders of the 11th Aviation Regiment fell for a classic Iraqi helicopter ambush of the sort perfected by Vietnamese guerrillas in the 1960s and refined by Somalian rebels in the 1990s. Eyewitnesses and Apache pilots say we're talking leadership fault here rather than the failure of a formidable fighting machine. And if so, the 11th Aviation skippers and their flawed planning should wear the blame, not this great CAS aircraft. As it proved in Iraq by not crashing and burning when it became Swiss cheese over Karbala, the Apache is unbeatably rugged. A blistering machine capable of pounding the enemy right on the deck � in their face or standing off at five miles. Not to mention how, unlike a fast-moving fighter jet, it can also stay on station � low and slow � long enough...

Al Qaeda may be rebuilding | csmonitor.com These sources are concerned that, since the fall of Afghanistan, Al Qaeda has continued to do what it has learned to do well over the years - evolve and adapt as the US and its allies cut off its bases of support. Recently, the network has: � Replaced some key leaders while decentralizing its operations - outsourcing many of its recruiting, training, and planning activities to regional Islamic groups. � Made inroads in taking back territory in Afghanistan. � Adapted its financial support system, making it more difficult to detect. Just last week, US officials warned Americans against traveling to Saudi Arabia, as they'd received "credible" information about plans for an attack on US interests there. And the arrest last week of another key Al Qaeda member, along with five lower-level operatives in Pakistan, reportedly broke up a plot to fly an airplane into the US Consulate in Karachi. The US has also nabbed four other...

AP Wire | 05/05/2003 | Garner: Group of 9 Will Likely Lead Iraq Retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner also said he expects the newly appointed L. Paul Bremer, former head of the State Department's counterterrorism office, to take charge of the political process within the U.S. postwar administration. "What you may see is as many as seven, eight, nine leaders working together to provide leadership," Garner said. He added, though, that he didn't know how the collective leadership would function specifically. The Iraqi leaders Garner referred to were Massoud Barzani; leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party; Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress; Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan; Iyad Allawi of the Iraqi National Accord; and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, whose elder brother heads the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The five met several times late last week, and at least one meeting was attended by White House envoy Zalmay Khalilzad. Garner ...

In Iraq, the fun also rises LAZARUS AT LARGE In Iraq, the fun also rises David Lazarus Friday, May 2, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conquering a foreign country is hard, stressful work. But some of our men and women overseas made sure they'd be as loose and tension-free as possible. Two San Francisco companies specializing in adult merchandise -- Good Vibrations and MyPleasure -- saw online orders from military personnel abroad surge during both the troop buildup in the Persian Gulf and the outbreak of hostilities in Iraq. MyPleasure said it normally receives a couple of orders a week from military personnel. But between November, when the troop buildup began in earnest, and this week, it said shipments to military addresses abroad climbed to several a day.

This is the town that attacked the American soldiers in Iraq. They seem a little out of touch with reality. Rantburg: Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Blogs of War The Falluja resident had forced the American occupation forces to evacuate the school they were using as headquarters and named it �Martyrs School�. Zawti also said that Falluja is best known for its fervent religious zeal. �When the regime of Saddam Hussein established a cinema, the people here set it in flames. The regime was not able to open a pub or cabaret here,� he recalled. There were reports that U.S. soldiers distributed some hardcore movies in the town to spread immorality and vice. The American occupation troops also provoked the irk of Falluja residents by making no heed to their Islamic values and traditions. �They had the gall to peep at the families residing near their bases by their spyglasses,� charged Nouri Mohammad Mahdi. �They were also inviting me to smoke marijuana with them�I lashed out at them and said Ira...

United Press International: Analysis: The Washington battlefield Analysis: The Washington battlefield By Eli J. Lake UPI State Department Correspondent From the International Desk Published 5/3/2003 7:21 PM View printer-friendly version WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) -- The second battleground of the Iraq war is Washington where the conflict sparked a succession of factional power struggles. Depending on their preference, history buffs could draw comparisons with the Renaissance Florence or 18th century Philadelphia. In Florence power swung between Guelfs and Ghibellines -- the two main parties controlled by the richest families -- according to who won the latest vicious plot or battle. In 18th century Philadelphia, political infighting sometimes led to duels between prominent politicians, often to the death as in the case of Aaron Burr's shooting of Alexander Hamilton. Drastic resolutions of political differences have not totally gone out of style. In 20th century Syri...

Reuters EU Ponders Handling U.S. Hyperpower KASTELLORIZO, Greece (Reuters) - On the love boat that hosted Prince Charles and Princess Diana's honeymoon, European Union foreign ministers this weekend contemplated how to salvage their troubled marriage with the United States. Cruising off an idyllic Greek island, ministers from the 25 present and future EU states tried to draw lessons from their rift over the U.S.-led war in Iraq and Washington's drive to reshape the world along its own lines with or without United Nations authority. "We all agree that, yes, there is a crisis or at least a problem in our transatlantic relationship," Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou told reporters after chairing the discussion aboard the private luxury yacht Alexander.

Boston Globe Online / Nation | World / Tension seen on Iraq rebuilding But Bremer has no experience in the Middle East, which even his admirers said could hinder his ability. Bremer's closest geographic assignment was in Afghanistan in the early 1980s. ''He's a tough guy, and this is a job that is going to require real strengths, but also require a very astute person who has a well-tuned instinct for politics of Iraq,'' said Philip C. Wilcox Jr., another former head of counterterrorism at the State Department. ''He doesn't have any background for Middle Eastern affairs, so I assume he was chosen because of his impeccable conservative views and his management skills.'' Meyrav Wurmser, a conservative Middle Eastern analyst at Hudson Institute, said Bremer ''was not like one of those ideological State people who work against the president, so people are basically happy'' in the administration's conservative circles. ...

Iraqi Nuclear Site Is Found Looted (washingtonpost.com) Iraqi Nuclear Site Is Found Looted U.S. Team Unable to Determine Whether Deadly Materials Are Missing advertisement _____News From Iraq_____ � Leaving Home to Aid Homeland (The Washington Post, May 4, 2003) � Deciding Who Rebuilds Iraq Is Fraught With Infighting (The Washington Post, May 4, 2003) � Captured Iraq Official Untruthful, Bush Says (The Washington Post, May 4, 2003) � More News from Iraq Top Stories � Democrats Focus on Home Front � Captured Iraq Official Untruthful, Bush Says � Iraqi Nuclear Site Is Found Looted Sights and Sounds of War � Latest Audio and Video � Galleries From Post Photographers � Faces of the Fallen E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version Permission to Republish Subscribe to The Post By Barton Gellman Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, Ma...

SARS Can Live on Common Surfaces (washingtonpost.com) By Rob Stein Washington Post Staff Writer The SARS virus can survive on common surfaces at room temperature for hours or even days, which could explain how people can catch the deadly lung infection without face-to-face contact with a sick person, scientists have found. New laboratory studies, being released today, have produced the first scientific data on how long the SARS virus can live in various places and conditions, demonstrating for the first time that the microbe can linger outside an infected person's body. One study showed the virus survived for at least 24 hours on a plastic surface at room temperature, which suggests it might be possible to become infected from touching a tabletop, doorknob or other object. Another found the microbe remained viable for as long as four days in human waste, a crucial finding that could clarify how the virus can spread through apartment buildings, hospitals and other facili...

OpinionJournal - Extra Beyond, above and behind every failed policy that has been devised to nudge forward the prospects of reconciliation in the Middle East there lies a simple if often unacknowledged fact: There can be no peace until the Arabs of the region openly accept the existence of Israel as a permanent, sovereign state. For 55 years most of Israel's Arab enemies have refused to do so. For 55 years the community of nations has tolerated, acquiesced in and thereby confirmed the propriety of that refusal. To this day, Israel is treated in international affairs and by most members of the United Nations as a pariah state. The U.S., despite the generous and indispensable support it has extended to Israel, has too often gone along with that treatment. From time to time, as the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan documented in Commentary, it has even "joined the jackals." The blanket exemption from treating Israel as an ordinary state and an equal member of the internation...

Sources: Garner Out in Iraq Shuffle By Knut Royce Washington Bureau Chief Washington -- In an apparent acknowledgment that postwar reconstruction efforts in Iraq are floundering, the White House plans to name a politically astute career diplomat to replace Jay Garner as the civilian administrator of the country, sources said Thursday. L. Paul Bremer, ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism in the Reagan administration, will report directly to the White House, sources said. It was not immediately clear whether Garner, a retired Army lieutenant general who reports to the Pentagon, will stay on under Bremer. Garner was handpicked in January to oversee the reconstruction by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He held his first meeting in Iraq on April 15. Bremer's expected appointment, which might be announced as early as Friday, could be a big plus for the State Department, which has feuded with the Defense Department over how the transition to democracy should be manag...

CBS 2: World Wire Tape shows exhausted, confused Saddam promising eventual victory over coalition By CHARLES J. HANLEY AP Special Correspondent BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) In what is purported to be his last known wartime speech a video never before televised Saddam Hussein appears exhausted, at times confused and seemingly resigned to defeat, but he tells Iraqis that God, somehow, will help them expel the American-British occupiers. >> In the videotaped speech, Saddam nearing his 66th birthday, and wearing his familiar open-necked olive drab uniform and black beret appears deeply fatigued, like someone who had slept little. The bags under his eyes droop more heavily than before. His speech is abnormally slow, and he seldom raises his eyes from the text to look into the camera. Twice he repeats a sentence of the speech not for emphasis, but out of apparent confusion. He seems on edge, not surprisingly for someone whose government has been under devastating air and ground attac...

In the end, Iraq might not want democracy Bush administration officials have played down the anti-American demonstrations in Iraq, saying, "Isn't it wonderful that the Iraqis now have the freedom to demonstrate publicly." But freedom appears to be, at best, a highly suspect commodity in a country where people long have been kept in bondage. In his 1951 book, "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements," Eric Hoffer observes that for freed slaves "it is the burden of freedom which is at the root of their discontent." Hoffer goes on to say that "freedom aggravates at least as much as it alleviates frustration" and that the suddenly newly freed make the best converts for all forms of fanaticism. He quotes a young German's motivation for joining the Nazis: "To be free from freedom."

Saudi Arabia Awakes to the Perils of Inbreeding Across the Arab world today an average of 45 percent of married couples are related, according to Dr. Nadia Sakati, a pediatrician and senior consultant for the genetics research center at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh. In some parts of Saudi Arabia, particularly in the south, where Mrs. Hefthi was raised, the rate of marriage among blood relatives ranges from 55 to 70 percent, among the highest rates in the world, according to the Saudi government. Widespread inbreeding in Saudi Arabia has produced several genetic disorders, Saudi public health officials said, including the blood diseases of thalassemia, a potentially fatal hemoglobin deficiency, and sickle cell anemia. Spinal muscular atrophy and diabetes are also common, especially in the regions with the longest traditions of marriage between relatives. Dr. Sakati said she had also found links between inbreeding and deafness and muteness. Saudi health authorities...