[A-List] News Archive: June 23, 2003

["bon moun" <sherrynstan@xxxxxxx>]

Iraq's economic future was dealt a worrisome blow yesterday, as a
massive explosion ripped apart one of the country's major natural-gas
pipelines just hours after Iraq exported its first shipment of oil since
the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion in March.
<http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030623.wxuiraq0623/BN
Story/International/>

U.S.-led civil administrators announced the creation of a new Iraqi army
Monday and said recruitment will begin next week, hoping to contain
Iraqi anger over desperate unemployment and to curb a rash of attacks
against U.S. forces.
<http://www.canada.com/news/story.asp?id=D3559C70-AB4F-46BD-AC78-DB98FE3
45A34>

A grenade attack killed a US soldier in Iraq yesterday as a pipeline
fire blazed on after an explosion described by an Oil Ministry official
as sabotage.
<http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Articles.asp?Article=54797&Sn=WORL>

In the most concrete result of Foreign Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal's visit
to Washington last week, Turkey asked the US to take over control of our
Habur border gate into Iraq from the Iraqi Kurds. Habur has been one of
the most problematic subjects in Ankara concerning Iraq.
<http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=11257>

These worrying reports have only fanned the existing divisions in New
Delhi over the sagacity of accepting a US request and sending in Indian
troops to Iraq.
<http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20030630&fname=Iraq+(F)&si
d=1>

The US would has embarked on using the communists to oust the Islamic
regime in Iran and needs Musharraf's help in using Pakistani territory
for its covert operations.
<http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20030620&fname=raman&sid=1
>

Iraq was reduced from first-world affluence to third-world poverty in 12
years, but it was still a functioning state.
<http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20030630&fname=Column+Prem
+%28F%29&sid=1>

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told Chinese counterpart Wen
Jiabao on Monday he was disappointed at Pakistan's failure to crack down
on Muslim militants fighting Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region.
<http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters06-23-000218.asp?reg=PACRIM
>

Pakistan said on Monday it hoped the United States and China could help
reduce its tensions with India and bring about a meaningful dialogue.
<http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL238421.htm>

China and its largest South Asian trade partner India have boosted their
bilateral economic and trade relations recently, witnessing 71 percent
trade growth year-on-year in the first four months this year.
<http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EF24Df04.html>

China's yuan ended weaker against the U.S. dollar Monday on stronger
dollar demand from importers for trade settlement purposes, while the
one-year yuan nondeliverable forward premium slipped amid quiet trade.
<http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/030623/15/3c0t9.html>

The United States is urged to reconsider going to the U.N. Security
Council before all diplomatic means have been exhausted. Instead, it
might as well consider the North's "bold approach" as a viable option to
bring the current conundrum to a peaceful conclusion.
<http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2003/06/23/200306230014
.asp>

Hundreds of rabbis denounced a U.S.-backed ''road map'' to Middle East
peace on Monday, urging Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon not to hand
over biblical land in the West Bank and Gaza Strip for a Palestinian
state.
<http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters06-23-095724.asp?reg=MIDEAS
T>

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) assassinated four Palestinians in the
northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun and killed a woman in the
southern town of Rafah. IOF also demolished four houses in Khan Younis
town and raided the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem.
<http://www.aljazeerah.info/23n/Israeli%20Occupation%20Chronicle,%20Even
ts%20in%20Palestine,%20June%2023,%202003.htm>

Nigeria is facing the threat of industrial and social unrest after the
government raised petrol prices by more than 50 per cent in response to
a supply problem causing long fuel queues and crippling the economy.
<http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullSt
ory&c=StoryFT&cid=1054966324959>

The death toll in a fire which engulfed scores of people as they scooped
petrol from a burst pipeline in southeast Nigeria has reached 125, the
Red Cross said on Monday.
<http://allafrica.com/stories/200306230170.html>

Militia in Bunia withdrew on Monday under a plan to rid the town of
gunmen, but many residents fled their homes fearing attack by rival
ethnic fighters taking advantage of the security vacuum.
<http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=2973950>

Situation on the Pak-Afghan border in Mohmand Agency remained tense on
Sunday amid reports that Pakistan and Afghanistan have deployed troops
to meet any eventuality arising out of the dispute over the demarcation
of the Durand Line.
<http://www.balochistanpost.com/item.asp?ID=4118>

Afghanistan and terrorism top the agenda at talks next week between
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder Pakistan's President Pervez
Musharraf, a spokesman said Monday.
<http://www.expatica.com/germany.asp?pad=190,205,&item_id=32236>

Leading U.S. senators from both parties said on Monday American troops
could be in Iraq for at least five years but the White House cautioned
it was too soon to set a time limit on U.S. involvement in Iraq.
<http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=297
3644>

American colleges and universities may continue to use race as a factor
in college admissions, but not in the same way that the University of
Michigan has used it to select its undergraduate students.
<http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0624/p01s02-usju.html>

President Bush renewed his criticism of European nations on Monday for
refusing to accept genetically modified foods and said the ban was
contributing to famine in Africa.
<http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2974214>

Danish Parliament European Union (EU) Commission Chairman Claus Larsen
Jensen and an accompanying delegation visited Istanbul Mayor Ali Mufit
Gurtuna, and Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler. They got information about
the studies carried out in the city and said that he hoped Turkey would
be successful and enter the EU in 2004 after fulfilling criteria.
<http://www.turks.us/article.php?story=20030623085724448>

Fitch said its raised the long-term sovereign ratings of Venezuela on
Monday, citing the government's success in restoring oil production
levels after a general strike that ended earlier this year choked off
output in the lucrative sector.
<http://reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=bondsNews&storyID=2974
680>

One of the 12 Tulia drug defendants freed from prison last week because
of questions surrounding their convictions following a 1999 drug sting
has been charged with assaulting a Pampa police officer.
<http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1963906>

Hundreds and possibly thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed or
maimed by outdated, defective U.S. cluster weapons that lack a safety
feature other countries have added, according to observers, news reports
and officials.
<http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0623-01.htm>

SHUNEH, Jordan - Arab business and political leaders on Sunday
challenged U.S. plans to transform Iraq's economy into a free market,
''open for business'' to the world's multinational companies.
<http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0623-05.htm>

I'm not sure if many Americans have noticed, but the concept of race has
taken some devastating hits in recent years. Everywhere one looks in
academia these days-from the abstract precincts of critical theory to
the hard laboratories of molecular genetics-once-mighty notions of
racial taxonomy have fallen hard.
<http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0623-05.htm>

So far we've listed 56 Bush administration lies in five days' time,
though upon consideration I think I have to disqualify one statement
presented as a lie yesterday: Bush's repeated claim during Campaign
2000, "I don't believe in nation-building.
<http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/sperry/>

Former CIA official, Ray McGovern, has leveled serious accusations at
the Bush administration in connection with the war in Iraq.
<http://www.counterpunch.com/mcgovern06232003.html>