Dublin Protests Halt a March By Ulsterites

DUBLIN, Feb. 25 — A planned parade by Northern Irish Protestant groups through the capital of the Irish republic led to violent clashes between protesters and the police on Saturday, forcing cancellation of the march and briefly turning a sunny afternoon into a melee, with bricks flying over the heads of weekend shoppers. Five people were injured.

3 Charged With Conspiring to Kill U.S. Troops in Iraq

Finally, some news we can cheer about!

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 — Three Ohioans were charged in federal courts on Tuesday with conspiring to kill American forces in Iraq as part of an Islamic holy war against the United States.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told reporters here that the three, originally from Jordan and Lebanon and living in Toledo, were "engaging in weapons training, sympathizing with the terrorists and seeking to provide help in order to kill people abroad, including our troops."

The three, Mohammad Zaki Amawi, 26, a dual citizen of Jordan and the United States; Marwan Othman el-Hindi, 42, a naturalized citizen born in Jordan; and Wassim I. Mazloum, 24, a legal permanent resident, were charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts overseas and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. Mr. Amawi is also charged with making threats to kill President Bush.

Rescuers found only a few survivors on Saturday in the mud that buried Guinsaugon, the Philippines.

Few Found Alive After Mud Buries Town in Philippines

LILOAN, the Philippines, Feb. 18 — Rescuers struggling through soft, thick mud found bodies on Saturday but no more survivors of the mountain collapse that buried a southern Philippines town the day before, apparently killing almost all of its 1,800 residents.

Witnesses in Guinsaugon, about 14 miles from this small town and 400 miles south of Manila, said there was no longer any sign of the town — only what looked like a newly plowed field, with bits and pieces of roofing and debris from 375 destroyed homes sticking up through the mud.

Rescuers were having difficulty reaching Guinsaugon, on the island of Leyte, and when they arrived, they found their every effort hampered by the mud, which was at least 30 feet deep in some spots. Walking was nearly impossible, and bringing in heavy equipment to dig out survivors seemed out of the question.

"We presume that more or less than 1,800 are feared dead," said Lt. Col. Raul Farnacio, who was overseeing the rescue effort. The Associated Press reported that only 57 survivors and 55 bodies had been found out of a population listed as 1,857.

The colonel said that many more bodies had been found, but that rescuers — who were feeling bodies under their feet as they slogged through the mud — were trying to focus on the living.

"There's just too many dead bodies," he said. "For now, we are just leaving the dead because our main concern is to recover the survivors if there are any. If you ask me, hopes are dimming."

One survivor, Alfredo Guab, 27, told The A.P. that the inundation had taken no more than two minutes to bury the entire village.

Like other survivors, he said he heard what sounded like a loud explosion before the mud came cascading down.

Navigating icy pools in Manhattan, at 136th Street and Broadway. Dry socks, anyone?

Slush 1, Pedestrians 0

I found this article from the NY Times rather humerous.

Having endured the big snow, 26.9 inches in 24 hours, New York endured something yesterday that created fresh headaches: the big melt.

That was why pedestrians crossing the street had to do the long jump at the corner. On a day when the temperature climbed as much as nine degrees above freezing, puddles loomed like lakes.
It was why blocks of snow the size of Ping-Pong tables broke free and sailed off rooftops, creating instant snow flurries, unless they landed on someone, creating an instant snowman.
It was why street-level streams beneath elevated subways in Queens were fed by a daylong drizzle from the tracks and platforms.
It was why cars seemed to spray a slushy, mucky mess wherever they went, and why people who just wanted to have one last snowball fight — and wanted to have it on the street — were splashed and splattered by buses whose drivers just wanted to keep to their schedules.
"It's disgusting," said Renee Young, a publicist in Manhattan. "Water is pouring off the buildings, so if you walk too close to the buildings, you get drenched."
And then there was what was underfoot, an unpredictable and potentially slippery coating on the pavement.
"You have to concentrate," said Evelyn Gatzonis, who owns a spa in Astoria, Queens, and walked to work in leather boots with 41/2-inch stiletto heels. (It was Valentine's Day, after all, she said.)
There was a lot to concentrate on: avoiding potholes in the making, and avoiding the sludgy, brackish liquid that had already filled them.
"It's like a strawberry daiquiri that's been out for five minutes and the stuff has started to separate so the syrup's on the bottom and ice is on the top," said Adele Morrissette, an investment banker whose office is in Rockefeller Center. "In this case, the syrup ... you don't want to know. The streets weren't clean before it snowed."
There will probably be more syrup today, as the forecast calls for the temperature in Manhattan to rise to 52 degrees, and more grumbling. Gladis Wallace of the Bronx said she loved a good snowstorm, "but the aftermath is a bit much."

"You've got big puddles of ice-cold melted snow," Ms. Wallace said. "You've got to jump over them. I've been trying to find a way around them without having to step into a puddle that's past your ankle."

Charles G. Sturcken, a spokesman for the city's Department of Environmental Protection, posited that when melted, a foot of snow equals an inch of rain. "So this is really like three inches of rain," he said. "The sewers should be able to handle this. Had we gotten rain at 51 degrees, between the melt and the rain, you'd fill up the system and go overboard. But this looks like an easy melt."

Not on the street, where the big melt changed the routines of those trying to get around.
"On Day 1, it was a mountain-climbing thing," said Lisa Kovitz, who commutes to Manhattan from Ossining, N.Y. "You have to step in the footprints of the other person.
"By Day 2, someone has taken some sort of sharp object and cut the Khyber Pass in the mountain," she continued, "but at the other end of the Khyber Pass is the lake."
Ms. Morrissette, the investment banker, encountered a lake on the way to work, in ankle-high hiking boots, and water seeped in through the eyelets. For the rest of the day, she alternated between the sunny side of the street, with puddles, and the shady side, where the walkways were narrower because there was more snow.
Judith Altreuter, the production director of the Modern Language Association in Manhattan, had the reason behind the lake problem figured out. "Why don't they shovel the drains?" she asked. "It's so obvious that's the reason. The people who shovel, how hard would it be for them to learn where the drains were? In 25 years of living in New York, I've seen no advance on this learning curve."
But Keith Mellis, a spokesman for the Sanitation Department, said workers were paying attention to the drains, which his agency calls catch basins.
"They need to be clear," he said. "We're out there clearing them. We're getting the bulk of the snow out of the way, but when Mother Nature helps us even more with warmer weather, we want to make sure the catch basins are able to receive the receding water."
People who did not excavate their cars on Monday faced a double headache yesterday: snow and water. Larry Flowers, who repairs and installs windows, discovered that to clear off his Ford Expedition he had to stand in a river of sludgy melted snow.

"It's sloppy," he said of East 162nd Street in the Bronx, near Teller Avenue, where his sport utility vehicle was parked. The city, which suspended alternate-side parking regulations yesterday and today, said the rules would be reinstated tomorrow. But parking meters will be in operation today.

Hey, Riot Over This!

You gotta love the 1st amendment. I think it's a great cartoon.

The terrorists' intended target in the 2002 plot was the U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles

Bush Offers Details of 2002 Plot in Defense of Terror Strategy

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 — President Bush defended his anti-terrorist policies anew today, asserting that the United States and its allies had foiled a terrorist plot meant to bring down a Los Angeles building that is the tallest in the United States west of the Mississippi River.

Mr. Bush said that just a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, terrorists planned to hijack another airplane by using "shoe bombs" to breach the cockpit door. Their target, had the hijacking been carried out, would have been the U.S. Bank Tower, the president said. (Government counterterrorism officials have acknowledged before that the tower would be a particularly inviting target.)

Osama bin Laden himself was involved in the plot, which was to be carried out by Southeast Asian men on the assumption that they would not arouse as much suspicion as Middle Easterners, Mr. Bush told the National Guard Association here. "Their plot was derailed in early 2002, when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key Al Qaeda operative," he said. "Subsequent debriefings and other intelligence operations made clear the intended target and how Al Qaeda hoped to execute it."


Now, you must wonder. Had we elected Gore, would his post 911 policies have had the same outcome?

The Last Thing The Middle East Needs

In short... a nuclear weapon. When looking at the Middle East (Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq, etc.) One can easily see alot of similarities. Israel has a policy called "nuclear opacity" or "nuclear ambiguity," which consists of refusing to confirm or deny that it has nuclear weapons at all. In 1986, however, whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli nuclear weapons worker, published pictures of nuclear weapons facilities in Israel. Today, experts agree that Israel has between 100 and 300 warheads (and Israel doesn't deny it). Besides that fact, none of the middle eastern nations have nuclear weapons. Given the instability of the region (even before the war in Iraq), it's easy to see why this is a good thing. Enter Iran. A theocratic republic. I didn't capitalize on purpose. Their new president Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad is about as extreme as they come and no doubt an ultra-conservative. I'd rather call him a Bin-Laden conservative. The following is an article from Time magazine by Elaine Shannon(Feb. 13, 2006 pg.14).

Green salt isn't something you'd want to sprinkle on french fries. It's what nuclear chemist call uranium tetrafluoride, a grainy substance that can be used to make fuel for a bomb..... Iran has long maintained that it wants to enrich uranium to generate nuclear power, not to make a bomb. Bur disclosure of the (Green Salt) project- and its apparent links to the testing of high explosives- seems to have been just what Washington and its allies needed to send Iran to the U.N. Securit Council for possible sanctions, a measure the IAEA's board of 35 member nations approved last week in a 27 to 3 vote, with five abstentions..... Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice helped firm up support for the IAEA vote by having aides brief foreign officials on a trove of documents that, according to U.S. diplomatic sources, expose a clandestine Iranian military nuclear-research operation....

Even Russia and China with economic ties to Tehran, now seem convinced that it may all add up to a nuclear-weapons program. Rice won those countries' support at a dinner in London last week, hosted by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. "She made the argument," says U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, "that we all have an interest in not introducing another nuclear power into the Mideast."

Protests Over Cartoons Turn Deadly

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghan security forces opened fire on demonstrators Monday, leaving at least four dead, as increasingly violent protests erupted around the world over published caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. European and Muslim politicians pleaded for calm.

The worst of the violence was outside Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, with Afghan police firing on some 2,000 protesters as they tried to break into the heavily guarded facility, said Kabir Ahmed, the local government chief.

Two demonstrators were killed and five were injured, while eight police also were hurt, he said. No U.S. troops were involved in the clashes, the military said.

Afghan police also fired on protesters in the central city of Mihtarlam after a man in the crowd shot at them and others threw stones and knives, Interior Ministry spokesman Dad Mohammed Rasa said.

Two protesters were killed, and three other people were wounded, including two police, officials said. The demonstrators burned tires and threw stones at government offices.

The unrest also spread to East Africa as police in Somalia fired in the air to disperse stone-throwing protesters, triggering a stampede in which a teenager was killed and raising to six the number of deaths in protests related to the publication of the series of cartoons satirizing Islam's holiest figure.

Lebanon, meanwhile, apologized to Denmark a day after thousands of rampaging Muslim demonstrators set fire to the building housing the Danish mission in Beirut to protest the series of cartoons satirizing Islam's most revered figure.

At least one person died, 30 were injured -- half of them security officials -- and about 200 people were detained in Sunday's violence, officials said. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said the arrested included 76 Syrians, 35 Palestinians and 38 Lebanese.

In Another Threat, Iran Warns It May Ban All Inspectors

VIENNA, Feb. 2 — Iran formally notified the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday that it would end all "voluntary" nuclear cooperation with the agency if, as expected, its 35-country board referred Iran's nuclear activity case to the United Nations Security Council.

If the threat, in a letter from Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, to Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the agency, is carried out, inspectors will no longer be permitted to conduct spot inspections and will lose access to crucial sites, including several military areas that have aroused the agency's suspicions.

In addition, Iran has said it will resume its program to build 50,000 centrifuges at Natanz and begin full-scale production of enriched uranium, which can be used to produce electricity or to build nuclear bombs.