Baluyevsky: US Missile Shield Is Directed At Russia

PLAYFULS
The head of Russia's Armed Forces General Staff, Yury Baluyevsky said at a press conference in Moscow the missile-defence shield that the US will build in Europe is aimed at Russia and China. Baluyevsky said the shield is a “creation of defence against the nuclear potential of Russia and China”. The statement came after the Bush administration dispatched Gates to invite Russia, the shield's most vociferous opponent, to cooperate.

The White House has said the shield is aimed at preventing states like Iran and North Korea from threatening Europe and the United States with any intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), but Russia argues those countries don't have ICBMs. Washington decided to build elements of the shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, which are not far from Russian territory.
Robert Gates said "excellent" and "real headway" was made after his meetings with Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials. However, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said at the same press conference that the shield would be "serious annoyance in our strategic relations for years ahead," and the US-Russian relations were "better than the press writes but worse than they could be,” Interfax reported.


The General Staff head made a call to all Europeans, saying they would "pay" for the US shield and become "hostages of the United States' game." Baluyevsky added that the shield might become a target for Russian missiles and Russia is capable to build arms that could surpass the shield.

Feds Okay Pentagrams for Veterans' Graves

NY SUN
Witches across America are rejoicing after the Veterans Administration agreed to permit service members to have their graves at military cemeteries marked with a Wiccan symbol known as a pentacle or pentagram.

"This is a very important victory for natural religion, not only in America but around the world," a prominent Wiccan priestess, the Reverend Selena Fox of the Wisconsin-based Circle Sanctuary, said.

The VA agreed to put the symbol on headstones after several adherents of the faith filed a federal lawsuit charging that they and their family members were being discriminated against in violation of the religion clauses of the Constitution.

"The government acted to settle in the interest of the families concerned and to spare taxpayers the expense of further litigation," a spokesman for the VA, Matt Burns, said in a statement sent by e-mail.

One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Karen DePolito, complained that she was unable to get the Wiccan symbol on the marker for the grave of her husband, Jerome Birnbaum, who served in the Korean War.

Asked about the settlement, Ms. DePolito said, "Every so often we Americans get it right." She said she and her husband, a longtime public high school teacher in New York, were involved in the local pagan community between 1987 and 2002, when he retired.

One leader of the Wiccan campaign was Roberta Stewart, whose husband, Sergeant Patrick Stewart, was killed in Afghanistan in 2005. The federal government ignored her request for a pentacle, but the State of Nevada eventually agreed to install the symbol late last year. "I'm extremely ecstatic and happy we finally prevailed but disappointed my country forced me to do this," she said.

A VA official, who asked not to be named, said the pentacle would join 38 other "emblems of belief" placed on graves of the fallen. In addition to the Jewish Star of David, the Islamic crescent and star, and a variety of Christian crosses, the existing options include Baha'i, Hindu, Sikh, Sufi, and Mormon symbols, as well as the atom-based logo of American atheists. The approved list also includes a Buddhist "wheel of righteousness" and a stylized rendering of the letters "EK," representing a Minnesota-based religion that promotes "soul travel," Eckankar.

A spokesman for a group that filed the suit said there were indications that the headstone requests were slow-walked because officials thought President Bush was opposed to accommodating witches.

"People in the VA were operating from the assumption that the president had some concerns about Wiccans in the military," Robert Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State said.

The perception that Mr. Bush was hostile to Wiccans stemmed from an interview that he gave to ABC News while running for president in 1999. "I don't think witchcraft is a religion," Mr. Bush said. He also urged the military to reconsider a policy allowing Wiccans to carry out worship ceremonies at Fort Hood in Texas and at other military facilities.

The Pentagon's decision to permit Wiccan services on bases led some conservative organizations to call on Christians to refuse to enlist in the military until the policy was reversed. However, several key groups, such as the Christian Coalition and the American Family Association, backed away from the boycott soon after it was announced.

A survey taken in 2001 estimated about 134,000 American adults considered themselves to be Wiccans.

Last Ranger to see Pat Tillman alive says told to conceal info

AP
WASHINGTON- An Army Ranger who was with Pat Tillman when he died by friendly fire said Tuesday he was told by a higher-up to conceal that information from Tillman's family.

"I was ordered not to tell them," U.S. Army Specialist Bryan O'Neal told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

He said he was given the order by then-Lt. Col. Jeff Bailey, the battalion commander who oversaw Tillman's platoon.

Pat Tillman's brother Kevin was in a convoy behind his brother when the incident happened, but didn't see it. O'Neal said Bailey told him specifically not to tell Kevin Tillman that the death was friendly fire rather than heroic engagement with the enemy.

"He basically just said, 'Do not let Kevin know, he's probably in a bad place knowing that his brother's dead,'" O'Neal said. He added that Bailey made clear he would "get in trouble" if he told.

Kevin Tillman was not in the hearing room when O'Neal spoke.

In earlier testimony, Kevin Tillman accused the military of "intentional falsehoods" and "deliberate and careful misrepresentations" in portraying Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan as the result of heroic engagement with the enemy instead of friendly fire.

"We believe this narrative was intended to deceive the family but more importantly the American public," Kevin Tillman told a House Government Reform and Oversight Committee hearing. "Pat's death was clearly the result of fratricide," he said,
that the military's misstatements amounted to "fraud."

"Revealing that Pat's death was a fratricide would have been yet another political disaster in a month of political disasters ... so the truth needed to be suppressed," Tillman said.

The committee's chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., accused the government of inventing "sensational details and stories" about Pat Tillman's death and the 2003 rescue of Jessica Lynch, perhaps the most famous victims of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

"The government violated its most basic responsibility," said Waxman.

Lynch, then an Army private, was badly injured when her convoy was ambushed in Iraq. She was subsequently rescued by American troops from an Iraqi hospital but the tale of her ambush was changed into a story of heroism on her part.

Still hampered by her injuries, Lynch walked slowly to the witness table and took a seat alongside Tillman's family members.

"The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate tales," Lynch said.

Kevin Tillman said his family has sought for years to get at the truth, and have now concluded that they were "being actively thwarted by powers that are more interested in protecting a narrative than getting at the truth and seeing justice is served."

Lawmakers questioned how high up the chain of command the information about Tillman's friendly fire death went, and whether anyone in the White House knew before Tillman's family.

"How high up did this go?" asked Waxman.

Pat Tillman's mother, Mary Tillman, said she believed former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld must have known. "The fact that he would have died by friendly fire and no one told Rumsfeld is ludicrous," she said.

Tillman was killed on April 22, 2004, after his Army Ranger comrades were ambushed in eastern Afghanistan. Rangers in a convoy trailing Tillman's group had just emerged from a canyon where they had been fired upon. They saw Tillman and mistakenly fired on him.

Though dozens of soldiers knew quickly that Tillman had been killed by his fellow troops, the Army said initially that he was killed by enemy gunfire when he led his team to help another group of ambushed soldiers. The family was not told what really happened until May 29, 2004, a delay the Army blamed on procedural mistakes.

In questioning what the White House knew, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., cited a memo written by a top general seven days after Tillman's death warning it was "highly possible" the Army Ranger was killed by friendly fire and making clear his warning should be conveyed to the president. President Bush made no reference to the way Tillman died in a speech delivered two days after the memo was written.

A White House spokesman has said there's no indication Bush received the warning in the memo written April 29, 2004 by then-Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal to Gen. John Abizaid, head of Central Command.

"It's a little disingenuous to think the administration didn't know," Kevin Tillman told the committee. "That's kind of what we hoped you guys would get involved with and take a look," he said.

Mary Tillman told the committee that family members were "absolutely appalled" upon realizing the extent to which they were misled.

"We've all been betrayed ... We never thought they would use him the way they did," she said.

The Tillman family has made similar accusations against the administration and the military before, but has generally shied away from news media attention. The family had never previously appeared together and summarized their criticism and questions in such a public, comprehensive way.

"We shouldn't be allowed to have smoke screens thrown in our face," Mary Tillman said. "You're diminishing their true heroism to write these glorious tales. It's really a disservice to the nation."

"Our family will never be satisfied. We'll never have Pat back," she said. "Something really awful happened. It's your job to find out what happened to him. That's really important."

Last month the military concluded in a pair of reports that nine high-ranking Army officers, including four generals, made critical errors in reporting Tillman's death but that there was no criminal wrongdoing in his shooting.

Tillman's death received worldwide attention because he had walked away from a huge contract with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the Army after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

U.S. Economy: Home Sales and Consumer Confidence Drop (Update1)

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Sales of previously owned homes fell to the lowest level in almost four years and declining prices hurt consumer confidence this month, indicating the U.S. economy is struggling to pick up following a first-quarter slowdown.

Existing home sales slid 8.4 percent in March after rising 3.7 percent the previous month, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. A separate private report showed home-price declines in 20 major cities accelerated in February. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index fell to 104, from 108.2.

Slowing housing and deteriorating confidence pose a risk that the economy, which is projected to have grown last quarter at the weakest pace in more than a year, won't accelerate in coming months. The dollar dropped and benchmark Treasury yields reached their lowest level this month.

``The housing downturn is now weighing increasingly heavily on the U.S. economy,'' said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania. It's ``starting to have an impact on consumers' psyche and also their spending. The second quarter is going to be no better than the first.''

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note declined as low as 4.61 percent, from 4.64 percent yesterday. The dollar fell 0.3 percent against the euro to $1.3621 and the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 stock index lost 0.2 percent, to 1478.03 at noon in New York.

Biggest Drop

Purchases of existing homes dropped last month to an annual rate of 6.12 million, from 6.68 million in February, the biggest decline since January 1989, said David Lereah, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors. Sales fell 11.3 percent compared with a year earlier.

Federal Reserve policy makers including Chairman Ben S. Bernanke have repeatedly said this year that housing presents a risk to their outlook for ``moderate'' growth. Still, officials reiterated at last month's meeting that inflation was their bigger concern and said higher interest rates may still be needed. The Fed next meets May 9.

Resales were forecast to drop 4.3 percent last month to a 6.40 million annual rate, from February's originally reported 6.69 million, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 66 economists.

The decline in sales, while partly weather-related, may renew concern that the housing recession will linger. Subprime mortgage defaults are rising, and owners' reluctance to reduce prices may keep more unsold properties on the market.

`Sluggish' Sales

``The negative impact of subprime is considerable,'' Lereah said at a briefing. ``We expect sales to be sluggish in the second quarter.''

Consumer confidence declined to the lowest level in eight months in April, undercut by concerns about rising gasoline prices and the wave of mortgage defaults. The New York-based Conference Board's index dropped below last year's average of 105.9.

This year's 23 percent increase in gasoline prices is taking a bite out of Americans' wallets, and the lingering housing slump threatens to erode their wealth. Fed policy makers are counting on an expanding job market to keep consumers spending.

``High gasoline prices are starting to weigh on consumer sentiment,'' said Russell Price, senior financial economist at H&R Block Financial Advisors in Detroit. ``The added burden is bound to wear on spending habits if gas prices remain elevated through the summer.''

Unsold Homes

The supply of homes for sale decreased to 3.745 million last month. At the current sales rate, that represents a 7.3 months' supply, the highest since October. The median price of an existing home fell 0.3 percent last month from a year ago to $217,000.

Another industry report earlier today showed a measure of home values in 20 metropolitan areas, the S&P/Case-Shiller home- price index, declined 1 percent in February from a year earlier, the biggest price drop since the index started in 2001.

The Commerce Department is forecast to report April 27 that gross domestic product increased at a 1.8 percent annualized pace in the first quarter, matching the smallest gain in four years.

Monthly figures on home resales are compiled from contract closings and may reflect sales agreed upon weeks or months earlier. Unusually warm weather at the end of 2006 helped bring out more house hunters than usual, contributing to a jump in resales in the first two months of 2007. After a January gain, existing home sales rose in February by the most in three years.

Weather Effect

March resales were probably pushed lower because ``the weather was particularly disruptive'' the prior month, said Mike Englund, chief economist at Action Economics LLC in Boulder, Colorado.

New home sales, a more timely barometer because they are recorded when a contract is signed, may reflect improved weather last month. A Commerce Department report tomorrow may show new home sales rose to an annual rate of 890,000 in March from 848,000 in the prior month, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. Sales of existing homes account for about 85 percent of the U.S. housing market, and new home sales make up the rest.

Defaults by subprime borrowers, or consumers with poor or limited credit histories, will limit sales this year and put more homes back on the market, economists said.

Foreclosures surged 47 percent last month from a year ago, RealtyTrac Inc. reported last week. The failure or sale of 50 subprime mortgage companies has tightened the supply of money for lending.

Fed Forecast

Fed policy makers, who forecast the economy will expand at a moderate rate as the drag from home-construction diminishes, expect a limited impact. Subprime spillovers ``appear to have been minimal,'' Fed Governor Frederic Mishkin said last week.

``Most borrowers are not likely to face a serious credit constraint,'' Mishkin said in a speech at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. ``The market could be bottoming out.''

Housing starts in March rose for the second consecutive month, Commerce Department data showed. Building permits, a sign of future construction, also increased.

Homebuilders' announcements last week suggested the market remains uneven. NVR Inc., the builder of Ryan Homes, reported that first-quarter profit beat analysts' estimates as orders rose 8 percent. Pulte Homes Inc. said new orders fell 21 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, and it will report a loss.

D.R. Horton Inc., the second-largest U.S. homebuilder, reported an 85 percent plunge in its fiscal second-quarter profit as sales dropped by more than a quarter and the company had to walk away from options to buy land.

``I don't think the market is stabilizing,'' Chief Executive Officer Donald Tomnitz said on a conference call. ``Clearly our sales are not where we wanted them to be.'' The housing markets in California, Florida and Arizona ``are becoming tougher,'' he said.

John Kerry: WTC Building 7 Was Controlled Demolition

John Kerry questioned by the Austin 911 truth people.

Cancer forces devils off native Tasmania

AP
CANBERRA, Australia -- Tasmanian devils are being relocated to an island off Australia to avert their extinction by a contagious cancer.

Some scientists fear the move could endanger rare birds and other animals on the island, but other experts say it is a last resort and should pose no problem because the devils are scavengers, not predators.

"The path to extinction is looking pretty certain on Tasmania," said William Karesh of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, who organized a workshop in Australia to help develop a plan to save the devils.

The fox-like marsupials with powerful jaws and a bloodcurdling growl -- made famous by their Looney Tunes cartoon namesake -- are being wiped out on the island state of Tasmania by a contagious cancer that creates grotesque facial tumors.

The disease was first noticed in the mid-1990s in the state's northeast, where 90 percent of the devils have since perished. It is spreading south and west, and scientists estimate that within five years, there will be no disease-free population in Tasmania, the only place in the world where the devils exist outside zoos.

"I think there's a real risk of extinction within 20 years across the whole of Tasmania," said Hamish McCallum, a professor of wildlife research at the University of Tasmania.

McCallum is among the experts who plan to transfer 30 devils off Tasmania's east coast to Maria Island, home to several endangered species of birds.

The move, which state and federal governments are expected to approve within weeks, is controversial because scientists can only guess at the impact that the introduced carnivores will have on the uninhabited island's ecology.

Amero Agenda Admitted On CNBC

Well they are finally coming out in the open with this now. Im sooooo crazy for talking about the American Union and the Amero... Well here it is folks. Turns out the crazies are right again, go figure...

This video highlights a very serious concern which none of our media is looking into. The Amero is being looked at as the defacto currency of the North American Community (or Union).



Will you please wake up?! While your sleeping the house is burning down all around you! Your not just gonna lay there and let the house burn down are you?!

Well, Im not!

74 dead in attack on Chinese oil field in Ethiopia

AP
Rebels stormed a Chinese-run oil field at dawn in eastern Ethiopia on Tuesday, killing 74 workers and destroying the facility, the guerrilla group and government officials said.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front, an ethnic Somali group that has fought alongside insurgents in Somalia, also kidnapped seven Chinese workers, said senior Ethiopian government official Bereket Simon.

"This was a cold blooded killing," Bereket, a special adviser to the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, told The Associated Press. "This was organized."

The rebel group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to the AP, saying it had launched "military operations against units of the Ethiopian armed forces guarding an oil exploration site," in the east of the country.

It also warned all international oil companies not to operate in the region. It did not give any details of casualties, but said they had "wiped out" three Ethiopian military units.

China's official Xinhua News Agency identified the Chinese workers and Ethiopian guards as employees of the Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, a division of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., a huge state-run oil company better known as Sinopec.

Xu Shuang, the general manager of Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, based in Addis Ababa, said nine of its Chinese oil workers were killed, seven Chinese workers were kidnapped and 65 Ethiopians were killed in the fighting.
The Zhongyuan official, whose company began working in Ethiopia's volatile Somali Regional State last year, declined to give further details of the attack.

The attack took place early Tuesday morning in Abole, a small town 120 kilometers away from the state's capital Jijiga, close to the Somali border. Bereket said several Ethiopian troops were wounded in the gunbattle.
"The army is pursuing them. We will track them down dead or alive. We will make sure these people will be hunted and be brought to justice."

He said the group was also linked to the Eritrean government, which Ethiopia has repeatedly accused of waging terror attacks. Eritrea denies the claims.

Both countries fought a bloody border war that ended in 2000 and are accused of backing rival sides in the Somali conflict.

China has increased its presence in Africa in recent years in a hunt for oil and other natural resources to feed its rapidly growing economy.

Its forays into areas considered politically unstable, however, has exposed Chinese workers to attacks.

The Ogaden National Liberation Front issued a warning last year that any investment in the Ogaden area that also benefited the Ethiopian government "would not be tolerated."

The Ogaden National Liberation Front has been waging a low-level insurgency with the aim of creating an independent state for ethnic Somalis. Somalia lost control of the region in a war in 1977.

The region, which is the size of Britain and home to around 4 million people, is one of the poorest in Ethiopia with bad communications and roads.

The rebel group also has been fighting Ethiopian troops inside Somalia, where Ethiopia has been backing the government in crushing an Islamic movement and re-establishing control over the country.

In Nigeria, armed militants seeking a greater share of that country's oil wealth kidnapped nine Chinese oil workers in January, and two more in March. Two were still being held, though hostages are normally released unharmed in Nigeria, after a ransom is paid.

Also in March in Nigeria, five Chinese telecommunications workers were abducted for two weeks.

Bush Won't Accept Iraq War Timetable

AP
President Bush's stance on a Democratic agreement to set a timetable on the Iraq war has not changed: he will not accept it.

The president planned to repeat that message Tuesday morning before leaving the White House for New York.

"If they insist on sending the bill to him in its current form, that has an arbitrary surrender date and handcuffs the generals, the president will veto it," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

As part of the president's push, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to meet Tuesday with key senators, including members of the Senate Finance Committee, to discuss the funding bill.

A leading Republican, meanwhile, warned that Democratic leaders are making an all-too-familiar mistake with the impending showdown: not listening to seasoned commanders.

Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., said catastrophe always follows when civilians turn a deaf ear to their military officers.

In the 2003 run-up to the war, Young said in an interview, administration officials dismissed a top Army officer's estimate that securing Iraq would probably require several hundred thousand troops.

"I just don't think that it's a good idea for us here in the Congress to try to manage the conduct of the war," Young, a military appropriations expert, told his colleagues during a meeting Monday.

Gen. David Petraeus, the new Iraq commander, will try to persuade lawmakers in a private briefing this week to pursue a difference course.

However, House and Senate Democratic appropriators agreed Monday on a $124 billion bill that would fund the Iraq war but order troops to begin leaving by Oct. 1 with the goal of completing the pullout six months later.

Bush has promised to veto the measure, which would force lawmakers back to the drawing table. Democrats would need a two-thirds majority to override a presidential veto.

"I will strongly reject an artificial timetable (for) withdrawal and/or Washington politicians trying to tell those who wear the uniform how to do their job," Bush told reporters in the Oval Office as he met with Petraeus on Monday.

Democrats said they won't back down and pointed to Petraeus' past remarks that security in Iraq requires a political solution.

"Here is the bottom line," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a speech in which he quoted a retired Army general who opposes Bush's policy. "Americans must come to grips with the fact that our military alone cannot establish a democracy."

Reid likened Bush to President Lyndon Johnson, saying Johnson ordered troop escalations in Vietnam in an attempt "to save his political legacy" only to watch U.S. casualties climb steadily.

"The time for patience is long past," said Reid, who last week said the war in Iraq was "lost."

Radio ads expected to air Tuesday will attack Reid as treating troops like a "political football," GOP officials said.

According to a transcript, an Iraq veteran identified as Capt. Trip Bellard says, "Senator Reid's remarks undercut the morale of our soldiers and undermine our troops on the ground."

As outlined by Democratic officials, the emerging legislation would require the withdrawal of U.S. forces to begin by Oct. 1, even earlier if Bush cannot certify that the Iraqi government is making progress in disarming militias, reducing sectarian violence and forging political compromises.

Another provision in the measure would withhold about $850 million in foreign aid from the Iraqis if the government does not meet those standards.

The Pentagon would be required to adhere to certain standards for the training and equipping of units sent to Iraq, and for their rest at home between deployments. Bush could waive the guidelines if necessary. Democrats assume he would, but they want him on record as doing so.

Under the nonbinding timeline, all combat troops would be withdrawn by April 1, 2008.

After that date, U.S. forces would have a redefined and restricted mission of protecting U.S. personnel and facilities, engaging in counterterrorism activities against al-Qaida and other similar organizations, and training and equipping Iraqi forces.

Democrats jettisoned some of the domestic spending that Bush has held up to ridicule, including funds for spinach growers and peanut farmers. Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others decided to include money to help farmers hit by natural disasters as well as the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Texas Senate waves through cell phone wiretapping bill

the register
A bill extending wiretapping provisions to cell phones and covering a wider range of crimes - including kidnaping, human trafficking and money laundering - has been approved by the Texas Senate.

Only murder, drug-related crimes and child pornography investigations are covered by existing lawful interception laws in Texas, AP reports. Wiretaps authorised by the proposed laws could be used to authorise the tracking of suspect's mobile, land line and online activities in multiple locations; unlike current laws which are location specific.

The draft Homeland Security legislation also places tighter controls on the sale of prepaid phones. Retailers will be asked to keep records of customers in a move that means prepaid phones can no longer be bought over the counter without ID. Customers will have to supply their name and address, date of birth or Social Security number, while sales would be limited to five prepaid cell phones at a time.

Police in Texas were also given the legislative go-ahead to use CCTV footage at toll booths to prosecute crime.

Sen. John Carona, the architect of the bill, argued that the legislation would help police to fight organised crime and terrorism in the state. Critics said the measures extended crimes labeled as homeland security issues too far.

One Democrat senator voiced concerns over whether the bill infringed Texans' civil liberties, particular the friends and relatives of suspects, but the proposals ultimately received the unanimous approval of the state's upper house. The bill was passed down to the House of Representatives in Texas for further consideration.

Sweeping Forced Abortions Used in Regime's Birth Control Enforcement

radio free asia
CHINA—Recently, governments in Shandong and Guangxi Provinces are forcing pregnant women to abort their babies. Among these pregnant women, some of them are in the late stages of their pregnancy.

After being injected with drugs, a Christian who was seven months pregnant gave birth to a dead child on April 18. The nine month old fetus of another woman did not move for 48 hours after she was forcibly injected with drugs. Birth Control Departments and hospitals in Guangxi Province refuse to respond to the reporter's questions about the forced abortions.

Illegal Late Term Abortions

According to information from the China Aid Association released on April 17, in Texas in the United States, a large scale mandatory abortion program is being carried out in Baise City, Shanxi Province in China. In the People's Hospital in Youjiang District, Baise City alone, there were 41 pregnant women being forcibly injected with abortion drugs on that day. Wei Linrong, a Christian who was seven months pregnant was one of them. On the morning of April 17, ten officials from the Baise City Birth Control Commission broke into Wei's home. They kidnapped Wei to the Youjiang People's Hospital and forcibly injected her with an abortion drug. Our reporter called Wei's husband, Pastor James Liang on April 18 and learned that Wei gave birth to a dead boy. Liang told the reporter that Wei was given the injection at 11 a.m. on the April 17 and had a miscarriage at 6 a.m. on the April 18. Liang didn't know what kind of injection Wei was given. After giving her the injection, the fetus was left to die slowly in the uterus. Liang and Wei already have a child. Liang told the reporter the pregnancy was an accident. They didn't mean to violate the government's birth control policy.

He Caigan was another victim in the same hospital. She was nine-months pregnant with her first baby. The Baise City birth control department claimed that because she had not turned 18 and did not have a marriage certificate, they forced her to give up her baby. According to He, the hospital didn't tell her what drug was used. The hospital staff put two injections into the fetus's head. The fetus did not move for 48 hours after the injections. She said: "I was scared. I closed my eyes when they injected the drugs. After the injections, the baby kicked and moved continuously for 20 minutes and then stopped moving. It hadn't moved since then." She wanted the baby but said she couldn't do anything since it was the government's decision. She also saw another woman in the same hospital who was nine months into her pregnancy being injected with an abortion drug as well.


Hospital Denies Accusations
Our reported called the Youjiang People's Hospital on the April 18 to inquire about Wei and He's situation.

Reporter: The Hospital forced 41 pregnant women to abort. How come a nine month pregnancy was still forcibly aborted?

Staff: Who told you that? We don't abort those who are due soon.

Reporter: What about Wei Linrong? She was seven months into her pregnancy. She was injected with an abortion drug and gave birth to a dead baby boy this morning.

Staff: Why don't you come to the hospital and see for yourself. I am not obligated to answer your question.

Reporter: Did the Birth Control Commission send anyone to the hospital?

Staff: Yes, there was a group of them.

Reporter: Are they stationed there?

Staff: Yes. You have to come over here if you have any more questions.


Another Twelve Women Injected in One Hour
A close friend of Wei Linrong told the reporter: "This [forced abortion] was arranged by the Birth Control office. They often send people to force civilians to go to the hospital for abortions." In the one hour while the reporter was trying to gather information from various government officials, the Youjiang People's Hospital forcibly injected another dozen pregnant women with abortion drugs. In Laizhou City, Shandong province, a 39-year-old Christian, Xu Hui, who was accidentally pregnant with her second child was also forced by the government to abort her baby. She was six months pregnant.

Wolfowitz Hires Prominent Lawyer in Fight to Stay at World Bank

nytimes
WASHINGTON, April 23 — Paul D. Wolfowitz, signaling anew that he will fight for his job as World Bank president, has enlisted a prominent lawyer who defended President Bill Clinton against accusations of sexual misconduct to help convince the bank’s board that Mr. Wolfowitz has done nothing to justify being ousted.

Robert S. Bennett, the lawyer selected by Mr. Wolfowitz, said in an interview that before the bank’s board acted on charges of ethical lapses, he and Mr. Wolfowitz wanted more time to prepare a case showing that the bank president had acted properly on all matters that the board is investigating.

“I am very worried about the rush to judgment,” Mr. Bennett said. “We just had a wonderful example of that in the Duke lacrosse case. I have reviewed the essential documents, and I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Mr. Wolfowitz exercised good faith and that everything he did was in the best interests of the bank.”

It was unclear whether Mr. Wolfowitz intended to pay his legal fees himself or whether he would seek reimbursement from the bank. His latest sign of apparent determination to keep his job came as the furor over his record continued to spread.

Bank officials said that after several days of canvassing hundreds of employees, about 25 vice presidents of the bank were preparing to document that the overwhelming majority of the employees favor Mr. Wolfowitz’s departure.

The vice presidents met with Mr. Wolfowitz in the afternoon and some bank officials said that they would present their conclusions about bank sentiment to the board of directors, the 24 representatives of various countries and groups of countries that run the bank’s day-to-day affairs in tandem with the president.

The Financial Times reported on Monday that the independent agency within the bank that assesses the effectiveness of bank programs concluded last week that “swift changes in management” were needed to restore its credibility.

In addition, a group of more than 40 former top officials at the bank, many of whom departed after clashing with Mr. Wolfowitz, issued a public call for him to resign.

Mr. Wolfowitz has tangled with the board and staff members on various issues, especially his anticorruption agenda, since he arrived in 2005 after serving as deputy secretary of defense and a chief architect of the Iraq war. But anger erupted this month over Mr. Wolfowitz’s acknowledgment that he had played a much larger role than previously understood in the pay-and-promotion package given to Shaha Ali Riza, his companion, two years ago. Ms. Riza, who had worked at the bank for seven years, was detailed to the State Department at that time.

In the last week or so, concern over two other issues — family planning and the environment — was spreading new rancor in the bank, contributing to the criticism.

Documents have surfaced indicating that one of Mr. Wolfowitz’s two top deputies, Juan J. Daboub, a managing director and former finance official in El Salvador, had deleted language referring to “family planning” and “climate change” in separate bank documents.

Some bank officials charge that these changes were made at the behest of the Bush administration. But they say that Mr. Wolfowitz and Mr. Daboub have denied during internal meetings that they intended to carry out any kind of policy change.

“None of the editorial changes that were made at my direction changed, or intended to change, the bank group’s program in the area of family planning,” Mr. Daboub wrote in an e-mail message to the bank’s vice presidents last week.

On Monday, the bank’s chief scientist, Robert T. Watson, said in an interview that Mr. Daboub “literally tried to eliminate the words ‘climate change’ everywhere in a policy paper” but that the words were put back. He said he was “absolutely convinced” that Mr. Wolfowitz had no role in the efforts.

Nevertheless, bank officials said that these issues were roiling the bank and that many officials wanted the board to make them part of its widening investigation of Mr. Wolfowitz into matters beyond Ms. Riza.

Mr. Bennett, a longtime player in Washington’s legal and political scene, said in the interview that he had not completed his own review of the Wolfowitz documents but was convinced that, on the matter of Ms. Riza, he had acted in good faith and that whatever his shortcomings — such as becoming involved directly in the matter of her salary — were being seized upon by people with other agendas.

“I don’t see any hanging offenses here, certainly no violations of law,” Mr. Bennett said. “People with their own private or personal agendas are using this incident to accomplish broader goals inconsistent with the mission of the bank.”

Mr. Bennett would not give details, but Mr. Wolfowitz’s supporters maintain that European directors of the bank are using the episode to wrest control of the bank away from Mr. Wolfowitz and the Bush administration.

Mr. Bennett was the lawyer last year for Judith Miller, the former reporter for The New York Times who was jailed for refusing to testify to a grand jury in the investigation of the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame as a Central Intelligence Agency operative.

He represented Mr. Clinton in the case brought by Paula Jones and helped settle the lawsuit.

Democrats Back Date for Start of Iraq Pullout

nytimes
WASHINGTON, April 23 — Congressional Democrats agreed Monday to ignore President Bush’s veto threat and send him a $124 billion war spending bill that orders the administration to begin pulling troops out of Iraq by Oct. 1.

“On Iraq, the American people want a new direction, and we are providing it,” said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, a leader of the Congressional negotiators who came to terms on the legislation that has become a test of wills between Mr. Bush and the Democratic majority on Capitol Hill.

The House and Senate are to vote on the agreement and send it to the White House by the end of the week, and Democrats expressed confidence that they could secure narrow approval. But even as they ironed out differences between House and Senate approaches to Iraq policy and cut some spending that has drawn Republican scorn, Democrats acknowledged that the bill would be rejected by the president.

Mr. Bush made it clear again on Monday that he would use the second veto of his tenure to kill the legislation, which would set a goal of having most American combat forces out of Iraq within six months of Oct. 1.

“An artificial timetable of withdrawal would say to an enemy, ‘Just wait them out,’ ” he said. “It would say to the Iraqis, ‘Don’t do hard things necessary to achieve our objectives,’ and it would be discouraging for our troops.”

Despite their opposition, Congressional Republicans chose not to challenge the timeline in the legislation, saying they preferred to get the veto showdown over with so Congress could quickly focus on drafting an acceptable measure that would deliver the money sought for the Pentagon.

“We all know this bill is going nowhere fast,” said Representative Jerry Lewis of California, the senior Republican on the House Appropriations Committee.

Under the compromise approved Monday, the Iraqi government would be subjected to benchmarks that would gauge its progress in developing its own security forces, disarming sectarian militias, allowing pursuit of extremists, reconciling Sunni and Shiite factions, and deciding on distribution of oil revenues.

Under the legislation, if Mr. Bush determined that progress was being made, he would be directed to begin withdrawing troops by Oct. 1, with a goal of most forces being removed within 180 days, except for those protecting American facilities, those engaged in counterterrorism and those training and equipping Iraqi forces.

The legislative proposal would also block spending on American forces unless they were judged “fully mission capable” by military standards, and would prohibit military tours in Iraq of more than one year. The president could waive those requirements.

While the legislation incorporates the troop readiness standards of the House, it sets the full withdrawal of forces as a goal more in line with the Senate bill, considering that the House had earlier required that most forces be out by fall 2008. But the Oct. 1 deadline for beginning a withdrawal is quicker than any envisioned by the House and could help sell the plan to ardent war critics.

In a tough attack on Mr. Bush in which he accused the president of being in denial on conditions in Iraq, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said the legislation would provide “a way forward,” combining the withdrawal timetable with benchmarks to measure the progress of the Iraqi government.

“No more will Congress turn a blind eye to the Bush administration’s incompetence and dishonesty,” Mr. Reid said in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center here.

Republicans accused Democrats of overstepping their constitutional authority and micromanaging the war. And they noted that the legislation would require a pullout whether or not the Iraqis were making progress in stabilizing their country.

“This latest proposal mandates that, no matter how well the Iraqi government meets its benchmarks and no matter how well our troops succeed in Iraq, the surrender must begin no later than Oct. 1,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.

But Democrats urged the president to sign the legislation, saying the pullout was a reasonable goal and that the president’s strategy was not working. “This war has dragged on too long, and I think we should remind ourselves that we’ve been in this war longer than we were in World War II, and we thought that was an eternity,” said Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii.

He and others noted that the legislation would pump needed money into military health care in the wake of disclosures of poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In all, the measure includes $1.8 billion for veterans’ health care that was not in the White House request.

The bill provides $95.5 billion for operations, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan — $4 billion more than sought by the president. The legislation also includes $6.9 billion for recovery along the Gulf Coast, compared to $3.4 billion sought by the White House. It allocates $650 million on children’s health programs, $400 million on home heating aid and $500 million on wildfire control.

The measure would also provide $3.5 billion to the nation’s farmers, but the Democratic negotiators dropped other farm aid in the wake of accusations from Mr. Bush and Republicans that the bill had been larded with special interest provisions to attract enough votes for passage. Among the spending eliminated was money for spinach growers, Christmas tree farmers, shrimp fisherman and sugar cane growers.

Representative Jack Kingston, Republican of Georgia, said the extra spending was still excessive, causing Representative David R. Obey, Democrat of Wisconsin and chairman of the Appropriations Committee, to bristle. “I’m willing to stand by every single item in this bill,” he said.

Aware that the votes do not exist to override the veto, lawmakers said they expect that Congress and Mr. Bush would eventually agree on a spending measure without the specific timetable, but with benchmarks for the Iraqi government.

Mr. Reid, the majority leader, said the measure was just one aspect of the Democratic push to force Mr. Bush to reconsider his Iraq policy. He acknowledged that the approach might not satisfy war opponents who supported Democrats in the past election in order to end the conflict, but said it was nearly impossible to do more without Republican support, given the tight margins in Congress.

“I understand the restlessness that some feel,” said Mr. Reid, who last week drew criticism for suggesting the war was already lost. “Many who voted for change in November anticipated dramatic and immediate results in January. But like it or not, George W. Bush is still the commander in chief, and this is his war.”

Six Arrested In Anti-Terror Raids In London

article
Scotland Yard arrested six people in anti-terror raids in and around London on Tuesday. Scotland Yard representatives announced that it was a ‘complex inquiry’ involving so-called incitement offences and fund-raising activities, DPA news agency quoted.

‘The arrests form part of a long-term pro-active and complex investigation into alleged incitement and radicalization for the purposes of terrorism, as well as alleged provision of financial support for international terrorism’, a Scotland Yard spokesman said.

Abu Izadeen, is one of the men arrester in London. He is a Muslim radical who got into public attention by heckling British Home Secretary John Reid during a speech at a Muslim centre in east London in 2006.

Sources quoted by DPA news agency, said the arrests were supposed to be connected with an incident at a London mosque in 2004.

Ethiopian tanks pound Mogadishu

Ethiopian tanks are pounding parts of the Somali capital, stepping up a week-long campaign against insurgents and fighters of the Hawiye clan.
bbc
Heavy shelling is also taking place near the presidential palace - guarded by Ethiopian and African Union troops.

Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi said the government forces were winning the war against insurgents.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has called for an end to clashes in which more than 250 people have died in the past week.

Ethiopian forces and insurgents are exchanging heavy fire. Mortar and other artillery shells are also landing,? Khalid Haji, a resident at Fagah in the north of the capital told AFP news agency.

Rotting bodies have been left on the streets for days according to witnesses.

'Genocide'

Prime Minister Ghedi dismissed claims that Ethiopian backed government forces have committed genocide in Mogadishu during their campaign against insurgents.

Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aideed, who launched an alliance opposed to Ethiopians in Somalia, in neighbouring Eritrea, has called for an international probe into the killings in the capital.

?Aideed should feel ashamed for attacking policies of the government he serves, his conduct will soon be discussed by the cabinet,? Mr Ghedi told a news conference in Mogadishu.

Ethiopian forces have been in Mogadishu since December last year after helping Somalia's transitional government oust the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).

Mr Ghedi also blamed the insurgents for the take over of the southern port town of Kismayo on Monday following two days of fighting between rival clans.

Fighters from the Marehan clan have taken control of the town in what correspondents say is a big blow to the government.

The UN refugee agency says more than 300,000 people have fled the capital and a living in terrible conditions outside the city.

UNHCR spokesperson Catherine Weibel told the BBC the agency is now providing relief supplies to about 20,000 displaced persons in Afgooye about 30km from Mogadishu.

Somalia has not had a functional government since 1991. A transitional government was formed in 2004, but has so far failed to take full control of the country.

Ethiopian troops have started to withdraw, to be replaced by an African Union peacekeeping force, but only 1,200 of the 8,000 troops the AU says it needs have been deployed.