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To: Mannie who wrote (20253)	12/21/2002 12:04:06 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 104216

HEADLINE: Iraq says war a certainty as US pours troops into Gulf Agence France Presse December 21, 2002 Saturday 4:24 AM Eastern Time SECTION: International News BYLINE: MAHER CHMAYTELLI DATELINE: BAGHDAD, Dec 21 BODY: The United States is forging ahead with massive war plans and Baghdad charged Saturday that Washington will declare war whatever it does, although Russia insisted Iraq has not broken the UN arms resolution. News that more than 110,000 US troops will be deployed in the Gulf region by the end of January did nothing to calm fears in Iraq that conflict is coming. The US contention that Iraq is in material breach of UN disarmament Resolution 1441 is all part of a premeditated plan to wage war, an official Baghdad newspaper said. "The game that the United States is playing with Iraq, with the UN Security Council, with the UNMOVIC and IAEA (weapons inspectors) is a preconceived game with a clear target: to invade Iraq militarily," said Al-Iraq. US Secretary of State Colin "Powell's statement on doubts and suspicions concerning the Iraqi declaration" that it has no weapons of mass destruction "and all the other statements is part of this game," the newspaper said. "The United States wants to drive us and the world into a dead end in the hope of getting the Security Council to issue a new resolution authorising it to wage war, or of provoking a split inside the council that offers the opportunity to go ahead with its aggressive plan unilaterally." The influential Babel newspaper, run by President Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday, said "Iraq has a choice between aggression or aggression." The United States announced Friday it was virtually doubling its military strength in the Gulf as President George W. Bush said Iraq's weapons declaration was "not encouraging" for those seeking to avoid conflict. British Prime Minister Tony Blair also urged troops to be ready for war as world powers braced for weeks and possibly months of wrangling at the United Nations over the best way to disarm Iraq. The close allies have declared Iraq in "material breach" of its United Nations obligations because of omissions in its December 7 weapons declaration. Another 50,000 US troops and additional military equipment will be sent to the Gulf by early January, a US defence official said. There are now about 65,000 US military personnel in the region, including 15,000 in Kuwait on the border with Iraq. The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff inspected troops stationed in Qatar on Friday as part of the buildup he said was aimed at forcing Iraq to disarm. It aimed to bolster "the diplomatic angle", General Richard Myers said, and make sure the Iraqi regime "understands the options that it has, that it is fairly up to them how we go," he said. The deployment will include tens of thousands of reservists and give Bush the option to start combat operations against Iraq in late January or early February, said the official. Bush, who on Friday postponed a planned trip to Africa from January 10 to 17, said Iraq has failed "those who long for peace" with its arms report. "We're serious about keeping the peace, we're serious about working with our friends in the United Nations" to disarm Iraq, said Bush. Thursday "was a disappointing day for those who long for peace," said the US president, who has vowed to lead a coalition to end Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes. Britain also appeared to be moving closer to a conflict that Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted Thursday is not yet inevitable. The Times newspaper said Britain would seek UN approval for war on Iraq in a second resolution at the end of January if arms inspections showed Saddam was in breach of UN Security Council Resolution 1441. Russia, however, does not consider that Iraq has breached the resolution, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said in Washington. The inspectors' report "is very comprehensive, but it does not contain alarming definitions that could be interpreted as a violation of the UN Security Council resolution by that country," Ivanov said. China's Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, whose country is one of the five permanent Security Council members with veto power -- along with Britain, France, Russia and the United States -- urged the international community not to make any hasty decisions. "At the present time there is no need to hastily pass verdict on the Iraqi report," he said. UN arms experts, who have vowed to keep out of the war of words between Baghdad and Washington, probed at least five sites in Iraq on Saturday. The experts, who resumed work on November 27, today number 115 and have inspected some 90 sites. The New York Times reported Saturday that Washington will shortly give UN inspectors new intelligence, gathered chiefly by spy satellites, that may lead them to Iraqi chemical and biological stockpiles. Chief weapons inspector Han Blix has diplomatically but forcefully said he cannot improve his inspections without specific intelligence from Washington.

To: Mannie who wrote (20253)	12/21/2002 12:15:25 PM
From: lurqer	Respond to of 104216

Soltice Salutations to one and all. lurqer

To: Mannie who wrote (20253)	12/21/2002 2:08:06 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 104216

YACHT RACING; The Billionaires Boys Club Set to Round the Last Mark By MIKE WISE The New York Times AUCKLAND, New Zealand Dec. 18, 2002 It is Larry Ellison and his $90 million against Craig McCaw and Paul Allen and their $75 million. San Francisco techies against Seattle dot-commers, microchip for microchip. One ritzy yacht club against another, bow for bow, for the right to represent their embattled boating nation in the Louis Vuitton Challenger Cup finals. Maybe the Oracle-OneWorld hyperbole is a little strong, especially for a yacht race featuring an American yacht not carrying Dennis Conner and competing in a four-of-seven-race round referred to as the semifinal repechage. And never mind that the two syndicates had 10 New Zealanders on their competition boats in the last round, or that neither may have much of a chance of knocking off Alinghi and facing Team New Zealand for the America's Cup in February. Yet after all the skullduggery and controversies over designs and arbitration panel decisions, there are only four boats left to compete for the Auld Mug -- and two of them happen to be financed by billionaires from the United States. So technology money can still buy something. Ellison's Oracle-BMW Racing meets McCaw and Allen's OneWorld beginning Friday on the unpredictable waters of the Hauraki Gulf. Oracle defeated OneWorld, 4-0, in the quarterfinals, looking polished and sleek. But it opened the door for doubt in the initial semifinal round, changing helmsmen, starting badly and being swept by the Swiss boat Alinghi and its incomparable skipper, Russell Coutts. OneWorld, meanwhile, is coming off a superlative performance in knocking out the defending challenger series champion, Prada of Italy. Behind the Australian skipper Peter Gilmour and the helmsman James Spithill, a 23-year-old wunderkind also from Australia, OneWorld cruised to a 3-2 semifinal victory. OneWorld, the Seattle Yacht Club entrant, was ahead by 3-1 in the competition when it lost a race in virtually no wind on Tuesday against Prada -- the last day races could be held in the format, hence the victory after three triumphs. But OneWorld actually beat Prada four times. It was penalized one victory in each round after an arbitration panel decided last week that its designers had committed improprieties. Though Spithill and Gilmour beat Oracle once during a round-robin race early in the competition, they may need to bank on Oracle's crew problems to pull off the upset and advance to face Alinghi on Jan. 11 in the challenger cup finals. The Oracle skipper Chris Dickson tossed Ellison off his own boat and he took the helm from Peter Holmberg after the second straight loss to Alinghi. Holmberg, who had won 21 straight starts, was one of the most popular crewmen. Dickson's impatience has left a few scars, and it is anyone's guess whether Oracle will sail as efficiently as it did earlier in the competition. But if Oracle gets through to meet Alinghi again, it may have a trick to pull from its dock here at the Viaduct Basin. Like their counterparts with Team New Zealand and Alinghi, Ellison's designers have developed a false hull to clip onto the bottom of the boat's stern, producing a longer water line. Because longer boats theoretically are faster boats, something that not even the most gifted sailor can beat, the radical design is being hailed as the most innovative creation of the past 20 years, since Australia II broke out winged keels in 1983 to defeat Conner. "We found a lot about our boat the last round," Dickson said. "We'll make some changes and come back. We've still got a few races to go before we're out of this thing, I can guarantee you that." nytimes.com Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

To: Mannie who wrote (20253)	12/22/2002 4:19:07 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 104216

InfoSpace names new chief executive to replace founder By Sharon Pian Chan Seattle Times business reporter Sunday, December 22, 2002 - 12:00 a.m. Pacific The founder of Bellevue-based InfoSpace, a company with a market value that once topped Boeing, is out of a job. His position as CEO and chairman was terminated by his own board of directors. Naveen Jain will remain a director of the company, which he launched in 1996. The company announced last night that telecom veteran Jim Voelker will immediately become its new chief executive officer, chairman and president. In August, the company hired an executive-search firm to find a new chief executive. InfoSpace, an Internet and wireless-services provider, went public at the end of 1998 and became a local poster child for the Internet boom that swept the country. In 2000, InfoSpace's market capitalization was worth more than Boeing's. Jain himself became a poster boy for that generation — a charismatic, ambitious leader known for his colorful comments. Last night, Jain said he disagreed with the board's choice. "I was on the search committee and I felt that there were other candidates that were more qualified than the candidate the board chose," Jain said. He plans to start a new company but added that, "I believe the company is going in the right direction. InfoSpace is my baby; I nurtured it for the last seven years and I will continue to do everything in my power to make it successful." InfoSpace was launched to provide directory, search and content services to Web sites, and later tied itself to the growth of the wireless Internet. The stock traded on the NASDAQ exchange, and it soared to a high of $130.53 per share in March 2000. But its business ventures faltered, and so did investors' enthusiasm for dot-com stocks. On Friday, the stock sold for under $10 per share. But it would be under a dollar, had the company not exchanged 10 shares for one in a reverse stock split earlier this year. Though the stock has not done well, Jain has been able to make big money through periodic sales of his shares. Since the company went public, Jain has sold 7.3 million shares of InfoSpace — for a total of $398.2 million, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents. Voelker has been an InfoSpace director since July. Previously, he served as chief executive and president of XO Communications, the now-bankrupt telecommunications company previously known as Nextlink Communications. He currently is a director at Seattle wireless-data company Monet Mobile Networks, Providence Equity Partners and Pivotal Partners. In a statement, Voelker said, "InfoSpace has established a growing list of industry-leading customers and partners, a talented and dedicated employee base and a strong balance sheet, which makes this a compelling opportunity." This is not the first time the top spot has changed hands at InfoSpace. Jain voluntarily stepped aside in April 2000 when the company hired Arun Sarin, a more-experienced wireless-industry executive, as CEO. But Sarin left in January 2001, and Jain resumed his old position. Ed Belsheim, the current president and chief operating officer, will remain chief operating officer. seattletimes.nwsource.com