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Politics : Stop the War! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tsigprofit who wrote (11186)	4/9/2003 4:29:44 PM
From: Mike M	Respond to of 21614

It might keep you from opening mouth and inserting foot tsig...

To: tsigprofit who wrote (11186)	4/9/2003 4:41:37 PM
From: Mike M	Respond to of 21614

story.news.yahoo.com <<Arab Nations Drop Request for U.N. Meeting on Iraq 8 minutes ago Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Irwin Arieff UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Reversing course as TV images showed a mob in Baghdad tearing down a statue of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), Arab nations withdrew on Wednesday a request for a U.N. General Assembly meeting on Iraq (news - web sites). "With the rapid developments, the Arab group has decided to put it on hold, pending more clarity in the situation" said one Arab envoy, speaking on condition of anonymity. Several Arab envoys insisted the initiative had merely been suspended and would be revived at a later date. But Kuwaiti Ambassador Mohammad Abulhasan, whose government opposed a special session from the start, predicted the request had been dropped definitively. "It is not going to come back," Abulhasan told Reuters. Arab envoys at the United Nations (news - web sites) had sent a letter requesting the meeting just a day earlier to General Assembly President Jan Kavan of the Czech Republic. Once the assembly session was convened, the group planned to seek adoption of a resolution calling for a cease-fire and respect for Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to Ambassador Abdullah Alsaidi of Yemen, the Arab group's current president. Unlike the Security Council, whose resolutions can be binding under international law, the General Assembly can make only political statements expressing the sense of the international community. But an assembly resolution critical of the U.S.-led war would have been highly embarrassing to both Washington and London, and U.S. officials had lobbied hard to discourage a special assembly session, terming it unnecessary and divisive. The Arab group of countries at the United Nations had been pushing since before the start of the war three weeks ago for a General Assembly meeting where it would press for the adoption of a resolution condemning the U.S.-led invasion. But progress had been slow in the face of the vigorous U.S. lobbying campaign. The United States and Britain launched the war on Iraq last month to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and rid Iraq of any weapons of mass destruction, which Iraq denies possessing. Many Arab envoys had expressed concern that Washington and London acted without Security Council authorization and might be motivated by Iraq's huge oil wealth.

To: tsigprofit who wrote (11186)	4/9/2003 4:48:51 PM
From: Mike M	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21614

story.news.yahoo.com << Middle East - AP Iraqi Embassy in Brazil Burns Documents 6 minutes ago BRASILIA, Brazil - Employees at the Iraqi Embassy here began burning documents Wednesday afternoon as TV stations began broadcasting images of a statue of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) being toppled in Baghdad, police said. Police said they could see men outside the embassy burning boxes and large quantities of paper. Police said the fire did not appear to present a danger of spreading. Media photographers who arrived a short time saw three piles of smoldering paper inside the embassy's walls next to the embassy building. An embassy official who said he was the secretary of Iraqi Ambassador Jarallah Alobaidy denied documents were being destroyed. "It's all lies," said the man, who would only identify himself as Abdu. "We are only burning garbage and recently cut grass." A short time later, a man who answered the phone at the embassy said only, "I'm not working now" before hanging up.

To: tsigprofit who wrote (11186)	4/9/2003 4:50:31 PM
From: Mike M	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21614

story.news.yahoo.com <<G7 Ministers to Explore Iraq Reconstruction Issues By Glenn Somerville WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Struggling already with a lackluster global recovery, finance chiefs from the world's richest nations begin the prickly process this week of weighing how to rebuild a war-shattered Iraqi economy. U.S. Treasury officials concede the Group of Seven finance ministers don't know the costs, exactly how the effort will be guided, or even what Iraq (news - web sites)'s needs are, but with the war winding down the time for discussing economic revival has arrived. G7 ministers -- from the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan -- meet on Friday and Saturday in Washington on the sidelines sessions of the International Monetary Fund (news - web sites) and World Bank (news - web sites), institutions that are thirsting for a role for themselves in Iraq. At the Treasury, where much of the U.S. effort is centered, officials insist the Bush administration very much wants their help along with commitments from G7 countries for financial support to help Iraq back to economic health. "There's a lot of expertise that's coming not only to the G7 meetings but to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings and this is an opportunity to assess what the needs are in Iraq in the future so that this talent can be brought to bear on these needs," a senior Treasury official told reporters at a briefing ahead of the G7 sessions. TREASURY ON JOB The U.S. Treasury already has a small team of experts in Kuwait, laying the groundwork for future economic reconstruction, and that number will quickly grow to about 20 once conditions permit. Treasury officials said the team's duties include everything from helping oversee introduction of a new currency for Iraq to trying to assess the countries debts and potential financial resources. Iraq casts a long shadow across the whirlwind of talks that will occupy global financial leaders from Friday through Sunday. In its semiannual World Economic Outlook issued on Wednesday in the run-up to the sessions, the IMF forecast relatively weak global growth of 3.2 percent this year, scaled back from 3.7 percent expansion that it foresaw last fall. Weak U.S. expansion of 2.2 percent was forecast for 2003, an even softer 1.1 percent for European economies and a scant 0.8 percent for Japan. Not even mounting evidence that U.S. forces were decisively gaining the upper hand in Iraq was enough to persuade the IMF that "sputtering global growth" was poised to leap ahead. "It is not just the war -- a number of other risks weigh on the outlook," IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff said at a press conference. He cited the unwinding of the 1990s equity bubble, greater risks of a housing market bust, global current account imbalances, structural weaknesses in Japan and Europe, ongoing security concerns and such risks as the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Asia. WARY OF BAD TURN Any bad turn in the Iraqi war that led to a more prolonged conflict could be near-disastrous, the IMF implied. It could "choke off altogether" a recovery in industrial economies and in the United States could "create potential for a double-dip recession, even with an appropriate further easing of monetary policy," the IMF warned. U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow was preparing to once more present President Bush (news - web sites)'s $726-billion tax-cut plan as the U.S. answer to reinvigorating growth -- as he did when the G7 ministers last met in Paris in February. "It's important that each country participate in the effort to raise economic growth, each country has got to do what's best for itself in raising growth," U.S. Treasury officials said. He sounded other familiar themes like Japan's need to deal with its mountain of bad bank loans and the necessity for Europe to have more flexible labor rules so that companies can adjust their workforces and employees could more easily switch employment. The reality for the G7 ministers is that none of the major economies are performing robustly, despite persistent efforts at pump-priming such as cutting U.S. interest rates to 41-year lows. That means economists and analysts will be closely attuned to any hint of additional, coordinated measures to spur growth though there are scant hints of any forthcoming. A U.S. Treasury official suggested one possible avenue, to be discussed at the G7 sessions, was to agree to more vigorously tackle trade barriers such as those impeding cross-border financial services businesses, something that would help not only large countries but smaller ones that would benefit from the foreign expertise.

To: tsigprofit who wrote (11186)	4/9/2003 4:52:56 PM
From: Mike M	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21614

story.news.yahoo.com << Middle East - AP 4th Infantry Readies to Roll Into Iraq By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer CAMP PENNSYLVANIA, Kuwait - Around the clock, the 4th Infantry Division's tanks, howitzers and other vehicles are being hauled into this camp near the Iraq (news - web sites) border to make sure they are ready to roll within a week, a commander said Wednesday. With a battalion of 18 Paladin howitzers, two armored battalions with 44 Abrams tanks each and two infantry battalions, the 1st Brigade will be the first part of the division to move north across the border. "We'll have 80 percent of the brigade here today, and we expect to be going into Iraq in a week," said Col. Don Campbell, commander of the 1st Brigade. This camp, about 25 miles from Iraq, was nearly empty a week ago. Now armored fighting vehicles, Humvees and trucks pack wind-swept motor pool areas around the inside perimeter. Bradley fighting vehicles test-fired their guns at a nearby range Wednesday, and tanks and howitzers are scheduled to calibrate guns there within the next few days. Though resistance in Baghdad is crumbling, Campbell said he still expects his soldiers to see combat. "We'll make a contribution," he said. If the division does see action, it will be the first time since Vietnam. Its 14,000 pieces of equipment sat for more than a month off Turkey's coast before Washington gave up on waiting for the Turkish government to allow American troops to cross the country and open a northern front against Iraq. The ships were diverted to Kuwait to be off-loaded. Now the vehicles are being sent to Camp Pennsylvania and others nearby to be repacked for combat, loaded with ammunition and tested. The 1st Brigade's most important equipment is now fully off-loaded. All 5,000 of the soldiers in or attached to it are now in Kuwait. The starter on Staff Sgt. Ollie Estell's Paladin howitzer, which arrived Tuesday night, was acting quirky during a test. He decided to replace it here, where parts are readily available. "They came in and we got straight to work," said Estell, 30, of Birmingham, Ala., with the 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery Regiment. "It felt good to finally get our pieces after them being two months on the ship." In addition to making sure equipment is prepped, Campbell plans to review rules of engagement to help prepare troops for combat. "Soldiers in the battlefield need to make split-second decisions, so it's important they understand," he said.