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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (43892)	4/26/2004 8:38:06 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

Blast Destroys Iraq Building, Injures GI 33 minutes ago By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - An explosion leveled part of a building as U.S. troops were raiding it in northern Baghdad on Monday, wrecking four U.S. Humvees and wounding at least one soldier and several Iraqis. Meanwhile, fighting broke out in a northern district of Fallujah, with the sound of mortar fire and heavy machine guns, a day after U.S. officials announced a fragile cease-fire in the besieged city was being extended. Thick black smoke rose from Fallujah's Jolan district, a poor neighborhood thought to have a heavy concentration of Sunni insurgent fighters. There were no immediate reports on how the fighting began or casualties. The cause of the explosion in Baghdad was not immediately known. Witnesses said it came after U.S troops broke in to search the building, which residents said housed a weapons repair shop. The blast leveled the front part of the one-story building, in the Waziriya district, and set four Humvees outside on fire. Later Iraqis dragged one of the Humvees away, looted it, and set it ablaze again. The condition of the American and the Iraqis was not immediately known, nor was the total number of casualties. At least one wounded U.S. soldier was seen in footage from Associated Press Television News being taken away on a stretcher from the burning Humvees. Witnesses reported as many as 10 Americans being loaded into ambulances. Several Iraqis were seen in APTN video being carried out of the rubble. A woman was weeping as she was carried out of the ruins over a man's shoulder. Another victim, a young man, appeared unconscious as Iraqis brought him out by his legs and arms. The total number of injured or killed was not known. Hours later, dozens of teenagers were looting the burned Humvees. A fire engine was still extinguishing a fire rising from the rubble. Some neighbors reported a perfume shop was housed in the building, but others said it once held a scrap metal workshop where weapons were repaired and used ammunition recycled. A military spokesman said the blast destroyed a number of Humvees but had no details.

To: lurqer who wrote (43892)	4/26/2004 9:00:24 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 89467

A Controversial Choice for the Position of Archivist of the United States: Part of the Bush Administration's Secrecy Strategy? commondreams.org

To: lurqer who wrote (43892)	4/26/2004 10:47:30 AM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

"The seeds for inflation have been sown" While others might claim that they have sprouted and sunk a tap root. From Les INFLATION SIGNS POINT TO BIG FED RUNAROUND Federal Reserve officials keep talking about how inflation isn't a threat. But if you're buying a cup of coffee or shopping for new clothes, you might see things differently. Prices for most goods and services aren't going through the roof by any means. Still, new data suggests that the outlook for inflation is changing, with more prices going up across more sectors. It sounds like it is time for the Fed to face up to the issue and start saying how it would fight inflation. "The seeds for inflation have been sown," said Gary Thayer, chief economist at the St. Louis investment firm A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. "The Fed can't be perpetually patient in dealing with this." For most of the last year, the Fed's attention was on the risks associated with prices falling too quickly, also known as deflation. When that sets in, it has the potential to derail the pace of the economic recovery. To prevent that from happening, the Fed has tried to give the economy a push by keeping short-term interest rates at lows not seen in 45 years. Given the way prices have been rising lately, that plan may now be working too well. The Consumer Price Index, the government's most closely watched inflation gauge, rose by 0.5 percent last month, well above what most economists had expected. More dramatic is the CPI's annualized gain of 5.1 percent over the last three months, compared with an increase of 1.9 percent for all of last year. Excluding energy and food costs, "core" consumer prices rose by 0.4 in March, the biggest increase since November 2001. What was surprising was what fueled that gain: largely was a surge in prices of clothing and hotel lodging, both of which have been sluggish for some time. nypost.com lurqer