My gut is wrenched out it is crunched up and broken
A life that is led is no more than a token
Wholl strike the flint upon the stone and tell me why
Militias Resist Iraqi Forces in Fight for Basra
BAGHDAD – American-trained Iraqi security forces failed for a third straight day to oust Shiite militias from the southern city of Basra on Thursday, even as President Bush hailed the operation as a sign of the growing strength of Iraq’s federal government.
The fighting in Basra against the Mahdi Army, the armed wing of the political movement led by the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, set off clashes in cities throughout Iraq. Major demonstrations were staged in a number of Shiite areas of Baghdad, including Sadr City, the huge neighborhood that is Mr. Sadr’s base of power.
USA
Fed Leaders Ponder an Expanded Mission
Wall Street Bailout Could Forever Alter Role of Central Bank
In the past two weeks, the Federal Reserve, long the guardian of the nation’s banks, has redefined its role to also become protector and overseer of Wall Street.
With its March 14 decision to make a special loan to Bear Stearns and a decision two days later to become an emergency lender to all of the major investment firms, the central bank abandoned 75 years of precedent under which it offered direct backing only to traditional banks
Homeland Security delays border crossing rules
Citizens returning to America won’t need passport until June 2009
American citizens won’t need a passport to cross the land borders until the middle of next year, delaying that requirement by more than a year.
New identification document requirements, the Department of Homeland Security and Department of State announced Thursday, will take effect June 1, 2009. By that date, U.S. travelers will need to present documents that show both identification and citizenship to cross back from Mexico and Canada. For most travelers, that will mean a passport.
Asia
North Korea ‘test-fires missiles
North Korea has test-fired short-range missiles off its western coast, the South Korean Yonhap news agency says.
A South Korean presidential spokesman told the agency the move seemed to be part of “ordinary military training”.
If confirmed, the launch comes a day after North Korea expelled most of the South Korean managers from a joint industrial park on the border.
That came after Seoul said it would link progress at the park with progress on the North’s denuclearisation effort.
Yonhap reported that North Korea launched several missiles at 1030 local time (0130 GMT), quoting an unnamed government source.
Tibetan monks disrupt Chinese show of stability
China suffered a propaganda embarrassment yesterday when a state-organised media trip to Lhasa was interrupted by protesting monks who accused the government of lying to the outside world.
More than 30 monks at Jokhang temple – the most sacred in Tibetan Buddhism – burst in on a briefing during the first foreign journalists’ tour since riots erupted in the Tibetan capital on March 14.
Interrupting a speech about inter-ethnic harmony by the head of the temple’s administrative office, the lamas surrounded the journalists and said: “They are tricking you. Don’t believe them. They are lying to you.”
“It was an astonishing act of defiance,” said Calum MacLeod of USA Today. “They were desperate to get their story out – that they have no freedom, that 120 of them haven’t been allowed to leave their dormitories since March 14.”
Africa
Mugabe warned of Kenya-style revolt
· Opposition threatens wide action if poll victory stolen
· President says he will not allow rivals to take power
Zimbabwe’s opposition says it will bring the government to its knees with Kenya-style mass protests if President Robert Mugabe carries out extensive plans to rig tomorrow’s presidential and parliamentary elections. But Mugabe has vowed to use the army to crush any demonstrations and warned Zimbabweans not to waste their votes on opposition candidates who would never be allowed to take power.
Mugabe, 84, would struggle to extend his 28-year rule in a clean election, amid widespread hunger, mass unemployment, 100,000% inflation and a currency that devalues so fast that the few people with jobs are paid in billions of Zimbabwe dollars. Election monitoring groups say the ruling Zanu-PF party has printed millions of extra ballots, intimidated rural voters by threatening their food supply, permitted police into polling booths to “help” voters, and rigged the electoral roll.
Revolution! Another coup in the world’s most unstable country
According to legend, the Comoros islands have always had an explosive history. Claire Soares reports on the latest eruption
Africa’s One-Day War had been coming for weeks. And just in case the renegade colonel digging in his heels on the remote Indian Ocean island was in any doubt, enemy helicopters skimmed the craggy peaks and lush forests on the eve of the assault, dropping leaflets warning of imminent military action. When the invasion was finally launched yesterday, resistance was paltry and within hours the rebel leader was on the run, reportedly disguised as a woman and trying to escape to sea in a small canoe.
It seems no plot is too crazy for the Comoros islands. This is, after all, a country that used to be a pirate haven; a country that has suffered some 20 coups or attempted coups in the past three decades; not to mention an archipelago that became the spiritual home of the mercenary widely believed to have provided the inspiration for Frederick Forsyth’s classic tale of guns for hire in Africa, The Dogs of War.
Europe
Dutch MP Geert Wilders posts explosive anti-Islam film on web
A far-right Dutch MP released a provocative film about the Koran on a British website last night, a move that is likely to provoke violent repercussions from angry Muslims around the world.
The 15-minute “documentary” juxtaposing images of Islam’s holy book with the 9/11 terror attacks and other bombings was posted on the internet by Geert Wilders, leader of the small right-wing Freedom Party, after weeks of heated debate in the Netherlands about the project.
Mr Wilders, 44, who has built his political career campaigning against the alleged “Islamisation” of the West, argued that the film was a legitimate exercise in freedom of expression; however, many mainstream politicians and Muslims said that it was gratuitously insulting.
Ultimatum for Italy in cheese dioxin scare
Brussels yesterday increased pressure on Italy to provide details about the scale of a potential crisis over links between cheese and cancer, warning that buffalo mozzarella could be banned across the EU.
The European commission demanded more information from the Italian authorities on carcinogenic dioxins found in buffalo mozzarella made in the Naples area, and set the Italian government a deadline for compliance.
A commission health spokeswoman said buffalo mozzarella could be removed from supermarket shelves across the EU and that Italy faced a European export ban unless Brussels’ conditions were met.
Japan and South Korea have already banned imports of the fine cheese made from buffalo herds in the Campania region of southern Italy.
Middle East
Arab leaders boycott Damascus summit over Lebanon crisis
Syria is trumpeting this weekend’s Arab summit in Damascus as a triumph over US pressure – despite an unprecedented snub by some Arab leaders protesting against its negative role in the Lebanese crisis.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt are being represented by a diplomat and junior minister instead of King Abdullah and President Hosni Mubarak, while Lebanon is boycotting the event. The kings of Jordan and Morocco are also staying way.
Walid Muallem, Syria’s foreign minister, hit back in talks with his Arab counterparts in Damascus yesterday, blaming the Saudis for the continuing Lebanese crisis. He warned, too, that Israel, backed by the US, was “incapable” of making peace.
Demands for inquiry into Israeli shootings
A criminal investigation was demanded yesterday into whether the killing of four Palestinian militants in a Bethlehem street earlier this month was an “extra-judicial execution” in violation of a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court.
The Israeli human rights organisation Btselem yesterday said its own investigation of the deaths suggested that the Israeli forces who shot the four men – three of whom were in a car containing an MP5 sub-machine gun and two M16s and one of whom had left it to walk across the street – operated “as though on an assassination mission”.
Latin America
Colombia ‘dirty bomb’ plot seen as unlikely
U.S. officials express concern at Colombia’s seizure of uranium, but say degraded or depleted material isn’t fit for a ‘dirty bomb’ device.
WASHINGTON — U.S. officials expressed concern Thursday over charges that the Colombian rebel group the FARC was seeking ingredients for a radioactive “dirty bomb,” but said the material discovered this week poses little danger.
Even as they downplayed the threat from about 66 pounds of degraded or depleted uranium Colombian officials said they found and had linked to FARC guerrillas, the U.S. officials said they were not dismissing Bogota’s claim that the rebel group intended to procure deadly weapons.
“I think you have to take at face value what the Colombians are saying,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing intelligence assessments. “There’s no reason at this point to think they’re making this up.”
