Pope Given Last Rites

Breaking on CNN:

Pope John Paul II has been given the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church as his health deteriorates.

Pope John Paul II was given the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church late Thursday night as his health deteriorated, a Vatican source has told CNN.

The pope is suffering from a high fever caused by a urinary tract infection, the Vatican confirmed Thursday — one day after revealing he had been put on a nasal feeding tube for nutrition

Officials Lower Indonesian Quake Toll

Indonesia’s government acknowledged Thursday it has been slow in delivering food and water to victims of the nation’s latest massive earthquake, as rescuers pulled survivors and bodies out of rubble on two islands. The government lowered its estimated death toll to between 400 and 500 people from an earlier estimate of 1,000; the United Nations, meanwhile, raised its toll to 624.

Meanwhile, victims are slow to receive aid:

Indonesia Government officials in Indonesia are admitting they have been slow to deliver food and water to victims of the nation’s latest earthquake.
Survivors of Monday’s eight-point-seven-magnitude earthquake are living in makeshift tents and say they are going hungry. Also the main town on the island hit hardest by the quake is still without power and running water.

Today, a crowd of hungry and angry islanders mobbed the country’s social affairs minister. Local T-V shows a woman yelling at him that he’s “been working so slowly.” She said villagers haven’t had any food since Monday’s quake.

Second Quake Rocks Area

A magnitude 5.8 temblor hit off Indonesia’s coast Tuesday, the latest in a series of aftershocks following the powerful earthquake that hit the region the day before, Hong Kong seismologists said.

The temblor was recorded in Hong Kong at 1:22 p.m. and was centered 217 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh.

Earlier in the day, the observatory recorded a 5.7-magnitude quake centered about 380 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh.

AP

Quake Toll Will Be "Less Than Feared"/Conflicting Reports

Initial assessments by U.N. and Red Cross teams from two islands off the western coast of Indonesia indicate Monday’s quake will not be nearly as devastating as the December 26 quake.

Indonesia’s National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Management and Refugees put the official death toll at 301. No breakdown on what parts of the country the deaths came from was given.

Earlier, some government officials had suggested the toll could climb as high as several thousand.

[…]

“The latest word that we have is that there are 200 (deaths) — approximately 500 injured — and structural damage seems to be limited.”

There was lighter damage on nearby Simeulue Island. Officials put the death toll at about 10, with another 25 to 30 hospitalized. Lipner said overall structural damage does not appear to be serious.

No explanation was given for the discrepancy with government figures.

Read more…

——

AP is reporting that the toll could still rise as high as 2,000.

Earthquakes and Tsunamis

The following is a repost of an article I posted at Sortapundit on December 26th, before beginning my guest-posting at the Command Post. It regards the mechanics behind the generation of tsunamis by tectonic events.

My professional opinion is that there will be no major tsunamis generated by this earthquake or any of its aftershocks. It has already been reported that there has been slight tsunami and high water activity, but nothing serious as of yet.

The following is an unedited copy of the original, with only Dec. 26th specific information removed.

It occurs to me that the general public learn much of what they know about tsunamis from Hollywood movies like The Day After Tomorrow - movies that tend to sacrifice fact for spectacular effects. I’m no expert, but I might as well use my soapbox to straighten out a few facts.

To begin, the tsunamis were a symptom of an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale. To give you some sort of idea of the power released during a quake of this magnitude, it’s equal to about 32 billion tons of TNT. As residents of LA will be aware, the Richter scale is a base-10 logarithmic scale, which means that an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the scale will release many times more energy than an 8.0 quake.

The quake occurred just off the south coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, where the Eurasian and Indo-Australian tectonic plates meet. Those of you who have a firm grasp of plate tectonics can skip over the next paragraph, but for the rest of you…

As you probably know, the surface of the earth is made up numerous sections known as tectonic plates. These plates effectively float on the dense, hot asthenosphere, a layer of the mantle in which the rock is hot enough to become pliable - to be able to deform without fracturing.

Now, these tectonic plates move incredibly slowly - usually less than a few centimetres every year, and it’s where they meet each other that we get problems. The Eurasian plate and the Indo-Australian plate meet each other at Sumatra. The Indo-Australian plate is being forced underneath the denser Eurasian plate at a rate of about 6cm each year at the Java Trench (here is a simplified animation of the process). The movements of the two plates are what cause earthquakes. The stresses caused by the two plates scraping together force pressure to build in the rock until it discharges all at once, literally snapping. The faultline slips perhaps 10-15m, causing the displacement of huge volumes of water. 15 metres doesn’t sound like much, but you have to realise that this is 15 metres movement over maybe 1,000km of plate margin.

The displaced sea water travels at speeds of up to 500mph, effectively invisible to the naked eye. The crest of the waves will only be a few feet high in open water, the only visible sign of the enormous volume of water speeding along under the surface.

The momentum of the waves means that they can travel vast distances with little loss of energy. The 1960 earthquake off the coast of Chile created a tsunami that had enough energy to travel 10,000 miles in 22 hours until it hit land in Japan, killing about 150 people. Update - the Sumatran tsunami has now crossed almost 3,000 miles of ocean, killing at least 9 people in Somalia.

As the waves approach land, and the sea floor rises, the water slows dramatically as the waves compress like an accordion, forcing them to pile up vertically. They draw water from the coastline, creating powerful undercurrents that can drag swimmers out to sea. The tsunamis don’t break like normal waves, but simply hit the coast like walls of water, destroying buildings, tossing boats into the air like toys, and smothering those who have been unable to escape under unimaginable volumes of water.

It’s folly to think of a tsunami as just a large wave. It’s much more accurate to imagine that it is an extension of the sea, conquering the land and pushing back the coastline, in some cases by hundreds of metres. The 1993 tsunami at Okushiri, Japan reached 32m in height - the same as an 8-storey building. You can’t hide from that, and you sure as hell can’t try to swim to the surface. All you can do is run.

Some of us have a head start. I wrote my dissertation on the gap in preparedness and aid for earthquakes between the developed and developing world and, tragically, most of the nations affected by today’s disaster have laughable warning systems. It’s been several years since I’ve looked into the subject but, last time I looked, India’s method of saving lives following tsunamis was to build refuges on stilts. Their warning system consisted of rusting air raid sirens from WW2. I hope they’ve improved in the last 5 years, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

The Pacific, in comparison, is relatively well-prepared for tsunamis. Underwater sensors can alert us to approaching tsunamis, giving people living on the Pacific Rim adequate time to find high ground or flee inland. Unfortunately, such systems are not widely used in the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal due to the cost of installing and monitoring the sensors, and the relative rarity of tsunamis.

Sumatra Earthquake Updates (As of 9:06 PM EST)

A tsunami warning has been issued

A USGS spokeswoman said the quake struck 125 miles west northwest off Sibolga, Sumatra or 880 miles northwest of the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, close to where a 9.0 quake triggered a devastating tsunami in Asia in December 2004.

“Certainly evacuations should be occuring. I hope they are,” spokesman Don Blakeman said, saying of the earthquake that “it could also cause some local tsunami activity.”

Blakeman added that “even if we do see tsunami activity it won’t be as widespread” as December’s quake.

MSNBC reports that “No reports of injury or damage had been received from the region” so far.

—-

The quake lasted for about two minutes - far longer than most of the daily aftershocks that have rocked Aceh since Dec. 26.

“People are still traumatized, still scared, they are running for higher ground,” said Feri, a 24-year-old recovery volunteer who goes by one name.

“It was felt in most of the cities in Sumatra,” said Budi Waluyo, an agency official. Indonesia’s state news agency, Antara, said there were no immediate reports of damage.

The quake was felt as far away as Malaysia, about 300 miles from the epicenter, sending panicked residents fleeing their apartments and hotels in Kuala Lumpur and Penang after authorities activated fire alarms.

…

The quake occurred at 11:09 p.m. local time (11:09 a.m. EST) at a depth of 18.6 miles, and was centered 125 west-northwest of Sibolga, Sumatra, and 150 miles southwest of Medan, Sumatra, the USGS said.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency said the quake registered 8.5.

—-

And now India is denying that there have been tsunami warnings issued.

—-

2 PM EST Update:

• Indian news source New Kerala reports that the Indian coastal state of Tamil Nadu has ordered the evacuation of people living within 500 metres of the coastline.

• A US expert notes the quake “is likely to have directed any tsunami waves toward the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, a U.S. expert said.” This is to the south of the epicenter, whereas the Dec. 26 quake directed much of it’s energy north.

——
Update 2:26 EST

Dozens Reported Dead in Indonesia

A massive earthquake killed dozens of people and destroyed hundreds of homes in the main town on Indonesia’s Nias island Monday evening, a local government official told Metro TV.

“I can guarantee that dozens have died,” Agus Mendrofa, the deputy mayor of Gunungsitoli town, said.

———
A live report from an MSNBC blogger

The quake has been “upgraded” to an 8.7.

New reports coming in say close to 300 have been confirmed dead.

Toll expected to reach 2,000.

“It is predicted - and it’s still a rough estimate - that the number the victim of dead may be between 1,000 and 2,000, Vice President Jusuf Kalla told the el-Shinta radio station. He said the estimate was based on an assessment of damage to buildings, not bodies counted.

Jeff Jarvis has more links

Northern Sumatra Earthquake

The US Geological Survey is now reporting an 8.2 magnitude earthquake within the past hour, thirty kilometers deep nearly nine hundred miles northwest of Jakarta, Indonesia.

Food-for-Oil Scandal About to Escalate

Arthur Chrenkoff covers positive news out of Iraq, while many members of the “mainstream” “media” ignore it. Roger L. Simon has been on the Enronesque U.N. Oil-for-FoodPalaces scandal since Day 1, and lately he’s been working with Wall St. Journal reporter Claudia Rosett, one of the few MSM reporters to actually dig into this multi-billion dollar scandal. He writes:

“This blog has new information from sources close to the investigation of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Scandal by Paul Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee. After some delay, the committee is releasing its preliminary results at noon Tuesday. This report may reveal, among other things, startling information tending to indicate Secretary General Kofi Annan had more knowledge of, or was closer to, his son Kojo’s activities with Cotecna - the company whose role in the scandal seems so pervasive - than previously thought…..”

There will be follow-ups from both Simon and Rosett on the rest of Mouselli’s testimony, but they do offer some previews. Looks like a bombshell is about to hit. It will be interesting to see if the liberal media covers this, and how.

Special Analysis: STRATCOM's 4-Star Blogger

This note was relayed and posted to Sgt. Stryker’s Daily Briefing, in the wake of Gen. Cartwright’s meeting with his senior Non-Comissioned Officers (NCOs):

“The metric is what the person has to contribute, not the person’s rank, age, or level of experience. If they have the answer, I want the answer. When I post a question on my blog, I expect the person with the answer to post back. I do not expect the person with the answer to run it through you, your OIC, the branch chief, the exec, the Division Chief and then get the garbled answer back before he or she posts it for me. The Napoleonic Code and Netcentric Collaboration cannot exist in the same space and time. It’s YOUR job to make sure I get my answers and then if they get it wrong or they could have got it righter, then you guide them toward a better way… but do not get in their way.”

JAMES E. CARTWRIGHT
General, USMC
Commander, USSTRATCOM

If you have to ask where Gen. Cartwright’s blog is, you don’t have access. Now, what’s the larger significance, and will this really work?

Read the Rest….

Angola Virus Spreading

Austrailia’s Special Broadcasting Service reports that the Angolan outbreak of the Marburg virus is spreading:

Angolan health officials have appealed for outside help to prevent the spread of a lethal virus as the death toll from the Ebola-like Marburg disease rose to 120.

The country’s deputy health minister, Jose Van-Dumen, said the situation was critical after returning from a two-day field visit to the province of Uige in northern Angola.

A health ministry official said a pregnant woman died yesterday of the Marburg virus in a hospital in Cabinda in the north.

It was the first fatality outside the capital, Luanda and the province of Uige.

From California Yankee.

North Korea Confirms Bird Flu Outbreak

CNN reports North Korea acknowledges that it has an outbreak of avian flu:

“Hundreds of thousands” of chickens were burned before burial to prevent spread of the disease, which can spread to humans, the country’s official media outlet Korean Central News Agency said on Sunday.

However, KCNA said North Korea had no reports of human infection.

From California Yankee.

Iran Amassing Military Equipment

The Associated Press reports that Iran is stockpiling arms and military equipment including armor-piercing snipers’ rifles and night-vision goggles. Iran’s buying spree has raised fears the arms could end up with militants in Iraq:

Much of the military hardware has been hard to hide — sales of tanks and anti-ship missiles by Belarus and China, or helicopters and artillery pieces from Russia have been well documented by U.S. authorities and international nongovernment agencies.

Other weapons are smuggled and may be revealed only by chance — such as the consignment of 12 nuclear-capable cruise missiles delivered by Ukrainian arms dealers to Iran four years ago but divulged by Ukrainian opposition officials only recently.

The smaller weapons and related material Iran is amassing may not be as eye catching. But they are of U.S. concern because of their origin — through U.N.-funded programs or technically advanced western countries — and because they could harm U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan or ultimately Iran (search), which President Bush has not ruled out as a military target.

From California Yankee.

Hatewatch Briefing 2005-03-25

Welcome! This briefing will be looking hard at the dark places the mainstream media sometimes seem determined to look away from, to better understand our declared enemies on their own terms and without illusions. Our goal is to bring you some of the top jihadi rants, idiotarian seething, and old-school Jew-hatred from around the world, leaving you more informed, more aware, and pretty disgusted every month. This Winds of Change.NET HateWatch briefing is brought to you by Lewy14, and by zorkmidden of Discarded Lies. Past briefings and posts on related topics can be found here. Entil’zha veni!

HIGHLIGHTED TOPICS

• Religious Hate: PA teaches mothers to celebrate their children’s deaths; Saudi education and terrorism; Saudi prince criticizes extremism in education; New Saudi education minister to undo reforms?; Academic sentenced to 200 lashes in Saudi Arabia; First woman Imam gets death threats; Government bias against religious minorities in Pakistan; The plight of Iraqi Christians.

• Idiotarian Seethings: CIA spymaster blames Israel for U.S. Foreign Policy; Neo-Nazi site a Google News source; MIT cartoon “supports the troops”; C-SPAN: Holocaust denier adds “balance”; Lebanon withdraws from Eurovision because Israel is participating; Turkey renames animals it finds ‘divisive’.

• Race and Culture: ‘Mein Kampf’ a bestseller in Turkey; Neo-Nazi’s say Jihadis “our kind of people”; Anti-Semitism in Canada is at its worst point in more than twenty years; Hate speech “defined down” in Canada; Anti-Semitic violence in Switzerland; French anti-Semitism at a 10 year high; Turkish columnist slanders American Ambassador; Neo-Nazi politics in Germany.

• A Hopeful Note: Lebanese woman denounces indoctrination of hate; Holocaust museum opens in Nazareth; Iran’s Festival of Fire: ‘Bush, Bush, Kush, Kush?’

Kyrgyz Protesters Take Control of Presidential Compound

Thousands of opposition protesters in Kyrgyzstan have stormed the main government building in the capital Bishkek and taken control of national television.

They are demanding the resignation of President Askar Akayev, who has blamed foreign powers for the unrest that is causing a threat to his 14-year rule.

Demonstrators were initially repelled by massed security forces outside the building but were later spotted waving flags from the upper-storey windows.

They marched through the White House - the seat of government - before announcing that they had also taken control of the country’s main television station.

There were reports of gunshots after fighting had earlier broken out between supporters of the president and the opposition.

Around 10,000 people had marched through the city in support of the Tulip Revolution and there were fears that the situation could worsen.

• More here, where it says 1,000 protesters have stormed the presidential compound.

• A Kyrgyz opposition leader on Thursday pledged to hold new elections

Kyrgyzstan is located in Central Asia, west of China. Map and stats about the country can be found here.

More links and updates at Gateway Pundit.

More background on the situation in this article.

Deadly Blast Rips Through Lebanese City

An explosion rocked a Christian area north of Beirut early Wednesday. At least three people were killed, Reuters reported.

Police had no immediate word on what caused the blast near Jounieh , the main Christian port city 10 miles north of Beirut’s center.

LBC TV, the leading station in the country, said three people were killed and two wounded in the blast, which occurred shortly after midnight.

The explosion came amid major political turmoil in Lebanon in the wake of the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and the subsequent withdrawal of Syrian troops to east Lebanon and Syria. Demonstrations and counter-demonstrations, although largely peaceful, have kept tension high between the pro-Syrian and the anti-Syrian camps

Read more…

Powerful Earthquake in Japan

A powerful magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck off the coast of southern Japan on Sunday, killing an elderly woman and injuring at least 381 people, damaging buildings and leaving residents shaken by aftershocks. Authorities issued a tsunami warning, but it was later canceled.

The temblor, which hit west of Kyushu Island at 10:53 a.m. (0153 GMT), was centered at an “extremely shallow” depth of 5.5 miles below the ocean floor, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said. Nearly 80 aftershocks followed — at least one a magnitude-4.2 quake.

Read more…

New Energy Currents: 2005-03-18

Kyoto is one month old, and we’re no closer to figuring out a plan to solve the world’s ginormous energy problems - not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, at this point. With all the feverish activity in the realms of energy science, technology, and policy, we’ve got at least a couple of thousand flowers getting ready to bloom. Spring isn’t quite here yet in the freezing NYC, either, but I’m trying to be patient, you know? As all the brightly colored new technologies and approaches begin to compete in earnest for the public’s attention, acceptance, and tax dollars, New Energy Currents will do its best to continue giving you a broad overview of the, uh… bouquet. By John Atkinson of chiasm.

• Bio
• Electricity
• Fossils
• Geothermal
• Hydrogen
• Nuclear
• Solar
• Water
• Wind
• Policy

North Korea to Expel U.N. Aid Workers

The Washington Times reports that North Korea has announced that it will expel U.N. aid workers, claiming that their help is no longer needed:

The announcement follows reports of a North Korean crackdown on defections, suspected dissenters, and foreign cell phones and videotapes, which are increasingly penetrating North Korea’s closed society. Yesterday, a Japanese TV network aired video of the public executions of eleven North Koreans for opposing the regime and aiding defectors. North Korea may perceive foreign aid workers as a threat to the wall of secrecy and isolation the regime has built between its citizens and the outside world.

Sources familiar with the issue said the number of international staffers present in the country, including nongovernmental aid groups, has worried Pyongyang for some time. “There’s no need for [OCHA] to stay … once ongoing projects are finished,” a North Korean diplomatic source said on the condition of anonymity. “We need assistance, but not humanitarian. It should be development assistance such as machinery for agriculture,” the source said. Mr. Egeland said he was still hopeful he could persuade Pyongyang not to close the OCHA office. “In our view the humanitarian crisis is continuing. Still [there’s] a great shortage of food and there’s a great shortage of medicines,” he said.

The World Food Program reports that 36% of North Koreans are undernourished, that 57% do not get enough to keep them healthy, and currently targets 6.5 million North Koreans (out of a total population of 22.4 million) for food aid. North Korea recently reduced its food rations to 250 grams per person per day, the equivalent of two medium-sized potatoes.

North Korea Publicly Executes Eleven in Hoeryong

Daily NK, a news site run by North Korean defectors, has posted a story and images captured from a video that, according to a Japanese TV network, shows political prisoners being brought before a firing squad. The video was taken in Hoeryong, which is emerging as a focal point of resistance. The pictures are very blurry and the usual cautions about authenticity apply, but Daily NK quotes defectors as confirming the location and suggesting that the tape is authentic. The video allegedly shows the “trials,” judgement, and of course, execution. The entire town was ordered to go to the scene and watch—including the children.

Usually in North Korea, when public executions take place, the criminals are tied to a pillar and executors stand 10-15 m in front of him for a total of nine rounds of gun shot, three shots each to head, chest, and abdomen. When the criminal is shot, the rope breaks and the dead body falls forward. All of such scenes are contained in this video. Currently, North Korea is known to be the only country where public executions take place, with the public informed (and attends to), including children. Until now, North Korea has bluntly denied such public executions of shooting takes places in the country, which the accusations made by the international human rights organizations who reported and condemned of it.

Unknown Illness Kills 59 in Angola

Cuba’s Prensa Latina reports that 59 people have been died in one Angolan hospital from what may be Ebola hemorrhagic fever or hemorrhagic dengue:

Jornal do Angola daily reported that another three people died, bringing the number of killed by the so-called “gastric hemorrhage” to 59.

Faced with the sudden deaths of two children and a nurse from the Emergency Room, Angola´s Health Ministry stepped up emergency measures in the region amid fears that it may be Ebola or hemorrhagic dengue fever.

From California Yankee.

Senior U.S. Diplomat Hints at 'Further Measures' Against North Korea

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Christopher Hill, in a hearing for his confirmation to the post of Assistant Secretary of State for Asian and Pacific Affairs, has given the most explicit signal yet that the Bush Administration will not tolerate the continued lack of progress in the six-party talks. Reuters reports:

Hill did not suggest that the United States intended to use force, hinting instead at a policy of economic isolation of the regime. Hill also stressed the Administration’s preference for a diplomatic solution. He went on to suggest that “any country doing any business” with North Korea should consider whether its activities encourage North Korea’s “bad behavior.” Hill singled out Russia by name, but his comments also appeared to have been aimed at China and South Korea, which is developing a massive low-wage industrial park in North Korea:

“I would like to look very carefully to see what more Russia could do . . . I think with respect to Russia, with respect to any country doing any business with North Korea, . . . we need to look very carefully at what they are doing . . . with a view to determining, are they somehow encouraging bad behavior from the North Koreans or are they encouraging North Korea to come back to the table.”

Hill criticized China for failing to exert sufficient pressure on North Korea to force it to return to the talks, saying, “It’s our view that China as the host of this process should make sure they get everybody to the table.” Ambassador-designate to South Korea Joseph DeTrani, currently the U.S. special envoy to the six-country talks, pointedly mentioned that China supplies 60 percent of North Korea’s energy and 60 percent of its food.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to recommend that the full Senate confirm both Hill and De Trani.

Japan, formerly a major trading partner of North Korea, imposed new shipping insurance requirements on March 1st. The new regulations, not formally styled as sanctions, have effectively blocked most trade with North Korea by imposing a financial requirement that few North Korean ships can afford.

800,000 Demonstrate Against Syria - Updated

Hundreds of thousands of opposition backers chanted “Freedom, Sovereignty, Independence” and unfurled a huge Lebanese flag in central Beirut on Monday, throwing the biggest protest yet in the opposition’s duel of street rallies with supporters of Syria and the Lebanese government.

Crowds of men, women and children flooded Martyrs Square, spilling over into nearby streets, while more from across the country packed the roads into Beirut – responding to the opposition call to mark a month since the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri. His slaying sparked a series of protests against Syria, the dominant power in Lebanon.

“We are coming to liberate our country. We are coming to demand the truth,” said Fatma Trad, a veiled Sunni Muslim woman who traveled from the remote region of Dinniyeh in northern Lebanon to take part.

The protest easily exceeded the pro-government rally of some 500,000, held last week by Hizbullah. That show of strength forced the opposition to act to regain its momentum.

Read more…

• Anti-Syrian rally in Beirut turns into biggest protest Lebanon has ever seen

• ‘We are coming to free our country and demand the truth’

“Now son, hold your flag high and straight, don’t let the wind drop it off,” said Najib Bazzi, 85, while adjusting his young grandson’s flag posture. The old man, proudly carrying the little boy on his still robust shoulders, said: “If loyalty has to be captured in human actions, then this should be it.”

“I have gone through the first independence in 1943,” Bazzi said. “But let me tell you something; if this works out, then this would be the only true independence that I will carry with me to the grave.”

From Claudia Rosett:

Lebanese Staging Rallies Demanding ‘the Truth’ Behind Hariri Murder:

With a crucial democratic protest planned for today, members of Lebanon’s opposition held a vigil last evening, setting out candles across a big swathe of downtown Martyrs’ Square to spell out in letters of flame, in Arabic and English, what they are seeking: “The Truth.”

These demonstrators want the truth about who was behind the bomb blast that on February 14 killed Rafik Hariri, Lebanon’s former prime minister. Today’s protest will mark the four-week anniversary of his murder, which ignited Lebanon’s democratic uprising. The turnout will be closely watched worldwide, seen as the democratic opposition’s rejoinder to two rallies staged this past week by the terrorist group Hezbollah, which has now hitched its wagon - or, some fear, its rocket launchers - to the Cedar Revolution.

Pakistan To Send Centrifuge Parts To IAEA For Testing

Agence France-Presse reports that Pakistan is going to send used centrifuge parts to the UN atomic agency to help determine the origin of highly enriched uranium contamination found in Iran:

“The centrifuge parts will be sent to the International Atomic Agency laboratory (IAEA) in Seibersdorf” near Vienna, which will analyze and compare them with centrifuge components Khan sold to Iran, a Western diplomat close to the IAEA told AFP.

The IAEA is investigating contamination by microscopic particles of highly enriched uranium (HEU) found in Iran at a workshop in Tehran, at a pilot enrichment plant at Natanz and at other sites where there were centrifuges.

Israel has planned the destruction of Iranian Nuclear Facilities

London Times Online is reporting:

ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear programme.

The inner cabinet of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, gave “initial authorisation” for an attack at a private meeting last month on his ranch in the Negev desert.

and another bit sure to raise some discussion:

The plans have been discussed with American officials who are said to have indicated provisionally that they would not stand in Israel’s way if all international efforts to halt Iranian nuclear projects failed.

Was wondering when this was gonna happen…that is IF the TimesOnline article is to be believed.

Pakistan Admits Scientist Gave Centrifuges to Iran

Reuters reports that Pakistan admits Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, provided Iran with centrifuges that can be used to purify uranium for nuclear weapons:

Pakistan has admitted in the past that Khan smuggled nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya, but has not given specifics as to what he supplied.

“He has given centrifuges to Iran, but the government was in no way involved in this,” Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Reuters.

From California Yankee.

Pro-Syrian Lebanese Premier Reappointed

Lebanon’s president, emboldened by a massive pro-Syria demonstration, reinstated Omar Karami as prime minister on Thursday, 10 days after the Damascus-backed leader stepped down under popular and international pressure.

Karami, who had continued to lead a caretaker government, immediately invited the opposition to join him in a national unity government. He said he will begin consultations early next week with lawmakers to form a Cabinet.

“The difficulties we all know cannot be confronted without a government of national unity and salvation,” he said. “We will extend our hand and wait for the other side.”

But the opposition, who orchestrated the protests that led to Karami’s Feb. 28 resignation, rejected the reappointment even before it became official.

They have complained that the national unity proposal was a trap to bring opposition members into the Cabinet without giving them a say in policymaking.

Karami suggested he might not proceed if he fails in bringing to bring all factions together.

Read more…

Mount St Helens Erupting ?

No details yet. Photo from Clancore Forums


Live Images as they happen are available.

UPDATE : From MSNBC :

The ash explosion happened around 5:25 p.m. [Tuesday], about an hour after a 2.0 magnitude quake rumbled on the east side of the mountain, said Bill Steele, coordinator of the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network at the University of Washington.

Steele said he did not believe the explosion had increased the risk of a significant eruption and noted that recent flights over the volcano’s crater did not reveal high levels of gases.

“We don’t expect another explosion” said Peggy Johnson, a university seismologist.

Steele said the ash burst may have been triggered by the partial collapse of a lava dome in the crater, which has been growing steadily over the last several months.

“Until we get a better view in the crater we won’t know,” Steele said.

Bush to Name Bolton as U.N. Ambassador

The Washington Post reports that President Bush will name John Bolton as the new American Ambassador to the United Nations, signaling that the administration maybe be ready to make an international issue of human rights in North Korea, which allowed as many as two million of its people to starve to death while the regime squandered its coffers on arms and luxuries for its elite. The move also suggests that the administration may be ready to bring North Korea’s nuclear weapons program before the U.N. Security Council.

North Korea recently withdrew from six-nation talks over its weapons programs. Recently, it has suggested that it may return to the talks in exchange for further concessions and aid from the United States.

North Korea once famously called Bolton “human scum” over his comments about the state of human rights in North Korea. Bolton promises to be the most ideologically straightforward and hawkish ambassador since Jeanne Kirkpatrick.

Bono may head World Bank

The World Bank’s next president could be a rock star.

Treasury Secretary John Snow won’t rule out U2 front-man Bono as a candidate to replace the outgoing head of the development bank. James Wolfensohn steps down June 1.

Snow said Bono is “in a way a rock star of the development world, too.” Snow is part of a Bush administration team working to find a new president for the bank.

Bono has long been an activist for Third World debt relief and AIDS treatment.

Snow said former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina is also a candidate. Snow said Fiorina is “a friend” and someone he respects.

The bank has traditionally had an American president. Snow expects that tradition to continue.

Assad Announces Lebanon Troop Withdrawal

President Bashar Assad , responding to weeks of intense pressure, announced Saturday that Syria would move its troops to the Lebanese-Syrian border in a two-step pullback that he said should satisfy international demands for a complete pullout.

It was not clear whether Assad meant he would keep some troops within Lebanon’s border, but a Syrian Cabinet minister said later that a withdrawal would be complete and will be “in the nearest possible time.”

“We will withdraw our forces stationed in Lebanon fully to the Bekaa region (in the east) and later to the Lebanese-Syrian border areas,” he said in a carefully worded address, drawing cheers from legislators in the chamber and the thousands of Syrian supporters listening outside the building.

“By carrying out this measure, Syria will have fulfilled requirements of the Taif agreement and implemented U.N. Resolution 1559,” Assad said.

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Former Ukraine Politician Involved in Murder Case Found Dead

Ukraine’s former interior minister was found dead yesterday, hours before he was due to be questioned over the murder of an investigative journalist.

The body of Yuri Kravchenko was found by his wife at his dacha outside Kiev. Local media reported he was holding a pistol and had a bullet wound to his temple.

President Viktor Yushchenko suggested that he had killed himself after he had been implicated in the killing of Georgy Gongadze, 31, whose decapitated corpse was found in a forest in 2000.

Interfax news agency reported that Mr Kravchenko left behind a suicide note, in which he blamed the former president, Leonid Kuchma, and his entourage for his death. He said in the note that he was taking his life to save his family from”attacks”.

Some observers, however, suggested that the former minister might have been murdered to prevent him exposing accomplices in the current administration. Unconfirmed reports said he had two gunshot wounds to his head.

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Syria To Announce Troop Shift in Lebanon

The Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, is expected to announce a redeployment of troops in neighbouring Lebanon.

Officials said he will move soldiers back to Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria, short of a full withdrawal.

On Friday, US President George W Bush and French President Jacques Chirac called on Syria to pull out completely.

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The US said it has held talks with France and the United Nations to discuss ways of helping the Lebanese to establish political control once the Syrians have gone.

President Bush said the withdrawal must happen before Lebanese elections in May.

“When we say withdraw we mean complete withdrawal - no half-hearted measures,” he said.

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N. Korea Wants an Apology

AP:

North Korea demanded that the United States apologize for designating the country as an “outpost of tyranny” and it threatened to resume long-range missile tests. However, the North also held out the possibility of returning to nuclear disarmament talks if Washington agrees to coexist with the communist country.

North Korea declared Feb. 10 that it had nuclear weapons and was boycotting talks aimed at ending its nuclear ambitions.

Lebanon President to Form New Government

Lebanon’s president was taking on the task of forming a new government Tuesday, while opposition leaders shook off the jubilation of using people power to force out a pro-Syrian Cabinet and sought to ensure the next one is less beholden to Damascus.

A few diehard activists remained in tents overnight and about 400 protesters joined them midmorning, but Lebanese soldiers had been withdrawn from the area where the day before 25,000 flag-waving demonstrators demanded and got Prime Minister Omar Karami’s resignation.

“We will be here every day until the last Syrian soldier withdraws from our land,” one activist said through a loudspeaker. The crowd, blowing whistles, chanted back: “Freedom, Sovereignty, Independence.”
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They sang in rhyming Arabic: “We are all, Muslims and Christians, against the Syrians.”

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Also:

Protesters Back on Beirut Streets; U.S. Offers Support

Hundreds of protesters waving Lebanese flags returned to central Beirut Tuesday to demand Syria quit Lebanon and the United States welcomed what it called moves to restore democracy in Lebanon.

Lebanese officials began a search for a new premier after the government of Prime Minister Omar Karami resigned Monday following two weeks of protests, piling more pressure on Damascus, already under fire from the United States and Israel.

[…]

Thousands of demonstrators turned a square in Beirut into a sea of Lebanese flags Monday night and exploded into riotous celebration when the government unexpectedly quit after a parliament debate on the killing of ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri.

The jubilant protesters left in the early hours of Tuesday only for a few hundred to return hours later, vowing to keep up their street protests until Syrian troops left the country.