Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr 30 (IPS) - John Negroponte, the Bush administration’s nominee to become Washington’s first ambassador to Iraq since last year’s invasion, was talking about how much ‘’sovereignty'’ the country’s new government will enjoy after Jun. 30, when U.S. military forces will remain in control of security.

‘’When it comes to issues like (the siege of) Fallujah'’, said Negroponte, currently Washington’s ambassador to the United Nations, ‘’I think that is going to be the kind of situation that is going to have to … be the subject of real dialogue between our military commanders, the new Iraqi government, and, I think, the United States mission as well'’. (more…)

From The Economist Global Agenda

There are worries that a European Union of 25 member countries will prove unmanageable. But the queue to join continues growing. Could the Union one day expand to take in the whole of continental Europe and beyond?

RATHER like the various theories of the universe, it is possible to imagine a European Union that goes on expanding, one that reaches a certain size then remains stable, or one that eventually implodes. So far, the EU continues in its expansionary phase. On Saturday May 1st it undergoes its fifth and most ambitious enlargement since its foundation, as the European Economic Community, in 1957 (see table below). The EU aims to admit Romania and Bulgaria in 2007, and Croatia may also join around then. (more…)

By Eduardo Galeano (*)

MONTEVIDEO, Jan (IPS) - A small gesture of national dignity set off a
raging scandal early this year. Throughout the world the press gave
the story top billing as if it were a freak event, like, ‘’Man bites dog.'’

So what was the cause? Brazil had required of US visitors what the US
required of Brazilian visitors: to obtain a visa and have their
picture and fingerprints taken at the border. (more…)

Transcript of Bush/Cheney Testimony Before 9/11 Commission
By Bernard Weiner
The Crisis Papers

*(This story is a satire)

Chairman Kean: The Commission will come to order. Welcome, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President. Although, per our agreement, you are not being placed under oath, we expect that your testimony will consist only of the truth. The Commission and the American people deserve no less, and we trust you are in full agreement with this expectation.

Cheney: Yes, of course.

Bush: Sure, OK. (more…)

US: DEBT RELIEF FOR IRAQ BUT NOT DESTITUTE ETHIOPIA

By Ann Pettifor (*)

LONDON, Feb (IPS) - The US has been quick to call for cancellation of the odious debts of Iraq largely because it will cost the US very little and free up resources for US projects. Yet at the same time the US is blocking debt cancellation for one of the poorest country in the world, Ethiopia. This is a glaring double standard.

Late in 2003 the International Monetary Found (IMF) and World Bank reported that Ethiopia was eligible for an additional USD 700 million ('’Topping Up'’) in debt relief in addition to that already agreed upon. Such relief is necessary, argues the Bank, to return Ethiopia to ‘’sustainability'’ and to make her eligible for a new concessional (low-cost) loan of USD 1 billion from the Bank. (more…)

by Aseem Shrivastava; April 2004

America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

­ John Quincy Adams, Sixth US President

“Be careful of what you want. You might get it!” This is the sobering lesson being learnt nowadays with regards to the American enterprise of dictating democracy in Iraq. (more…)

By Martti Ahtisaari (*)

HELSINKI, Jan (IPS) - Jumping from crisis to crisis is becoming
unbearable for the people in the Horn of Africa, for the humanitarian
community, and for donors as well. Development in the region has to be
steered to a more sustainable basis as the frequency of severe
droughts seems to have increased.

As a result of failed rains in 2002, both Ethiopia and Eritrea still
face serious food shortages and the humanitarian consequences of
increased destitution among the most vulnerable segments of society. (more…)

Still on Catastrophe’s Edge
By Robert McNamara and Helen Caldicott
Los Angeles Times

April 2004

In a flash, U.S. and Russia could hurl thousands of missiles at each other
As we continue to grapple with the United States’ vulnerability to terrorist attack, we fail to recognize the most serious danger, one that is overlooked by politicians and emergency management agencies alike. Thousands of Russian nuclear warheads are targeted on the U.S.

How can this be, after the end of the Cold War nearly 15 years ago? Unfortunately, the targeting strategy of Russia and the United States has changed little, despite a profound change in relations between these two nations. (more…)

H2O BUSINESS TURNS PUBLIC WATER INTO PRIVATE WINDFALL

By Mark Sommer (*)

BERKELEY, Feb (IPS) - In a seemingly unquenchable thirst for new
wellsprings of profit, multinational food and drink industry giants
are rapidly draining public water supplies worldwide into a
billion-dollar bottled water industry. Advertising their beverages as
the healthful alternative to sugar-laden sodas, companies like
Perrier/Nestle (with 30 percent of the market), Danone (15 percent),
Pepsi, and Coca-Cola have together created a USD 35 billion industry
worldwide slated to grow 30 percent a year for the indefinite future. (more…)

By Cynthia Peters

Our social change movements have benefited enormously from the work of Noam Chomsky. The incredible energy he brings to his speaking and writing means that millions have been exposed to his analysis of U.S. foreign and domestic policy. But he has one favorite rhetorical device that always makes me nervous. He’ll suggest that something is obvious. Maybe he doesn’t realize how much this puts people on the defensive. One can’t help but wonder, “But what if it’s not obvious to me?” (more…)

By Mario de Queiroz

LISBON, Apr 24 (IPS) - When the Santarem armoured regiment took the Terreiro
do Paço plaza, a symbol of Portugal’s four-decade iron-fisted dictatorship,
30 years ago on Apr. 25, it was the start of one of the most unique coup
d’etats in history: soldiers rising up to impose democracy by force.

In the wee hours of the morning on Apr. 25, 1974, the troops set out for
war, with peace as their target. It was perhaps the longest day in
Portugal’s history but the shortest for dictator Marcello Caetano, who was
awakened at 05.00 local time by his secretary to hear the news: ‘’the
revolution is in the streets.'’ (more…)

By Jose Bono (*)

TOLEDO, Feb (IPS) - ETA, the Basque separatist group, has killed more
than a thousand people, from businessmen, functionaries, and
professionals to children. But among their victims there is not a
single priest. Does ETA perhaps have some debt to the church, or fear
it? This is a question that reverberates in the silence.

Dangers arise when the Christian message of peace and love is emptied
of content. When Christ took leave of his apostles with the request
that they ‘’go forth in the world and preach the gospel, teach all
peoples, preach to all creatures'’, he was not establishing a sectarian doctrine: he
chose all the people of the earth, not a particular group. (more…)

by Ginger Adam Otis; Women’s News; April 2004

(WOMENSENEWS)–In cities and towns across the country, students, unionists, environmentalists and others are gearing up to attend the March to Save Women’s Lives, a massive reproductive-rights rally in Washington, D.C., this Sunday, April 25.

Unlike previous pro-choice rallies, this one is being led by women of color and organizations that represent them and this new approach is expected to greatly boost attendance. But the real impact of this historic change will extend beyond the crowd count of the march itself. (more…)

Aaron Glantz

U.S. administrators find this hard to believe, but it could be that Sadr is teaching them a lesson or two on democracy in Iraq.

BAGHDAD, Apr (IPS) - Until recently, it was easy to find Sheikh Salim Mejid Jumar, one of Muqtada Sadr’s top leaders in Baghdad.

The cleric dressed in flowing white robes could be found most days in the municipal building of Baghdad’s poor and primarily Shia neighbourhood Showle. He is a member of the municipal governing council and he came to power last June in an election organised by Sadr’s forces. (more…)

The Hell of Good Intentions
By Justin Vaïsse
Le Monde

Saturday April 2004

From the 5th to the 11th of April 1968, 356 American soldiers were killed in Vietnam, versus 65 in Iraq for the same week of 2004, which was marked by the double insurrection of radical Shi’ites and Sunnis. In February 1968, there were almost 80 American deaths a day, versus a scale of 0.8 to 8 deaths a day for the year in Iraq. This is to say that apparently one is still far from the Vietnam quagmire.

Comparison is not proof and the differences between the two conflicts are numerous. However, it is impossible not to find echoes of the Vietnam War in the present situation. (more…)

Culture Rises Above Security Walls

Walid Batrawi

RAMALLAH, Apr (IPS) - Waiting in the queue to buy tickets for the opening ceremony of the European Film Festival in the West Bank city of Ramallah, one cannot help but listen to the stories people exchange about the Israeli incursion into the city just hours before the show.

The city that was under curfew in the afternoon is back to normal life in the evening, with dozens of people gathered outside Al-Kasaba Theatre and Cinematheque waiting to watch the ‘The Kite’, a Lebanese/French film. The film is playing among 28 European movies from Germany, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Britain and Austria. (more…)

The IRAQ BODY COUNT Project

This is a human security project to establish an independent and comprehensive public database of media-reported civilian deaths in Iraq resulting directly from military action by the USA and its allies in 2003. In the current occupation phase this database includes all deaths which the Occupying Authority has a binding responsibility to prevent under the Geneva Conventions and Hague Regulations. This includes civilian deaths resulting from the breakdown in law and order, and deaths due to inadequate health care or sanitation. Results and totals are continually updated and made immediately available on this page and on various IBC counters which may be freely displayed on any website, where they will be automatically updated without further intervention. Casualty figures are derived solely from a comprehensive survey of online media reports. Where these sources report differing figures, the range (a minimum and a maximum) are given. All results are independently reviewed and error-checked by at least three members of the Iraq Body Count project team before publication. (more…)

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Apr (IPS) - With EU enlargement just days away, women’s groups and human rights campaigners are campaigning to raise awareness of the impact that a larger Europe will have on women’s livelihoods and gender equality.

The European Union (EU) will take on ten new members (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) May 1. (more…)

Apocalypse Please

by George Monbiot; The Guardian; April 20, 2004

US policy towards the Middle East is driven by a rarefied form of madness. It’s time we took it seriously.

To understand what is happening in the Middle East, you must first understand what is happening in Texas. To understand what is happening there, you should read the resolutions passed at the state’s Republican party conventions last month. Take a look, for example, at the decisions made in Harris County, which covers much of Houston.1 (more…)

Ferry Biedermann

JERUSALEM, Apr (IPS) - Politics and violence got all tangled up once again in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this weekend.

The Israeli military killed the newly appointed local leader of Hamas, Abdel-Aziz Rantisi in Gaza City Saturday night just three weeks after killing the movement’s founder and leader Ahmed Yassin.

The attack came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arrived back in Israel after securing far-reaching assurances and support from President George W. Bush in Washington. Bush changed long-standing U.S. policy by recognising officially that Israel will hold on to some West Bank settlements and that Palestinian refugees will not return to the Jewish state. (more…)

Dreaming of George

by Tom Engelhardt; TomDispatch; April, 2004

Optimism then, optimism now:
Air Force Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, Centcom’s second in command in January: “We’ve watched the number of significant events (against coalition forces) decline considerably… I won’t say we’ve turned the corner or that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but our soldiers, airmen, Marines and sailors are winning over the Iraqi people. I think we’re on track to leave behind a free and fledgling democracy when we depart here.” (more…)

Glorifying the Fight for Slavery in Texas
Forget the Alamo!
By DON SANTINA

Yet another film version of the story of the Alamo is about to descend on a
movie theatre near you. Due to production delays, we have been watching
trailers and previews for over four months. According to the hoopla, the
defenders of the Alamo fought for “liberty” and “freedom” and–as their noble
commander says in a film clip– to “show the world what patriots are made of.”
A stirring ad run during the Superbowl intoned that, at the Alamo, “Ordinary
men will become heroes.” (more…)

Guantanamo Issue Took Two Years to Reach UN Commission

Gustavo Capdevila*

GENEVA, Apr (IPS) - The situation of some 660 prisoners living in legal limbo at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo was brought up by Havana Thursday before the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, shortly after a resolution condemning Cuba’s human rights record narrowly passed.

The Cuban delegation urged the Commission, the highest U.N. authority on human rights, to investigate the conditions in which the non-U.S. citizens of around 40 different nationalities are being held. (more…)

The Agrarian Counter- Reform of the World Bank
Marcelo Resende
Maria Luisa Mendonça

The World Bank is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Meanwhile, social movements worldwide are organizing demonstrations against the impact of the policies and ideology of this institution.

The World Bank influences the development strategies and the economic policies of Southern countries by making them compromise their budgets with projects that benefit large corporations. Under the pretense of “economic assistance", World Bank programs have a great impact on the external debt. In addition, many World Bank projects require financial contributions from the state budget. (more…)

Julio Godoy

PARIS, Apr (IPS) - Several leaders among the 12 million Muslims in Europe are asking for new policies and attitudes of acceptance.

The attacks in Madrid last month apparently by Moroccan and other Arab terrorists have confirmed the need to integrate Muslims into European society in order to overcome the challenge posed by radical Islam, analysts say. But many intellectuals accept that Muslims too must adopt more secular ways. (more…)

The Mess Is Getting Harder to Clear

Analysis by Ferry Biederman

JERUSALEM, Apr (IPS) - Iraq may slowly be emerging from a month of the most intense bloodshed since the declared end of the war almost a year ago. But a lull in the fighting in the bloodstained Sunni town of Faluja, west of Baghdad, and a tentative deal with the Sadr Shia militia in the south seem exceedingly fragile. If there is a pause, nobody expects it to last very long.

It now becomes crucial for the international community as well as the U.S.- dominated coalition that occupies Iraq to quickly formulate some policies that may avert the next round of fighting. (more…)

by Sasan Fayazmanesh and Foaad Khosmood
ZNet Iran Watch
April 2004

Foaad Khosmood: Since 2001 there have been mixed signals coming out of Washington regarding Iran. Undersecretary of State for non-proliferation, John Bolton, has suggested possible military action on several occasions, while deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage has taken much criticism for calling Iran a “democracy.� How can the current US policy toward Iran be described? What are the aims and reasoning behind this policy? How has this policy changed from what it was under the Clinton administration?

Sasan Fayazmanesh: This is an important question that requires some historical backtracking. So, if you don’t mind, I’ll answer your question at length. (more…)

The Man Who Knew Too Much
The Ordeal of Mordechai Vanunu
By ROBERT FISK
The Independent

Any Israeli who bought the 16 February edition of the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth would have believed that a truly wicked man was about to be released from Ashkelon prison. Each time a suicide bomber blew himself up, the prisoner would celebrate. Worse still, said the paper, the inmate–once a keeper of Israel’s nuclear secrets–wants to endanger his country further after his release. “He told me,” a former prisoner was quoted as saying, “that he has additional material and that he will reveal secrets…”

Should it be a surprise, then, that the very same prisoner, supposedly celebrating the slaughter of innocents while preparing to betray his country yet again, holds a clutch of awards from European peace groups, the Sean McBride Peace prize and an honorary doctorate from the University of Tromso? In 2000, the Church of Humanism told him: “You are honest, courageous and morally highly motivated, and may the great sacrifice you have made serve to protect not only those living in Israel but all the peoples of the Middle East and perhaps the world.” The same man has also been put forward as a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. (more…)

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Apr (IPS) - The U.N. Secretariat, accused of nepotism and corruption in overseeing Iraq’s multi-billion-dollar, oil-for-food programme, is expected to name an independent commission this week to investigate the widespread charges of abuse.

Critics say the world body’s credibility rests on the outcome of the probe, but other observers argue it is the reputations of the “big five” of the U.N. Security Council that are at stake since they were responsible for overseeing the programme. (more…)

Only weeks after 9/11, the Bush administration set up a secret Pentagon
unit to create the case for invading Iraq. Here is the inside story of
how they pushed disinformation and bogus intelligence and led the nation
to war.

Robert Dreyfuss and Jason Vest

It’s a crisp fall day in western Virginia, a hundred miles from
Washington, D.C., and a breeze is rustling the red and gold leaves of the
Shenandoah hills. On the weather-beaten wood porch of a ramshackle
90-year-old farmhouse, at the end of a winding dirt-and-gravel road, Lt.
Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski is perched on a plastic chair, wearing shorts,
a purple sweatshirt, and muddy sneakers. Two scrawny dogs and a lone cat
are on the prowl, and the air is filled with swarms of ladybugs. (more…)

By Cam McGrath

CAIRO, Apr 12 (IPS) - For millions of Muslims, invitation to martyrdom is just a
mouse click away. So-called “jihad sites” are springing up all over the Internet to
offer the latest news, images and slogans of Islamic holy war.

“There are hundreds of these websites, and new ones appear every day,”
Egyptian political analyst Hassan Abu Taleb told IPS. “They spread a very
negative and incorrect image of Islam.” (more…)

by Bernard Cassen

VENEZUELA’S opposition has supporters keen to speak on its
behalf in the European parliament, primarily among the
European People’s party (PPE - Christian Democrats and the
right) and the Party of European Socialists (PSE). These are
a legacy from the days before President Hugo Chávez was first
elected on 6 December 1998, when their sister parties in
Venezuela - the Christian Democrats of Copei and the Social
Democrats of Democratic Action (AD) held office alternately
and drew unstintingly on state coffers full of oil revenue. (more…)

By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr (IPS) - Neo-conservatives close to the administration of President George W Bush are pushing for retribution against Iran for, they say, sponsoring this week’s Shiite uprising in Iraq led by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Despite the growing number of reports that depict the fighting as a spontaneous and indigenous revolt against the U.S.-led occupation, the influential neo-cons are calling on Bush to warn Tehran to cease its alleged backing for al-Sadr and other Shia militias or face retaliation, ranging from an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities to covert action designed to overthrow the government. (more…)

From Nation-Building to Religion-Building
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr (IPS) - One thing that can be said about U.S.
neo-conservatives is they do not lack for ambition.

‘’We need an Islamic reformation'’, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz confided on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq last year, ‘’and
I think there is real hope for one'’. (more…)

Kosovo And Iraq
Same Bombs, Different Lies

by David Edwards; April 2004

The truth about the invasion of Iraq was perhaps best summed up by Ray McGovern, one of the CIA’s most senior analysts:

“It was 95 per cent charade. And they all knew it: Bush, Blair, Howard.” (Quoted John Pilger, ‘Universal justice is not a dream’, ZNet, March 23, 2004)

One might think that exposés of this kind would lead the media to take a fresh look at some of the US-UK governments’ earlier claims justifying war. Consider, for example, the 78-day NATO assault on Serbia from March 24 until June 10, 1999, said to have been launched to protect the Albanian population of Kosovo. (more…)

Rich-Poor Gap in Care Persists
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr (IPS) - More than one billion people worldwide are not
getting essential health care, according to a report by the Population
Reference Bureau (PRB), which calls for international donors to focus more
on closing the growing health gap between the world’s wealthy nations and
its poorest.

The 32-page report, ‘Improving the Health of the World’s Poorest People’,
finds that per capita health spending in the world’s least developed
countries, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, comes to only
about 11 U.S. dollars a year. (more…)

Opening the Gates of Hell
Report from Baghdad

ZNet Top
Iraq Home

by Rahul Mahajan
April 2004

Before the Iraq war, at a meeting of the Arab League, Secretary General Amr Moussa famously said that a U.S. war on Iraq would “open the gates of hell.”

In Iraq, those gates are yawning wider than they ever have before – at least for the United States.

“Sunni and Shi’a are now one hand, together against the Americans,” a man on the street in the mostly Shi’a slum of Shuala on the west side of Baghdad told me, as we conversed in the shadow of a burnt-out American tank transporter. Those sentiments were echoed at the local headquarters of Moqtada al-Sadr’s organization, which had one day previously come under assault from U.S. forces. (more…)

A Different WSF Will Return to Porto Alegre
By Stefania Milan

ROME, Apr (IPS) û It will be a changed World Social Forum that will
return from Mumbai to Porto Alegre next year.

“It is time to provide concrete answers to problems,” says Flavio Lotti
from the People’s United Nations Assembly, which brings civil society groups
together twice a year to promote peace. (more…)

Staying in Iraq
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Tuesday April 2004

These are the numbers out of Iraq: 616 American soldiers killed, 18,000 medical evacuations of wounded American soldiers, 102 non-American coalition soldiers killed, more than 10,000 Iraqi civilians killed, somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 billion spent. There are no numbers available for the Iraqi civilians wounded.

These are the numbers out of the Bush White House, first put forward by George W. Bush in his 2003 State of the Union Address and which remain even today on the White House website: 26,000 liters of anthrax in Iraq, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin in Iraq, 500 tons of sarin and mustard and VX gas in Iraq, 500 tons being 1,000,000 pounds, along with 30,000 munitions to deliver these agents. None of this, not one little bit of it, has been found. (more…)

Fallujah Punctures Washington’s Optimism

Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr (IPS) - April Fools’ Day is traditionally one of good-natured mischief, but not this year. Indeed, U.S. President George W. Bush’s trademark smirk, which normally fits the day’s spirit almost to a T, was nowhere to be seen Thursday.

The reason was clear enough: Iraq suddenly, if gruesomely, recaptured the headlines with Wednesday’s horrific killings of four private U.S. security contractors, whose fiery and grisly end at the hands of an angry mob in the chronically rebellious city of Fallujah was caught on videotape. (more…)

Ramin Mostaghim

TEHRAN, Apr (IPS) - The death in an Israeli rocket attack of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, has highlighted rifts between Iranians, and between Iran and its Arab neighbours.

The Mar. 22 assassination drew immediate condemnation from Iran’s top political and religious leaders, but Yassin’s death has so far failed to stir large-scale public reaction. Despite fiery rhetoric from their leaders, only some 7,000 people, many of them from the military and government, took part in Mar. 29 rallies, organised by officials to commemmorate Yassin. (more…)

Bombing The Peace Protestors

By Dave Edwards

People Pay The Price For Realpolitik

Before last year’s war on Iraq, Media Lens reported the extraordinary level of establishment opposition to the attack. Writing in the Financial Times in January 2003, Douglas Hurd, former Conservative Foreign Secretary, argued that the war ran “the risk of turning the Middle East into an inexhaustible recruiting ground for anti-western terrorism". (Financial Times, January 3, 2003)

Anatol Lieven, a Senior Associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote that the Bush administration was pursuing “the classic modern strategy of an endangered right-wing oligarchy, which is to divert mass discontent into nationalism,” inspired by fear of lethal threats. America, Lieven warned, “has become a menace to itself and to mankind". (’The Push for War’, Anatol Lieven, London Review of Books, October 2002) (more…)

By Stefania Milan

ROME, Apr 3 (IPS) The problem of poverty is huge, but city leaders gathered here sought ways for small communities to find little solutions.

“Poverty is a condition we can win,” mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni said at a meeting of the Forum of the World Alliance of Cities Against Poverty (WACAP). (more…)

By Oscar Ugarteche

The 1st of March, 2004, local Mexican television news programs screened a video where a young and handsome senator from the Mexican Green Ecologist Party (PVEM) was seen and heard making a deal in exchange for two million dollars. The following day the local news station played a video were the Financial Comptroller of the City of Mexico was seen playing black jack in the of tens of thousands of dollars a shot, at a Las Vegas hotel. It must be borne in mind that the greater Mexico City has 20 million people and its budget is about 12 billion US dollars per annum. The third day the same news station showed the Mayor’s private secretary , a Mr Bejarano, receiving packets of money from an Argentinean born builder. Finally the news was out that the Mayor wanted to know who had made this information available to the news station. The twist came when later that same week it was made known that former Mayor and leader of the PRD Rosario Robles, ex president of that political party, used the builder’s private jets for her campaign but not only. It turned out shed had an affaire with Mr. Carlos Ahumada Kurtz. Then it was learnt that many construction firms hired by the City of Mexico belonged to this gentleman who was also a major funder of the PRD. Many public works, it turned out, were paid but were never built, to the tune of millions of US Dollars per year. The next news was that Mr Ahumada had fled to Cuba and that Interpol caught him there. In the aftermath of the quake, Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas quit the party, alongside Robles and others. The 81% popularity of the Mayor of Mexico and PRD leader Lopez Obrador fell to 64% and is still going down in April, having turned second in the polls for the Presidency in 2006. after being the favorite runnerup. Corruption is not new. The screening of the videos is new. (more…)

Analysis - By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr (IPS) - April Fools’ Day is traditionally one of good-natured mischief, but not this year. Indeed, U.S. President George W. Bush’s trademark smirk, which normally fits the day’s spirit almost to a T, was nowhere to be seen Thursday.

The reason was clear enough: Iraq suddenly, if gruesomely, recaptured the headlines with Wednesday’s horrific killings of four private U.S. security contractors, whose fiery and grisly end at the hands of an angry mob in the chronically rebellious city of Fallujah was caught on videotape. (more…)

By Paul Krugman

The New York Times

Last week an opinion piece in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz about the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin said, “This isn’t America; the government did not invent intelligence material nor exaggerate the description of the threat to justify their attack.”

So even in Israel, George Bush’s America has become a byword for deception and abuse of power. And the administration’s reaction to Richard Clarke’s “Against All Enemies” provides more evidence of something rotten in the state of our government. (more…)

By Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Apr 1 (IPS) - A new report says anti-semitism is on the rise in five
EU countries. Controversy followed immediately on who is behind the incidents
against Jewish people.

The report, ‘Manifestations of Anti-Semitism in the EU 2002-2003′ published
by the independent European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia
(EUMC) says there has been an increase in anti-semitic incidents in Belgium,
France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. (more…)