News, Prophecy and other

[Shammu]

South Africans told to stop 'whingeing' about crime

Rory Carroll in Johannesburg
Wednesday June 21, 2006

Crime victims staged an angry protest in South Africa yesterday after a government minister suggested those who "whinged" about levels of murder and rape should emigrate.

Demonstrators, who said the 51 murders and 151 rapes recorded daily were unacceptably high, were responding to the safety and security minister, Charles Nqakula, who told parliament this month that those who complained about crime were unpatriotic moaners.

"They can continue to whinge until they're blue in the face, be as negative as they want to, or they can simply leave this country so that all of the peace-loving South Africans, good South African people who want to make this a successful country, can continue with their work."

The comments provoked outrage from relatives of murder victims and survivors of assaults, who filled the media with tales of violence and incompetent policing. "Where, honourable minister, do you propose I go?" asked a letter writer to a newspaper, saying she had been raped and mugged and was now paralysed by fear.

Yesterday's protest was held outside a court where nine men were on trial charged with bludgeoning a 78-year-old woman to death in her home and raping her 25-year-old pregnant neighbour. The attacks, which happened last month at Gordon's Bay, a beauty spot in the Western Cape, followed a series of high-profile incidents, including the killing of a judge's granddaughter and the rape of her nanny.

Dozens of people held placards urging the minister to apologise for his remarks. Fanie le Roux, a relative of the murdered pensioner, said he had not been placated by Mr Nqakula's explanation that the whingeing reference was directed at opposition members of parliament and not South Africans in general.

International comparisons are difficult but there is no doubt South Africa is one of the world's most violent countries. A United Nations survey suggested it had the third highest murder rate, after Colombia and Swaziland.

Experts blame poverty, unemployment, overstretched police, and the legacy of white minority rule, which damaged the social structure of the black majority. The government says South Africa is becoming safer and cites official statistics that the murder rate has fallen from more than 20,000 a year to 18,615. Critics say the figures are unreliable.

There have been calls for South Africa to reinstate the death penalty, which was abolished with apartheid.

South Africans told to stop 'whingeing' about crime

[Soldier4Christ]

New Zawahiri Tape Urges Afghans to Rise Against US-Led Forces

A new videotape from al-Qaida's number two leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has urged the people of Afghanistan to rise up against U.S. and coalition forces.

The message was posted on Islamist Web sites late Wednesday.

Zawahiri claims to have recorded the message after the May 29 deadly riots in Kabul that erupted after a road accident involving a U.S. military vehicle.

He talks about what he calls "crimes against the Afghan people by the Americans," and urges Kabul university's young students to rise up in defense their country.

In the latest video, Zawahiri spoke in Arabic, and his message was translated into Farsi and Pashto - the two languages widely spoken in Afghanistan.

The tape makes makes references to what Zawahiri calls the desecration of the Quran at Bagram - the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, as well as, at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - the U.S. military's terrorist detention facility.

[Soldier4Christ]

Senate set to defeat Iraq pullout resolutions

Senate Republicans are poised to reject two Democratic-sponsored resolutions today that would push President Bush to start withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq, where more than 2,500 Americans have been killed and more than 18,000 wounded in the past 39 months.

The expected votes on the resolutions -- the culmination of two weeks of election-year congressional discussion on the Iraq war -- follow hours of spirited, partisan Senate debate Wednesday in which Republicans equated a timetable for withdrawal with retreat. Democrats countered that blindly sticking with the president's strategy in Iraq hasn't worked and won't work.

"Staying the course is a strategy that shows no sign of success, and it's time to change that course,'' Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told the Senate.

"It is time for the president to look the American people in the eye'' and lay out a new strategy for Iraq, she said. "Enough repetition of slogans and reassurances that have become increasingly hollow.''

Feinstein is a co-sponsor of one of the resolutions put forward by Democrats as amendments to the $515 billion military spending bill. They hoped the effort would highlight what they call Bush's faulty conduct of the war. But their internal divisions, which led to two different proposals, threatened to undercut their message.

Republicans, fearing the war might harm their chances to retain control of the House and Senate, hope to paint Democrats as soft on national security, an electoral tactic they used successfully in the 2002 and 2004 campaigns.

The Senate debate came almost a week after the House voted 256-153 for a GOP resolution that placed the war in Iraq squarely in the context of the fight against terrorists and said the United States should stay in Iraq until its mission is completed successfully.

The nonbinding Senate measure backed by Feinstein calls for the phased redeployment of the 130,000 U.S. forces in Iraq to start by the end of this year and for Bush to send Congress a plan for future, unspecified withdrawals.

The measure's authors, Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Jack Reed of Rhode Island, insisted they weren't offering a timetable for all U.S. forces to leave Iraq. They rejected Republican criticism that their resolution amounted to cut and run or surrender to al Qaeda or other insurgents operating in Iraq.

The senators said U.S. forces caught up in sectarian violence have become a crutch for the Iraqis, who must stand up for themselves and produce an enduring power-sharing arrangement among their country's ethnic and religious factions.

Their resolution is expected to lose today, garnering the votes of most of the Senate's 44 Democrats and perhaps no Republicans.

The other resolution, which is expected to get far fewer votes, would require the withdrawal of all U.S. forces by July 1, 2007, except for those training Iraqis. The proposal from Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin goes too far for most of their fellow Democrats. Co-sponsors include Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

Both men are considering seeking their party's presidential nomination in 2008.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, hammered the Democrats for their split.

"Can they be serious if they're still searching for some unified position? ... They have no position or a new plan to lead the American people to victory,'' he said.

But Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the assistant minority leader, said there is a large degree of Democratic unity.

"One hundred percent of the Democratic caucus believes it's time to change. The Republicans stand 100 percent for stay-the-course,'' he said.

Republicans scoffed at the Levin-Reed proposal and the sponsors' contention that it wasn't a timetable despite its provision calling for troops to start leaving Iraq by year's end.

"Folks, I don't mean to demean this, but that's the English language. That's a timetable,'' said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the Senate's Armed Services Committee chairman.

Warner said that telling Bush to start pulling out troops now would undercut the new Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and damage the program of training Iraqi soldiers and policemen to take over from the U.S. military.

"It sends the signal that begins to set back the progress we've achieved to date,'' Warner said.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said any push for a mandated withdrawal "would be a significant move on the road to disaster.''

"We face real difficulties. We've made serious mistakes,'' said McCain, a leading supporter of Bush's war strategy. "But they'd pale by comparison if we followed the course outlined in this resolution.''

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., reiterated the long-held view of Republicans that setting a deadline for withdrawal is folly. He and other Republicans said progress is being made in Iraq, pointing to the killing of al Qaeda terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the completion of al-Maliki's Cabinet and the training of more Iraqis to fight.

"It sends a message to the other side that if you can just hang on to a date certain, we'll be gone. If they drive us out of Iraq, they'll soon be back here,'' said McConnell, voicing the view that terrorists being killed in Iraq can't plot attacks on the U.S. mainland.

Democrats said their withdrawal plan mirrors those being offered by the Iraqi government. They pointed to an opinion article in Tuesday's Washington Post in which Mowafaq al-Rubai, the Iraqi Cabinet's national security adviser, wrote that he hopes the number of U.S. military personnel in his country will fall to 100,000 by the end of 2006 and to zero by the end of 2007.

"We agree with the Iraqi whose business it is to know this, chart this, carry this out,'' Feinstein said, using a blow-up of the article as a prop during her Senate floor speech.

Feingold said his proposal for a complete withdrawal by next July is needed to refocus U.S. efforts against al Qaeda. "It's not about taking off. It's about refocusing,'' he said.

Boxer, echoing Feingold's view that the administration's war effort has hurt the U.S. fight against terrorism, said a longtime U.S. military presence in Iraq will breed terrorism.

"The Iraqi people have to stand up. They have to want democracy as much as we want it for them," Boxer said. "The American people want an exit strategy. An exit strategy is not cut and run, it's smart and strategic."

Many Republicans, nervous over November's congressional elections, hope that Bush will draw down the number of troops in Iraq this year to at least the numbers outlined by al-Rubai.

But Cornyn accused the Democrats of "defeatism, a policy of appeasement and a policy of surrender.''

"It is pure folly to think the terrorists would give up if we left Iraq prematurely,'' Cornyn said.

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., said he disagreed with the Democratic proposals but wouldn't question the motives of the authors.

"I don't believe their dissent is unpatriotic. Simply unwise,'' he said.
Democratic proposals

Senate Democrats have offered two amendments to the military spending bill that involve possible withdrawals of U.S. troops from Iraq. Both plans are expected to be defeated today in the Republican-controlled Senate:

-- A "sense of the Senate" resolution calling on President Bush to begin a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops sometime this year. The proposal, by Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Jack Reed of Rhode Island, would also require the president to present a plan to Congress by year's end that outlines specific targets for future withdrawals.

-- A requirement that most U.S. combat troops be withdrawn from Iraq by July 2007. The proposal is sponsored by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis.

[Soldier4Christ]

A look at North Korea's missile arsenal



North Korea is believed to have an arsenal of ballistic missiles and has claimed to have a nuclear weapon. It isn't believed to have a nuclear bomb small and light enough to be carried by a missile. A look at some of the missiles the communist nation is believed to control.

- TAEPODONG-2: Believed to be North Korea's most advanced missile, with a range as long as 9,320 miles. Experts estimate it could potentially hit the mainland United States with a small payload. However, the missile is unlikely to be accurate.

- TAEPODONG-1: North Korea is believed to have test-launched this long-range missile in August 1998. The second stage landed off Japan's eastern coast. The missile, with an estimated range of up to 1,800 miles, is believed capable of striking any part of Japan.

- NODONG: As many as 200 Nodong missiles are in North Korea's arsenal. With a range of about 620 miles, Japan is their most likely target. The missiles can be fired from mobile launchers and have been sold abroad.

- SCUD: North Korea is believed to have more than 600 Scud-type missiles that are relatively short-range and would potentially target South Korea.

[Soldier4Christ]

South Korea Says Missile Test Not Imminent

South Korea's defense minister said Thursday that Seoul believes North Korea's missile launch is not imminent despite concern in the region that the communist nation would test-fire a long-range missile.

"It is our judgment that a launch is not imminent," Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung told a parliamentary meeting in comments confirmed by his ministry.

Worries over a possible North Korean launch have grown in recent weeks after reports of activity at the country's launch site on its northeastern coast where U.S. officials say a Taepodong-2 missile - believed capable of reaching parts of the United States - is possibly being fueled.

Yoon said if the North fires a missile toward South Korean territory, combined U.S. and South Korean forces will be ready to intercept it.

Japan and the United States have issued strong statements of concern and have sent ships and planes to monitor the communist nation.

China on Thursday issued its strongest statement of concern over a possible launch, while Pyongyang warned of clashes in the skies as it accused U.S. spy planes of repeated illegal intrusions.

Beijing is the North's last major ally and key benefactor, and Washington has urged China to press the North to back down on its potential missile test.

"We are very concerned about the current situation," Jiang Yu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official, said at a regular briefing in Beijing. "We hope all parties can do more in the interest of regional peace and stability."

Jiang said China would "continue to make constructive efforts."

President Bush praised China on Wednesday for "taking responsibility in dealing with North Korea."

The North's test of a long-range missile in 1998 shocked Japan and prompted it to accelerate work with Washington on a joint missile defense system.

The communist nation has been under a self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile tests since 1999, when its relations with the United States were relatively friendly. However, it has since test-fired short-range missiles many times, including two in March.

There are diverging expert opinions on whether fueling would mean a launch was imminent - due to the highly corrosive nature of the fuel - or whether the North could wait a month or more.

A North Korean diplomat said in reported comments Wednesday that the country wanted to engage in talks with Washington over its concerns of a possible missile test. The Bush administration rejected the overture, saying threats aren't the way to seek dialogue.

"You don't normally engage in conversations by threatening to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles," U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said.

The U.S. instead called on North Korea to return to six-nation talks on its nuclear program.

Bolton said he was continuing discussions with U.N. Security Council members on possible action, and had met with Russia's U.N. ambassador. Washington is weighing responses to a potential test that could include trying to shoot down the missile, U.S. officials have said.

China said all parties should focus on finding a peaceful solution and also urged the North to return to the nuclear talks.

The sides should "be determined to realize a nuclear-free Korean peninsula," Jiang said. "China stands ready to work with relevant parties in the international community to press ahead with the process."

The North agreed at the those talks in September to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees and aid, but no progress has been made on implementing the accord.

North Korea has issued repeated complaints in recent weeks about alleged U.S. spy flights, including off the coast where the missile test facility is located.

"The U.S. imperialist warmongers have been intensifying military provocations" against the North, the country's official Korean Central News Agency said. "The ceaseless illegal intrusion of the planes has created a grave danger of military conflict in the air above the region."

The U.S. has sent ships off the Korean coast capable of detecting and tracking a missile launch, a Pentagon official said. South Korean aircraft have also been flying reconnaissance over the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, said the military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the subject.

Japan said it, too, had sent naval ships and patrol planes to monitor the developments in North Korea, while playing down Pyongyang's capacity to load a nuclear warhead on its rockets.

The North has claimed to have a nuclear weapon, but isn't thought to have an advanced design that could be placed on a warhead. Japanese Senior Vice Foreign Minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki backed that belief at the parliamentary hearing.

"At this point, we have encountered no information that indicates North Korea has the technology," he said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso vowed to continue efforts to persuade North Korea not to launch the missile.

"It's crucial to get North Korea to restrain itself from a missile launch," Aso said. "We should gather efforts before it happens, not afterward."

Japanese police were preparing for a "worst-case scenario," including the possibility that parts of a missile could fall on Japan, said Iwao Uruma, commissioner general of the National Police Agency.

About 1,000 people, including army veterans and activists, staged an anti-North Korea rally in Seoul, condemning the missile threat.

The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

[Soldier4Christ]

Karzai says 600 Afghan deaths 'not acceptable'
Demands new approach to war on terror

Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the international community to reassess its approach to the war on terror Thursday, saying the deaths of hundreds of Afghans in fighting with U.S.-led forces was “not acceptable.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced the deaths of four American soldiers in eastern Afghanistan.

A clearly frustrated Karzai said the approach being taken by coalition forces to hunt down militants does not focus on the roots of terrorism itself.

“I strongly believe ... that we must engage strategically in disarming terrorism by stopping their sources of supply of money, training, equipment and motivation,” Karzai said during a press conference.

In recent weeks, Afghan and coalition forces have launched a massive anti-Taliban operation across four southern provinces aimed at killing or capturing fighters blamed for an upsurge in violence.

More than 600 people, mostly militants, have been killed in recent weeks as insurgents have launched their deadliest campaign of violence in years. At least 14 coalition soldiers have been killed in combat since mid-May.

“It is not acceptable for us that in all this fighting, Afghans are dying. In the last three to four weeks, 500 to 600 Afghans were killed. (Even) if they are Taliban, they are sons of this land,” he said.

[Soldier4Christ]

U.S. Urged To Destroy N. Korea Missile
Ex-Defense Secretary: Bush Should Attack If Launch Preparations Continue

Former Clinton administration Defense Secretary William Perry says the U.S. should attack and destroy North Korea's new long-range missile if Pyongyang continues launch preparations. A top U.S. official spurned the call for military action.

In an op-ed piece published Thursday in the Washington Post, Perry said the Bush administration should strike and destroy the missile before it can be launched.

Perry noted the Bush administration's doctrine of pre-emption, which it used as the basis for sending U.S. troops into Iraq in 2003.

"Therefore, if North Korea persists in its launch preparations, the United States should immediately make clear its intention to strike and destroy the North Korean Taepodong missile before it can be launched," Perry said in the piece, co-written with Ashton B. Carter, Perry's assistant at the Pentagon.

They asserted that a failure to act would only create more serious problems.

"A successful Taepodong launch, unopposed by the United States, its intended victim, would only embolden North Korea even further. The result would be more nuclear warheads atop more and more missiles," they wrote.

In response, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley would continue to pursue a peaceful solution.

"We think diplomacy is the right answer and that is what we are pursuing," Hadley said. "The way out of this is for North Korea to decide not to test this missile."

On a related matter, Hadley said a U.S. missile-defense system now under development had what he called a "limited operational capability" to protect against weapons such as the long-range North Korean missile.

Hadley underscored U.S. calls for North Korea to abandon any plans for testing the ballistic missile believed capable of reaching U.S. soil.

"We're watching it very carefully and preparations are very far along," Hadley said when asked about South Korea's assessment that a launch was not imminent.

"So you could, from a capability standpoint, have a launch," Hadley said. "Now what they intend to do — which is what a lot of people are trying to read — of course we don't know. What we hope they will do is give it up and not launch."

Hadley briefed reporters while traveling with President Bush in Europe.

[Soldier4Christ]

Bush tells Syria: 'Leave Lebanon Alone'

Beirut & Vienna- U.S. President George Bush has urged Syria to "leave Lebanon alone" so it can live as a free democracy.

 Bush ( R) , who was in Vienna to attend the annual U.S.-European Union summit, was speaking to reporters Wednesday after meeting Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel.

"We talked about Lebanon and the need for Lebanon to be free from Syrian influence," said Bush.

He said the United States and Europe "worked very closely together at the United Nations to send that clear message to the Syrians: leave Lebanon alone, let them be, let them be a free democracy, which is a necessary part of laying the foundation for peace in the Middle East."

This was Bush's second message of support for Lebanese sovereignty this week.

On Monday the U.S. president said his country "will not rest until the Lebanese people enjoy full independence."

The United States, France and Britain were the main sponsors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1680 that was passed last month and urges Syria to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon and delineate the common border.

Damascus has rejected the resolution and called it unprecedented international interference in bilateral affairs.

Syria , Israel and the Shebaa farms

Israel has offered to withdraw from Shebaa farms, the area that was occupied by Israel in 1967, if Syria will confirm in writing that it is a Lebanese territory, but Syria so far has only confirmed this orally and refused to put it in writing. Syria's action in this regard has been a very destabilizing factor in Lebanon, since the pro- Syrian Hezbollah organization is using Shebaa as an excuse to hold onto its arms.

Israel also is using the presence of Hezbollah in the south as an excuse to destabilize the area. Last month Israeli Mossad was blamed for assassinating 2 leaders of the Islamic Jihad in Sidon city in southern Lebanon. Israel also continues to violate Lebanon's Air, Land and Sea spaces.

Iran also is using the Shebaa farms as an excuse to beef up the area with Iranian intelligence agents. According to sources Iranain agents have been moving positions from the Bekaa region to the border areas.

Many local observers are of the opinion that Syria and Israel are both conspiring against Lebanon. One observer told Ya Libnan, "the borders between Israel and Syria continue to be the quietest in the whole region and not one shot was fired from Syria into Israel for several years". The observers further commented that " Israel has objected very strongly to regime change in Syria, since they see the Syrian regime as the most convenient for Israeli security"

[Soldier4Christ]

Claims that father’s views of gays did not cause fight


The saga continues about a father who wanted to “opt out” of alternative lifestyle instruction at a Lexington, Massachusetts, elementary school. The problem surfaced last year when a teacher at Joseph Estabrook Elementary School decided to have second graders read a “fairy-tale” about two princes involved in a homosexual lifestyle, “King and King.” Several parents objected to alternative lifestyle instruction and requested to “opt out” of alternative lifestyle instruction.

The school district was cool to their request and later refused to allow the “opt out” solution. The father eventually was arrested when he failed to leave a school board meeting. The charges were later dropped. Talk show host and columnist, Kevin McCullough, also wrote about the parents’ saga in his column at World Net Daily, School superintendent: OK to ignore parents.

In April of this year, four of the parents filed a federal civil rights suit against the school district claiming that the district interfered with their Fourteenth Amendment due process rights to direct the moral upbringing of their own children.

Weeks after the civil rights suit was filed, an alleged assault took place against the father’s 7 year old child on the playground of the child’s school. McCullough, picked up the story again and wrote about his perception of the events in his column in TownHall, “Libs’ new strategy: Assault 7 year old .” McCullough was critical of Lexington School District and the way the district handled the alleged assault.

According to a news story filed on June 20th, by Globe Staff reporter, Maria Sacchetti, Official says father’s view on gays didn’t spark fight, law enforcement declined to investigate the assault incident because the 7 year old’s father did not file a police report. Sacchetti claims that the father did not want the children involved in the alleged assault to be investigated because he didn’t want to vilify the children. The father indicated that he would like all involved to get along regardless of their beliefs.

According to Sacchetti, the school superintendent’s position remains firm that the children involved where squabbling on a playground because of a lunchroom disagreement and that, “Some adults are (now) exploiting these children for political purposes.”

The activist group, MassResistance, who the superintendent appears to be talking about (as the adults exploiting the children for political purposes) believes that the 7 year old was beaten up on a playground last month in retaliation for his father’s campaign to stop the school from teaching his son about alternative lifestyles. That charge has not been substantiated by anyone involved in the case.

Because this story has many turns and twists who knows were it is going. The real problem appears to center on the schools insistence to not honor the parents request to “opting out” of controversial subjects.

[Soldier4Christ]

Russia Says Exercises Have No Direct Focus

Military exercises between Russian and Belarusian forces _ the largest ever for the two former Soviet republics _ are not directed toward any nation, alliance or enemy in particular, Russia's defense minister said Thursday.

Sergei Ivanov spoke as defense ministers from the six-nation Collective Security Treaty Organization gathered in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on the sixth day of the military drills which feature about 7,000 Belarusian and 1,800 Russian troops.

"This Russian-Belarusian exercise does not have an aggressive nature and is not directed toward anyone," Ivanov told a news conference.

Ivanov also said Russia and Kazakhstan would stage another military exercise under the framework of treaty organization later this year.

The exercises envisage a joint response to an unnamed, outside military threat. Russian MiG-29 fighter jets practiced intercepting enemy planes over western Belarus over the weekend, as part of the drills.

Belarus' authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko _ who has been dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by the United States and other Western nations for his relentless crackdown on dissent _ has repeatedly accused the West of harboring aggressive intentions.

Russia, meanwhile, has watched warily as former Soviet bloc countries bordering Belarus _ Poland, Latvia and Lithuania _ have joined NATO. Russian military officials have announced plans to set up a permanent air base in Belarus and deploy air defense missiles there.

Russia and Belarus signed a union agreement in 1996 providing for close political, economic and military ties, and their armed forces have held frequent joint drills.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders of the other four nations in the defense and security cooperation pact _ Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan _ will visit Belarus to watch the exercise Saturday.

[Shammu]

Ex-Defense Secretary: Bush Should Attack If Launch Preparations Continue

Former Clinton administration Defense Secretary William Perry says the U.S. should attack and destroy North Korea's new long-range missile if Pyongyang continues launch preparations. A top U.S. official spurned the call for military action.

And they call Republicans warmongers. Course if President Bush did call for a strike, he would be called a war monger by the democrats.

[Soldier4Christ]

And they call Republicans warmongers. Course if President Bush did call for a strike, he would be called a war monger by the democrats.

and that's a fact.

[Shammu]

Coalition denies terror claim
From correspondents in London
22-06-2006
From: AAP
 
City skyline / File picture
Targeted ... a US report says al-Qaeda had plans to fly planes into buildings in Australia / File picture

THE Federal Government has rejected claims Australia was among the targets of an al-Qaeda plot to hijack aircraft and fly them into buildings.

An official US report, quoted in the media, said that in 2003 the terrorist group planned to crash aircraft into buildings in Australia, Britain, Italy and the United States.

The report said terrorists would use cameras to conceal bombs, and take aboard stun guns disguised as flash attachments.

But a spokeswoman for federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said it appeared the report was based on a US intelligence assessment from 2003 which was later corrected.

The US Department of Homeland Security found that while the intelligence was credible, the assessment of it was flawed.

"We have no information to indicate that Australia was or has ever been implicated in that particular plot," the spokeswoman said.

Mr Ruddock has previously said al-Qaeda wanted to target Australia since before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US.

Coalition denies terror claim

[Shammu]

China voices concern over N. Korea launch

By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 28 minutes ago

SEOUL, South Korea - China said publicly Thursday it was deeply concerned over a possible long-range missile launch by North Korea, while Russia summoned Pyongyang's ambassador in Moscow to express its alarm.

The moves by the communist state's last two major allies followed similar actions by the United States and Japan. A Pentagon official reiterated Thursday the North risked unspecified retaliation if it went ahead with the launch.

China is "very concerned about the current situation," the Foreign Ministry in Beijing said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it warned Ambassador Pak Ui Chun against anything that could destabilize the region or "complicate the search for a settlement to the Korean Peninsula's nuclear problem."

Worries have grown in recent weeks after reports of activity at the North's launch site on its northeastern coast, where U.S. officials say a Taepodong-2 missile — believed capable of reaching the United States — is possibly being fueled. Pyongyang also asserted this week its right to launch a satellite, which it claimed to have done after its last long-range missile launch in August 1998.

"If such a launch takes place, we would seek to impose some cost on North Korea," Peter Rodman, an U.S. assistant secretary of defense, said Thursday.

Vice President Dick Cheney said North Korea's missile capabilities "are fairly rudimentary" and expressed skepticism the missile could reach U.S. territory. He rebuffed suggestions that Washington launch a pre-emptive strike.

"I think that at this stage we are addressing the issue in a proper fashion," Cheney told CNN. "And I think, obviously, if you're going to launch strikes at another nation, you'd better be prepared to not just fire one shot."

South Korea's Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said Thursday "it is our judgment that a launch is not imminent."

Seoul — wary of tensions that could roil its economy — has sought to downplay concerns over a possible launch. South Korea has sat in the crosshairs of hundreds of North Korean missiles and artillery for years, remaining technically at war with Pyongyang.

If the North fires a missile toward the South, combined U.S. and South Korean forces will be "ready to intercept it immediately," Yoon told a parliamentary meeting.

But U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, briefing reporters during a visit by President Bush to Hungary, expressed reservations that the United States could intercept and destroy such a missile, saying the U.S. missile defense system was still in a developmental stage.

Hadley also said Pyongyang's "preparations are very far along" for a launch. "What we hope they will do is give it up and not launch."

Foreign policy analyst John Swenson-Wright, in an e-mail to The Associated Press, said the likely inability of the United States to intercept a missile launch was the reason Washington wants to see the crisis defused through diplomacy — "while at the same time maintaining a tough, uncompromising position in public."

Swenson-Wright, of the British think tank Chatham House, also said the danger was that Pyongyang might underestimate Washington's intentions, based on inconsistent past signals from the White House.

"Pyongyang may judge that it can get away with a launch without experiencing immediate and costly retaliation — whether economic, political or military — and it may believe that the legal ambiguity surrounding its missile program gives it a legitimate basis to launch," he said.

A North Korean diplomat reportedly said Wednesday that his country wants talks with Washington over the issue, but John Bolton, U.S. envoy to the United Nations, repeated the U.S. rejection of that idea Thursday.

"You don't initiate talks by threatening to launch an ICBM," or intercontinental ballistic missile, Bolton said.

Instead, Washington wants Pyongyang to resume six-nation nuclear talks, which also include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. The North has boycotted talks since November, angered by a U.S. crackdown on its alleged illicit financial activity.

China also urged a return to talks.

The North agreed at the round of talks in September to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees and aid, but no progress has been made on implementing the accord.

Pyongyang has complained in recent weeks about alleged American spy flights, including over the missile test site. On Thursday, the North admonished Washington again.

"The U.S. imperialist warmongers have been intensifying military provocations against" the North, the official Korean Central News Agency said. "The ceaseless illegal intrusion of the planes has created a grave danger of military conflict in the air above the region."

Washington has sent ships near the Korean coast capable of detecting and tracking a missile launch, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.

Also, South Korean aircraft have been flying reconnaissance over waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was unauthorized to speak on the subject. Tokyo, too, has sent ships and planes to monitor North Korea, officials said.

The North claims to have a nuclear weapon but is not thought to have an advanced design that could be placed on a warhead.

China voices concern over N. Korea launch

[Shammu]

At least 25 people found executed in Mosul

By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 38 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 25 people have been executed gangland-style in Iraq's third-largest city this week, with residents gunned down in ones and twos and bodies found scattered throughout Mosul.

Elsewhere, five U.S. troops were killed in operations south and west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Thursday, and police stormed a farm and freed 17 victims of a factory kidnapping.

Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has a mixed Kurdish and Sunni Arab population and a tradition of bad blood. The Kurds, who are largely Sunni Muslim but not Arab, have formed a prosperous autonomous region nearby after decades of oppression and mass killings under the Sunni Arab minority that ran Iraq until
Saddam Hussein was ousted three years ago.

Police said they were not sure if the attacks were carried out by the Sunni Arab-led insurgency, common criminals or sectarian death squads. Increasing numbers of Iraqi deaths over the past months have been attributed to revenge killings carried out by Shiite-backed militia organizations or Sunni Arabs who have banded together in retribution.

The outburst of killings was first reported Tuesday morning when police found the bodies of a husband and wife — both Kurds — shot to death in eastern Mosul, according to police Capt. Ahmed Khalil. Before the day was out, 10 people were either killed in shootings or found dead.

The killings persisted Wednesday, with eight people — including a child and a college student — shot to death by nightfall. The violence continued Thursday, said police Brig. Abdel-Hamid Khalf, with a policeman killed in a firefight with gunmen early in the day and six civilians shot to death before sunset.

The police raid north of Baghdad that freed the 17 captives came a day after the mass kidnapping, believed to have been organized by Sunni extremists at the close of a factory shift.

Initial reports said as many as 85 people, including women who had taken their children to work, were initially taken.

But Industry Minister Fowzi Hariri told state-run Iraqiya TV on Thursday that 64 people were abducted, two of whom were killed trying to escape. Thirty people, mainly women and children, were freed shortly after the kidnapping, leaving 15 still believed in captivity.

A National Security Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters, told The Associated Press that several insurgents holding the kidnap victims were captured during the raid.

Police raided the farm on a tip from a kidnap victim who said he was freed after showing his captors a fake ID with a Sunni tribal family name.

"As we were leaving the factory we were stopped by gunmen. They got on our buses and told us to put our heads down. Then they took us to a poultry farm," said the man who was released. He refused to allow use of his name, fearing retribution.

"One of the gunmen told us to stand in one line and then asked the Sunnis to get out of the line. That's what I did. They asked me to prove that I am a Sunni, so I showed the forged ID and three others did the same. They released us," the man said.

The workers were grabbed as they boarded company buses for the trip home after work at the al-Nasr General Complex, a former military plant that now makes metal doors, windows and pipes. The plant is about 20 miles north of the capital.

There has been rampant sectarian violence in the region, where tit-for-tat kidnappings and  revenge killings are common, but nothing on the scale of Wednesday's abduction. The al-Nasr plant is between Baghdad and Taji, a predominantly Sunni Arab area.

The military said the four Marines were killed Tuesday in Anbar province, three of them in a roadside bombing and a fourth in a separate operation. A soldier died Wednesday south of the capital, the military said, giving no further details.

At least 2,512 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians.

In other parts of the country Thursday, police reported 13 other deaths tied to insurgent or death squad attacks, including six bodies that floated to the surface of the Tigris River in Kut, a city 100 miles southeast of Baghdad.

Nine days into the security crackdown on Baghdad that includes hundreds of checkpoints and an expanded curfew, the capital was relatively quiet. Police reported only two deaths related to insurgent or sectarian attacks.

The victims died when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle exploded in a market. At least 25 people were wounded, police Capt. Jamil Hussein said.

At least 25 people found executed in Mosul