[A-List] News Archive: June 17, 2003

["bon moun" <sherrynstan@xxxxxxx>]

Hundreds of French police raided the offices of an Iranian opposition
group in Paris region on Tuesday, arresting more than 150 people and
seizing $1.3 million in American currency, officials said, according to
AP.
http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=251978&lang=e&dir=news

Russia said Monday it hoped that six days of student-led anti-regime
protests in Iran would not destabilize the political situation in the
Islamic republic.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=16288&New
sKind=Current%20Affairs 

Russia is preparing to enforce embargo on oil shipments on high seas if
its interests are not protected in any future Iraqi dispensation by the
coalition forces.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=36419  

US troops hunted die-hard Saddam Hussein loyalists in hostile towns
around Baghdad yesterday after guerillas fired rocket-propelled grenades
at two US convoys in the latest in a series of ambushes.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Articles.asp?Article=54373&Sn=WORL

Last night, U.S. forces launched a new operation - Desert Scorpion - in
Iraq in order to try and contain the growing resistance they are facing.
ANSA reported that Iraqis are demanding the withdrawal of the Anglo-U.S.
forces and the right to govern their country without foreign
interference.
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2003/junio/lun16/24embosc-i.html

Scores of heavily armed U.S. troops swept through central Baghdad on
Tuesday, sealing off roads and searching houses, after a soldier was
killed overnight by sniper fire in the north of the lawless city.
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2939662

Breathing free air for the first time in four years, 26-year-old Kizzie
White stood before a window on the third floor of the Swisher County
Courthouse, hugged her two children and waved at the crowd that had
gathered on the plaza below.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1955444

Twelve people sent to prison solely on the uncorroborated testimony of a
lone undercover investigator were freed Monday but critics worry there
may be more cases similar to the one in Tulia, Texas, around the nation.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030616-033711-3625r

The main difficulty with the Middle East "road map" is that it is a wish
list, not a map. That is why problems in its implementation should come
as no surprise.
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullSto
ry&c=StoryFT&cid=1054966153476

Palestinian militant group Hamas has condemned the US President's call
to deal harshly with militants, saying it amounts to "a new aggression"
against Palestinians.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_791131.html

The law of pre-emptive strike does not need such a modern descriptive
title. It is the what Chicago street gangs are doing. It is what the
ancient Egyptians did to the peoples they conquered.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_17-6-2003_pg3_5

CBS News on Monday fired back at the New York Times after the newspaper
reported in a front-page story that the network had dangled carrots from
other Viacom divisions in order to land an interview with rescued POW
Jessica Lynch.
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2939
160

More than 250 university teachers and writers added their voices to
students' demands for democratic reforms in Iran, telling the supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that he must answer to the people and
abandon the notion that he is God's unchallenged representative on
Earth.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/3940294.html

Southeast Asia's main political group piled more pressure on member
Myanmar on Tuesday to release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but
failed to translate the words into anything more than a slap on the
wrist.
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2939376

Liberian partners of the Catholic aid agency CAFOD are calling for an
immediate ceasefire to end the violence in the Liberian capital,
Monrovia.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/105583994289.htm

North Korea warned Tuesday that any economic blockade by the United
States and its allies against the communist state could lead to a war
that would include Japan.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/6106621.htm

South Korea's top official in charge of relations with North Korea said
yesterday that intensifying pressure on the communist state would force
it to accept a US offer for multilateral talks on halting its suspected
nuclear weapons programs.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/06/17/2003055546

The last of a group of 21 university professors and administrators
caught in a sweep by U.S. forces here last month were released on
Saturday in this former strong-hold of Saddam Hussain - and the tales
they brought home of their captors were not flattering ones.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=90442

BUNIA, Congo -- He is paralyzed from the waist down, and this place is
the last place he wants to be. Sitting in a wheelchair, trapped in a
forgotten hospital, Joseph Muhito gazes out over hilly jungle, terrified
as he listens to the echoes of machine-gun fire in a war he cannot run
from.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2353-2003Jun16.html

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is in court in Milan to defend
himself against corruption charges.
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-12349442,00.html

The student wing of Bangladesh's main opposition party has called for a
nationwide general strike on Thursday, the same day as a planned visit
by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_282872,00050002.htm

Oil prices held firm above $30 a barrel on Tuesday, with the tight U.S.
inventory showing few signs of easing, traders said.
http://reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=29
40072

Looting and technical snags have kept Iraqi oil output near 750,000
barrels per day (bpd) since last month, and the war-torn country is
expected to pump only 1-1.2 million bpd by mid-July, below its previous
target, an Iraqi oil official said on Tuesday.
http://reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=29
39581

Tuesday June 17, 3:26 PM 
EIA Says Oil Price Switch To Euro From Dollar Unlikely
KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones)--Suggestions that oil trade should be priced in
the euro as well as the dollar were unlikely to be widely accepted, a
senior U.S. Energy Information Administration official said Tuesday. 
It was unlikely a recent proposal by Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad would be taken up by many oil producers, EIA Administrator Guy
Caruso said. 
"I don't see any particular merit in that for the average oil producing
country," he said. 
"It really is a question of which currency (oil producers) feel most
comfortable with over the long run - and the dollar's always won out." 

It is time to review the quotation of oil prices in US dollars to
protect producers from uncertainties of the currency market, Datuk Seri
Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2003/6/17/nation/sboil&sec=na
tion

The discount on U.S. dollar-yuan nondeliverable forward contracts
deepened Tuesday on overnight comments by U.S. Treasury Secretary John
Snow that Beijing is interested in moving towards market-based, flexible
exchange rates.
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/030617/15/3bv40.html

A Chinese official said the government hasn't set a timetable for ending
the yuan's fixed value after U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said
China is considering a shift to a more flexible exchange rate, which may
mean the currency can appreciate.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aX.vasL8_HHw&refer
=asia

India - Army chief General N C Vij on Saturday left for Moscow on a
week-long visit of Russia.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_280793,0008.htm

Five days before the war began in Iraq, as President Bush prepared to
raise the terrorism threat level to orange, a top White House
counterterrorism adviser unlocked the steel door to his office, an
intelligence vault secured by an electronic keypad, a combination lock
and an alarm. He sat down and turned to his inbox.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0616-01.htm

Iraq needs a transitional administration within three weeks if it is to
avoid a descent into chaos, the most prominent Iraqi leader acceptable
to all sides told The Independent last night.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0616-04.htm

Far from the spotlight and far from Baghdad, another shock and awe
campaign is underway. On May 19th, Indonesia launched a military
campaign to "strike and paralyze" a small band of separatist rebels in
the Aceh province.
http://www.counterpunch.com/berrigan06162003.html 

Britain and France clashed yesterday over whether the European Union
(EU) should blacklist the Palestinian group Hamas, which is resisting
pressure to accept a ceasefire with Israel.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Articles.asp?Article=54371&Sn=WORL

Turkey asked support of France for opening of accession talks with the
European Union (EU) before end-2004.
http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=11089

Kurds, numbering more than 28 million, are perhaps the most scattered
nation that doesn't have a state, despite its large population. The
reasons for its being one of the most deprived and persecuted nations
involve several factors that also describe the mindset of Kurds. 
http://www.islam-online.net/English/In_Depth/Iraq_Aftermath/2003/06/arti
cle_07.shtml

Last week, 105 delegates from the Kurdish parliament gathered to
celebrate the 11th year of their experiment in democracy. Rival Kurdish
party leaders Jalal Talibani and Masoud Barzani spoke eloquently in
support of a new Iraqi federal government.
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/6089928.htm

Leftwing rebels in Colombia are attacking government security forces on
an almost daily basis. During May the insurgents killed over 50 members
of the armed forces and army-run paramilitary death squads. Despite
claims to the contrary by the army high command rebel casualties appear
to have been minimal.
http://www.anncol.com/april_2003/May_2003/0306_rebels.htm

And the "War on Terror," as the Bush administration styles its drive for
global military domination, is far from over. Every week a new target
floats to the top of their hit list-Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Colombia,
the Philippines. It's no accident that the targeted countries are home
to non-white peoples. White supremacy has always been a defining feature
of the US political economy. 
http://www.freedomroad.org/antiwar_statement_062003.html

The United States is at a crossroads, with neither route offering an
easy journey. In one direction lies a pretend land - where tax cuts
increase revenue, where war is peace, where any twisted bits of
intelligence justify whatever the leader wants and the people follow. In
the other direction lies a painful struggle to bring accountability to
political forces that have operated with impunity now for years.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2003/061703a.html

THERE ARE NO good lies. But public outrage over some lies can be
puzzling given the tolerance for others.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/168/oped/Which_lies_matter_most_to_the
_American_public_+.shtml

NOW THAT Americans have begun facing the fact that, in the absence of
Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the stated purpose of the war was
false, a new question presents itself: Why, actually, did the United
States go to war?
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/168/oped/Millennial_war+.shtml