The Unknown Candidate: Meanwhile ...

Monday, July 31, 2006

Meanwhile ...

Iran Min: To Spend $4 Billion In 2 Venezuela Oil Fields

"Iran's state-owned Petropars oil and gas company is investing around $4 billion in the explorations and developments of two oil fields in Venezuela, Iran's Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said Sunday."

Aljazeera.Net - Chavez seeks Iran oil investment

"Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has invited Iran to invest in his country's oil and gas industries during talks with Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the Iranian president."

Iran rejects terms of UN resolution

"The people of Iran are entitled to produce their own nuclear fuel, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday, rejecting the terms of a draft U.N. resolution that demands it give up its nuclear work."

Better Get Used to Killer Heat Waves - New York Times

"In Fresno, the morgue is full of victims from a California heat wave. A combination of heat and power outages killed a dozen people in Missouri. And in parts of Europe, temperatures are hotter than in 2003 when a heat wave killed 35,000 people. Get used to it."

Feds confirm fears of New Orleans flooding - Yahoo! News

"NEW ORLEANS - New data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirms fears that rain from hurricanes and tropical storms could flood some neighborhoods with up to 5 feet of water when new floodgates are closed at the mouths of three major drainage canals."

Guardian Unlimited | Pushing for a ceasefire from behind a barrage of Katyushas

"Hizbullah wants an immediate ceasefire and is ready to swap the two abducted Israeli soldiers 'in six hours' after it comes into force, according to officials from Amal, a Shia party allied to Hizbullah."

Detainee Abuse Charges Feared

"An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes and prosecuted at some point in US courts."

Iraqi Detainee Abuse Widespread: Report - New York Times

"Iraqi detainees were routinely subjected to beatings, sleep deprivation, stress positions and other forms of abuse by U.S. interrogators, according to a Human Rights Watch report released on Sunday that offers first-hand accounts from three former soldiers.

The U.S.-based watchdog group said its report discredits government arguments casting mistreatment of detainees as the aberrant and unauthorized work of a few personnel.

It included accounts by former soldiers who said detainees were regularly subjected to beatings, sleep deprivation and stress positions -- practices that started to come to light two years ago when pictures of physical abuse and sexual humiliation at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison surfaced.

These accounts rebut U.S. government claims that torture and abuse in Iraq was unauthorized and exceptional -- on the contrary, it was condoned and commonly used,'' said John Sifton, author of the report and the group's senior researcher on terrorism and counter-terrorism."

Sirotablog: Bush, Congress consider free trade pact with North Korea

New York Times Tells a Whopper About Legality and Morality of Israel's Actions | The Progressive

Women Back Under Wraps With Taliban Vice Squad

"Afghanistan's notorious Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which was set up by the Taliban to enforce bans on women doing anything from working to wearing nail varnish or laughing out loud, is to be recreated by the Government in Kabul. The decision has provoked an outcry among women and human rights activists."

Barbara Lee: India Nuclear Deal Will Undermine Non-Proliferation Efforts

"In a press conference on Capitol Hill today, Representative Barbara Lee called the US nuclear deal with India a dangerous precedent. "The problem with the deal, as it is currently written, is that it will do lasting harm to more than thirty years of international efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons."

UN Nuclear Sanctions May Lead to a Second Korean War, Warns Defiant North

"North Korea has angrily rejected a UN Security Council resolution imposing trade sanctions and condemning it for its recent batch of ballistic missile tests, saying it constituted 'a prelude to the provocation of the second Korean War.'"

World trade talks collapse

"Global free trade talks, billed as a once-in-a-generation chance to boost growth and ease poverty, collapsed on Monday after nearly five years of haggling, and resuming them could take years. The suspension of the World Trade Organization's Doha round came after major trading powers failed in a last-ditch bid to overcome differences on reforming world farm trade. The European Union and India firmly pointed the finger at the United States for the final breakdown."

Venezuela Supported for UN Security Council

"CORDOBA, Argentina, July 21.—Venezuela received Friday the support of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) in its bid for a seat as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2007-2008.

In the final declaration approved at the Mercosur Summit in Cordoba, the strengthened trade bloc gave its explicit support to Venezuela.

The country, led by President Hugo Chavez, is the newest member of Mercosur, which also includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Chavez’ fellow leaders supported Venezuela for the Security Council, “with the conviction that it will promote a limitless respect for the principles and norms of international law and contribute to a necessary balance in dealing with the issues brought before it.”

The United States is actively working to thwart Venezuela’s bid to obtain the rotating seat currently held by Bolivia and instead supports Guatemala’s candidacy, reported ANSA."

Bush told to plan for Ch�avez oil shock

The Observer | Putin plan to shut out US oil giants

"President Vladimir Putin is set to keep US oil companies out of a lucrative gas field in the latest sign of the deteriorating relationship between Moscow and Washington."