Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Boodleheimer]

i understand that it was the worst terrorist attack on American soil. but there have to be other things to report on.

[cbclark4]

Actually there are.

[cbclark4]

Critics doubt Iraq 'surge' success


The Bush administration's strategy in Iraq has been critised by US Democrat presidential hopefuls as General David Petraeus, the top US military commander in the country, appeared before the senate for his second congressional hearing in two days.

Barrack Obama, one of the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination for next year's election, told the hearing the Iraq war "continues to be a disastrous foreign policy mistake."

"We have now set the bar so low, that modest improvement ... is considered success. And it's not," he said.

Joseph Biden, another Democrat senator and presidential hopeful for 2008, opened the hearing by saying the so-called "surge" of US troops begun in February had not provided the political breakthrough it was supposed to.

'Infinite war'

"The American people will not support an infinite war whose sole remaining purpose is to prevent the situation in Iraq from becoming worse than it is today," Biden said.

His comments came before Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador in Iraq, and General Petraeus repeated the testimony they had delivered the day before to a congressional hearing of the armed services committee.

Petraeus repeated his belief that the "surge" was going well.

Rob Reynolds, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Washington, said although the testimony was the same, the exchanges with senators was "far sharper".

As well as the expected criticism from the Democrats, who control both houses of congress, scepticism over the policy pursued by George Bush was expressed within his own party.

'Success possible'

Senator Richard Lugar, the most senior Republican on the senate foreign relations committee, told the hearing: "Some type of success in Iraq is possible, but as policy makers, we should acknowledge that we are facing extraordinarily narrow margins for achieving our goals."

"Iraq is still under foreign occupation and Iraqis continue to die in great numbers"

Lugar has called for a sizable withdrawal of US troops in the coming months, a plan that runs counter to the recommendation by the Petraeus that the US withdraw the 30,000 extra troops deployed this year, but maintain at least 130,000 troops.

Petraeus has said the "surge" of troops was aimed at bringing security that would provide a platform of political progress and reconciliation in Iraq.

Chuck Hagel, a senior Republican critic of the war, said he saw no reason for the positive assessments of Petraeus and Crocker.

He said: "Are we going to continue to invest American blood and treasure at the same rate we are doing now ... for what?

"The president said let's buy time. Buy time? For what?"

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/49D31E45-57A9-4BAC-908B-F81DC8191832.htm

[cbclark4]

Gaza rockets wound Israeli soldiers

At least 50 Israeli soldiers have been wounded by two rockets fired into Israel by Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip.

The rockets hit the Zikim base north of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning.

The soldiers, who were sleeping in tents at the time, were evacuated to hospitals by two helicopters and about 20 ambulances.

Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh the military wing of Islamic Jihad and the Public Resistance Committees claimed joint responsibility for the attack.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said the group "blessed" the rocket attack "which brought pride to Palestine".

Odeh said 10 of the injuries were moderate to grave. Many of the soldiers were treated for panic.

"They say it is in response to the continued Israeli military attacks against their activists throughout the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," Odeh reported.

"There are daily incursions and detentions in the West Bank, so the groups consider it a legitimate response against a military target."

Qassam rocket attacks from Gaza are frequent, but rarely cause injuries.

The homemade rockets are inaccurate with many falling in open spaces or in the town of Sderot.

Most land harmlessly but since 2000, 12 people have been killed in the salvoes.

The number of wounded was the highest in a single rocket attack launched from the Gaza Strip.

Hamas took over the Gaza Strip during fighting against the Fatah faction of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, three months ago.

Israeli warning

The strike on the army base could boost calls in Israel for a large-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip against fighters behind the rocket attacks.

Eli Yishai, the Israeli Industry and Trade minister, "I think that, long, long, long ago, years back, we should have responded with a mighty force," told Israel's Army Radio.

"There will be no choice but to take action, ultimately," he said.

"There will be discussions, the military will makes its proposals, and the government will decide."

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said last week that Israel would "without hesitation and without pity" launch counterstrikes against fighters who fired the homemade rockets.

After the rocket attacks, a missile fired by Israeli forces hit a home in Beit Lahiya, a Palestinian town in northern Gaza, locals said, wounding a woman and her daughter.

Two Palestinian children were also injured on Tuesday when Israeli forces raided the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, Israeli forces detained 16 Palestinians.


http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5B7F29C9-A66F-46B4-917D-27E6CA7356A9.htm

[cbclark4]

Bin Laden praises 9/11 hijacker

Osama bin Laden has eulogised one of the September 11 hijackers in a new video released on the sixth anniversary of the attacks in the United States.

The al-Qaeda leader was seen in a still image on the video in which he gives a commentary praising Walid al-Shehri, one of the 19 hijackers who carried out the 2001 attacks.

Al-Shehri was aboard American Airlines flight 11, the first jet to crash into the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001.

IntelCenter, a US-based organisation that monitors radical websites, said it had a copy of the video which lasts 47 minutes.

The tape's authenticity could not be verified.

The video does not include moving images of bin Laden.


http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/84CE92D4-6E53-4675-B80E-67864757FC52.htm

[cbclark4]

Bills' Everett voluntarily moves arms, legs
Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - Kevin Everett voluntarily moved his arms and legs on Tuesday when partially awakened, prompting a neurosurgeon to say the Buffalo Bills' tight end would walk again � contrary to the grim prognosis given a day before.

"Based on our experience, the fact that he's moving so well, so early after such a catastrophic injury means he will walk again," said Dr. Barth Green, chairman of the department of neurological surgery at the University of Miami school of medicine.
"It's totally spectacular, totally unexpected," Green told The Associated Press by telephone from Miami.

Green said he's been consulting with doctors in Buffalo since Everett sustained a life-threatening spinal cord injury Sunday after ducking his head while tackling the Denver Broncos' Domenik Hixon during the second-half kickoff of the Bills' season opener.

Everett dropped face-first to the ground after his helmet hit Hixon high on the left shoulder and side of the helmet.

Asked whether Everett will have a chance to fully recover, Green said: "It's feasible, but it's not 100 percent predictable at this time. ... But it's feasible he could lead a normal life."

On Monday, Bills orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Andrew Cappuccino, said Everett likely wouldn't walk again.

"A best-case scenario is full recovery, but not likely," said Cappuccino, who operated on the reserve tight end. "I believe there will be some permanent neurologic deficit."

Cappuccino and officials at Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital did not immediately return several messages left with them by The AP.

In a report Tuesday evening, Buffalo's WIVB-TV quoted Cappuccino as saying: "We may be witnessing a minor miracle."

Bills owner Ralph Wilson said the team has been in contact from the beginning with Green and the Miami Project, the university's neurological center that specializes in spinal cord injuries and paralysis.


http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7216176?MSNHPHMA

[Cheonmunka]

[cbclark4]

Clashes at Belgian anti-Islam rally

Two leaders from the far-right Vlaams Belang party are among dozens of people arrested by Belgian police during an anti-Islam rally that had been banned by authorities.

Police clashed with protesters who gathered in Brussels, the Belgian capital, to demonstrate against what they called "the Islamisation of Europe".

The march on Tuesday was timed to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks in New York and organisers had predicted about 20,000 people would attend.

In the end, only one hundredth of that number were reported to have turned up and were nearly outnumbered by reporters and police.

'Inflammatory group'

Freddy Thielemans, the mayor of Brussels, banned the rally last month, calling the organisers, Stop Islamisation of Europe, an inflammatory group and the demonstration a threat to public order.

Thielmans said police made 154 "administrative arrests".

"I'm shocked. I thought we lived in a democratic country," Anders Gravers, one of the members of SIOE � a loose alliance that has origins in the UK, Denmark and Germany, said.

Police confirmed Dewinter and Vanhecke were to be charged for allegedly attacking the driver of an armoured vehicle that they were taken away in.

The two men are members of the European parliament and two other MEPs were also arrested.

Terry Davis, the head of the Council of Europe - a watchdog focusing mainly on human rights rather than the EU institution - called the protestors "bigots" and said they were a threat to European values.

"It is very important to remember that the freedom of assembly and expression can be restricted to protect the rights and freedoms of others, including the freedom of thought, conscience and religion," he said in a statement.

"This applies to everyone in Europe, including the millions of Europeans of Islamic faith, who were the main target of today's shameful display of bigotry and intolerance."


http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9AFC7AEF-BE14-4363-BA45-74284B3B618B.htm

[cbclark4]

Roh Shamefaced After Aide�s Resignation

A shamefaced President Roh Moo-hyun on Tuesday called a press conference over the resignation of his national policy secretary in the wake of a high-profile fake degree scandal involving the secretary�s lover. "I'm very embarrassed. More precisely speaking, I'm at a loss for words,� Roh told reporters. �It's very embarrassing and very difficult to cope with this situation." Chief presidential secretary for national policy Byeon Yang-kyoon resigned Monday after apparently peddling influence to further the career of the curator Shin Jeong-ah, who is at the heart of a bogus degree scandal.

Turning to charges that his former protocol secretary Jeong Yun-jae arranged a meeting between a supporter and a tax official that resulted in a massive bribe, Roh said, "It was very inappropriate for him to do such a thing. And it is deeply regrettable. I won�t protest if you call it �a corruption case involving a close presidential aide� if prosecutors find out, as a result of their investigation, that there actually was a serious illegality."

Roh vowed to make his views known as soon as the prosecution concludes its investigation. He had earlier said the suspicions were �not newsworthy� and sounded like �a novel.� That they appear to have been confirmed in both cases deals a sever blow to his credibility.


http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200709/200709120020.html

[cbclark4]

Police mull hate crime charges for W.Va. attackSuspects allegedly used racial slur, tortured woman for a week 6 charged in torture

Updated: 7:44 p.m. ET Sept. 11, 2007
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Authorities said Tuesday they are considering hate crime charges in the case of a woman who was tortured while being held captive for at least a week, and they are investigating the possibility that she was lured by a man she met on the Internet.

The victim was repeatedly called a racial slur while her captors sexually abused, beat and stabbed her, her mother said.

Six people, all white, including a mother and son and a mother and daughter, were arrested in connection with the alleged abduction of the 20-year-old black woman.

�I don�t understand a human being doing another human being the way they did my daughter,� Carmen Williams said Tuesday from her daughter�s room at Charleston Area Medical Center General Hospital. �I didn�t know there were people like that out here.�

Megan Williams, with a cast on her arm, spoke barely above a whisper.

�I�m better,� she said.

The Associated Press generally does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Williams and her mother agreed to release her name.

'Out of a horror movie'
A prosecutor said police are investigating the possibility that the victim was lured to the house where she was attacked by a man she met on the internet, but Carmen Williams insisted that wasn�t the case. �This wasn�t from the Internet,� she said.

Deputies also interviewed the victim Tuesday morning. State, local and federal officials planned to meet later in the day to decide whether to file hate crime charges, Logan County sheriff�s Sgt. Sonya Porter said. An FBI spokesman in Pittsburgh, Bill Crowley, confirmed that the agency is looking into possible civil rights violations.

The woman�s abductors called her the N-word �every time they stabbed her,� Carmen Williams told The Charleston Gazette earlier.

Authorities were still looking for two people they believe drove the woman to the house where she was abused, said Logan County Chief Deputy V.K. Dingess.

The case is �something that would have come out of a horror movie,� Logan County Sheriff W.E. Hunter said.

Deputies found Williams on Saturday when they went to the house in Big Creek, about 35 miles southwest of Charleston, to investigate an anonymous tip from someone who had witnessed the abuse, Porter said Tuesday.

One of the suspects, Frankie Brewster, was sitting on the front porch and told deputies she was alone, but moments later the woman limped toward the door, her arms outstretched, saying �Help me,� the sheriff�s department said in a news release.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20726968/?GT1=10357

[cbclark4]

Last update - 03:26 12/09/2007

CNN: Israel targeted arms destined for Hezbollah

By Barak Ravid, Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents and News Agencies

Israel targeted weapons intended for delivery to Hezbollah inside Syria a week ago, the CNN television network reported Tuesday.

Senior correspondent Christian Amanpour, citing Middle Eastern and Washington sources, said aircraft and ground forces, which directed the planes to their target, took part in the operation.

The attack left "a big hole in the desert," the report said.

CNN quoted American sources as saying that the air strike had targeted a weapons shipment from Syria to Hezbollah, or from Iran to Hezbollah, passing through Syria.

"The Israeli government is very happy with the success of the operation," CNN reported, citing sources both in the United States and the region.

CNN quoted American sources as saying that the air strike had targeted a weapons shipment from Syria to Hezbollah, or from Iran to Hezbollah, passing through Syria.

"The Israeli government is very happy with the success of the operation," CNN reported, citing sources both in the United States and the region.

U.S. government and military sources said they were "happy to have Israel convey to both Syria and Iran the message that they can get in and out and strike when necessary."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's aides said they were not interested in commenting on the incident.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who is visiting Israel, asked, half jokingly, "what happened in Syria?" at his meeting with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Livni smiled and asked to change the subject.

Later at a joint press conference Kouchner said he did not believe there was tension between Israel and Syria.

Syria complained Tuesday to the United Nations about "aggression and violation of sovereignty," the country's ambassador to the UN said.

Syria's UN envoy, Bashar al-Jaafari, said Damascus made its complaint in two letters to the UN secretary general and the president of the Security Council. The letters said the Israel Air Force action violated the 1974 disengagement agreement that was reached after the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Al-Jaafari said Israel had violated Syrian air space and dropped munitions. But he denied that Israel had landed troops on the ground inside Syria.

"This is absolutely not true," he said, adding the reports were an attempt to show that Israel could land troops wherever it wants.

CNN was the first major news outlet to report on the Israeli attack in Syria. In recent days reports of what happened were carried mainly in the Arab press or came from Syrian statements.

Last Thursday afternoon a Syrian military spokesman said that Israeli warplanes had entered Syria's airspace via the Mediterranean Sea and fled under fire from anti-tank missiles.

The Syrians reported that the Israeli planes dropped munitions in open areas.

Later, Turkish media reported that the Israeli F-15 planes had also dropped fuel tanks close to the Turkish-Syrian border.

The TV network Al-Arabiya reported that Israel had targeted Russian missile batteries on the Syrian coast.

European diplomats quoted Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem as saying Monday that the IAF warplanes that violated Syria's airspace fired missiles at targets on the ground, but did not cause any damage.

Muallem said the Syrian anti-aircraft radar system detected the planes when they were deep inside Syrian territory. He added the planes released their missiles very shortly after they were detected.

Despite the CNN reports and the Syrian statements, many questions remain, first and formost, what was the precise target of the strike the Syrians allege.

The silence of the Untied States, Europe and especially the Arab world also raises questions. Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia did not denounce Israel, nor did they issue any statement on the subject.

The only countries who expressed solidarity with Syria were Iran and North Korea. Russia issued a condemnation of sorts.

Turkey issued a critical statement and requested clarifications. In Ankara's case, however, its close strategic cooperation with Israel makes it unlikely the Turks were really surprised by the incident.


http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/903398.html