In Iraq overnight, voters are getting ready to go to the polls to endorse or reject the proposed constitution. Bombs have gone off in Kirkuk, Baghdad and Fallujah, but thankfully no one was killed in those explosions. 6,100 polling booths are being prepared with a three level protective ring, with barbed wire, metal detectors, and a personal pat down planned before Iraqis actually vote. Voters are also being warned to keep their distance from each other outside the barbed wire, to present a less tempting target to insurgents.
The Afghan elections a couple of months ago went off with less violence and chaos than feared, so fingers crossed Iraq can go well. And if the constitution is defeated, it is done through the ballot box rather than civil war. Of course, Afghanistan, despite a re-energised guerrilla war by Taliban sympathisers this year, was a lot more peaceful than Iraq has been, and is also not currently the front line in the 'war on terror'.
And to get some Sunni groups to endorse the constitution (and aforementioned Sunni groups now being targetted by the insurgents) the Shia and Kurdish delegates in parliament agreed to an amendment which means the constitution can be changed again, after the vote.
Fingers crossed an Iraqi civil war doesn't break out in the next 24 hours.
In Washington, presidential advisor Karl Rove has testified for the fourth time in front of the grand jury investigating the naming of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative. Rove spoke to the grand jury for four and a half hours today. Rove and vice-presidential chief of staff Scooter Libby head the speculative list of indictees regarding the issue, as it seems special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgeral is close to winding up the investigative portion of the inquiry.
This all of course starting from Plame's husband challenging the administration's line regarding Iraq acquiring nuclear material from Africa. The leak was made to several reporters, among them Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, Robert Novak of CNN, and Judith Miller of the New York Times. Miller of course spending 85 days in jail before clarifying she had authority to give Libby's name as her source.
Rove denies he leaked Plame's name, although transcripts of conversations he had with Matthew Cooper indicate that he mentioned everything in detail apart from specific names of people - though Rove seems to think the conversation was about welfare reform, not Niger or Iraq.
It is of course sailing that close to the letter of the law that has gotten Tom DeLay indicted - no business donations to Texan nominees indeed. Businesses can send money to the national Republican party, and then the national Republican party can then channel money to earmarked candidates. Or so the DeLay indictment indicates has happened - if you listen to the man himself he is being hounded by partisan politics.
New Orleans was finally pumped dry earlier this week. But the rebuilding and recriminations have a long, long way to go. Earlier in the week it was reported that FEMA is paying $11 million a day for hotel/motel rooms for approximately 600,000 evacuees from the Gulf Coast, covering all states apart from Hawaii.
There was also a report yesterday that 400,000 packaged meals are being stored in an Arkansas warehouse, due to mad cow disease fears. The meals had been donated by the UK during the worst of the Katrina aftermath, but US Department of Agriculture officials stopped their distribution, due to the ban on European beef imports. Officials are now apparently looking for a third country to take the food. The cost of storage is $16,000 a month, and the meals themselves were worth $5.3 million.
Seemingly a repeat of the 'ice to nowhere' Katrina story that was reported on a couple of weeks ago. 91,000 tons of ice was ordered by FEMA for the Gulf Coast, at a cost of $100 million. One particular trucker, Mark Kostinec, was dropping off a delivery in Ohio on September 2 when he was called up for ice duty. He picked up the ice in Pennsylvania, to deliver it in Missouri. The plans changed, he was to drop the ice off in Alabama. He was then ordered to drive to Mississippi, then back to Alabama. Then to Virginia to possibly combat the oncoming Hurricane Ophelia. And finally, on September 18, Kostinec unloaded his cargo into a storage facility in Nebraska. A journey of 4,100 miles.
And on the FEMA spending goes. 'Whatever it takes' indeed.
Not enough time to even mention the Harriet Meiers for Supreme Court Justice story. Moving right along.
In Europe, bird flu has been identified in Turkey, and suspected in Romania and Bulgaria. EU veterinary officials are proposing that public access to wetlands be limited, and domestic poultry to be kept indoors, as is already happening in the Netherlands. In other disturbing news on the bird flu front, the scientific journal Nature has reported a Vietnamese patient showing partial resistance to Tamiflu, meaning back up treatments need to be developed.
Even in the face of a possible pandemic, petty politics still rears its head. Though, good for a sense of balance, the blame game exists on both sides of the Atlantic -
'The EU has contingency plans to make 1 bn Euro available for antiviral drugs and vaccines, but said it could only do so once the overall EU budget for 2007 to 2013 is agreed. Officials complained that agreement was being blocked by Britain.'
After the break - aka, I'm just about at the end of my concentration for this post - the latest rebel attack in Russia, the Kashmir earthquake, and Shappelle Corby's sentence for drug running gets cut, not quashed.
Pauly :)
The Afghan elections a couple of months ago went off with less violence and chaos than feared, so fingers crossed Iraq can go well. And if the constitution is defeated, it is done through the ballot box rather than civil war. Of course, Afghanistan, despite a re-energised guerrilla war by Taliban sympathisers this year, was a lot more peaceful than Iraq has been, and is also not currently the front line in the 'war on terror'.
And to get some Sunni groups to endorse the constitution (and aforementioned Sunni groups now being targetted by the insurgents) the Shia and Kurdish delegates in parliament agreed to an amendment which means the constitution can be changed again, after the vote.
Fingers crossed an Iraqi civil war doesn't break out in the next 24 hours.
In Washington, presidential advisor Karl Rove has testified for the fourth time in front of the grand jury investigating the naming of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative. Rove spoke to the grand jury for four and a half hours today. Rove and vice-presidential chief of staff Scooter Libby head the speculative list of indictees regarding the issue, as it seems special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgeral is close to winding up the investigative portion of the inquiry.
This all of course starting from Plame's husband challenging the administration's line regarding Iraq acquiring nuclear material from Africa. The leak was made to several reporters, among them Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, Robert Novak of CNN, and Judith Miller of the New York Times. Miller of course spending 85 days in jail before clarifying she had authority to give Libby's name as her source.
Rove denies he leaked Plame's name, although transcripts of conversations he had with Matthew Cooper indicate that he mentioned everything in detail apart from specific names of people - though Rove seems to think the conversation was about welfare reform, not Niger or Iraq.
It is of course sailing that close to the letter of the law that has gotten Tom DeLay indicted - no business donations to Texan nominees indeed. Businesses can send money to the national Republican party, and then the national Republican party can then channel money to earmarked candidates. Or so the DeLay indictment indicates has happened - if you listen to the man himself he is being hounded by partisan politics.
New Orleans was finally pumped dry earlier this week. But the rebuilding and recriminations have a long, long way to go. Earlier in the week it was reported that FEMA is paying $11 million a day for hotel/motel rooms for approximately 600,000 evacuees from the Gulf Coast, covering all states apart from Hawaii.
There was also a report yesterday that 400,000 packaged meals are being stored in an Arkansas warehouse, due to mad cow disease fears. The meals had been donated by the UK during the worst of the Katrina aftermath, but US Department of Agriculture officials stopped their distribution, due to the ban on European beef imports. Officials are now apparently looking for a third country to take the food. The cost of storage is $16,000 a month, and the meals themselves were worth $5.3 million.
Seemingly a repeat of the 'ice to nowhere' Katrina story that was reported on a couple of weeks ago. 91,000 tons of ice was ordered by FEMA for the Gulf Coast, at a cost of $100 million. One particular trucker, Mark Kostinec, was dropping off a delivery in Ohio on September 2 when he was called up for ice duty. He picked up the ice in Pennsylvania, to deliver it in Missouri. The plans changed, he was to drop the ice off in Alabama. He was then ordered to drive to Mississippi, then back to Alabama. Then to Virginia to possibly combat the oncoming Hurricane Ophelia. And finally, on September 18, Kostinec unloaded his cargo into a storage facility in Nebraska. A journey of 4,100 miles.
And on the FEMA spending goes. 'Whatever it takes' indeed.
Not enough time to even mention the Harriet Meiers for Supreme Court Justice story. Moving right along.
In Europe, bird flu has been identified in Turkey, and suspected in Romania and Bulgaria. EU veterinary officials are proposing that public access to wetlands be limited, and domestic poultry to be kept indoors, as is already happening in the Netherlands. In other disturbing news on the bird flu front, the scientific journal Nature has reported a Vietnamese patient showing partial resistance to Tamiflu, meaning back up treatments need to be developed.
Even in the face of a possible pandemic, petty politics still rears its head. Though, good for a sense of balance, the blame game exists on both sides of the Atlantic -
'The EU has contingency plans to make 1 bn Euro available for antiviral drugs and vaccines, but said it could only do so once the overall EU budget for 2007 to 2013 is agreed. Officials complained that agreement was being blocked by Britain.'
After the break - aka, I'm just about at the end of my concentration for this post - the latest rebel attack in Russia, the Kashmir earthquake, and Shappelle Corby's sentence for drug running gets cut, not quashed.
Pauly :)
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