www.forbes.com Reuters World News Highlights 1000 GMT Feb 28 Reuters, 02.28.03, 5:03 AM ET

BAGHDAD - Iraq will comply with U.N. demands to destroy al-Samoud 2 missiles and dismantling of the weapons could begin on Saturday, Iraqi sources said. The sources confirmed that Baghdad had sent a letter to Hans Blix, chief of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), in which it said it would abide by his order to destroy the missiles.

UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON - The United States dismissed Baghdad's agreement to destroy its al-Samoud 2 missiles and pressed on with its war preparations against Iraq, deploying a sixth aircraft carrier and B-2 stealth bombers.

BEIJING - Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia opposed any U.N. Security Council resolution which would lead to a war to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and declined to rule out a Russian veto.

SEOUL - North Korea, which is reported to have fired up a key nuclear reactor, now looks set to raise tensions further by preparing to start reprocessing plutonium and test a ballistic missile, officials and reports said.

KARACHI - A gunman killed at least two police officers and wounded six other people outside the U.S. consulate in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, police said.

WASHINGTON - Warplanes taking part in U.S.-British air patrols attacked three air defence targets in the northern "no-fly" zone of Iraq and two targets in the southern "no-fly" zone in response to Iraqi threats, the U.S. military said.

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon began a second term at the head of a hawkish coalition that includes fierce opponents of a Palestinian state and staunch supporters of Jewish settlement on occupied land.

NICOSIA - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders had agreed to a new deadline of March 10 for them to sign a peace deal to unite the island.

JAKARTA - Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was handed over to prosecutors in Indonesia to face trial for treason, police said. Bashir has been described by several Southeast Asian nations as the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiah network that officials blame for the Bali bomb blasts. He denies any link.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's negotiators failed to show up for talks with the opposition, and foes accused the leftist leader of resisting efforts to discuss how to end a long-running political conflict.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to ban all forms of human cloning, roundly defeating a rival bill that would allow the use of cloning technology for medical research.

DILI - East Timor prosecutors charged more than 50 people, including a former police chief and a militia boss, with crimes against humanity over violence surrounding a 1999 vote for independence from Indonesia.

www.republicons.org by: Scott   Thomas 2/27/2003   In his speech on February 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell once again asserted that Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda (yawn). Yet even intelligence operatives in the FBI and CIA argue that such ties don't exist. Their unending threats and unwavering stance is likened to grasping at straws in an already failed policy that has already caused untold suffering to the Iraqi people. Powell's tactics on Wednesday, then Ashcroft's "orange alert" on Friday, Feb. 7, was simply an attempt to further their selfish goals through fear-mongering and is still not a case for war. He and his cohorts are still using Americans' sorrow and fear about September 11th to "sell" this war to us. I, for one, am not buying.

It also masks the the hypocrisy behind the inspections. Though Saddam Hussein, and brutal despots like him, should certainly be disarmed through international efforts, the bigger question remains as to why this is being carried out by governments with just as many human rights violations in their closet, past and present. The constant mantra of "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, repeated ad nauseum, and obviously fabricated evidence with no possibility of verification, cannot hide the fact that the governments of the United States, Great Britain, France, and others, have much larger arsenals -- including nuclear weapons, have colonized the entire planet, and whose own business interests are pressing the need for a full-scale ground invasion-- to get that oil.

At this point in history, the US military/industrial/media complex stands as the biggest threat to world peace and security. With a nuclear arsenal of over 7,000 missiles, conventional weapons tipped with depleted uranium (DU) which remains deadly for centuries, hundreds of thousands of military personnel, bases and nuclear submarines throughout the world, why hasn't the UN resolved to disarm the US? Our government invented the Bomb, is the only nation on Earth to actually use it twice, carried out a low-intensity nuclear war in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Iraq for the past dozen years using DU, and now has a policy of pre-emptive strikes on any nation it feels threatens its global domination. It has invaded many nations weaker than itself or provided military support for fascist regimes throughout the years for no other reason than their desire for self-determination that did not agree with US business interests: the Philippines, Cuba, Korea, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Iraq, Iran, Columbia, Venezuela, et al. This is certainly more colonization than Saddam Hussein has ever achieved, yet no one in the UN seems to notice the pink elephant in the middle of the room. Or perhaps UN justice is selective, not according to the rule of law, but the law of the jungle

Since Bush and Co. cannot make the case for war, I would like to make the case for impeachment. In 1999, Congress saw fit to impeach (unsuccessfully) Pres. Bill Clinton, not for his war crimes in Yugoslavia and Iraq (impeachable offenses), but for a sex scandal because the Republicans saw an opportunity to discredit the Democrats for a 2000 victory. Yet Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft (and maybe Powell) are responsible for blatantly violating the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments, continuing an ongoing war against Iraqi civilians, ordering "first strike" aggression towards Afghanistan, Iraq, and possibly N. Korea, ordering and condoning assassinations, torture and physical and psychological coercion of prisoners, and ordering false statements and propaganda to be given to the public, all violations of international law and the Geneva convention. Bush & Co. have also backed out of the IBM treaty and reinvigorated Star Wars, sparking a new arms race. These guys make Nixon look like a petty thief.

For more info go to VoteToImpeach.org and sign the petition.

Scott Thomas is a peace activist and co-chair of the Taos/Rio Arriba County (TRAC) Green Party in Taos, NM   For more information visit: www.VoteToImpeach.org

www.npr.org Morning Edition: February 25, 2003

Carter Urges More Diplomacy on Iraq

BOB EDWARDS, host: When former President Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December, he concluded his acceptance speech with these words. Former President JIMMY CARTER: Ladies and gentlemen, war may sometimes be a necessary evil, but no matter how necessary, it is always evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children. EDWARDS: Carter has been a tireless advocate for peace through his non-profit Carter Center. His advocacy has, at times, made him a critic of the Bush administration's policies toward Iraq and North Korea. In his new book, "The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture," Carter outlines how peace should be the foundation of any country's foreign relations. This view still leaves room for war, he says, especially in the case of Iraq. Mr. CARTER: The American people have two basic commitments that are pretty universal. One is that we want Iraq to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction, and secondly, we'd like to do this peacefully. My hope is, and my prayer is, that we can accomplish both those goals. The bottom line is that Iraq must comply with United Nations resolutions to eradicate all weapons of mass destruction, and I think that if Iraq refuses to comply, then the war would be inevitable. EDWARDS: You were critical in the past of the Bush administration's reluctance to take the case against Iraq to the United Nations. Do you support a second UN resolution backing military action against Iraq? Mr. CARTER: Yes, I do. As I expressed in this book, I think that this is a very good move to strengthen the United Nations and not to weaken it, and to strengthen our ties with our natural allies and others around the world who want to see this issue resolved, but resolved peacefully, if possible, through the United Nations. EDWARDS: What about the breakdown in ties with France and Germany and the United States? Is this a temporary breach or a real cause for concern? Mr. CARTER: I really believe it's a temporary breach, just based on this one argument, and I don't have much doubt that the leaders of France and Germany are now representing, fairly accurately, a majority of people throughout Europe. EDWARDS: As president, you tried not to take sides in the Middle East as a means of brokering a peace agreement. What do you make of the Bush administration's approach? Mr. CARTER: I think that the present stalemate in the Mideast, and the lack of vigor in the United States government in seeking a resolution is one of the major causes of dissention, not only in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, but throughout the world. It has driven a dividing line between us and Muslims throughout the world and others who think that the United States is the only avenue to peace. This is the first time since Israel became a nation, and certainly since the 1967 War, when the American government has not tried to take a balanced role and tried to negotiate forcefully to bring about peace. We're not doing that now. EDWARDS: What should the US be doing to help resolve the Middle East problem? Mr. CARTER: I would like to see our government continue to work with the so-called other members of the quartet--that is Russia, Great Britain and the United Nations--evolve a proposal on the Mideast based on United Nations Resolution 242; that is a withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories and a peaceful relationship without terrorist acts in the Mideast and pursue this aggressively at the negotiating table, as I did when I was in the White House, as other presidents all the way through President Clinton have done vigorously, including George Bush, Sr., and make an effort to bring the two parties to a table with a hope of peace and justice for both sides. EDWARDS: And in North Korea? You helped ease tensions between the US and North Korea in 1994 by negotiating for peace. What should the US do now? Mr. CARTER: Well, I would like to see us find some avenue to have direct talks with North Korea. What we have at this moment is a deadlock, and what I've advocated is that through some mechanism--either sponsored by China or Russia or some other means--that we find an excuse to save face, but also to negotiate directly with the North Koreans. My hope is, and my belief is, is this is what the North Koreans want and that there can be a resolution of this issue peacefully. EDWARDS: You promote pace and democracy abroad through the Carter Center. Do you worry there's too much pushing and not enough diplomacy in current US foreign policy? Mr. CARTER: Well, I think the diplomatic effort in this present standoff, concerning both North Korea and Iraq, has not been adequate. The public opinion polls that I have seen, almost throughout the world, show that America has not yet prevailed in convincing other countries or other peoples that our policies are correct. I know that Secretary of State Colin Powell is now in the Far East, in China, on the way to South Korea to try to convince the other nations that our policy in not negotiating with North Korean is a proper one. So far, he's not been successful. EDWARDS: With so much attention on Iraq and North Korea, is another part of the world being neglected? Mr. CARTER: Well, the Carter Center's involved every day in Venezuela, and we've helped in four different elections in Venezuela in the last five years. Venezuela and Bolivia are trouble spots. We've already mentioned a part that I think is being neglected between Israel and the Palestinians. Africa is always much more greatly in need. So, yes, the rest of the world is often neglected, and I think that a lot of the world was neglected when I was in office as well. EDWARDS: As you travel abroad, have you noticed a significant rise in anti-American sentiment? Mr. CARTER: I think the anti-American sentiment now is at the highest point that I have ever witnessed in my life. The Carter Center now has programs in 65 different countries in the world--35 of them are in Africa--and there's a great expression of anti-American feeling, and this is exhibited not only to diplomats, but also to business leaders and others who come back home and make their reports. Yes, I think the anti-American sentiment is very high right now. EDWARDS: Why? Mr. CARTER: I think it's primarily because we've abandoned any real effort to bring peace to the Mideast, and the fact that we have persisted in moving, at least rhetorically, against Iraq with the insinuation that we would do it unilaterally. EDWARDS: Or is just a product of being the last remaining superpower? Mr. CARTER: Well, as a matter of fact, as I tried to explain in my Nobel address, this is the first time in world history that there has been one unquestioned superpower, economically, military, politically and even, I would say, socially and culturally in many ways. And this has aroused from opposition, some jealousy, some animosity toward America just because of our extreme success. EDWARDS: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. CARTER: It's been a pleasure to talk to you. EDWARDS: Former President Jimmy Carter's new book is "The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture." An extended version of the interview is at npr.org. The time is 29 minutes past the hour. Copyright ©2003 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript may not be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission. For further information, please contact NPR's Permissions Coordinator at (202) 513-2000. This transcript was created by a contractor for NPR, and NPR has not verified its accuracy. For all NPR programs, the broadcast audio should be considered the authoritative version. To purchase an audiotape of this piece, please order online or call 1-877-NPR-TEXT.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 02.25.03, 2:00 PM ET

PARIS - The United States fired a diplomatic warning shot across France's bows in its struggle to win United Nations backing for a war against Iraq. The U.S. ambassador to Paris said his country would consider "very unfriendly" any French veto of a new U.S.-British resolution.

LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair dismissed a Franco-German plan for peaceful disarmament of Iraq, saying it was "absurd" to think U.N. inspectors could find lethal weapons without Baghdad's full cooperation.

UNITED NATIONS - In a new sign of Iraqi cooperation with U.N. arms inspectors, Baghdad disclosed it had found documents relating to the disposal of weapons of mass destruction in 1991and to an R-400 bomb, chief inspector Hans Blix said.

ANKARA - Turkey said it was preparing to open ports and air bases to some 62,000 U.S. troops for a possible invasion of Iraq -- once it concludes a deal with Washington on financial support and military co-operation.

KUALA LUMPUR - Non-Aligned Movement leaders told the United States to give peace a chance in Iraq and U.N. Security Council members among them said they were in no rush to back a resolution that could lead to war.

WASHINGTON - Warplanes taking part in U.S.-British patrols attacked five missile sites in northern and southern Iraq, including a battlefield rocket launcher within range of American troops massed in Kuwait, the U.S. military said.

SEOUL - North Korea test-fired a missile and accused the United States of conducting spy flights, upstaging the inauguration of South Korea's new president attended by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

GAZA - A Palestinian teenager was killed by shrapnel and 11 people hurt in clashes with Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, hospital sources said, but a rare snowstorm kept violence in check in the West Bank.

URUMQI, China - Rescue workers with search dogs combed the rubble of flattened villages in near freezing weather in northwest China in hopes of finding survivors from an earthquake that killed at least 265 people.

BEIJING - Blasts caused by homemade explosives tore through cafeterias at China's top two universities within two hours of each other, injuring at least nine people, police and school authorities said. No one immediately claimed responsibility.

CARACAS - Two bombs tore into Spanish and Colombian diplomatic missions in Caracas injuring five people less than 48 hours after President Hugo Chavez accused the two nations of meddling in Venezuela's political crisis.

ATHENS - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said it was decision time for a deal to reunify Cyprus, split between ethnic Greek and Turkish communities for almost three decades.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - A gunman opened fire at an employment agency in Huntsville, Alabama, killing four people and wounding one other, authorities said.

www.delawareonline.com By MAUREEN MILFORD Staff reporter 02/21/2003

In a clear indication that world events are dampening Delaware's economy, 40 percent of manufacturers in the region said geopolitical uncertainties are impeding their 2003 hiring and spending plans, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported Thursday.

As part of its monthly survey of the region's manufacturing sector, the bank asked 100 companies in Delaware, southern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania about the impact of world politics on their businesses. The threat of a war with Iraq, domestic turmoil in Venezuela, terrorism and rising tensions between the United States and North Korea are among the unsettled questions affecting the economy, the bank said.

Most companies - 58 percent - said lack of business demand has been a drag on hiring and capital spending, but two out of five businesses said world events are having an adverse affect.

Of the group concerned about geopolitical uncertainties, 79 percent said the negative impact on hiring is slight, while 12 percent characterized it as significant.

When it comes to capital spending, or expenditures on land, buildings, equipment, furniture and fixtures, 36 percent of the regional companies reported a significant harmful impact from geopolitical uncertainties, while another 58 percent reported the impact as slight.

In recent weeks, economists have said Delaware's economy will not pick up steam until the crisis with Iraq has been resolved. Unlike other economic recoveries that followed recessions since World War II, employment and business investment have not rebounded. That has led some economists to call it a jobless recovery.

Once geopolitical questions are eliminated, 59 percent of the businesses said they would increase hiring within six months and 10 percent said hiring would grow immediately. In addition, 53 percent said capital spending would increase within six months.

As for its monthly survey of manufacturing health, the Philadelphia Fed reported that its general business activity index fell to 2.3 in February, down from 11.2 in January and well below economists' expectations for the month.

"Although manufacturers still expect economic conditions to improve over the next six months, they have generally grown much less optimistic," the bank said.

The Philadelphia Fed, which has been doing a monthly business outlook survey since 1968, said it surveys the manufacturing sector because it is one of the first sectors to feel the effects of an economic downturn.

The Fed's monthly indexes, covering current activity, employment, shipments, inventories and prices, show the difference between the percentage of manufacturers that saw increases and percentage of companies that saw declines.

Simply put, anything above zero signals growth, while a negative number indicates a contraction, according to Katherine Woodbury, spokeswoman for the bank.

Manufacturing employment in February remained negative with the index at minus 0.9. However, that's an improvement from minus 6.1 in January.

Looking ahead six months, the future employment index rose to 16 from 5.4.

The index for future capital spending also rose, from 9.5 in January to 12.9 in February.

Reach Maureen Milford at 324-2881 or at mmilford@delawareonline.com.