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<p>Berlin (dpa) - Battling for reelection in a tight race, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's party is putting up campaign posters showing flag-draped coffins of dead American soldiers to underline their opposition to the Iraq war, reports said Friday.</p> <p>Rolf Schwanitz, a state secretary in the Berlin chancellery, is using a poster with five coffins covered by the American stars and stripes being loaded into a transport aircraft flanked by a U.S. military honour guard. The caption of the poster is aimed at conservative challenger Angela Merkel, who backed the Iraq war while always vowing not to send German troops.</p>

As someone who travels pretty extensively outside the United States -- usually a couple or three times each year due to work -- I'm aware of the negative impressions many Europeans hold about us Americans. But having spent the past two weeks vacationing in Europe, even I was surprised by the increase in anti-American feelings expressed by German, Dutch, French and Italian citizens, especially at a time when you'd expect our European "friends" to be doubly sympathetic due to the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. Don't get me wrong. A great many Europeans I met during this vacation expressed strong, even emotional...

BATON ROUGE, United States (AFP) - Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco angrily accused the federal government of not moving fast enough to recover bodies of Hurricane Katrina's victims, and said the state would hire the private contractor doing the work to keep the job going. "No one, it seems, even those at the highest level, seems to be able to break through the bureaucracy ... I'm angry and outraged by this situation," Blanco said as she met with Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu and other statewide elected officials. She said she had pleaded with Michael Chertoff and other federal officials to issue...

Europeans getting tainted hurricane news September 13, 2005 BY JOHN O'SULLIVAN LONDON -- Two narratives of Hurricane Katrina dominated the news media of Europe over the last weeks. One was the story of the hurricane tearing its way through the Gulf shores of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, especially New Orleans. This was a powerful and gripping account of how small towns had been half-swept away, people stranded in their homes as the waters rose, those seeking refuge attacked by criminals and looters, buses left abandoned to the flood when transport was golden, and the authorities overwhelmed by countless calamities. In...

Will Somebody Say Thank You? Turn on TV, read the local newspaper or listen to your local radio station, and all you are going to hear, see and read are accounts of people knee-deep in playing the blame game. What you don't hear is anybody saying "thank you." From the safety of France, Pierce Brosnan took the time to tell the world: "This man called President Bush has a lot to answer for. I don't know if this man is really taking care of America. This government has been shameful." Instead of lifting a finger to help Katrina's victims, this...

The senior senator from Louisiana returned to the Capitol on Thursday not just as a lawmaker but also, in her words, as "a daughter of the Crescent City." The senator, Mary L. Landrieu, whose father was a storied mayor of New Orleans, whose brother is Louisiana's lieutenant governor, who walked her children out of her lakeside home expecting, correctly, that she would never see it again, was back in the Senate chamber, full of passion and rage at President Bush and what she called "the staggering incompetence of the national government." Ms. Landrieu, a Democrat who was nearly put out...

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- A conservative German minister in a southern state has caused uproar by saying U.S. President George W. Bush should be "shot down" for his handling of the crisis in hurricane-struck New Orleans. During a visit to a local company on Tuesday, Renner said of Bush: "He ought to be shot down." He later retracted the remark, saying he meant Bush should be shot down "in a political sense", according to the Reutlinger General-Anzeiger newspaper. Opposition Social Democrat (SPD) politicians in the state called for his resignation, noting conservatives were quick to call for the resignation in...

¸ Local FEMA manager said he is sad processing for aid takes so long. By ROBBYN BROOKS Daily News Staff Writer Mississippi evacuee Luan Morgan tried to keep the tone of her voice pleasant for the sake of her 5-year-old daughter Sunday, but her anger was easy to see. “I need help now,” Morgan said. “We don’t have any way to get home. There’s no gas. There’s no nothing.” Morgan evacuated from her Lumberton, Miss., home the Saturday before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. She brought her daughter, Nichole, three days worth of clothing and not much else. “I...

Civil rights leaders, church officials and rap stars have united in ferocious criticism of President George Bush's attitude towards the tens of thousands of black people still trying to escape the hell of New Orleans. An overwhelming majority of the refugees are African-Americans, who make up 67 per cent of the city's half-million population, and some are questioning whether the government's response would have been quicker had the catastrophe struck a white community. The Reverend Calvin Butts, president of New York City's Council of Churches, writes in today's Observer: 'If this hurricane had struck a white middle-class neighbourhood in the...

Do you want to know what the definition of ungrateful is? It is being clearly spelled out for us in the world's response – or rather, its lack of response – to the carnage wrought by Hurricane Katrina earlier this week. Though much of the U.S. Gulf Coast, including a healthy portion of our oil and gas production and refining capability – 30 percent of which resides in the Gulf of Mexico region – lies in ruins; though tens of billions of dollars in damage has been done; though hundreds of American citizens have been killed; though millions could be...

In the middest of the chaos and despair, that is in the City of New Orleans, there have been people waiting for at least three days for food and water. The media has been squawking the loudest about the slowness of the food convoys. When a truckload of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) finally arrived in to help feed the masses, that have not had any food or water; you would think that these people would be grateful. That seems to be not the case in the eyes of some people. Yes, that is right, there are some people that...

BERLIN, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Germany said on Wednesday the United States was partly to blame for record oil prices and should look to extend its refining capacity after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc at U.S. refineries, hitting output. Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement told German radio that the damage to U.S. refining capacity caused by the storm would likely prompt American industry to buy more oil in Europe, which could further inflate prices. "On this I must say the United States has had insufficient refining capacity for a long time, and this is presumably now impaired, so the situation is coming...

When a tsunami hit South Asia in December, the world mobilized to help and aid poured in. Now that parts of America are underwater, the US is handling the relief work virtually alone. What is going on? Virtually overnight, fun-loving New Orleans transformed from America's playground into a waterlogged wasteland. Photos of houses and highways underwater and reports of dead bodies floating in swampy debris and frightened refugees huddling for cover have left us mute. Hurricane Katrina turned out to be at least as violent as expected and will likely turn out to be among the biggest hurricanes of all...

Rich nations can also suffer from natural disasters, says UN agency chief 30 August 2005 – The devastation being wrought in the south-eastern United States by Hurricane Katrina and the recent deadly floods in Central Europe and Switzerland prove that “anyone can be affected, any day, anywhere” by natural disaster, said the head of the United Nations disaster-reduction body, calling for more systematic prevention and mitigation measures. “As a tourist or as a traveller, we can be faced by natural disasters that do not exist in our country. Therefore we have to be constantly prepared for all types of natural...

Allowing Mexicans who pay into U.S. Social Security to collect benefits would place a long-term drain on the system since Mexican workers are less-educated and tend to have more dependents, according to a new congressional report. The report, released last week by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), looks at the effects of a "totalization" agreement with Mexico. Right now Mexican workers who are in the United States temporarily must pay into both the U.S. and Mexican systems but cannot get U.S. benefits. Totalization would allow them to pay into just one system, and collect benefits based on the time they...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 3, 2005 Contact: Rob Toonkel rtoonkel@usenglish.org (202) 833-0100 Spanish Set to Become Official Language of Seven Denver Public Library Branches In a sharp break from American tradition, the Denver Public Library is promoting a plan that would make seven of its branches “Spanish focused,” banishing English language books to the backroom. The “Languages and Learning” plan would dramatically increase Spanish language offerings and staff, designating some locations as Spanish dominant. The proposal is currently under review by the Library Commission and an advisory board. “Denver’s action is a dubious first in American history: a major U.S....

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

REVEL, France - (KRT) - Lance Armstrong is counting down the days now, and the rest of international cycling is counting right along with him. "It's been great, but it's time to do something else," Armstrong said as he approaches Sunday's finish line of his seventh straight Tour de France victory. He doesn't get any argument from the other riders who have tired of chasing the Texan for all these miles over all these years. The American domination has become something of a sore subject, particularly in France. It is one thing for the French to be second-best to Italy,...

In a recent interview on CNBC with Ron Insana, one of the "old-timer" funds manager, Julian Robertson, predicted "utter global collapse" as a consequence of the bursting of the world-wide property bubble. Often called "Never Been Wrong Robertson", the former head of Tiger Management (once the largest hedge fund in the world), is extremely worried about the speculative bubble in real estate. Specifically, he is very worried about a world that is sustained by American consumer spending which is in turn 1/4 sustained by a property bubble. He predicts that 20 million people could lose their homes once the property...

Herman Santiago of Wapato listens to a speaker along with a group of farm workers during a rally at Dinosaur Park in Granger on Thursday. Jose Guadalupe Perez-Farias, 48, is worried. He's worked in the fields of the Yakima Valley since age 7, and he's raised a family of nine. Now he believes the appearance of workers from Thailand in those same fields threatens his livelihood. "My concern is that the growers don't want to give work to the local people," Perez-Farias said Thursday evening. Perez-Farias, of Sunnyside, had just attended a rally in Granger where about 100 farm workers,...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cmp/20050715/tc_cmp/165702500 UN Panel: No Single Nation Should Control Internet Addresses Aoife White Thu Jul 14, 9:38 PM ET BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)--A U.N. panel created to recommend how the Internet should be run in the future has failed to reach consensus but did agree that no single country should dominate. The United States stated two weeks ago that it intended to maintain control over the computers that serve as the Internet's principal traffic cops. In a report released Thursday, the U.N. panel outlined four possible options for the future of Internet governance for world leaders to consider at a November "Information...

London (KurdishMedia.com) 15 July, 2005: The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Turkey reserves the right to make military incursions into South Kurdistan to pursue guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK], reported the news agency AFP on Thursday. "There are certain things that international law allows. When necessary, one can carry out cross-border operations [...] This can be done when the conditions require [...] We hope that such conditions will not emerge", Erdogan was quoted as saying. AFP also reported that Erdogan had noted that Turkey had no immediate plans for such a cross-border operation and...

Here is the list so far for sponcers to this hate America fest: ANSWER Code Pink UFPJ NION Al Awda World Workers Party Ruckas Revolutionary Communist party Moveon.org ACORN Campus Antiwar Network International Socialist Org Greens Party Muslim Student Association CPUSA

Kerry and Clinton call for Rove's ouster CAPITOL HILL Former presidential candidate John Kerry says "Karl Rove ought to be fired." Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton -- a possible 2008 presidential contender -- nodded in agreement. The two appeared together on Capitol Hill. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid says the matter of leaking a C-I-A agent's identity "rises above politics and is about our national security."

WASHINGTON — Megan Watson, leader of Mainstream Moms, is so angry at military recruiters for invading schools to sign up unwary youth for combat in Iraq that she and her group launched an online movement, “LeaveMyChildAlone.org.” “They offer these trinkets to lure our children to enlist,” Watson said in a phone interview from her home in Bolinas, Calif. “This is very aggressive, demographic targeting to have conversations with our kids that should not be happening.” All branches of the military are falling short of recruiting goals as parents say, in effect, “Hell no! My kids won’t go!” Watson blasted the...

A recent high school graduate who alleged that she was recruited into the National Guard through deceptive practices did not appear for her entry training Wednesday and now is considered absent without leave, officials said. Faustner's mother, Joan Koberly, said her daughter had been attending the monthly drill weekends at the Allentown National Guard Armory but stopped in April on the advice of her lawyer, John Roberts. Roberts said Thursday that a recruiter had told Faustner that the Army National Guard would send her to nursing school after basic training, but instead her unit had been told it had a...

SEOUL President Roh Moo Hyun declared Thursday that under no circumstances would South Korea allow the United States to resort to a military attack against North Korea. President George W. Bush insists that he wants to resolve the nuclear crisis through diplomacy, but he has not officially ruled out a military option, which he has called a "last choice."

A.N.S .W.E.R.'s response to Bush:Hit the Streets September 24!Recognizing that the people of the United States have turned dramat ically against the war and occupation of Iraq, Bush went on national televi sion tonight to defend his imperial foreign policy. He repea tedly invoked September 11 as a pretext for the criminal and illegal war ag ainst Iraq. Bush took to the airwaves tonight because the antiwar m ovement is growing in strength. Our power poses a major poli tical obstacle to the continuation of the war and occupation. Now Bush has taken on the additional role of Recruiter-in-Chi ef, urging young people to sign up for military...

June 30, 2005 – Washington, DC – PipeLineNews - Hudson Institute released new private international giving numbers today in a White Paper, America's Total Economic Engagement with the Developing World, by Dr. Carol Adelman, Mr. Jeremiah Norris and Ms. Jeanne Weicher. Updating their research on American generosity, the authors found at least $62.1 billion in U.S. private donations to developing countries in 2003, the last year numbers are available. This philanthropy, from U.S. foundations, corporations, non-profits and volunteerism, universities and colleges, religious organizations and individuals is over three and one-half times U.S. Official Development Assistance (ODA) of $16.3 billion. While...

According to sources familiar with the intelligence community discussion on this issue, there is mounting evidence that the Pakistani military - and its intelligence wing Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) - is nurturing its deep ties to Islamist extremists including those sheltering the Al Qaeda leadership and leaders of the Afghan Taliban.

President George W Bush has proposed doubling US aid to Africa over the next five years. He said this would happen if African leaders made a commitment to honest government and the rule of law. Outlining his priorities for the G8 summit next week, Mr Bush said the West now had an extraordinary opportunity to help end extreme poverty in Africa. But on the other main issue facing the summit - climate change - he gave no indication of a compromise. The president criticised those who opposed energy development and wanted to place restrictions upon it. "About two billion people...

BEIJING, June 29 (UPI) -- China expressed opposition to interference in a government-controlled oil company's bid for the U.S.-based oil company Unocal, state media said Wednesday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said that China National Offshore Oil Corporation's $18.5 billion offer for Unocal was "normal commercial activity between enterprises." Liu said "economic cooperation between China and the U.S. serves the interests of both sides and commercial activities should not be interfered in or disturbed by political elements." There are growing concerns in Washington over the deal as some U.S. officials are uncomfortable with CNOOC, 70 percent owned by the Chinese...

UNITED NATIONS, June 29 -- United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan asked the United States this week to consider sending troops to Haiti to support a U.N. peacekeeping mission beset by mounting armed challenges to its authority, according to senior U.N. officials. Annan told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a meeting at U.N. headquarters Tuesday afternoon that he may have to ask for American "boots on the ground" in the coming months to reinforce more than 6,500 Brazilian, Chilean, Argentine and other peacekeeping forces serving in Haiti, the officials said. He expressed hope that the United States would participate...

At the culmination of a gathering of global 'antiwar' groups in Istanbul to hold court on the liberation of Iraq led by the United States and the United Kingdom, the jurors who heard testimony against the liberators issued their findings which included a declaration of support for the terrorists in Iraq who are killing American, British and coalition soldiers and Iraqis.The World Tribunal on Iraq is endorsed by leading leftwing organizations from around the world including American-based groups like Not in Our Name Project, United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink and International ANSWER.The war on terror has reached a...

House vote squeezes Mexico Threat to cut off U.S. aid tied to extraditing suspects in cop killings By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News June 29, 2005 WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives sent a stern message to Mexico on Tuesday night, voting to block $66 million in U.S. aid if the country does not extradite suspected cop-killers without strings attached. Angered by the killing of Denver Police Detective Donald Young, the House voted 327-98 to approve an amendment offered by Rep. Bob Beauprez, R-Arvada, to a foreign operations spending bill. Advertisement It calls for cutting off U.S. aid to any...

£220bn stolen by Nigeria's corrupt rulers By David Blair in Abuja (Filed: 25/06/2005) The scale of the task facing Tony Blair in his drive to help Africa was laid bare yesterday when it emerged that Nigeria's past rulers stole or misused £220 billion. That is as much as all the western aid given to Africa in almost four decades. The looting of Africa's most populous country amounted to a sum equivalent to 300 years of British aid for the continent.The figures, compiled by Nigeria's anti-corruption commission, provide dramatic evidence of the problems facing next month's summit in Gleneagles of the...

PRETORIA -- African nations are refusing to accept US Food and Drug Administration approval of generic AIDS drugs, delaying the delivery of the less costly medicine to patients, according to US, UN, African, and drug company officials. The problem highlights the lack of coordination between parallel US and UN drug regulators, which is frustrating US efforts to rapidly expand treatment in regions hardest-hit by the deadly virus.

Sri Lanka charges Oxfam £500,000 to allow in jeeps (Filed: 17/06/2005) Oxfam has had to pay £550,000 in customs duty to the Sri Lankan government for importing 25 four-wheel-drive vehicles to help victims of the tsunami, The Daily Telegraph has learned. The sum was levied by customs in Colombo which have refused to grant tax exemptions to non-governmental organisations working to repair damage caused by the giant Boxing Day wave. The Indian-made Mahindra vehicles, essential to negotiate damaged roads and rough tracks, remained stuck in port at Colombo for almost a month as officials completed the small mountain of paperwork...

South Korean students hold anti-U.S. rally Associated Press May 29, 2005 SEOUL, South Korea - Thousands of South Korean students rallying Sunday against the U.S. military's five-decade presence clashed with police after trying to enter the American base, and at least 12 people were injured and more than 20 were arrested. Demonstrators marched through Seoul before attempting to enter the main Yongsan U.S. military base in the city center. They called for the withdrawal of the 32,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. Demonstrators also gathered near the U.S. Embassy in downtown Seoul...

NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr urged Muslims across Iraq to paint US and Israeli flags at mosque entrances for worshippers to walk on in protest at the alleged desecration of the Koran at the US detention camp in Guantanamo. "In the name of God, the faithful of Iraq, especially those resisting the occupiers, have to respond to the desecration of God's immortal book by drawing the Israeli and US flags at the entrances of mosques and husseiniyas (prayer rooms) and all places of worship," said a statement issued by Sadr's movement. Iraqis at several Shiite mosques in...

SALEM -- The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the nation's renewed interest in border security have caused the debate over immigration to spill out of Congress and into Oregon's Capitol. Although immigration policy is largely a federal responsibility, the Legislature is considering several bills intended to crack down on people who are in the country illegally. They include making it tougher for immigrants -- some say even legal ones -- to get a driver's license, register to vote or secure a pay raise. Oregon lawmakers are "much more open" to talking about immigration issues than they used to be, says...

The Pope has blood on his hands The Pope did great damage to the church, and to countless Catholics Terry Eagleton Monday April 4, 2005 Guardian John Paul II became Pope in 1978, just as the emancipatory 60s were declining into the long political night of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. As the economic downturn of the early 70s began to bite, the western world made a decisive shift to the right, and the transformation of an obscure Polish bishop from Karol Wojtyla to John Paul II was part of this wider transition. The Catholic church had lived through its...

As Catholics mourned the death of Pope John Paul, French leftwingers and a major teaching union criticised the government on Monday for ordering flags on public buildings to be lowered in a sign of respect. Socialist senator Jean-Luc Melenchon and Yves Contassot, a senior Green party member on the Paris City Council, said the government had abused its powers in ordering the official tribute to the Pope, who died on Saturday. The Unsa union said the government was guilty of double standards having ordered schools to take part in the tribute to a religious leader but banned Muslim headscarves in...

KUWAIT CITY (AP) - The days when a U.S. Army truck could fill up for free at a gas station in this oil-rich state are coming to an end. Kuwait's energy minister said Thursday that U.S. troops are going to have to start paying for fuel. In a gift that must have saved the Pentagon a fortune, Kuwait has not charged the U.S. military for fuel since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Tens of thousands of American Humvees, trucks and armored vehicles have rolled through the country and across the desert border into Iraq during the past two...

WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday said it was "absurd" for a former hostage in Iraq (search) to charge that U.S. military forces may have deliberately targeted her car as she was being rushed to freedom. ~snip~Responding to Sgrena's statement that the car may have been deliberately targeted, McClellan said. "It's absurd to make any such suggestion, that our men and women in uniform would deliberately target innocent civilians. "That's just absurd," McClellan repeated. He said the airport road "has been a place where suicide car bombers have launched attacks. It's been a place where regime elements have fired...

MIDI - BELGIUM NATIONAL ANTHEM Hey, stinking Belgium, you're useless as can be, can be Stinking Belgium, we mock your history In the whole world there are few who are more spineless You're competing with Frenchmen, most agree Stinking Belgium, we had saved your rear end But you scum conveniently forgot We do not like when you attack our president So down in hell you guys can rot Now, stinking Belgium, ever stinking Belgium We're gonna give you the big ZOT Hey, eunuchs, do not ask for help We're gonna give you the big ZOT

Minnesota Republicans finally won one for the Gipper on Thursday, passing resolutions in the House and Senate declaring this Sunday (his birthday) as Ronald Reagan Day, and then upping the ante with a proposal to designate the Twin Cities Interstate 494/694 loop the "Ronald Reagan Beltway." Minnesota is the only state never to have voted for Reagan, and recent proposals in the aftermath of his death last June to rename the State Office Building and the Olson Memorial Highway (Hwy. 55) for Reagan have been panned by DFLers. (Floyd B. Olson was a radically liberal Farmer-Labor governor in the 1930s.)...

Even in death, Ronald Reagan can't catch a break in Minnesota. A resolution honoring the former Republican president's birthday caused partisan friction in the state Senate Thursday and passed only after it was retooled to mention the fact he never won Minnesota and tax increases that occurred under his watch. The Democratic-controlled Senate spent more than 30 minutes debating the Republican-offered resolution, which recognizes Reagan's Feb. 6 birthday. Reagan died in June of complications from Alzheimer's disease at age 93. Minnesota was the lone state not in Reagan's column in the 1984 election. It went for Democrat Walter Mondale, a...

THIS February will mark the 60th anniversary of the unwarranted death of over 100,000 civilians whose lives were sacrificed in the 1945 Battle of Manila. The casualty count was that immense because advancing US troops and their commander, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, did not consider that these non-American civilian lives deserved to be protected and secured by US troops whose role after all is to absorb the risk of war. But I wonder if anyone has even cared to remember this national tragedy? Next to Warsaw, Manila registered as the city most devastated by World War II. Early accounts obviously peddled...

Today, during an afternoon conference that wrapped up my project of the last 18 months, one of my Euro collegues tossed this little turd out to no one in particular: " See, this is why George Bush is so dumb, theres a disaster in the world and he sends an Aircraft Carrier..." After which he and many of my Euro collegues laughed out loud. and then they looked at me. I wasn't laughing, and neither was my Hindi friend sitting next to me, who has lost family in the disaster. I'm afraid I was "unprofessional", I let it loose -...