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NEW YORK: US officials believe they have found a big chunk of Saddam Hussein "legendary fortune" and that as much as three billion dollars in Iraqi assets are lying in Syrian-controlled banks, a media report said. "Washington is anxious to determine that the money is not funding violence against Americans in Iraq, or being drawn down by regime officials and supporters", the Time Magazine says. Since the fall of Baghdad in April, the report says, American officials have scoured the globe in search of Saddam Hussein's legendary fortune. For months, the report says, the US has quietly insisted that Damascus...

Postwar comparisons are many and inevitable - and sometimes they're accurate WASHINGTON – "History is more or less bunk," Henry Ford once famously declared – and that's more or less how some historians and critics view Bush administration efforts to equate today's Iraq with Germany after World War II. As concern over continuing U.S. troop casualties and unexpectedly high costs to rebuild Iraq has risen recently weeks, administration officials have sought to reassure the public by describing the situation as similar to postwar Germany. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer and other...

In a discussion related to comparing White House communications offices in Dem and GOP administrations, CBS News Chief White House correspondent Bill Plante said last week: "The media is mostly left-leaning. It is difficult to turn out graduates in majors relating to the media who are at the right of the political spectrum. So the media gets to be leaning to the liberal side. ...The Democratic party sees the media as their ally." Obviously he has not read the various temper tantrums thrown by the likes of Eric Alterman who insist the media is not liberal.

LONDON: A British police force is planning to open a station in Jammu and Kashmir to tackle criminals who flee there after committing crimes in Britain or target Britain from the Kashmir, according to a media report. West Midlands Police will set up the new base, which will be the first overseas station for British police, in Srinagar, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. British police officers in Kashmir will not carry weapons but will be accompanied by armed troops and Indian police officers on operations. Only the Indian officers will have full police powers, including that of arrest. The force...

<p>HONOLULU — The first U.S. Navy vessel to dock in Vietnam in almost 30 years is due to arrive there on a landmark port call in November, according to a military source and a former U.S. ambassador. The military contact is the first since the United States pulled out of Vietnam in 1975, withdrawing from a war that cost the United States more than 58,000 lives and left an estimated 1.3 million to 3 million North and South Vietnamese dead. There are an estimated 1,200 American POW/MIAs still unaccounted for. A military official said Friday the ship would dock for five days in what was largely a symbolic gesture reflecting the deepening bilateral relationship between the United States and the communist republic. A spokesman for the Navy's Pacific Command declined to comment, citing security reasons. Bilateral ties between the United States and Vietnam have been improving slowly since the former foes resumed diplomatic relations in 1995. A bilateral trade agreement was signed in 2000, and a deal to resume commercial flights between the two countries was signed on Thursday. "The military-to-military aspect is in a developmental stage," said former Ambassador Charles B. Salmon Jr., currently a foreign policy adviser at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, a Pentagon-funded think tank. Vietnamese Defense Minister Pham Van Tra is due to visit the United States later this year, Mr. Salmon and the military source both said. It will be the first visit by a Vietnamese defense minister since the end of the Vietnam War. Mr. Tra's visit takes place after Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien's recent trip to the United States. Mr. Salmon said that despite the growing relationship the issues of POW/MIAs and human rights violations in Vietnam were still of significant concern for many Americans. The communist government, which tightly controls religion, has clashed and arrested dissident Buddhist monks and refused to recognize Pope John Paul II's appointment of Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man as Ho Chi Minh City's new cardinal.</p>

Dan Frisa Saturday, Oct. 11, 2003 Former four-star general and newly minted Democrat presidential candidate Wesley Clark’s comments and behavior raise serious doubts about his mental and emotional stability and his very fitness to hold the highest office in the land. Campaigning in New Hampshire last month, Clark discussed his fervent belief in time travel: "I happen to believe that mankind can do it. I've argued with physicists about it, I've argued with best friends about it. I just have to believe it. It's my only faith-based initiative." What was he thinking? It’s sad, really. The man is certainly well...

<p>Gray Davis did not campaign in 1998 to be the education governor. He hardly mentioned the subject, other than to say he favored mandatory homework for children and requiring parents to sign compacts promising to spend time helping their kids with school.</p>

Eat some Chocolate Cake and just Relax..!!Maybe not!.. It's A GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS story...We always knew this was so, but most of us were at a loss to explain it.. Eating something devilish, like cake or anything sweet, makes us simmer down.Well, let me try to explain it in words that may assist us all in understanding.. This is with the help of, none other than the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.THE GOOD NEWS. Those sweet and fatty foods that we often turn to in times of stress might in fact calm nerves, and relieve anxiety. That's the good...

As a well informed political wonk and news junkie the only argument George Bush had to present to me for war with Iraq was the well documented fact that Saddam Hussein was giving the parents of Palaniastian suicide bombers (terrorists) $25,000. This inducement for Palestinian parents to sell their children on the idea of an early death was a good investment for terrorist supporter Saddam Hussein to stir the pot further fomenting the Palestinian/ Israeli conflict that is the burr under the saddle of every Muslim alive. This animus by design practiced by Osuma, Saddam and others bonds Muslims together...

What advice would Jesse have for Arnold? Jesse "The Mind" Ventura calls Arnold "The Body" Schwarzenegger to congratulate him on his win in the California recall election: Jesse: You hoss! You gave that guy Davis the Figure Four, the knee drop and the full Nelson! Arnold: "Hasta la vista, baby!" Thank you, Kallyfornia! Jesse: I've got Rowdy Roddy Piper and Stone Cold Steve Austin here, and they want to know if you're hitting the creatine again? Your arms look HUGE, man. HUGE. Bigger than Gary Coleman. Arnold: No, really, I'm hitting the books with Warren Buffett. We've got to get...

TWIN FALLS, Idaho - A man who died when his parachute failed to deploy as he jumped from the Perrine Bridge over the Snake River Canyon was a skydiving instructor from Pennsylvania who logged thousands of skydives and more than 100 BASE jumps, his friend and business associate said. Jason Corcoran, 30, of Butler County, Pa., launched from the Twin Falls-area bridge, which is 486 feet above the river, and then tried a back flip. The parachute did not deploy and he hit the water at about 90 mph late Thursday afternoon, Twin Falls County sheriff"s Sgt. Don Neuman said....

Edward Walter "Ed" Gillespie is long accustomed to operating behind the scenes as a seasoned administrative assistant, campaign strategist and lobbyist on Capitol Hill. But as chairman of the Republican National Party, he will be out front and on the spot as the party leader during the 2004 elections. Mr. Gillespie, a New Jersey native, served for 10 years as press spokesman and adviser to Rep. Dick Armey of Texas and was general strategist for Elizabeth Dole's 2002 Senate campaign in North Carolina. Among Washington insiders, he is known for being more pragmatic than doctrinaire, with an informal, easygoing demeanor....

By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH Published: October 12, 2003 Many state and local governments, facing ballooning pension promises to police officers, firefighters, teachers and other public employees, are rushing to sell bonds to cover the shortfall. That strategy has sometimes backfired in recent years, leaving taxpayers on the hook for even more debt. States and municipalities are drawn to bond sales because they bring instant cash, easing budget pressures without further tax increases or reductions in retirement benefits. But critics say the bonds could prove costly for some officials using them — and for the local taxpayers. The cities and states...

Daniel Pearl music day was celebrated at Indigo in Goa on the eve of his birthday. The late Wall Street Journal reporter was killed by jehadi militants last year. Photo: Newindpress PANAJI: Musicians and singers from across India on Friday performed in Goa for the slain American journalist Daniel Pearl to mark what would have been his 40th birthday. Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in February last year while investigating links between the al Qaeda network, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks and suspected shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Artists performed to an...

Roadside Bomb Wounds Three U.S. Soldiers in Iraq Sun October 12, 2003 08:35 AM ET TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - A roadside bomb exploded outside a sprawling U.S. base in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit Sunday, wounding three soldiers, one seriously, an Army spokesman said. The explosives were detonated just outside a gate at the headquarters for Task Force Ironhorse as two U.S. Humvee vehicles were passing, said First Lt. Don Calderwood, a spokesman for the 1st Brigade, 22nd Infantry Battalion. "The explosion was sandwiched between the two Humvees, and blew out one of the windshields," he said. Calderwood said two...

Oct. 12 — By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked recently to explain why he is taking such heat after enjoying "rock-star popularity" not too long ago among his admirers following U.S. military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Well, that's life, isn't it?" Rumsfeld told reporters. "Life's a roller coaster." In the roller coaster ride of Washington politics, Rumsfeld appears to be on a downward trajectory, according to U.S. officials and analysts. They cite as evidence President Bush's formation of an interagency Iraq Stabilization Group headed by Condoleezza Rice, the White House national security adviser,...

<p>WASHINGTON -- Wesley K. Clark's fledgling presidential campaign hit another bump last night, with rival Democrats launching their toughest attacks yet on the retired general's past support of Republicans and his shifting positions on the war with Iraq.</p> <p>"I must say, I've been very disappointed since Wes Clark came into this race about the various positions he has taken on the war against Saddam Hussein," Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman said near the opening of last night's nine-candidate debate in Phoenix, the fourth such meeting during the past month between the aspirants for the 2004 nomination.</p>

<p>Many in the "mainstream" news media have decided that their principal job is to elect Democrats. If some facts must be ignored, and others distorted in order to bring this about, so be it.</p> <p>The Los Angeles Times discarded what shreds remained of its reputation for journalistic integrity in its efforts to keep Gov. Gray Davis from being recalled. The electioneering efforts of the LA Times consisted principally, but by no means exclusively, of its front-page story, the Thursday before the election, in which six women -- four of them anonymously -- accused Republican frontrunner Arnold Schwarzenegger of having groped them.</p>

Here's some good news you may have missed in your daily wire reports......... ******* During last week's sixth month anniversary of the liberation of Baghdad, those on the "front lines" of victory and stabilization shared progress reports, and the meaning of freedom: Fairpress: Washington D.C., Oct. 10, 2003 -- "Ask the White House" After 6 months in Iraq as Senior Advisor to Ambassador Bremer, Dan Senor entertained and informed interested visitors to the White House website last week. On progress and press coverage: "Since I spent most of my time in Iraq, I don’t see all the U.S. coverage, but...

<p>The pharmaceutical industry's trade group spent $8.5 million in lobbying this year as it worked against a bill to allow importation of government-approved drugs.</p> <p>The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America spent the money lobbying Congress and federal agencies in the first half of this year, the most the group has ever spent in a reporting period, according to federal reports reviewed by The Associated Press. Lobbying totals cover expenses such as salaries and mailings but not campaign contributions.</p>