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WASHINGTON, Sept. 20, 2006 – Iraqi police forces now are trained and equipped to almost 100 percent of the level promised by the coalition and are improving in quality and capability every day, the U.S. general in charge of training the police said today. About 128,000 of the 135,000 planned Iraqi police have been trained and equipped, and the 135,000th policeman is in school now and will graduate in mid-October, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Peterson, commander of the civilian police assistance training team, said in a news conference from Iraq. The coalition will meet and probably exceed the planned...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Months beyond what was to be a three-week deathwatch, US humorist Art Buchwald is frustrated: rather than passing away quickly as his doctors predicted, he has to start shaving again, rewrite his will, and change his funeral plans. And get a new cellphone. But Buchwald, the Washington Post columnist who was diagnosed with fatal kidney disease early this year, said Tuesday in the paper that his unexpectedly long-lived last weeks haven't been so bad -- his doctor has now prescribed a holiday to Martha's Vineyard, the Massachusetts island resort. "I never realized dying was so much fun,"...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2005 – Iraqi security forces are proving their effectiveness against the terrorists trying to topple the country's new democratic government, a senior defense official said in Baghdad today. "We have crossed some threshold with the Iraqi security forces that enables us to leave them behind to be the persistent presence in these towns along the Euphrates River Valley, particularly up in Tal Afar," said the official, speaking on background. Iraqi soldiers and police have made great strides in recent months, the official said. They've also assisted coalition troops, he said, in reducing terrorist presence and influence in...

Throughout the 1990s, Turkish foreign policy analysts had an easy job. After all, Turkish foreign policy was predictable. Ankara cooperated enthusiastically with Washington, whether in the Middle East or in the Balkans. Turkey aligned itself with Israel and kept at arms length from Middle Eastern neighbors such as Syria and Iran. In Europe, Ankara traded heavily with the European Union (EU) but did not allow the EU to dictate foreign policy. The European Union's frequent allegations and criticism of human rights abuses in Turkey, especially with regard to Turkey's fight against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK, Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan) terrorists, soured...

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