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DISCOUNTING FOR AN UNDERWATER EARTHQUAKE that sent 40-foot-high waves traveling thousands of miles across the open sea to inflict death and destruction on an unimaginable scale, it was kind of a sleepy holiday for the Washington political community, newswise. So you can understand the titillation that shimmered through the capital when the local paper announced, a few days after Christmas, that President Bush might delay his plan to "simplify" the tax code! "Bush Expected to Delay Major Tax Overhaul," said the headline in the Washington Post. At last there was something else to talk about on Inside Politics.

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait (Reuters) - An American soldier complained to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday troops were being forced to dig up scrap metal to protect their vehicles in Iraq (news - web sites) because of a shortage of armored transport. "A lot of us are getting ready to move north (into Iraq)," the soldier said to Rumsfeld during a question-and-answer session with hundreds of troops at the Camp Buehring military base, 12 miles south of the Iraq border in Kuwait. "Now why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic...

NEW DELHI: The trail of rockets, exploded and unexploded is now snaking not only around the Indian capital, but also extending to foundries as far as Jaipur. But where is this deadly cargo coming from and could it have more than just elementary explosives? So far, Army engineers examining the ordnance concealed in cargoes of metal scrap imported from companies in the Persian Gulf, haven't disclosed the source, but scrap dealers who export tonnes to India daily say that the rockets and shells that have killed at least 10 people in Ghaziabad are likely to have been shipped out of...

The United Nations has determined that Saddam Hussein shipped weapons of mass destruction components as well as medium-range ballistic missiles before, during and after the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003. The UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission briefed the Security Council on new findings that could help trace the whereabouts of Saddam's missile and WMD program. The briefing contained satellite photographs that demonstrated the speed with which Saddam dismantled his missile and WMD sites before and during the war. Council members were shown photographs of a ballistic missile site outside Baghdad in May 2003, and then saw a satellite...

Taken alone, the discovery of these rocket motors doesn't really prove anything. Just like the SA-2 motor found in a scrapyard in Rotterdam. Just like the other scrapped dual-use equipment discovered in junkyards around the world. Just like the sarin-filled artillery round discovered recently. And the other chemical rounds uncovered just before that. And the murder of many Iraqi scientists who were cooperating with US investigators after the invasion. And the burned up computers in a locked weapons research lab. And the rumors of those semi-trucks headed to Syria in the months before the invasion. I mean, this is just...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. weapons experts have found 20 engines used in banned Iraqi missiles in a Jordan scrapyard along with other equipment that could be used to make weapons of mass destruction, an official said Wednesday. The discoveries were revealed to the U.N. Security Council by acting chief U.N. inspector Demetrius Perricos during in a closed-door briefing. The text was obtained by The Associated Press. The U.N. team was following up on an earlier discovery of a similar Al Samoud 2 engine in a scrapyard in the Dutch port of Rotterdam. Perricos said inspectors also want to check...

OS ANGELES, March 12 — At a time when toys, televisions and other products made in China are flooding into the United States, helping push the trade deficit to record levels, there is at least one American product for which China has a nearly insatiable demand — industrial junk. Sales of scrap metal to China have surged, with effects that are ricocheting across the American economy. Prices are soaring not just for scrap, but for metals in general. After years of surpluses that forced many steel makers into bankruptcy, supplies are so tight that contractors told a Congressional hearing in...

We won't scrap WMD stockpile unless Israel does, says Assad The Syrian president talks exclusively to Benedict Brogan in Damascus (Filed: 06/01/2004) Syria is entitled to defend itself by acquiring its own chemical and biological deterrent, President Bashar Assad said last night as he rejected American and British demands for concessions on weapons of mass destruction. In his first major statement since Libya's decision last month to scrap its nuclear and chemical programmes, he came closer than ever before to admitting that his country possessed stockpiles of WMD. Bashar Assad yesterday: 'It is natural for us to look for means...

Japan to help Russia scrap subs Russia's seas are bristling with submarines Japan has pledged to give its maritime neighbour Russia $6.7m to help scrap decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines. Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, who was present at the signing ceremony in the Russian port of Bolshoi Kamen, said the vessels from the Pacific Fleet were both an environmental and security threat. The Japanese money will go towards dismantling 42 submarines being taken out of service over 18 months in the Sea of Japan. Russia has a single recycling point, the Zvezda plant in Bolshoi Kamen, and US funds currently used to...

New York to scrap files on anti-war protesters By David Usborne 11 April 2003 Police in New York City have agreed to destroy records of the past political affiliations of people arrested over recent weeks in anti-war demonstrations. Constitutional scholars and civil libertarians have argued that demanding the data from detainees violated rights of protest and free speech. The row is a severe embarrassment to the police department, which has often been accused of violating constitutional rights. A spokesman said, however, that the Police Commissioner, Raymond Kelly, had been unaware that the data was being collected and had ordered that...