Obama Debuts Commercials in Iowa

By AP/MIKE GLOVER

(DES MOINES, Iowa) — Democratic Sen. Barack Obama is launching two biographical television ads this week, focusing on early voting Iowa in the first commercials of his presidential campaign.

The ads represent a strategic shift for the Obama campaign, which has focused on grass-roots efforts and now will introduce the candidate to a new population of voters watching at home.

Candidates typically hold off on advertising during the slow summer months, but the warp-speed campaign has forced the 2008 contenders to rethink the traditional approach. Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Bill Richardson have run ads in Iowa — and seen their poll numbers increase.

Obama's two biographical spots are just the start of what could be an unprecedented campaign on television. The Illinois senator has millions of dollars to spend on advertising along with other campaign activities.

Obama aides planned a conference call Monday to discuss the new commercials, featuring a Republican lawmaker who worked with Obama in the Illinois State Legislature and Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe.

Both Tribe and Republican Sen. Kirk Dillard are featured in the new commercials.

A 60-second commercial, called "Choices," focuses on the decision Obama made after graduating from Harvard Law School, opting to turn down lucrative offers from law firms and instead move to Chicago as a community organizer.

The other 30-second spot, titled "Carry," addresses Obama's work in the Illinois Legislature, where Dillard praises him for pushing ethics legislation, expanding child care and health coverage and supporting tax credits for the working poor.

"Senator Obama worked on some of the deepest issues we had and was successful in a bipartisan way," Dillard says in that ad.

Aides described Tribe, a member of the Harvard law faculty, as a mentor for Obama. Tribe praises Obama for his decisions after graduating.

"It was inspiring, absolutely inspiring to see someone as brilliant as Barack Obama, as successful, someone who could have written his ticket on Wall Street, take all of the talent and all of the learning and decide to devote it to the community and to make people's lives better," Tribe says in the commercial.

The Obama campaign is spending a modest amount of money to run his first ads in Iowa.

A recent poll in Iowa showed Obama bunched at the top with rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards. His appearances in the state have drawn large and noisy crowds.

The ads come soon after an extensive mailing, which included a DVD biographical film on Obama, aides said.

Source : http://www.time.com

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Buying a home in Germany

Should you buy or rent? Owning your own home is always an appealing option with a long period of economic stagnation having helped to keep German real estate prices down. Andrew McCathie takes you along the road to home ownership in the country.

A long period of economic stagnation has helped to open up some new opportunities in the German property market.

Indeed, a pickup in the economy and increased emphasis in the country on rolling back state pensions and encouraging people to provide more for their old age has made owning bricks and mortar a more interesting proposition for Germans, who for the most have been renters.

What is more, a somewhat fitful performance of the stock market has led many people to given looking at property as an alternative to shares.

That said, however, one of the few tax benefits for homeowners (the Eigenheimzulage) is facing an uncertain future.

But then officials in Berlin argue that Germany does not have a housing shortage which means that there government financial support to promote the housing market is not necessary.

Germany's economic recovery from a protracted period of stagnation has also meant property prices have remained subdued (and have fallen in some places, in particular the economically hard-pressed east). This combined with low interest rates; means buying could work in your favour.

One key factor behind any decision to buy is the length of time you intend to stay in the country. Apart from the somewhat hefty costs involved in buying, property prices in Germany do not tend to race ahead like other real markets so you should not expect a big quick return on your investment.

Considering that Germany's recent less-than-sparkling economic performance has also meant that rents have barely moved in recent years (and in cities like Berlin are low in comparison with other European cities) you should also weigh up whether it is financially more sensible for you to rent or to make monthly mortgage payments.

You don’t have to be German or even be a resident to buy what the real estate business in Germany call an ‘Objekt’. All you need is valid passport and enough money.

At the outset you should realise that total fees, including say for the agents and preparing the contract, can add up to between 10 and 12 percent of the purchase price.

But as you head off out onto the market, don’t forget the three rules of investing in a property also apply in Germany: ‘Lage’, ‘Lage’, ‘Lage’ (location, location, location).

Who you need to consult

Because a home-owning culture has not really developed in Germany, buying a property in the country can go along at a relatively leisurely pace without the tensions that arise in other markets around the world through auctions or in bidding wars.

But for really popular properties in Germany, you may find yourself competing in a quasi-auction with your agent (Makler) handling rival bids from prospective buyers.

Before you buy it is advisable to assemble a small team of advisers: a lawyer, Notar (notary), a tax accountant and if possible an architect.

OK, so you have found your dream home. Remember that normally you don’t have to sign anything committing you to the purchase until you are presented with the final contract. In general, you just have to reach an agreement with the owner on the price. But after that events can move fairly quickly.

This is when the team of advisers comes to the fore with that quaint continental European tradition of the Notar playing a key role in the process.

As the buyer you should be able to select the Notar to draw up the contract. Needless to say this is something that you should insist on from the start. No matter how chummy everything surrounding the sale has gone, it also goes without saying that you should not accept the Notar suggested by the owner.

Considering the size of the investment it is good to have as much control as possible, especially as the terms of the contract can vary.

Indeed, after the purchase has gone through, if the building is part of a modernisation project and the developer installs a firm to administer the property (Hausverwaltung) it is probably worthwhile to try an early point to link up with the other new owners and seek out a new Hausverwaltung.

You will need your tax accountant to help you through the purchase as the bank or mortgage company will want to see details of your recent tax returns. Depending on whether you want to live in it or rent it out as an investment you will need the tax accountant to fill you on exactly what the tax advantages are at present.

Some areas are, for example, zoned to regulate the rents that can be charged on the property. Besides, the tax office could also want details of how you have financed the purchase.

Mortgages and financing

In general, mortgage financing usually can be arranged up to about 60 or 70 percent of the purchase price.

Anything above that up will normally need to be secured possibly through insurance or another other form of financial security. This can sometimes be based on the income of the person or company making the purchase.

In the meantime, it wise to have an architect look through the property, especially if it is part of a building that has been renovated. There are all sorts of things to watch out for, including the age of the heating. New standards have to be met by 2005.

If everything goes to plan you will receive the contract to read through before you sit down to sign. Lawyers can be Notars as well. But just to be on the safe side, it is not a bad idea to have an independent lawyer read through the document first.

You should try and get as many of your wishes written into the contract as possible. This could include work on the property that the owner has agreed to undertake before you move in. Or even fittings that you want kept. This is especially the case if the property is part of a building which is being modernised. Valuable door handles, for example, have a habit of disappearing before you move in.

In setting out your wish-list, don’t forget the so-called common areas such as the stairwell (carpet?) and entrance area (in need of an update?).

The parties will then assemble on a specified date in the Notar’s office for signing the contract and to partake in the seemingly ancient ritual of the Notar reading out the contract word for word before you are called upon to put your signature to it. You will need to have your passport with you when the contract is signed.

The day of reckoning: handing over the property

The contract will also set out the date for the Uebergabe (handover) of the property. Because this is part of the contract, the failure of the owner or builder to meet the deadline for the Uebergabe could mean that you can make certain claims.

If the property is part of a complex that is undergoing renovation you can make instalments as the building work progresses. Once again these will be set out in the contract. You can also draw up a so-called ‘Maengelliste’ (list of faults) before you move in. This is when an architect on hand becomes very useful.

You should not pay the final payment until you are completely satisfied with the work and that all your wishes have been fulfilled.

The work carried out on modernised properties in Germany will normally have a five-year guarantee (Gewaehrleistung). But don’t be surprised if the building company responsible for carrying the costs of work under the guarantee suddenly declares itself to bankrupt once the project is completed.

Either way, battles over the ‘Gewaehrleistung’ will set you up for hours upon hours at the building’s annual ‘Eigentuemerversammlung’ (owners’ meeting).

What it all costs

The cost of the whole process depends who is involved. But in general you can expect to pay:

• Notar - about 1.5 percent of the purchase price
• Stamp Duty or Property Tax (Grundsteuer) - 3.5 percent of purchase price
• Makler - between 3.5 percent and about 6 percent of the buying price, including VAT. The commission charged, however, can depend on the state
• Registration of the property – between 0.8 and 1.2 percent

If the ‘Objekt’ is in the former east (where ownership claims are still been settled) you may find that a lot of the paperwork for the property has not been completed. This might even include the ‘Grundbuch’ (Land title register) for the property.

Any mortgage needs to be secured in the ‘Grundbuch’ and that can only be done by a Notar.

As a result, you find you stand to be hit with a bill every time a piece of paper concerning the property moves in the local administration.

Source : http://www.expatica.com

Heavily residency price of residency or non-Britons living in U.K.(2)

U.S. citizen Caryn Radlove, right, with her English husband Glenn Havelock and their son Sammy. They are struggling to make ends meet in the U.K.

By Beth Gardiner

Published: May 25, 2007

LONDON: Caryn Radlove was looking forward to becoming a British citizen, gaining the right to vote and the flexibility to move her young family back and forth to the United States, her home country, in response to career demands.

Now, hit by whopping increases in the fees that Britain charges immigrants seeking residency, visas and citizenship, she is putting those plans on hold.

The price tag for naturalization more than doubled in early April to £575, or $1,135, from £200, part of a wave of steep increases in fees to immigrants. The biggest rise was in the cost of the long-term residency permit, known here as indefinite leave to remain, which rose to £750 from £335. Same-day service for the permit costs £950, compared to £500 before the change.

Officials say the proceeds will help pay for a big new push to enforce immigration laws and crack down on illegal arrivals. The Home Office, the government department in charge of domestic security, said it wanted to hire more enforcement agents, build detention centers and increase its ability to process migrants efficiently without spending tax money.

Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said it was fair to require those who benefit economically from living in Britain to pay for the changes. The Home Office emphasized that the biggest increases were directed at foreigners who live and work in the country, not at students or visitors, and said it was fair to raise charges now because they had not gone up since April 2005.

But immigrants say they are being unfairly burdened with the cost of an effort that was previously shared by all British taxpayers, not just the foreign-born ones.

"We consider ourselves fully functioning members of British society," said Radlove, who works part-time for an insurance company. "I just happen to be with an American accent."

But Radlove, who has a year-old son, says the fee is far more than she and her husband, who is British, can afford while he finishes his doctoral studies. Her husband also works part-time, but until he finishes his degree and gets full-time teaching work, the couple's combined income does not leave room for unexpected extras like the citizenship fee.

"There's absolutely no way we can come up with more than £500," she said. "That's a huge amount of money when you're struggling just to live normally."

George Tah, 34, a native of Cameroon who moved to Edinburgh three years ago, said it was unfair to require foreigners who follow the rules to shoulder the cost of stopping illegal arrivals.

The residency fee that he is due to pay in October is nearly equivalent to his monthly salary as a customer service representative for an energy company, he said. Tah plans to ask the Home Office if he can pay in installments. Otherwise, he said, "I'll have to forgo my bills."

A spokeswoman for the Home Office, speaking on the condition of anonymity under department policy, said the department did not allow visa applicants to pay in installments.

The new fees affect hundreds of thousands of immigrants and expatriates, from wealthy business executives to struggling families and minimum-wage workers from developing countries.

Nearly 70 percent of the 161,000 successful citizenship applications received in 2005 were from Asians and Africans, who also make up a majority of the roughly 145,000 people granted residency each year.

Fees for some visas, including indefinite leave, stayed the same or increased only marginally for those applying from overseas. For applications in Britain, though, charges in some of the major categories more than doubled.

Work permits for investors and business owners increased to £750 from £335. Student visas rose much less, to £295 from £250; officials said this was in recognition of the financial constraints faced by young people.

"We believe it is fair that those who benefit most from using our system - those who come here to live and work - should pay more to fund it," Byrne, the immigration minister, said in announcing the increases.

"The extra money will be at no extra cost to the taxpayer and will help pay for a firm but fair immigration system, tackling illegal working, organized crime, extremism and terrorism."

Britain is not alone in imposing new requirements on immigrants. France recently mandated that any non-European Union national seeking settlement take a day-long civics course, demonstrate language proficiency and sign a contract promising to respect its secular and democratic values. At €99, or $133, though, long-stay French visas remain far cheaper than in Britain.

Many foreigners in Britain complain that a consultation on the British increases was poorly publicized and failed to seek reaction from the immigrants who would have to pay the heftiest charges.

The Home Office spokeswoman said the public had been given a chance to comment on the changes before they were adopted, with the consultation posted on the office's Web site for eight weeks.

The increases were announced in March, less than a month before they took effect. The spokeswoman said that the Home Office had announced the changes as early as it was able and that it had met the legal requirement of giving 21 days' notice of any price increases.

"Most people are astonished," said Nero Ughwujabo, director of the Croydon Black and Minority Ethnic Forum, an independent panel that monitors race relations in the South London borough.

"There seems to be a lot of anger, one that the changes were introduced in the first place and second that they were at such extraordinary rates."

For many, the fees can add up quickly. Those who have not been here long enough to apply for residency often pay yearly work permit renewal fees, and after getting indefinite leave also apply eventually for citizenship.

"All of these fees have gone up, and when you start adding them together, that's when it will become very costly," said Rhian Beynon of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, an immigrants' advocacy group.

Another change that has angered some immigrants - and added further to their expenses - is a new requirement that those seeking residency pass a written test on British life, a hurdle that until April was required only of foreigners seeking citizenship, and only since 2005.

The test costs £34, and a recommended study booklet is £10. Those who cannot demonstrate proficiency in English are now required to take a language class before getting residency. Sophie Barrett-Brown, an immigration lawyer in London, said some of her clients had had to pay for visa extensions after learning at the last minute that they needed to take the British life exam.

Barrett-Brown said the test included questions that even many native-born Britons would find difficult to answer, like the names and dates of the national saints' days of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

She said it was less a test of culture than an exercise in memorizing a study booklet. "It's for most applicants very onerous, it's another hurdle and it's a timing issue," Barrett-Brown said.

The Home Office spokeswoman said the exam tested far more than memorization skills and was a useful way to encourage immigrants to integrate into British society.

Radlove, the American, said that after seven years in Britain, she was deeply disappointed at having to postpone her citizenship application.

"Now we may have to say, 'Well, maybe we won't be able to do this until we're much better off financially,' " she said.

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78 killed by bombing at Baghdad mosque

"BAGHDAD - A truck bomb struck a Shiite mosque Tuesday in central Baghdad, killing 78 people and wounding more than 200, even as about 10,000 U.S. soldiers northeast of the capital used heavily armored Stryker and Bradley fighting vehicles to battle their way into an al-Qaida sanctuary."

Iraqis gather at the damaged Khillani mosque, a main Shiite mosque in central Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, June 19, 2007. A truck bomb struck a Shiite mosque Tuesday in central Baghdad, killing 75 people and wounding more than 200, even as about 10,000 U.S. soldiers northeast of the capital used heavily armored Stryker and Bradley fighting vehicles to battle their way into an al-Qaida sanctuary. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)


The troops, under cover of attack helicopters, killed at least 22 insurgents in the offensive, the U.S. military said.

The thunderous explosion at the Khulani mosque in the capital's busy commercial area of Sinak sent smoke billowing over concrete buildings, nearly a week after a bombing brought down the twin minarets of a revered Shiite shrine in the northern city of Samarra and two days after officials lifted a curfew aimed at preventing retaliatory violence from that attack.

Gunfire erupted after the blast, which police said occurred in a parking lot near the mosque, causing the outer wall and a building just inside it to crumble.

Police and hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution, said at least 78 people were killed and 218 were wounded, adding that the toll could rise as bodies were pulled from the debris.

One officer said the explosives-packed truck was loaded with fans and air coolers to avoid arousing the suspicions of security forces guarding the surrounding area, which is full of shops selling electrical appliances.

Six of those killed lived in a house behind the mosque that also collapsed, the officer said, adding that 20 cars were burned and 25 shops were damaged.

The mosque's imam, Sheik Saleh al-Haidari, said it was a truck bomb and the explosion hit worshippers as they left afternoon prayers.

"This attack was planned and carried out by sick souls, damaging the mosque's outer wall and collapsing my office and the room above it," al-Haidari told The Associated Press by telephone.

"There are number of bodies being pulled from the rubble and a number of worshippers were killed or injured," he said, adding that he was not inside the mosque when the blast occurred.

The Khulani mosque is named after a revered Shiite figure who, according to Shiite tradition, was one of four deputies anointed by the Imam Mohammed al-Mahdi, who disappeared in the 9th century and will return to restore justice to humanity.

AP Television News video showed a huge pile of rubble where the wall used to be, but its turquoise dome was intact. The Imam Ali hospital in the Shiite district of Sadr City was packed with victims, many badly burned.

Karim Abdullah, the 35-year-old owner of a clothing store, said he was making his way by motorcycle to pray at the mosque when the explosion forced him to pull over.

"I stopped in shock as I saw the smoke and people on the ground. I saw two or three men in flames as they were getting out of their car," he added.

The raids, dubbed "Operation Arrowhead Ripper," took place in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province, and involved air assaults under the cover of darkness, the military said. The operation was still in its opening stages, it added.

The commander of Iraqi military operations in Diyala, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Rubaie, said handcuffs, swords and electricity cables — apparently used as torture implements — had been seized from militant safe houses in the area.

The operation was part of new U.S. and Iraqi attacks on Baghdad's northern and southern flanks, which military officials said were aimed at clearing out Sunni insurgents, al-Qaida fighters and Shiite militiamen who had fled the capital and Anbar during a four-month-old security operation.

A top U.S. military official said American forces were taking advantage of the arrival of the final brigade of 30,000 additional U.S. troops to open the concerted attacks.

"We are going into the areas that have been sanctuaries of al-Qaida and other extremists to take them on and weed them out, to help get the areas clear and to really take on al-Qaida," the senior official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the operation. "Those are areas in the belts around Baghdad, some parts in Anbar province and specifically Diyala province."

The hard-line Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars denounced the joint operations in Diyala, calling them "barbaric acts" and promising they "will not stop the people from persisting in their efforts to gain their liberty, unity and independence."

Al-Qaida has proven to be an extremely agile foe for U.S. and Iraqi forces, as shown by its ability to transfer major operations to Baqouba from Anbar province, the sprawling desert region in western
Iraq. There is no guarantee that driving the organization out of current sanctuaries would prevent it from migrating to other regions to continue the fight.

In recent months, the verdant orange and palm groves of Diyala have become one of the most fiercely contested regions in Iraq. The province is a tangle of Shiite and Sunni villages that has played into the hands of al-Qaida and allied militants who have melted into the tense region and sought to inflame existing sectarian troubles.

Al-Qaida has conducted public killings in the Baqouba main square and otherwise sought to enforce an extreme Taliban-style Islamic code. The terror organization's actions in the province have caused some Sunni militants, al-Qaida's natural allies, to turn their guns on the group with U.S. assistance and blessing. Some militant Shiites are likewise joining government forces in a bid to oust the foreign fighters and Muslim extremists.

Separately, the U.S. military announced the death of an American soldier in Baghdad. The soldier was killed by small arms fire during combat in an eastern section of the capital, a military statement said. No other soldiers were wounded in the attack, which took place Monday, it said.

The death brought to at least 3,528 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an AP count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,889 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

In southern Iraq, police and hospital officials said the death toll reached 30 in clashes that continued into a second day between Mahdi Army fighters and Iraqi security forces in Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad.

Some 150 people were wounded, authorities said. The officials, who declined to be identified because they feared retribution, said most of the casualties were police or militiamen. A delegation from radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office arrived in the city to try to end the fighting, according to the city council.

A curfew was imposed Monday on Nasiriyah and remained in effect.

Iranian-made rockets were seized in raids in central Nasiriyah, police said.

In other violence reported by police, a roadside bomb killed the head of a Shiite tribe and two people traveling with him near Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad.

A roadside bomb missed a police patrol but hit two civilian cars in the Shiite neighborhood of Zafaraniyah in southeastern Baghdad, killing two people and wounding five.

___

Source : http://news.yahoo.com

Associated Press writers Hamid Ahmed and Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS spelling of mosque to Khulani, not Khillani.)

9 firefighters died in S.C. warehouse fire

By BRUCE SMITH AP Writer © 2007 AP CHARLESTON, SC

Nine firefighters died in a blaze that swept through a furniture warehouse in a disaster the mayor described Tuesday as "difficult to fathom or quantify.

"Nine brave, heroic, courageous firefighters of the city of Charleston have perished fighting fire in a most courageous and fearless manner, carrying out their duties," Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley said at a morning news conference. "To all of their loved ones, our heart goes out to them."

Overnight, firefighters saluted as the bodies of their colleagues were taken from the warehouse.

Riley said the county coroner planned to disclose the names of the dead. He said the cause of the fire was under investigation.

The fire broke out about 7 p.m. Monday in the Sofa Super Store and warehouse, forcing officials to close off part of a nearby roadway.

Witnesses said the store's roof collapsed, throwing debris over about two-dozen rescue workers. Onlookers were hit with flying ash.

"It was like a 30-foot tornado of flames," said Mark Hilton, who was struck in his eye.

Riley said he believed all of the store's employees escaped. At least one worker and two firefighters were taken to the hospital.

Daniel Shahid, a salesman at a nearby car dealership, said firefighters came in asking for towels.

"The next thing you know, we were carrying hoses, directing traffic, everybody from the dealership," he said.

Shahid said he saw firefighters rescue four people from the building. "They were struggling. They were covered in black soot. They looked scared out of their minds," Shahid said.

Riley called the missing firefighters heroes. "This is a profession that we must never take for granted," the mayor said. "There's a fire raging and they go toward it."

Source : http://www.chron.com

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Indonesian police have arrested the most wanted terrorist in the country Abu Dujana

Indonesian police have arrested the most wanted terrorist in the country Abu Dujana, who is the top leader of the militant group in Southeast Asia of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), police spokesman Sisno Adiwinoto said Wednesday. The spokesman said that the 37-year-old Dujana was arrested at the weekend at his house in Banyuwangi of Central Java province. The police also arrested seven other terrorist suspects in the province during the raid.

After an intensified investigation and DNA test, the police found out that the man who named Yusron Mahmudi was Abu Dujana.

"Based on the interrogation, including investigation on the crime scene, it was known that Yusron Mahmudi has many alias names, one of them is Abu Dujana," said Adiwinoto.

Dujana, who was born in Cianjur of West Java province, was a field commander of the JI and also a strategic planner in the group. He became the head of military wing of the militant group in the region after the death of Azahari Husin in 2005.

The police said that he gave protection and provided a hide-out for fugitive terrorist coordinator in Indonesia Noerdin Mohammad Top.

Dujana was involved in the first Bali bombing in 2002, sectarian clashes in Poso of Central Sulawesi six years ago. Over 200 people were killed in the Bali bombing, most of them Australians.

In 1989 he went to Afghanistan and got military training in Mujahiddin Academy until 1991.

In Afghanistan he built a friendship with Zulkarnaen, a perpetrator of the Bali bombing.

In 1991, he left Afghanistan and became a teacher in a boarding school of Lukmannul Hakim in Johor Malaysia, where he met with Mukhlas, who played a key role in the Bali bombing.

He met Noerdin Mohammad Top, the terrorist coordinator in Indonesia. Noerdin is one of the most wanted terrorist fugitives in Indonesia now. In 2002 Dujana was appointed secretary of the JI in Southeast Asia.

Indonesia has been hit by a string of major terrorist strikes since 2000, which killed more than 300 people.

Source: Xinhua

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Iraqiya state television reported the attack involved mortars

Militants attack revered Shi'ite shrine

Suspected al-Qaeda insurgents have destroyed the two minarets of a sacred Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in a repeat of last year's bombing that shattered its famous Golden Dome and unleashed a wave of sectarian violence.

Police said the attack involved explosives and brought down the minarets, which had flanked the dome's ruins.

Iraqiya state television reported the attack involved mortars. No casualties were reported.

Sheikh Saleh al-Haidiri, head of the Shi'ite endowment administrative body responsible for shrines in Iraq, said the minarets were blown up by "terrorists".

"It is a terrorist attack ... the second one against the shrine," Haidiri said in Baghdad.

"It is a terrorist attack aimed at sparking sectarian violence."

The Shi'ite group loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr urged its supporters to exercise calm.

A national police force under command of a major general was ordered to move immediately to Samarra, an Interior Ministry official said.

The US military warned the new attack on the shrine might provoke another spike in sectarian violence, and said it was keeping a close eye on the situation.

"Based on the results of last year's attack, we are obviously watching it very carefully," said spokesman Lt Colonel Christopher Garver.

The attack was likely the work of al-Qaeda, whose militants have recently moved into Samarra from surrounding areas, said an official close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, citing intelligence reports.

He and other officials spoke on condition of anonymity, either because of the sensitivity of the matter or because they were not authorised to share the information.

The Askariya shrine's dome was destroyed on February 22 last year, in a bombing blamed on Sunni Muslim militants believed linked to al-Qaeda.

The mosque compound and minarets had remained intact but the site was closed after that bombing.

Police imposed an indefinite curfew on the Sunni city, 95km north of Baghdad amid fears the bombing might further inflame the sectarian hatreds that swept Baghdad and other areas of Iraq in the months that followed the destruction of the shrine's dome.

The execution-style killings largely blamed on Shi'ite militias had begun to decline in February, at the start of a major US-Iraqi security push to pacify Baghdad, but the numbers have seen a recent rise as the bombings continued.

But while the numbers of people killed are down in Baghdad, violence has been on the rise elsewhere in Iraq after militants fled the security operation.

The United Nations warned earlier this week that the "situation in Iraq remains precarious".

"Insurgent attacks persist and civilian casualties continue to mount," the UN said in a report on Iraq covering the period from early March to early June.

"While there was a brief lull in the level of sectarian violence early in the reporting period, it now appears that militia forces are resuming their activities, including targeted killings and kidnappings."

After the bombing, Prime Minister al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, went into urgent talks with Sheikh Saleh al-Haidiri, chairman of the Shi'ite Waqf, the government agency that looks after Shi'ite mosques and religious schools, according to officials in al-Maliki's office.

He later met with the interior and defence ministers, along with other top advisers and security commanders to discuss measures to contain any possible explosion of sectarian violence following the bombing, al-Maliki's office said.

The Askariya mosque contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams - Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868, and his son Hassan Askariya, who died in 874. Both are descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, and Shi'ites consider them to be among his successors.

The shrine also is near the place where the 12th imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, disappeared.

Al-Mahdi, known as the "hidden imam," was the son and grandson of the two imams buried in the Askariyaya shrine. Shi'ites believe he will return to Earth restore justice to humanity.

After last year's bombing, the mosque was guarded by about 60 Federal Protection Service forces and 25 local Iraqi police who kept watch on the perimeter, according to Samarra city officials.

In the immediate aftermath of that bombing, US officials and others had promised to help rebuild the landmark dome, completed in 1905, but no rebuilding has begun.

Iraq has been plagued by violence since the war started in 2003, but the carefully orchestrated 2006 explosion, in which suspected al-Qaeda assailants wearing uniforms set off two bombs, touched a nerve.

The bombing unleashed Shi'ite militias, who ignored appeals for calm and instead attacked Sunni clerics and mosques. Nearly 140 people were killed the next day.

The United Nations reported that 34,452 civilians lost their lives in 2006 in the nearly unfathomable sectarian bloodshed that hit the capital hardest.

Sunni insurgents carried out bombings almost daily, and Shi'ite death squads dumped dozens of corpses on the streets and in vacant lots.

Source : http://www.thewest.com.au

Iraqiya state television reported the attack involved mortars

Militants attack revered Shi'ite shrine

Suspected al-Qaeda insurgents have destroyed the two minarets of a sacred Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in a repeat of last year's bombing that shattered its famous Golden Dome and unleashed a wave of sectarian violence.

Police said the attack involved explosives and brought down the minarets, which had flanked the dome's ruins.

Iraqiya state television reported the attack involved mortars. No casualties were reported.

Sheikh Saleh al-Haidiri, head of the Shi'ite endowment administrative body responsible for shrines in Iraq, said the minarets were blown up by "terrorists".

"It is a terrorist attack ... the second one against the shrine," Haidiri said in Baghdad.

"It is a terrorist attack aimed at sparking sectarian violence."

The Shi'ite group loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr urged its supporters to exercise calm.

A national police force under command of a major general was ordered to move immediately to Samarra, an Interior Ministry official said.

The US military warned the new attack on the shrine might provoke another spike in sectarian violence, and said it was keeping a close eye on the situation.

"Based on the results of last year's attack, we are obviously watching it very carefully," said spokesman Lt Colonel Christopher Garver.

The attack was likely the work of al-Qaeda, whose militants have recently moved into Samarra from surrounding areas, said an official close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, citing intelligence reports.

He and other officials spoke on condition of anonymity, either because of the sensitivity of the matter or because they were not authorised to share the information.

The Askariya shrine's dome was destroyed on February 22 last year, in a bombing blamed on Sunni Muslim militants believed linked to al-Qaeda.

The mosque compound and minarets had remained intact but the site was closed after that bombing.

Police imposed an indefinite curfew on the Sunni city, 95km north of Baghdad amid fears the bombing might further inflame the sectarian hatreds that swept Baghdad and other areas of Iraq in the months that followed the destruction of the shrine's dome.

The execution-style killings largely blamed on Shi'ite militias had begun to decline in February, at the start of a major US-Iraqi security push to pacify Baghdad, but the numbers have seen a recent rise as the bombings continued.

But while the numbers of people killed are down in Baghdad, violence has been on the rise elsewhere in Iraq after militants fled the security operation.

The United Nations warned earlier this week that the "situation in Iraq remains precarious".

"Insurgent attacks persist and civilian casualties continue to mount," the UN said in a report on Iraq covering the period from early March to early June.

"While there was a brief lull in the level of sectarian violence early in the reporting period, it now appears that militia forces are resuming their activities, including targeted killings and kidnappings."

After the bombing, Prime Minister al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, went into urgent talks with Sheikh Saleh al-Haidiri, chairman of the Shi'ite Waqf, the government agency that looks after Shi'ite mosques and religious schools, according to officials in al-Maliki's office.

He later met with the interior and defence ministers, along with other top advisers and security commanders to discuss measures to contain any possible explosion of sectarian violence following the bombing, al-Maliki's office said.

The Askariya mosque contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams - Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868, and his son Hassan Askariya, who died in 874. Both are descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, and Shi'ites consider them to be among his successors.

The shrine also is near the place where the 12th imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, disappeared.

Al-Mahdi, known as the "hidden imam," was the son and grandson of the two imams buried in the Askariyaya shrine. Shi'ites believe he will return to Earth restore justice to humanity.

After last year's bombing, the mosque was guarded by about 60 Federal Protection Service forces and 25 local Iraqi police who kept watch on the perimeter, according to Samarra city officials.

In the immediate aftermath of that bombing, US officials and others had promised to help rebuild the landmark dome, completed in 1905, but no rebuilding has begun.

Iraq has been plagued by violence since the war started in 2003, but the carefully orchestrated 2006 explosion, in which suspected al-Qaeda assailants wearing uniforms set off two bombs, touched a nerve.

The bombing unleashed Shi'ite militias, who ignored appeals for calm and instead attacked Sunni clerics and mosques. Nearly 140 people were killed the next day.

The United Nations reported that 34,452 civilians lost their lives in 2006 in the nearly unfathomable sectarian bloodshed that hit the capital hardest.

Sunni insurgents carried out bombings almost daily, and Shi'ite death squads dumped dozens of corpses on the streets and in vacant lots.

Source : http://www.thewest.com.au

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Alireza Jamshidi said preliminary investigations would be finalised in two or three days

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian judge will next week decide whether to indict or free three American-Iranians accused of acting against national security, a judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday.

Alireza Jamshidi said preliminary investigations would be finalised in two or three days. "Next week the judge will decide whether to free them or to indict them," he added.

Jamshidi denied that one of the detainees, academic Haleh Esfandiari, had been prevented from gaining access to her lawyer, Iranian Nobel Peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi.

"She (Ebadi) can come right now and take on the case," the judiciary spokesman told a news conference, after being asked to comment on Ebadi's statement on Monday that her client was unable to contact her.

Iran has accused Esfandiari and three other Iranian-Americans of activities aimed at undermining the government of the Islamic Republic. Three have been detained and a fourth has been freed on bail.

The cases have further heightened tension between Iran and the United States at a time of a deepening international standoff over Tehran's nuclear programme, which the West suspects is aimed at making atom bonbs. Iran denies this.

The United States, which broke diplomatic ties with Iran shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution, has called for the release of the Iranian-Americans and denied they are spies.

Iran, which does not recognise dual nationalities, has told Washington the arrests are none of its concern.

Tehran says Washington is using intellectuals and others to carry out a "soft revolution" to topple the Islamic state.

The Iranian judiciary said last month that Esfandiari, social scientist Kian Tajbakhsh and journalist Parnaz Azima were accused of spying.

A judicial source later said Azima was detained for cooperating with "anti-revolutionary" media but freed on bail.

Iran earlier this week also said it is holding Ali Shakeri, who an Iranian news agency said was being detained on "security-related charges".

Shakeri is a founding member of the University of California Center for Citizen Peacebuilding. The center's Web site says he is an "an Iranian-American activist who advocates Democracy in Iran and peace in the world".

Source : http://in.today.reuters.com

The effort to track down the source of bogus information to the weather service could be the first in the U.S

By ROBERT IMRIE (FBI Probes Bogus Reports to NWS)

The FBI is looking for someone sending bogus information that caused the National Weather Service to issue unnecessary warnings, and forecasters worried that such alarms won't be taken seriously, authorities said Monday.

The false reports persuaded the weather service to issue at least four severe thunderstorm warnings that should not have been issued and caused confusion in confirming damage from a tornado, according to Tom Schwein, an administrator for the weather service's 14-state regional office in Kansas City, Mo.

Schwein likened the culprit - who sent the reports to forecasters on the weather service's Web page - to someone who pulls a fire alarm when there is no fire.

"One thing we don't want to be doing is crying wolf and then people tend to discount the warnings," he said. "You want people to take action when you put out the warning."

The misleading information appeared believable, Schwein said, because it came during bouts of severe weather and included data common to those types of storms. Such bogus tips mean forecasters must more carefully scrutinize public reports during severe weather, when time is critical, he said.

Investigators traced the Internet protocol address of the computer sending the false reports, and any new reports from that address are being flagged by every weather service office in the Upper Midwest, Schwein said.

"The seriousness is over. Right now, we want to stop the behavior," Schwein said.

On April 25, the weather service issued a tornado warning for Macon County, Ill., including the city of Blue Mound, based on information from trained spotters, said Chris Miller, warning coordination meteorologist for the weather service office in Lincoln, Ill.

Miller said his office got a note on its Web site reporting the tornado caused damage in the town. Spotters contradicted that information.

The false report caused spotters to neglect looking for actual tornadoes or cloud rotation and instead try to verify false reprots.

Information from the suspect also provided the final evidence for forecasters to declare about four other severe thunderstorm warnings in the Upper Midwest that a review deemed unwarranted, Schwein said.

Forecasters base such decisions on what they see on radar, information from trained spotters and their own expertise of certain conditions, Schwein said.

The public can use a form on local weather service Web sites to anonymously report conditions - including damage from a storm - so forecasters can alert others to impending problems, Schwein said.

Accurate information from the public can be useful to forecasters because trained spotters are not everywhere, said Ken Rizzo, chief meteorologist for the weather service in Sullivan, Wis.

"It can tip the scales one way or another as far as issuing a tornado warning or severe thunderstorm warning," Rizzo said.

"We have gotten some great information, some important information from there, and we don't want to turn it off," he said.

Jeff Lanza, a special FBI agent in charge of the investigation in Kansas City, said the effort to track down the source of bogus information to the weather service could be the first in the U.S. Providing false information to the federal government is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Bush: Iraq at center of terror fight

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer

NEW LONDON, Conn. -President Bush portrayed the Iraq war as a battle between the U.S. and al-Qaida on Wednesday and shared nuggets of intelligence to contend Osama bin Laden was setting up a terrorist cell in Iraq to strike targets in America.

Bush, who faces a public weary of war and is at odds with Democrats in Congress over funding troops, said that while the Sept. 11 attacks occurred in 2001, Americans still face a major threat from terrorists.

"In the minds of al-Qaida leaders, 9/11 was just a down payment on violence yet to come," Bush said during a commencement speech at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in which he defended his decision to order a troop buildup in Iraq. "It is tempting to believe that the calm here at home after 9/11 means that the danger to our country has passed."

"Here in America, we are living in the eye of a storm," he said. "All around us, dangerous winds are swirling and these winds could reach our shores at any moment."

Critics of the war insist that U.S. troops are in the middle of fights among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

"As global terror threats remain very real, President Bush is sinking more money and sending more troops to referee Iraq's civil war, when those precious resources would be better spent in finishing the mission left unaccomplished in Afghanistan," said Brian Katulis, a national security expert at the Center for American Progress think tank.

The White House has repeatedly said the U.S. and its allies will be successful when the Iraqis can sustain, govern and defend themselves, yet Bush used his speech to stress the threat from al-Qaida activities in Iraq.

"Hear the words of Osama bin Laden: He calls the struggle in Iraq a `war of destiny,'" Bush said. "He proclaimed `The war is for you or for us to win. If we win it, it means your defeat and disgrace forever.'"

Much of the intelligence information Bush cited in his speech described terrorism plots already revealed. But he declassified information to flesh out details and highlight U.S. successes in foiling planned attacks orchestrated by bin Laden, the al-Qaida boss.

"Victory in Iraq is important for Osama bin Laden, and victory in Iraq is vital for the United States of America," Bush told the graduating class seated in a stadium under bright sunshine along the Thames River.

Bush said intelligence showed that in January 2005, bin Laden tasked Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his senior operative in Iraq, to organize a terrorist cell and use Iraq as a staging ground for attacking the United States.

This information expanded on a classified bulletin the Homeland Security Department issued in March 2005. The bulletin, which warned that bin Laden had enlisted al-Zarqawi to plan potential strikes in the United States, was described at the time as credible but not specific. It did not prompt the administration to raise its national terror alert level.

Bush said that in the spring of 2005, bin Laden also instructed Hamza Rabia, a senior operative, to brief al-Zarqawi on an al-Qaida plan to attack sites outside Iraq.

"Our intelligence community reports that a senior al-Qaida leader, Abu Faraj al-Libi, went further and suggested that bin Laden actually send Rabia, himself, to Iraq to help plan external operations," Bush said. "Abu Faraj later speculated that if this effort proved successful, al-Qaida might one day prepare the majority of its external operations from Iraq."

Bush said another suspected al-Qaida operative, Ali Salih al-Mari, was training in poisoning at a camp in Afghanistan and dispatched to the United States before the Sept. 11 attacks to "serve as a sleeper agent ready for follow-on attacks."

Bush said bin Laden attempted to send a new commander to Iraq, an Iraqi-born terrorist named Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi. Al-Iraqi, who was al-Qaida's top commander in Afghanistan, was captured last year and recently transferred to Guantanamo Bay.

Democrats and other critics have accused Bush of selectively declassifying intelligence, including portions of a sensitive National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, to justify the U.S.-led invasion on grounds that Saddam Hussein's government possessed weapons of mass destruction. That assertion proved false.

Rand Beers, national security adviser to John Kerry's 2004 Democratic presidential campaign, contended Wednesday that the Bush administration was releasing intelligence to buttress the argument that Iraq is the central front in the war on terrorism while a number of intelligence sources say the most recent attacks or planned attacks against the U.S. and its allies have originated in Pakistan instead.

"Bin Laden is using Iraq to kill and demonize the United States while remaining secure and planning further operations in Pakistan," Beers said.

Frances Fragos Townsend, the White House homeland security adviser, said new details about the plots were declassified because the intelligence community had tracked all leads from the information and the players were either dead or in U.S. custody.

In May 2005, al-Libi was captured. Several months later, in December 2005, al-Rabia was killed in Pakistan. In June of 2006, al-Zarqawi was killed in Iraq in a U.S. airstrike.

Actually, making the new information public earlier might have allowed Bush to use it to his political advantage, Townsend said. "This is kind of late to be able to bring this to the game," she said, adding that intelligence officials needed time to exploit the information.

Troubling' views on suicide bombings

Troubling' views on suicide bombings - 78% of U.S. Muslims opposed, but young adults are less sure
by : Matthai Chakko Kuruvila, Amr Emam, Chronicle Staff Writers

About 1 in 4 young adult American Muslims says suicide bombings against civilian targets "to defend Islam" can be justified rarely, sometimes or often, according to a new Pew Research Center poll -- a finding that disturbed American Muslim leaders and thinkers across the country.

"It's something that the Muslim community should be aware of -- it's a phenomenon we should be concerned about," said Farid Senzai, a Fremont resident and director of research for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, which helped shape the questions on the survey. "It is very troubling."

At the same time, the poll of 1,050 people across the country found that 78 percent of U.S. Muslims reject suicide bombings entirely.

Pew's survey provides a groundbreaking look at American Muslims, one of the nation's highest-profile and least understood groups. Its findings include responses from African American Muslims, who account for 20 percent of U.S. Muslims, according to Pew's estimate.

Surveys like this one are key to learning about people of faith in the United States because the U.S. Census Bureau -- the most comprehensive provider of demographic information -- does not ask about religion.

Senzai and others cautioned that the figures should be kept in context: Only 1 percent of Muslims overall said suicide bombings are "often" justifiable and an additional 7 percent said they are "sometimes" justifiable.

Several American Muslim leaders said survey respondents, particularly those 18 to 29, were probably thinking about foreign policy and Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation -- and do not support attacks such as the Sept. 11 hijackings or the train bombings in London and Madrid.

"To believe that Palestinians are justified in retaliating and fighting back is a different animal than attacking America," said Ihsan Bagby, an Islamic studies professor at the University of Kentucky and an adviser to the Pew Research Center poll. "One does not have any security implications for America, and the other is a localized struggle to fight an occupier."

In a broad way, the survey found that American Muslims are increasingly integrated into American society. Seventy-eight percent said they were "very happy" or "pretty happy." Roughly 71 percent believe hard work can lead to success in America.

A stunning 92 percent of Muslim immigrants who arrived prior to 1990 have become citizens, as have 70 percent of those who arrived during the 1990s.

"This is not a picture of an alienated community," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, a division of the Pew Research Center that helped conduct the poll.

But the survey also found an increasing distrust of U.S. foreign policy.

Only 26 percent of the Muslims surveyed agreed that "the U.S.-led war on terrorism is a sincere effort to reduce international terrorism." By contrast, 67 percent of Americans as a whole believe the war on terror is sincere.

The war in Iraq is wrong, according to 75 percent of the Muslims surveyed, and only 40 percent believe Arabs carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The survey revealed some striking demographic information:

-- Pew estimates that there are 2.35 million Muslims in the United States -- 4 million to 6 million fewer than many American Muslim groups estimate.

-- African Americans are the single largest ethnic group among Muslims, accounting for 20 percent. Another 65 percent are immigrants from an array of countries, with the single largest group -- 8 percent -- from Pakistan.

"Next to the pilgrimage to Mecca, this is as representative a Muslim community as you'd find anywhere in the world," Lugo said. The annual journey to the spiritual center of the Islamic world brings together the faithful from across the globe.

Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, said the response to the question about suicide bombings against civilians could reflect the greater support Pew has found in past polls among young adults of all religious and ethnic backgrounds for military tactics, such as war.

Abdurrahman Anwar said Muslims who believe their faith justifies suicide bombings are misguided.

"Killing innocent people can't be called (for) in the name of Islam," said Abdurrahman, 23, the imam of the Yassin Foundation, which runs a Belmont mosque. "Islam doesn't support killing, regardless of whether the victims are Muslims or not. Life is sacred, and man is not allowed to commit suicide or even destroy another's life."

Imam Tahir Anwar of the South Bay Islamic Association said that in his travels across the country, he has never encountered a young Muslim who has supported suicide bombings. And he said there's never justification for it.

Anwar said if someone did mention bombings to him, he would counsel them about proper teachings.

Imran Maskatia, a Hayward resident who is active in a number of Bay Area Muslim organizations, said he fears the poll numbers on suicide bombings will be blown out of proportion.

But he said Muslim organizations must ensure that young Muslims have outlets for concerns. Participation in youth groups and other activities can play a big part, he said.

"We definitely need to make sure that our youth feel a part of society," said Maskatia, 31. "We need to make sure that this general sentiment doesn't translate into something more extreme."