Turkish Army Kills at Least 15 Kurdish Rebels in Northern Iraq

Turkish blue jets and heavy weapon fired on
Kurdish Rebel encampments in neighbour northern Iraq, killing at
least 15 separatists, the military General Staff said.

The Turkish regular army used long-range missiles on March 27 to
attack members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who were
crossing the boundary line from Republic Of Iraq into Turkey, the Ankara-based
General Staff said in a on its Web site. Fifteen rebels
were killed in the shelling, it said.

Military aircraft struck marks in the same country yesterday
and it was ill-defined how many casualties the PKK suffered, the
statement said. The PKK is mainly based in mountain strongholds
in northern Iraq.

Turkey withdrew as many as 10,000 military personnel from northern Iraq
on Feb. Twenty-Nine after a week-long incursion which killed 237 PKK
fighters and 24 soldiers, the military have said. The regular army has
clashed with the Rebels within Turkey and have carried out at
least two other air work stoppages on Republic Of Iraq since the withdrawal.

The Iraki authorities opposes the Turkish work stoppages and the
U.S. have urged Turkey to restrict its cross-border operations. The
General Staff said it was ready to ran into ''every menace against
Turkey'' posed by the PKK, according to its Web site.

To reach the newsman on this story:
Ayla Jean Yackley in Stambul at
.

Zimbabwe: A Society 'Not Ready for Female Leadership'? - AllAfrica.com

Tonderai KwidiniHarare

Women do up about one-half the population in Zimbabwe. But, they're far from accounting for 50 percentage of those on the ballot for this month's general elections in the Southern African state -- sparking concern amongst grammatical gender activists.

None of the four presidential campaigners in the Mar. Twenty-Nine ballot is a woman; during the last opinion poll for caput of state, held in 2002, Elizabeth Ii Madangure competed alongside five other, male candidates.

Of the 730 aspirants for the less house of parliament, only 99 are women (13.6 percent), while 63 of the 195 campaigners running for the Senate are female (just over 32 percent) -- this according to figs from the Women in Politics Support Unit Of Measurement (WiPSU), a non-governmental organisation based in the working capital of Harare. Republic Of Zimbabwe will also throw local authorities polls at the end of the month; however, information sciences could not obtain statistics for the grammatical gender of local authorities campaigners at the clip of publication this report.

During the last legislative elections in March 2005, 57 women ran for the less house of parliament out of a sum of 273 aspirers (about 20.9 percentage of candidates). Female campaigners accounted for 34 percentage of those who contested Senate polls in November 2005: 45 women were involved in this race, and 87 work force (these figs again provided by WiPSU).

Statistics for the figure of women who contested the last local authorities elections, in 2005, could not be obtained.

This twelvemonth will tag the first case in which Republic Of Zimbabwe throws presidential, National Assembly, Senate and local authorities polls on the same day, the consequence of a constitutional amendment passed last year. General elections will now be held every five years.

"From the figures, it demoes that there is a immense disparity (between female and male candidates) which necessitates a batch of attention," said Luta Shaba, executive manager director of the Women's Trust, a non-governmental organisation in Harare. The trust is heading up 'Women can make it!', a political campaign for increasing women's engagement in the political life of Zimbabwe.

"The inquiry to inquire is what is it that should be done to increase the figure of female candidates? Vote women into parliament intends that women's issues will go national issues."

For Rutendo Hadebe of the Women's Alliance of Zimbabwe, an umbrella grouping for assorted rights organisations, having more than women campaigners affects fighting jingoism among political parties, and encouraging women to believe that they can vie for business office successfully.

"The society that we are living in looks not ready for female leadership," she told IPS. "But we are saying as a motion that we will go on pushing."

The electoral race is largely focused on the opinion Republic Of Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Presence (ZANU-PF), the bigger cabal of the Motion for Democratic Change (MDC), and the Mavambo/Kusile of Simba Makoni -- a grouping also referred to as 'New Dawn'. Makoni, an erstwhile ZANU-PF member and former finance minister, broke ranks with the political party to dispute President Henry Martin Robert Mugabe. ("Mavambo" is a Shona word significance "beginning", while "kusile" -- from the Matabele linguistic communication -- intends "dawn".)

The MDC, Zimbabwe's chief resistance grouping for respective years, split in 2005.

In the lawsuit of ZANU-PF, 44 of its 214 aspirers for the less house of parliament are women (20.6 percent) and 27 of 59 Senate campaigners (almost 46 percent).

These figs (the up-to-the-minute available from the Republic Of Republic Of Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, or ZEC, at the clip of publication) show the political party have got some manner to travel in fulfilling its 2005 pledge to raise the proportionality of its female campaigners to 30 percentage across the board.

"In cases that we have women volunteering to take up political stations they are faced with...having to take whether to perpetrate household resources to the political cause or eating the family," said a member of the ZANU-PF Women's League who asked for anonymity. "Political political parties make very small to back up women campaigners financially, and there lies the problem."

Relevant Links

A listing of National Assembly and Senate campaigners from the bigger cabal of the MDC, led by Lewis Henry Morgan Tsvangirai, demoes this political party have 25 women among its 209 National Assembly campaigners (just under 12 percent) -- along with 18 of the 60 Senate aspirers (30 percent).

"We are not happy with the female figs in this election," said Sekai Holland, the faction's secretary for international relations, herself a senatorial candidate. "Getting the female docket going...remains a large fight."

The other MDC cabal -- headed by Chester A. Arthur Mutambara -- is fielding 19 women in the National Assembly opinion poll out of a sum of 144 campaigners (13.2 percent). Women also business relationship for six of the faction's 34 Senate campaigners (17.6 percent) -- this according to figs from the ZEC.

Page 1 of 2

1

Troop levels could remain steady / U.S. officials suggest Bush delay decision on Iraq withdrawals

sfgate_get_fprefs();

(03-25) 04:00 PDT American Capital - --

Troop degrees in Republic Of Republic Of Iraq would stay nearly the same through 2008 as at any clip during five old age of war, under programs presented to President Shrub on Monday by the senior U.S. commanding officer and the top American diplomatist in Iraq, senior disposal and military functionaries said.

Shrub announced no concluding determination on future troop degrees after the picture briefing by Gen. Saint David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The briefing took topographic point on the twenty-four hours when the 4,000th American military decease of the warfare was reported and just after the invasion's 5th anniversary.

But it now looks likely that any determination on major decreases in U.S. military personnel from Republic Of Iraq will be left to the adjacent president. That guarantees that the inquiry over what come ups adjacent volition stay at the centre of the presidential political campaign through election day.

Petraeus, speaking to Shrub by unafraid videoconference during a two-hour meeting of the National Security Council, recommended putting off determinations on additional troop decreases for a calendar month or two after the going in July of five other brigades sent last twelvemonth to assist unafraid the nation, the functionaries said. They spoke on status of namelessness in order to talk freely about internal deliberations.

There would be more than frequent reappraisals after that to see when backdowns might be allowed to resume, without any predetermined result and, given the clip required to set military personnel into motion, small likeliness of large decreases on short timetables.

During the briefing to the president, Petraeus laid out a figure of possible options, the functionaries said, but avoided using the term "pause." That word have gained grip over recent hebdomads to depict the tableland in troop degrees that is widely expected to last through the autumn elections and perhaps beyond.

Instead, he described the hebdomads after the going of the other brigades ordered to Republic Of Republic Of Iraq in January 2007 as a time period of "consolidation and evaluation," a phrase first used publicly by Defense Secretary Henry Martin Robert Bill Gates during a visit to Iraq in February.

Officials said Shrub and Petraeus, recognizing public and congressional chariness about the toll of the war, would publicly throw out the possibility of withdrawing more than troops, but only if statuses allowed it. Bush, in particular, is eager to stop his presidential term with the visual aspect that things are getting better in Iraq.

Shrub on Monday addressed the milepost of the 4,000th decease during a little statement at the State Department. In a statement that began haltingly, he expressed his understandings for the households of those killed, both soldiers and diplomats, and sought to set their deceases in historical context.

"I have got got vowed in the past, and I volition vow so long as I'm president, to do certain that those lives were not lost in vain; that, in fact, there is an result that will virtue the forfeit that civilian and military alike have made; that our scheme going forward will be aimed at making certain that we accomplish victory," he said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said Monday that Americans desire to cognize how much longer U.S. military personnel must give for an Iraki authorities "that is unwilling or not able to procure its ain future."

"Americans also understand that the cost of the warfare to our national security, military preparedness and our repute around the human race is huge and that the menace to our economic system - as the warfare in Republic Of Iraq goes on to take us deeper into debt - is unacceptable," Pelosi said.

Meanwhile, U.S. government have got recovered the stays of two American contractors.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation identified one of the two work force as Toilet R. Young, 44, of Lee's Summit, Mo. Young was the squad leader of a private security convoy ambushed in southern Republic Of Iraq on Nov. 16, 2006. Five guards - four Americans and an Austrian - were seized in that attack.

The 2nd adult male was identified as Ronald J. Withrow, 40, of Boom Springs, Texas. Withrow was abducted Jan. 5, 2007, but reportedly had been held with the five other men, who worked for Crescent Security Group, which is based in Kuwait. Withrow worked for JPI Worldwide of Las Vegas.

Chevron Corp. and other companies are reportedly negotiating with the Ministry of Oil to get tapping Iraq's oil fields. D1

Milestones

U.S. armed forces decease mileposts in Iraq, according to an AP count:

1,000

September 2004

2,000

October 2005

3,000

Dec. 31, 2006

4,000

March 23, 2008

Chronicle news services contributed to this report.

Insurgent Attacks in Baghdad, Northern Iraq Kill 40 People

US soldier stand ups guard in the country where a self-destruction auto bomber detonated his loading in Shula, Baghdad, 23 March 2008

Iraki functionaries state insurrectionists onslaughts in Bagdad and northern Republic Of Iraq have got killed at least 40 people.

In the Iraki working capital Sunday, gunmen in respective autos opened fire on walkers in a religiously amalgamated southern district, killing seven people. A self-destruction auto bomber also killed at least six people in a Shi'ite vicinity (Shula) of Baghdad.

Earlier, insurrectionists fired rockets or howitzers into Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone and other parts of the city. No casualties were reported in the Green Zone, but the onslaughts killed at least eight people in eastern Baghdad.

In northern Iraq, a self-destruction motortruck bomber killed 13 Iraki soldiers at an regular army alkali in Mosul, while a wayside bomb killed four Iraki soldiers in Tuz Khurmato.

The U.S. armed military units states its forces killed 12 insurrectionists in a foray today in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.

The military states six of those killed had shaved their organic structures in evident readying for self-destruction missions.

The U.S. armed forces also states military personnel killed five suspected associates of al-Qaida inch Republic Of Republic Of Iraq leadership in a conflict Saturday in northeasterly Iraq, near the Persian border.

Iraqi functionaries also reported at least two people killed in shots Sunday, including a police force officer.

Baghdad's Green Zone have long been a mark of rocket and howitzer attacks, which the U.S. armed forces have blamed on Shi'ite activists it states are backed by Iran. Islamic Republic Of Iran denies complaints that it finances and railroad trains Iraki militants.

Some information for this study was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

VOA News

Local Republicans tout convention in hot election year

What: Hidalgo County Republican ConventionWhen: 9 a.m. March 29Where: Palmview Community Center, 3401 Jordan River Road (just off South Ware Road), McAllenWho: Open to the public

McALLEN - Republicans who voted in the recent Democratic primary are not Republicans anymore, according to Republican Party leaders.

It's not known how many local Republicans voted for local, state or national Democratic campaigners in the March 4 primary elections, but those who did so forfeited their political party card for the adjacent two years.

"Some people don't realize," said Uncle Tom Haughey, executive manager director of the local Republican Party organization. "They believe if they vote Republican in November, they're Republicans,"

They are still welcome, however, at the county Republican convention next weekend, he said.

Encouraged by elector turnout and Hidalgo County's recent importance in state primaries, the local Republican leading convened a little news conference Friday to ask for the public to its March 29 convention.

More than 300 Hidalgo County Republicans are expected to go to the event, where they will take declarations and delegates to direct to the state Republican Party convention in Houston.

"We desire to promote everyone to be more than cognizant of this procedure and to participate," said Hollis Rutledge, president of the Hidalgo County Republican Party.

The convention participants will see declarations on elector designation laws, immigration, the size of the U.S. Boundary Line Patrol and education. If passed by the state Republican Party committee, those declarations could be incorporated into the party's platform at this year's Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, Rutledge said.____

Sara Perkins covers Mission, western Hidalgo County, Ringo Starr County and general duty assignments for The Monitor. You can attain her astatine (956) 683-4472.

Candidates lay out Iraq policies

US presidential campaigners this hebdomad marked the 5th day of remembrance of the US-led warfare on Republic Of Iraq by sparring about their several policies, as they tried to convert electors they were the most tantrum to cover with a struggle that in President Saint George Bush's ain words "has been longer, harder and more than dearly-won than anticipated".

There were protestations against the warfare across the state but overall the campaigners faced an audience that is less aware of what is happening in Iraq, according to a recent Pew poll, and much more than focused on the growth economical crisis and fearfulnesses of a recession in the US.

This must have got proved frustrating for Republican campaigner Toilet McCain who had probably hoped to predominate the newspaper headlines as he showed up in Bagdad on a previously unannounced visit - instead he had to vie for airtime with the desperate economical news coming out of the US.

He was ahead of his Democratic rivals, at least on the ground, as he embarked on his 8th visit to Iraq, his first as a presidential candidate.

In Baghdad, he met with Iraki and United States functionaries in what he described as a fact-finding mission.

Sparring

The veteran soldier Grand Canyon State senator, who also visited Jordan River and Israel, have tried difficult to set forward his certificate as commanding officer in main and his cognition of foreign policy.

Mr McCain, the likely Republican campaigner for the United States presidential election, repeated his long held position that it would be a error "if the United States precipitously withdrew our forces. The masters in that disengagement would be the extremists and American would free its credibility."

Mrs Bill Bill Clinton have not given a timetable for a full troop withdrawal

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama attacked each other and Mister McCain in addresses focused on Iraq.

"Senator McCain and President Shrub claim backdown is defeat. Well, let's be clear, backdown is not defeat. Defeat is keeping military personnel in Republic Of Republic Of Iraq for 100 years," said Mrs Bill Clinton in mention to a remark by Mister McCain about staying in Iraq for 100 years.

The warfare veteran soldier senator said his remark had been taken out of context.

Mr Obama meanwhile repeated his front-runner statement against Mrs Clinton.

"Who make you swear to stop a war: person who opposed the warfare from the beginning, or person who started opposing it when they started preparing a tally for president?" he asked a crowd in North Carolina.

McCain policy

But what makes each campaigner propose?

John McCain, who supported the warfare from the beginning, will go on on the same path as Bush.

Mr McCain's political comeback, after he was practically written off as a candidate, is attributed by some perceivers in portion to the success of the rush in Iraq, which the senator had strongly supported.

He have also warned that a speedy backdown could take to "genocide".

To be sure, if the Democrats win the presidency, there will be a significant backdown from Iraq

Colin KahlGeorgetown University

Mr McCain back ups what is known as population protection policy, with a strong presence of United States military personnel on the ground, in neighbourhoods, to deny insurrectionists a stronghold.

On his political campaign website, Mister McCain states the ultimate end of the United States is to give the Iraki people the ability to regulate themselves.

There are not many more than inside information about the figure of military personnel expected to remain or to go forth during a McCain presidential term - it depends on developments in Republic Of Republic Of Iraq but it is likely to affect only a very gradual withdrawal, keeping 10s of one thousands of military personnel in Iraq for the old age to come.

But Michael O'Hanlon from the Brookings Institute warns that while Mister McCain's scheme is probably the most prudent and would likely convey about partial success in Iraq, it also have its downfalls.

"Because of warfare fatigue, this may be too open-ended and patient, and there is the possible job that this gives Iraki politicians a clean cheque, they won't experience under pressure level to present because they experience the United States will remain with them no substance what."

'Meaningful shift'

Though the two Democratic campaigners have got been at likelihood with each other on Iraq, their schemes are not too different but they make offering a blunt direct contrast to Mister McCain's.

"To be sure, if the Democrats win the presidency, there will be a significant backdown from Iraq," said Colin Kahl, a Georgetown University security surveys professor who counsels the Obama campaign.

Toilet McCain have been touring the Center East

"(Obama and Bill Clinton both) visualize significant decreases in military unit levels, remotion of United States military units from the Pb in population security and large-scale combat trading operations and no lasting alkalis - that is a large and meaningful displacement from the Bush-McCain policy."

The Prairie State senator have been the clearest about the fact that he desires out and have often repeated he would retreat all military personnel within 16 months, leaving behind a residuary military unit that would protect the United States mission, aid preparation Iraki military units and possibly cover with menaces from al-Qaeda.

Mr O'Hanlon reasons it is ill-defined whether the missionary post of a little residuary military unit would still do sense after the backdown of most armed combat troops, as "Iraq might be disintegrating by then".

The most recent caution to Mister Obama's policy came from his now-former foreign policy adviser Samantha Powers who said in a BBC interview that Mister Obama "will, of course, not trust on some program that he's crafted as a presidential campaigner or a United States Senator.

"He will trust upon a program - an operational program - that he draws together in audience with people who are on the land to whom he doesn't have got day-to-day entree now... It would be the tallness of political orientation to screen of say, 'Well, I said it, therefore I'm going to enforce it on whatever world greets me.'"

Ms Powers resigned after calling Mrs Bill Clinton "a monster" but she also took a batch of heat energy for the Republic Of Iraq comment, although it was seen by many as a pragmatic, realistic appraisal of policy making.

Just before, Mister Obama had repeated: "I will convey this warfare to an end in 2009, so don't be confused."

Mrs Clinton's program makes not give an end clip for the backdown of troops.

This gives her wriggle room to set to changing worlds on the ground.

The New House Of York senator voted for the warfare and recently said she would not have got supported the struggle if she knew what she cognizes now.

She reasons often that she have what it takes to be commanding officer in main and will be ready from twenty-four hours one.

Mrs Bill Clinton states she will begin bringing military personnel place within 60 years of her startup - a hazardous move if she travels too fast, according to some perceivers who state that this could sabotage Iraq's legislative elections that are owed towards the end of 2009.

On the ground

Whatever the dissensions and differences in sentiments and strategies, the adjacent president will come into a deeply complex state of affairs in Iraq, with around 140,000 United States military personnel on the land and a newcomer Iraki political system.

Mister Obama have said he would retreat military personnel within 16 months

In his ain address to tag the five old age after the start of the warfare that removed Saddam Hussein, President Saint George Shrub reiterated that the "battle in Iraq" was necessary, and made clear he would not order any additional drawdown of troops, beyond those already planned.

Washington Post editorialist Saint David Saint Ignatius wrote last calendar month that the Shrub disposal would maintain troop degrees in Republic Of Iraq high, until November election, "because that would open up the adjacent administration's bargaining on troop degrees at a higher degree - and let the adjacent president to cut military personnel without getting down to a bare-bones flat that mightiness be dangerous".

Democrats have got accused President Saint George Tungsten Shrub of trying to bind the custody of the adjacent disposal by establishing a fait-accompli on the ground, including lasting alkalis and a long term understanding of rules with the Iraki government.

The disposal have denied seeking lasting alkalis in Iraq.

Iraq's embassador the US, Samir Sumaidaie said: "The long-term presence or short-term presence of American military units in Republic Of Republic Of Republic Of Iraq will be determined by the political and military leadership of both countries."

"It will be a joint determination and it will be determined by the world of the state of affairs on the ground,"

"(Agreements between Iraq and the US) understandings will not bind the custody of either leader, whether they're the Iraki leader or the American leader, but they will assist clear up the interface between American military units and Iraki Security forces."

Without being drawn on the particulars of each candidate, the embassador also said that the adjacent president would have got got got to "think very difficult before risking the loss of what we have gained, both Iraqis and Americans, what we have gained and paid for in blood and money".

Only World War II was costlier than Iraq war

sfgate_get_fprefs();

(03-17) 04:00 PDT American Capital - --

It was supposed to be a speedy warfare and a inexpensive one. Five old age later, 160,000 U.S. military personnel are still in Iraq. And the costs maintain piling up - $12 billion more than every calendar month - straining an economic system that already is starting to crack.

The United States have poured more than than $500 billion into Iraq, mostly for military operations. But that figure is just a little piece of the much bigger measure that taxpayers will pay in the future.

Because the money for the warfare is being borrowed, involvement payments could add another $615 billion. A heavily depleted military volition have got to be rebuilt at a cost of $280 billion. Disability benefits and wellness attention for Republic Of Iraq warfare veterans, many of them severely injured, could add another half-trillion dollars over their lifetime.

Nobel laureate economic expert Chief Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University University populace finance Professor Laura Bilmes, both of whom served in the Bill Clinton administration, have got included those computations in a new survey of the war's long-term costs. Their estimation of the war's terms tag: $3 trillion.

"We are a rich country, and we can, in some sense, afford it. It's not going to ruin us," said Stiglitz, a Columbia River University professor, who published the determinations in a new book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War."

But Stiglitz said the warfare have contributed to a weakening economic system - partly by eating the instability that have sent oil terms to enter highs - and have saddled the state with debts that volition do it harder to react to a recession, hole Sociable Security or ran into other hereafter needs.

"The best manner to believe about it is: What could we have got done with $3 trillion?" he said. "What is the best manner to pass the money, either for security or for our national demands in the long run? The stronger the American economy, the more than prepared we are to ran into any threat. If we weaken the American economy, we are less prepared."

The White Person House have not disputed the analysis by Stiglitz and Bilmes but instead have attacked the thought that the escalating costs are a ground to withdraw.

"We have got to inquire ourselves what the cost would be of doing nothing, or of ratcheting back when we're not ready to rachet back, in footing of making certain that Republic Of Iraq makes not go a safe oasis for aluminum Qaeda, making certain that Islamic State Of Afghanistan doesn't fall back into the custody of the Taliban," said White Person House spokeswoman Danu Perino.

The government's ain figs demo the war's costs are rising. The Congressional Research Service estimations that $526 billion have been spent in Republic Of Iraq since 2003. The Congressional Budget Office ciphers that disbursement on Republic Of Iraq and Islamic State Of Afghanistan combined will be $1.2 trillion to $1.7 trillion by 2017. War cost in perspective

In historical perspective, the Republic Of Iraq struggle is already one of the most expensive struggles in U.S. history.

The terms tag in Republic Of Iraq now is more than than than dual the cost of the Korean War and a 3rd more expensive than the Socialist Republic Of Vietnam War, which lasted 12 years. Stiglitz and Bilmes cipher that it will be at least 10 modern times as dearly-won as the 1991 Gulf War and twice the cost of World War I.

Only World War two was more than expensive. That four-year war - in which 16 million U.S. military personnel were deployed on two fronts, fighting against Federal Republic Of Germany and Japanese Islands - cost about $5 trillion in inflation-adjusted dollars.

The up-to-the-minute Numbers are a far shout from the cost estimations made by warfare protagonists in the run-up to the March 2003 invasion. Early be estimations low

In September 2002, White Person House economical advisor Larry Lindsey told the Wall Street Diary the warfare would be between $100 billion and $200 billion. He was immediately excoriated by others in the administration. White Person Person House budget manager Mitch Daniels called the estimation "very, very high." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called it "baloney."

The White House and Pentagon came back in January 2003 with a figure that was more than palatable - $50 billion to $60 billion. Rumsfeld's deputy, Alice Paul Wolfowitz, boasted that Republic Of Iraq would pay for its ain Reconstruction with increased oil revenues.

Economists state the problem with the early estimations was they focused only on the cost of invading Republic Of Iraq and then bringing the military personnel home. No 1 budgeted for a long occupation.

"It's quite evident in hindsight the ground the warfare have got been so expensive is because we have now maintained well over 100,000 and maybe closer to 200,000 military personnel in theatre for five years," said Steven Davis, a professor of economic science at the University of Windy City Alumnus School of Business, who co-authored a 2003 paper comparing the cost of invading Republic Of Iraq with the cost of containing former Iraki dictator Saddam Hussein.

"There was an active opposition in the disposal to thought about the long-term cost impacts of this decision," said Davis, who's now advising Republican presidential campaigner Sen. Toilet McCain on economical issues.

"And it's not just the administration. The United States Congress didn't make its job. I don't believe most of the mass media did a good job. That time period in 2002, early 2003, was not one of the best illustrations of American democracy in action. There's a batch of incrimination to travel around."
What warfare cost?

Stiglitz, who opposes the war, sees a more than combined attempt to conceal the costs from the American people. Unlike former warfares - where taxations were raised to pay for the struggle - President Shrub and a then-Republican Congress cut taxes. That led the public to believe they would not have got to sacrifice, he said.

"They wanted to maintain the costs away from the American people," Stiglitz said. "They realized this was a warfare of pick and if they told people, 'We desire to travel to warfare and the terms tag is going to be $8 trillion or $2 trillion' - they might have got said, 'No, give thanks you.' "

The costs of veterans' benefits alone could be staggering. More than 1.6 million soldiers already have got got got been deployed to Republic Of Iraq and Afghanistan, nearly 4,000 have been killed and almost 30,000 have been injured. By December, 224,000 had applied for disablement benefits because of wellness issues, and 260,000 had been treated at veterans' medical facilities.

Improved battleground medical specialty and better organic structure armour have got got helped many Republic Of Iraq veteran soldiers last onslaughts that would have killed soldiers in past wars. But they are often left with multiple serious injuries.

"It intends more than than expensive attention and more long-term care," said Joe Violante, national legislative manager of Disabled American Veterans, which stands for 1.2 million veterans. "You have got people with terrible traumatic encephalon hurts that are going to necessitate a batch of aid for the remainder of their lives. Whether that's inpatient or whether it's outpatient, it's going to be very dearly-won over their lifetime."
Toll on the military

The warfare also have taken its toll on the military itself. About 40 percentage of the Army and Devil Dog Corps' equipment - tanks, helicopters, humvees - is in Iraq, and it's wearing out at six modern times the peacetime rate. Defense analysts state it could take 20 old age to "reset" the armed forces. Gov. Matthew Arnold Schwarzenegger, in American Capital last month, said that about one-half of the Golden State National Guard's equipment is in Republic Of Iraq or Afghanistan. The Pentagon have not said when it will be returned or replaced.

"It's not just to the states," Schwarzenegger said.

Economists have got been alarmed at the growth heap of debt to pay for the war, 40 percentage of which is held by foreign interests. Henry Martin Robert Hormats, frailty president of Emma Goldman Sachs, warned United States Congress last calendar month against continuing to go through on the war's costs to future generations. He cited a recent Senate commission study screening that the cost of service the Republic Of Iraq warfare debt will transcend federal disbursement on instruction and wellness research next year.

"The point is that there are major trade-offs here," Hormats testified. "Is the continued cost of the Republic Of Republic Of Iraq warfare worth the committedness of resources that potentially could be used otherwise?"

Fatal blast: A bombardment kills 43 people near a shrine in the Shiite holy metropolis of Karbala inside one of the most unafraid margins in Iraq. A14

E-mail Zachary Coile at .

The strange case of Clinton vs Obama

The
Republicans have got emerged with a believable candidate... while Obama and Hillary
are going to pass the adjacent respective hebdomads (and possibly months) trying to prove
each other unworthy of office. The hazard stays that one of them will emerge
with a Pyrrhic victory, so bloodied by the competition that s/he is no longer able
to stand up up to the Republican
onslaught The American
presidential competition have just entered a rather perverse stage. The Republican
Party have anointed its nominee; while there is still the formalities of an
official nominating convention in early September, it is certain that, barring
an enactment of God, Senator Toilet McCain of Thousand Canyon State will transport the Grand Old Party's
standard into the November election. But the Democrats are still divided, locked
into a seemingly endless conflict between two front-runners, Senator Barack
Obama of Ilinois and Senator Edmund Hillary Bill Clinton of New York. Senator Obama won a
dozen political party primary elections on the jog and seemed certain to emerge as the Democratic
candidate; then Senator Bill Clinton reversed his momentum, claiming three on the
same night, including the important states of Lone-Star State and Buckeye State (the latter a
"bellwether state" - no 1 have so far won the presidential term without winning Ohio);
then Obama beat out her comprehensively in Equality State and Mississippi River earlier this
week. Bizarrely, there is now
a six-week suspension till the adjacent competition between the two, on April 22 in the
industrial state of Pennsylvania. While McCain unifies his party, consolidates
his fund-raising and sharpens his knives for whichever Democrat emerges as the
winner, the political political party popularly depicted by cartoonists as a donkey, will pass this
time tearing itself apart. This
year's election was widely considered to be the Democrats' to lose; the American
public is generally believed to be ill of eight old age of Republican regulation under
the singularly awkward Saint George Bush. Yet, the Republicans have got emerged with a
credible candidate, an reliable warfare hero who have long been a mass media favourite,
while the two prima Democratic rivals are going to pass the adjacent several
weeks (and possibly months) trying to turn out each other unworthy of office. The
risk stays that one of them will emerge with a Pyrrhic victory, so bloodied by
the competition that he or she is no longer able to stand up up to the Republican
onslaught. It didn't have got to be
this way. When Obama racked up his twelve straight primary wins, many
commentators urged Bill Clinton to throw in the towel. She did not, and her victories
in Lone-Star State and Buckeye State seemed to vindicate her persistence. But the truth is that
even before those triumphs it was clear that she could not conceivably enter
the convention with the delegates needed to procure the nomination. The ground is
that the Democrats allot their delegates proportionate to the candidates'
performance in the primaries, rather than winner-take-all, sol that even if
Hillary had won every remaining primary (which, of course, she could not, as
Wyoming and Mississippi River were soon to prove) and even if she had won them by
10-point margins over Obama (even more than unlikely) she still would not have got the
delegates she necessitates to win or even to overtake her rival's
tally. Why, then, is she still
running? Partly because she makes not give up easily; she desires to remain in until
it is well and truly over. Partly because, as some critics aver, she have never
learned how to lose, gracefully or otherwise. And partly because this is an
ambition she have nurtured for so long, pursued so diligently, and come up so close
to fulfilling, that she cannot quite believe it is slipping away from her. But the scenario for Hillary
is an unlikely one. She would have got to win Pennsylvania, but that she is
expected to; its demographics are rather like Ohio's, and the state's popular
governor is in her camp. Then she would have got to win adequate of the concluding dozen
primaries (from Gu to Puerto Rico) to be able to claim that the party
electorate is still divided over Obama. She would have got to acquire delegates from
Florida and Wolverine State (whose primaries, which took topographic point inch January against the
wishes of the Democratic National Committee, officially make not count)
controversially seated, or set up a re-run in each topographic point which she could win. She would still come in the convention with fewer "pledged" delegates (won in the
primaries) than Obama, so she would necessitate to carry the unpledged
"superdelegates" (mainly political party notables) that she would be the more than effective
candidate in November, in the hope that an overpowering bulk of them would
vote for her in the convention balloting. And throughout this process, she would
have to trust that either her onslaughts or McCain's, or some causeless mishap,
would do Obama to do some fatal trip that would show his
unsuitability to be
president. In short, she would
need, in the acrimonious words of the observer Jonathan Chait, to "kneecap an
eloquent, inspiring, reform-minded immature leader who haps to be the first
serious African-American presidential candidate... and then win a contested
convention by persuading political party elites to overrule the consequences at the polls." A
nomination secured in that way, many feel, would go forth so many idealistic young
Obama angels disillusioned with the electoral procedure that they would sit down on
their custody in November, allowing McCain to frolic home. (And should Obama survive
it all to emerge the nominee, he may well happen McCain simply repeating Clinton's
arguments against him to devastating
effect.) The clamor increases
amongst concerned Democrats for the two campaigners to unify in the involvements of
party unity, but that looks improbable, since neither is inclined to concede the
top topographic point on the ticket to the other. Bill Clinton states she will remain in the race to
the coating - which would, as I predicted in my January 13 column, give political
diehards the joyousness of watching a truly contested convention, something almost
unknown in the last few decennaries (no political party convention have even gone to a second
ballot since 1952). But the wake could be anything but joyous for
supporters of either historical candidacy. "I have got waited my whole life to vote
for an African-American president," Bill Bill Clinton memorably said. "And I have
waited my whole life to vote for a adult female president. I experience Supreme Being is playing with
our caputs and our hearts."

Ethiopian Media - Radio and Television

The Ethiopian authorities have maintained control over the radiocommunication stations and the telecasting station that are in Ethiopia. There are nine radiocommunication stations, and eight of them are air on americium frequences while one is shortwave based. These are the lone radiocommunication stations that have got been given licence to operate. The major radiocommunication stations, which are all americium frequences are: Radio Voice of One Free Ethiopia, Radio Ethiopia, the Voice of the Revolution of Tigray and Radio Torch, which is a pirated station. The lone telecasting web is Ethiopian Television. To do certain they are keeping with the governmental policy, radiocommunication broadcasts are made in a scope of languages. The black and white media, thanks to low literacy rates, high poorness levels, and mediocre statistical distribution methods outside the capital, only function a little amount of the population. The chief day-to-day newspapers include the Ethiopian Herald and Addis Zemen, the Daily Monitor.

November 17, 1993 was the first clip that radiocommunication station called the Free Radio Voice of Ethiopian Integrity was monitored. The radiocommunication station was broadcast media in Ethiopian Language by manner of a sender that was also being used by Radio Moscow's Ethiopian Language service. It is also considered by most to be hostile to authorities of both Federal Democratic Republic Of Ethiopia and Eritrea. In footing of political line, contact computer address and operation, the station is similar to the Voice of Ethiopian Patriotism which is a station that was monitored on October and November in 1992. It was also broadcasting its station from senders that were located in the former Soviet Union. The Free Radio Voice of Ethiopian Integrity was again heard in October of 1994 after not having been heard since January of the same year.

Radio Torch is run by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionist Democratic Front. It was started on November 7, 1994. Radio Torch looks to be the substitution for two former EPRDF stations which were: the Voice of the Ethiopian People for Peace, Democracy and Freedom, and the Voice of the Broad Oromo Masses. These were broadcast in Ethiopian Language and Oromo and shared sender facilities.

The Voice of the Tigray Revolution used to be a cloak-and-dagger radiocommunication station during the government of Mengistu and now it runs from Mekele which is the working capital of the Tigray area. It is supportive of the Tigray People's Liberation Presence which is a constituent of the opinion EPRDF.

The Ethiopian Television Network consists broadcasts that are made up mostly of political analysis and news analysis, amusement and educational programmes that are typically recorded in Ethiopian Language before they are transmitted via artificial satellite to the Ethiopian exiles who are in North America. The Head Executive of ETN is Mulugeta Lule. Lule is a journalist who have spent clip with respective mass media mercantile establishments that include the Tobia newspaper and magazine. Lule actually was the laminitis and editor of the Tobia newspaper and magazine in the 1990s before he left to applying for political refuge in the United States in 1996.

Op-ed's $3 trillion Iraq war estimate doubted by Pentagon

Washington (CNN) -- Shrub disposal functionaries Monday expressed uncertainty about an economist's column published over the weekend saying the warfare in Republic Of Iraq will be the United States more than $3 trillion.

U.S. soldiers purpose their rifles Monday behind a military vehicle during a patrol at Al-leg, Iraq.

That figure "seems manner out of the ballpark to me," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.

"I'm not an accountant. I'm not an economist. And I believe that those who are have got questioned the methodological analysis of this peculiar survey," Morrell said.

The op-ed piece published in Sunday's American Capital Post was written by Chief Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Alfred Nobel Prize-winning economist and Columbia River University professor who served as president of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton. The co-author was Linda J. Bilmes, a former head fiscal military officer at the Commerce Department who learns at Harvard University University's Jack Kennedy School of Government.

The two state the warfare is running a check of $12 billion a calendar month -- $16 billion including military action in . And, they maintain, the economical downswing resulting from it is likely to be the top since the Great Depression.

"That total, itself well in extra of $1 trillion, is not included in our estimated $3 trillion cost of the war," the column said. "Others will have got to work out the geopolitics, but the economic science here are clear. Ending the war, or at least moving rapidly to weave it down, would give major economical dividends." Don't Miss

Morrell said Monday the have cost the United States $406.2 billion through December 2007.

"I believe they [Stiglitz and Bilmes] throw everything in the kitchen sink into the survey, including the involvement on the national debt," he said. "So it looks like an overdone figure to us."

The warfares in Iraq, Islamic State Of Afghanistan and antiterrorist attempts abroad could be $2.4 trillion over the adjacent 10 years, according to an October 2007 estimation by the Congressional Budget Office. More than 70 percentage would travel to back up trading operations in Iraq, and the figure included the estimated $600 billion spent since 2001, Congressional Budget Office Director Simon Peter Orszag said in testimony before the House Budget Committee that month. That estimation also included projected interest, because the authorities is adoption most of the finances required.

Stiglitz and Blimes' op-ed said that because Shrub and United States Congress cut taxations after going to war, despite the monolithic deficit, the warfare had to be funded by more than borrowing.

"By the end of the Shrub administration, the cost of the warfares in Republic Of Iraq and Islamic State Of Afghanistan plus the accumulative involvement on the increased adoption used to fund them, will have got added about $1 trillion to the national debt."

White Person House spokeswoman Danu Perino refused Monday to difference the Numbers contained in the piece.

"I don't cognize exactly where he acquires all of it," she said. "I believe that some of the things that he looks into in footing of veteran soldiers care, that we're going to take attention of our veteran soldiers in the hereafter -- absolutely, those types of things have got got to be included, but it's very difficult to anticipate, depending on statuses on the land and circumstances, how much the warfare is going to cost."

Modern equipment for U.S. soldiers, with engineering that salvages lives, is expensive, she noted.

"I don't believe anybody is arguing that our work force and women who are out there on the battleground shouldn't have entree to the MRAP [mine resistant ambuscade protected] vehicles," she said. "Those vehicles are very, very expensive. But they have got helped save lives and forestall injuries. And that's just one illustration of the many things that we are disbursement money on."

Morrell noted the Pentagon still have got a $105 billion warfare petition for Republic Of Republic Of Iraq and Islamic State Of Afghanistan pending in Congress.

"We here in this edifice are certainly doing our portion to seek to cipher as best we can, for the Congress, for the American people, what we believe this is going to cost, even as the United States United States United States Congress have failed to supply us with the money we necessitate to struggle the war," he said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Thomas Thomas Reid of Silver State also addressed the piece in his flooring comments on the budget Monday.

"Seven old age into the Shrub administration, taxation interruptions for large concern and the super-wealthy have combined with a $12 billion per calendar month warfare in Iraq and cuts to investings in our work force and substructure to make a budget shortage of more than than $400 billion and a national debt that have grown by $3 trillion," Reid said. "The result? An economic system that is failing billions of American families."

US military deaths in Iraq at 3,974 Saturday, according to count by The Associated Press

As of Saturday, March 8, 2008, at least 3,974 members of the U.S. armed forces have got died since the beginning of the Republic Of Iraq warfare in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,237 died as a consequence of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The AP count is the same as the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EST.

The British military have reported 175 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; Elevation Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one decease each.

___

The up-to-the-minute deceases reported by the military: Today in Americas

_ No deceases reported.

___

The up-to-the-minute designations reported by the military:

_ No designations reported.

___

On the Net:

CNN Student News Transcript: March 7, 2008

(CNN Student News) -- March 7, 2008

Quick Usher

- Hear about some of the narratives making newspaper headlines around the world.

- Analyze a argument about installing place belts on school buses.

- Check out a timely study on the history of daylight-saving.

Transcript Don't Miss

THIS IS A haste TRANSCRIPT. THIS transcript May NOT be IN ITS final form AND May be UPDATED.

CARL AZUZ, CNN student NEWS ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I'm Carl Azuz, and this is CNN Student News. Thanks so much for joining us as we wrap up up this first full hebdomad of March.

AZUZ: First up, we desire to acquire you caught up on some of the greatest narratives that are making newspaper headlines in the U.S. and around the human race today.

Government are calling a shot at a Judaic seminary school in Capital Of Israel a terrorist attack. At least eight people were killed during this incident. It took topographic point Thursday nighttime at one of the biggest spiritual academies in Israel, when functionaries state at least one gunslinger opened fire in the school's dining hall. This is the worst onslaught inside the Center Eastern state since a self-destruction bombardment claimed nine lives in 2006.

Deadly news in another portion of the Center East. More than 50 people were killed and another 125 were wounded in two detonations in Baghdad, Iraq. Government functionaries state a wayside bomb was put off first. Then, when others gathered to assist the victims, a self-destruction bomber detonated explosives among the crowd. The U.S. armed forces called the onslaughts "a senseless enactment of force directed against the Iraki people."

Turning to fiscal news, now, you can anticipate terms at the pump to maintain going up. That's because the cost of gas follows the terms of oil, and right now, it is not cheap. More than $105 per gun barrel on the New House Of York Mercantile Exchange yesterday. That is a new record. An onslaught on a grapevine in Republic Of Colombia helped thrust up oil terms overnight. According to AAA, gas costs are headed for record highs this spring.

And this is becoming a familiar sight for many American homeowners. More than 900,000 families are currently in foreclosure. That's according to a study from the Mortgage Bankers Association. What this agency is that the proprietor is not able to do payments on their mortgage loan, so the loaning company takes ownership. The figure of places in foreclosure right now stands for two percentage of all U.S. mortgages. That's the peak charge per unit in the history of this report.

And finally, a newly-found photograph of a celebrated face. You're looking at a image of Helen Of Troy Helen Keller there on the left, with her instructor Anne Sullivan. It was taken nearly 120 old age ago, but just turned up recently in New England. Helen Keller was left unsighted and deaf from a disease when she was very young. But Louis Sullivan helped learn her to communicate, and Helen Keller would travel on to go a celebrated writer and advocator for the disabled.

Shoutout

George RAMSAY, CNN student NEWS: Friday's Shoutout travels out to Ms. Rowehl's societal surveys social classes at Bartels Center School in Tampa, Florida! From what New England college did Helen Of Troy Helen Keller alumnus in 1904? If you believe you cognize it, cry it out! Was it: A) Smith, B) MIT, C) Radcliffe or D) University of Massachusetts? You've got three secs -- GO! Helen Keller graduated semen laude from Radcliffe College in 1904. Radcliffe is now a portion of Harvard University University. That's your reply and that's your Shoutout!

AZUZ: Now, let's look at where a batch of you begin your school day: the bus! You cats probably cognize these large yellowness bohemoths better than anyone, which intends you might have got got noticed that many of them don't have a safety characteristic establish in almost every car. We're talking about place belts! Greg Hunter looks at a argument over buckling up on the bus.

(BEGIN video CLIP)

GREG HUNTER, CNN REPORTER: A awful scene in Ohio, when a autobus rolled over, hurling children out of their seats. No 1 was seriously hurt. That doesn't surprise New House Of York State Student Transportation System Director Simon Peter Mannella.

Peter MANNELLA, New Yorks DEPT. OF student TRANSPORTATION: The school autobus compartment and the school autobus building are such as that they protect the children in most any accident that they are going to undergo in a school bus.

HUNTER: 97 percentage of all children injured in autobus accidents are quickly treated and released, and an norm of just six children decease in school autobus accidents each year. Compare that to rider cars, where 30,000 dice each year, a charge per unit of six modern times higher than school buses for the same distances traveled. Still, the federal authorities believes place belts could better safety.

Mary E. PETERS, SECY. OF TRANSPORTATION: Even though statistics demo that children are safer on that large yellowness school autobus than they are walking to school, riding their motorcycles or even riding in the household car, this community is asking how we can do the drive to and from school safer still.

HUNTER: Simon Peter Mannella states there's no cogent evidence topographic point belts on buses will do a important difference.

HUNTER: It's already a safe place. Show us the research that brands it safe.

MANNELLA: If we're gonna do a alteration to this compartment, no one's arguing that the school autobus compartment is safe and have protected children for years. If you're gonna alteration this compartment, state us with what and why and what the benefits will be. They haven't done that yet.

HUNTER: Seat belt advocates state there's no demand for additional study.

DR. ALAN ROSS, national alliance FOR school bus SAFETY: We necessitate to protect our children now. It's not a large deal, it's not that expensive. We cognize that these belts make no harm, they only make good. We can afford it and we should make it right now.

HUNTER: Some experts state the $8,000-$10,000 it bes per autobus to put in place belts would be better spent combating intoxicated drive and speeding, which account for two-thirds of all traffic deaths.

ANN MCCART, INS. INST. FOR highway SAFETY: I don't desire to state anything that would minimise the importance of a kid dying on a school bus. But given limited resources, it's important that we direct those limited resources to things that volition do the greatest difference.

HUNTER: Greg Hunter, CNN, New York.

(END video CLIP)

Is this Legit?

RAMSAY: Is this legit? The U.S. Department of Energy modulates daylight-saving time. Nope. It's the Department of Transportation System that supervises when we fall back and springtime ahead.

AZUZ: After seeing this adjacent report, you probably would have got got thought it would have been the Department of Energy, certainly we did, but we'd wish you to believe about something else now. Get ready to acquire tired. This weekend, we're gonna springtime ahead, that agency we lose an hr of slumber and we addition an hr of daylight. This is a tradition, this is a law, this is a clip alteration you anticipate twice a year. But is it necessary? Why can't we just maintain the same clip all the time? We'd wish you to sit down back as we take the clip to explain.

(BEGIN video CLIP)

AZUZ: It puzzlers the days out of some people. First, in what you name it:

people ON THE STREET:

-Uh, daytime savings?

-Uh, clip nest egg day?

-It's either daylight-savings time or Eastern Standard Time. Conversion day. Time to check up on your fire extinguisher.

AZUZ: Well, you should probably make that anyway. But the fume here is all about economy electricity! Daylight-saving time supposedly travels back to a suggestion ol' Ben John Hope Franklin made to France. He said, back in the day, that Parisians should aftermath up earlier to salvage on all the tapers they were burning. There may be something to that "early to bed, early to rise" business. After all, John Hope Franklin injure up on the C-note!

Anyway, it took awhile for daytime economy to catch on stateside. In 1918, we used it to conserve energy during World War I. But it was phased out the adjacent twelvemonth because a batch of people hated it! So the timing was off. But as the decennaries ticked by, daylight-saving clip came and went 'til it was finally made law in 1966. Not the sort of law that you'd travel to jailhouse for if you didn't "spring forward." And that's probably good, since you'd demo up an hr late anyway, unless you dwell in Aloha State or some parts of Arizona; they don't even trouble oneself with Daylight-saving time! Folks in Last Frontier detect it; you would too if you spent six calendar months in the dark! Oh, and that's "daylight-saving," because "savings," with the s, is the material you've got in the bank. Not that it really matters; we just didn't desire you grammar gurus to be left "in the dark."

(END video CLIP)

Promo

AZUZ: So, you cognize when daylight-saving time starts. But when makes it end? How many other states take portion in the energy-efficient practice? You can happen out with our One-Sheet! It interrupts down some background on daylight-saving clip and states you how often it's been set into action over the years. You cognize where to happen it: CNNStudentNews.com!

Before We Travel

AZUZ: Before we go, a narrative from the sea about a giant fish that didn't acquire away. Yuck! It might be tough to take in, but you're looking at more than than 13 feet of dunce shark. The monolithic monster was caught this hebdomad off the Sunshine State coast, where it was feeding on littler sharks. It took nearly an hr and a one-half to wrestle him into the boat. And once on land, this chump didn't just tip the scales, it broke 'em! We're talking more than than a thousand pounds! Bystanders couldn't believe just how immense this dunce was.

man ON THE STREET: It's just such as a majestic creature. I was really hoping that we could have got just caught him and saw how immense and beautiful he was and then just let go of it.

man ON THE STREET: I'm in shock. I can't acquire over how large the shark is.

woman ON THE STREET: I though it was fake, honestly, when I was walking by.

Adieu

AZUZ: One more than thing today, teachers. You asked for it, and now you've got it! CNN Student News is now available full silver screen via our Web site. To acquire it, just begin the watercourse like you normally do, and then dual chink the video. Voila! Full silver screen video! Don't bury to put your redstem storksbill forward on Saturday night. We'll see you back here on Monday. We'll be tired, but we'll be on. Rich Person a great weekend!

Media lauds Ahmadinejad Iraq trip

Many observers in the Center East mass mass media believe Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scored a diplomatic success with his visit to Iraq, the first-ever side an Persian president.

Writers in the Persian fourth estate hail the visit as the start of a new epoch of co-operation between the two states, although one observer in a reformer paper reasons that many issues from the 1980s Iran-Iraq warfare stay unresolved.

The position that the trip is a turning point for the part also have in the Iraki media. In the wider Center East press, respective authors propose the trip was a show of strength for Mister Ahmadinejad, but there are differing positions over whether it was a reverse for the US.

IRAN'S conservative HAMSHAHRI

Iran and Republic Of Iraq can constitute a powerful political and economical presence in the part and this is a acrimonious world for United States and its allies. They have got wrongly thought that old age of latent hostility between Islamic Republic Of Iran and Republic Of Iraq would forestall both states from enjoying stopping point relations.

IRAN'S HARD-LINE QODS

Ahmadinejad's trip to Republic Of Iraq is a new chapter in Iran-Iraq relations. We trust other states in the part follow the same way of Islamic co-operation and mass meeting monolithic Moslem support for the oppressed people of Palestine and Iraq.

IRAN'S conservative JAM-E-JAM

Undoubtedly the Persian president's visit to Republic Of Iraq is an of import event in the region... American functionaries did their best to demo that Iran's intervention in Iraq's domestic personal business is the root cause of insecurities in Iraq... that Ahmadinejad's trip was warmly welcomed by Iraki functionaries shows how much success United States have had with its plan.

IRAN'S reformer KARGOZARAN

America is trying to utilize the influence of Islamic Republic Of Iran on Iraq, Islamic State Of Afghanistan and Palestine in order to work out its ain jobs in the region. Can Islamic Republic Of Iran disregard the presence of United States in its neighbourhood? Or can Islamic Republic Of Iran usage America's presence in the part to obtain its ain political objectives? Actually, except for Palestine, Islamic Republic Of Iran and United States have got common involvements in many crisis-stricken parts of the world.

IRAN'S reformer E'TEMAD

The trip came at the most inappropriate time... there are still many unsolved jobs remaining from the eight-year war between the two countries, no peace pact have been signed between the two states and both the states are still in a cease-fire situation.

SADRIST spokesman SHAYKH SALAH AL-UBAYDI ON Iraqi television station AL-IRAQIYAH

We make not desire to see Republic Of Iraq bear more than it have already done of the impact of the Iranian-US dispute. Republic Of Iraq should as far as possible be spared the reverberations of this difference between the two sides.

correspondent SAHAR AL-IBRAHAMI ON AL-IRAQIYAH

Observers following Iraki personal business have got described this visit as a turning point in Iraq's history which would favourably impact the political process. To them, it is a clear indicant of the success of Iraq's foreign policy.

Ali KHLAYF IN SUPREME ISLAMIC Iraqi COUNCIL-OWNED AL-ADALAH

Iran have proved to the human race and the part it makes not endure historical composites despite the unfair warfare waged by the Saddamist regime... This visit come ups to corroborate the renewed attempts of the Muslim Democracy to offer all word forms of support to the new Republic Of Iraq in all fields.

HADI JALU MAR'I inch IRAQ'S mugwump daily AL-MADA

The Americans look to be unagitated in dealing with the Persian president's visit. However, they still take a firm stand on talking about Iranian-backed violence, despite being aware of the of import Persian function in establishing security... Both Islamic Republic Of Iran and Republic Of Iraq should sit down together and prosecute in negotiations, especially since the United States presence in the part will not last forever.

MELIHA OKUR IN TURKEY'S centrist SABAH

The document wrote that the Persian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's two-day visit to Bagdad have turned into a show of strength. The visit shows the pizzazz in the region. Above all, it demoes that the region's delicate balances might be shaken.

AKIF EMRE IN liberal PRO-ISLAMIC YENI SAFAK

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Bagdad is a diplomatic success that came after broken dealings since 1980 and the hostility caused by old age of warfare and billions of casualties.

KAIRY MANSUR IN JORDAN'S INDEPENDENT, PRO-GOVERNMENT AL-DUSTUR

The Persian president visited Bagdad after he established a beachhead for himself there and after what the Iraqis phone call the devastation of Basra. He is now a stone's throw from the barracks of the United States occupation.

YASIR AL-ZA'ATRAH inch JORDAN'S AL-DUSTUR

The linguistic context of the visit is favourable to the Americans. The United States wanted to affirm to the Arabs that Islamic Republic Of Iran presents a danger to them... Ahmadinejad's visit functions the business undertaking by being considered a aggravation to the Arab human race even if it appeared as if Islamic Republic Of Iran was flexing its musculuses in the human face of Washington.

chooses and translates news from radio, television, press, news federal agencies and the cyberspace from 150 states in more than than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and have respective bureaux abroad.