WASHINGTON — President Bush and his senior advisors Sunday sought to mark the third anniversary of the Iraq war with declarations of progress, but found themselves embroiled in renewed debate about whether the nation had fallen into civil war. In statements to reporters, appearances on Sunday morning TV news shows and an op-ed article, Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Army Gen. George W. Casey, the senior U.S. military commander in Iraq, declared that the United States was making progress toward stabilizing Iraq and defusing sectarian tensions. But those upbeat assessments faced sharp skepticism from U.S. legislators from both parties and from a senior Iraqi political leader, former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who has been a staunch American ally. They contended that Iraq was now in the midst of a civil war between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. The issue of whether Iraq’s sectarian fighting constitutes a civil war has taken on political significance. Polls have shown American support for the Iraq war dropping since the bombing last month of a Shiite shrine in Samarra led to widespread communal violence. Strategists in both parties have said that Bush will have a more […]
Spring is coming. Or is it? Many traditional signs of the new season have already appeared in the south of England. Trees are coming into leaf ever earlier. Animals and insects are emerging from hibernation in mid-winter. The grass is growing. And hands up everyone who used a lawnmower before mid-March last year (admittedly this year has been slower to get started). What event defines the spring for you? Maybe it’s the first primrose. Primroses traditionally appear around Mothering Sunday. But last year the countrywide average date for the first primrose was 28 February. And even in these climatically challenged times, February is not many people’s idea of spring. How about frogspawn? Well, if you live in Cornwall, frogs start to feel the urge around Christmas time. By the time spring comes to the south-west, garden ponds are full of tadpoles. Rooks cawing from the treetops? Well, rooks have become early birds. Many are finishing off their colonies by the end of January. By the time of the traditional spring the eggs are in the nest. First cuckoo anyone? Well, the cuckoo at least is fairly reliable. They still arrive, from Africa, at the traditional time […]
BALTIMORE — Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics, a flurry of new scholarly studies warn, and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women and other groups. Focusing more closely than ever on the life patterns of young black men, the new studies, by experts at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions, show that the huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men. Especially in the country’s inner cities, the studies show, finishing high school is the exception, legal work is scarcer than ever and prison is almost routine, with incarceration rates climbing for blacks even as urban crime rates have declined. Although the problems afflicting poor black men have been known for decades, the new data paint a more extensive and sobering picture of the challenges they face. “There’s something very different happening with young black men, and it’s something we can no longer ignore,” said Ronald […]
BEIJING — China’s government has said it is willing to work with the US on future oil, gas and renewable energy projects, as well as on global energy security issues. “In the field of energy, China and the US are not competitors” Qin Gang, foreign ministry spokesperson, said during a press briefing. “China stands ready to co-operate with the US and other countries ¦ on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.” Mr Qin was responding to comments earlier this week by Dick Lugar, the influential US Senator, who said it was crucial for Washington to broaden its energy co-operation with China and India. US energy dependence was “the albatross” of its national security, he said. China’s pursuit of resources around the world, including in countries shunned by the west – such as Iran, Sudan and Burma – has caused friction with the US and anger in Congress. “There is great potential for the two countries and an extensive range of areas for co-operation,” said Mr Qin. “We must have a very active approach.” Mr Qin did not give further details. Mr Lugar, who chairs the Senate foreign relations committee, had suggested the US needed […]
CHICAGO, Illinois — Soaring numbers of American children are being prescribed anti-psychotic drugs — in many cases, for attention deficit disorder or other behavioral problems for which these medications have not been proven to work, a study found. The annual number of children prescribed anti-psychotic drugs jumped fivefold between 1995 and 2002, to an estimated 2.5 million, the study said. That is an increase from 8.6 out of every 1,000 children in the mid-1990s to nearly 40 out of 1,000. But more than half of the prescriptions were for attention deficit and other non-psychotic conditions, the researchers said. The findings are worrisome “because it looks like these medications are being used for large numbers of children in a setting where we don’t know if they work,” said lead author Dr. William Cooper, a pediatrician at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. The increasing use of anti-psychotics since the mid-1990s corresponds with the introduction of costly and heavily marketed medications such as Zyprexa and Risperdal. The packaging information for both says their safety and effectiveness in children have not been established. Anti-psychotics are intended for use against schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses. However, attention deficit disorder is […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
