Ruins of the ancient town of Hatra are still standing, but the unnecessary war has taken it´s toll on it´s buildings.

Germany attacks US on Iran threat

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German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has warned the US to back away from the possibility of military action against Iran over its nuclear programme. His comments come a day after President Bush reiterated that force remained an option but only as a last resort... Mr Schroeder directly challenged Mr Bush's comment that "all options are on the table" over the Iran crisis. "Let's take the military option off the table. We have seen it doesn't work," Mr Schroeder told Social Democrats at the rally in Hanover, to rapturous applause from the crowd.

So we're going to bolt from Iraq. Where are the cries of complaint?

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You may also have noticed that, according to The New York Times: “If the political process in Iraq remains on track and security improves, perhaps up to 30,000 troops could pull out by next spring.” You may have asked what was meant in that sentence by the words “remains on track”. The “track” looks a curious railway with some unconventional destinations. But where it leads is ever-clearer: to a resolve by politicians to stand everyday observation on its head, and conclude that we have “won” in Iraq — and sprint back home during the incredulous pause before everyone begins to laugh... Does anyone seriously suggest that a free and democratic Iraq is now heading into the home straight? Of course not. The place is going to hell in a handcart. So where are those who urged our forces in, now that the political will to keep them there is faltering?

Computer analysis provides Incan string theory

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The pair built a searchable database containing key information about Khipu strings, such as the number and position of subsidiary strings and the number and position of knots tied in them. The pair then used this database to search for similarities between 21 Khipus discovered in 1956 at the key Incan administrative base of Puruchuco, near modern day Lima in Peru. Superficial similarities suggested that the Khipu could be connected but the database revealed a crucial mathematical bond - the data represented by subsidiary strands on some of Khipu could be combined to create the strands found on more complex ones.This suggests the Khipu were used to collate information from different parts of the empire, which stretched for more than 5500 kilometres.... "Local accountants would forward information on accomplished tasks upward through the hierarchy, with information at each successive level representing the summation of accounts from the levels below," Urton says. "This communication was used to record the information deemed most important to the state, which often included accounting and other data related to censuses, finances and the military." And Urton and Brezine go a step further. Given that the Puruchuco strings may represent collations of data different regions, they suggest that a characteristic figure-of-eight knot found on all of the 21 Puruchuco strings may represent the place itself. If so, it would be the first word to ever be extracted from an Incan Khipu.

Give Iranian Nukes a Chance
In a mad world, the logic of MAD still works

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As to Iran and nukes, the surprising fact is that the MAD logic still operates today: Why hasn’t the tension between India and Pakistan exploded into an all-out war? Because both sides are nuclear powers. Why have the Arab states not risked another attack on Israel? Because Israel is a nuclear power. So why should this MAD logic not work in the case of Iran? The standard counter-argument is that in Iran, Muslim fundamentalists are in power who may be tempted to nuke Israel. (Iran is the only large Arab state which not only does not diplomatically recognize Israel, but resolutely denies its right to exist as a state). Is, however, the Iranian regime really so “irrational”? Isn’t Pakistan, with its nuclear arms and its secret services’ ties to al-Qaeda, a much greater threat? Furthermore, two decades ago, Iran was brutally attacked by Iraq (with active U.S. support), so it has every right to feel threatened.

Nice article, but Iran isn´t an Arab country. Arabs are only a very small minority, few percent or so of the population. The majority population are the Persians, who form 51% of the population, and they are Indo-europeans, whereas Arabs are Semitic.

Meanwhile, Israel Grabs the Rest of Jerusalem

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As the world's attention is diverted by scenes of the removal of settlers who had no right to be in Gaza in the first place, the real strategy behind disengagement is revealed by Israel's aggressive moves to consolidate its occupation of Jerusalem's eastern Palestinian sector. At stake is the very basis of peace between Palestinians and Israelis - a negotiated two-state solution. Israel's plan is to use "concessions" in Gaza to remove Jerusalem from the negotiation table. But without Jerusalem as a shared capital for Palestinians and Israelis, there is no two-state solution... The wall, which Israel is using to redefine Jerusalem's borders, is being routed through occupied territory in such a way as to maximize the number of Palestinian Jerusalemites behind the wall, while maximizing the amount of Palestinian land on the "Israeli" side. About 55,000 Palestinian residents of Jerusalem will be effectively cut off from the their city, forced to access their schools, hospitals and even families through Israeli military gates which, as Palestinians know from experience, can be closed at a soldier's whim. These Palestinian Christians and Muslims will be denied free access to the holy sites in their own city. Already, Palestinian Christians and Muslims in the West Bank can no longer freely pray at the Old City's Church of the Holy Sepulcher or the Noble Sanctuary (Haram al Sharif). Difficulty in accessing their own city will cause Palestinian Jerusalemites to go deeper into the West Bank for educational, medical and religious services. Israel will then have a pretext - "insufficient links" to the city - for revoking their Jerusalem residency rights. To date, more than 6,500 Palestinians have lost their residency rights in the Jewish state's unstated but measurable efforts to rid the Holy City of as many Christians and Muslims as possible. Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in and around occupied East Jerusalem are increasingly common, with more than 50 homes destroyed so far this year. Sixty-four homes in a Palestinian neighborhood near Jerusalem's Old City have demolition orders pending against them, even though the homes were built on privately owned Palestinian land. According to the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, there are more than 10,000 outstanding demolition orders against Palestinian buildings in East Jerusalem. Such orders are usually enforced without warning and in the middle of the night... The Palestinian Authority remains committed to a two-state solution based on international law. However, negotiations require an Israeli partner and Israel, as the more powerful party, realizes it can impose its own agenda rather than negotiate a solution.

Iraq Shias call for more autonomy

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Iraq's Shia majority should be granted an autonomous federal state in the south of the country, a senior Shia leader has said. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim made his call at a rally in the Shia holy city of Najaf, as Iraqi politicians debate the wording and balance of a new constitution... Shia religious leaders have long backed calls for the creation of a federalised Shia south, but secular Shias have been cautious, fearing that it might grant excessive power to religious parties.

The proposed name for the autonomous state is said to be Sumer. Sumerian civilization - long believed to have been created by invaders moving to then sparsely populated Mesopotamia, but according to new excavations, a continuity of earlier cultures - started to emerge circa 4000 BCE and started to use writing first in the world around 3500 BCE. The Sumerians were divided to city states until the so-called Third Dynasty of Ur - these "dynasties" were invented by the excavators of the city in the 1920-30´s and of the three "dynasties" the Third Dynasty is the only one which can be truly said to have been a dynasty; the others consist of possible rulers from two different eras that have been put together to form groups - united the Sumerian culture under it´s rule in about 2100 BC. At this time the Sumerian culture itself was most likely already dying, after a century and a half of domination under the Semitic Akkadian empire between circa 2350-2200 BCE. The decline of the Sumerian language - which has no certain relatives - could have started even earlier. After the Third Dynasty of Ur fell when attacked by the Elamites of southern Iran after a few decades of decline - it has been believed that this happened between 2008-1986 BCE, but newer evidence indicates that the Elamites conquered Ur after 1954 BCE - the Sumerian civilization ended. Ur had a special place in the following Mesopotamian culture and the Sumerian language was used as a kind of equivalent of the Medieval latin of it´s time for almost 2000 years afterwards.

Damn it, Let Go!

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Yesterday the Israel Cabinet decided to blackmail the Palestinian Authority. After months of trying to negotiate a deal so that the common customs envelope between Palestine and Israel, which has been in force since the signing of the Paris Protocol in 1995, can remain in force after the disengagement, the Israeli Cabinet pulled a rabbit out the its hat in the form of a “deal”. If the Palestinians agree to move the border to the Kerem Shalom triangle between Israel, Gaza and Egypt, then Israel will agree to retain the common customs envelope. Sounds a bit complicated – not so – here’s what it’s really about... Israel’s insistence to move the border has only one real explanation – continued control. Israel cannot imagine having a relationship with the Palestinians without it being based on Israeli control over Palestinians. Israel is leaving Gaza but Gaza is not leaving Israel. The Palestinians have had many reservations over the years regarding the common customs envelope. The leading Palestinian economists, businessmen and politicians have many times advocated ending the Paris Protocol and moving into another form of trade regime. They said that there is no reason to keep adhering to system which has not provided them with the trade benefits and at best has only supplied an efficient system of revenue collection and transfer. This is not a small matter, but when faced with all of the non-tariff barriers that Israel has established since Paris and the reality that the Palestinians are not really partners in determining common trade policies, as is the norm in custom unions, why not try something new?

Israel to keep control of Gaza access

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Israel has said it will probably retain control of Gaza skies and territorial waters after the implementation of its withdrawal plan from the area. "I think it is very likely that we will continue to control the skies and territorial waters of Gaza," Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said on Tuesday.

UN to Adopt Pathbreaking New Global Standard which Demands Return of Confiscated Refugee Land and Housing

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GENEVA -- The United Nations is expected to adopt a sweeping series of principles today that urge governments everywhere to ensure all refugees and persons displaced due to conflict and natural disasters are entitled to return to, recover and reside in their original homes, lands and properties. Prepared by the UN's Special Rapporteur on Housing and Property Restitution, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro of Brazil, the 'Pinheiro Principles' will provide the first consolidated global standard on the housing, land and property rights of the displaced. "The best solution to the plight of millions of refugees and displaced persons around the world is to ensure they attain the right to return freely to their countries and to have restored to them housing and property of which they were deprived during the course of displacement, or to be compensated for any property that cannot be restored to them. It is the most desired, sustainable, and dignified solution to displacement", said Pinheiro.

Siperian beat bogs are thawing because of the global warming and will release large amount of methane - which is a greenhouse gas - in the atmosphere, which will then accelerate the warming. This of course causes more melting etc. In the end, the average temperature will rise more than the estimated 1.4-5.8 degrees Celsius during this century.

Blair lays down framework for police state in Britain

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The measures announced August 5 by Prime Minister Tony Blair under the pretext of combating terrorism show how fully his government views democratic rights to be incompatible with its warmongering internationally and its pro-business agenda at home. Blair used his monthly press conference to announce measures openly directed against immigrants and Muslims, but which set the stage for attacks on the right to free speech and for the criminalisation of all forms of political dissent... Any non-British citizen or naturalised British citizen living anywhere in the world, using any means whatsoever—including writing, producing, publishing or distributing material, public speaking including preaching, running a website, or using a position of responsibility such as teacher, community or youth leader—to express views which the government considers illegitimate can be targeted. The list of unacceptable behaviours includes: Fomenting terrorism or encouraging others to carry out terrorist acts; justifying or glorifying terrorism, fomenting other serious criminal activity or provoking others to serious criminal acts; fostering hatred that may lead to intra-community violence in the UK; and advocating violence in furtherance of particular beliefs. Anyone not covered by these sweeping criteria could still face deportation or exclusion from the country if he is considered by the government to express “extreme views” that are “in conflict with the UK’s culture of tolerance.”

US military intelligence identified four 9/11 hijackers in 2000

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Jehl’s report confirms what has been widely reported overseas but long covered up by the Bush administration and the American media: Mohammed Atta, believed to be the operational leader of the 9/11 attacks, was under US intelligence surveillance even before he came to the United States in 2000. How Atta was able to enter and re-enter the country on multiple occasions over the next year, enroll in flight school, and use credit cards and bank accounts in his real name, despite being a known Al Qaeda operative, has never been explained... The Times interviewed the former military intelligence agent at Weldon’s congressional office. By his account, Able Danger was set up in 1999 to conduct data mining from publicly accessible databases, cross-referencing with information from US agencies like the Immigration and Naturalization Service and with classified intelligence information. This technique pinpointed the names of Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, the pilots who flew hijacked jets into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center, as well as Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhdar, two of the five men who hijacked an American Airlines jet and crashed it into the Pentagon... This demonstrates that the 9/11 commission was a fraud and a whitewash. Rather than uncover the real story of the terrorist attacks, the commission conducted a sophisticated cover-up of the real relations between US government agencies and the terrorists who killed 3,000 people.

Nuclear rights and responsibilities

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The developed world has no right to dictate unilaterally to developing nations how they choose to use nuclear technology. But the latter must build their own capacity to handle the technology responsibly, both individually and collectively... Each country, whether developed or developing, must be allowed to determine for itself how the nuclear option fits into its strategies for achieving such objectives. That does not mean that it should act unilaterally, or ignore international norms of behaviour (as incorporated into national legislation). But it does mean that it has both the right and the responsibility to use its own internal political mechanisms to determine its actions on nuclear issues... The West has legitimate cause to be concerned. Whatever the purely political arguments about a country's right to determine its own energy mix, any nation with such a wealth of oil and gas reserves will have a difficult task persuading the international community that its desire to develop a nuclear capacity is based primarily on its projected energy needs. But this is not in itself an excuse for justifying the strong-arm tactics that some Western countries, particularly those on record as being opposed to the current regime in Iran, are now advocating. Reporting the country to the United Nations Security Council, for example, is unlikely to be particularly effective (and would probably be vetoed by at least one member of the council). While the consequences of another US invasion in the Middle East, as reported to be under consideration in some parts of Washington, are too distressing to contemplate. Furthermore, the Iranian authorities have a powerful political argument when they point to the contradictions between the attitude of the United States administration towards themselves and towards India. In the Indian case, the administration has recently indicated it would drop a previous ban on the export of nuclear technology for civilian purposes — despite the fact that India has still not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Iran itself has.

Shuttle Discovery lands safely in California.

Iraq's murky future

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Keeping the Iraqi house in order is essential in the immediate future. But a divided Iraq, coupled with possible new alliances — as was demonstrated following the eyebrow-raising visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Jaafari to neighboring Iran where he was received warmly — could still turn the tables upside down, regionally and internationally. The future remains murky.

West turns blind eye as police put Saddam's torturers back to work

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In their haste to put police on the streets to counter the brutal insurgency, Iraqi and US authorities have enlisted men trained under Saddam Hussein’s regime and versed in torture and abuse, the officials told The Times. They said that recruits were also being drawn from the ranks of outlawed Shia militias. IRAQI security forces, set up by American and British troops, torture detainees by pulling out their fingernails, burning them with hot irons or giving them electric shocks, Iraqi officials say. Cases have also been recorded of bound prisoners being beaten to death by police. Counter-insurgencies are rarely clean fights, but Iraq’s dirty war is being waged under the noses of US and British troops whose mission is to end the abuses of the former dictatorship. Instead, they appear to have turned a blind eye to the constant reports of torture from Iraq’s prisons.

Discovery may need more repairs

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Nasa scientists are trying to determine whether the US space shuttle Discovery will need more repairs before being given the all clear to return to Earth. On Wednesday an astronaut carried out a pioneering spacewalk to the orbiter's underside to remove protruding material threatening the heatshield's integrity. But engineers now fear the thermal blanket near the cockpit is damaged and needs repairs to stop it tearing off... Initial photographs appeared to indicate that the thermal blanket below the cockpit window had been punctured at one end. The thermal blanket is made up of a quilt-like, padded fabric and serves as insulation from the intense heat generated during re-entry to Earth's atmosphere. Although not heavy, there is concern that a section measuring about 30cm (one foot) could tear off as the shuttle tries to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and hit the main body of the orbiter at such high speed that it could cause a grave injury.

Life in Gaza's danger zone

I really can´t understand the people that worship Israel. It´s evil. A festering wound. And past sufferings are no excuse for colonial enterprises. If you accept the evil of Israel, then you have to accept all other evils of it´s kind. There can´t be different rules for different peoples. Genocide can´t be accepted to be an acceptable excuse for ethnic cleansing and apartheid, especially when most of the colonialists in Palestine have themselves never been victims and they or their families come from areas untouched by the Holocaust. And still Israel hides behind the Holocaust. It´s a shield which it´s leaders use to protect themselves from justice. They use victims of past to deny justice from victims of today.

Methane on Mars: the plot thickens

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Methane on Mars may be produced at rates 3000 times higher than previously thought and partially destroyed by dust storms, controversial new research suggests. The work is sure to reignite the debate over a possible biological origin for the gas, but another team reports that subsurface volcanism alone - and not life - can account for the gas. ...reports further evidence of the phenomenon. Using an infrared telescope in Hawaii and the Gemini South telescope in Chile, the group found concentrations of methane ranging from zero to more than 250 parts per billion across Mars. Such a drastic difference suggests something must be destroying the methane before it can be mixed uniformly through the atmosphere, says Mumma. And if it is destroyed in one month, he says, that implies it must be replenished 3000 times faster than current estimates suggest... They say dust particles that collide during Martian dust storms can become charged, with smaller particles gaining electrons and rising on air currents. This creates a large electric field that can accelerate electrons until they break apart water molecules in the atmosphere. The detritus from this smash-up can then oxidise, or destroy, methane molecules.