NucNews July 30, 2006 -------- NUCLEAR -------- depleted uranium 'Definitive answer' on depleted uranium sought for troops July 30, 2006 Associated Press http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD01073006.htm DAYTONA BEACH -- After years of veterans pleading for help with illnesses occurring after service in the Gulf wars, the U.S. House and Senate are calling for an immediate study of health effects of exposure to a radioactive metal used in U.S. weapons and armor. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., co-author of a Senate bill on depleted uranium that passed June 20, said other studies have been done on the subject. Those studies concluded there was no evidence that exposure to the metal caused illnesses. "It is time for a review by the Pentagon to see if there has been scientific progress that would provide a more accurate and definitive answer to possible links to adverse health," Lieberman said in a written statement to The News-Journal. "This amendment would require the Pentagon to provide that assessment." The House passed a similar bill in May, and details are being hashed out in a joint committee. If the proposal becomes law, results of the study would be submitted to Congress within one year from its effective date. But the study comes too late for one Ormond Beach mother of an American soldier who believes exposure to depleted uranium in Iraq killed her son. UNCOVERING A CONTROVERSY In 2004, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, Lori Brim's son, Army Spc. Dustin Brim, died at 22 of very aggressive cancers. The military physicians who tried to save him said exposure to depleted uranium did not cause his diseases. But Lori Brim took the whispered advice of a social worker there and started looking into the issue. She discovered political and medical controversies -- about whether the U.S. military should be using depleted uranium munitions and what effects exposure brings -- that have been raging since soldiers began returning home from the first Gulf War with mysterious ailments. Though that war marked the first time depleted uranium munitions had been used in combat, military sources have consistently discounted a link. Risks of exposure are minimal and abated by training, they say. And, they add, because tank armor and munitions made with the extremely dense material are so effective, use of depleted uranium saves U.S. lives. Brim said she has been frustrated in her efforts to acquire medical records that might offer evidence the cancers that killed her son resulted from exposure to depleted uranium. "I'm trying to share Dustin's voice, create awareness and make a difference," Brim said. "I believe to this day that, if soldiers and other personnel had been made aware of the risks of exposure to DU and how dangerous it is -- Dustin said he went for medical help 11 times while he was in Iraq -- somebody may have paid attention to him." Brim said she has been unable to find a Florida legislator willing to introduce a bill similar to several passed by other states, demanding study of the issue and testing for National Guard members returning from Iraq. She also has been disappointed by attorneys unwilling to help her and other mothers she knows pursue a class-action lawsuit against manufacturers of weapons she believes are polluting the Earth. She's hired Holly Hill author Lonnie Story to write her son's story. BODY MAY BE EXHUMED Dr. Asaf Durakovic, founder and head scientist at Uranium Medical Research Centre in Toronto, Canada, said Brim could exhume her son's body to be tested for radiation exposure. "If I found DU in his bones, it could prove his sickness could have been related to DU contamination," said Durakovic in a phone interview from Washington D.C, where he also has an office. "Radiation will not decompose." Brim said that's too emotional a decision for her to make now but continues to try to obtain the medical records. Those who, like Brim, are looking for answers about depleted uranium's health effects, "are facing a multibillion-dollar industry making radioactive ammunition," Durakovic said. Attempts to talk with some manufacturers of weapons containing depleted uranium went either unanswered or spokespeople declined interviews. The Department of Defense takes the position that depleted uranium is the best metal available for tank armor and munitions to penetrate armor on enemy vehicles. The military says that all personnel who use such equipment are adequately trained to safely handle depleted uranium. Doug Rokke, a veteran of the Gulf War, who has a doctorate in technology from the University of Illinois and was charged with cleanup of depleted uranium contaminated equipment after the first Gulf War, has been outspoken about the issue. He said soldiers are not properly trained and that "medical care has been willfully denied to a majority of DU casualties who are supposed to receive care." He said he's not sure that, if the bill before the joint committee makes it to law, it would have any effect on the use of weapons or treatment of soldiers. "The directive is to continue to use uranium munitions and avoid all liability," said Rokke, 57, of Rantoul, Ill. He said he is seeking medical care for exposure to radiation from depleted uranium. "The legal requirement to provide medical care has always existed, but the military disregards that." The military said more than 2,100 Operation Iraqi Freedom service members have been tested for exposure to depleted uranium, and eight were found to be positive. "All eight were involved in combat situations where they were exposed to depleted uranium fragments," said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director of Deployment Health Support in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, in a written statement. "The depleted uranium testing that is done for the military personnel is done at the U.S. Army laboratory at the Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, and at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology." He said all testing is paid for by the Department of Defense. At Northern Arizona University biochemist Diane Stearns said her recent studies should make the issue hard to ignore. Her results -- published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at a recent Society of Toxicology conference -- established that when cells are exposed to uranium, the uranium binds to DNA, and the cells mutate. She said exposure during the Gulf wars may link to increased cancers and birth defects in soldiers and in civilian survivors of exposure in the Middle East. audrey.parente@news-jrnl.com Depleted Uranium in the News Concerns over effects of depleted uranium are spreading. · The Sunday Times, Great Britain, Feb. 19, 2006: UK radiation jump blamed on Iraqi shells. "Radiation detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold increase in uranium levels in the atmosphere after the 'shock and awe' bombing campaign against Iraq." · The Military Vaccine Resource Directory, April 13, 2006: Gulf War Vets Survey site now launched. "Gulf Vet Survey, a dedicated group of veterans, health professionals and concerned citizens, today announced they were launching an effort to survey every veteran for multiple hazardous materials exposure. . . . For more information: http://www.gulfvetsurvey.org/BIZyCart.asp?ACTION=Home&CLIENT=Gwlorg&ACCOUNT=1183. " · Pal-item.com (a Richmond, Ind., news source), July 12, 2006: Veterans being encouraged to get information booklet. "Recently (Republican) Congressman (Mike) Pence's office sent . . . a booklet that every veteran should have. Veterans may get it by ordering it on the Internet at http://Bookstore.gpo.gov . . . It also includes Gulf war health problems and problems from exposure to depleted uranium. . . . The name of the book is 'Federal Benefits for Veterans and Dependents 2006.' " -- Compiled by Staff Writer Audrey Parente --- Diane Stearns, medical researcher, on depleted uranium study By AUDREY PARENTE Staff Writer July 30, 2006 Daytona Beach News-Journal http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Items/newHEAD07073006.htm Stearns, a biochemist, was named principal investigator of a Northern Arizona University study tied to improving health among Native American communities. The project was funded by a joint grant awarded to the Flagstaff, Ariz., university and the Arizona Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute. Q. As a chemistry professor, why did you study depleted uranium? To encourage Native American students to go into cancer research. We found that the Navajo Nation is interested in exposure to radiation in mining. It is banned on the reservation, but they are planning to open the mines at Four Corners (Ariz.). Q. What did you and your students study? In my work we study how materials are toxic. We focus on the science. We looked at uranium as a heavy metal and how it can damage DNA independent of its radioactivity. Depleted uranium is less radioactive, but you are only looking at a small difference. We exposed cells grown in the lab to depleted uranium. It would be the form circulating through the body. Q. What did you find? We looked at the types of damages. We found strand breaks and that the uranium bonded to DNA -- and that is something new. Q. What does it mean in relationship to health? We found mutations in the cell that can lead to cancer. Usually it also affects birth defects, but we did not study that. Q. What is the value of this discovery? Our work allows us to raise questions. If there is evidence that (depleted uranium) affects DNA, we definitely need to look at this. -------- europe Heatwave shuts down nuclear power plants Juliette Jowit and Javier Espinoza Sunday July 30, 2006 The UK Observer http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1833620,00.html The European heatwave has forced nuclear power plants to reduce or halt production. The weather, blamed for deaths and disruption across much of the continent, has caused dramatic rises in the temperature of rivers used to cool the reactors, raising fears of mass deaths for fish and other wildlife. Spain shut down the Santa Maria de Garona reactor on the River Ebro, one of the country's eight nuclear plants which generate a fifth of its national electricity. Reactors in Germany are reported to have cut output, and others in Germany and France have been given special permits to dump hot water into rivers to avoid power failures. France, where nuclear power provides more than three quarters of electricity, has also imported power to prevent shortages. The problems have come to light just weeks after Britain declared it will build a new generation of nuclear power stations, prompting opponents to claim the crisis proved nuclear reactors - although they emit no carbon dioxide greenhouse gases - are not the solution to the problem of global warming. 'The main problem they have is: How are they going to expand nuclear power when they are so vulnerable to such things as global temperature?' said Shaun Burnie, Greenpeace International's nuclear specialist. But Bruno Comby, president of Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy, said future power stations could have bigger cooling towers, or be built near the sea. 'The big problem the earth is facing today is global warming, it's not a one-degree local increase in [the temperature of] a river,' he added. The heatwave in Britain appeared to break last week, with the Met Office forecasting more normal summer weather this week. Today London and south-east England face a repeat of last week's heavy rains; for the rest of the week the country is expected to alternate between sunny spells, with warm temperatures and showers. However, hotter weather is set to return. 'We could be looking at some very warm weather coming back towards next weekend,' said meteorologist Andrew Sibley. Last week a series of power cuts in central London prompted fears of regular blackouts as global temperatures are predicted to keep rising, bringing more long, hot summers. EDF, the capital's main electricity supplier, said the problems were caused by a 'very unusual' combination of several faults and huge demand for air-conditioning. 'Over the weekend, our engineers are working round the clock to maintain power supplies to the area and avoid any further interruptions,' a company official said. Network Rail, the main rail infrastructure operator, said fewer speed restrictions were expected in cooler temperatures, although track temperatures can rise to 20C above the air temperature on hot days. -------- korea N. Korea missile didn't go as far as Japan estimated Sunday, July 30, 2006 Japan Times http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060730a1.html The United States has told Japan that the Taepodong-2 missile fired July 5 by North Korea exploded in midair within 1.5 km of the launchpad, not 400 to 600 km away as the Japanese government had initially estimated, sources said Saturday. Japan had earlier estimated the missile reached well into the Sea of Japan. According to the sources, U.S. satellite information suggests the Taepodong-2 exploded in midair above a northeastern region of North Korea or over its territorial waters on the rim of the Sea of Japan about 40 seconds after being fired at 4:59 a.m. The debris fell almost vertically, the satellite telemetry suggested. The Taepodong-2 missile, estimated as potentially being able to reach as far as parts of the U.S. state of Alaska, was among seven rockets North Korea launched that day. A U.S. satellite spotted objects purported to be debris from the missile, but details such as what caused the explosion remain unknown, according to the sources. The Defense Agency earlier estimated, based on information including data from the United States, that the missile exploded in midair roughly 10 minute after launch, 400 to 600 km down range from the Musudanri missile base in North Hamgyong Province. Japanese and U.S. government analysis has so far indicated that the Taepodong-2 exploded and fell after a booster failed to separate properly, due apparently to an unspecified anomaly that occurred when the booster was in action right after the launch. The sources also said Japanese and U.S. warships equipped with the advanced Aegis tracking system deployed in the Sea of Japan and the Pacific successfully determined the flight paths of the second, fourth, fifth and seventh missile fired July 5. These are believed to have been short-range Scuds and midrange Rodong missiles, they said. But the high-tech warships apparently failed to accurately follow the other three missiles, including the Taepodong-2, they added. Japan will continue to analyze the latest findings and will release a report on the incident, possibly in early August. The missile launches prompted the U.N. Security Council to unanimously adopt a resolution condemning the act. -------- pakistan Pakistan nuclear upgrade worries India Jul. 30, 2006 (UPI) http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20060730-104135-7593r.htm Pakistan will soon be able to strike every city in India with nuclear weapons developed with China's help, senior Indian defense advisers say. Pakistan's new capability will alter the military balance in the region by giving it a "second strike" capability, the advisers told the Sunday Times of London. The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security said last week that Pakistan was constructing a heavy-water nuclear reactor that could produce more than 400 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium a year -- enough to make 40 to 50 nuclear weapons a year. Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Ahmad Kasuri said Friday the reactor was "safe in our hands" and would not spark an arms race with rival India. "Unlike Pakistan, India has a no-first-strike policy," said Dr. Anupam Shrivastava, director of the Center for International Trade and Security at the University of Georgia and an adviser on proliferation to Washington, New Delhi and Beijing. "It completely changes India's military planning because having plutonium gives Pakistan the option of deploying from land, sea or air. "For Pakistan it's a quantum leap," he added. "It gives them options to target all of India." -------- u.s. nuc weapons Nuclear Spending Comes Under Fire Congress members question the need to modernize weapons facilities, citing trouble with management. By Ralph Vartabedian Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 30, 2006 http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/latimes308.html LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — The sprawling nuclear weapons laboratory here is just starting construction of a $1-billion plutonium research center, part of an ambitious plan to modernize its outdated facilities. But congressional analysts and outside watchdogs are calling it a boondoggle — a facility that will be obsolete less than eight years after it opens. A congressional report this spring called the plan "simply irrational," and House lawmakers are trying to kill the project. "It is stupid to put money into a limited-life thing like this," said Rep. David L. Hobson (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees energy. "We are resisting spending that money." It was a tough — but increasingly routine — rebuke for the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, a vast enterprise of labs and factories from South Carolina to California that has thrived in the post-Cold War era. The federal government has spent more than $65 billion on the complex over the last decade, and experts agree the United States has nuclear weapons that are reliable for use in war, safe from accidental detonation and secure from terrorists. But Democrats and Republicans in Congress, as well as outside analysts, have grown increasingly concerned about what they see as sloppy management by the National Nuclear Security Administration. Among other things, they cite scientific mistakes and cost overruns on projects at the nation's two nuclear weapons design centers — an X-ray machine at Los Alamos National Laboratory and a laser at Lawrence Livermore in the Bay Area. "It has been one problem after another," said Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "The current administrator should be fired." Not surprisingly, that administrator, Linton F. Brooks, who was the chief U.S. arms control negotiator in the early 1990s, sharply disagrees. He calls the program to maintain the reliability of aging bombs "a rousing success." Bomb scientists say the extra spending on nuclear weapons is necessary because the U.S. stopped underground nuclear testing in 1992. Maintaining the reliability of the weapons — something the industry calls "stockpile stewardship" — requires a massive, and expensive, scientific effort. And even though the last nuclear weapon rolled off the assembly line in the early 1990s, the complex has until recently received nearly every big-ticket item it has requested. Much of that money has been poured into scientific research, advanced computers and massive physics instruments at the Los Alamos and Livermore labs. The most successful part of the program has involved advanced computation. Livermore has the world's fastest supercomputer, the Blue Gene L, which can perform 280 trillion mathematical operations per second. The sleek black computer sits in a refrigerated, high-security vault. Late last year, the lab first simulated the detonation of a nuclear bomb in three dimensions, a long-standing goal critical to maintaining aging weapons. But other parts of the scientific program have not gone as well, including the construction of a massive X-ray machine at Los Alamos known as the Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test Facility. It was originally designed to photograph a simulated nuclear trigger as it implodes under the tremendous forces of high explosives. But the machine evolved into a much more sophisticated device that could take four time-lapsed photographs within less than a millionth of a second. When it was finally assembled, though, one of the device's two X-ray arms did not work because of instability in a high-energy electron beam. The defect forced scientists to take the arm apart and modify it at great cost. What began as a $10-million project is now estimated to cost $360 million when it is finally completed. Meanwhile, Livermore also has had serious problems building the world's most powerful laser, intended to simulate the thermonuclear detonation that occurs in a hydrogen bomb. The laser, called the National Ignition Facility, is intended to ignite fusion in a test chamber by aiming 192 high-powered laser beams at a tiny fuel target. That proved to be harder than anybody realized, said Thomas D'Agostino, the nuclear weapons chief at the NNSA. The cost grew from below $1 billion to about $3.4 billion. "We ran into technical problems that we couldn't imagine," D'Agostino said. Lab officials argue that both the X-ray machine and the laser will eventually pay huge dividends for scientific research. The technical setbacks reflect their groundbreaking challenges and constitute the kinds of scientific risk the public must accept for advanced research. D'Agostino added that many of the problems were rooted in the past and that the NNSA, which is part of the Energy Department, was doing a better job managing its activities, including dismantlement of surplus nuclear weapons and the overhaul of existing ones. But congressional leaders say the department has hardly solved its problems. "We have a lot of frustration," said Hobson, who held a series of tough hearings on the department's failures. "We have frustrations with cost and we have frustrations with progress. They are on a better track, but they have a long way to go." The agency's highly technical problems in recent years were accompanied by other basic breakdowns. Audits and investigations by the Government Accountability Office, an arm of Congress, and the Energy Department's inspector general have uncovered management problems, loose financial controls and weak internal security. In June, it was disclosed that hackers had broken into Energy Department computers and stolen data on 1,500 employees, possibly including sensitive information used in their government clearances. The breach wasn't disclosed to employees, senior department officials or members of Congress for nine months. Barton was furious, saying Brooks should have personally notified Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. Amid calls for Brooks' resignation, Bodman ordered an investigation by the inspector general. "If the agency can't protect the Social Security records of its employees, how can it protect large quantities of plutonium?" Barton said. These problems are occurring just as the agency wants to begin an ambitious multibillion-dollar effort to modernize its research and production system in the next 25 years. The agency wants to restart the production of nuclear weapons, replace existing weapons with new warheads and build new production facilities. Eventually, the U.S. would be able to produce more than 125 nuclear weapons per year. It has not offered a price tag for the effort, but an advisory committee put the cost at $10 billion in extra spending over the next 10 years. Congressional critics point out the agency lacks a cohesive and affordable agenda: It wants to maintain the high-cost stockpile stewardship program and build new facilities to restart weapons production. "I do not believe we have the proper approach," said Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.), the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds the Energy Department. "It is not my job to maximize spending on this program." The subcommittee voted this spring to kill the Los Alamos plutonium research facility, and the full House backed the move. The Senate wants to keep funding the project, though it also has serious problems with plans for the facility, known formally as the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement complex. The facility, expected to be completed by 2017, is so expensive because it requires sophisticated security to safeguard the plutonium from potential terrorist attacks. But its key role in plutonium research would end by 2024, when all plutonium in the nation is supposed to be put in a centralized facility for better security. D'Agostino said the $1-billion investment would still be worthwhile because the laboratory would continue research into chemistry and metallurgy after the plutonium is transferred. But Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington, D.C., watchdog group, called the investment "worse than a boondoggle." The program would delay plans to centralize plutonium, leaving a potential target for terrorists, she said. Some retired nuclear weapons scientists also are dismayed by a culture that puts too high a priority on spending. "I am a strong believer in maintaining a nuclear deterrent," said Bob Peurifoy, a retired vice president at Sandia National Laboratory who pioneered the security systems that prevent unauthorized use of nuclear bombs. "But I would like to have some integrity within the labs and management. They'll do anything for a buck." * (INFOBOX BELOW) Supporting the stockpile The U.S. nuclear weapons complex, operated by the National Nuclear Security Administration, consists of eight major sites across the nation that support an estimated 6,000 nuclear weapons in the U.S. stockpile. They include: 1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: The nation's second nuclear weapons design lab, specializing in high-energy lasers and computational models of weapons. It is responsible for assuring the reliability of four nuclear weapon models. 2. Nevada Test Site: Location for more than 1,000 underground nuclear tests, which ended in 1992. Since then, the 1,375- square-mile site has been used for experiments to support maintenance of existing weapons. 3. Los Alamos National Laboratory: The first nuclear weapons design center; it built the two bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. The 43-square-mile lab is the only U.S. facility able to produce plutonium triggers for weapons. 4. Sandia National Laboratories: The engineering center for all non-nuclear weapon components, including arming and firing systems. It designs and builds electronic locks that prevent unauthorized weapons use. 5. Pantex plant: Only U.S. nuclear weapons assembly plant; also decommissions old bombs; main storage facility for 10,000 plutonium pits from old bombs. 6. Kansas City plant: The main factory for producing non-nuclear components of weapons, including many electronics and wiring systems. 7. Y-12 National Security Complex: Manufactures and reworks the thermonuclear stages of hydrogen bombs. Y-12 is the center for storing and machining highly enriched uranium. 8. Savannah River Site: Produces tritium gas, a form of hydrogen, used in fission triggers for hydrogen bombs. Tritium is extracted from fuel rods and then packed in welded reservoirs placed in nuclear bombs. Source: National Nuclear Security Administration -------- u.s. nuc facilities The nuclear proponents are at it again July 30, 2006 by Philip Casey http://blog.philipcasey.com/2006/07/30/the-nuclear-proponents-are-at-it-again/ Emmet Oliver in The Irish Times reports that just 20 years after the Chernobyl disaster, a group of scientists, businessmen and academics have set up the Republic’s first campaign group in favour of nuclear energy. Nuclear power is against the law in Ireland, and they want to change that. “The nuclear debate in Ireland has been more emotional than rational,” the group said. Really? Oscar Wilde described foxhunting as the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible. Perhaps nuclear power could be described as the indefensible in pursuit of the uneconomical. It wasn’t emotion that constructed the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island nuclear plants and it wasn’t emotion that led to both accidents. As The Irish Times has recorded, the nuclear campaign group includes David Sowby, a doctor and fellow of the Society For Radiological Protection in the UK. He was a former scientific secretary to the International Commission on Radiological Protection between 1962 and 1985; Philip W Walton, who worked at NUI Galway as Professor of Applied Physics from 1978, where he remained for 27 years, currently retied; John Stafford, an accountant, business adviser and consultant; Frank J Turvey, a former assistant chief executive of the Irish Radiological Protection Institute; and Jim Morrissey, who has 15 years’ experience in a nuclear research centre. Read Ken Livingstone in the London Telegraph making an eminently rational argument against the British Government’s promotion of nuclear power. And if you have half an hour to spare, watch the BBC World’s report on the Chernobyl Disaster. Just to remind you that Chernobyl was a disaster in the most extreme and irremediable sense of the word, and that it is only luck which has prevented more such disasters. -------- MILITARY -------- africa Congo holds first multiparty vote in years Updated 7/30/2006 (AP) http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-07-29-congo-election_x.htm KINSHASA, Congo — Millions of Congolese voted in the country's first multiparty election in four decades Sunday, the culmination of years of postwar transition that many pray will herald stability for the tumultuous central Africa region that Congo anchors. But with militia fighters still raping and looting in the lawless east, former rebel leaders on the ballot and a leading politician boycotting the vote, persuading all parties to accept the results may be the toughest task of all. Voters, including many casting ballots for the first time in their lives, feared wars that set central Africa ablaze could flare anew if Congo's democratic experiment fails. Vote counting began after polls closed Sunday evening, but final results were not expected for weeks. Results will be hand tabulated and transported to Kinshasa by plane, truck and boat. "Some say Africa is shaped like a pistol and Congo is the trigger," said Jean Kaseke, a 38-year old pastor heading up a line that formed before dawn at a polling station in the capital, Kinshasa. "If Congo can succeed, all of Africa can do it." Congo's path to Sunday's watershed moment — the first multiparty elections for president since independence from Belgium in 1960 — has been one of turmoil and deep privation for Congo's 58 million people. Some 25 million registered voters were also selecting a 500-member legislature to replace a national-unity administration arranged under peace accords that officially ended a 1998-2002 war. President Joseph Kabila, now 35, became one of the world's youngest leaders in 2001 when he inherited power after the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila, who ousted the corrupt, 32-year dictator Mobutu Sese Seko four years earlier in a Rwandan-backed rebel advance across the country. More than six nearby nations were drawn into the war. Aid groups estimate 4 million died, mostly from hunger and disease, in a conflict that still kills 1,000 daily. Among the top issues in a campaign that saw at least 33 die in political violence were ending corruption and bringing economic development to Congo, whose people remain poor despite the country's wealth of diamonds, ores and minerals. Kabila is considered among the front-runners listed on a seven-page ballot, which has 33 candidates for president, including Harvard-educated Oscar Kashala, a doctor who left his Cambridge practice to campaign. There are also more than 9,000 aspiring lawmakers. The winner's administration will replace the transitional government, which includes four vice presidents, among them another top presidential contender, former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba. Surrounded by a dozen bodyguards and wearing a blue pin-stripped suit, Kabila cast his ballot at a ramshackle colonial-era school with broken windows. "We're looking forward to a future of peace," Kabila told a mob of shouting reporters. "We want to consolidate peace and stability in the country." Bemba said he was "very confident and satisfied" with the poll so far. "I'm waiting for the people of Congo to turn the page." Veteran politician Etienne Tshisekedi boycotted the vote. Electoral officials and observers outnumbered voters at many polling stations in his central Congo stronghold of Mbuji-Mayi. Crowds of youths hovered around some deserted polling booths as riot police patrolled the tense city. U.N. spokesman Jean-Tobias Okala said 11 voting stations were burned down by people opposed to the vote in Tshisekedi strongholds. The U.N.-supported balloting cost nearly half a billion dollars. Elsewhere, voters stood behind collapsible cardboard shades to weed through ballots showing names, party affiliations and faces of candidates — a helping hand to Congolese who never learned to read in a country with some of the world's lowest levels of education and health care. Some 2,000 international monitors were on hand. Members of the United Nations' 17,600-member peacekeeping force, the world body's largest, cruised streets in armored personnel carriers sporting .50 caliber machine guns. Congo riot police eyed gatherings of young men. No serious violence was reported outside of the 11 burned polling stations. "Today is a chance to make a new beginning and to draw the line at all the war we have seen," 44-year-old engineer Jean-Pierre Shamba said after casting his ballot at a secondary school in the eastern town of Bunia, where blue-helmeted Moroccan troops guarded polling stations and U.N. tanks and armored cars patrolled the streets. Final results of the presidential poll may not be known for weeks as results are hand tabulated and transported to Kinshasa by plane, truck and boat. Congo is the size of Western Europe, with few paved roads. If no presidential candidate wins a majority of votes Sunday, a runoff will be held between the top two finishers, likely in September. Congolese and Western diplomats say the period after results are known but before any inauguration may be one of the most dangerous in Congo in years. If losing candidates refuse to accept the results, ex-warlords or would-be rebel leaders may begin fighting again. That could undermine stability across the region. Congo is bordered by nine countries. "Everyone must accept the results," said 53-year-old chauffeur Nestor Bueza. "We don't want any more wars. We've suffered enough." CONGO'S HISTORY Major events: 1960: Congo declares independence from Belgium on June 30. Joseph Kasavubu becomes president. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba is assassinated by Congolese troops within months. 1960: Mobutu Sese Seko, then an army colonel named Joseph Mobutu, seizes power in a coup but returns Kasavubu to power the following year. 1965: After years of political infighting, Mobutu seizes power in another coup, beginning a 32-year rule. 1970: Presidential elections held nationwide; Mobutu is only candidate. 1997: Rebel leader Laurent Kabila declares himself president after being propelled to power by Rwandan-backed forces that swept across Congo. Mobutu flees into exile. 1998: Rebel forces backed by Rwanda and Uganda rise up in the east against Kabila. The war draws in half a dozen foreign armies and divides the north and east into rebel-controlled fiefdoms. 2000: U.N. Security Council authorizes 5,500-strong U.N. force to monitor 1999 cease-fire among five foreign armies and governments, but fighting continues. The U.N. force later grows to 17,000, the largest in the world. 2001: Laurent Kabila is killed by his bodyguard and is succeeded by his son Joseph Kabila. 2002: Peace deal brings broader war to a close, though local militia groups continue sporadic skirmishes in east. Foreign armies withdraw. 2003: Joseph Kabila names transitional government to lead Congo until elections. Leaders of main former rebel groups sworn in as vice presidents. Interim parliament inaugurated. Dec. 18, 2005: Referendum on constitution that limits president to two five-year terms passes. The vote is country's first national ballot since 1970 and the first democratic vote since independence. July 30, 2006: Congo holds presidential elections, its first democratic vote for a new leader since 1960. Source: Associated Press -------- israel / palestine The day Israel realised that this was a real war When a bloody ambush in a Lebanese village ripped apart a squad of Israeli troops last week, the full reality of the fighting reached homes in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time. But calls for a major offensive have reawakened painful memories of old defeats, and old losses, across the troubled border Ian Black in Jerusalem, Inigo Gilmore in Nahariya and Mitchell Prothero in Beirut Sunday July 30, 2006 The UK Observer http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1833349,00.html It was five in the morning and the lead Golani Brigade squad was moving carefully through the outskirts of Bint Jbeil when a burst of automatic fire rang out. Hizbollah fighters engaged the Israeli patrol at close range with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades, from alleys, windows and rooftops. Two men died in the first moments; six more were killed over the coming hours. It was, one survivor said later, an 'ambush from hell'. Sergeant Evyatar Dahan, shot through the shoulder, managed to kick away a live grenade seconds before it exploded but watched as his company commander was killed. 'It was terrible: the shooting went on and on and there was screaming from all directions,' the young infantryman recalled afterwards. 'We were like sitting ducks,' said another soldier. After the initial shock, reinforcements arrived and air strikes were called in from across the border - just two kilometres south - to pin down the Lebanese Shia guerrillas. But it was seven hours before the wounded could be evacuated by helicopter, and only then under heavy fire. Hizbollah said its men could hear the Israelis screaming. The men of C Company fortified a house and guarded their dead, to ensure they were not snatched as part of a macabre strategy of trading prisoners, alive, dead or dismembered. They eventually dragged eight corpses down a steep hillside under cover of darkness. 'We did everything we could to stop them getting to the bodies,' Sergeant Ohad Shalom told reporters, 'because we knew that, for them, that's the big prize. ' Two weeks into the fighting between Israel and Hizbollah, Wednesday's battle - 'the longest day', one newspaper called it - may have marked a bloody turning point. Indeed last night Israel announced it was pulling its ground troops out of Bint Jbeil, saying it had accomplished its objectives there and dealt a heavy blow to the militant group, but admitting it had paid a heavy price with the lives of Israeli soldiers. Heavy indeed, as it was a withdrawal, not a victory. Hizbollah fighters still hold Bint Jbeil. The strangest war in Israel's history began almost by accident. In the safety of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, out of range of the rockets, it has had an air of bizarre unreality. Now it has become desperately real - a grim swirl of military funerals and interviews with grieving families. Before Wednesday, Hizbollah rockets had killed 19 civilians, and 24 servicemen had died in earlier fighting, including the eight killed on 12 July, when two soldiers were also abducted in a signature Hizbollah operation. But the ordeal of Golani Battalion 51 has the makings of a myth - like the notoriously costly attack on Syrian positions on the Golan Heights in the 1967 war. Heroic it may have been, but it was painful too: 'like sticking a finger into boiling soup,' one commander complained. And it looks like triggering a more unpredictable war. Even before Wednesday there was unease in Israel about the conduct of the fighting. Military experts called for larger ground forces, for more and bigger bombing raids on Hizbollah's rocket launchers, especially around Tyre, and for razing villages or hitting strategic targets further north. But Ehud Olmert, like other Israeli politicians and generals, remembers only too well what happened in 1982, the last time young conscripts died for Bint Jbeil and scores of other Lebanese towns and villages. Twenty-four years on, the ghosts of Ariel Sharon's disastrous 'Peace for Galilee' operation have never been laid. Thus calls for a wider ground offensive were resisted at Thursday's cabinet meeting, where there were angry exchanges between ministers and generals. Still, orders for a large stand-by mobilisation of reserves suggests it will come - and probably sooner rather than later. The army is only using a tiny proportion of its strength, chief of staff Major General Dan Halutz, told the paper Yedioth Ahronoth on Friday. Caution is certainly called for. Hizbollah spent the six years after Israel's withdrawal in 2000 building bunkers and tunnels and stockpiling rockets supplied from Iran and Syria - itself raising troubling questions about Israel's much-vaunted intelligence services as well as the judgment of the country's political leaders. 'Even if we did know what was going on, the withdrawal from Lebanon was more important that the Hizbollah build-up,' said one Israeli diplomat. Halutz and other senior officers rebuff suggestions that the Israel Defence Forces have gone soft, lost their fighting edge or falling asleep on the job. 'There is nothing we didn't know,' the chief of staff insisted. 'It's not fair and its not right to attack our intelligence. We knew a lot.' Hizbollah is said to have mined approach roads from Israel, honing techniques tried with devastating effect on American forces in Iraq. Their fighters, local men, have the advantage of familiarity with difficult terrain. Three regional commands have operational autonomy from Beirut. The IDF has a healthy respect for their weapons - including laser-guided anti-tank missiles capable of penetrating the armour of Israel's Merkava tank. General Udi Adam, head of Israel's northern command, made a revealing slip of the tongue when he referred in a briefing to Hizbollah 'soldiers', quickly correcting himself to say 'fighters' instead. Israelis who sneer at rag-tag Palestinian 'terrorists' armed with little more than Kalashnikovs compare the Lebanese group to Iranian special forces that have studied their enemy's tactics and battle doctrine. 'This isn't like the war we fight in the territories [the West Bank and Gaza],' said another senior officer. 'This is a real war.' So a large-scale invasion could play to Hizbollah's advantages. 'They don't want to take on Israel's military might head-on near the border, but to draw them in, extend their supply lines and then start hitting them,' suggested Timur Goksel, a Turk who served with UN peacekeepers in Lebanon for 20 years and watched Hizbollah win its spurs as the 'Islamic resistance' against Israeli occupation. Israel claims to have killed 200 Hizbollah fighters so far, including several senior commanders. But the group is keeping quiet, aware of the power of misinformation and psychological warfare in a conflict like this. Its operational secrecy is formidable - vital to prevent the penetration by Israeli agents that has proved so fatal to Palestinian groups. 'After almost 20 years covering them, I have exactly one source in the Hizbollah military wing,' complained a Lebanese Shia journalist, 'and he tells me nothing.' Fighters have to meet stringent social, religious and aptitudinal requirements. Recruits often come from the same family or tribe to ensure loyalty. Still, Israel is clearly far from being completely 'blind'. It reportedly intercepted a message from Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbollah leader, admitting he was taken aback by the scale of Israel's response. It knows enough to be able to bomb trucks bringing in supplies from Syria and Iran - but worries about exposing intelligence by trumpeting its successes. Some surprisingly detailed information about Hizbollah capabilities has certainly reached Israeli military correspondents. The most alarming concerns the Iranian Zelzal rocket, with a range of 150 to 210 km, capable of reaching Tel Aviv; Nasrallah's ominous threat to hit targets south of Haifa was assumed to be a reference to that. The Israeli military clearly has its own agenda. But one independent expert believes Hizbollah is in trouble, though still capable of doing serious damage. 'To fire missiles at Israel you don't need a well-oiled chain of command,' said Professor Eyal Zisser of Tel Aviv University. 'One of the advantages of a guerrilla organisation is it doesn't need a complex system of command and control.' Shocked by its losses, Israel is displaying a new determination to see this through, though nobody can say exactly what that means. 'What's our endgame?' said one senior government official. 'We're working on it now.' But before the end there looks like being a lot more bloodshed - cheered on by the public and media. 'Before any international agreement, Israel must sound the last chord, launching a massive air and ground offensive that will end this mortifying war, not with a whimper but with a thunderous roar,' urged the influential Haaretz columnist Yoel Marcus. And the soldiers are showing no sign of weakness, boasting that Hizbollah's fighters may be the toast of the Arab world but can still be beaten. 'For us it's like rain,' said Colonel Ofek Bukhris after the men of Battalion 51 were buried. 'We got wet, but they got wetter. We were really smashed up. But they were smashed up worse. It wasn't a failure and it wasn't a black day. It was a fight between us and them. That's war.' How a solution could be found Scenario One The Quick Fix Aim: earliest possible ceasefire Time frame: a week to 10 days What has to happen: Condoleezza Rice, who headed back to the Middle East yesterday, must get the Israeli and Lebanese governments to agree to the terms of a Security Council resolution under which Israel stops firing and pulls out of southern Lebanon while Hizbollah stops firing missiles and is disarmed. In separate talks starting tomorrow, the Americans, British, French and a host of other outside powers must put together an international force with the muscle and mandate to police such a deal and help the Lebanese army move south. An internationally brokered arrangement is made to release the two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hizbollah. What can go wrong: an awful lot. But among the main possible roadblocks, Hizbollah - and its Syrian and Iranian patrons - won't play ball. The Israelis will decide they haven't sufficiently weakened the militia's missile batteries and other installations to stop attacking. Chances of success: 20 to 30 per cent. Scenario Two 'Urgent but stable' ceasefire Aim: reverse the escalation in hopes of a deal as soon as practicable. Time frame: two to three weeks What has to happen: Rice must get her resolution, and the bare bones of a proposed international force put in place. But with Hizbollah still determined - and able - to fire missiles into Israel, and the Israelis determined to achieve their minimum war aim of taking out all the missile launchers and command bunkers they can, diplomacy must somehow bring the militia to heel. The most likely mechanism: a mix of Lebanese, Saudi, Egyptian and other Arab pressure on Syria, Iran and Hizbollah. What can go wrong: Hizbollah will decide time is on its side. Though Syria may be amenable to Arab pressure, the Iranians may prove less so. Deployment of the international force, hopeful of policing a deal rather than fighting to impose one, is delayed. Chances of success: 50 to 60 per cent. Scenario Three The long, hard slog Aim: To wind down the conflict while minimising civilian casualties, shrinking the battlefield and getting aid sent in. Time frame: one to two months What has to happen: all of the above, plus a painstakingly negotiated arrangement under which the Israelis rein in their offensive as it clears Hizbollah launchers and strongholds near the border, the international force gradually takes over as Israel pulls back, and Lebanon moves army units southwards to the border area. What can go wrong: some of the above, but less likely to block a deal assuming Israel's military attacks in the south have achieved significant success, and Hizbollah has been weakened. Still, the political climate in the Middle East and internationally is likely to have been further poisoned by a prolonged conflict - even this deal may be difficult. Chances of success: 70 per cent Scenario Four A widened regional conflict The chances: can't be discounted completely, given the turbulence in the Middle East, but probably unlikely since neither of the two main potential combatants - Israel and Syria - wants it. -------- mideast International Lebanon force denounced From correspondents in Damascus July 30, 2006 Agence France-Presse http://www.news.com.au/sundayheraldsun/story/0,21985,19958619-5005961,00.html SYRIA on Saturday slammed international proposals for the deployment of a multinational force in southern Lebanon as "an occupation force" that would do Israel's job. "The international force proposed by (US Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice... will occupy southern Lebanon and it, instead of Israel, will be charged with eradicating the Lebanese national resistance," said an editorial in the official Tishrin daily. Rice is due in Israel later Saturday to discuss the possible deployment of multinational troops as part of plans to try to end Israel's deadly offensive against Lebanon, now in its 18th day. Syria and Iran both support Lebanon's Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group, whose capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 sparked Israel's assault. The editor of the government Al-Baath newspaper also slammed the calls for a multinational force and described warnings to Syria and Iran by the United States and Britain as nothing new. "Leaders on this level ... should have highlighted that the resistance is born out of the terrorism practised by Israel," editor Elias Mrad said, saying also that international troops would be nothing more than an "occupation force". World powers are due to discuss the possible force, which would be in addition to the 2000 UN peacekeeping troops currently deployed, at the United Nations on Monday. Mrad said warnings from US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to Syria and Iran on Friday were "nothing new. "The two leaders have turned a blind eye to Israel's responsibility for the death and destruction in Lebanon," he said. "(They) have preferred to apply pressure only to Syria and Iran over Hezbollah." Blair, meeting Bush on Friday, said both Syria and Iran could "can either come in and participate as proper and responsible members of the international community, or they will face the risk of increasing confrontation." A UN resolution adopted in 2004 calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah, which was created in 1982 after Israel's all-out invasion of Lebanon. -------- nato NATO's moment of truth in south Afghanistan by Leon Bruneau Sun Jul 30, 2006 (AFP) http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060730/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistanunrestnato BRUSSELS - By expanding its presence to the restive south of Afghanistan, a move due to be finalised Monday, NATO knows that it is putting not only its credibility but probably also its future on the line. Almost three years to the day after it took command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), NATO takes charge of security operations from the US-led coalition, which forced out the fundamentalist Taliban regime. With the move the number of troops will double in the restive south, where Taliban fighters, drug runners and war lords have been increasingly active, leaving NATO to command more than 18,000 soldiers in much of the conflict-scarred country. Later this year, probably by November, command will also be transferred in the mountainous east bordering Pakistan. Technically it will be an easier move since it will mainly involve re-flagging coalition troops to the ISAF mission. "It is the toughest ground mission, if not the toughest mission overall, the alliance with other partners has ever embarked on," ISAF spokesman Major Luke Knittig said last week. Given hostilities in the south, where insurgents have made hit-and-run attacks across the Pakistani border as new troops moved in, NATO could be drawn into fighting that exceeds its mission. Coalition forces alone are charged with hunting the Taliban. NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has warned for months that failure in Afghanistan -- renowned as a haven for international terrorism -- would plunge it back into chaos, and could even bring violence to European streets. Senior officials acknowledge that the alliance must remain in the country -- also the world's biggest opium producer -- for at least another decade, and have urged the international community not to forget its promise of donations. "We are putting a lot of people's lives on the line. It makes no sense to invest a lot of military resources for peace but not put in place the civilian resources," said spokesman James Appathurai. Privately, high-ranking military officers also admit that the war in Iraq has stolen attention -- and with it, perhaps, resources -- from Afghanistan. Beyond the repercussions for the country itself, the move into southern Afghanistan could have important ramifications for the alliance, as it reinvents itself and abandons its Cold War origins. "The success of NATO's mission in Afghanistan will have a direct effect on the pace and future of NATO's ongoing transformation process," wrote Mihai Carp, the deputy head of crisis-management policy in NATO's operations division, in the "NATO Review". As NATO moves from using large bases to relying on smaller, mobile forces capable of quickly reaching the world's hotspots, the Afghan mission will also its ability to act effectively beyond its member states' borders. De Hoop Scheffer has said long and loud that NATO should not be the world's policeman. But while the United States, by far the alliance's dominant and driving member, is eager to put up "coalitions of the willing" in Afghanistan or in Iraq in 2003, it is pushing for a "global NATO" with wide-ranging missions. At the other end of the 26-member spectrum, France has warned that the alliance should focus on its military vocation rather than be the world's peacekeeper -- as evidenced by President Jacques Chirac's recent rejection of a NATO role in Lebanon. The debate, far from over, weighs heavily on discussions about any new operations, and could overshadow NATO's next summit in the Latvian capital Riga at the end of November. -------- un Protesters break into U.N. building in Beirut Angry demonstrators smash offices, denounce U.N., U.S., Israel after strike MSNBC.com July 30, 2006 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14102234/ BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese protesters broke into the United Nations headquarters in Beirut on Sunday, smashing windows and ransacking offices, after an Israeli airstrike killed dozens of people in south Lebanon. Several thousand people massed outside the building in downtown Beirut chanting “Death to Israel, death to America. We sacrifice our blood and souls for Lebanon.” By early afternoon, most protesters had drifted away leaving a few hundred people milling in a parking lot opposite the building, which was being protected by a line of Lebanese soldiers. Geir Petersen, the personal representative of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in Lebanon, condemned the Israeli attack on the village of Qana and called for an immediate investigation. “I strongly condemn today’s killing of tens of civilians by Israeli shelling of residential buildings in the village of Qana,” he said in a statement. Petersen was not at the U.N. offices in Beirut when they were attacked. U.N. spokesman Khaled Mansour said the building had been stoned and furniture smashed but no U.N. staff were hurt as they had taken refuge in the basement. He said a small fire was started on the second floor but it had been contained. Demonstrators held aloft the flags of Lebanon, Hezbollah and the Amal party, whose leader, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, appealed for a halt to the attack. “Give the world a chance to stand by us,” he said on local television. Calls to attack Tel Aviv Demonstrators tore down a U.N. flag outside the building and ripped it to shreds and called on Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to launch rocket attacks on Tel Aviv. “Oh Nasrallah, oh our cherished one, destroy, destroy Tel Aviv,” they chanted. Members of Hezbollah, the Shiite group that sparked the war 19 days ago when it seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid, tried to restrain the crowd. The protesters gathered after an Israeli attack early on Sunday killed at least 40 people, including 23 children, in the southern Lebanese village of Qana. Following the attack, Lebanon cancelled a planned visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday, saying she was unwelcome until a cease-fire was declared. The Lebanese government estimated that at least 750 Lebanese, mostly civilians, have been killed since the conflict started and there is growing anger in Lebanon that the international community has not done enough to stop it. “It’s tense, we understand the anger and the rage of the people outside because of the Israeli shelling, but we don’t understand why the U.N. building and its staff, many of them Lebanese, are to blame,” said Mansour, speaking from the basement of the UN building. -------- ENERGY Iran Min: To Spend $4 Billion In 2 Venezuela Oil Fields July 30, 2006 (Dow Jones) http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20060730\ACQDJON200607301240DOWJONESDJONLINE000255.htm&selected=9999&selecteddisplaysymbol=9999&StoryTargetFrame=_top&mkt=WORLD&chk=unchecked&lang=&link=&headlinereturnpage=http://www.international.na TEHRAN -- Iran's state-owned Petropars oil and gas company is investing around $4 billion in the explorations and developments of two oil fields in Venezuela, Iran's Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said Sunday. "The level of investment in the two Venezuelan oil fields is estimated at $4 billion, which will amount to Petropars' largest investment outside the country, " Vaziri said in press briefing after negotiations with his Venezuelan counterpart, Rafael Ramirez, who arrived Saturday in Tehran. Petropars, affiliated to the National Iranian Oil Co., was established in 1998 and is currently involved in a number of oil and gas projects in Iran. It is also intent on expanding its operations outside Iran. Without naming the two Venezuelan oil fields that Petropars will be investing in, Vaziri said work has already begun at one of them. Vaziri said the financing for the two fields will come from international financial sources and not domestic ones. Petropars had previously announced that its first foreign investment venture involved the development of a heavy oil field in the Gulf of Venezuela. The company will develop bloc 7 of the 540 square-kilometer oil field for $2 billion. The field has an estimated 18 billion barrels of in-place oil. Petropars also has studied a gas field in the Gulf of Venezuela and one in the northern Falcon gas field. In the petrochemical field, Vaziri said Iran and Venezuela have agreed on two joint ventures, adding that the general outline on the establishment of a petrochemical company to follow up on the agreements has been finalized. Iran also has asked Venezuela to become a partner in a planned refinery in Indonesia. A memorandum of understanding was signed earlier this year between the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Co. and Indonesia's PT Pertamina to build a $5 billion, 300,000 barrel-a-day oil refining facility in East Java. Iran and Venezuela also agreed to, along with Indonesia, build a refinery in Venezuela. The feedstock for the proposed refinery would come from the Venezuelan oil field in which Petropars is currently involved. Vaziri said the two ministers also discussed gasoline imports to Iran. "If the agreement on the purchase of gasoline is signed and finalized today between the two countries, three consignments of gasoline will be imported from Venezuela," Vaziri said. Vaziri said the quality of Venezuelan gasoline differs from Iranian, and that is impeding an agreement. He said the issue is being studied. Iran relies on imports for about 30% of its domestically consumed gasoline. That amounts to about $5 billion a year. The government and the Parliament are currently debating the idea of importing around $3 billion worth of gasoline to meet demand in the second half of the year in September. A Venezuelan delegation led by that country's President Hugo Chavez arrived Saturday in Tehran on a two-day official visit. The meeting comes ahead of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' Sept. 11 meeting in Vienna. Both countries are OPEC members. -By Hashem Kalantari, Dow Jones Newswires, +9821 8896; 6230;Hashem-Kalnatari@ Yahoo.com -------- ACTIVISTS On the road with the new peace campers Nuclear power and Trident renewal have rekindled protest, finds Vicky Allan Sunday Herald - 30 July 2006 UK Sunday Herald http://www.sundayherald.com/56998 THERE are reasons to expect there may be more activists than usual this year at the annual Trident Ploughshares camp near the Coulport weapons base on Loch Long. With government proposals that Trident be replaced with another nuclear weapon system, the anti-nuclear movement is swelling and CND membership has surged in the past few months. The question, though, for those setting up camp at Peaton Glen Wood, is whether that enthusiasm will transfer into numbers willing to be involved into direct action, such as vigils, blockades and even breaking into military bases. On Saturday morning there were no crowds quite yet, but already police cars ping-ponged along the nearby road. Tents were still being erected by 10 or so stalwarts of the anti-nuclear campaign, jigsaw puzzles in old canvas and steel. “If we can put up this tent, getting rid of the weapons of mass destruction should be easy,” said Jane Tallents. For the Ploughshares activists, getting rid of Trident hasn’t been straightforward. The first peace camp at Faslane was pitched in 1982, and some, like Tallents, can recall being arrested in early protests when the weapons were first installed. “We protested every submarine arriving,” she said. “We did all of that, and we’ve kept on. And the thought that we’re now on to another weapons system is depressing. You think this should have been done with in the last millennium.” At no point in those 24 years of protest has Trident looked close to being decommissioned. Far from it: it looks set to be replaced by a more advanced nuclear weapons system . The decision is to be put to a vote in the Commons, but as the government has embarked on a £60 million spending programme for the next generation of nuclear submarines, many believe any public debate is a mere display. As Ludwig Appeltans, a Belgian protester and full-time inhabitant of the woodland, put it: “I think the whole government discussion is a smokescreen. The decision has already been made. They’ve invested millions of pounds in Aldermaston and development.” Many factors have led to a renewed anti-nuclear vigour. The war in Iraq, the Middle East conflict, the drive to nuclear power: all these have put the wind back in the sails of the movement . In the past two months British CND swelled with 600 new members, and according to Eileen Cook of Scottish CND, attendance at meetings has doubled in a year. “ Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are doing a very good job of recruiting for CND, with their commitments to nuclear power and replacing Trident,” said Cook. “There are also people that came in because of Make Poverty History and the G8, and yes, they have continued to do things.” But not everyone at Coulport is optimistic that this enthusiasm will transfer into action. Sylvia Boyes, a veteran Greenham Common campaigner, thinks these are uninviting times for activists – “Especially now, with the whole climate of fear and secrecy in this country and the use of the word terrorism, which the government is applying to any campaign they feel like ”. There remain many, however, for whom marches and passive protest are not enough. For Appletans, who for the past five years has been a year-round resident at Peaton Glen Wood, it was direct action that drew him to Ploughshares. “I lost belief in marching and vigils and I felt that it didn’t help. It didn’t make a change. I had to find a way to get rid of my anger and the only way I could find was doing something constructive, direct action, especially the non- violence aspect,” he said. Tallents said she believed Scotland is a place where protest could work. “A lot of us feel this is a place where change could happen. Although defence is reserved [to Westminster], MSPs can have an opinion, they can speak for us. If they would just have the courage, we might be able to change something.” ---- Revealed: Ireland refused to allow bomb flights to land Protests grow as more planes land at Prestwick en route to Israel 30 July 2006 UK Sunday Herald By Torcuil Crichton and Paul Hutcheon http://www.sundayherald.com/57005 Two US aircraft carrying bombs to Israel landed at Prestwick last night amid growing protests fuelled by the revelation that Ireland had ruled out allowing Shannon Airport to handle similar flights. Dermot Ahern, the Irish foreign affairs minister, said he would block any attempt by the US to transport arms to Israel through his country. A spokeswoman for Ahern told the Sunday Herald: 'Minister Ahern did say permission would not be granted if there was an application made to transport munitions of war to the Middle East.' Scottish opposition MPs yesterday described the use of Prestwick Airport to re-arm the Israeli offensive in Lebanon as 'completely unacceptable'. The arrival of the flights yesterday came less than a day after George Bush apologised to Tony Blair over a procedural slip in the previous use of Prestwick to refuel two planes carrying bombs to Israel. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said the flights this weekend were 'adding insult to injury'. He added: 'What price the President¹s apology now? Who can tell if some of this equipment may be used to continue Israel's disproportionate attacks on Lebanon? The British government should be pursuing an active policy of denying weapons of any kind to anyone in the Middle East who may be assisting the conflict in any way.' The SNP¹s deputy Westminster leader, Angus Robertson, called on the Scottish Executive to make a stand ­ although the Executive has no jurisdiction over as aviation matters are a Foreign Office responsibility ­ and a motion expressing 'extreme concern' over the issue was lodged in the Scottish parliament by Glasgow MSP Sandra White. 'If these planes are carrying offensive weapons to be used by Israel it¹s completely unacceptable,' said Robertson. 'This shows Tony Blair has done nothing to stop these shipments in his discussions with President Bush. 'After days of inaction, the Executive needs to make its voice heard to give Scotland military leadership in support a ceasefire in the Middle East.' The weapons are being supplied to Israel by the US in a bid to assassinate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other senior militia officials who may be hidden in tunnels in southern Lebanon. A leading independent weapons expert has warned the weapons cargos pose a major risk to Prestwick Airport. 'These are the most horrendously powerful non-nuclear weapons on earth,' said Dai Williams, who has been investigating the new generation of hard target 'bunker buster' bombs. 'In the worst-case hazard assessment, an accident involving one of those flights would leave an unquenchable fire burning on the runway for a week and a large uranium cloud drifting over southern Scotland.' A demonstration led by Glasgow human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar is expected outside the gates of the airport today. Anwar says the Executive and Civil Aviation Authority are in clear breach of international law. Prime Minister Tony Blair defended allowing the use of Prestwick Airport for the US aircraft ferrying bombs to Israel. Speaking on an official visit to San Francisco he told Sky News: 'In relation to the issues at Prestwick Airport we should just apply the rules in the appropriate way, which is what we are doing. 'What happens at Prestwick Airport is not going to determine whether we get a ceasefire in the Lebanon.' ---- 50,000 protest in Bangladesh Bangladeshis have been protesting for six days Sunday 30 July, 2006 Aljazeera http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/00935142-63E9-4588-A783-536D0B98CCDC.htm More than 50,000 people have marched through the Bangladeshi capital to press for electoral reforms. Carrying replicas of boats - the traditional election symbol of the main opposition Awami League party - and chanting slogans such as "No reforms, no polls" and "Accept reforms before it is too late", the demonstrators marched from Gabtali, about 20km west of central Dhaka. The marchers burnt the chief election commissioner, MA Aziz, in effigy. Opposition parties have accused Aziz of being too partisan and said they would not take part in any elections with him at the helm. Mounting pressure The march was on the sixth and final day of protests, which were organised by Bangladesh's 14-party opposition alliance before parliamentary elections next January. The opposition alliance led by Sheikh Hasina, the former prime minister and leader of Awami, reaffirmed that it would "boycott and resist" the parliamentary election unless the government carried out electoral reforms. "The massive turnout in the series of marches since July 25 demonstrates people's strong support for the reforms needed to make the election free and fair," the Awami general secretary, Abdul Jalil, said on Sunday. "We will keep adding pressure on the government until it bows to popular wishes." Begum Khaleda Zia, the Bangladeshi prime minister, accused the opposition of trying to foil the election and disrupt democracy. The ruling Bangladesh Nationalist party also held a march on Sunday, the second day of a three-day programme designed to counter the opposition show of strength. Security concerns More than 5,000 police and security forces were deployed along the route "to prevent any violence or any subversive acts", said Kohinur Mia, the deputy commissioner of Dhaka police. A series of nationwide bombings linked to a radical Islamic group has plagued Bangladesh since August last year. The attacks killed 28 people, including four suicide bombers. In the last two years serious political violence has also rocked the country. A former finance minister and a popular opposition member of parliament have been killed.