Saudi Arabia to privatize bourse, set up financial district
• AFPSaudi Arabia announced plans to turn its stock market into a shareholding company open to the private sector and to establish the Middle East's largest financial district.
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China reports discovering ancient city
• Associated pressThe ruins of a 2,000-year-old walled city have been found in a reservoir on China's northeastern border with North Korea. The mud-covered ruins were exposed when the water level in the Yunfeng Reservoir was lowered for repairs. The reservoir is o
Gold passes $700 an ounce
• Associated PressGold prices surged to a new quarter-century high of $700 an ounce Tuesday as funds bought into the market, driven by tension between the United States and Iran and expectations of a pause in interest rate hikes.
Minutemen to start building border fence May 27
• Associated Press[Filed your environmental impact statement?] Anticipating no response to its demand that President Bush place US troops on the Mexican border, a civilian watch group said it will start building a short border security fence May 27 on private land.
Bush and other politicos returning bribes faster than you can say Abramoff
• Associated PressPresident Bush and several other Republican officials have begun shedding campaign donations from former House aide and lobbyist Neil Volz, the latest person to plead guilty in a widening lobbying scandal.
Poll: Bush reaches all time low
• New York Times/CBSAmericans have a bleaker view of the country's direction than at any time in more than two decades, and sharp disapproval of President Bush's handling of gasoline prices has combined with intensified unhappiness about Iraq to create a grim po
US Army to prohibit "water boarding" torture
• Knight Ridder[Of course it was the CIA who was doing it, not hte Army.] The US Army will prohibit "water-boarding" — the controversial practice of submerging a prisoner's head in water in an effort to make him talk — when it issues its new interroga
Read the Iranian President's letter for yourself
• LeMondeMr George Bush, President of the United States of America For sometime now I have been thinking, how one can justify the undeniable contradictions that exist in the international arena -- which are being constantly debated, specially in political fo
Rice: We don't want anything to interfere with our war with Iran
• Associated PressIranian political analyst Saeed Leilaz said Rice's quick brushoff would fuel anti-American feelings in Iran. "It could have been the beginning of a new process," he said. Rice's response "strengthens the suspicion (inside Ir
Brussels demands EU nations surrender power to it
• London TimesBRITAIN is preparing to give up the national veto on EU law-and-order legislation after Brussels demanded that national governments surrender control of key policies to combat terrorism and organised crime.
Bolivian socialism mainly hurting Brazil
• Christian Science MonitorMore than half the gas used in Brazil is Bolivian, and in Sao Paulo - the state that accounts for roughly half of Brazil's GDP - the figure is 75 percent. Any disruption in supply from Bolivia would hit Brazil hard, and those in the heavily indus
While other Latin American nations embrace socialism, Costa Rica is recovering from it
• ReutersNobel laureate Oscar Arias begins a second stint as president of Costa Rica today, taking power in a nation divided over free trade with the US and widely seen as rudderless. Arias vows to push the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the Unite
South Korea doesn't want its citizens upsetting North Korea
• Los Angeles Times" 'Don't talk about starvation. Don't talk about human rights,' " Ma said she was warned repeatedly by South Korean intelligence officials assigned to watch over her. "The South Korean government doesn't want any
A timeline of relations between the US and Iran
• Associated PressUnder Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who came to power in 1941, Iran was a close ally of the US. Since the shah was toppled in the 1979 Iranian revolution, the 2 countries have been bitter enemies. Following is a chronology of their relations:
Iran will produce a nuke in 4 years
• HaaretzIran will have acquired nuclear bombs by 2010, the head of Israel's Military Intelligence, Major General Amos Yadlin, told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Ahmad Chalabi: The next Iraqi Torture, I mean Interior Minister
• Associated PressIraqi lawmakers struggling to form the new cabinet are considering outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi to head the powerful Interior Ministry even though he has no seat in the new parliament, an official close to the talks said.
China demands to torture and execute its Gitmo prisoners
• Associated PressChina blasted a US decision to release 5 Chinese Muslims from the Guantanamo Bay detention center to seek asylum in Albania, describing them as suspected terrorists and demanding their return. The men would face the death penalty or torture if sent b
Gallows builder frowned upon
• BBC NewsDavid Lucas, of Mildenhall, Suffolk, said he had been selling execution equipment to countries including Zimbabwe for about 10 years. Mr Lucas said the trade was not sick and "business is business". The execution equipment he says he sells
U.S. tipping Mexico to Minuteman patrols
• Daily BulletinWhile routinely refusing to share information with the American people in violation of the Freedom of Information Act, the Border Patrol is only too eager to share information a
Assuming Arlen doesn't wimp out, CIA head nominee will quietly withdraw
• Associated PressSenate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter said he would use a Hayden nomination to raise questions about the legality of the NSA domestic eavesdropping program, and he has not ruled out holding up the nomination in the meantime.
Taiwan President decides to skip US visit amid chilly reception
• ReutersTaiwan's President Chen Shui-bian has decided to avoid the United States on his journey home from a Latin American visit, as officials played down the fall-out of the diplomatic spat between the island and its closest ally.
Feingold: Democrats stand up to Bush
• Associated PressSen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), a potential anti-war candidate in the 2008 presidential field, urged fellow Democrats to show more backbone in challenging President Bush on Iraq.
Iran's nuclear gambit — the basics
• Christian Science MonitorAhmadinejad warned of UN action: "They should know that the Iranians will dash their illegitimate resolution against the wall." As this high-stakes diplomacy gets under way, we explore some basic questions about Iran's nuclear program:
Targeting polygamists
• Christian Science MonitorSmall polygamous groups have existed in the southwestern US under the watchful yet fairly benign eye of authorities ever since a sect known as the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints separated itself from mainstream Mormonism in 1890.
Do dolphins call each other names?
• National GeographicDolphins give themselves "names"—distinctive whistles that they use to identify each other, new research shows. Scientists say it's the first time wild animals have been shown to call out their own names.
Marines say new uniform 'goofy'
• Associated PressAmerican troops have complained that a new armoured body suit designed to be worn in Iraq makes them look "goofy". The water-cooled "alien spacesuits" are being handed out to turret gunners in their notoriously vulnerable Humve
Greek fisher catches ancient statue
• Associated PressA Greek fisherman has handed over to authorities a large section of an ancient bronze statue brought up in his nets in the Aegean Sea. The 3-foot high find belonged to a statue of a horseback soldier, and would have been part of the cargo of an ancie
Tombs found at Chinese Olympic site
• Associated PressWork on a shooting range for the 2008 Beijing Olympics has been suspended after the discovery of imperial-era tombs on the site. The tombs, are believed to date back 5 to 6 centuries to the Ming dynasty, and may be those of eunuchs serving at the imp
Mexico monolith may cast new light on Mesoamerica
• ReutersA carved monolith unearthed in Mexico may show that the Olmec civilization, one of the oldest in the Americas, was more widespread than thought or that another culture thrived alongside it 3,000 years ago.
Manipulating the Masses
• Daily ReckoningIf you believe the government, annual inflation is running less that 3.5%, unemployment is less than 5%, annual GDP growth rate is about 3.5%, and the 2005 federal deficit was $318 billion. In reality, annual inflation is over 8%, unemployment is ov
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