Afg: Reports say Bin Laden died from lung disease in mid-December [WWW.STOPNATO
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Ananova : Reports say Bin Laden died from lung disease in mid-December === A newspaper in Pakistan is reporting that Osama bin Laden has died from natural causes. The Pakistan Observer quotes a Taliban leader claiming he died from a serious lung complaint in the Tora Bora mountains. The source says bin Laden couldn't get the medical treatment he needed. He claims to have seen bin Laden's face before he was buried. The source adds bin Laden died in mid-December. The coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they will never be able to fulfil their cherished goal of getting Osama, the source told the paper. He says around 30 of bin Laden's close associates attended the funeral. Story filed: 09:26 Tuesday 25th December 2001 ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Differences remain between Russia and US [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Differences remain between Russia and US http://www.russiajournal.com/news/rj_news.shtml?nd=1521 MOSCOW - The United States no longer views Russia as an enemy, but the two nations still differ on U.S. missile defense plans and NATO's expansion, Russia's defense minister said in an interview released Monday. I wouldn't say that Russia and the United States are the closest allies in the military sense, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told the Interfax news agency. Certainly not. Russia's relations with the United States and other Western countries have dramatically improved thanks to President Vladimir Putin's support for the U.S.-led war on terror. Ivanov said the United States had stopped considering Russia as enemy not just in words, but in deeds. I don't think that the United States would have agreed to radical cuts of strategic armaments if it had suspected us of being an enemy or becoming such in the future, Ivanov said. U.S. President George W. Bush said last month that the United States would reduce its nuclear forces to 1,700-2,200 warheads, and Putin promised to cut Russia's arsenals to as low as 1,500 warheads. Each nation is now allowed to have 6,000 nuclear warheads under the START I Treaty. While pledges of nuclear cutbacks reflect the improved bilateral ties, Russia still considers the U.S. decision to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty a serious mistake with very grave negative consequences, Ivanov said, adding that each of us keeps to his opinion on the issue. Speaking Monday in a live question-and-answer session on national television, Putin reaffirmed that the U.S. withdrawal from the ABM treaty was a mistake but not a threat to Russia and voiced confidence it wouldn't spoil relations. Ivanov referred to Russia's concerns about NATO's eastward expansion as another divisive issue. If the military infrastructure of some organization comes close to our borders, we will have to take that into account in our military planning, he said. Any other approach would be irresponsible. Putin has urged NATO to give Russia a say in its decision-making, saying that would ease Russia's concern about the alliance's eastward expansion. NATO and Russia are to work out a new cooperation framework early next year. Describing the state of Russian armed forces, Ivanov said that the strategic nuclear forces were in good shape, but the military's conventional weapons were becoming increasingly obsolete. The strategic nuclear forces' weapons are reliable and can serve for many years, he said. As for tanks, armored personnel carriers and aircraft, they need to be modernized or simply replaced. Ivanov said the government plans to have Russian arms exporters earmark some of their hard currency earnings to help modernize the Russian military's arsenals. Otherwise, it is an ironic situation: We sell state-of-the-art weapons abroad, while the Russian army doesn't get anything, he said. http://www.russiajournal.com/news/rj_news.shtml?nd=1521 ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
THE COMING YEAR IN THE NEW CENTURY [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- -Well, this is it! This is what? -The new year in the brand new century a row of virginal 0s waiting to be filled in. So what? -So . . . so, it's time to take stock. Of what? -Of where we are . . . who we are. History. Bollocks! The first thing to realise is that history does not arrive at midnight, like a rabbit out of a magician's hat. History makes nothing, brings nothing, stands for nothing. History is social motion and the speed and texture of that motion is made by men and women. We make it out of the material environment that exists and in making it transform the material environment and our own existence. We make our own future; it does not arrive as hero or demon, but is the product of our own energy. Secondly, there is a harsh truth to recognise. The battle to make the future better than the past is about power, not ideals. We all want to be happy, but happiness for Rupert Murdoch is achievable in a different way than for a single mother in Brixton or Harlem. Murdoch needs to hold on to his power and expand it. The single mother needs to gain power. Murdoch has a class interest based upon the ownership and control of property. The working-class interest is based upon its non-ownership and control of property. Consciousness of these interests and organisation to promote them is the key to changing history. So, the question is not about what the future will bring, but about what we have the intelligence and the political force to take for ourselves. Thirdly, the future is not a moment and is not Out There, like a Star Trek story. It is a process in which the present second is always a part. The beginning of the future starts with an understanding of where one is. There are no solutions until the problem is recognised. The complexities of our future are inextricably connected to the contradictions of the present. That is why stargazers and prophets are always faintly ridiculous, obsessed as they are by imagined destinies. WHATS ROTTEN By 2100 it would be rather nice if the world could have seen the last of Nation states homely prison enclosures in which the inmates sing the prison song and coloured rags fly overhead to remind you of which wing you're in. Banks repositories of paper and metal tokens that people need in order to buy existence. Sir Cliff Richard the singing ayatollah of creepy Christendom who has managed against all odds to put a tune to the act of fraud. Wages and salaries the price on our heads, always less than the value of what we produce, which are the stale air provided for the semi-suffocated majority in a world where they produce much and possess little. Telephone muzak designed to drive us slowly mad while we wait to speak to people we probably don't want to speak to about matters we'd rather not be discussing. Charities which redistribute poverty, enabling the abjectly poor to benefit from the guilt of the moderately poor. America the ultimate trash-empire, based on the principle that no-one ever went broke by underestimating the intelligence of the inhabitants. Markets which are presented as channels of economic access, but are obstacle courses which ration access in accordance with the callous priority of profit accumulation. Lenin-worshippers those insufferable lefties who see their role in this world to lead the witless masses into a state dictatorship where the Lenin-worshipers will become commissars. Hymns see Cliff Richard. Government the means whereby we are coerced into class regimentation by the force of law. Socialists a redundant label once the job is done. NEW MILLENNIUM -- NEW SOCIAL ORDER ? The biggest failure of the twentieth century was the failure of humanity to grasp the need for a new social order based on need rather than profit. The consequences have been devastating. The thought of sustaining those consequences, embedded as they are in ever-increasing contradictions of anarchic global capitalism, is not only uninspiring, but deeply depressing. Although there is a prevailing political illusion that Capitalism Has Won, there is a remarkable absence of confidence, even among its supporters, in the capacity for humanising the global market. The most pressing challenge this century will be to remove capitalism and establish a new social order based upon · Common ownership · Democratic control · Production solely for use · Free access to all goods and services Such a system has never been tried. It conforms to the highest needs of humanity to create a world where order is based upon equality, friendship and freedom. It is humanity's objective in humanising its social environment. There will be those who raise objections. They should. The most important next step is that at least there should be debate. Others will raise no objections, but continue to uphold the present
News, 25.12.2001, 16:00 UTC [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- Deutsche Welle English Service News 25th December, 2001, 16:00 UTC Sri Lankan Ceasefire Holding Sri Lanka's first bilateral ceasefire in seven years - endorsed by both sides on Christmas eve - appears to be holding. The island nation's new government said it no reports of clashes in contested eastern and northern regions. And, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, on a visit to India, said he believed the month- long ceasefire could extend beyond January the 24th. The news agency AFP says rebel leader Verlupillai Prabhakaran has reduced the Tamil Tigers' demand for a separate homeland to one of political autonomy. Three decades of conflict have claimed at least 60,000 lives. Fresh Gunfire in Kashmir India and Pakistan have exchanged more mortar and small arms fire across their disputed border in mountainous Kashmir, with India saying two of its soldiers and a civilian had been killed. It said it had also told hundreds of civilians to leave local villages. Pakistan has demanded that India prove its claim that Pakistan-based Kashmiri separatist groups were behind the fatal attack on India's parliament two weeks ago. A senior Pakistani army officer warned that continued border clashes could spark an uncontrollable flareup involving the two nuclear rivals. India's ambassador, recalled from Islamabad, has arrived back in New Delhi. Don't Exploit God's Name - Pope Pope John Paul, in his Christmas address from Rome, has renewed calls for peace and tolerance, saying people around the globe, children especially, were distressed by tensions and wars. Christ's message of peace remained valid, he added. He urged Christians, Jews and Moslems to ensure that God's name was not exploited to justify death and terrorism. The 81-year-old Pontiff also celebrated a solemn midnight mass televised to 47 countries. Shoe Checks at Airports Security staff at airports on the both sides of the Atlantic are checking passengers' footwear after Saturday's mid-air scare when a man was found to have explosives hidden in his shoes. The Paris-to-Miami flight was diverted to Boston where the suspect is now in jail pending another court hearing. American Airlines has accused staff at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport of failing to react to its warning that the man had behaved suspiciously. At Frankfurt Airport, passengers departing on U.S. airline flights are being told to take their shoes off for extra checks. At La Guardia and Miami airports in the USA similar checks are also being made. Pasko Jailed at Russian Retrial At a retrial in Vladivostok, a Russian military court has imposed a four-year jail term on the former Russian navy captain turned ecologist Grigory Pasko for allegedly passing secrets to Japan. Two years ago Pasko had walked free on high treason charges that in 1997 he'd given Japanese journalists evidence that the Russian navy had dumped toxic waste into the Sea of Japan. He had himself sought the re-trial, hoping to clear his name on a remaining lesser charge. Russia's FSB security service said it pressed the case because Pasko - as a former captain - had breached of an oath of secrecy. Israeli soldier killed at Jordan border Unidentified gunmen have killed one Israeli soldier and wounded at least three others in a rare incident on the Israeli-Jordan border. Jordan, which made peace with Israel in 1994, said the shots were not fired from its terrority. The incident occurred in a usually quiet area in the Jordan Valley. Indonesian Train Crash The death toll has officially risen to 42 in Central Java where two packed passenger trains were involved in a fatal crash. The accident occured near the town of Brebes 280 km east of Jakarta. One local official said one of the trains, travelling at high speed, crashed into the stationary train at a small station just outside Brebes. The cause of the accident is under investigation. However, a spokesman for the railway company has said he suspects human error. Australia battles Christmas Day bush fires Dozens of summer bushfires blazed out of control in Australia's eastern state of New South Wales on Christmas Day, forcing residents to flee and destroying a handful of homes evacuated earlier. Fanned by hot, strong winds of up to 90 kph , fires jumped containment breaks and officials said homes and camp sites had to be evacuated on the outskirts of the main city Sydney and in towns close to the capital Canberra. Thousands of firefighters, backed up by helicopter and fixed wing water-bombers, battled up to 70 fires in different parts of the state. Off-duty firefighters recalled from Christmas celebrations in the Sydney metropolitan region swelled the number of those tackling the flames to around 5,000. Germany Gripped by Winter Snowfalls and snowdrifts continue to hamper traffic in eastern and southern Germany but in western regions around Frankfurt and Cologne a white Christmas is turning into a
Romania: Communists remember Ceausesc [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- AFP. 25 December 2001. Communists gather to pay respects to Ceausescu. BUCHAREST -- Dozens of nostalgic communists gathered in homage near the tomb of former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu and his wife Elena, Tuesday, to commemorate their execution by firing squad 12 years ago. The mainly elderly crowd lit candles and placed wreaths at the spot in the Ghencea cemetery in the capital's western suburbs, where the two are buried. In cold weather with light snow falling, they eulogised Romania's former president who ruled the country for more than a quarter of a century before being toppled by a [so-called] popular uprising in 1989. He (Ceausescu) fought so that the people would have better lives. Food was much cheaper in his time, an old woman said. Another praised the former leader's contribution to Romania. Ceausescu was a great patriot. He was murdered, declared a man dressed in an elegant coat who drew plaudits from the crowd. On December 22, 1989, following days of clashes between protesters and forces loyal to the communist leader, the army deserted en bloc to the side of the protesters. The same day, Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu escaped in a helicopter from the roof of the Communist party central committee building in Bucharest. Three days later, on Christmas Day, Ceausescu's successor Ion Iliescu organised a lightning trial which resulted in the couple being shot by firing squad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
Some background on India/Pakistan [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- INDIA -- Villain, Hero, or Scapegoat? by J. Truman http://www.downwinders.org/story2.html __ Do You Yahoo!? Send your FREE holiday greetings online! http://greetings.yahoo.com ==^ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^
