An independent panel headed by two former United States national security advisers on Wednesday said chaos in post-war Iraq was due in part to inadequate post-war planning. Planning for reconstruction should match the serious planning that goes into making war, said the panel headed by Samuel Berger and Brent Scowcroft.
As software rivals, Microsoft wants to wipe Apple Computer off the map. With Microsoft’s new web service for satellite photographs, did the world’s largest software company find a way to do exactly that? Anyone who uses Microsoft’s new ”Virtual Earth” website for a bird’s-eye view of Apple’s corporate headquarters sees only a grainy photograph of what appears to be a nondescript warehouse.
Imagine an Americanised version of sushi: cooked pork or chicken surrounded by a 100% vegetable-based wrapping similar to nori, the seaweed strip traditionally used for sushi. This is but one of the uses that scientist Tara McHugh envisions for the edible food wrappings.
Only four days before President George W Bush chose him as his nominee for the Supreme Court, John Roberts ruled to give the administration a free hand in holding military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, critics claimed this week. Bush sent his candidate to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet senators who will ultimately decide Judge Roberts’s confirmation.
Traces of magnesium found in household water could be sufficient to cause permanent brain damages to those who take a regular shower, according to a report published in the United States journal Medical Hypotheses. John Spangler and his team suggested that breathing in vapour containing manganese salts could be dangerous over the longer term.
Nasa set Tuesday as the tentative launch date for the shuttle Discovery, after saying it was confident the technical glitch that delayed the original July 13 launch has been overcome. ”Right now we think we have eliminated all possible causes” related to the glitch, said shuttle programme director Bill Parson.
United States President George Bush on Tuesday night nominated an appeals court judge, John Roberts, as the new member of the supreme court, describing the choice as ”one of the most consequential decisions a president makes”. Democratic senators vowed to question him closely in the coming confirmation hearings.
The United States President, George Bush, has agreed to aid India’s civilian nuclear power programme, an unexpected decision that reverses three decades of American policies designed to deter nations from developing nuclear weapons. The agreement is the first exception to the international bar on nuclear assistance to any country that does not accept monitoring of all of its nuclear facilities.
Having one type of diabetes is bad enough, but two? Doctors are seeing a new phenomenon dubbed double diabetes that makes it harder to diagnose and treat patients — especially children. The mix can strike at any age, and comes in various forms.
Nasa has yet to find a glitch that scrubbed the space shuttle Discovery‘s launch six days ago, said officials on Monday who still could not set a new launch date. ”We are still looking for the problem,” shuttle programme manager Bill Parsons said. At the soonest, Nasa said, Discovery could blast off on July 26.
United States workers are goofing off for two hours a day, trawling the internet or jawing with co-workers, costing their employers -billion a year, according to a new survey. Other ways of frittering away time included making personal phone calls, running errands and an activity described as ”spacing out”.
A new push is being made to deliver television over an internet platform, with the potential to transform the medium into a new technology that offers more competition and programme choices. The ”convergence” of television and the internet is being pushed, interestingly, by major regional United States phone companies.
Downing Street hailed a promise by United States President George Bush to double aid to Africa on Thursday, saying it helped British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s big goal of boosting aid to Africa by bn by 2010. But Bush’s offer, centering initially on a ,2-billion injection to cut malaria deaths in half by 2010, was greeted sceptically by aid agencies.
President George W Bush on Thursday called for a ,2-billion US effort to cut deaths from malaria in Africa in half over five years, part of a range of new initiatives targeted at the continent’s problems. Bush also proposed doubling US spending to -million on initiatives to promote the education of girls in Africa.
A judge on Wednesday gave two US journalists one week to reveal their sources to a grand jury probing the leak of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative’s identity or go to jail. The case is one of several in the US that have recently revived the issue of whether reporters should be forced to reveal information gathered on the job.
The United States military official tasked with running the Guantánamo Bay detention camp on Wednesday rejected calls by critics to close the facility, saying it continues to yield vital ”actionable intelligence” in the US-led war on terror.
American high-speed cable networks are not required to provide access to rival internet service companies, the US Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a case watched for implications on competition for internet access. The ruling paves the way for the federal regulators to ease open-access obligations on big phone carriers.
The International Monetary Fund on Monday urged Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s authoritarian government to change policy tack and come in from the international cold to avert economic disaster. The IMF stressed that Zimbabwe needs ”decisive action” to lower its fiscal deficit, tighten monetary policy and set up a market-based currency system.
A United States man has sold a water-stained piece of plaster from his bathroom wall that bears an uncanny resemblance to the image of Jesus Christ for almost  000 on eBay. The image appeared to Jeffrey Rigo (30) as he stepped out of the shower on June 11, prompting him to cut the plaster piece from his wall and put it up for bids on the auction portal.
The United States and Mozambique inked a trade and investment framework agreement on Tuesday in Washington with the goal of increasing economic ties. United States Trade Representative Rob Portman and Mozambican Minister of Industry and Commerce Antonio Fernando signed the deal.
Culture wars raging in the United States are reaping new victims as monster-screen Imax cinemas and top museums are dragged into the fierce debate over the origin of life. Pressure from ultraconservative religious groups has prompted some theatres to cancel showings of several movies which refer to the theory of evolution.
Recriminations flew on Monday over the biggest data breach in United States history as the theft of private information on more than 40-million credit card holders spread to Japan and Hong Kong. About 22-million affected customers are Visa holders and nearly 14-million are with MasterCard.
Radical latte lovers are getting the bean rolling in a new campaign against big brand coffee giants like Starbucks. In a new and frothy front in the struggle to turn back globalisation, United States coffee lovers are being offered the chance to wean themselves off what critics deride as the same blends and decor of big coffee chains.
The number of refugees around the world rose by one million in 2004, to 11,5-million, according to the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. People fleeing Sudan’s troubled Darfur region to Chad and Iraqis crossing into Syria contributed to the increase, the private aid group said in its annual survey.
More than a million Americans were infected with HIV/Aids at the end of 2003, with black, homosexual and bisexual men making up the largest group among them, says a government statistics report made public on Monday. African-Americans made up about 47% of this group, whites 34%, and Hispanics 17%.
Mike Tyson’s career apparently ended in yet another shocker on Saturday night when he quit on the stool after taking a beating in a foul-filled sixth round against unheralded Kevin McBride. Tyson lost for the third time in his last four fights, and once again he faded badly as the rounds went on before deliberately head butting McBride.
The United States trade deficit rose by a modest 6,3% to -billion in April, despite record sales of exports, including civilian aircraft, the government said on Friday. Wall Street was expecting the shortfall to widen to -billion, compared with a revised ,6-billion in March.
A mellower Mike Tyson who has come to terms with his controversial past and portrayal as a boxing villain showed he still has a fierce side on Wednesday in his last appearance before Saturday’s comeback fight. Tyson faces Irishman Kevin McBride on Saturday in a 10-round bout that the ex-champ must win in order to retain any hopes of recapturing his past glory.
United States President George Bush is meeting with the leaders of several African nations later this month to celebrate elections held last year in each and hold them up as models of democratic progress on the troubled continent. The presidents of Botswana, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia and Niger are meeting Bush.
Former undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson is making a boxing comeback less than three weeks before his 39th birthday with only one goal — reclaiming global heavyweight supremacy. Tyson portrayed himself as a more mature man and fighter on Tuesday in his first pre-fight public comments.
Americans who smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes aren’t likely to be pursued by federal authorities, despite a ruling by the top United States court that these users could face federal charges, people on both sides of the issue say. ”We have never targeted the sick and dying,” a Drug Enforcement Administration spokesperson said.
Visiting South African President Thabo Mbeki pushed on Wednesday for more United States economic aid to Africa and logistical support for African peacekeepers in Darfur in a meeting with US President George Bush. The United States has offered aircraft to transport African Union peacekeepers to Darfur, and has approached Nato for help as well.