August 28, 2008 – 6:16 pm
Baghdad plans to build giant Ferris wheel
Sameer N Yacoub, AP, Aug 28
Iraq is calling on companies to submit designs to build a giant Ferris wheel in Baghdad — the latest in a string of lavish proposals painting the capital as a leisure friendly city. The Ferris wheel, dubbed the Baghdad Eye, will soar more than 650 feet over the city and feature air-conditioned compartments that would each carry up to 30 passengers, Baghdad municipal spokesman Adel al-Ardawi said Wednesday. Three possible locations in Baghdad have been selected, but officials are waiting to see what proposals are submitted before picking one, al-Ardawi said, declining to give an estimated construction cost or timeline. “We hope to attract a great number of customers who will be able to see the whole city and enjoy the restaurants and pools on ground below,” he told AP. Al-Ardawi said the wheel would be taller than the iconic London Eye, which sits on the banks of the River Thames and reaches a height of about 450 feet over the British capital. The London Eye opened in January 2000 and it took seven years to complete the project, which cost £35m — about $64.5m in the current exchange rate. The London Eye has attracted more than 27m visitors since it opened, according to its Web site.
Officials are also using the downturn in violence to begin promoting tourism. The Ferris wheel and other tourism projects could be built in areas where security is tight and unlikely that suicide attacks would happen. The main city park, Zawra, is adjacent to the Green Zone and home to the Baghdad Zoo. Families are often seen relaxing at night in parks and children flock to pools. On Monday, tens of thousands of soccer fans cheered on their club in a Baghdad stadium — the largest sports crowd the city saw since the 2003 US-led invasion. There are risk-takers despite the possibility of violence. American businessman Robert Kelley announced plans last month to build a luxury hotel in Baghdad’s Green Zone, which houses Iraqi government offices and the U.S. military and diplomatic facilities. Iraq’s Tourism Board also is seeking investors to develop a “romantic” island on the Tigris River in Baghdad that was once a popular honeymoon spot for newlywed Iraqis, the US military announced this week. The project would including a six-star hotel, spa, an 18-hole golf course and a country club, the military said in a statement. “The city of Baghdad has a depth of history and a cultural legacy that, when applied to the development, can be a basis for attracting and fostering tourism,” the statement said, not mentioning the war.
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August 28, 2008 – 5:26 pm
Florida politicians attending the Democratic National Convention here are warning that Barack Obama faces deep hostility in certain Jewish communities and that the campaign might not be doing enough to counter the negative attitudes of these voters. During a National Jewish Democratic Council forum on the Jewish vote Monday, State Senator Steve Geller recounted that Jewish audiences in the retirement communities of South Florida have attacked him for his support for the presumptive Democratic nominee. “I’ve gone to meetings where people have been downright hostile to me. People that I poll 90 percent positive with turn on me when I try to defend Sen. Obama,” he said. Geller described the Obama campaign as “not necessarily” getting how difficult a challenge they face winning these voters, who are usually Democratic stalwarts the party can count on to turn out in heavy numbers. Geller said that he has had some success in reassuring Jewish voters when speaking to them one-on-one, but that national Jewish delegates had not made many inroads. “We’re hoping that this is starting to change people’s perceptions, but it hasn’t done so yet,” he said. But Geller is still concerned, despite feeling that the Obama campaign has made a good start. “People who are denying that there is any problem with Jewish seniors in Florida are wrong. We need to fix it, and to fix it you have to be aware of it,” he said, arguing that a good showing among the demographic is still possible. “We need to understand that we can’t just wish it to come about. We need to work to make it come about.” (Hilary Leila Krieger, JPost)
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August 28, 2008 – 4:33 pm
Shin Bet chief: Hebrew Univ. rector slandered my agency
Amir Oren, Haaretz, Aug 28
The head of the Shin Bet security service, Yuval Diskin, is accusing Hebrew University rector, Professor Haim Rabinowitch, of de-legitimizing and slandering the agency more than two years after Rabinowitch ordered the cancellation of an academic degree program specially tailored for Shin Bet enlistees. In an August 4 letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Education Minister Yuli Tamir, Diskin accuses the Hebrew University rector of leaving Shin Bet agents with “a terrible feeling” following the controversial cancellation of the academic program. The Shin Bet offered recruited agents an opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree in political science as part of a 16-month track. After Haaretz reported that a curriculum was jointly prepared by the university’s political science faculty and the Shin Bet’s education division, negative feedback from the public prompted Rabinowitch to intervene in the formulation of the program. The rector feared that nature of the partnership compromised the university’s academic ethics. Rabinowitch then demanded that the contract with the Shin Bet be cancelled just minutes before it was to be signed. Appeals to the university president, Professor Menachem Megidor, to revitalize the initiative were for naught. In his letter, though, Diskin noted that he has no complaints against Hebrew University as an institution, nor does he find fault with the political science faculty. The Shin Bet chief, who noted that his agency is acting to prevent terrorist attacks against the university, accused Rabinowitch of “patronizing and dismissive” treatment. The cancellation forced the Shin Bet to establish its academic program in conjunction with Bar-Ilan University, the same institution that produced a student who came to be associated with the service’s most ringing failure, Yigal Amir. Last month, the first graduating class completed the track in what the Shin Bet deemed a success.
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August 28, 2008 – 3:18 pm
Tymoshenko says she’s accused of not loving Ukrainian fat
UNIAN.net, Aug 27
Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko calls absurd the statements of the Presidential Secretariat that accused her of betraying national interests. According to an UNIAN correspondent, she claimed this to a press conference today, commenting on the respective address of the Presidential Secretariat to SBU [the Ukrainian Security Service]. Yulia Tymoshenko said,
Well, they produced seven provisions, love to Ukrainian fat, love to Ukrainian borshch, what else exotic… All this is absurd. I have no desire to comment, I swear, because it is possible to comment on serious things, but to comment on absurd – you may just turn into a participant of that absurd.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on August 18, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko`s office accused Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, his “Orange Revolution” ally, of betraying national interests by not backing Georgia in its conflict with Russia. Yushchenko`s deputy chief of staff accused Tymoshenko of remaining silent to secure Moscow`s support during presidential elections in 2010. Andriy Kyslynsky said in a comment on the presidential Web site,
Russia`s leaders are seriously considering supporting Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the presidential campaign once she … fulfils the condition of adopting a passive position in the conflict with Georgia
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August 28, 2008 – 9:17 am
extract from Michael Evans Times, Aug 28
A former British ambassador to Tbilisi said that Nato might have to send troops to the region. Donald McLaren, who was Ambassador to Georgia from 2004 to July last year and is now retired, told the Today programme on Radio 4 that a peacekeeping force made up of troops from the US, Britain, France, Germany and Russia should be sent to Georgia to replace the Russian units. If Moscow rejected such a proposal, he said, Nato had only two choices: “To give up and surrender and say to the Russians, ‘It’s your backyard, you’ve won’, or to put men on the ground to protect Georgia’s sovereignty and the east-west oil and gas pipeline from the Caspian and Central Asia.”
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that there was no prospect of troops being deployed to Georgia. Nato diplomatic sources said that no one within the alliance was speaking about sending troops. “We have no mandate to act in the Caucasus,” a source said. Even the European Union, which is to hold a summit next month, has downgraded its most likely response to the Russian military presence in Georgia from deploying peacekeepers to sending observers. The Ministry of Defence has decided to postpone a military exercise in Georgia involving the Territorial Army and the Georgian Army. The exercise, planned for next month, was to help the Georgians with peacekeeping. The MoD said that the Georgian Defence Ministry had requested the delay because of the current situation.
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August 28, 2008 – 6:52 am
A deal allowing NATO to supply its troops in Afghanistan using Russian territory is still valid despite Moscow’s decision to freeze military cooperation over the Georgia crisis, Russia’s top military envoy to the alliance said Wednesday. The agreement, signed in April by former Russian President Vladimir Putin, allows the transport of non-lethal supplies overland through Russia to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan. “We are not going to suspend the decision on nonmilitary cargo transport,” Col. Andrey Zhukov, Russian’s acting military representative at NATO, told reporters. The alliance is not yet making use of the agreement to supply its troops by land via Russia because it has yet to strike similar transit deals with the Central Asian nations between Russia and the Afghan border. – (AP)
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August 28, 2008 – 6:24 am
Reaper Drops Laser-Guided Bomb On Anti-Iraqi Forces
SpaceWar.com, Joint Base Balad, Iraq (SPX) Aug 27, 2008
An MQ-9 Reaper dropped a 500-pound bomb against an anti-Iraqi target Aug. 16 in one of the first weapons engagements for the unmanned aircraft system. The Reaper began flying combat sorties in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom July 18 and joined the MQ-1 Predator as another UAS patrolling the sky to protect coalition forces. The successful airstrike, which destroyed a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, demonstrates the persistent strike capability that the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing provides commanders on the ground, said Brig. Gen. Brian T. Bishop, the 332nd AEW commander. General Bishop said:
We are here to integrate airpower into joint operations in Iraq, and ensuring we make the most of our unmanned-aerial-system capabilities is just one of many ways we do that. With our ability to provide persistent stare and persistent strike, we provide a clear battlefield assessment and quick responses to commanders when they need it.
During an overwatch mission over southeast Iraq, Reaper operators from the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance and Attack Squadron at Joint Base Balad discovered a suspicious vehicle. The Airmen immediately relayed the information to personnel in a local ground unit, said Lt. Col. Micah Morgan, the 46th ERAS commander. After the suspicious vehicle was confirmed to be a VBIED — a variant of the No. 1 killer of Americans on the battlefield — a joint terminal attack controller cleared the Reaper to employ a GBU-12 laser-guided weapon against the vehicle. Unmanned aircraft system aircrews’ fusion of the warfighting domains of air, space and cyberspace enables them uniquely to share critical information with JTACs and other command and control elements, ensuring that they hit the right target, Colonel Morgan said:
This was a great example of the Reaper’s unique capabilities. We searched for, found, fixed, targeted and destroyed a target with just one aircraft. We go to great lengths to avoid unnecessary damage, and the Reaper’s unique capabilities allow it to play a key role in our highly disciplined targeting process.
The 46th ERAS flies both Reaper and Predators. Its aircrews directly control all Reaper operations in Iraq and provide launch and recovery for Predator operations. During UAS missions, they can communicate with critical partners worldwide using a mix of radio, telephone and secure Internet systems.
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August 28, 2008 – 6:08 am
Woman wearing veil told to leave Italian museum
Reuters, Aug 28, 2008
ROME: The head of one of Venice’s most prestigious museums apologised on Wednesday to a Muslim woman asked to leave the building by a guard because she was wearing a veil over her face. The episode, which has kindled controversy in the Italian media and arguments between centre-left and centre-right politicians, occurred on Sunday in Venice’s Ca’ Rezzonico museum, which houses 18th-century Venetian art. The woman, visiting the museum with her husband and children, had cleared security when she entered the building. When she reached the second floor, a room guard told her she must remove her “niqab”, which leaves only the eyes visible, or leave. Director Filippo Pedrocco told Reuters by telephone from Venice:
I’m sorry for what happened and if she ever wants to return to our museum, she will be more than welcome. The room guard was over-zealous. He should not have done it. She already passed security and his only duty was to guarantee the safety of the artwork in his room.
The woman was believed to have been a member of a well-off family visiting Venice from Saudi Arabia or a Gulf state. She refused to take off the veil and left the building, which faces Venice’s Grand Canal and houses works by such 18th century Venetian masters as Giandomenico Tiepolo. The guard, whose name was not disclosed, was hailed as a hero by some in the Veneto region. Senator Roberto Castelli, a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League, asked the justice minister to make sure the guard was not disciplined or sacked “for doing his duty and making sure the law was respected”. Giancarlo Gentilini, deputy mayor of the city of Treviso north of Venice, said the guard should be “given an award and not punished”.
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Niqnaq 