March 8, 2005

I think that the reason Putin is supplying  Iran with Nuclear Fuel  is in order to get help with the Chechnia Rebels One week after the nuclear fuel deal is announced, Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov was killed during a "special operation". I think the two stories are linked.  2:27:07 PM

Peter Mansbridge: Maybe Bush was right. Is freedom really on the march across the Middle East, as George W. Bush and those who've helped design his foreign policy giddily suggest? Actually, that theory is now gaining support from unlikely sources. 2:01:03 PM

Chechen rebel killed: Russian army CBC New Brunswick -  Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov was killed during a "special operation," a Russian army spokesperson said on Tuesday. Moscow blamed Maskhadov for a number of high-profile attacks in Russia, including the attack on a school in Beslan in September. As many as 326 people died when rebels held the school for 62 hours. He was also linked to the bombing of a Moscow subway station in Feb. 2004 that killed at least 39 people and the hostage-taking at a theatre in Moscow in Oct. 2002 that left 119 people dead.  12:15:29 PM

Who are the indians of the Middle East? by Howard Gerson and Harold Waller. There is an assumption among leftists and in certain media circles concerning the truth of certain facts underlying what can be referred to as the "Palestinian narrative" of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This Palestinian narrative is at the centre of the debate on Israel’s security fence now being considered by the International Court because it touches on the issue of the status of the land on which the fence is being constructed. [Israpundit] 10:07:34 AM

Lebanese Capital Jammed with Pro-Syrian Demonstrators Voice of America - Hundreds of thousands of pro-Syrian demonstrators are rallying in the Lebanese capital to denounce what they are calling Western interference in Lebanon's internal affairs. 9:33:32 AM

Canadian Content First of Mountie funerals today Canoe.ca - Thousands are expected to attend today as the first of the funerals for the four slain Mounties is held. RCMP Const. Peter Schiemann will be remembered at a 2 pm service at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Stony Plain, Alta. The service is open to the public, and organizers hope to fit more than 1,000 people in the church. 9:32:20 AM

Frostbitten lover given suspended sentence CBC News -  A court in Manitoba has given a suspended sentence to an American who will lose all his fingers and half his toes after sneaking across the border in the dead of winter to visit an internet flame. 9:22:29 AM

Wife lived in fear of man who threw girl off bridge Globe and Mail - Nine months after Shamsha Amarsi concluded a sworn statement with those words of warning, her estranged husband dropped their daughter from an overpass onto Canada's busiest highway in a shocking murder-suicide attempt. 9:21:38 AM

Kuwaitis demonstrate for women's suffrage Reuters.uk, UK - Around 500 Kuwaiti activists, mostly women, have demonstrated outside parliament to demand female suffrage amidst tensions in the Gulf Arab state over a government drive to grant women political rights. "Women's rights now," chanted the crowd, which included women dressed in abayas, or traditional long black cloaks. Some of the demonstrators at Monday's protest wore veils over their faces. "Our democracy will only be complete with women," said a placard written in Arabic. "We are not less, you are not more. We need a balance, open the door," said one written in English. 9:19:00 AM