March 5, 2006

Manitoba government plans small tax cuts and new law on drug-addicted kids Manitoba's NDP government begins a new legislature sitting Monday with a stay-the-course budget that will include small tax cuts. The government is also planning to table a bill that would let parents of drug-addicted teens force their children into detox facilities. "We want to be able to provide a tool of last resort for parents who are finding themselves in the direst of circumstances," Healthy Living Minister Theresa Oswald said. "We would have a five-day detox and stabilization in place, allowing for a young person to be able to, at the end of those five days, make some good decisions about their participation in treatment." The proposed law will be similar to ones recently put forward in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and was prompted primarily by the growing use of crystal meth. "Crystal meth certainly has some unique qualities in terms of what it does to an addicted person . . . but our bill will be open to parents that are finding themselves at a last resort with other addictions as well," Oswald said. 12:21:00 PM

Iran's Nuclear Negotiator: How We Duped the West. The Islamic terror masters of Iran simply can't help revealing their intentions, especially when an opportunity to gloat presents itself: How we duped the West, by Iran's nuclear negotiator.  The man who for two years led Iran's nuclear negotiations has laid out in unprecedented detail how the regime took advantage of talks with Britain, France and Germany to forge ahead with its secret atomic programme. In a speech to a closed meeting of leading Islamic clerics and academics, Hassan Rowhani, who headed talks with the so-called EU3 until last year, revealed how Teheran played for time and tried to dupe the West after its secret nuclear programme was uncovered by the Iranian opposition in 2002. He boasted that while talks were taking place in Teheran, Iran was able to complete the installation of equipment for conversion of yellowcake - a key stage in the nuclear fuel process - at its Isfahan plant but at the same time convince European diplomats that nothing was afoot. "From the outset, the Americans kept telling the Europeans, 'The Iranians are lying and deceiving you and they have not told you everything.' The Europeans used to respond, 'We trust them'," he said. Revelation of Mr Rowhani's remarks comes at an awkward moment for the Iranian government, ahead of a meeting tomorrow of the United Nations atomic watchdog, which must make a fresh assessment of Iran's banned nuclear operations.  [Little Green Footballs] 12:15:22 PM