China - Beijing (AsiaNews) 6/7/06 - Up to 400 million people in the People's Republic of China are hard hit by natural disasters (earthquakes, drought, floods, and landslides) every year. As a result, at least 10 million farmers are reduced to living below the poverty threshold.

Japan - Tokyo (Reuters) 06/07/06 - A powerful typhoon was nearing Japan's southern island chain of Okinawa on Friday, likely bringing strong winds and torrential rain to the area later in the day.

Germany - Berlin (Reuters) 08/07/06 - A state of emergency was declared in Berlin for seven hours as a violent summer storm lashed the German capital, local authorities said. Police and firemen attended to more than 1,000 emergencies. Meteorologists said Berlin had more than half its average monthly rainfall for July in just a few minutes.

Africa (UNICEF) 04/07/06 - The UN Children's Fund warns the humanitarian situation in the drought-affected countries of the Horn of Africa remains serious despite seasonal rains that have brought relief. UNICEF says child malnutrition rates in some regions are soaring.

Australia (News.com.au) 06/07/06 FARMERS in drought-stricken areas of WA are plunging into depression and in some cases have taken their lives, says the Anglican Archbishop of Perth. Farmers and their families are fighting for their livelihoods in the face of Western Australia's record dry.

Poland (Radio Polonia) 07/07/06 - Entry into more Polish forests has been prohibited due to continuous drought. Complete ban holds in one third of the woods of the central Lodz region. Following long heat and absence of rain, the humidity of forest bed in most places in the area dropped to around 10 per cent. Similar situation can be encountered all over Poland.

U.S.A. (Amherst Times) 08/07/06 - According to the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor a map that indexes dryness nearly half of the country is experiencing conditions that range from abnormally dry to exceptional drought. This may seem hard to believe on the East Coast, where flooding has been the issue. But in much of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountain West, it's all too easy to believe. In many ranching counties where the irrigation ditches run all summer long, the water has already been turned off. Hayfields in some places are yielding less than half of last year's crop, and ranchers who normally sell part of their hay are wondering whether to sell any at all.

Leaders of the Unio Europaea, who have had a wretched year grappling with the Constitutio Europaea, will be reaching for their dictionaries at their next shindig in Bruxellae.

The EU's notorious jargon, which baffles all but the saddest Brussels anoraks, turns into poetry when translated into Latin. The miserable Common Agricultural Policy becomes the majestic ratio communis agros colendi, which literally means "common scheme for cultivating the fields".

Classicists can catch up with the news in Latin every Wednesday thanks to two energetic Finnish Latin scholars. Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta already have a cult following among Finnish classicists who tune in every Sunday night to Nuntii Latini, a five-minute Latin news bulletin broadcast on YLE, Finland's BBC equivalent.

Dr Pitkaranta said: "Latin is not dead - it is still very much in use in different forms across the world today. Italians, French and Spaniards all speak a new form of Latin. I hope that EU documents are soon translated into Latin which is such a clear language."

Mia Lahti, the editor of the Finnish presidency's website, said: "Using Latin is a way of paying tribute to European civilisation and it serves to remind people of European society's roots, stretching back to ancient times."

Classicists hailed the initiative by Finland which is the only country, along with the Vatican, to broadcast news in Latin even though the Roman empire never reached Scandinavia.

Dr Bruce Gibson, a classics scholar at Liverpool University, said: "Finland has a distinguished tradition of classical scholarship and respect for the classics. The Finns are experts in languages: many Finns are fluent in Swedish and English as a matter of routine.

"Though their own language is not a descendant of Latin, perhaps the Finns realise that Latin still provides a common linguistic and cultural heritage to Europe, and therefore are doing everything to promote it during their presidency. Other European nations closer to home might want to take note."

Boris Johnson, the Conservative MP who recently wrote a book comparing the EU unfavourably with the Roman Empire, was impressed. The author of The Dream of Rome said: "I think this is wonderful, I hope everybody reads it. The best and most significant step for European integration would be to oblige every child in Europe from the age of 14 to read Book Four of [Virgil's] The Aeneid.

"It is the best book of the best poem by the greatest poet. That would do far more than anything else to build up a common European culture. That is what is missing now: an awareness of our European civilisation and common roots."

Men in uniform
A Scotland Yard spokesman said about 40,000 people had turned out for the parade.

About 40 Royal Navy personnel paraded in their uniforms for the first time at the march.

Army and RAF personnel were not given permission to take part in their official uniforms, however.

The parade travelled along Oxford Street and Regent Street then on to Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square, then Whitehall and Victoria Embankment.

Mayor Ken Livingstone, who was at the front of the parade, said it was a chance to celebrate the lesbian and gay community's contribution to the city.

He said: "What this shows as we march through the city of London - one of the greatest cities on earth - is a city can be a wonderful place to live in with people of every race, religion and sexuality."

The United States would have no contact with him, but has made no decision about relations with the group as a whole, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

"Of course we are not going to work with somebody like that and of course we would be troubled if this is an indicator of the direction that this group would go in," McCormack said.

"But let's wait, let's see what the collective leadership of this group does."

The council is a parliament for the Islamists, whose well-trained militias seized Mogadishu from US-backed warlords on June 5 after months of fighting that killed at least 350.

The rapists were to be stoned to death in Jowhar, which the Islamists took in the last phase of a campaign that saw them seize a strategic swathe of Somalia from the coastal capital northwest nearly to the Ethiopian border.

"Five men who raped four women on June 22 will be stoned to death today (Monday) in accordance with the Islamic sharia. They have pleaded guilty to the crime and also have been identified by the victims," Siyad Mohamed, a militia leader linked to Islamic courts, said to Reuters by phone from Jowhar.

Mr Mohamed later said the execution had been delayed as the courts looked to arrest a sixth suspect. He said it was not clear when the sentences would be carried out.

The Islamist victory dealt an embarrassing public setback to Washington's counter-terrorism campaign, as its support for the much-despised warlords gave the Islamists popular backing.

The Islamists at first tried to present a moderate face to the world, saying they only wanted to end anarchy and restore peace lost since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991.

Asked about the appointment of Mr Aweys, Somalia's interim government was circumspect: "It is the internal business of the courts," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said.

The foundation also has given nearly $21 million to International Planned Parenthood over the last seven years, where funds have been used to promote abortions in third-world nations and to set up pro-abortion family planning centers in South America, Africa and Eastern Europe.

Buffet, whose wealth is second only to Gates', has announced he will leave about 80 percent of his estate to the Gates Foundation.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life women's network Susan B. Anthony List lamented Buffett's decision.

"It's tragic that much of Warren Buffett's billion-dollar attempt to improve the lives of people around the world is actually going to fund organizations that take the lives of unborn children and encourage others to do the same," said Dannenfelser.

Beginning next month, Buffett, 75, will make annual contributions to the foundation through stock options.

Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, will give the Gates Foundation more than 12 million shares of his company's stock, according to the Associated Press. At just over $3,000 per share, it would add $37 billion to the Gates Foundation's $29 billion, making it the world's largest charity.

Bill and Melinda Gates also have spent millions promoting abortion in their home state, having given nearly $2 million to Planned Parenthood of Central Washington and Planned Parenthood of Western Washington to fund abortion centers.

The Gates Foundation also gave the Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada more than $1.3 million.

"The tragedy of Bill Gates' support of abortion and population control is that technology leads to development," said Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, according to LifeNews.com

"Unfortunately, the developing world will grow old before it develops because of population control. Gates, in supporting population control, is out of step with other great minds who have viewed people as humanity's greatest resource," Mosher said.

At Microsoft's 2003 annual shareholders meeting, Mosher's group failed to win approval for a motion to stop Microsoft from directly contributing to charities, citing its support for Planned Parenthood.

Israeli army enters Gaza in ground offensive
[ Wednesday, June 28, 2006 10:45:59 amIANS ]


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GAZA: Israeli troops entered the southern Gaza Strip, starting a broad ground operation early Wednesday, following the abduction of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants.

The Israeli army has confirmed the start of the offensive, code-named "Summer Rain", adding that the military operation is aimed to secure the return of the kidnapped soldier.

It is the first major ground offensive by the Israeli army since Israel withdrew troops and soldiers from the entire Gaza Strip last summer after 38 years of occupation.

Witnesses said that Israeli tanks were moving into the Rafah town, adding that loud blasts were heard.

Earlier, Palestinian security forces said that the Israeli army demanded Palestinian security forces to withdraw from the key Rafah crossing on the southern Gaza border.

Around midnight on Tuesday, Israeli air strikes destroyed three bridges linking the north and the south of Gaza in a bid to prevent Palestinian militants from moving the abducted Israeli soldier.

Archbishop Williams' comments came in an address to all bishops, clergy and followers in the 77-million-strong Anglican Communion, where the debate continues to rage over the ordination of gay clergy and church blessings for same-sex couples.

Last week, the U.S. Episcopal Church, which is part of the Communion and noted for its liberal stance, failed to toe the line on ordaining gay clergy demanded by the majority of the Anglican Communion. The controversy was triggered after the consecration of a practising gay man, Gene Robinson, as Archbishop of New Hampshire, in 2003.

This prompted outrage within the Church, particularly among the more conservative elements in Africa, where homosexuality is often illegal.

Last week, African bishops applauded the decision by the U.S. Episcopal Church to avoid consecrating more openly gay bishops, but said liberals must show true repentance if a rift in the Anglican community is to heal.

The African churches now make up a majority of Anglicans. Nigeria, for example, has almost 20 million Anglicans, compared with only about 2.2 million in the United States and about 700,000 in Canada.

Daniel Yinkah Sarfo, the Anglican Bishop of Kumasi in Ghana, said the acceptance of gay bishops was chasing young people away and eroding the moral teaching at the heart of the Church's message.

"Homosexuality is against our biblical teachings. We are not going to succumb to any compromise," he said.

"The Anglican Church is suffering because of it. We love the Episcopal Church in America, there is no doubt about that, but this is a matter of faith."

In his address, Archbishop Williams said he favoured exploring a system whereby member churches made a formal commitment to each other in the form of a "covenant" to resolve the impasse and stave off a potential split.

Those unwilling to join could instead opt to become "churches in association," still bound by historic links but without the same constitutional structure, he said.

Such an arrangement exists between the Church of England and the Methodist Church.

In 2003, the Methodist Church signed a covenant with the Church of England at a service in London witnessed by the Queen as Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

"Constituent" churches would have no direct part in the decision-making of "associated" churches, although "significant areas of co-operation might be possible" as well as the sharing of expertise, Archbishop Williams suggested.

He argued that a covenant system could be a "positive challenge" for churches and stressed he did not have the power to resolve the current difficulties by his decree alone.

It is highly unlikely that churches such as the U.S. Episcopal Church, the Anglican churches in Canada and New Zealand and even the Scottish Episcopal Church would be able to commit themselves fully to such a document, a report in The Times of London suggested yesterday.

Archbishop Williams' proposals come ahead of a meeting of senior Anglican clergy early next year to discuss the way forward.

DIPLOMATIC SETTLEMENT

The Lebanese government and Hezbollah would agree to implement Security Council resolution 1559.

This resolution, passed in September 2004, called for the disbanding of all militias in Lebanon and the extension of Lebanese government authority to all parts of the country. Hezbollah would move out of south Lebanon and the Lebanese army would move down to the border with Israel. The idea is that this would remove the source of conflict.

Both Israel and Hezbollah would accept a ceasefire and the agreement formalised in a new Security Council resolution.

An international force would be deployed in the border area at least until the Lebanese army arrived.

Getting agreement on the mandate, size and deployment of such a force is not going to be easy. It would replace an existing UN force, Unifil, which has been monitoring events but not influencing them since 1978.

The Israelis might maintain a self-declared "buffer zone" for a time, but any settlement would have to see an Israeli withdrawal.

Some kind of deal would be done to resolve the original trigger for this war, the capture of two Israeli solders by Hezbollah. Israel wants their unconditional release. Hezbollah says they were taken to be exchanged.

Lebanon also wants Israel to leave a strip of land known as the Shebaa Farms at the foot of Mount Hermon, but the UN has ruled that this land belongs to Syria and that its future should be decided by Israeli-Syrian negotiations.

STALEMATE
Under this scenario, the Israeli military effort to remove Hezbollah fighters from south Lebanon gets bogged down and Hezbollah refuses to pull back or reach any agreement with the Lebanese government. Fighting continues.

This would leave Israel far short of its aims. There would be domestic political fall-out in that great ambitions were laid out for this conflict.

A stalemate in which Israel was making little headway might also be interpreted as "Israel loses", in that it did not achieve its goals.

Already the Israelis have found the going tougher than they might have expected. The terrain - mountainous, rocky, and full of caves, gullies and ravines - is ideal guerrilla country and the Israelis cannot use their armoured forces there easily.

It is therefore conceivable that the Israelis will not achieve the decisive victory they seek. If that happened, the fighting could go on indefinitely to a greater or lesser degree. Israeli bombing could continue in an attempt to cut off Hezbollah reinforcements moving south.

Hezbollah could continue firing rockets from north of any Israeli-controlled zone.

The civilian suffering would go on and people might not be able to return to normal lives on both sides of the border.

Israel could establish control over a self-declared "buffer zone" along the border and just stay there. There would be stalemate, with continuing confrontations and fire fights with the potential of the conflict erupting again at any time.

ISRAEL DECLARES SUCCESS
Israel would go on more or less as now until it reckoned it had achieved success. It might or might not announce a ceasefire but it would in practice hand over southern Lebanon to an international force and withdraw. In due course, the Lebanese army would deploy to the border. Israel would declare victory against Hezbollah, though it would probably not get its two captured soldiers back.

THE WAR WINDS DOWN
It is possible that at some stage the Israelis will announce they have achieved their main aims through bombing and the removal of Hezbollah from the border. There might be no ceasefire but the bombing would stop or be reduced. Hezbollah might respond by stopping its rocket attacks. There might be occasional incidents.

This would leave issues unresolved however, including that of the missing Israeli soldiers. Israel will not exchange them for the prisoner Hezbollah wants most, Samir Qantar, who attacked a block of flats in Nahariha in 1979, killing a father and his daughter (the latter by smashing her head in). The only prisoner release Israel says it will engage in is one through the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

WIDER ISRAELI INVASION
Israel might decide to step up its ground attacks, for example, after a Hezbollah attack on cities further south.

In 1978, the Israelis invaded up to the Litani River some 20km (12 miles) north of the border and in 1982 they went all the way to Beirut. They did not leave south Lebanon until 2000.

Their aim in those operations was to remove Palestinian fighters, from whom Hezbollah has taken over.

It is possible that the Israelis will decide to expand their currently quite limited ground attacks into the kind of big operation carried out in 1978. An attack on Tyre on the coast would be considered as Hezbollah has been firing rockets from around Tyre.

However, all this would leave Israel in occupation and under constant harassment and attack. It would not be the long-term solution they seek. If they simply left again, Hezbollah would move back in.

THE CONFLICT ESCALATES OR SPREADS

The intensity of the fighting might increase. Hezbollah might extend its attacks to other cities. Israel might step up its bombing and ground operations. If this happened, tensions would rise all round.

The Lebanese government, product of an uneasy alliance between Lebanon's various populations, and in which Hezbollah sits with reforming elements from the Cedar Revolution, has held together.

But it could fall apart if the pressure is not eased and some solution does not become apparent, especially to the suffering of civilians. Hezbollah could emerge the stronger.

The fighting could develop into a new Jihadist front, drawing in fighters from elsewhere.

Hezbollah's supporters, Syria and Iran, could get drawn in.

Syria which has lost power in Lebanon over the last couple of years could be tempted to regain influence there.

The sidelined issue of Iran's nuclear programme could come to the fore again and become a diplomatic and economic confrontation with the West if tensions increased. The solution to the issue depends on understanding and confidence and this has been badly damaged by this crisis.

The morning after his fever spiked, she took him to a clinic, but it did not have the medicines that might have saved him. He died four days later, crying, "Mommy, Mommy," before losing consciousness.

It is no secret that mosquitoes carry the parasite that causes malaria. More mystifying is why 800,000 young African children a year still die of malaria - more than from any other disease - when there are medicines that cure for 55 cents a dose, mosquito nets that shield a child for $1 a year, and indoor insecticide spraying that costs about $10 annually for a household.

An emerging consensus on solutions, combined with fresh scrutiny and a windfall of new financing, are prompting major donors to revamp years of failed efforts to stem malaria's mortal toll. The growing support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, enriched this week by a $31 billion gift from Warren E. Buffett, will provide still more impetus for change.

Paltry budgets, faulty strategies and government mismanagement have hamstrung past efforts. In Uganda, population 28 million, not one of the 1.8 million nets approved more than two years ago by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has yet arrived.

The World Bank, after pledging to halve malaria deaths in Africa six years ago, had let its staff working on the disease dwindle to zero.

And the main United States aid agency admitted to outraged senators last year that it spent more on high-priced consultants than life-saving commodities, like mosquito nets that cost $5.75 a piece.

Social conservatives and liberals have been building alliances across ideological lines on malaria, a killer of little children. Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, said he had found common ground with the economist Jeffrey Sachs, who has long maintained that practical solutions carried out by Africans can prevent millions of deaths from malaria. "You have the left and right coming together," the senator said.

At Congressional hearings last year, Senator Tom Coburn, a Republican and a doctor from Oklahoma, argued that Washington-based consultants and contractors have consumed too much of the malaria budget.

He called on Amir Attaran, a law professor at the University of Ottawa and fiery advocate on malaria, who testified that the American agency, the United States Agency for International Development, was too cozy with "the foreign aid industrial complex."

Only 1 percent of the agency's 2004 malaria budget went for medicines, 1 percent for insecticides and 6 percent for mosquito nets. The rest was spent on research, education, evaluation, administration and other costs.

The Bush administration is changing that approach.

First, the United States aid agency is shifting its focus from mainly backing the sale of subsidized mosquito nets in Africa to giving more of them away to poor people.

It is also committed to buying combination drugs like Coartem because the disease is proving increasingly resistant to older, cheaper medicines. A dose of Coartem, produced by the Swiss company Novartis, now costs 55 cents for a child up to age 3.

Finally, the United States is also getting behind the use of DDT and other insecticides and will pay for large-scale programs to spray small amounts of them inside homes.

"We pretty well do know what the silver set of bullets are," Senator Brownback said at his 2004 hearing.

The decisive push for change in malaria programs has come from the White House. Michael Gerson, one of the president's closest advisers, described malaria in an interview as "maybe the main source of unnecessary suffering in the world."

Under the Bush administration's new policy, this year more than 40 percent of America's growing aid for malaria control is to be spent on nets, insecticides, medicines and other commodities.

The Bush administration hopes to convince Congress to at least triple spending on malaria control to $300 million by 2008.

Global aid for malaria control has been rising, though the resources do not match the scale of the dying, critics say. Contributions from rich nations and international organizations have more than doubled since 2003 to $841 million last year, according to the World Health Organization.

With its new gift, the Gates Foundation says its malaria financing will rise, though it is too soon to say by how much. It has already given $177 million for malaria controls.

As the United States moves forward, other crucial donors are also taking steps to fix flawed programs.

The World Bank has approved $130 million for projects in Africa in the past year and says that by 2010 new lending will grow to up to $1 billion.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a widely praised organization set up in 2002 to pool the resources of donors, generally relies on African governments to do their own procurement.

Still, the government has not yet bought the nets the fund approved more than two years ago. "Oh, my dear, there are a lot of complications in procurement here," said John Rwakimari, who runs the country's malaria program.

The fund is now considering a change that would enable it to provide countries like Uganda with the nets and other commodities directly, rather than the money to buy them after Uganda's management of past grants was marred by incompetence and corruption.

Millions of doses of Global Fund-financed Coartem, the antimalaria drug, arrived this year in Uganda - but that was because the country agreed, at the Global Fund's urging, to buy them through the World Health Organization.

The scope of malaria's toll was evident on a recent visit to the pediatric ward of the regional public hospital in Gulu, Uganda. Babies and toddlers burning with malarial fevers arrived regularly. Mothers lay next to them, their soothing maternal voices a low murmuring in the cavernous room.

As many as 100,000 people, mostly children, die of malaria each year in Uganda alone. "It's like a jumbo jet crashing every day," said Dr. Andrew Collins, deputy director of the Malaria Consortium, an international nonprofit group.

The United States is testing indoor insecticide spraying there. It is also treating more than 700,000 nets that Ugandans already own with insecticides and buying another 400,000 nets laced with insecticides that last up to five years.

Volunteers handed out the nets to families with children under age 5 in over 100 camps like the one where Phillip Odong lived his short life for people who have fled the Lord's Resistance Army, a ruthless rebel group that has terrorized the countryside. The volunteers, many of them peasants, were trained by United States-financed groups led by the JSI Research and Training Institute.

The nets were so sought after in some camps that families whose children were too old to qualify for them besieged health officials. "They packed the health center like firewood," said Suzanne Nyedo, a nurse at the Bobi camp.

Even as policies begin to change, many uncertainties remain.

For example, the United States aid agency has asked for bids on a five-year $150 million contract for indoor spraying of insecticides.

Michael Miller, a senior official at the agency, said contractors would hire Africans to do the spraying. He said the goal was to ensure that Africans also gained the know-how to run insecticide spraying programs.

Mr. Attaran, a harsh critic of the agency, has his doubts.

"Will there be a Halliburton of mosquito control?" he asked. "If there is, the effort will fail. To be cost-effective, it will need to use local labor and managers."

Others warn that the changes are not a panacea.

Andrew Natsios, who helped devise the new policy before resigning as administrator of the United States aid agency earlier this year, cautioned that malaria projects will need to provide much more than just nets and sprays.

"It's not only simplistic, it won't work over the longer term because the countries can't sustain it on their own" for lack of expertise and resources, he said. The aid agency has a crucial role, he argued, in providing technical advice and training.

And there are other questions. Will donors follow through on financing? Will families use the mosquito nets? Will there be enough health workers to deliver medicines?

"There's potential for incredible impact," said Dr. Regina Rabinovich of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, "or incredible failure."

For the first time since its publication began in 2001, the annual report tried to suggest that China is a growing nuclear threat to the US. In the context of the Bush administration's doctrine of "pre-emptive war", the shift indicates that the Bush administration and Pentagon are themselves preparing for nuclear war.

According to the Pentagon, the "threat" is an alleged discussion underway in Chinese military circles over an abandonment of China's longstanding policy of "no-first strike"?that is, no use of nuclear weapons except in response to nuclear attack.

Peter Rodman, US assistant secretary of defence for international security affairs, told the American Forces Press Service on May 23: "One thing we point to [in the report] this year is their strategic forces. We sense that they are at the beginning of some serious modernization of their overall strategic forces... We take them at their word that they adhere to the no first use doctrine, but we see these occasional comments as an indication of a possible debate going on among Chinese strategists."

The Pentagon report highlighted a statement by Chinese general Zhu Chenghu in July 2005 as one of the "key developments" in China's strategic policy. Zhu declared that if the US threatened to attack China in a conflict over Taiwan, China would have to "respond with nuclear weapons".

The Pentagon conceded that Beijing has dismissed Zhu's comments as his "personal opinion" and reaffirmed its "no first use" policy during US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's visit to China last October. It nevertheless concluded: "Zhu's remark, however, show that the circle of military and civilian national security professionals discussing the value of China's current 'no first use' nuclear policy is broader than previously assessed."
The report cited several Chinese academics. Chu Shulong, a scholar from Qinghua University, reportedly told the state media in July 2005 that "if foreign countries launch a full-scale war against China and deploy all types of advanced weapons except nuclear weapons, China may renounce this commitment [of no first use] at a time when the country's fate hangs in the balance".

Another academic, Shen Dingli, wrote in a publication China Security last year: "If China's conventional forces are devastated, and if Taiwan takes the opportunity to declare de jure independence, it is inconceivable that China would allow its nuclear weapons to be destroyed by a precision attack with conventional munitions, rather than use them as a true means of deterrence."

None of these comments constitutes evidence that Beijing is about to abandon the "no first use" policy announced when China first constructed nuclear weapons in the 1960s. Moreover, far from being an indication of military strength, the remarks about the possible use of nuclear weapons to counter a US conventional attack underscore China's weakness in comparison with the US.

Despite efforts to modernize weaponry and strategic doctrine, much of its hardware is old. Most of China's sophisticated military technology is still heavily reliant on foreign sources, especially Russian. The Chinese army is numerically large but only semi-mechanized; its commanders are inexperienced and the largely peasant Chinese soldiers are poorly trained.

The fact that the Pentagon report has chosen to highlight a few isolated comments reveals a great deal more about the Bush administration's own nuclear policy, than that of China. It should be noted that even in the midst of the Cold War, the US never renounced the first use of nuclear weapons. In fact, it stationed tactical nuclear weapons in Europe and South Korea, alleging precisely what is contained in the Chinese comments: the inability of US and allied forces to withstand a concerted conventional offensive by the Soviet or Chinese military.

Pointing to a possible Chinese threat is a convenient pretext for justifying the Pentagon's extensive efforts to upgrade and modernize its own arsenal to establish an unchallenged nuclear hegemony. An essay in the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs entitled "The Rise of US Nuclear Primacy" provided a sobering assessment of the direction of US nuclear policy.

During the Cold War, the prevailing nuclear doctrine was characterized as MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction). With thousands of nuclear weapons based on a variety of platforms, including submarines, warplanes and long-range missiles, neither side was in a position to annihilate the weaponry of the other in a first strike. The survival of even a portion of a nuclear arsenal following an attack meant a devastating retaliation on the aggressor.

The authors of the Foreign Affairs article pointed out that sections of the US establishment had never accepted the MAD doctrine and that the Pentagon now appeared to be striving for "nuclear primacy"?that is, the ability to obliterate the capacity of any nuclear-armed enemy to respond to a US first strike. The bulk of the article is devoted to a careful analysis, using publicly available sources, of Russia's ability to withstand and retaliate against a US nuclear first strike. It concluded that, with the decay of the Russia defences, its nuclear-armed submarine fleet and long-range missiles following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the US had probably achieved "nuclear primacy".

The Foreign Affairs article also makes clear that China's nuclear weapons are even more vulnerable to a US attack. "A US first strike could succeed whether it was launched as a surprise or in the midst of a crisis during a Chinese alert. China has a limited strategic nuclear arsenal. The People's Liberation Army currently possesses no modern SSBNs [ballistic-missile-launching submarines] or long-range bombers. Its naval arm used to have two ballistic missile submarines, but one sank, and the other, which had such poor capabilities that it never left Chinese waters, is no longer operational.

"China's medium-range bomber force is similarly unimpressive: the bombers are obsolete and vulnerable to attack. According to unclassified US government assessments, China's entire intercontinental nuclear arsenal consists of 18 stationary single-warhead ICBMs. These are not ready launch on warning: their warheads are kept in storage and the missiles themselves are unfueled. (China's ICBMs use liquid fuel, which corrodes the missiles after 24 hours. Fueling them is estimated to take two hours.) The lack of an advanced early warning system adds to the vulnerability of the ICBMs. It appears that China would have no warning at all of a US submarine-launched missile attack or a strike using hundreds of stealthy nuclear-armed cruise missiles."
Foreign Affairs has close links to the US political establishment. The article indicates that there is widespread discussion and planning in the top echelons of the Bush administration and Pentagon about a possible first strike on US enemies?whether Russia, China or other nuclear armed countries.

Exaggerated accounts of the Chinese "threat" are useful to justify the further development of the US nuclear arsenal.

The greatest danger of nuclear war does not come from China, but from the US. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Washington has been seeking to use its military superiority increasingly aggressively to offset its long-term economic decline, in particular to establish its dominance over the resource-rich regions of the Middle East and Central Asia. The Bush administration's invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and threats against Iran have antagonized US rivals in Europe and Asia.

The US preoccupation with China reflects deep concerns about Beijing's economic expansion and growing political influence in Asia and globally. The Pentagon's focus on China says more about US preparations for eventual war, including a possible nuclear attack, against the Beijing regime, than it does about China's relatively limited military capacity.

The radical Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, loosely affiliated to president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party and the armed wing of the governing Hamas were among those groups that delivered the announcement at the West Bank press conference.

"We have decided to tell the occupier 'no more truce from today' in response to the bloodletting of our women, our children and our elderly," said Ramzi Obeid of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

"We will not suffer your repeated crimes in silence. We are going to destroy you and no one can stop us, if you do not stop these massacres against our people," he added.

Meanwhile in Brussels, the European Commission announced yesterday plans to release 105 million euros in aid to the Palestinians, bypassing their Hamas-led government, and the first funds will be paid out by early July.

"The temporary international mechanism will bring relief," said External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

"The EU is making good on its promises to continue as a reliable partner for the Palestinian people."

But she added: "We would be able to do more for the Palestinians if their government committed itself to seeking peace by peaceful means."

Also on Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was due in Gaza for talks with the Hamas-led government in a bid to galvanise talks on how to end an acute domestic crisis and crippling foreign isolation.

Abbas, who was to arrive in Gaza City by evening, was expected to head into talks with Prime Minister Esmail Haniya and representatives from the various factions.

Crisis talks between Fatah party and Hamas had been expected to end on Wednesday but officials pushed the contacts into overtime with a view to averting a referendum.

Meetings have focused on a proposed policy programme that implicitly recognises Israel's right to exist.

Under a 2002 presidential order, the National Security Agency has been monitoring international communications of hundreds in the US, the paper says.

Before, the NSA had typically limited US surveillance to foreign embassies.

Questioned about the report, Condoleezza Rice said Mr Bush had never ordered anyone to do anything illegal.

But some NSA officials familiar with the operation have questioned whether the surveillance of calls and e-mails has crossed constitutional limits on legal searches, according to the Times.

American law usually requires a secret court, known as a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, to give permission before intelligence officers can conduct surveillance on US soil.

When asked about the programme on US TV, the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said: "The president acted lawfully in every step that he has taken".

"He takes absolutely seriously his constitutional responsibility both to defend Americans and to do it within the law," she said.

She declined to discuss details of the New York Times report.

'Sea change'

The newspaper said nearly a dozen current and former administration officials discussed the programme with reporters.

They were granted anonymity because of the classified nature of the scheme.

Under the programme, the NSA has eavesdropped on as many as 500 people inside the US at any given time in its search for evidence of terrorist activity, the paper said.

Overseas, 5,000 to 7,000 people suspected of terrorist ties are monitored at one time.

"This is really a sea change," a former senior official who specialises in national security law told the paper.

"It's almost a mainstay of this country that the NSA only does foreign searches."

The New York Times said it delayed publishing the information on the move for a year, in response to White House concerns it could jeopardise investigations.

Some officials said the programme had helped to uncover several terror plots, including one by an Ohio lorry driver who was jailed in 2003 for supporting al-Qaeda and targeting a New York bridge for sabotage.

'Above the law'

Officials cited by the paper said the Bush administration saw the scheme as necessary to disclose terror threats.

However, the paper reported that questions about the legality of the scheme led the Bush administration to suspend it temporarily last year and impose new restrictions.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said eavesdropping in the US without a court order and without complying with the procedures of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was "both illegal and unconstitutional".

"The administration is claiming extraordinary presidential powers at the expense of civil liberties and is putting the president above the law," director Caroline Fredrickson said.

The group called on Congress to investigate the report.

The Bush administration has faced opposition over some anti-terrorism initiatives in the past, such as the Patriot Act, which is up for renewal by Congress.

The law grants government agencies extraordinary powers to spy on and prosecute those suspected of terrorism.

Opponents say many of its provisions infringe civil liberties.

Scores of mosques and private addresses have been checked for radiation, the US News and World Report says.

A Justice Department spokesman said the programme was necessary in the fight against al-Qaeda.

Last week, President George W Bush admitted allowing the wiretapping of Americans with suspected terror links.

Mr Bush has defended the covert programme and vowed to continue the practice, saying it was vital to protect the country.

No warrants

According to US News and World Report, the nuclear surveillance programme was set up after the attacks of 11 September 2001.

It began in early 2002 and has been run by the FBI and the Department of Energy's Nuclear Emergency Support Team.

The Associated Press news agency said federal law enforcement officials have confirmed the programme's existence.

The air monitoring targeted private US property in the Washington DC area, including Maryland and Virginia suburbs, and the cities of Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York and Seattle, the magazine said.

At its peak, three vehicles in Washington monitored 120 sites a day.

Nearly all of the targets were key Muslim sites.

"In numerous cases, the monitoring required investigators to go on to the property under surveillance, although no search warrants or court orders were ever obtained, according to those with knowledge of the programme," the publication said.

"The targets were almost all US citizens," an unnamed source involved in the programme told the magazine.

"A lot of us thought it was questionable, but people who complained nearly lost their jobs," the source said.

Muslim anger

Federal officials cited by US News and World Report said that monitoring on public property, such as driveways and parking lots, was legal and that warrants were not needed for the kind of radiation sampling it conducted.

They also rejected the claim that the programme specifically targeted Muslims.

A spokesman for the Department of Justice said the programme was necessary as al-Qaeda remained committed to obtaining nuclear weapons.

An FBI spokesman declined to confirm or deny the report.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the news "comes as a complete shock to us and everyone in the Muslim community".

He added: "This creates the appearance that Muslims are targeted simply for being Muslims. I don't think this is the message the government wants to send at this time."

Seven men have been charged with plotting to blow up the Sears Towers in Chicago, and attack FBI offices.

The men, five from the US and two from Haiti, hoped to wage a "full ground war" against the US, according to the charges brought against them.

Officials said the men were foiled at an early stage and posed no danger.

Mr Gonzales said the group of "home-grown terrorists" were inspired by "a violent jihadist message".

"They were persons who for whatever reason came to view their home country as the enemy," he told reporters.

'Dangerous'

According to charges brought against the men, the group of men aged 22 to 32 had sworn allegiance to al-Qaeda, but had no contacts with it.

They have been charged with conspiring to blow up both the Sears Tower and the FBI building in North Miami Beach. A federal indictment says they were conspiring to "levy war against the United States". They were arrested at a warehouse in Miami, during an undercover operation after their group was infiltrated by an agent posing as an al-Qaeda member

Mr Gonzales said the lack of direct link to al-Qaeda did not make the group any less dangerous.

"Today terrorist threats come from a smaller, more loosely defined cells not affiliated to al-Qaeda," he said.

"Left unchecked these home-grown terrorists may prove as dangerous as groups like al-Qaeda."

'Wannabes'

Five of those charged appeared at a Miami federal court on Friday.

They wore ankle chains and were chained together at the wrists, the Associated Press reported.

Alleged ringleader Narseal Batiste apparently asked an undercover agent he thought was from al-Qaeda for help to build an "army to wage jihad", the indictment said.

He is said to have told the agent he and his "soldiers" wanted al-Qaeda training and planning for a "full ground war" against the US in order to "kill all the devils we can". His mission would "be just as good or greater than 9/11", Mr Batiste said, according to the indictment.

No weapons were found in the Miami warehouse, and the seven had not posed any immediate danger, the FBI said.

Deputy FBI leader John Pistole said the plot had been "aspirational" rather than "operational".

Neighbours in Miami's poor Liberty City area said the men apparently slept in the warehouse where they were arrested.

"They would come out late at night and exercise. It seemed like a military boot camp they were working on there. They would come out and stand guard," said Tashawn Rose.

However a man claiming links to the arrested men told the news channel CNN that they were a peaceful religious group, who studied Allah.

The cautionary document was a product of the Business Roundtable, whose 160 corporate members include companies ranging from Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sun Microsystems to General Motors, Home Depot and Coca-Cola. All told, the group's high-rolling membership counts $4.5 trillion in annual revenues, more than 10 million employees and nearly a third the total value of the U.S. stock market.

Experts remain divided on the likelihood that a "cyber Katrina" will occur, as the round table itself acknowledges. But many sectors of the economy continue to urge the government to be better prepared should such an event occur

transportation to financial services--could face devastation if a natural disaster, terrorist or hacker succeeded in disrupting Net access, they said.

"There is no national policy on why, when and how the government would intervene to reconstitute portions of the Internet or to respond to a threat or attack," the report said. Private-sector companies may have individual readiness plans, but they aren't prepared to work together on a wide scale to restore normal activity, the businesses said.

The report called for the government to take a number of actions:

? Set up a global advance-warning mechanism, akin to those broadcasted for natural disasters, for Internet disruptions

? Issue a policy that clearly defines the roles of business and government representatives in the event of disruptions

? Establish formal training programs for response to cyberdisasters

? Allot more federal funding for cybersecurity protection

The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, or US-CERT, which bears primary responsibility for coordinating responses to cyberattacks, receives on average $70 million per year, or about 0.2 percent of the entire U.S. Department of Homeland Security budget, the report noted.

The suggestions drew praise from the Cyber Security Industry Alliance. That organization, composed of computer security companies, has long been lobbying for additional actions by Congress and the Bush administration in the cybersecurity realm.

"A massive cyberdisruption could have a cascading, long-term impact, without adequate coordination between government and the private sector," said Paul Kurtz, the alliance's executive director. "The stakes are too high for continued government inaction."

Homeland Security has borne the brunt of the criticism for alleged inaction, though the agency did lead a mock cyberattack and response earlier this year. An analysis of that exercise is expected this summer.