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Posted 01/10/06 10:05 China Says it Wants to Expand Sino-U.S. Military Relations By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BEIJING China is ready to expand its military relations with the United States, Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan said Jan. 10. Cao, who is also vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission and a state councillor, made the remarks during a meeting with a delegation from the U.S. House of Representatives, the Xinhua news agency reported. Cao said both sides should make efforts to upgrade military ties to bring them on a par with the overall bilateral relationship, which he described as being on a...

WASHINGTON - To justify creating a domestic spying program, the Bush administration is relying on a law Congress passed in the chaotic days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that authorizes the president to wage war against al-Qaida and its supporters. In doing so, the administration bypassed a secret court system that for nearly 30 years has monitored the government's use of electronic surveillance to gather foreign intelligence on U.S. soil. But is the administration on solid legal ground in using warrantless electronic surveillance for more than four years? Legal experts aren't so sure and are questioning the legal...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16, 2005 — On Dec. 22, 1941, 4,600 American soldiers marched off transport ships docked in Brisbane, their deployment to The Philippines having been diverted days earlier by rapid Japanese advances in the Pacific. Pearl Harbor had just been attacked. Darwin would be bombed three months later. Those servicemen disembarking in Brisbane were the first of some one million US troops who would pass through Australia over the next four years during World War II. As one woman wrote: "Suddenly the Yanks were here ... They all seemed to have big mouths and square teeth, and came from...

Archipelago-subcontinent ties ancient Rita A. Widiadana, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar A global trade system involving Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Mediterranean basin might have existed since pre-historic times based on various archaeological findings on the island of Bali and several archaeological sites across Indonesia, a noted archaeologist says. I Wayan Ardhika, professor of archaeology at the University of Udayana in Denpasar, theorized that the findings in northeastern coast of Bali, especially at the pre-historic sites of Sembiran and Pacung revealed innumerable Indian ceramics, believed to be the largest collection of ancient Indian-made roulette ware (between 150 BC and...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - A fired university professor accused of supporting terrorists denied ties to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in a filmed 1994 interview, which was played at his trial Wednesday. During the interview for a PBS documentary on Middle East terror groups operating in the United States, Sami Al-Arian was asked if he had ties to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. "There was never an affiliation," he replied. Prosecutors have presented intercepted phone calls and letters and played videotaped speeches that they say show Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor, was the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's top official in...

TEHRAN (IRNA) -- Outgoing Cuban Ambassador to Tehran Jose Ramon Rodriguez met here on Saturday with President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Presidential Office Media Department said that Ahmadinejad called the Tehran- Havana ties excellent, brotherly and growing. Although the geographical distance between the two states is long but, their common and shared views and cooperation pertaining to international issues have been impetus for forging closer ties, he underlined. "Our relations with Cuba are strategic and deep-seated and our people follow the news on Cuba with great interest and are sensitive in developments in the region," Ahmadinejad said in the meeting. Rodriguez also...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will end his relationship with two fitness magazines that rely heavily on advertising from nutritional supplement companies, he said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. He said he will relinquish his title as executive editor of Muscle & Fitness and Flex magazines and will forego any compensation. "I don't want to be paid," Schwarzenegger said in a telephone interview with the AP. "The decision is to discontinue the relationship we have now," he said. "I will continue promoting body building and fighting obesity..." The governor was forced to defend his contract with the...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations, acting after deadly suicide bombings apparently driven by Muslim extremism hit London, launched an initiative on Thursday to build new bridges between the West and Islam. The campaign's aim was to "bridge divides and overcome prejudice, misconceptions, misperceptions, and polarization which potentially threaten world peace," U.N. chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Recent events had "heightened the sense of a widening gap and lack of mutual understanding between Islamic and Western societies -- an environment that has been exploited and exacerbated by extremists in all societies," he said. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was pursuing the...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that his government maintained good relations with former President Clinton and told U.S. business leaders that he would do his best to improve ties with the Bush administration. Speaking to business representatives from the United States at a trade meeting in Caracas, Chavez said relations with Washington have been tense since Clinton left office more than four years ago. With the current administration, there hasn't "been the smallest possibility of dialogue," said Chavez, one of Latin America's most outspoken critics of U.S. foreign policy in the region. Chavez said he nonetheless...

PUERTO LA CRUZ, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday accused the United States of meddling in his efforts to create an energy alliance with Caribbean neighbors and said he may one day have to cut ties with Washington. The left-wing leader made the warning after reading a letter critical of his rule which he said was sent by the State Department to some of the 15 Caribbean nations attending an energy summit that he hosted in eastern Venezuela. "We would have reasons to break relations with this (U.S.) government, out of dignity ... Maybe we will one...

WASHINGTON - A government agency that helps U.S. businesses investing in developing countries has approved millions of dollars of loans to companies whose owners did business with Mafia figures and rebels in a bloody African conflict, records show. The agency also awarded insurance to assist a company that is part of a Mexican energy conglomerate ordered by the Internal Revenue Service to pay more than $70 million in back taxes. The Overseas Private Investment Corp., which operates with about $5 billion in reserves, says it conducts background checks before awarding loans or insurance. But the agency acknowledged it missed some...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A Pakistani cleric facing deportation was accused Friday during an immigration hearing of trying to incite followers to defend Osama bin Laden and kill Americans. Shabbir Ahmed, 39, seeking bail on a charge of overstaying his visa to head a Lodi mosque in the Central Valley, denied that he had made any speech against the United States. During the same hearing, a government attorney said another Lodi imam being held on immigration charges once had close ties to the Taliban. Justice Department attorney Paul Nishiie argued against releasing Ahmed on bail, saying he was linked to...

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico plans to deport a Pakistani to the United States to face questions regarding arms trafficking, Mexican authorities said Wednesday. The Pakistani, who has not been identified by name, was detained Sunday along with three Afghans and a Syrian in the Tijuana area, across the border from San Diego, two Mexican government officials said on customary condition of anonymity. All five were in the process of being deported to the United States on Wednesday for being in Mexico illegally, the officials said. It appeared the detainees arrived from the United States. The Pakistani was being deported...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Google Inc.'s 19 million daily users look up a long-lost classmate, send e-mail or bounce around the Web more quickly with its new Web Accelerator, records of that activity don't go away. In an era of increased government surveillance, privacy watchdogs worry that Google's vast archive of Internet activity could prove a tempting target for abuse. Like many other online businesses, Google (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) tracks how its search engine and other services are used, and who uses them. Unlike many other businesses, Google holds onto that information for years. Some privacy experts who otherwise...

The following stems from my book, Saddam's Ties to Al Queda. The book is a monster-sized info source for Al Queda, and the ties to Saddam's Iraq, but it also has a massive section based on the oil-for-food scandal on which Saddam's ties seem to have revolved. This is not a Bush Admin theory, but my theory, and it's proven in the book. This post lists a summary of the various oil-for-food confrontations, but the book details each one even further. Each confrontation summarized in this post, can be viewed in detail in the book, or in the hyperlink used...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he will consider breaking diplomatic ties with the US if it fails to hand over a Cuban-born terror suspect. Venezuela says Luis Posada Carriles must stand trial over the 1976 bombing of Cuba's plane that killed 73 people. Mr Chavez says Washington would be guilty of protecting international terrorism if it refused extradition. Mr Posada Carriles - the 77-year-old former CIA employee - was charged last week with illegal entry into the US. US immigration officials said that he would be held in custody until an immigration court hearing on 13 June. Washington has up...

LOS ANGELES - Days after prosecutors began a preliminary inquiry into his fund-raising, mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa began airing a TV ad Monday that seeks to put Mayor James Hahn on the defensive over an ongoing corruption probe at City Hall. The 30-second spot covers familiar ground: Villaraigosa has been attacking Hahn for months over the ongoing investigation, in which prosecutors are looking into allegations that City Hall officials traded contracts for campaign donations. No administration officials have been charged. "Where will the investigation end?" a narrator in the ad asks. "Isn't it time for a change?" The ad appeared...

REMOVE YOUR TIE -- SAVE THE PLANET Just as a 1,000-km journey begins with a single step, it seems that the arduous process of reducing Japan's greenhouse gas emissions starts with the simple removal of a few neckties. A sales clerk explains how to wear a jacket and shirt without the hassle of a necktie at Aoki International Co.'s shop in Yokohama's Tsuzuki Ward. Environment Minister Yuriko Koike holds up a panel showing how to wear a suit fashionably without a necktie at the Environment Ministry on Wednesday. This, at least, appears to be the thinking behind the government's latest...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United Nations is studying whether it was appropriate for the top U.N. envoy for North Korea to maintain business ties with a South Korean businessman accused of wrongdoing in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, U.N. officials said Tuesday. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he had not known about the ties between Maurice Strong and Tongsun Park, a native of North Korea and citizen of South Korea who was also accused in the 1970s of trying to buy influence in Congress. Strong is the U.N. point man on stalled six-nation talks aimed at persuading North Korea to...

Sacramento -- The FBI has expanded its investigation of state Senate leader Don Perata in recent weeks, interviewing current and former members of his staff as well as lawyers and lobbyists for Bay Area card clubs that hired Perata's business partner at the senator's suggestion, five people with knowledge of the inquiry said. Federal agents are investigating Perata's financial relationship with the partner, Timothy G. Staples, and whether the Oakland lawmaker received any of the card-club money that went to Staples, according to people familiar with the probe who agreed to speak on the condition they not be identified. The...