By KATARINA KRATOVAC
The Associated Press

Since I no longer believe a word that comes out of Bush’s or Petraeus’ mouth (basically the same person), I think the word “allegedly” should be used before anything said by Bush or the “commanders on the ground”. LOVE THE TROOPS, HATE THE WAR! - JS

BAGHDAD - The No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq said Thursday that a seven-month-old security operation has reduced violence by 50 percent in Baghdad but he acknowledged that civilians were still dying at too high a rate.

The comments came as relations between the U.S. and Iraqi governments remained strained in the wake of Sunday’s shooting involving Blackwater USA security guards, which Iraqi officials said left at least 11 people dead. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki suggested the U.S. Embassy find another company to protect its diplomats.

The Moyock, N.C.-based company has said its employees acted “lawfully and appropriately” in response to an armed attack against a State Department convoy.

But a survivor who said he was three cars away from the convoy denied the American guards were under fire, claiming they apparently started shooting to disperse more than two dozen cars that were stuck in a traffic jam.

“It is not true when they say that they were attacked. We did not hear any gunshots before they started shooting,” lawyer Hassan Jabir said from his hospital bed.

On Thursday, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno told reporters that car bombs and suicide attacks in Baghdad have fallen to their lowest level in a year, and civilian casualties have dropped from a high of about 32 to 12 per day.

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By LEE KEATH
The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden will release a new message soon declaring war on Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, al-Qaida announced Thursday.

The announcement of the upcoming message came as al-Qaida released a new video in which bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, boasted that the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts.

Speakers in the video promised more fighting in Afghanistan, North Africa and Sudan’s Darfur region.

The messages are part of a stepped-up propaganda campaign by al-Qaida around the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Earlier this month, bin Laden released two messages - including his first new appearance in a video in nearly three years.

A banner posted on an Islamic militant Web site on Thursday advertised that another message would be released, though it did not say whether bin Laden would appear in video or speak in an audiotape.

“Soon, God willing: ‘Come to Jihad (holy war)’, from sheik Osama bin Laden, God protect him” the banner read.

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This put a smile on my face…….

A 1967 visit to the University of Wisconsin-Madison by a recruiter from Dow Chemical Co., which made napalm, sparked a bloody clash between police and protesting students and galvanized anti-war sentiment on campus.

A new generation of student activists are summoning memories of the 40-year-old demonstration with their vows to demonstrate Thursday against Halliburton, another company they see as profiteering from war.

Organizers expected anywhere from dozens to hundreds of students to turn out to protest the company’s visit to an engineering career fair. They hope to discourage students from talking to Halliburton representatives.

U.S. oil firm pulls out of Sudan
Some planned to carry signs saying, “Curly, off campus!,” a reference to the Dow Chemical representative who visited the school, William “Curly” Hendershot.

“We’ve decided that any war-profiteering recruiter stands in the tradition of Curly,” said Chris Dols, a student and member of the Campus Antiwar Network, which is organizing the protest. “We’re explicitly drawing the connection between the two.”

More at CNN

By Saul Hudson
Reuters

CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez wants Venezuelan clocks turned back half an hour and he wants it done in record time — next Monday.

“I don’t care if they call me crazy, the new time will go ahead, let them call me whatever they want,” Chavez said on his weekly TV show. “I’m not to blame. I received a recommendation and said I liked the idea.”

The shift will allow children to wake up for school in daylight instead of before sunrise, Chavez said.

That may seem reasonable to many Venezuelans but ordering the change with little notice and scant public education has raised questions over how much thought was given to the plan.

It also highlights how the anti-U.S. president’s governing style can sometimes be eccentric, improvised and rushed in his self’styled revolution to turn one of the world’s biggest oil exporters into a socialist state.

Chavez himself has not had time to get to grips with the practicalities of the clock shift.

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By PAT MILTON
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked permission to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site when he comes to New York City next week, but the request was denied, a police official said Wednesday.

The U.S. also has denied a visa to Iran’s United Nations ambassador in Geneva to attend next week’s General Assembly meeting because he was involved in the 1979 U.S. hostage crisis, a U.N. official said.

Ahmadinejad, who is arriving Sunday to address the United Nations’ General Assembly, had asked this month for permission to visit the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, police spokesman Paul Browne said.

The request to enter the fenced-in site was rejected because of ongoing construction there, Browne said.

“Requests for the Iranian president to visit the immediate area would also be opposed by the NYPD on security grounds,” Browne said.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters Wednesday that the United States would not support Iran’s attempt to use the site for a “photo op.”

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