President Bush made a six-hour, carefully orchestrated visit to Indonesia on Monday marked by large demonstrations against the administration and its policies towards the Muslim world. Bush “stayed behind the fenced wall of the palace compound all day.” Indonesia’s president called on the U.S. to plan an “ultimate exit strategy” from Iraq.
Syria and Iraq have restored diplomatic relations twenty-four years after Syria broke ties and accused Saddam “of inciting riots in Syria by the banned Muslim Brotherhood.”
The Do-Nothing Congress passes the buck. “Republicans vacating the Capitol are dumping a big spring cleaning job on Democrats moving in.” Congressional leaders “have opted to leave behind almost a half-trillion-dollar clutter of unfinished spending bills,” which “promises to consume time and energy” from the 110th Congress.
“Leading public universities have become enclaves for the privileged and are failing to give bright minority and low-income students fair access to higher education,” a new report by the Education Trust says.
At least 140 people were reported killed around Iraq yesterday. “At least 60 bodies were discovered in the capital. Most were middle-aged men, stripped of identification papers, who had been handcuffed, tortured and shot.”
The foreign minister of Oman said, “US policy in Iraq has handed the country to the Al-Qaeda network.” “Al-Qaeda…has established itself there and now controls whole regions,” the pro-Western Gulf state’s top diplomat said. “We hope that [the U.S.] will rethink their policy.”
The Pentagon has “extended its timeline to destroy its aging chemical weapons arsenal until 2023, despite concerns by Congress and watchdog groups that the stockpiles raise the risk of an accident or theft by terrorists,” and despite the 2012 deadline set by the international Chemical Weapons Convention.
House leaders say they will advance ethics reform “with a twist: Instead of forwarding one big bill, Democrats will put together an ethics package on the House floor piece by piece, allowing incoming freshmen to take charge of high-profile issues and lengthening the time spent on the debate. The approach will ensure that each proposal…is debated on its own and receives its own vote.”
“Rude immigration officials and visa delays keep millions of foreign visitors away from the United States, hurt the country’s already battered image, and cost the U.S. billions of dollars in lost revenue,” according to a Discover America Partnership report.
And finally: The Force is not strong with the UN. “Last week, two self-proclaimed Jedi Knights appealed to the United Nations to recognize their faith as an official religion and accordingly rename the International Day for Tolerance to Interstellar Day of Tolerance. The petition from Britons John Wilkinson and Charlotte Law, who call themselves Umada and Yunyun, comes after a 2001 British census recorded 400,000 people who ‘practice’ the Jedi faith.” The UN was not supportive of the Jedis’ proposal. “The UN is not in the business of certifying religions,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. “With or without light sabers.”
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