WASHINGTON (AP) – A proposed pipeline that would provide Venezuelan natural gas to South America may never materialize because of financing and other problems, an Energy Department official said Thursday.

The comments by assistant energy secretary Karen A. Harbert came as officials from Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina met in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, to lay plans for the project.

Testifying at a House subcommittee hearing, Harbert said the pipeline would take years to complete “if it ever comes to fruition.”

“There are tremendous technical challenges,” she said. “There are tremendous environmental challenges. But most importantly, there are tremendous financial feasibility challenges.”

The same issues were being discussed at the Caracas meeting. Much of the project is expected to be financed from Venezuelan oil revenues.

…She expressed doubt that Venezuela will be able to carry out its agenda for constructing refineries and tankers and producing natural gas because of lack of financing.

The problem, Harbert said, stems from “the lack of expertise and increasing restrictions on foreign investment in the oil sector.”
guardian.co.uk

In other words, they’ll make sure it doesn’t get built.

ROME, March 2 — Citing new photographic analysis, an Italian parliamentary commission has concluded that top Soviet leaders were behind the failed plot to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.

“This commission holds, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the leadership of the Soviet Union took the initiative to eliminate Pope Karol Wojtyla,” the commission wrote, using John Paul’s given name, in a preliminary report released to news organizations this week. The report needs approval by Parliament.

The report has no legal bearing, but reopens a central unanswered question from the cold war era: Whether Bulgarian secret agents, working on behalf of the Soviets, played a role in the shooting in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981, which gravely wounded John Paul.

The report claims that the Soviet leadership saw John Paul as a threat because of his support for the Solidarity trade union, which worked to undermine Soviet control in his native Poland.
nytimes.com

oh. okay.

Hamas Heads to Moscow in Search for Legitimacy
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Hamas embarks on a quest for international legitimacy on Friday with an official visit to Russia, marking the Islamic militant group’s first talks with a major power involved in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

Although it deals a blow to U.S.-led efforts to isolate Hamas since it swept Palestinian elections in January, Russia’s mediation is seen by some in the West as a chance to talk the faction into renouncing violence and recognizing Israel.

JERUSALEM, March 2 — Israel’s acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, warned Palestinians today that Israel would use “far-reaching measures” and “an iron fist against any attempt to resume terrorist activity,” whether in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.

Mr. Olmert spoke as a new opinion poll showed his Kadima party continuing to slip a month before March 28 elections, but it was still comfortably on course to form a new Israeli government. The Haaretz-Channel 10 poll shows Kadima winning 37 of the parliament’s 120 seats, down two seats from last month and down seven seats from a similar poll taken at the end of January.

Mr. Olmert said at a news conference that he has personally ordered airstrikes against Palestinians involved in firing Qassam rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip. “There are no longer any restrictions on the security establishment regarding counterterrorism actions anywhere,” he said. “Not a few times terrorists who were about to fire rockets were liquidated before they could fire them and it was based on my orders, sometimes my personal orders.”
nytimes.com

Israeli ‘ruler-in-waiting’ plans to starve Hamas
She is already being spoken of as an Israeli leader in waiting. Today the Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni brings to London the campaign to destabilise the incoming Hamas Palestinian government by starving it of cash.

Israel’s policy – described by a spokesman as putting “the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger” – has left London feeling squeamish. Tony Blair and Jack Straw will today undoubtedly show solidarity with Israel, saying Britain is not in the business of funding terrorists. But in private there is anguish that the policy will bring malnutrition to innocent Palestinians and punish them for taking part in a democratic election. The Palestinians are completely dependent on foreign aid for their survival and Israel’s campaign to put 3.6 million people on starvation rations is foreboding.

…A former Mossad officer, Ms Livni is the daughter of Zionists – classified as terrorists by the British authorities. Her father, Eitan, was the Irgun’s head of operations when it blew up the King David hotel in Jerusalem in 1946, killing 28 Britons, 41 Arabs, 17 Jews and five others. The subsequent wave of terror attacks he led outraged British public opinion, leading the government to abandon the Palestinian Mandate and turn the problem over to the UN, with disastrous consequences for the Palestinians.

Mofaz: Karnei Shomron to be included in Israel’s final borders
Setting a vision for Israel’s permanent borders, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has said that the government plans to retain the settlements of Karnei Shomron, Reihan and Shaked in any future deal with the Palestinians.

Israel, Mofaz said, planned to retain the Ariel, Ma’aleh Adumim and Gush Etzion settlement blocs in addition to the settlements of Shaked, Reihan, Karnei Shomron and Kedumim, whether under a peace plan with the Palestinians or in a unilateral withdrawal.

“When we talk about Israel’s permanent or future borders, it includes the Jordan Valley, Ma’aleh Adumim, Gush Etzion, Ariel, Kedumim-Karnei Shomron and Reihan-Shaked,” Mofaz said during a meeting with the residents of the settlement of Oranit late Sunday night. The defense minister made no mention of the future of the Ofra-Beit El bloc, Hebron, Itamar or Elon Moreh.

The settlements Mofaz listed went a little farther than a similar list Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert detailed three weeks ago. Olmert began to broadly draw the parameters of where he thought Israel’s final border should run earlier in the month in a Channel 2 interview, saying that the Jordan Valley, Gush Etzion, Ma’aleh Adumim and Ariel settlement blocs would remain a part of the country.

“We will separate from the majority of the Palestinian population that lives in Judea and Samaria, and it will obligate us to leave territories where Israel is today,” Olmert said. “We will move into central settlement blocs.”

03/02/06 “The Hindu” — — DUBAI: As the countdown for a crucial meeting on Iran on March 6 gets under way, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has revealed that it has not found any evidence that Teheran had diverted material towards making atomic weapons.

In its report which has been circulated to its 35 board members, the IAEA said that its three years of investigations had not shown “any diversion of nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices”, the Associated Press reported.
informationclearinghouse.info

Iran claims Israel has over 200 nuclear warheads
MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) – Teheran has information suggesting that Israel’s nuclear arsenal exceeds 200 warheads.

“Israel’s nuclear potential exceeds 200 warheads. The U.S., meanwhile, is pursuing a policy aimed at distracting attention from this problem,” Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani told the press in Moscow on Thursday.

India, Pakistan got atomic arms “legitimately”: US
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said on Wednesday the way India and Pakistan had obtained nuclear arms was legitimate, in contrast to Iran which he accused of pursuing atomic weapons in violation of its international undertakings.

While Iran is seeking to conceal development of nuclear weapons under the guise of a legitimate program to generate nuclear power, Bolton said, India and Pakistan “did it legitimately.”

His comments, made in response to an audience question following a speech to a meeting of the World Jewish Congress, appeared to go farther than the administration of President George W. Bush has previously gone in embracing the two nations’ nuclear programs.

BAGHDAD – A political conflict threatened to further exacerbate Iraq’s sectarian and ethnic divisions Thursday as Kurdish and Sunni Arab leaders issued a letter demanding that the leading Shiite Muslim coalition withdraw its nomination of interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to head the next government.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to avert attacks today, during the Muslim day of prayer, the government announced a one-day ban on private vehicles in Baghdad and its outskirts. The police and army were instructed to seal off the capital and seize any private vehicles on the roads between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m.

“We had many conflicts with the past government, and for it to continue for the next four years is just unacceptable to us,” said Faraj Haidary of the Kurdish Alliance, which has persuaded other political blocs to sign off on the formal letter delivered Thursday.

Politicians with the leading Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, which holds a plurality of seats in the new parliament, warned that efforts to form a “national unity” government, a major U.S. goal, might collapse if the Kurds and Sunnis don’t back down.

“Jaafari is the nominee, and the UIA will not be provoked in this way,” said Fadhil Shara, a representative of Shiite radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The political maneuvering followed a spasm of sectarian clashes that left hundreds dead in the past week. The bloodshed continued Thursday, with police reporting that more than 30 people were killed in attacks across the country.
startribune.com

Militia says will defend Baghdad’s Sadr city
BAGHDAD, March 2 (Reuters) – Militias loyal to radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will take a key defence role in Baghdad’s Sadr City, a Sadr official said, after a blast in a minibus killed five people there on Thursday.

“Today, the terrorists have targeted Sadr City because it has a Shi’ite majority which tells that the extremists want to fight Shi’ites wherever they are,” Hazim Araji told Reuters.

“We are going to coordinate with Iraqi army and police but the Mehdi Army is going to have a key role providing protection.”

Police said eight people were also wounded in the blast in Sadr City. Such attacks have been rare inside the slum area, a stronghold of radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has promoted solidarity with Sunni Arab insurgents.

Sadr, a youthful nationalist with a following among poor Shi’ites, led two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004 and has maintained ties with Sunni rebels. But many Sunnis blame his Mehdi Army militia for attacks on Sunni mosques this past week.

Robert Fisk: Somebody is trying to provoke a civil war in Iraq.
The real question I ask myself is: who are these people who are trying to provoke the civil war? Now the Americans will say it’s Al Qaeda, it’s the Sunni insurgents. It is the death squads. Many of the death squads work for the Ministry of Interior. Who runs the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad? Who pays the Ministry of the Interior? Who pays the militia men who make up the death squads? We do, the occupation authorities.

Across the world, they are coming: the water wars. From Israel to India, from Turkey to Botswana, arguments are going on over disputed water supplies that may soon burst into open conflict.

Yesterday, Britain’s Defence Secretary, John Reid, pointed to the factor hastening the violent collision between a rising world population and a shrinking world water resource: global warming.
independent.co.uk

Excuse me??

Military scientists in the United States are developing a way of manipulating sharks by remote control to turn them into underwater spies or weapons.

Engineers funded by the Pentagon have created electronic brain implants for fish that they hope will be able to influence the movements of sharks and perhaps even decode what they are sensing.

Although both Cold War superpowers have trained sea mammals such as dolphins and killer whales to carry out quasi-military duties, this is probably the first time the military have seriously considered using fish.
independent.co.uk

WASHINGTON (AP) – The nation’s students do glaringly worse on a tough federal test than they do on state exams in reading and math, raising doubts about how much kids are learning.

The number of children who were proficient or better on state exams was often solid, if not lofty, in 2005. States have wide latitude in deciding what proficiency means.

But on the National Assessment of Educational Progress – the gold-standard measure of achievement in the U.S. – most states don’t come close to matching up, a new analysis shows.

The performance gap was often enormous. The number of fourth-graders and eighth-graders who scored proficient or better on state tests was often 30, 40 or 50 percentage points lower on the federal exam – the one the president and Congress use to chart the nation’s progress.

The size of that discrepancy raises questions about whether states are setting lower standards. Congress, in fact, has required every state to take part in the federal testing for that very reason – as a way to expose states that otherwise report rosy achievement.

The Education Trust, a nonprofit think tank that tracks state compliance with the No Child Left Behind law, released the comparison of test scores in a report on Thursday.

“There ought to be questions about whether state standards are preparing students for the challenges of college, work and the real world,” said Daria Hall, senior policy analyst at Education Trust.

Under President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, all children must be proficient in reading and math by 2014.
guardian.co.uk

or else what?

KARACHI, Pakistan — An apparent suicide bomber detonated explosives outside the U.S. consulate in Karachi Thursday killing four people, including an American diplomat and a Pakistani security officer, and wounding about 50 others, according to officials.

The attack came two days before President Bush is scheduled to visit Pakistan, following his journey to Afghanistan and India. It also followed what Pakistani officials said was a major assault by the Pakistani military that killed 40 to 45 militants in a tribal region of the country.

Bush, at a news conference in New Delhi, said the attack would not alter his travel plans. “We have lost at least one U.S. citizen in the bombing,” he said, “a foreign service officer. And I send our country’s deepest condolences to that person’s loved ones and families. Terrorists and killers are not going to prevent me from going to Pakistan.”

Initial reports from officials said a car bomber was apparently attempting to approach the consulate when he was approached by a Pakistani security guard and a security van, which tried to intercept the vehicle.

It then hit the van and exploded, apparently just as the official was entering the building, according to security officials in Karachi.

The blast ripped through a roadside parking lot of the Marriott Hotel, about 65 feet from the consulate gate, wire services said, shattering windows at the consulate and on all 10 floors of the hotel. Ten cars were destroyed, and charred wreckage was flung as far as 200 yards.
washingtonpost.com

BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) – Donna Francis pressed a pile of FEMA paperwork and phone numbers to her chest as the minutes slipped away in the lobby of the Best Value Inn.

“Hopefully I can go pull a rabbit out of my hat,” said Francis, a victim of Hurricane Rita, as she waited to make a plea to her Federal Emergency Management Agency caseworker an hour before six months of government-paid hotel rooms ended.

The single mother was among hurricane refugees in nearly 3,000 hotel rooms nationwide Wednesday who were confronted with a choice they had long dreaded: either remain in their hotel and pay the bill with their own money or other federal assistance, or check out and find a new place to live.

Wednesday’s deadline sparked protests in at least one city.
guardian.co.uk