Articles by Super User

PUERTO LA CRUZ, Venezuela – Fresh from his confrontation with Pres. George Bush at the Summit of the Americas, Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chavez is using his most powerful asset – oil – to challenge U.S. dominance in the Caribbean. His latest move, according to the BBC, is a regional oil initiative to provide fuel at cheaper prices to 15 Caribbean nations. 

Venezuela, a leading oil supplier to the United States, is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter, producing 3.1 million barrels a day. Chavez is using that position to develop diversified energy ties with the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia. He has named the new plan Petrocaribe, and describes it as “an energy alliance” that will offer highly preferential oil prices, with Venezuela picking up 40 percent of the cost if oil is selling at more than $50 a barrel. That could mean further price breaks for Cuba and other nations. read more

WASHINGTON – As Democrats press for an inquiry about cooked” pre-war intelligence on Iraq, the House Intelligence Committee, chaired by Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R- MI, has decided to probe into the recent leak of classified information about secret CIA prisons.

On Nov. 2, the Washington Post revealed the existence of so-called “ghost prisons” used to interrogate terrorist suspects in eight countries, including at least two in Eastern Europe. The revelation didn’t only disturb only the president’s allies – downcast by the news of torture and the indictments handed down as a result of the leak of a CIA agent’s name. Some liberals were also upset, since the Post agreed to a request by senior U.S. officials not to name the countries involved. read more

STRASBOURG – Leyla Sahin has run out of options. In 1998, she was barred from attending Istanbul University medical school because her headscarf violated the official dress code.

Last week, her legal challenge reached a dead end when the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), based in Strasbourg, upheld Turkey’s ban on women wearing headscarves in universities, leaving her no more avenues for appeal.

However, the decision also pointed a growing divide between the Islamic-rooted government and the secular establishment. Pres. Ahmet Necdet Sezer said the ruling was "binding" and should spell the end of the controversy, but leaders of the conservative and Islamic-rooted government argued the decision was not binding and promised to press ahead with an effort to lift the ban. Although the country is overwhelmingly Muslim, it has had a secular system since the 1920s. read more

BOSTON – More than 5,000 high school students in five of Massachusetts‘ largest school districts have removed their names from military recruitment lists, a significant jump in the last year, the Boston Globe reports.

This trend is especially true in school systems with many low-income and minority students, the Globe noted.

Since 2002, under the federal No Child Left Behind law, high schools have been required to provide lists of students’ names, telephone numbers, and addresses to military recruiters who ask for them, as well as to colleges and potential employers. Students who don’t want to be contacted – or their parents – have to notify school districts in writing. read more

NEW YORK/ELON – After the release of a CBS poll indicating that President Bush’s approval rating had plunged to 35 percent, many conservatives took solace in the notion that it was mainly due to ongoing troubles in Iraq and not bad press related to the CIA leak case. The conventional wisdom has been that much of the public doesn’t take the issue that seriously, or even follow the developments.

But another part of the public opinion survey tends to contradict that assertion, notes Editor and Publisher. Indeed, Some 51 percent of those contacted said the leak case is already of "great importance," with 35 percent choosing "some importance" and only 12 percent labeling it "little or not importance." read more

ROME – On the first anniversary of the US-led assault on Falluja, an attack that displaced most of the city’s 300,000 population and destroyed many of its buildings, Italy‘s state TV station last week broadcast a documentary that accuses the U.S. military of indiscriminate use of chemical weapons during the attack.

According to BBC news, the film, aired in the morning with a warning that some of the footage would be disturbing, included testimony from eyewitnesses and ex-soldiers who says that they saw white phosphorus bombs used against civilians. The U.S. military calls the allegations “disinformation.” The broadcast coincided with a visit by Iraq Pres. Jalal Talabani.

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