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Billions in Oil Missing in Iraq, U.S. Study Says
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Edwards to Ask Antiwar Stand of Americans nyt

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ABC News Exclusive: The Secret War Against Iran abcnews

Angry Wolfowitz in four-letter tirade




An angry and bitter Paul Wolfowitz poured abuse and threatened retaliations on senior World Bank staff if his orders for pay rises and promotions for his partner were revealed, according to new details published last night.

Under fire for the lavish package given to Shaha Riza, a World Bank employee and Mr Wolfowitz's girlfriend when he became president, an official investigation into the controversy has found that Mr Wolfowitz broke bank rules and violated his own contract – setting off a struggle between US and European governments over Mr Wolfowitz's future.


Sounding more like a cast member of the Sopranos than an international leader, in testimony by one key witness Mr Wolfowitz declares: "If they **** with me or Shaha, I have enough on them to **** them too."

The remarks were published in a report detailing the controversy that erupted last month after the size of Ms Riza's pay rises was revealed. The report slates Mr Wolfowitz for his "questionable judgment and a preoccupation with self-interest", saying: "Mr Wolfowitz saw himself as the outsider to whom the established rules and standards did not apply."

The report brushed off Mr Wolfowitz's defence that he thought he had been asked to arrange Ms Riza's pay package, observing that "the interpretation given by Mr Wolfowitz ... simply turns logic on its head".

The investigators have sent their completed report to the bank's governing board, containing a string of withering criticisms of Mr Wolfowitz's behaviour and casting doubt on his ability to continue running the bank, a multibillion-pound international agency with 12,000 staff based in Washington.

According to the report, Mr Wolfowitz's actions "had a dramatic negative effect on the reputation and credibility" of the bank.

It concluded that "the damage done to the reputation of the World Bank group" should lead the bank's board to "consider whether Mr Wolfowitz will be able to provide the leadership needed to ensure that the bank continues to operate to the fullest extent possible".

It also said: "Mr Wolfowitz's contract requiring that he adhere to the code of conduct for board officials and that he avoid any conflict of interest, real or apparent, [was] violated."

Despite the weeks of turmoil within the bank, Mr Wolfowitz may still keep his job if the US government is prepared to stick by him.

Mr Wolfowitz still enjoys support from the Bush administration, where he served as deputy defence secretary at the Pentagon during the invasion of Iraq.

Yesterday vice president Dick Cheney defended Mr Wolfowitz, saying: "Paul is one of the most able public servants I've ever known .... I think he's a very good president of the World Bank, and I hope he will be able to continue."

The US treasury secretary, Hank Paulson, was yesterday said to also be drumming up support for Mr Wolfowitz, while European governments increasingly despair of US intransigence in allowing Mr Wolfowitz to hang on.

The angry comments attributed to Mr Wolfowitz came from damning testimony by Xavier Coll, head of human resources at the bank, who provided investigators with his notes of a meeting with Mr Wolfowitz last year. The notes directly contradict Mr Wolfowitz's assertions that the details of Ms Riza's treatment were properly shared with senior bank officials.

In March last year, when a mention of Ms Riza's secondment outside the bank to avoid rules about partners was first published in the magazine US News & World Report, an angry Mr Wolfowitz accused Mr Coll of leaking the information.

According to Mr Coll's notes: "At the end of the conversation Mr Wolfowitz became increasingly agitated and said that he was 'tired of people ... attacking him' and 'you should get your friends to stop it'. Mr Wolfowitz said, 'If they **** me or Shaha, I have enough on them to **** them too'," naming several senior bank staff he felt were vulnerable.

Mr Wolfowitz appears before the bank's executive board today to make a final defence of his actions, with the board meeting tomorrow to consider the report and make a statement later in the week.

With Mr Wolfowitz so far refusing to step down, the board may need to take radical action to break the stalemate. Members have discussed a range of options, including sacking Mr Wolfowitz, issuing a vote of no confidence or reprimanding him. Some board members argue that a vote of no confidence would make it impossible for him to stay in the job.

guardian

Daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. dies



ATLANTA - Yolanda King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s eldest child who pursued her father's dream of racial harmony through drama and motivational speaking, has died. She was 51.


King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., said Steve Klein, a spokesman for the King Center. The family did not know the cause of death, but relatives think it might have been a heart problem, he said.

"She was an actress, author, producer, advocate for peace and nonviolence, who was known and loved for her motivational and inspirational contributions to society," the King family said in a statement.

Born on Nov. 17, 1955, in Montgomery, Ala., Yolanda Denise King was just an infant when her home was bombed amid the turbulent civil rights era.

She became an actress, ran a production company and appeared in numerous films, including "Ghosts of Mississippi," and as Rosa Parks in the 1978 miniseries "King."

"Yolanda was lovely. She wore the mantle of princess, and she wore it with dignity and charm," said the Rev. Joseph Lowery, One of her father's close aides in the civil rights movement. "She was a warm and gentle person and was thoroughly committed to the movement and found her own means of expressing that commitment through drama."

The Rev.
Al Sharpton said he expressed his condolences to her brother Martin Luther King III on Wednesday. Sharpton said Yolanda King was a "torch bearer for her parents and a committed activist in her own right."

"Yolanda never wavered from a commitment to nonviolent social change and justice for all," he said. "She was the first daughter of the civil rights movement and never shamed her parents or her co-activists."

Yolanda King founded and led Higher Ground Productions, billed as a "gateway for inner peace, unity and global transformation." On her company's Web site, she described her mission as encouraging personal growth and positive social change.

She was also an author and a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference — which her father co-founded in 1957 — and the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The flag at The King Center, where she was a board member, flew at half-staff on Wednesday.

Yolanda King was the most visible and outspoken among the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s four children during this year's Martin Luther King Day in January, the first since the death of their mother, Coretta Scott King.

At her father's Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, she performed a series of solo skits that told stories including a girl's first ride on a desegregated bus and a college student's recollection of the 1963 desegregation of Birmingham, Ala.

She also urged the audience to be a force for peace and love, and to use the King holiday each year to ask tough questions about their own beliefs about prejudice.

"We must keep reaching across the table and, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, feed each other," she said.

When asked by The Associated Press at that event how she was dealing with the loss of her mother, she responded: "I connected with her spirit so strongly. I am in direct contact with her spirit, and that has given me so much peace and so much strength."

Survivors include her sister, the Rev. Bernice A. King, and brothers Martin Luther King III and Dexter Scott King.

Funeral arrangements would be announced later, the family said in a brief statement.
guardian

EU targeting illegal employment
European businesses caught employing illegal immigrants face jail sentences under new proposals from the European Commission to control immigration.
Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini also wants a five-fold increase in the number of spot checks on companies.

As much as 16% of Europe's business is done off the books, Mr Frattini says.

It is estimated that there are 3-8m illegal immigrants in the EU, a figure increasing by up to 500,000 every year because of easy access to illegal work.



New penalties are also proposed for individuals who hire workers, such as cleaners.

Employers would have to check that anyone they hired had a residence permit, and businesses would have to notify national authorities.

Fines for offenders would include the cost of repatriating the worker, as well as payment of any unpaid tax or social security.

Weak penalties

Criminal penalties would be imposed on employers who knowingly hired victims of trafficking, who were caught hiring several illegal immigrants, or who were "particularly exploitative".

"The possibility of finding illegal work is the main driving force behind illegal immigration. The EU must act together," Mr Frattini said.

BBC Europe business correspondent Alex Ritson says there is little doubt why illegal workers are attractive for many companies - they earn a fraction of the regular wages and the penalties for companies caught breaking the rules are rarely severe.

But the proposals may face resistance from some member states, he says, as traditionally the EU does not interfere with matters of criminal law.

Mr Frattini said that the risk of getting caught employing illegal immigrants in Europe was "practically non-existent", because only one in 50 businesses was checked each year.

Under his proposal this would be increased to one in 10 per year.

Circular migration

The Commission says illegal migrants are most likely to be employed in construction, agriculture, housework, cleaning, catering and other hospitality services.

Officials say the sanctions are designed to hit employers who exploit people "for their own greed" - putting them to work unprotected with harmful pesticides, or on unsafe building sites, or forcing them to work more than 12 hours a day for negligible pay.

Three years ago, 21 Chinese immigrants lost their lives at Morecambe Bay in the north of England.

They were gathering shellfish on the mudflats for an illegal gang master but the tide came in suddenly and they drowned.

The proposed measures add to the EU's growing list of policies in the field of immigration, which are designed to attract skilled workers and other legal immigrants, while discouraging illegal immigration.

Another new proposal is to seek "partnerships" with third countries, providing their workers easier access to the EU job market in return for help to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

Mr Frattini also wants to encourage circular migration, where migrant workers return temporarily or permanently to their country of origin, taking their new skills with them.

BBC

US deal over illegal immigrants

The White House and the US Senate have reached a deal on an immigration bill that could give legal status to many of the 12m illegal immigrants in the US.

Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy announced the agreement that would also establish a merit-based system for future migrants.

US President George W Bush endorsed the deal, which also strengthens border controls, as a "much needed solution".

The proposal comes after months of bitterly fought debate over the issue.

Mr Bush said the deal offered a system that was "secure, productive, orderly and fair".

"With this bipartisan agreement, I am confident leaders in Washington can have a serious, civil and conclusive debate so I can sign comprehensive reform into law this year," he said in a statement.

Points system

After first paying visa fees and a $5,000 (£2,530) fine - and returning to their home country - illegal immigrants in the US would be eligible for the planned "Z visa".

Holders of this proposed visa would have to wait between eight and 13 years for a decision on their permanent residency application.


[This] is the best possible chance we will have... to secure our borders and bring millions of people out of the shadows and into the sunshine of America
US Senator Edward Kennedy

Another key component of the deal was the establishment of a "points system" that would emphasise new immigrants' education, language and job skills over family connections in awarding green cards.

New limits would also apply to US citizens bringing foreign-born parents into the country.

The bill also establishes a two-year temporary guest worker visa.

Holders of this visa would be allowed to renew their papers twice, but would have to return home for a year between each stint, and would have virtually no chance of gaining permanent residency or citizenship under this program.

But these measures would not come into force until the number of border guards had been doubled, the fence with Mexico reinforced and high-tech enforcement measures put in place.

"The agreement we just reached is the best possible chance we will have in years to secure our borders and bring millions of people out of the shadows and into the sunshine of America," Mr Kennedy said as he announced the deal.

'Deadline'

The bill is expected to cause passionate debate in the Senate next week.

And in the House of Representatives Mr Bush is likely to have quite a fight on his hands, says the BBC's James Coomarasamy in Washington.

Immigration reform has been one of Mr Bush's top priorities in government, after the so-called "war on terror".

Many potential immigrants die on the perilous border crossing - often due to extreme thirst, although the threat of vigilante attacks is also rising.

President Bush has said he wants to see new legislation in place by the end of this year.

Analysts say the issue could stall if it drags on into 2008, when attention will turn to presidential elections.
BBC

Arabs despair over Palestinian violence

By MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt - Arab governments appear at a loss how to stop the stunning wave of Palestinian factional fighting, which threatens to wreck the region's already faltering efforts to resume the Arab-Israeli peace process.


Arabs watched television footage of the Gaza fighting in despair. "May God curse you all," Egyptian columnist Ahmed Ragab wrote, referring to the Palestinian factions.

The chaos is a heavy blow to U.S. Arab allies who have tried for months to mediate an end to the disputes between the militant Hamas movement and the mainstream
Fatah faction led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Regional power Saudi Arabia has stayed silent about the clashes in Gaza since they began five days ago, a sign of its anger at the two sides and its reluctance to get involved.

The kingdom put its political clout on the line in February when it hosted a summit between Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal aimed at ending a previous bout of factional fighting. The summit in the holy city of Mecca ended with a deal on a Palestinian unity government that Saudi Arabia touted as a major breakthrough and is now in danger of collapse.

"It is hard to see Saudis or anyone else expending political capital and sticking their neck out for the Palestinians while gunmen controlled by Hamas and Fatah turn Gaza into a homegrown killing field," Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper said in an editorial.

The Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is a member, issued a statement urging the two factions "to adhere to the Mecca agreement, which laid down a solid base to overcome the current bottleneck in the Palestinian arena."

Some said the fighting showed the power-sharing deal only papered over the disputes between Hamas and Fatah. "The Mecca agreement didn't get into the deep-rooted divisions between Hamas and Fatah," said Saudi writer Khalid al-Dakhil.

Those who signed onto the deal at Mecca knew it faced opposition from extremists on both sides, said Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the London-based newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

Hamas' military wing was not happy with a freeze in attacks on
Israel, while Fatah hard-liners wanted "to topple the agreement because they don't want a partner or the national unity government," he said.

Other Arab leaders have been able to do little else but call for an end to the fighting. President
Hosni Mubarak, who mediated between Abbas and Mashaal during a meeting in Cairo last month, spoke by phone with Abbas on Thursday, telling him, "Palestinian blood is sacred."

Jordan's King Abdullah II also spoke to Abbas, urging him to show more resolve to end the fighting and to press Hamas to stop rocket attacks on Israel that threaten to widen the conflict.

"The violence must stop for the sake of the Palestinian people, and for the sake of Palestine," the king was quoted as saying in a royal palace statement.

Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — all key U.S. allies — have been trying to persuade the United States and Israel to accept an Arab peace initiative as a starting ground for relaunching peace negotiations. The deal offers full peace with all Arab nations if Israel withdraws from territories captured in the 1967 Middle East War and a Palestinian state is created.

With the Arab countries already struggling to bring Israel on board, the new fighting threatens to make the offer all but irrelevant.

Arab TV stations showed constant images resembling a war zone in Gaza, with masked gunmen in the abandoned streets and people rushing the wounded away on stretchers. Al-Jazeera broadcast live from its offices in Gaza, where journalists in flak jackets and helmets were trapped as gunfire raged outside.

Viewers in the Arab world — long loyal advocates of the Palestinian cause — were stunned and said the turmoil only benefits Israel.

Some blamed the Palestinian factions for a futile fight over power. Zeinab Mohammed, a 21-year-old Egyptian student, said the factions were "serving no one but their own personal interests."

"America, Israel and the whole West want to see us divided," said 47-year-old Kamal Abu-Zeid, wearing thick eyeglasses, and selling newspapers in front of Cairo University.

Sateh Nourredine, managing editor of Lebanon's As-Safir daily, said Gaza "is out of control."

"No one knows where it will lead. They've tried mediation by Egypt, the Arab League and the Mecca agreement. They've had direct talks and a national unity government. Then the situation explodes in this catastrophic way," he told The Associated Press. "There is no political logic to what's happening." yahoo

South African boy 'held captive for 13 years'


Police are searching for the family of an 18-year-old boy who was allegedly kidnapped in South Africa when he was five and held in a dark room for 13 years.

The teenager, known as Bongani, was rescued from a house in the coastal city of Durban last week after neighbours alerted police to screams, South African media reported. A man has been arrested for indecent assault.

Police said that the boy was seriously traumatised and would only speak at night, indicating he had been held in the dark. He reportedly told police that he had no parents.

Hundreds of children, mostly from poor or broken families, go missing in South Africa every year.

There are an estimated 1,100 child murders each year and abuse and rape of minors is said to be on the rise. breakingnews

After bitter battle, Wolfowitz resigns from World Bank


· Departure ends crisis over partner's pay rise
· Board accepts outgoing leader 'acted in good faith'

Richard Adams and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington




Paul Wolfowitz lost his battle to hang on to his job as president of the World Bank yesterday, announcing his resignation after a bitter international controversy. However, he managed to extract a statement from the bank's executive board exonerating him for wrongdoing in engineering a generous pay rise for his partner, Shaha Riza, who is on the staff of the bank.

He is to step down at the end of next month, after two years at the bank.


"He assured us that he acted ethically and in good faith in what he believed were the best interests of the institution and we accept that," the board said in its announcement of his resignation last night.

There was no mention of a financial arrangement involving Mr Wolfowitz, or of Ms Riza's future at the bank.

Officials said the bank would announce an interim head today, and immediately begin the nomination process for a new president.

The White House, which by tradition controls the selection of the bank president, said it would announce a new candidate soon.

Early contenders for the post were thought to include Robert Zoellick, who has served as deputy secretary of state as well as trade chief in the Bush administration, and Jim Leach, the former Republican congressman from Iowa.

Mr Wolfowitz's resignation ended a saga which convulsed the bank for weeks, opening a chasm between America and European members, after it emerged that he had engineered a $60,000 pay rise for Ms Riza in violation of bank rules.

The bitterness of the dispute was exacerbated by a fierce campaign by Mr Wolfowitz to shift some of the blame for that pay rise to other officials at the bank. In the end, he appears to have prevailed.

In its statement last night, the bank's board said: "A number of mistakes were made by a number of individuals in handling the matter under consideration", and that "the bank's systems did not prove robust to the strain under which they were placed".

In return, Mr Wolfowitz said he had concluded it would be in the best interests of the bank if he stood down.

"I am pleased that, after reviewing all the evidence, the executive directors of the World Bank group have accepted my assurance that I acted ethically and in good faith in what I believed were the best interests of the institution, including protecting the rights of a valued staff member," he said.

The end to the crisis at the bank will come as a relief to US and European governments, as well as to the institution's employees, who had bridled at the installation of Mr Wolfowitz, a man best known as the architect of the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq.

However, the nomination process for his replacement could ignite a new row over the current arrangements, where the US government chooses the head of the World Bank and European governments choose the head of the bank's sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.

"The US and other rich countries must now show that they are serious about good governance by allowing the next head of the bank to be appointed based on merit through an open, accountable process," said Bernice Romero, the advocacy director of Oxfam International.

The denouement to the Wolfowitz controversy was set in motion on Tuesday when the White House appeared to waver in its support for the bank president. By yesterday morning, Mr Wolfowitz's departure seemed only a matter of time.

At a press conference at the White House, President George Bush offered up a valedictory comment when asked if Mr Wolfowitz could continue to lead the institution. "I regret that it's come to this," Mr Bush said. guardian

Israeli gunships target Gaza for second day





Israel today launched air strikes in Gaza for a second day running in response to continued rocket attacks from Hamas militants.

A Palestinian hospital official said at least one man was killed and others were wounded when Israeli helicopter gunships fired on the militants after they launched a rocket across the border.

In another air strike, four Hamas fighters were killed when their base near Gaza's eastern frontier with Israel was hit by what local officials said appeared to be at least one missile from an F-16 jet.

Earlier this week Israel said it would respond to continued rocket attacks from Gaza. Over recent days, Hamas fighters have fired about 100 missiles. Eight improvised Qassam missiles struck Israel this morning, one hitting a house in the town of Sderot. Medics said there were minor injuries.

"Israel will take every defensive measure to stop these rocket attacks. We will defend our citizens against the rockets, against the weapons, against the Iranian-backed Hamas who are attacking Israel," the government spokeswoman Miri Eisen said.

The Israeli cabinet is to meet on Sunday to decide whether to escalate the military response. Last weekend the Israeli government, under strong pressure to stop the rocket attacks, decided against a major military operation, but the armed forces were given permission to step up targeted attacks against those firing rockets.

Meanwhile, fighting between Hamas and Fatah that has wracked Gaza since the weekend subsided under a truce. But clashes yesterday still killed at least four people - a day after 22 died in the worst battles during a year of internecine fighting.

Since the first violence a week ago, more than 40 Palestinians have been killed and a two-month-old Hamas-led national unity government has been pushed to breaking point.

Hamas, which won parliamentary elections a year ago, accused Israel of colluding with its rival Fatah in a battle for dominance in Gaza, a crowded strip of land with a population of 1.4 million people. Fatah brushed aside Hamas's charges, saying Palestinians must unite in the face of the Israeli onslaught.

The Israeli army denied its air attacks were connected to the factional violence, but security officials said the military had to respond to the rocket attacks on Sderot.

The attacks have complicated an already chaotic situation in Gaza, making the embattled Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, even more vulnerable to Hamas accusations that he is beholden to Israel.

With his aides citing security concerns, Mr Abbas cancelled a trip yesterday to Gaza for talks with the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh.

Meanwhile, the UN's new Middle East peace envoy said escalating violence in Gaza threatened to lead to a "rapid deterioration" in the situation and could wreck hopes of re-invigorated peace talks.

"The situation is very serious indeed," Michael Williams told the Financial Times. "If this level of violence continues, it will be increasingly difficult to contain politically and will threaten the very roots of the national unity government."

The factional fighting has worsened conditions for Palestinians hard-hit by western sanctions against the Hamas-led government. Israel has ruled out serious peace talks as long as Hamas refuses to recognise Israel and renounce violence. guardian

EU voices concern over Russian opposition arrests


Luke Harding in Samara - Friday May 18, 2007


The Kremlin today sent a signal of open defiance to the west as several opposition figures were arrested and western journalists detained as they attempted to fly to a summit between Russia and the EU.

Police held Garry Kasparov - the former world chess champion and a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin's regime - as he tried to board a flight from Moscow to the southern city of Samara.

Mr Kasparov was due to lead a demonstration by the Other Russia, a coalition of anti-Kremlin groups. They were protesting on the margins of the summit, hosted by Mr Putin and attended by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and other EU leaders.

Ms Merkel immediately voiced concerns that the Russian authorities were blatantly attempting to restrict freedom of speech.

"I am concerned about some people having problems in travelling here. I hope they will be given an opportunity to express their opinion," she told a news conference.

Her remarks came amid a fractious exchange at the news conference between Mr Putin and EU leaders over democratic freedoms and the government's treatment of critics - two of the many issues haunting EU-Russian relations.

The European commission president, José Manuel Barroso, said it was "critically important to ensure full respect" for "principles and values" that should be shared by all European countries. "And Russia is a European country," he added.

Mr Putin sought to turn the tables, questioning European police practices. Amid European criticism of beatings by police at recent protests in Russia, he demanded that those responsible for the death of a man during riots over the removal of a monument to a Soviet soldier in Estonia, an EU member, be brought to justice.

Police detained Mr Kasparov and Eduard Limonov, another opposition leader and a former head of the outlawed National Bolshevik party, for at least five hours earlier today.

They also refused to allow western journalists who had booked tickets through Mr Kasparov's United Civil Front movement - including the correspondents of the Daily Telegraph, the Wall Street Journal and a Dutch TV crew - to board the Aeroflot plane.

The Guardian, which had booked separately, was allowed to fly. The plane took off from Moscow's Sheremetyevo aiport 50 minutes late, without Mr Kasparov, and with 50 empty seats.

"Russia is not a democratic state," Mr Kasparov told the Guardian yesterday as a scrum of police officers surrounded him and confiscated his passport.

"It is an authoritarian regime. Putin is not a democrat. Europe's leaders need to address this issue. It is a ridiculous when a Russian citizen with a good biography is not allowed to travel."

Mr Kasparov said the Kremlin's attempts to stop the demonstration - the latest in a series of opposition protests ahead of parliamentary elections in December and a presidential poll next March - breached Russia's constitution.

He added that Russia was obliged, under international law, to allow freedom of assembly.

"We have no access to TV or parliament. The only way for the opposition to protest is through non-violent demonstration," he said.

After taking Mr Kasparov's passport, the police then disappeared and he and his supporters were left marooned next to an Irish pub.

Prior to today's rally, police also arrested several pro-democracy activists in Samara and raided the offices of the liberal Novaya Gazeta newspaper. They detained the deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Moscow, confiscated opposition newspapers and arrested Mr Kasparov's deputy, activists said.

Mr Kasparov was also detained at an anti-Kremlin rally in Pushkin Square, Moscow, last month.


guardian

Mom fights off shark with camera, saves kids

May 18: A mother, carrying her child in one arm, and a camera in the other, fights off a shark while wading in shallow water. MSNBC.com's Dara Brown reports.


CANBERRA, Australia - A woman bitten by a shark as she waded in knee-deep water at a remote Australian holiday beach told Friday how she fought off the predator with her camera to stop it from turning on her children.

The woman, Becky Cooke, 38, was bitten on the lower left leg on Wednesday as she was strolling in the shallows at Warra Beach, 683 miles north of Perth, in the Western Australia state.

She was carrying her three-year-old son Ethan at the time of the attack, and her 13-year-old son Brandon was walking alongside.
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"I started hitting it with my camera and shaking my leg trying to get it off," Cooke told reporters on Friday from a hospital bed in Perth.

"At first I thought something had just hit me, not bitten me," she said. "It let go. I took a couple of steps and fell into the water because my leg was pretty bad. As I fell into the water the sea just turned to blood," she said.

Fear for children
Cooke said she feared the shark might attack her children.

"Brandon came running over and I said to him "take Ethan' and he grabbed Ethan and ran back to shore."

Cooke suffered severe wounds to her calf and could lose her foot. Experts said a reef shark might have been to blame for the attack.

The beach is famous for its shallow, fringing corals and is popular with tourists visiting the Ningaloo reef marine park, which draws humpback whales, dolphins and dugongs.

Australia, where sharks are protected, has had a number of shark attacks in the past year.

In January, an abalone diver was partly swallowed head-first by a Great White Shark off the southeastern coast, but managed to fight his way free, suffering a broken nose and bite marks.

In December, a surfer off the southern coast survived an attack with minor injuries, while a 15-year-old boy swimming off a remote southwest beach had his leg bitten.

msnbc

IraqSide:Developments

Fadhila Leader Slams Iraqi Politicians
Brief Respite in Intra-Shi'ite Conflict in Southern Iraq
By ZEYAD KASIM Posted
The spiritual leader of the Islamic Fadhila Party, Ayatollah Sheikh Mohammed Al-Ya’qubi, delivered a scathing attack against Iraqi politicians who had entered Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion, describing them as “partners of murderous criminals in the responsibility for the blood of innocent Iraqis, the destruction of the country, and the pillage of its resources.” Speaking from Najaf, Ayatollah Al-Ya’qubi – a senior Shi’ite cleric and a former disciple of the late Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq Al-Sadr – said exile Iraqi politicians were responsible for the failure in the administration of post-war Iraq because they relied on incompetent, corrupt elements after they had deposed loyal, independent and efficient officials in government departments.

“One of the unforgivable mistakes committed by the Americans and Iraqi politicians, who divided positions among themselves in the conferences of London and Salah Al-Din, was their marginalization of Iraqis who remained in the country and did not leave despite all pressures, especially the devoted sons of the tribes who preserved the social, moral and cultural identity of this honorable nation,” the statement said. “This was forgotten or ignored by the exiled politicians, and they deluded the forces of occupation that they are the real Iraqis. They divided positions among themselves and exploited the naivety and good will of the Iraqi people, and they hid behind the cloak of the Marja’iya to continue marginalizing this oppressed nation with all its loyal, patriotic capabilities that is on par with those of the most advanced nations. One example of that was their brave stand following the 1991 war when they reconstructed the infrastructure – bridges, roads, electric power and water sanitation stations – in only four months, despite the unjust sanctions and their hatred of the ruling Saddamist regime, while the politicians of today, the “great” powers behind them, and the billions of dollars of the deprived people’s wealth have failed to preserve, let alone rebuild, what remained of that infrastructure.”

Al-Ya’qubi went on to list the characteristics of Iraqi politicians that have contributed to their failure as following: “They give preponderance to the state that they came from, or which they hold its nationality, or where their families still reside, more than their belonging to Iraq, and when the interests of Iraq clash with the interests of that state, they give it preference, even when they hold the highest positions in the government; they regard authority and their political position as a source of power and financial perks, so they set out to plunder and greedily fill their pockets and accounts and those of their followers, with no effort to use it to serve people and rebuild the country; they have cocooned themselves inside the Green Zone and have not mingled with the people or experienced their hardships; and their condescending and patronizing outlook when dealing with Iraqis who have remained in the country, bearing the brunt of the tyrant.”

The Islamic Fadhila Party, the same as other Shi’ite parties, had taken part in the last two elections as part of the United Iraqi Alliance. The party’s 15 members withdrew from the bloc in March 2007 citing its disillusionment with sectarian politics and vowing to operate as an independent bloc. The party has since come under attack by SIIC and the Sadrist Movement for its secession. In the Basrah governorate, SIIC led a local drive to oust the Fadhila governor Mohammed Musbih Al-Wa’ili.

The Nasiriya News Network reports that life has returned to normal in Nasiriya following clashes between Mahdi Army militiamen and the Iraqi Army days ago. Sheikh Sadiq Al-Abadi, an official from the Martyr Sadr Bureau of Nasiriya, said an agreement has been reached to end hostilities and to keep armed elements off the streets and to release detainees. Al-Abadi also denied news reports that the crisis was solved by the intervention of Ayatollah Sheikh Al-Ya’qubi. Sources in Nasiriya had reported earlier that the negotiations between the two parties took place in the Fadhila Party headquarters. An unnamed Mahdi Army commander, who identified himself as a member of the “cultural supervision committee,” said the clashes were with a specific battalion of security forces in Nasiriya, and were not directed against all security forces in the governorate.

In Diwaniya, WNA News reported that Governor Khaleel Jaleel Hamza held a press conference today announcing a “pact of honor” to end the violence that has ravaged the southern city for over two months. The Sadr Bureau representative in the city and Sadrist MPs Nassar Al-Rubai’i and Falah Shanshal signed the agreement, which provided that foreign troops stay out of Diwaniya and that security responsibilities be assigned to Iraqi forces.

Father Timathaus Esha, caretaker of the Saint Shimoni Church in Dora, southern Baghdad, said Christians are still facing persecution in the Tu’ma, Iskan, Mu’alimeen, Asia, Shurta and 60th Street neighborhoods of the district, while the situation in the Athuriyeen, Jam’iya and Sahha areas is relatively stable. Interviewed on the phone by Assyrian news agency Ankawa, Father Esha said the majority of Dora’s Christians have abandoned the district for safer parts of the capital, the Kurdish north or have left the country, following a campaign of intimidation by Sunni extremists aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq insurgent group over the last few weeks. Father Esha added that his church is the only remaining church in the district that continues to perform Sunday service. The churches and monasteries of Mar Yohanna, Mar Ya’qub, Al-Rasulain, Mar Georges, Mar Zayya, Mar Bahnam and Mar Matti are all closed or abandoned.

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