News Report: Insurgent Attacks Down

ByABC News
April 15, 2005, 1:36 PM

April 15, 2005 --

Analysis: Gains in Iraq, But No 'Tipping Point'
Despite recent bombings and a kidnapping, insurgent attacks are down as are numbers of U.S. troops wounded. (CS Monitor)

Iraq Hit By Riot And Bomb Attacks
Prisoners at Iraq's largest U.S.-run jail have rioted, and bombers in Baghdad attacked US and Iraqi convoys. (BBC)

A Trail of Pain From a Botched Attack in Iraq in 2003
A chain of errors and poor judgment contributed to one of the worst cases of "friendly fire" during the invasion of Iraq. (NY Times)

Italy In Row With U.S. Over Shot Spy
Italian investigators clash with Americans over plans to absolve US soldiers of blame for death of Italian spy Nicola Calipari. (The Guardian)

U.N. Officials Cited in Oil-For-Food Case

Two high-ranking U.N. officials have been cited in a U.S. criminal complaint against a South Korean businessman who was at the center of a 1970s congressional corruption scandal and is now accused of accepting millions of dollars from Iraq related to the U.N. oil-for-food program. (AP)

U.S. and U.K. Blamed For Oil Scandal
The U.S. and Britain are partly to blame for the scandal enveloping the U.N. oil-for-food programme, Secretary General Kofi Annan has said. (BBC)

Timeline: Oil-for-Food Scandal
The oil-for-food programme (OFF) was set up to allow Iraq to sell its oil in return for humanitarian relief, so it would not breach sanctions imposed after the first Iraq war. (BBC)

Q&A: Oil-For-Food Scandal
Since Saddam Hussein was toppled in April 2003 evidence has emerged of corruption within the oil-for-food (OFF) programme administered by the U.N. (BBC)

West Nations Try to Deport Terror Suspects
The United States, Britain, the Netherlands and Canada rely on "flimsy" diplomacy in attempts to send foreign terror suspects back to countries that routinely use torture against their prisoners, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Friday. (AP)

Terror Trail That Led From Algeria To London

The complex and lengthy trail that led to Kamel Bourgass's convictions began when detectives launched an investigation, following the 9/11 attacks, into a number of loosely-aligned north African al-Qaida sympathisers living in Britain. (The Guardian)

U.S. Presses Sudan for Action on Darfur Crisis

Envoy Suggests Steps, Including Western Forces. (Washington Post)

Iranian Opposition Challenges Bush To Keep His Word, Drop Terror Label

Hundreds of Iranian exiles linked to an opposition group Washington considers terrorist gathered to demand U.S. President George W. Bush support them in their efforts to unseat the Islamic regime in Tehran. (AFP)

Guantanamo Detainee Wins Order Against Transfer

A prisoner at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has won a court order blocking the U.S. government from transferring him to another country without first giving his lawyers a chance to challenge the move. (AP)

Building A New Iraqi Government
Iraq's new rulers should get a move on but democracy won't be built overnight. (The Economist subscription required)

History Lesson For The 'War On Terror'
The Thirty Years' War was one of the most complex and brutal in European history, killing millions in battle or by malnutrition and disease, and putting into motion unpredictable forces whose effects would be felt for centuries. Many parallels can be found between that 17th-century conflict and the 21st-century "war on terror". (Asia Times)

Can the Spy Agencies Dig Out?
"You have a blank slate" to fix the CIA and other spy agencies, Sen. Pat Roberts told the new director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, this week. And that's true to a frightening extent. The future of U.S. intelligence is up for grabs, almost literally. (Washington Post)

Airports 'Desperate' for Access to Watch Lists to Screen Illegals From Workforce
More than two years after the FBI began running background checks on airport workers, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) still does not check the immigration status of the workers the airport employs even though airports themselves have repeatedly asked the department to do so. (Congressional Quarterly)

The American-Islamic Debate Shifts Slowly, Positively
The center of gravity of the public debate about the Arab-Islamic world, and between Americans and Muslims, is slowly shifting. It is moving away from wars for regime change and clashes of civilizations, into a discussion of democracy and reform. (The Daily Star)

The Arab Black Holes
The western publications and writings on the Arab and Muslims state of affairs inspire an unprecedented optimism. Yet, the Third Human Development report in the Arab world, recently issued by the UNPD inspires pessimism. (Al Hayat)

Darfur Can't Wait
For more than a dozen years before the Sudanese government began killing its citizens in the western region of Darfur a slaughter that continues it battled rebels in the south. (LA Times)

Fire and Rage in the Shadow of Abu Ghraib
Behind an attack on Iraq's infamous jail lies a simple, insistent demand: occupiers go home. (The Guardian)

Identity Thieves' Secret Weapon
Consumers, not data dealers, deserve controlling interest in their vital information. (NY Times)