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Iraqi Police Find Body That May Be Missing US Soldier

http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1795C04:0CD412E1D281094AB7CE342748B4A6549574F7DCC14957C0 Iraqi police say
the body was found floating in the Euphrates River in the Musayyib
area of Babil province Iraqi police have found the body of a man they
believe is one of three U.S. soldiers missing since May 12 and
believed captured by al-Qaida-linked terrorists.

Iraqi authorities say the body was wearing what appears to be a U.S.
military uniform and was found floating in the Euphrates River in
Babil province south of Baghdad. 

Iraqi police have turned the body over to the U.S. military, which is
investigating.

Thousands of U.S. troops and Iraqi forces are searching for the
missing American soldiers.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber killed 20 people in a restaurant in the
town of Mandali near the Iranian border.

In other developments, the U.S. military says seven soldiers and two
Marines were killed Tuesday in roadside bombings and gunbattles across
Iraq.

And a New York-based media rights group has urged Iraq's government to
reverse a ban on journalists from the immediate aftermath of bomb
attacks.

The head of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Joel Simon, said in
a letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki the ban appears to be
an attempt to limit media coverage of unwelcome news.

Iraq's government recently announced reporters will not be allowed at
a bombing site for one hour following an attack.  Reasons given for
the ban include protecting reporters from secondary attacks and
preserving evidence from attacks.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, Reuters and AFP.

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US Congress Likely to Approve Bill to Fund Iraq, Afghanistan Wars

http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1795BFC:0CD412E1D281094AB7CE342748B4A6549574F7DCC14957C0 Democrats have
dropped demands to include troop withdrawal timetable in funding
measure, expected to be approved by Friday U.S. congressional
Democrats have dropped their demands to include in a war funding bill
a timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. At the same time,
they are vowing to seek other ways to press the Bush administration to
change the course of the unpopular war. VOA's Deborah Tate reports
from Capitol Hill.

Harry Reid Congressional Democrats bowed to political realities in
making the key concession to the White House.

The House and Senate passed a bill to fund the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan last month, but President Bush vetoed it because it also
contained a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops by April
first of next year.

Mr. Bush and many Republicans argued that setting such a timeline
amounted to "a surrender date".

Although Democrats control both houses of Congress, they do not have
large enough majorities to override a presidential veto.

So Democratic leaders decided to strip the bill of the timeline in
order to pass a measure the president could sign.

With money for the Iraq war due to run out in the coming weeks,
Democrats did not want to be blamed for standing in the way of funding
the troops when they return to their home districts for a week-long
recess that is set to begin Friday.

Despite the concession, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada
refused to characterize the move as a defeat for Democrats, many of
whom strongly supported including the withdrawal timetable in the war
funding bill.

Reid said Democrats would try to attach a timeline to a defense bill
that will come before lawmakers later this year. "We are going to
continue focusing every day on the need to change direction in Iraq,
change the mission in Iraq," he said.

The Senate's top Republican, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky,
looked forward to completing the bill before lawmakers head out of
town for the Memorial Day holiday. "Hopefully, we will get through
this process before Memorial Day. I know that has been the desire of
the Majority Leader, to finish the bill, get the bill to the President
for his signature without a 'surrender date'. I think that is the
direction we are headed."

At the White House, spokesman Tony Snow refused to characterize the
Democrats' concession as a victory for the administration: "What will
be seen as a victory is providing, through the end of the fiscal year,
the funding and flexibility the forces need. That's what we've wanted
all along," he said.

Although details of the bill have yet to be worked out, lawmakers say
the measure would fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan
through September. It also is expected to include political and
security "benchmarks" for the Iraqi government to meet, including
passing an oil law and disbanding militias. If Iraqis fail to meet
those benchmarks, the president would have the authority to withhold
U.S. reconstruction aid to Iraq.

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Israel Launches Air Strikes on Gaza Amid New Truce Effort

http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1795C01:0CD412E1D281094AB7CE342748B4A6549574F7DCC14957C0 Operation targeted
suspected Hamas  weapons factories, warehouses Israel has launched
fresh air strikes in the Gaza Strip, wounding at least seven
Palestinians. As Robert Berger reports from VOA's Jerusalem bureau,
the attacks occurred as Palestinian leaders pushed for a new truce.

Palestinian children walk amid the rubble of a house, destroyed
following an Israeli air strike, in the Jabalia refugee camp in the
Gaza Strip, 23 May 2007Israeli aircraft attacked targets of the
Islamic militant group Hamas across Gaza including suspected weapons
factories and warehouses and other facilities. Now in its second week,
the air campaign is aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks. More
than 150 rockets have fallen on Israel over the past week, leaving the
border community of Sderot a virtual ghost town.

The rockets keep falling despite the air strikes, but Israeli
spokeswoman Miri Eisen says a major ground assault on Gaza is not on
the table.

"The military themselves are very clear on the fact that even a
full-scale invasion would not necessarily stop all of the rocket
attacks," said Eisen.

In a bid to end the fighting, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas traveled from the West Bank to Gaza for talks with Prime
Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. They are trying to restore a Gaza
cease-fire with Israel that collapsed last week after a five-month
lull in violence.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says the current fighting is not in
the interest of either side.

"I don't know to who's interest [is it] to undermine the cease-fire?"
asked Erekat. "To who's interest [is it] to push back to the cycle of
violence and counter-violence?"

The Palestinians have offered to halt the rocket attacks if Israel
would extend the Gaza cease-fire to also include the West Bank. But
Israel rejects the proposal on grounds that West Bank raids are
necessary to prevent suicide bombings in Israeli cities. Palestinian
militants say that leaves them no choice but to keep fighting.

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Lebanon Requests More US Aid Amid Tripoli Fighting

http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1795C00:0CD412E1D281094AB7CE342748B4A6549574F7DCC14957C0 US officials say
any new help would be in addition to more than $300 million in
military aid committed to Lebanon since last year The State Department
says the Lebanese government has asked the United States for
additional military aid amid the fighting between its forces and
Islamic militants near the northern port city of Tripoli. U.S.
security aid to Lebanon has increased sharply in recent years. VOA's
David Gollust reports from the State Department.

Lebanese special brigades patrol a street inside the Palestinian
refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in north Lebanon, 22 May 2007Officials
here won't say how much, or what kind of new aid the Lebanese
government is seeking. But they say an emergency request is under
consideration, and that any new help would be in addition to the more
than $300 million in U.S. military aid either delivered or committed
to Lebanon since last year.

Lebanon's relatively-small national army has been engaged since Sunday
in bitter clashes with militants of the al-Qaeda-linked Fatah al-Islam
group in a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli.

It is being described as the worst fighting involving only
Lebanese-based forces since the country's civil war in the 1980's.

At a news briefing, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said
that the conflict was not between Lebanese forces and mainstream
Palestinians, but rather with extremists who have insinuated
themselves into the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp:

"I see a lot of headlines about the fighting being between the
Lebanese government and a Palestinian refugee camp. Let's be clear.
This is a separate and violent extremist group that has embedded
itself in that refugee camp. It is a group that is affiliated with
al-Qaeda. The leader of this group was tried in absentia in Jordan for
the [2002] murder of American diplomat Laurence Foley. So this is a
very,very brutal group of people that the Lebanese armed forces are
dealing with," he said.

The United States provided Lebanon with $40 million in military aid
last year, most of it for vehicles, training and equipment to help the
government reassert control over its territory after the Syrian troop
withdrawal in 2005 and last year's conflict between Israel and
Hezbollah.

The Bush administration has asked for an additional $280 million in
military for Lebanon aid this year. But it is part of aid much larger
supplemental request for Iraq war spending that is tied up in Congress
and unlikely to be delivered soon.

Officials here say an emergency aid allocation for Lebanon, if
granted, might be taken from other aid accounts and might not require
approval by the full Congress.

In comments at a photo session with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl
Bildt, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States is
very supportive of the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fuad
Siniora, which she said is trying to protect its population and
sovereignty from what she termed a tough extremist foe.

Some news reports have suggested that Fatah al-Islam may have staged
the uprising at the impetus of Syria, which wants to impede efforts in
the U.N. Security Council to set up a tribunal on the 2005
assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in which
Syrian officials have been implicated.

Officials here and at the White House stopped short of directly
blaming Syria for the unrest. But White House Press Secretary Tony
Snow said the United States will not tolerate attempts by Syria,
terrorist groups or any others to delay or derail efforts by Lebanon
to solidify its sovereignty, or to seek justice in the Hariri case.

In his remarks here, Spokesman McCormack said efforts in the U.N.
Security Council to set up the tribunal are moving ahead with some
energy and that action on the issue can be expected within the next
week or two.

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Australian Taleban Back Home, Behind Bars

http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1795C02:0CD412E1D281094AB7CE342748B4A6549574F7DCC14957C0 David Hicks returns
to Australia after being detained by US in Guantanamo for five years
The first Guantanamo Bay detainee to be convicted of terrorism is back
in his home country, Australia. David Hicks, who had joined militant
groups in Kosovo, Kashmir and Afghanistan, pleaded guilty to
supporting extremism and now is in a maximum-security prison, serving
a sentence imposed by a U.S. military court. His return has sparked
considerable debate in Australia. Phil Mercer has been following the
story from Sydney.

Protesters welcome home David Hicks as he arrives at Adelaide's
toughest jail, 23 May 2007Supporters of David Hicks have portrayed him
as a misguided young man when he was captured in Afghanistan. They
believe his five-year detention without trial at Guantanamo Bay was
unfair.

Hicks returned to Australia this week to serve a nine-month sentence
at the Yatala prison in South Australia state.

His lawyer David McLeod was at the military air base in Adelaide when
his client arrived home.

Handout photo received 27 March, 2007 shows undated photo of
Australian David Hicks"David is well, and he enjoyed the trip," McLeod
said, "and he's very, very glad to be back on Australian soil. He
visibly was elated when we touched down at Edinburgh."

Hicks pleaded guilty in March to providing material support to
al-Qaida, including attending terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

Prosecutors said he tried to fight on the side of the Taleban against
the U.S-led forces that invaded Afghanistan after the al-Qaida attacks
on the United States in 2001.

Hicks' five years in the U.S. military prison in Cuba and the military
tribunal that convicted him have been roundly criticized in Australia
as violations of human rights. Among those angry over Hicks' case are
former Prime Minister Malcom Fraser and many academics and rights
activists.

Kevin Foley is the acting head of the South Australian state
government. He acknowledges the concerns about the long pre-trial
detention, but says Hicks belongs in prison.

"Notwithstanding legitimate concerns that Australians have held about
the time in which Mr. Hicks was detained before receiving what can be
considered any form of fair trial - very legitimate and understandable
concerns and shared by many - but let's also understand and be very
clear about this: David Hicks is no hero," he noted. "Mr. Hicks has
confessed to aiding and abetting al-Qaida and terrorist organizations.
David Hicks is a very foolish young man at best, an extremely
dangerous man at worst."

Australian Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says Hicks was treated
fairly. He says his government pushed U.S. authorities to deal with
the case swiftly.

Ruddock has praised Hicks' lawyers, including U.S. Marine Major
Michael Mori, who worked hard to have his client freed.

"One of the points I've made about that system is that the Americans
treat their military justice system very seriously," Ruddock said. "It
is part of their system of law. People like Major Mori participate in
defending people and nobody could complain about the way in which he
as a military officer - who believes in that military justice system,
participated in it."

The Australian public appears split over the Hicks case.

"I thought he was treated terribly and it's good to see that he's back
and he's in slightly better conditions," one woman said.

She expressed a commonly heard position here - that Hicks was made a
scapegoat.

But another woman was unhappy with the attention Hicks has received.

"I don't see why the media have really just glorified him," she said.
"He's been presented to us in a way that we should feel sorry for him.
… It's always about him being hard done by and I really don't see why.
I mean, he's a terrorist."

Hicks is due to walk free from prison on December 29.

When he is freed, the former kangaroo skinner will enter a challenging
world. He probably will be under police surveillance. And he may well
face continued scrutiny from the media, and a possibly hostile public.

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China Struggles as Foreign Criticism of Tainted Products Grows

http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1795BFD:0CD412E1D281094AB7CE342748B4A6549574F7DCC14957C0 While criticism of
China grows, the government in Beijing has yet to come up with
convincing measures for improving the country's food safety system
While criticism of China grows for its export of tainted food products
and other consumables, the government in Beijing has yet to come up
with convincing measures for improving the country's food safety
system.  Daniel Schearf reports from Beijing.

A shop keeper stamps on the bun as to celebrate the bun festival in
Cheung Chau island, Hong Kong Wednesday 23 May 2007American and
European Union officials this week expressed concern about China's lax
food safety enforcement and lack of transparency, after contaminated
pet food ingredients from China killed hundreds of dogs in North
America. 

The Dominican Republic has joined in the criticism, after it
discovered that thousands of tubes of toothpaste from China contained
a potentially deadly chemical used in engine coolants.  The republic's
authorities pulled the toothpaste from the shelves Tuesday, and have
launched an investigation. 

Hu Xiaosong is a professor at China Agricultural University in
Beijing.  He says China's food safety authorities have improved
surveillance of food product quality, but he says the still-developing
system is challenged by a poor legal structure.  He also says the
government has to deal with a huge population, and slow-to-react local
governments.

"If there are not enough good ground-level monitoring conditions, and
not enough funding guarantees, completely supervising so many
decentralized rural households and so many small and medium-sized
enterprises makes complete control truly difficult," Hu said.

Chinese officials Tuesday vowed to crack down on food safety violators
with harsher punishments, and to improve surveillance of food safety
standards.  But experts doubt the measures will substantially improve
food safety in a country that strictly controls information.

Despite the international outcry, media coverage in China of the
contaminated exports has been almost non-existent.

Chinese officials initially denied the products' origin, and were slow
to cooperate with American food safety officials who traveled to China
after the pet food scare. 

An editorial in the official China Daily newspaper criticized Chinese
food safety authorities' initial denial as "unprofessional" conduct. 
But the editorial in the English-language paper also asked for more
understanding from the international community.

David Zweig is director of the Center on China's Transnational
Relations at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.  He
says Beijing needs to stop censoring, and start informing.

"The Chinese government has not told people in China about this,"
Zweig said. "People have no idea that this has been going on ... 
Putting it in the China Daily does not help, because most Chinese do
not read the China Daily.  What they need is ...  they need it in
Chinese [language] newspapers, and on the news, and saying to people:
'Stop this."

Corruption in the food and drug approval process is one of China's
problems.  The former head of the country's Food and Drug
Administration is on trial in Beijing for accepting bribes to allow
substandard medicines onto the market. 

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Philippine Police Officer Charged in Connection with Election Violence
Incident

http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1795BFF:0CD412E1D281094AB7CE342748B4A6549574F7DCC14957C0 Police say men
barged into school used as voting and counting center, fired guns,
poured gasoline on ballot boxes, and set fire to building

Protesters shout slogans during a rally near the Philippine
International Convention Center, Wednesday 23 May 2007 in Manila,
Philippines Philippine police charge one of their own officers in a
gruesome election incident in which three people were killed when the
voting center they were in was set on fire.  This is just one of
dozens of politically motivated killings linked to the May 14 election
for thousands of local and national representatives. Douglas Bakshian
reports from Manila.  The incident occurred a day after the election
in Batangas province. Police say men barged into a school used as a
voting and counting center, fired guns, poured gasoline on the ballot
boxes, and set fire to the building. A teacher, a poll watcher and a
driver were killed. Police have charged inspector Robert Marinda and
seven others in the case. A witness identified the inspector, but he
denies the allegation.   Violence is a feature of Philippine
elections.  Police last week said about 130 people had been killed in
election-related violence, but now have lowered the figure to 41
confirmed politically motivated deaths.

They are still investigating dozens of other killings for election
links.  There have been some discrepancies in the vote counting, which
is done by hand.  A big one occurred in the southern province of
Maguindanao, where media reports say vote counters were ordered to
fill in ballots with the names of pro-government Senate candidates.

The Philippine election watchdog group, NAMFREL, says strange things
happened in the province.  NAMFREL Secretary-General Eric Alvia says
his monitors did not receive a single election return, or ER, from
Maguindanao officials. "It's a bit unusual because it happened
province-wide," Alvia said. "And there are 336,000 voters in
Maguindanao alone, why weren't they able to generate a single ER
[election return)]and provide it to us?"  The national Election
Commission suspended the vote count in Maguindanao and is awaiting a
report from the provincial election supervisor Friday on the matter.

So far votes have been tallied in about 80 percent of the nation's
precincts.  Unofficial returns put the opposition ahead in eight of
the 12 Senate seats nationally.  President Gloria Arroyo's supporters
are expected to win most of the House seats.  Final results are not
expected for at least another week. President Arroyo has called the
elections peaceful, free and fair. But a group called The
International Observers Mission said it recorded voter coercion, vote
buying and violence.  A similar assessment came from the Asian Network
for Free Elections, which observed voting in the Autonomous Region of
Muslim Mindanao.

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Amnesty International Delivers Somber Assessment of Human Rights in
East Asia

http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1795BFE:0CD412E1D281094AB7CE342748B4A6549574F7DCC14957C0 2006 report names
China, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma among countries where
security concerns, politicial turmoil has led to violations of human
rights  

Activists protest against alleged human rights violations by Indian
security agencies in  Indian portion of Kashmir, in Srinagar
(File)Amnesty International says East Asia's human rights development
fell far short of acceptable standards in 2006, despite vibrant
economic growth in the region. Joseph Popiolkowski reports for VOA
from Hong Kong.

The human rights group's report for 2006 singles out China for
increased harassment and repression of lawyers and journalists.
Amnesty also says Beijing stepped up its crackdown on religious
worshippers.

The report criticizes India, for justifying detention and torture in
order to maintain security.

Smaller Asia Pacific nations, including Sri Lanka, Thailand, and
Burma, were noted as places where political turmoil has led to
violations of human rights.

In Sri Lanka, peace talks with the rebel Tamil Tiger group collapsed,
leading to thousands of deaths, disappearances and displacements.

Madhu Malhotra, deputy program director for Amnesty's Asia Pacific
Regional Program, says the breakneck growth of Asian economic
powerhouses such as China and India cannot be sustained without a
commitment to human rights.

"India and China need to take human rights as seriously as they take
economic progress and political power," said Mahotra. "Unless they do
so, large numbers of the Asian population will be left behind and
there will be conflict, division and insecurity that will mar Asia's
economic success."

The report, released Wednesday, is Amnesty's annual look at the state
of human rights world wide. It is a mostly somber assessment, taking
aim at countries around the globe, in both the developed and the
developing world.

But it is not without its bright spots.

Nepal began a mostly peaceful transition to democracy in 2006 after
years of armed conflict.

And the report says grassroots human rights workers in countries such
as Nepal, India, the Philippines and China helped to advance economic,
social, cultural and women's rights last year.

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Scholars Examine Status of Women in Middle East

http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1795C03:0CD412E1D281094AB7CE342748B4A6549574F7DCC14957C0 Some scholars say
women in the Middle East and the Islamic nations of North Africa are
actively demanding a greater role in society The status of women in
the Middle East was the focus of a conference held at the Baker
Institute at Rice University in Houston Tuesday. Several panels
including a total of 20 scholarly experts discussed such issues as
education, politics, marriage, sexuality and reproductive health at
the day-long event. VOA's Greg Flakus has more from Houston.

Rouzegar (Times) work at the editorial of their newspaper (File)"
hspace=2
src="/english/images/afp_iran_women_journalists_23may07_210.jpg"
width=210 vspace=2 border=0>

Iranian journalists of newly published reformist daily, Rouzegar
(Times) work at the editorial of their newspaper (File)If there was
one clear theme at the conference it was that women in the Middle East
and the Islamic nations of North Africa are not passively living under
the thumb of patriarchal societies, but are actively demanding a
greater role in society. In spite of rigid rules in some nations that
restrict them, women have found ways of asserting their rights,
according to a number of academic observers.

Janine Clark, Associate Professor of Political Science at the
University of Guelph in Canada presented information about so-called
honor crimes against women in Jordan. She noted that pressure on the
government there to protect women has come from public protests
organized by women. She said women throughout the region face many
similar issues.

"If women have fewer rights than men and if they appear to be
second-class citizens, it is not because women have not tried to alter
the situation, nor is it necessarily because of the supposedly rigid
nature of patriarchy or Islam," said Clark. "Rather, we must look at
the authoritarian nature of the political systems in the region and,
to a lesser extent, to the political instability at large."

Valentine Moghadam, Director of Women's Studies at Purdue University,
argued that empowerment of women starts with access to education and
that women who have been educated are the ones who stand up to
authority.

"Women activists, who typically come from the more educated segments
of society, are challenging the status quo, voicing their demands for
equality in the family and society, and calling for women's economic,
political and social empowerment. This trend is seen across the
region, although the level of intensity and the organizational
approaches vary by country," said Moghadam. "Even relatively
conservative societies, such as Bahrain and Kuwait are feeling
pressure as activists demand that women receive their full rights as
full citizens."

She says educated women in the Middle East are leading movements that
call for egalitarian family laws, nationality rights for women,
criminalization of domestic violence, greater economic participation
and political rights.

One nation where there has been a tradition of educating women is
Iran. Shahla Haeri, Professor of Anthropology and Director of Women's
Studies at Boston University, noted that Iranian women have found many
ways of gaining access to education and good jobs, in spite of a
government and legal system that has thrown barriers in their path.

"Women have increasingly resisted the unfair treatment in social,
political and economic spheres and challenged the ethics of the
discriminatory political and legal practices that permeate their daily
lives," said Haeri.

She says women in Iran have used cyberspace to connect with others,
both inside and outside their country, and have successfully
maneuvered to avoid government attempts to restrict free dialogue on
web sites. She also noted that Iranian women have remained faithful to
their Islamic religion, while rejecting the formal, legalistic
interpretations that have come from the patriarchal authorities in
that country.

Tuesday's conference was the first of a series of conferences on the
status of women and human rights in the Middle East to be held at the
James Baker Institute at Rice University.

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