Daily Read Board

What's a "read board", you ask? Back in the days when messages were transmitted between ships by radio, and before there were e-mail folders to route messages, they would get printed out and put on a big clipboard, called a "read board." Every officer had to read through all the message traffic on the board every day. This read board is a summary of the news I read at the start of the day.

United States

Rumsfeld: Detention Center Still Necessary - WASHINGTON (AP) - Suggesting that the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected terrorists will operate for years, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that such a detention center will be needed until the war on terror is over.

Senate GOP: Closing Gitmo Not the Answer - WASHINGTON (AP) - Prominent Senate Republicans said Tuesday that closing the Guantanamo Bay prison will not fix a U.S. image tarnished by allegations of American troops mistreating terrorism suspects.

Frist to force filibuster-ending vote - (Washington Times) - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said yesterday he will force another vote to end a filibuster of President Bush's pick to be ambassador to the United Nations at the end of this week, and called Democrats' recent letter requesting information "absurd."

Senators With Deep Pockets Eye White House - WASHINGTON (AP) - Senators eyeing the White House are a well-heeled lot. Republican leader Bill Frist, the Tennessee heart surgeon whose father founded a hospital chain, has blind trusts valued between $7 million and $35 million, a significant chunk of cash if he opts to use some of his finances to start a 2008 presidential bid.

Efforts Intensify to End Gay Soldier-Ban - NEW YORK (AP) - Critics of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy are gaining new allies, including a few conservative congressmen and a West Point professor, as they press on multiple fronts to overturn the ban on out-of-the-closet gays and lesbians in the armed forces.

N.J. Court Rules Against Same-Sex Couples - NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A state appeals court ruled Tuesday that New Jersey's Constitution does not require the recognition of gay marriage, rejecting the efforts of seven same-sex couples who sued the state to allow them to marry. The panel, in a 2-1 decision, affirmed a lower court ruling that said legislators must change marriage laws before same-sex couples can wed.

Army Deserter Back in U.S. 40 Years Later - WELDON, N.C. (AP) - Charles Jenkins, who deserted his U.S. Army unit and crossed into North Korea in 1965, arrived Tuesday in the United States for his first visit in 40 years.

International

Update: Sleeping giant of the Arab world awakes to democracy - Egypt’s version of the “Arab Spring”, as the democratic changes sweeping the region are known, is particularly significant because it has the strong encouragement of Washington.

Clerics Blocked Bid for Better US Ties - TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mohammed Khatami hoped to make icebreaking diplomatic overtures to the United States but was blocked by Iran's ruling clerics, his former vice president said, suggesting any such attempts by Khatami's successor would meet the same fate.

Iran's Ruling Clerics Feeling PressureTEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The overriding question of Friday's election is whether these conservative "mullahcrats" will be forced to surrender some influence and allow the new president a freer hand to shape policies - possibly including new diplomatic overtures toward the United States.

Russia: Al-Sadr Meeting Part of Dialogue - MOSCOW (AP) - Russia said Tuesday that talks between its ambassador to Iraq and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr were part of Moscow's dialogue with various political forces, while some analysts cast it as a Kremlin attempt to carve out an independent niche.

Suicide Bombers Kill 28 in Northern Iraq - KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) - A suicide bomber struck outside a bank as elderly men and women waited to cash their pension checks Tuesday, killing 23 people and wounding nearly 100 in this oil-rich northern city that has become a flashpoint for sectarian tension.

16 Terror Suspects Arrested in Spain - MADRID, Spain (AP) - Spanish police arrested 16 Islamic terror suspects in raids in several cities, including 11 suspected members of a group thought to have ties to Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq, officials said Wednesday.

N. Africans Joining Iraq Islamic Fighters - DAKAR, Senegal (AP) - Up to 20 percent of suicide car bombers in Iraq are from Algeria, a sign of growing cooperation between Islamic extremists in northern Africa and like-minded Iraqis, a senior U.S. military official said Tuesday.

Memo Suggests Oil-For-Food Link to Annan - UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is back in the spotlight over the scandal-tinged oil-for-food program after two e-mail memos dating from 1998 appeared suggesting he may have known about a multimillion-dollar U.N. contract awarded to the company that employed his son.

Wolfowitz Praises G8 Debt-Relief Deal - ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) - New World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz on Sunday praised a historic deal to cancel the foreign debt of some of the world's poorest nations and said he was hopeful debt relief was also on the way for Africa's biggest debtor, Nigeria.

Africans Wonder Whether Live 8 Will Help - NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - They'll be grooving to Coldplay in London, rapping along with Will Smith in Philly, dancing mbalax with Youssou N'Dour in Paris. But in African cities and villages, they'll be worrying about day to day survival - and questioning whether Western extravaganzas like the Live 8 concerts, however well intentioned, can help.

Donald Tsang Wins Hong Kong Leadership - HONG KONG (AP) - Veteran civil servant Donald Tsang effectively won Hong Kong's leadership race on Wednesday, filing papers that showed he had the solid backing of an election committee that picks the Chinese territory's leaders.

Indonesians Seek Cars With Explosives - JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesian soldiers were searching for five cars believed to be carrying explosives constructed by a Malaysian member of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group, Koran Tempo newspaper reported Monday.

Pirates in Malaysian Waters Surrender - KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Suspected Indonesian pirates hijacked a Malaysian-registered tanker Tuesday, held the crew hostage for nearly 12 hours and threatened to blow the vessel up, before surrendering to police and naval forces who laid siege on the ship, officials said.

Argentina Court Revokes Dirty War Amnesty - BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Hundreds of people could be charged with torture, disappearances and babynapping during Argentina's "Dirty War" against dissidents after the Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down amnesties passed in the 1980s.

Thanks to Mudville Gazette and Outside the Beltway for open posts.