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BBC NewsQuote:
A Chinese-born engineer found guilty last year of conspiring to export sensitive US defence technology to China has been sentenced to 24.5 years.
The court in California had also convicted Chi Mak, 67, of acting as a foreign agent and of making false statements to federal agents.
Mak had worked on submarine propulsion systems for defence contractor Power Paragon in Anaheim.
The FBI found defence CDs in luggage of Mak's relatives at Los Angeles airport.
Prosecutors had alleged that Mak gave thousands of documents to his brother, who handed them to Chinese authorities.
Hong Kong flight
Mak said during last year's six-week trial that he copied sensitive documents from Power Paragon and kept copies in his office.
Mak, a naturalised US citizen, said he had not realised at the time that making copies was illegal.
Mak was arrested in October 2005 in Los Angeles after FBI agents stopped his brother and sister-in-law as they boarded a flight to Hong Kong.
Investigators said they found three encrypted CDs in their luggage that contained documents including one on a propulsion system that could make submarines virtually undetectable.
Mak had pleaded not guilty to all charges. He was not formally charged with espionage as the information was not officially deemed to be classified.
Mak sought a new trial this year but his request was turned down.
ReutersQuote:
Iraqi security forces have fought fierce gunbattles with powerful Shi'ite militias in Basra in a major operation aimed at bringing the southern oil city under government control.
The operation targeted six districts in central and northern Basra where the Mehdi Army militia of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has a strong presence.
A Reuters witness in the city reported seeing columns of black smoke and hearing explosions and machinegun fire. Television pictures showed Iraqi troops running through empty streets and helicopters flying overhead.
"There are clashes in the streets. Bullets are coming from everywhere and we can hear the sound of rocket explosions. This has been going on since dawn," resident Jamil said by telephone as he cowered in his home.
The head of Sadr's office in Basra called for calm and negotiations to end the fighting.
The Mehdi Army, which has thousands of fighters, has kept a relatively low profile since Sadr called a ceasefire last August. But the militia has chafed at the truce and on Tuesday there were signs that the unrest was spreading.
Gunmen and police clashed in the southern city of Kut, where last week Mehdi Army fighters battled police. A Reuters witness said he could hear the sounds of gunfire. The streets were empty and shops closed. Police said a curfew had been imposed.
In Baghdad's Sadr City, a sprawling slum of about 2 million people that is Sadr's biggest stronghold, residents said armed Mehdi Army fighters had appeared on the streets and ordered Iraqi police and soldiers to get out of the district.
In several other districts, Mehdi Army militiamen continued what they called a "civil disobedience campaign", forcing shops to shut. Hundreds of protesters marched in two districts demanding the release of Sadrists in detention, witnesses said.
An Iraqi army commander in Basra said "many outlaws" had been killed in the operation to reassert government control over the semi-lawless city, whose surrounding oilfields hold 80 per cent of Iraq's oil wealth.
At Basra's al-Mawana hospital, police major Abbas Youssef said four bodies and 18 wounded had been received.
MALIKI IN BASRA
Major Tom Holloway, a spokesman for British forces in Basra, said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was in the city to oversee the operation.
"It will be very difficult for the central government to regain control," said Joost Hiltermann, an Istanbul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group think-tank.
"You have many armed groups that are looking to keep hold of their share of the oil wealth."
Sadrists and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the two most powerful Shi'ite factions in Iraq, have been vying for control of Basra, Iraq's second city and gateway to the Gulf, along with a smaller Shi'ite party, Fadhila.
Basra's oil fields are the source of most government revenues. Iraqi oil industry sources said the fields, which exported 1.54 million barrels of oil per day in February, were operating normally on Tuesday.
Iraqi army Major-General Ali Zaidan, the commander of Iraqi ground forces in the operation, said the offensive would continue "until we achieve our target".
"The target is to wipe out all the outlaws. There were clashes and many outlaws have been killed," Zaidan said, adding that he had no death toll.
The operation was launched after Maliki, accompanied by his defense and interior ministers, arrived in the city on Monday vowing to reimpose his government's control over the city.
"We are ready to negotiate," said Harith al-Ithari, the head of Sadr's office in Basra, calling for calm and accusing Maliki's government of trying to crush the Sadrist movement.
The British military said no British ground forces were involved in the operation, but warplanes from the US-led coalition were carrying out aerial surveillance.
Iraqi security forces took control of Basra from British forces in December, although 4,100 British troops remain at an airbase outside the city to offer assistance if needed.
ReutersQuote:
Israel will let Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deploy hundreds of his security forces in the West Bank city of Jenin after they complete US-funded training in Jordan
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak will inform Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of the decision when they meet on Wednesday, the officials said about a move that could blunt US frustration with Israel and boost slow-moving peace talks.
Israeli officials said the planned deployment in Jenin, in the northern West Bank, could include up to 500 to 600 men. Palestinian forces took up positions in the larger West Bank city of Nablus in November as part of a law-and-order campaign.
Fayyad and some US officials have accused Israel of undermining Palestinian Authority security efforts in Nablus by refusing to curtail army raids into the city.
Both Jenin and Nablus have long been seen by Israel as bastions for anti-Israeli militant activity, although in recent months the cities have been relatively calm.
Israeli troops clashed with stone-throwing Palestinians in a Nablus refugee camp on Tuesday but no injuries were reported.
Israel has been under increasing US pressure to take steps to bolster Abbas, whose authority has been restricted to the occupied West Bank since Hamas Islamists routed his more secular Fatah forces and seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.
US-sponsored peace talks, launched at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland last November with the goal of reaching a statehood agreement before US President George W Bush leaves office next January, have shown little sign of progress so far.
In addition to allowing Abbas's forces to deploy in Jenin, Barak is expected to ease travel restrictions for Palestinian business owners within the West Bank.
But citing security concerns, Barak has balked at removing checkpoints as demanded by the Palestinians.
"CALCULATED RISK"
"It is clear we need to exhaust every possible option – if it does not conflict with Israel's security needs – to help the chances of improving the atmosphere in the talks with the Palestinians," Barak told reporters.
Speaking ahead of a weekend visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Barak voiced a willingness to take "a calculated risk" by easing restrictions on Palestinians.
Rice says neither Israel nor the Palestinians have done enough to fulfill their obligations under a long-stalled, US-backed peace "road map".
Under the plan, Israel is required to halt all settlement activities and the Palestinians are to rein in militants.
Nearly 700 members of Abbas's National Security Forces crossed into Jordan in January to begin the four-month-long, US-funding training course.
A separate group from Abbas's Presidential Guard has also gone to Jordan for advanced training.
Washington wants to train the backbone of a Palestinian gendarmerie that can both police civilians and rein in militants who could try to block any future peace deal.
While acknowledging improvement in some parts of the West Bank, Israel asserts that Palestinian security forces are still unreliable and include large numbers of anti-Israel militants.
Russia agreed last week to deliver armoured vehicles without mounted guns to Abbas's forces, as demanded by Israel, Israeli officials said.
But Israel has prevented equipment like body amour from reaching Abbas's men.
ReutersQuote:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/images/711092.jpg
SORRY: US President George W Bush has praised the courage of troops in Iraq, while expressing sorrow that the war has cost the lives of 4000 American soldiers.
US President George W Bush has expressed sorrow as the number of US troops killed in Iraq hit 4000, days after he marked the fifth anniversary of the unpopular war.
"One day people will look back at this moment in history and say 'thank God there were courageous people willing to serve' because they laid the foundation for peace for generations to come," Bush said after a roadside bomb killed four US soldiers, pushing the toll to the new milestone.
Recent opinion polls show around 60 per cent of US voters disapprove of Bush's handling of the war and roughly the same number believe the loss of American life was not worthwhile.
Last week, on the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion, the Republican president said the United States was on track for victory.
Democratic presidential contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton praised the heroism of US troops while promising that if elected they would come home.
Obama said the war should never have been waged and troops should be brought home soon. Clinton pledged to respond "by bringing a responsible end to this war, and bringing our troops home safely."
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who has said US troops could remain in Iraq for 100 years, told a veterans' group in Chula Vista, California, that his thoughts and prayers go out to families of troops killed in the war "every day, not just on the day that 4000 brave young Americans are sacrificed."
After a State Department briefing with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Bush, who will leave office in January, offered words of comfort for the families of the troops killed in Iraq.
"I hope their families know that citizens pray for their comfort and strength, whether they were the first one who lost their life in Iraq or recently lost their lives in Iraq," he told reporters.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said: "Every single loss of a soldier, sailor, airman and Marine is keenly felt by us in the department, by military commanders, by families, friends, both in theatre and here at home."
Precise Iraqi casualties are not known but the widely cited human rights group Iraq Body Count said this month that up to around 89,300 civilians have been killed since 2003.
The war has cost the United States $US500 ($NZ635) billion.
The president chaired a meeting of his National Security Council on Monday and was briefed by Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador in Baghdad, and Gen. David Petraeus, the top US military officer in Iraq.
Bush and his advisers are trying to decide whether to continue to reduce troop levels in Iraq after last year's increase, which is credited with lowering violence there.
Some experts are urging a pause in troop reductions to avoid losing the gains made in recent months.
The deaths that pushed the US toll in Iraq to 4000 happened as new violence burst out, including sustained mortar fire against the US-protected "Green Zone" in Baghdad.
Whitman said that despite the new casualties, violence overall was down compared to last year.
"Both coalition and Iraqi security force casualties are down significantly from about May of '07," he said. "Iraqi civilian casualties has also been on a downward trend since December of '06."
"Would we like to reduce the casualties to nothing? Of course we would. Are there still going to be casualties in the days ahead? Most unfortunately there will be."