To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Infobeat News items
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 08:26:53 -0500

*** Supreme Court will be busy in April

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court, working through what likely will
become a historic 1999-2000 term, has an April argument calendar
loaded with high-profile cases. The fate of the famous Miranda police
warnings, the Boy Scouts' ban on homosexuals and state bans on
"partial-birth abortions" all go before the justices. The court also
will hear arguments over California's "blanket primary" policy and
state employees' protections under a key anti-bias law. The April
calendar, announced Friday, features 12 of the 77 cases to be decided
before the term ends in late June or early July. Arguments in the 65
others have been heard since the court term began in October. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2564386182-56c

*** Barak: Expect peace outline by May

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel and the Palestinians will likely reach a
framework agreement for a final peace treaty in May - three months
past the original deadline, Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday.
Such an agreement would ultimately dismantle Jewish settlements in
the Gaza Strip, a senior minister in Barak's Cabinet said, the latest
sign the government is preparing its public for uprooting
settlements. The agreement was to have been reached last week, but
negotiations are stalled over the location of an interim withdrawal
from the West Bank. In addition to settlements, the accord is to
tackle tough issues like the status of Jerusalem and the fate of
Palestinian refugees. Barak told his Cabinet Sunday the framework
accord would likely be ready in three months. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2564441840-327
*** Also: Barak renews vow to leave Lebanon, see
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2564447292-96e

*** Russia wants equal NATO treatment

MOSCOW (AP) - A top general said Saturday that Russia should restore
relations with NATO, but only on the basis of equality. After nearly
a year of tension over the wars in Yugoslavia and Chechnya, Russia
and NATO announced this week that they are restoring ties. Col. Gen.
Valery Manilov, Russia's deputy chief of staff, said Russia and NATO
should resume full-fledged cooperation on an equal footing in the
evaluation, drafting and implementing of decisions involving European
security. "It is necessary to implement in practice the idea of
partnership which calls for equal participation in assessment of
crisis situations," Manilov said. "This system should take past
lessons and mistakes into account and prevent them in the future," he
said. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2564422553-fd2

*** Parents can check grades on the Web

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - With a few mouse clicks and a password,
Cynthia Banner is keeping track of her son's progress in high school.
She has joined a growing number of parents across the nation who are
able to bypass their kids and go to Web sites that post daily grades,
attendance records, summaries of lesson plans, disciplinary reports -
anything a teacher might keep in a grade book. Slackers have no
refuge in privacy - or excuses. "The days of Mom not knowing what
goes on in French class are over," said Banner, whose son, Rich, is a
freshman at Menchville High School in Newport News, Va. Thousands of
teachers are using such Internet postings, and they are changing
relationships among students, teachers and parents in radical ways.
See http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2564441856-d60

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Saddam's elite troops prime poison missiles
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 16:08:50 -0500

February 20 2000

Saddam's elite troops prime poison missiles

Marie Colvin and Uzi Mahnaimi

AN IRAQI defector last week provided the first real evidence that Saddam
Hussein has continued building his clandestine chemical weapons since
United Nations inspectors left Iraq more than a year ago.

The defector said his unit had delivered warheads to a secret launch site
where they were loaded with chemicals, then returned them to their hiding
place in the Baghdad area. The operation appeared to be a "practice run"
for a future attack.

The information confirms suspicions that Saddam has used the absence of
UN inspectors to revive his dream of a non-conventional arsenal that would
allow him to dominate the region.

A military source who reviewed the defector's testimony said: "It seems
that he is credible. From the terms he uses, this is obviously a man who is
knowledgeable about this subject." The source called the information
"horrifying, but maybe not so surprising".

The defector, whose name is being withheld for security reasons, is
travelling with his wife and children to what he hopes will be a better
life in another Arab country. Now 37, he has served in the Iraqi army since he
was 17 and until his defection worked in Amn al-Has, Saddam's special
security organisation.

The elite force's responsibilities include espionage, counter-espionage and
putting down rebellions. But the defector said that in recent years his unit
was mostly concerned with hiding non-conventional weapons from UN inspectors
who, under the terms of the agreement that ended the Gulf war, were charged with
finding and destroying Saddam's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons
and missiles with a range of more than 150 miles.

The defector's unit had been trained since 1990, he said, to guard the
hidden sites of the warheads and ballistic missiles and to deliver the
warheads to launch sites.

During the Gulf war, he said, Iraq had come far closer to launching a
missile strike with chemical and biological weapons than had ever been
realised.

In 1990, he and his comrades had loaded four trucks with chemical and
biological warheads and driven them to a secret launch site. However, none
of the missiles was launched. It was reported later that the United States
warned Tariq Aziz, then foreign minister, that it would respond with a
nuclear strike if Saddam launched chemical or biological weapons at the
Desert Storm troops.

The defector's recent orders reveal that Saddam has retained the lethal
chemical weapons of sarin and a related gas called GF. "The last time we
trained on the warheads was just last summer," he said.

"We collected from a site near Baghdad six warheads containing sarin and
also GF. We drove the trucks to a remote desert location, where the experts
prepared the warheads. I know that the warheads contain one component of
the sarin gas and the GF gas.

"For safety reasons, the rest has to be added a short time before the
actual launch. In the morning we returned the warheads to the Baghdad
region."

The defector said he was told that the weapons he transferred were a type
called "muzdawage", Arabic slang for binary weapons.

Intelligence experts suspect Saddam has not just stepped up his
manufacturing programme of chemical and biological weapons but has also
moved his arms cache since UN inspectors were forced out of Baghdad in
December 1998, triggering four days of bombing by American and British
jets.

A new inspection body, the UN monitoring verification and inspection
commission (Unmovic) has yet to begin work in Iraq, but faces immediate
problems when it does. Iraq says it has completely disarmed and will not
co-operate with any more inspectors.

Military sources believe Saddam has rebuilt hundreds of military and
industrial sites bombed in 1998. "He has had a lot of time to operate
without inspections," one source said.

The London Sunday Times
http://www.the-
times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/02/20/stifgnmid02003.html?999

via: bible_prophecy-news@onelist.com

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========
To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Feb 22, 2000 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 16:19:02 -0500

8:00 PM Eastern

 PBS - SECRETS OF LOST EMPIRES: A NOVA MINISERIES - "Roman
   Bath" - Researchers describe the advanced technological
          design of the Roman baths.(CC)(TVPG)

 A&E - BIOGRAPHY - "Queen Noor: Between Two Realms" -
   American Lisa Halaby marries Jordan's King
          Hussein.(CC)(TVG)

9:00

 PBS - NOVA - "Lost Tribes of Israel" - Advances in
   genetics lead to the investigation of an African as a
   possible member of the Lost Tribes of
          Israel.(CC)(TVG)

 TLC - TURNING POINT - "Animal Transplants: Madness or
   Miracle?" - Forrest Sawyer examines animal transplants,
   speaking with baboon bone-marrow recipient Jeff Getty and the
   mother of baboon heart recipient Baby
          Fae.(CC)(TVPG)

10:00

 NBC - DATELINE NBC - Doctors accidentally implant a
          couple's embryo in another woman.(CC)

 PBS - FRONTLINE - "War in Europe" - Kosovo refugees,
   members of the U.S. special forces, diplomats and political
          leaders describe the aftermath of war.(CC)

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