Snow in Baghdad, possibly the first time recorded, although the history of Baghdad is a long one. The photo was taken by the US, possibly because the media might feel the news too positive for their domestic audience. Yet another reason Global Warming preachers have amended their hysteria to 'Global Climate Change.'
Mr Bush has announced the hope that there will be significant progress towards a Palestinian State before the end of the year. Syria, and a liberal Egyptian news paper hope fighting continue so as to prove Mr Bush wrong.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Bush Calls for Peace Enemy Wants War
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Snow in Baghdad 'sign of peace'
Neil Varcoe & AAP
Snow has fallen in Baghdad today for the first time, and delighted residents have declared it an omen of peace.
The streets of the capital were largely empty as big, thick, wet flakes fell this morning.
60-year-old local Hassan Zahar says it's the first time the city's seen snow.
He says the snow means peace and everyone should enjoy it.
Local policeman Murtahda Fadhil has declared the snow a new sign of the new Iraq.
But the snow didn't last long, with temperatures around freezing, it mostly melted into grey puddles.
Bush sees hope for Mideast peace but warns on Iran
from livenews.com.au
US President George W Bush is hoping to broker a peace agreement in the Middle East before he leaves office early next year.
Bush has held a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem overnight.
He says he believes it's in the long-term security interests of Israel, and in the interest of everyone, that his vision of a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict comes into being.
He says it's essential for people to understand the United States can't dictate the peace process, but they do want to help.
“The only way to have lasting peace, the only way for an agreement to mean anything is for the two parties to come together to make a difficult choice, but we’ll help.”
Arab press pours scorn on Bush peace vision
from news.com.au
ARAB commentators poured scorn on US President George W. Bush's vision of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal within a year, with some calling him a liar and full of hollow words.
"All that comes from the White House are hollow words... then the pressure exerted by Washington on Israel amounts to zero," the official Syrian newspaper Ath-Thawra said.
Mr Bush concluded his visit to Israel and the West Bank - the first by a serving president since 1998 - by predicting the signing of a Middle East peace treaty before his term expires in January 2009.
He urged both sides to make the "difficult choices" which would allow the creation of a Palestinian state and the end of Israel's four-decade occupation of Arab land, with a deal resolving the key issues of their conflict - Jerusalem, borders, refugees and settlements.
But in Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, liberal opposition newspaper Al-Wafd described Bush as "the most hateful visitor" and a "war criminal".
"After all the destruction you have caused and which your country continues to cause, you have wished to end your rule by playing the role of peacemaker," the paper said.
"But you are lying as you have lied before to the people of the Middle East and to your own people."
Many in the Arab world question whether the United States, as Israel's closest ally, can act as an honest broker and ensure Israel abides by its commitments.
"Before and during his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Mr Bush more than once urged Israel to stop settlement expansion and called for the creation of an independent Palestinian state," Ath-Thawra said. "These are only beautiful words of peace."
Relations between Damascus and Washington have been frosty for several years and although Syria took part in the US conference in November that revived the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Syrian track remains frozen.
But even a commentator in Jordan, a close US ally, had harsh words for Mr Bush.
Political analyst Rami Khouri said Washington's refusal to accept the verdict when groups like the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas were elected to power, left Bush open to accusations of hypocrisy.
"If you preach majority rule and the rule of law as a desirable global norm, but refuse to respect it when Israeli interests are concerned, you come across as a hypocrite, at best, and a deceitful cheat, at worst," he said.
Palestinian refugees also turned on the US president in a camp in southern Lebanon, where demonstrators set fire to Israeli and US flags and one carried a banner with the slogan, "Bush the killer, you are unwelcome in Palestine."
Dubai's Gulf News, in a front-page letter to Bush, launched a stinging attack on his administration's policy in the Middle East, chiefly its support for Israel despite the "oppression" of the Palestinians.
"We realise that containing Iran, selling more weapons and securing cheap oil supplies are the main issues on your mind as you tour the region," the paper said, dismissing Mr Bush's "claim" to want to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"As for... the promise of democracy and human rights, which you are expected to raise in your official talks in the region... your dreadful record on both gives you no moral right to lecture others,'' said the daily, which listed a litany of alleged rights violations in Iraq and elsewhere.
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