Uranium Stockpile Removed From Iraq In Secret U.S. Mission
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans. The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions. Fox News

Both Left And Right Pile On Obama
U.S. presidential candidates historically steer to the political middle once nominated, but Democrat Barack Obama's unabashed appeal to centrist American voters has further opened the door to Republican claims his message of change only applies to the positions he has taken in the past. Perhaps most damaging was Thursday's statement in North Dakota, where he said he would reassess his stand on the Iraq war after he visits the front later this summer for briefings from American military commanders. Republicans tried to play that as an expedient political flip flop — a signal Obama was moving away from his vow to withdraw all combat troops within 16 months of taking office, a defining issue of his campaign. MSNBC
 

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Obama Says He's 'Been Very Consistent' On Iraq
Sen. Barack Obama, speaking on board his campaign plane as it headed to St. Louis on Saturday, continued to defend his position on Iraq -- and questioned reporters' parsing of his words. Sen. Barack Obama speaks on his Iraq policy aboard his campaign plane headed to Missouri on Saturday.  "I am surprised at how ... the press ... I'm not trying to dump on you guys, but I'm surprised at how finely calibrated every single word was measured," Obama said. "I wasn't saying anything that I hadn't said before. That I didn't say a year ago. Or when I was a U.S. senator. If you look at our position, it's been very consistent. The notion that we have to get out carefully has been a consistent position," he said. CNN
VOA VIEW: Obama's positions change with the weather.

50,000 South Koreans Protest Against U.S. Beef
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in South Korea's capital Saturday against U.S. beef imports, as a pro-government group staged a counter rally calling for an end to weeks of sometimes-violent protests. Police estimated that 50,000 people jammed a plaza in front of Seoul's City Hall and an adjacent 14-lane boulevard, holding candles and anti-government signs. The protesters, including Catholic priests and Buddhist monks, sang songs and chanted slogans. MSNBC

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Panama Says No To U.S. Military Base
Panama has ruled out hosting a U.S. military base to replace one in Ecuador which is being reclaimed by the Quito government, a senior Panamanian official said on Friday. Panama -- along with Peru and Colombia -- had been tipped as a possible site to replace the Manta air base in western Ecuador, a key strategic asset in Washington's campaign to stop Latin American cocaine from reaching the United States. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, a close ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, has vowed to cut off his arm before allowing Washington to retain the base when the current lease runs out in 2009. The U.S. military has said it would like to find another site to retain counter-narcotics capabilities. Reuters

U.S. Allowed Korean Massacre In 1950
The American colonel, troubled by what he was hearing, tried to stall at first. But the declassified record shows he finally told his South Korean counterpart it "would be permitted" to machine-gun 3,500 political prisoners, to keep them from joining approaching enemy forces. In the early days of the Korean War, other American officers observed, photographed and confidentially reported on such wholesale executions by their South Korean ally, a secretive slaughter believed to have killed 100,000 or more leftists and supposed sympathizers, usually without charge or trial, in a few weeks in mid-1950. CBS News

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Damp Weather Helps California Firefight
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Saturday promised the help of hundreds of National Guard troops to help crews battling wildfires threatening homes around the state. The governor visited the Goleta command post of a blaze that has burned 13 square miles of brush in Santa Barbara County, prompting an evacuation order for thousands of homes. The fire was 24 percent contained as of Saturday afternoon. Schwarzenegger said many firefighters have worked days without sleep and need a chance to rest. He's called up 400 National Guard troops for fire training. Fox News

Iran's Uranium Program Remains Unchanged
Iran's nuclear program remains unchanged, a government spokesman said Saturday, indicating that Tehran has no plans to meet a key Western demand that it stop enriching uranium. Gholam Hossein Elham's insistence that Iran would not change the central part of its controversial program came a day after Iran sent the European Union its response to an international proposal to curb its program in exchange for economic incentives. The content of the response has not been made public. CBS News

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U.S. And Japan To Discuss Next Steps In Six-party Talks
President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will discuss the next steps in the six-party talks over North Korea's nuclear status when they meet on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Japan, a White House official said on Saturday. Leaders of the United States, Japan, Russia, China, North and South Korea -- the members of the six-party talks -- will need to decide "how we will do verification of the declaration" submitted by North Korea on its intent to proceed with the dismantling of its nuclear weapons program, the official said. Reuters

World's Leaders Don't Stand So Tall
 The giants of world politics are assembled in Toyako, Japan, for the G-8 summit this weekend, but while they may be big-time players, most of them wouldn't stand out in a crowd. Many of the world's leaders are actually quite short.Just one, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, breaks the 6-foot barrier. Five of the world leaders aren't even 5'6" tall. President Bush can count himself among the more imposing of the heads of government: He's 5'11", and a nice pair of cowboy boots would easily lift him over 6 feet. Among the leaders gathered this weekend, Russia's little big man, President Dmitry Medvedev, brings up the rear at only 5'2". ABC News

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Iran Defiant On Right To Nuclear Power
Iran's government spokesman on Saturday reiterated its right to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes, a state-run news agency reported. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has suggested that Iran would never launch an unprovoked attack on Israel.  Gholam-Hossein Elham made the remark to reporters a day after Iran delivered a response to a world powers proposal that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment in exchange for economic and other incentives, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. World leaders, such as those from the West, the U.N. Security Council and Israel, have been suspicious that Iran is using its nuclear program to develop weaponry. CNN
VOA VIEW: Iran, Syria, Egypt, Jordan or Saudi Arabia with nuclear would be disastrous to the world.

Americans’ Unhappy Birthday: ‘Too Much Wrong’
Even folks in the Optimist Club are having a tough time toeing an upbeat line these days. Eighteen members of the volunteer organization's Gilbert, Ariz., chapter have gathered, a few days before this nation's 232nd birthday, to focus on the positive: They use words such as "terrified," "disgusted" and "scary" to describe what one calls "this mess" we Americans find ourselves in. Then comes the list of problems constituting the mess: a protracted war, $4-a-gallon gas, soaring food prices, uncertainty about jobs, an erratic stock market, a tougher housing market, and so on and so forth. Las Vegas Sun

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'Gaza Truce In Danger Without Progress On Schalit'
Israel warned Saturday that any delay by Hamas on contacts over a prisoner swap involving the release of captured soldier Gilad Schalit may torpedo the Egyptian-mediated Gaza Strip truce agreement reached last month. The warning followed an announcement by Hamas on Friday that it had decided to suspend talks over the release of Schalit because Israel was not abiding by the cease-fire. But an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas was already violating the terms of the truce by permitting sporadic hostile fire from Gaza into Israel and violating the Schalit clause could torpedo the whole deal. Jerusalem Post

Gunmen Kill Afghan MP In Kandahar
An Afghan member of parliament has been assassinated in Kandahar province, officials have said. Habibullah Jan was shot dead after visiting an Afghan army base in Zhari district, where Taleban militants have been active, the officials said. Separately, in Helmand province, officials said 10 Taleban died when their own bomb exploded prematurely. Elsewhere, US and Afghan officials gave conflicting reports of an air strike which locals said left 22 people dead. Mr Jan was reported to be the 10th MP to be killed since parliament was elected in 2005, following the expulsion of the Taleban from power. BBC News

Church Schism Widens Over Women Bishops
Divisions appeared to widen yesterday between senior Church of England clergy on opposite sides of the debate over the consecration of women bishops, as the issue dominated the agenda at the General Synod. The Synod has already agreed to the principle of women bishops, but has yet to decide what should be done to appease the 1,300 clergy who are threatening to leave the Anglican Church over the issue. A debate on what special arrangements might be made for objectors to the idea has been tabled for tomorrow, but a final decision was looking unlikely last night as bishops called for further research to be carried out. Independent News

Shell Ready To Quit Zimbabwe As Mugabe Cronies Hoard Fuel
Shell was considering pulling out of Zimbabwe last night amid claims that President Robert Mugabe was reserving the distribution of fuel at petrol pumps for party supporters. A source at the oil giant told The Observer it was looking at a plan to halt activities in the country, which are overseen in a joint deal with BP. One option being canvassed is for Shell to sell its stake to a third party. Meanwhile both the UN Security Council and the European Union are drafting tougher sanctions aimed at members of the regime and their families, but probably stopping short of wider economic sanctions that some British politicians and Zimbabweans are calling for. Guardian

Spanish Animal Protesters Target Bull Run In Pamplona
Campaigners against bullfighting are planning to step up activities in an effort to mobilise the majority of Spaniards who claim to have no interest in the sport. The annual running of the bulls begins in Pamplona today and is certain to attract thousands of tourists from around the world, though a recent poll for Gallup in 2006 found that 72 per cent of Spaniards have no interest in bullfights. In the past the festival of San Fermín has attracted nude protests from activists. But within Spain a radical wing of the anti-bullfighting movement has begun to stage more confrontational demonstrations in the hope of gaining a higher profile. Guardian
 
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