Iraqi forces may not be ready till 2006
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Iraqi security forces will not be able to replace U.S. ones in key missions until early 2006, a new report announced Wednesday said.
The new forces being trained for Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's government will not "come fully on line, even at existing authorized strengths, until the end of the first quarter or mid-2005" and will only be "heavy enough to take over the most demanding missions in late 2005 or early 2006," said the report by Anthony Cordesman, who holds the Arleigh A. Burke chair in Strategy at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, a prominent think tank.
"The United States wasted a year (at least from May 2003 to April 2004) in trying to create effective Iraqi military and security forces" said the report, which is entitled "Iraqi Military, Security and Police Forces: Necessity, Problems and Progress." The core of combat ready Iraqi forces is still only around 6,000 men and the total of truly 'combat ready' soldiers cannot possibly exceed 12,000 by the time of the Iraqi elections projected for the end of January 2005, the report said.
Cuba doesn't threaten US: Lavrov
MOSCOW, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Cuba poses no threat to the United States and Washington should end its sanctions policy against it, Russia's foreign minister said Wednesday.
"I think that I will not exceed my powers if I say that I have never seen any hostility toward the United States on the part of Cuba during my contacts with Cuban friends," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference after meeting with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque who was visiting Moscow.
"In principle we view any policy of sanctions, blockades and embargoes as counterproductive," Lavrov said. "These measures are envisioned in the United Nations Charter, and they can be taken by the U.N. Security Council when it is necessary to fend off or prevent any threat to peace or security. We do not see such threats from Cuba."
Asean backs Thai Surakiart for top UN job
NEW YORK, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Asean countries are backing Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai to succeed Kofi Annan as the U.N.'s secretary-general, The Straits Times reports.
The move was made in an early and unusually public manner, apparently designed to short-circuit bids by other regional hopefuls, the newspaper said.
The secretary-general's post is filled by rotation around the world. Lobbying for the post generally begins two years ahead of the handover and the Straits Times said it is widely accepted it is Asia's turn to fill the job when Annan's term expires at the end of 2006.
Surakiart is a former oil company executive and finance minister. He is U.S.-educated and has a PhD in law from Harvard University.
Surakiart's Asean endorsement does not rule out candidates from the Middle East or Gulf states, nor from central Asia or the subcontinent. And the newspaper said neither will it necessarily parry a challenge from Eastern Europe, where leaders believe they also have a claim to become the next secretary-general.
Warning says Mount St. Helens may erupt
VANCOUVER, Wash., Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Federal scientists issued a warning Wednesday, saying there's a heightened possibility Mount St. Helens may experience a small to moderate eruption.
The U.S. Geological Survey's warning did not give a timetable for the event, CNN reported, and geologists said the area could remain under the volcanic advisory for days or even weeks.
They said if a small to moderate eruption occurred, rocks could be hurled up to 3 miles from the volcanic dome and ash could spew up to 10,000 feet and be carried about 10 miles downwind.
The U.S. Forest Service has closed access to the volcano's crater and to areas above 4,800 feet around Mount St. Helens.
The advisory is the third of four levels -- with the fourth being eruption.
Mount St. Helens erupted May 18, 1980, killing 59 people. The nine-hour eruption blew over or killed nearly 230 square miles of forest and sent a mushroom cloud of ash thousands of feet into the sky.
"It's a puzzle and it's keeping us on our toes," U.S. Geological Survey geologist John Major told CNN. "It's showing signs of an eruption, but not to the size and magnitude of 1980."
