Sites Holmquist trys, and often fails, to go no more than a couple of days without visiting (some of which Holmquist regularly swipes links from without attribution)
"Bush administration officials are considering granting North Korea formal guarantees it will not come under U.S. attack as part of a verifiable dismantlement of its nuclear facilities, in what would be part of a diplomatic gambit by the Bush administration aimed at resolving a standoff over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions," writes Glenn Kessler in today's Washington Post.
"The death toll from Monday's fighting in the Liberian capital of Monrovia is well over 600, according to Defense Minister Daniel Chea," Alexandra Zavis of the AP writes today. "There was no way independently to confirm the figure and aid groups and hospitals have put the number of dead above 90, but say they expect the number to rise."
U.S. President George W. Bush is "not only monitoring events closely, because it is a dynamic situation over in Liberia right now, it's also remaining actively engaged with the United Nations, actively engaged with the Economic Community of West African States, so that we can get back to a cease-fire, so that we can make sure that that cease-fire takes hold," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said today. "And that's what we are doing. The United States strongly condemns the latest round of violence and we strongly condemn the escalation that has taken place. We continue to call on all parties to immediately cease any military activity and focus on the peace talks."
"Their behavior is -- today, Syria and Iran continue to harbor and assist terrorists" Bush said yesterday. "This behavior is completely unacceptable and states that support terror will be held accountable."
When stacked up with the Bush Administration's policy towards Iraq, these bits of news indicate that governments which have nukes or are in a country that is deemed less imporpatnt then can get away with more than governments in stragetically importantly countries which don't have nukes.
