Whither good intelligence?

Less than a week after Spain announced that it will be removing its forces from Iraq, the President of one of the few countries that actually sent troops to Iraq, Poland, has issued a public statement declaring that his country was misled by the allegations of the imminent threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Despite this announcement, he maintained his commitment of 2 400 troops currently in Iraq. This, however, can't be good news for the overall credibility of the intelligence -- Japan is one of the few non-American countries still publicly announcing that WMDs will ultimately be found.

President Bush gave a speech urging the world to continue the fight (by which he meant 'his' fight) against terror today. I think the personalization of the issue is important, because as Slate notes, the administration is setting up the argument so that if you don't support their particular viewpoints on how to deal with terror, you're pro-terrorist and against America. As we come up to one year in Iraq, the administration's report card isn't a complete failure, but neither is it particularly good, with continued problems of nonfunctioning infrastructure and rampant violence. The French foreign minister has even announced that the world is worse off because of the war in Iraq due to this postwar violence and increase in terrorist activities.

Additional peacekeepers have now arrived in Kosovo from most of the major European powers in an attempt to quell the ongoing violence. UN staff were recently forced to pull out of a section of the town of Mitrovica after inter-ethnic clashes left 31 people dead. Mobs of angry Albanians have started burning Serbian Orthodox churches and the UN in response has condemed the violence, warning that any escalation of the conflict could have 'unpredictable consequences.' Deutsche Welle carries European newspaper reaction to the recent events.

Mel Gibson has announced that he is planning on making a movie about the Maccabe revolt, the event responsible for the celebrating of Hanukkah. His current film, The Passion, apparently caused a little too much debate among two moviegoers in Georgia, as a married couple each got charged with battery after a heated argument ensued after watching the film. The Passion has competition though, as the remake of Dawn of the Dead is expected to take the top spot at the box office this week.

There has been heated fighting along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border as thousands of Pakistani troops attacked suspected al-Qaeda positions. The militants are reportedly trapped in their own hideout and it is suspected that the number two man in the al-Qaeda organization, Ayman al-Zawahiri, may be present with them. The Taliban has issued statements warning both the United States and Pakistan to halt the attacks or otherwise face reprisals.

Prime Minister Vajpayee and President Musharraf were honored by an NGO with the Common Ground International Diplomacy Award. India, in a small matter of bad timing, tested its new ground-to-ground Prithvi missile that is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

European ministers are holding meetings to discuss Europe's response to the Spanish terrorist attacks. They have already agreed in principle already to appoint an 'Anti-Terrorism Czar' for the 15 member countries of the EU. Back in Spain, investigators announced that they have found material evidence linking one of the suspects to the terrorist attack.

- Scientists at NASA have come up with a theory explaining why the dustbowl happened.
- Archeologists have found evidence that ancient peoples in southern India used boulders to make music.
- Researchers at Oxford university have discovered that a woman's genes may cause the nicotine patch to be less effective.
- Scientists are worried that people eating bushmeat is exposing humans to simian foamy virus. Though the effects on humans are not known, HIV was thought to have originally spread in the same way.
- Scientists at the British Trust for Ornithology studying birds, butterflies and plants are theorizing that Earth is about to have its sixth great extinction.
- Scientists at the University of Amsterdam have developed a tiny elevator using nanotechnology.
- How NASCARS are made safer than normal automobiles.
- Researchers at St. Andrews University have found that African birds understand the calls of monkeys.
- With the vernal equinox coming up this weekend, I thought I'd post an article about it.
- A study at Bergen College has shown that girls learn much more from computers than boys do.
- One of the Mars rovers spots a meteor. Or is it a UFO??
- In the continuing violence in the Sudan, reports are now surfacing that as many as 100 woman were raped in a single attack by Arab militias.
- The Christian Science Monitor questions whether a Gaza Strip pullout is a good idea.
- The Prime Ministers of Greece and Turkey have agreed to meet for talks on the reunification of Cyprus.
- The ruling LDP party in Japan has called for the ability for its military to attack foreign bases. The Japanese constitution after WWII allows only for the military to be defensive.
- The Nation compares Illinois senatorial candidate Barack Obama to a winning version of Howard Dean.
- Slate examines 'socialist' Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
- Slate also explains the origins of the phrase March Madness.
- The world might have another teenage chess prodigy.
- Republican senator John McCain has broken ranks with the president by rejecting the Bush campaign's assertions that national security would be jeopardized if John Kerry was president.
- The Campaign Desk talks about how non-major party candidates are completely marginalized in the presidential campaign.