A report on the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure, especially its oil fields:
The priority is to get Iraq's infrastructure "back and running as it needs to, to support this great nation and its people," US Major General Carl Strock, the deputy coordinator for reconstruction, told a Baghdad press conference.
He said hard work was being put into restoring power to provide Iraqis with electricity and water and that "tremendous efforts" were being exerted to "get the oil fields up and running."
Senior oil advisor Gary Vogler meanwhile said refineries were operational in northern Iraq and in the Baghdad area, and that he hoped they would be up and running in the south of the country within a week.
"We may have to import oil, although there is enough in the south to cover needs until now," he said.

The New York Times reports that Iraq's Shi'ite clerics seem to have support from Iranian clerics:
A religious edict issued in Iran and distributed to Shiite mullahs in Iraq calls on them "to seize the first possible opportunity to fill the power vacuum in the administration of Iraqi cities."
The edict, or fatwa, issued on April 8 by Kadhem al-Husseini al-Haeri, an Iraqi-born cleric based in the Iranian holy city of Qum, suggests that Shiite clerics in Iraq are receiving significant direction from Iran as they try to assert the power of Iraq's long-oppressed religious majority.
Following that order, Shiite mullahs in the holy city of Najaf have been dispensing money and appointing clerics to administer several key Iraqi cities, Shiite leaders said. Those clerics, in turn, are appointing officials to run everything from civil defense militias to post offices.
"We are in control of all of Iraq, especially central and southern Iraq, not only Baghdad," said Sadeq Abu Jafaar, an aide to Sheik Muhammad al-Fartusi, the cleric charged by Mr. Haeri with the administration of eastern Baghdad.
In the fatwa, Mr. Haeri urged his followers in Iraq to "kill all Saddamists who try to take charge" and "to cut short any chance of the return to power of second-line Baathists."

France's Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, visited Iran yesterday:
In a visit highlighting France's determination to engage the Islamic republic -- in contrast to Washington's labelling of Iran as part of an "axis of evil" -- the minister welcomed "marked progress" on rights and called on Tehran to "continue confidence-building measures" on its nuclear programme.
"We think it is essential to continue confidence-building measures," de Villepin said Thursday, welcoming public assurances from Iranian President Mohammad Khatami that the country is not seeking to develop nuclear arms and is acquiring nuclear power for peaceful purposes only.
State radio quoted powerful former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who now heads Iran's highest political arbitration body, as thanking France for its opposition to the war in neighbouring Iraq, and slamming what he described as the US "occupation" of the country.

Since Baghdad fell, and the U.S. became an occupying power in Iraq, many Iraqis have told the U.S. to get out soon, that they want self-determination now, not eventually. The power and order vacuum left by Saddam's fall was filled largely by Iraq's religious groups, local charitable efforts, and ad hoc committees formed to establish peace in the wake of war. With so many Iraqis skeptical of American motives and plans for the new Iraq, in many places Shi'ite clerics have established themselves as the only legitimate social leaders. They created the remarkable, and entirely peaceful, pilgrimage to Karbala, they are helping form dozens of political parties across Iraq, they are organizing police patrols, helping provide health care, and forming a strong locus for protest against the U.S. to form around.

Iraq obviously isn't the West Bank, but like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other anti-Israel groups, one reason the Shi'ite clerics have authentic support from the populous is that they make extensive efforts to help their people, who need a great deal of help. Like Saddam Hussein, Yassir Arafat's support from the people he governs is limited, while the occupying power, whether it's Israel or the U.S., is, at best, seen with extreme skepticism. So, if the U.S. does intend to stay in Iraq for years, it will face the severe problem of winning over "hearts and minds" of millions of Iraqis who have a very deep devotion to Shi'ism, but have shown limited faith in the goodwill of American soldiers representing an alien power.

The market for tv is hot in Iraq:
Starved of news and entertainment, thousands of people from central and southern Iraq are snapping up second-hand satellite dishes from the northern Kurdish autonomous zone - dishes banned under Saddam Hussein.
"We're selling them as fast as we can get them," said a TV shop owner, Omed Rashed. "People are coming up from Baghdad and buying as many as we can give them."
Mr Rashed said an obsolete analogue dish costs him less than $50 second-hand in Kurdish free Arbil. He can sell it the same day in Kirkuk for up to $300 - more cash than a primary school teacher earns in a year.
Mr Rashed's shop, one of a dozen in that part of Kirkuk, feels like the centre of a gold rush. The atmosphere is one of barely suppressed glee.

The Sydney Herald reports on the attempt to create order in Iraq:
In Washington, a leading Iraqi opposition figure, Kanan Makiya, warned against growing anarchy. Mr Makiya, a close ally of the Pentagon's protege, Ahmad Chalabi, flew from Iraq for talks with Bush Administration officials, saying there was "a very short window of time" to act, especially in southern Iraq, where radical Shiite clerics are rapidly moving to gain political influence.
"It is a process that can go dangerously wrong," he said. "This is anarchy and this is confusion and this is a recipe for the break-up of Iraq. We need order."
The interim American leader of Iraq, the retired general Jay Garner, yesterday hosted his first meeting with residents of the capital in a walled compound ringed by tanks, armoured vehicles and scores of troops in full battle dress.
What General Garner likes to call "a town hall meeting" was such in venue alone. About 60 hand-picked academics, professionals and senior public service bureaucrats turned up for what had been touted as a free-ranging event to sample the views of the war-ravaged capital.
In his opening remarks - before journalists were evicted - General Garner promised swift action to restore order and government services to the people of Baghdad.

Donald Rumsfeld rejects the idea of complete self-determination in Iraq:
"If you're suggesting, how would we feel about an Iranian-type government with a few clerics running everything in the country, the answer is: That isn't going to happen," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.
He urged caution and patience as Iraq establishes first an "interim authority" in Baghdad, to be followed by a full-fledged government and a mechanism for drafting a national constitution.

A Kansas City Star reporter reports on the situation in an Afghanistan elementary school:
In the past month, six rural boys' schools outside Kandahar have been vandalized by suspected Taliban and al Qaida sympathizers, a departure from the common attacks on girls' schools. Storage rooms at some of schools like Haji Glon Baba were torched. No one knows why the schools were targeted or what the attacks mean.
"There have been threats to teachers," Yousuf says. "Night letters that say our noses and ears will be cut off if we continue teaching."
"Have any students dropped out?" the sergeant asks.
"No. When they are not here, they spend the rest of their time harvesting poppies."
"When soldiers are assassinated, there is an investigation," Yousuf says. "If many teachers are killed, no one knows. Nobody will ask why they kill teachers. Teachers are the foundation of the country."
"My job is to put in wells," the sergeant says. "I can't promise anything."

North Korea continues to agitate against the U.S.:
Its leaders are outraged over U.S. moves to cut off oil shipments because of its suspected nuclear weapons program, and fears it is next on Washington's list for military action.
"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is so tense that a war may break out any moment due to the U.S. moves," the North's KCNA news agency.
It said relations with the United States had hit "rock bottom" because President Bush named North Korea as part of an "axis of evil," along with Iran and Iraq.
The North's Korea People's Army vowed to "put all people under arms and turn the whole country into a fortress" and urged its soldiers to become "human bombs and fighters ready to blow up themselves" to protect leader Kim Jong Il.

The AP reports that juveniles are being held at Guantanamo Bay:
The US is holding terrorism suspects aged under 16 at its detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a military official said today.
The teenagers are held in cells separate from adult detainees but also are considered enemy combatants, said Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, chief spokesman for the mission.
He would not say how many teenagers are being held, only that they are "very few, a very small number".
Johnson confirmed their presence following a report by Australia's ABC television that juveniles were being held at the camp.

The New York Times reports that Iran is pursuing its own interests in Iraq: Iranian-trained agents have crossed into southern Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein and are working in the cities of Najaf, Karbala and Basra to promote friendly Shiite clerics and advance Iranian interests, according to defense and other United States government officials.
The officials cited intelligence reports that said the agents include members of the military wing of an Iraqi exile group that operates from Iran with that government's training and support. Known as the Badr Brigade, the militia is the armed force of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite group with headquarters in Tehran.
Other agents who have crossed into Iraq may include irregular members of a special unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the officials said.

President Bush's staff is considering ways to punish France:
"They are trying to find ways to create alternative mechanisms for dealing with the French, or rather without them, and not just at NATO, but more broadly," one senior official said.
Dissatisfaction with France has reached such a point that the State Department, which has registered opposition to the punitive suggestions under consideration, appears to be resigned to the possible moves.
Among the ideas discussed at Monday's meeting included bypassing the North Atlantic Council, NATO's governing body, in favor of the alliance's Defense Planning Committee from which France withdrew in 1966, the officials said.
But perhaps more significantly, participants also looked at possibly not inviting France to numerous US-sponsored or -hosted consultative policy meetings held regularly with Washington's European allies, they said.

This week's Newsweek cover story explores "Saddam's Secret Files"-those of the Iraqi Intelligence Service. Like the U.S. News cover story, it mentions a Tikrit palace:
"Saddam rarely stayed there. But the palace staff was ordered to prepare three sumptuous meals a day."
U.S. News put it this way:
"Still, the palace chef was under orders to prepare three meals a day-just in case the president ever decided to drop by."

Both stories have a picture of a painting of a snake wrapping itself around a blonde, muscular, naked warrior, while a voluptuous blonde, naked woman looks at the viewer from a stone ledge, with a blue, four-horned monster behind her. Newsweek's photo is slightly larger and shows a U.S. soldier looking at the painting.

Both stories describe Uday Hussein's Baghdad villa at some length, but only Newsweek makes claims on his manhood:
"Uday had been badly wounded in a 1996 assassination attempt. Iraqis commonly believe Uday lost his manhood in the shooting; on the street, he was jokingly referred to (though not too loudly) as the new head of the 'Iraqi women's union.' In the bathroom were vials of Peking Royal Jelly, a traditional Asian medicine to enhance virility. A well-worn back brace rested with doctor's instructions: 'For public occasions and for events with an emotional content, wear the rubber back brace.' (According to two translators, the latter referred to encounters with the opposite sex.)"

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld firmly refutes reports of a sustained U.S. presence in Iraq:
Rumsfeld denied a news report that the United States was planning a long-term military relationship with Iraq that would grant American access to air bases in Baghdad and elsewhere in the country.
"It's flat false," he said, adding that the subject had not even been raised with him.
"The likelihood of it seems to me to be so low that it does not surprise me that it's never been discussed in my presence, to my knowledge. Why do I say it's low? Well, we've got all kinds of options and opportunities in that part of the world to locate forces. It's not like we need a new place. We have plenty of friends" in that area.

This week's U.S. News & World Report cover story looks "Inside Saddam's World," exploring "his secret domain of sex, opulence, and paranoia. The inside story tells of "a sybaritic inner sanctum rife with decadence and depravity." It says, "Saddam was everywhere and nowhere in Iraq....portraits and statues of him were ubiquitous and showed him in every possible guise. He was a baker, a farmer, a fighter, even a pious man deep in prayer."

Pakistan's Balochistan Post reports on the drug trade in Afghanistan and Pakistan:
Encouraged by the bullish markets of narcotics across the Afghan border where all sorts of narcotics production and trafficking have seen unprecedented boom under the rule of ‘civilized’ occupying forces and a puppet US regime, the peasants in Balochistan are also turning their fields into lush green poppy crop.
However, authorities in Pakistan are not allowing the farmers to harness ‘the fruits of civilization’ by growing poppy and setting up the laboratories to produce drugs like hashish and heroine for export to Europe and Middle East. On the contrary the law enforcing agencies have launched an operation to destroy the poppy fields near the Afghan border.
In February, the UN's drugs monitoring body said it was concerned about resurgence in poppy cultivation in Pakistan. Pakistan had successfully eradicated poppy cultivation years ago.

A report on Afghanistan-Pakistan relations:
Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of seizing land all along their common border in the 18 months since the Taliban government fell. Pakistan set a date for an opening ceremony for this month, and sent an invitation to Kabul for dignitaries to attend, but the Foreign Ministry in Kabul did not reply, and the ceremony was postponed.
Afghan officials have also grown alarmed about Taliban supporters who are based in Pakistan, saying they have been attacking Afghan positions close to the border. Over a dozen Afghan soldiers have been killed and more wounded in border attacks in recent months.

The New York Times reports on a possible goal of deposing Kim Jong II:
The United States should team up with China to press for the removal of North Korea's leadership, according to a classified memo circulated by the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.Just days before Mr Bush approved the negotiations with North Korea, scheduled for tomorrow, Mr Rumsfeld circulated the Pentagon memo to some members of the Administration.
Mr Rumsfeld's team, Administration officials say, was urging diplomatic pressure for changing the Government, not a military solution.
Several officials who have seen it say it is ludicrous to think China would join in any US-led effort to bring about the fall of the North Korean Government. "The last thing the Chinese want," one official said, "is a collapse of North Korea that will create a flood of refugees into China and put Western allies on the Chinese border."

A report on the refugee situation in Iraq:
Hundreds of Iranian Kurds have fled to the Jordanian border from a refugee camp in central Iraq because they fear their lives are in danger, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said on Sunday.
Spokesman Peter Kessler said Jordan was refusing to grant asylum to the Iranians and to smaller numbers of Palestinians, more than 1,000 in total, who were now stranded in a no-man's land on the Iraq-Jordan border.
Aid workers and officials said some of the Iranians were members of the Iranian opposition group Mujahideen e-Khalq (MEK) -- also known as the People's Mujahideen -- who had been sheltered by Saddam's government.
The Mujahideen had a large and well-equipped military force on the Iraqi side of the Iranian border. It receives much of its money from the Iranian community in the United States.

AFP reports on Vajpayee's trip to Pakistan:
Vajpayee at the end of his tour of the insurgency-hit region on Saturday said New Delhi was ready to talk to Islamabad provided Pakistan stopped the infiltration of Islamic rebels from the Pakistani zone of Kashmir into the Indian side.
Pakistan, however, said it has done its best to stop rebels from crossing into Indian-administered Kashmir but that the mountainous terrain makes it impossible to halt all insurgency -- which in any case, it says, is largely indigenous.
Leading Kashmiri separatist Shabir Shah welcomed Vajpayee's conciliatory comments.
Shah, like the region's main separatist alliance, wants tripartite talks, involving India, Pakistan and Kashmiri representatives.

India's Foreign Minister, Yashwant Sinha, expresses concern over Afghanistan:
"As a neighbour and friend of Afghanistan, we are greatly concerned at the re-emergence of Taliban-inspired and (Pakistan's secret service) ISI-backed terrorism in parts of Afghanistan," he said Saturday.
Sinha said that the Taliban was involved in the killing of a foreign national working for the International Committee of Red Cross as well as two US soldiers in the country.
He also added that a large number of Taliban followers were recently apprehended after they entered the country with arms, ammunition and publicity literature against the Afghan government.

AFP reports on some of Saddam Hussein's more creative propaganda:
At the reconstructed palace of King Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon, a cradle of civilisation and one of the jewels in Iraq's rich archeological crown, the latest man to rule for decades has also left his imprint.
Saddam's name is inscribed in flowing script on row after row of sand-colored bricks that are built into the walls of the palace's imposing courtyards, arched gates, and angular towers.
"Saddam Hussein, the protector of Iraq, rebuilt civilisation and rebuilt Babylon," proclaim hundreds and hundreds of bricks placed at eye-level for the edification of tourists and festival-goers.

The images of Saddam Hussein torn down all over Iraq these past two weeks represent the first ritual in the destruction of tyrants. The proliferation of statuary and posters of Saddam in the villages, town squares, and government buildings of Iraq-and of course his ubiquitous presence on television and in the papers-was not just propaganda. Those images were a very literal extension of his grip on the country-they showed Iraqis that Saddam followed them everywhere through the work of his security forces and, more impressively and more completely, with his physical presence in their daily lives. A similar effect was achieved by erecting large-scale statues of him, proving his might, physical strength, and gigantic stature-he lived a heroic life, while his subjects, dependant on him and awestruck by his might, obeyed his command and even lived for his happiness and the growth of his control over them. He was a surrogate god, brought down to live among mortals blessed by his presence. Their sacrifice and suffering proved his power; there was no questioning his decisions, no matter what the cost, because he demanded complete faith and obedience, and besides, resistance only brought pain and death. The 1991 uprising showed that, and also showed that the futile struggle against him merely gave him the chance to extend his power over his subjects.

The mass reproduction of his image was a strange counterpart to the thousands of lives he ended-even as he killed off his subjects, he himself multiplied to replace them in the minds and eyes of the public. Because his image was so pervasive, while the images of those he killed were private, and not on display, his image and the power it projected crowded out memories of loss and experiences of oppression in Iraq's citizenry. Now, after his fall, the destruction of thousands of images and statues of him is a kind of retribution for his destruction of thousands of lives. The people who suffered under him cannot actually kill him thousands of times, and therefore cannot exact true retribution for his crimes. Instead, they emotionally and symbolically kill him by defacing and killing his image. The people who once obeyed and believed in his image complete the cycle he began with their killing of the images of the god-hero who directed their daily lives.

But in Russia there are people who still believe in Stalin, and still have parades in his honor, as the faithful proclaim their devotion to him 50 years after his death. If in the coming decades Saddam Hussein receives similar devotion and loyalty from some of Iraq's citizens, it will be one more successful imitation of the man said to be his model and inspiration.