President George W. Bush, seeking to bolster public support for his Iraq policies, yesterday hailed the launch of the country's new currency as a sign of economic promise.
Facing doubts at home about its Iraq policies and the proposed US$87 billion cost for the country's rebuilding, the Bush administration is waging a public relations campaign aimed at highlighting successes of the postwar effort.
Bush cited as a major milestone the plans to issue fresh Iraqi dinar notes that will no longer bear the image of Saddam Hussein, whom the US ousted from power in April.
"We're helping Iraqis to rebuild their economy after a long era of corruption and misrule," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "For three decades, Iraq's economy served the interest only of its dictator and his regime."
"The new currency symbolizes Iraq's reviving economy," he said.
Bush said the new currency would help unify Iraq, which had previously used two different versions of the dinar in different areas.
The US president has seen his poll ratings drop recently as his critics have charged he failed to plan adequately for Iraq's security needs and for the cost of its rebuilding. US soldiers are dying in daily attacks.
Bush earlier this week overhauled his management of Iraqi reconstruction.
The reorganization gives more of a direct say to the White House while appearing to dilute some of the Pentagon's power.
"With our assistance, Iraqis are building the roads and ports and railways necessary for commerce," he said.
"We have helped to establish an independent Iraqi central bank. Working with the Iraqi Governing Council, we are establishing a new system that allows foreign investors to confidently invest capital in Iraq's future."
He said the country had bustling market places and stores stocked with everything from "clothing and linens to air-conditioners and satellite dishes."
A key House of Representatives panel this week approved Bush's $87 billion spending request for Iraq and left out a proposal -- which Bush opposed -- that would have forced Iraq to repay funds given to it for reconstruction.
The move cleared the way for the bill to be considered by the full House and the Senate next week, but the debate is sure to be contentious.
Democrats have lambasted Bush for proposing to spend billions on health care and job training in Iraq when they feel that such programs within the US are getting short shrift. A number of Republicans are unhappy with the idea of handing over reconstruction cash to Iraq without demanding eventual repayment.
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
RSS