US APPROVES OPENING OF IRAQI-SYRIAN RAIL... DESPITE SANCTION THREATS/WMW

[Gloria]

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH For August 1, 2003

1//The Independent, UK--PRESCOTT TELLS LABOUR REBELS TO ‘SHUT UP’ FOR THE SUMMER (John Prescott bluntly told Labour's backbench critics yesterday to shut up and stop attacking Tony Blair. The Deputy Prime Minister told rebel MPs: "For God's sake, can you shut up for the summer and let me get on with my job." In an unprompted outburst during an interview on BBC Radio 4, he said: "Can I say to some of my colleagues: can we start thinking long and hard a bit about what we are doing?)

2//Al Bawaba, Jordan--US APPROVES OPENING OF IRAQI-SYRIAN RAILWAY DESPITE SANCTION THREATS (Despite tense relations between the United States and Syria, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) applauded the resumption of railway services between northern Iraq and the state labeled by the US as a supporter of terrorism. The train will run twice a week and take approximately 15 hours to reach Baghdad from the Syrian border…According to the US-led CPA, the train includes mainly oil tanker cars and several passenger cars. The cars are expected to allow Iraq's petroleum industry to increase refinery output by one-third. “They are important for us here in Iraq because they will significantly raise ability to move crude around the country and particularly to get crude oil to the refineries," said a coalition spokesman.)

3//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--U.S. BARTERING ARMS FOR SOLDIERS FOR IRAQ(UNITED NATIONS - Faced with a rising death toll among its soldiers in Iraq, the United States is trying to "buy" foreign troops for a proposed 30,000-strong multinational force in Baghdad. "When they were seeking UN support for a war on Iraq, they were twisting arms," one Asian diplomat said. "Now they are offering carrots in exchange for our troops."… "The Bush administration is doing the right thing in looking for additional help in Iraq," said Natalie J Goldring, executive director of the Program on Global Security and Disarmament at the University of Maryland. "But the US government should be seeking that help through the United Nations. Instead, US political and military leaders are once again trying to buy countries' cooperation with weapons transfers and military aid," she said.)

4//The Turkish Daily News, Turkey--US INCHES OPEN DOOR FOR TURKISH PARTICIPATION IN IRAQ REBUILDING (The United States has finally responded to a set of Turkish offers of non-military contributions to the restructuring of Iraq in a non-paper presented to Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul during his visit to Washington last week, Turkish and U.S. officials said…The U.S. side said it was looking at the offers, but many in Ankara interpreted the delay in an official response to Turkish offers as a sign of Washington's unwillingness to leave behind the tension over Turkey's rejection of a U.S. request to open a front on Iraq from Turkish land and move on to restore ties.)

5//The Moscow Times, Russia--OFFICIAL: YUKOS AFFAIR IS TRICKY (President Vladimir Putin is determined to keep the escalating investigations into Yukos from evolving into a wholesale review of early privatizations, according to a senior official…The official said Putin was well aware that the legal onslaught against the nation's biggest oil producer had rocked investor confidence and had a negative affect on the economy. But, he said, the tense standoff, which began July 2 with the arrest of core Yukos shareholder Platon Lebedev on charges of stealing state property in 1994, is proving difficult to defuse.)