Moscow has scrapped plans to erect a statue honoring Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and fellow wartime leaders Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in a Moscow monument marking the end of World War II, an official said. A Moscow city government spokesman told Moscow Echo radio that a statue of Stalin would upset too many people, and the monument would depict just Roosevelt and Churchill.

As Americans celebrate President Bush's second inauguration, the capital city's 8,000 homeless people will be mostly invisible. City officials and voluntary agencies are making efforts to get homeless people off the streets and out of the high security zone where inauguration events are taking place.

A look at this week's festivities by the numbers: $40 million: Cost of Bush inaugural ball festivities, not counting security costs; $2,000: Amount FDR spent on the inaugural in 1945 - about $20,000 in today's dollars…

Vice President Dick Cheney said on Thursday that Iran was at the top of the administration's list of world trouble spots and expressed concern that Israel "might well decide to act first" to eliminate any nuclear threat from Tehran.

The Sharon government intends to strip thousands of West Bank Palestinians of their property in occupied East Jerusalem, according to the Israeli press quoting newly released government documents.

This is President Bush's inaugural address presented after being sworn today at the nation's Capitol.

Delta Air Lines Inc., which is transforming its business to reduce costs and attract more fliers, blamed high fuel prices, low fares and hefty charges as it reported a $2.2 billion fourth quarter loss, capping the worst annual financial performance in the industry's history.

An analysis of the various incidents in Iraq last year would indicate that while most of the targeted attacks with hand-held weapons, mortars, explosives, etc, on the American and other coalition troops were apparently carried out by the Iraqi resistance groups, most of the suicide attacks, which targeted Iraqi policemen, national guards and other government servants collaborating with the Americans, were carried out by the pro-al-Qaeda terrorist organizations. Are the two cooperating presently? -B Raman/Asia Times

In New York City, gun makers and dealers are now liable for injuries or deaths caused by criminals who use their weapons, the New York Post said Wednesday.

Britain is urging America to announce a timetable for withdrawing coalition troops from Iraq over the next 18 months or more.

The central importance of Saudi Arabia to the West in general and the US in particular is beyond doubt. Present US policy is geared toward the survival of the House of Saud, irrespective of the wider political, security and geostrategic costs. The short-sightedness of this policy is all too obvious, and US policy-makers may well be advised to review the disasters that followed America's over-reliance on the former Shah of Iran -Mahan Abedin/Asia Times

Monsanto Co.'s "seed police" snared soy farmer Homan McFarling in 1999, and the company is demanding he pay it hundreds of thousands of dollars for alleged technology piracy. McFarling's sin? He saved seed from one harvest and replanted it the following season, a revered and ancient agricultural practice. Saving Monsanto's seeds, genetically engineered to kill bugs and resist weed sprays, violates provisions of the company's contracts with farmers. Since 1997, Monsanto has filed similar lawsuits 90 times in 25 states against 147 farmers and 39 agriculture companies, according to a report issued Thursday by The Center for Food Safety, a biotechnology foe.

Updated [EXCERPTED] information pertaining to the Asians who reportedly entered the United States through Mexico. The FBI has issued a BOLO to law enforcement to be on the lookout for 11 Chinese nationals. They are reportedly armed and dangerous and "All pose a risk to national security." 1. Mei Xia Dong DOB: 05/30/1982; 2. Xiuming Chen; 3. Chang Yin Liu; 4. Xiujin Chen DOB: 12/15/1984; 5. Guozhi Lin DOB: 03/08/1991; 6. Zengrong Lin DOB: 10/27/1982; 7. Yu Xiang Weng DOB: 10/04/1963 or 04/05/1964; 8. Qiquan Lin; 9. Min Xiu Xie DOB: 11/21/1977; 10. Xing Wei Liu; 11. Liqiang Liang.

A new report recommends the substantial amounts of federal bioterrorism money being sent to state and local public health offices continue for the foreseeable future, but warns the money should not be tied so closely to biodefense that it cannot be used for "maintaining and expanding other vital function of the public health system." The report, "Breathing Easier," issued by the Century Foundation, sets out a six-point plan that proposes setting standards and definitions for public health departments, enlarging the workforce and updating the laws concerning public health emergencies. Also included -- not surprising -- is a suggestion for steady funding for public health activities with the strong assertion that what is good for public health in general also is good for biodefense specifically. Therefore biodefense money should come with enough flexibility to allow it to be used for broader aspects of public health.

The tectonic plates of geopolitics have just shifted. On an issue of major strategic concern to the United States, the European Union has decided to flout American concerns and side with China, and Britain has put its vaunted special relationship with the United States to one side, and has gone along with its fellow Europeans. A new world order is coming.

Click "story" for many charts, graphs, oil industry statistics.

The FBI wants to question four Chinese nationals amid fears of a plot to explode a "dirty bomb" in Boston. Police and FBI agents in Massachusetts were issued with photographs of two men and two women wanted in connection with an "unspecified threat." Earlier on Wednesday US TV networks reported that agents with radiological sensors were on patrol in Boston. The FBI and city officials in Boston played down fears, saying reports of a dirty bomb were "uncorroborated." The four Chinese were named as Zengrong Lin, Wen Quin Zheng, Xiujin Chen and Guozhi Lin.

Israeli officials accepted a Palestinian plan to deploy hundreds of police officers along the Gaza-Israel frontier starting Friday, in the first act of security cooperation with Israel under Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Palestinian generals presented the plan during a meeting with their Israeli counterparts late Wednesday, convened in a last-ditch effort to avert an Israeli military offensive in Gaza.

A poll of 21 countries published yesterday - reflecting opinion in Africa, Latin America, North America, Asia and Europe - showed that a clear majority have grave fears about the next four years. Fifty-eight per cent of the 22,000 who took part in the poll, commissioned by the BBC World Service, said they expected President Bush to have a negative impact on peace and security, compared with only 26% who considered him a positive force. The survey also indicated for the first time that dislike of President Bush is translating into a dislike of Americans in general.

A major new national opinion survey of 1,608 American voters released this week shows that only 42 percent would support the U.S. invasion of Iran to stop its nuclear program. Nearly half -- 47 percent -- of U.S. voters would oppose such a move and 11 percent are unsure.

Another major poll, this one from the Los Angeles Times, shows support for America's Iraq adventure continuing to slip. The poll, conducted Saturday through Monday, found that the percentage of Americans who believe the situation in Iraq was "worth going to war over" has sunk to a new low of 39%, down 5% since October. The Times also reported that 37% of the public advocates withdrawing at least some troops now, a position very few newspaper editorial pages have endorsed. Fifty-two percent want to wait and see what happens after the Iraqi elections. Just 4% would like to send more troops, a position supported by many newspapers, including The New York Times, along with legislators such as Sen. John McCain. In addition, 47% said they would like to see most of the troops out within a year. Among other findings: Almost half, or 45%, say they believed the war has destabilized the Middle East; 24% say they think it had a stabilizing effect. A large majority, 65%, say they believe the war in Iraq had harmed the United States' image around the world.

"Can you believe this administration's insanity?" asks Paul Craig Roberts. "Bush intends to rise from the ashes of defeat in Iraq by invading Iran, a country three times the size in population and geography. Does it remind you of Adolf Hitler, who, unable to invade tiny England, marched his army off into Russia?"

Former President Jimmy Carter has been linked with a key figure in the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal by the group leading the nationwide effort to evict the United Nations from American soil and halt U.S. funding of the U.N.

It's not just a few clouds of smoke emanating from an oil refinery or a power plant that got Bodman's old company, Boston-based Cabot Corporation, those accolades.It was the 54,000 tons of toxic emissions that his company's refineries released into the air in the Lone Star state in 1997 alone that made Cabot the fourth largest source of toxic emissions in Texas. Cabot is the world's largest producer of industrial carbon black, a byproduct of the oil refinery process -Jason Leopold/Online Journal

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has decided to focus on three emerging and fast growing nations - India, China and Russia - as it sees more companies from these regions tapping the European capital market -Asia Times

Ken Mehlman, President Bush's re-election campaign manager, took over on Wednesday as chairman of the Republican National Committee with the aim to now build a "durable Republican majority." On the eve of Bush's inauguration for a second four-year term, RNC members accepted the president's recommendation and unanimously elected the 38-year-old grass-roots strategist as their chair

The Israeli cabinet lifted its bar on contacts with the Palestinian Authority yesterday as the new Palestinian leadership appealed for cooperation with its attempts to curb bomb and rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.Israeli and Palestinian security officials were expected to meet last night to discuss arrangements for the deployment of Palestinian forces along the Gaza border while the new president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, continued his attempts to persuade Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other armed Islamist groups to agree to a ceasefire -Guardian UK

Mayors complained Tuesday that their homeland security efforts remain underfunded and lack vital information, including national terror alerts issued by the federal government."We mayors are expected to find out about differences in the security code through watching CNN," Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson told federal Homeland Security Department officials at the winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. "I don't get it from e-mail or fax; I don't get a telephone call."

It is indeed a happy time. A few weeks after the President called off the search for WMD in Iraq he announced that there was "no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath." Instead, the President believes that his administration already had an "accountability moment." Please, no blinking! That moment was the re-election of George W. Bush -Karen Kwiatkowski/Military Week

The woman once known as "Jane Roe" has asked the Supreme Court to overturn its landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion 32 years ago.Norma McCorvey, whose protest of Texas' abortion ban led to the 1973 ruling, contends in a petition received at the court Tuesday that the case should be heard again in light of evidence that the procedure may harm women

Attorney General designate Alberto Gonzales will have to wait at least another week before getting a Senate committee vote on his nomination to be the nation's top law enforcement officer. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee decided Wednesday to ask for a one-week hold on Gonzales' nomination

An Ohio man accused of being a Nazi concentration camp guard during World War II has agreed to give up his American citizenship if the government drops its case against him, but will be allowed to remain in the country.Ildefonsas Bucmys, 84, would become a permanent legal alien under the deal, which must still be approved by a federal judge

In what is believed to be the first ruling of its kind, a judge on Wednesday upheld the federal law letting states ban same-sex marriages, dismissing a lawsuit by two women seeking to have their Massachusetts marriage recognized here.Attorneys for conservative groups hailed the ruling by U.S. District Judge James S. Moody as an important first step, but the plaintiffs promised to appeal

Government officials are now tracing six cows shipped into the United States from the same Canadian herd as an animal with mad cow diseaseThe infected dairy cow was born within one year of the others. Agriculture Department spokesman Ed Loyd said Wednesday that the agency is tracking their movements

Venezuela's foreign minister on Wednesday rejected accusations by U.S. Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice that President Hugo Chavez's government is meddling in the affairs of neighboring countries.Ali Rodriguez said that the United States, not Chavez's government, was interfering in the affairs of other nations

Drinking water aboard U.S airliners is getting worse, not better, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday, even as officials await the implementation of government sanitation orders.About one in six airliners in the latest round of tests conducted in November and December had drinking water that failed to meet federal safety standards

The United States is seeking a "candid, cooperative" relationship with China that builds on common interests but recognizes differences in values, Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice. In an opening statement at her US Senate confirmation hearings, Rice signaled that President George W. Bush's administration would work to tighten ties with China despite criticism of Beijing's human rights record.

Firefighters have successfully put out a fire on the Southwest Side after a violent explosion ripped through an oil barge that was floating in the Sanitary and Ship Canal just east of Cicero Avenue drawbridge. The back half of the barge was consumed by fire. Initial reports indicate that it was a petroleum barge. A local pipe line was hooked up to the barge at the time of the explosion, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford…It is not known what has triggered this massive explosion.

America currently is weak in one component, strong in the second and very strong in the third—being two thirds of the way there, the United States is well on its way to full communist status, warns Robert Sentry.

The dollar cannot avoid further declines against other major currencies unless the US trade and current account deficits improve, legendary investor and businessman Warren Buffett said.

In compliance with a lawsuit-inspired court order, the District of Columbia has handed over significant amounts of security data to the International Action Center, a protest group that maintains ties with two terrorist organizations and is a front group for the communist Workers World Party.

Officials in Boston are dealing with a possible nuclear terror threat today after receiving word that two Iraqis and four Chinese aliens were smuggled into the U.S., and would be headed to the Massachusetts capital, possibly with nuclear material. According to the Boston Herald, a man from Mexico called authorities in California to tell them of the smuggling and potential nuclear threat. "They got a call from across the border in Mexico to the California Highway Patrol and he said he brought two Iraqis and four Chinese (individuals) across the border and according to him, they stated soon to follow behind them would be some sort of material," a law-enforcement source told the Herald.