democracynow summary (may 8, 2007):
Iraq's infant mortality rate has soared by 150 percent since 1990 according to a new report by the charity Save the Children. One in eight Iraqi children now die of disease or violence before the age of five. In 2005 alone, 122,000 Iraqi children died before reaching their fifth birthday. Save the Children said Iraq's child-survival ranking is now the lowest in the world.
(...) The New York Times is reporting, the U.S. oil company Chevron is preparing to pay up to $30 million in fines for illegally paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein for access to Iraq's oil before the U.S. invasion in 2003. The penalty, which is still being negotiated, would be the largest so far in the United States in connection with investigations of companies involved in the oil-for-food scandal. It appears Chevron began paying Iraq kickbacks in August 2000. At the time Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was a member of Chevron's board and led its public policy committee, which oversaw areas of potential political concerns for the company.
(...) In Los Angeles, two high-ranking police department commanders have been reassigned over their role in the police department's violent crushing of a lawful immigrants rights rally last week. Police dressed in riot gear fired 240 rounds of rubber bullets and tear gas. Officers were seen on video clubbing protesters and journalists with batons. Overall 10 people – including seven journalists -- were taken to hospitals with injuries. On Sunday LA Police Chief William Bratton took 60 members of the police department's elite Metropolitan Division's B Platoon off the street.
(...) Investigative reporter Tim Shorrock of Salon.com has revealed that former CIA Director George Tenet has made at least $2.3 million since he left the agency by working for four corporations that are directly profiting from the so-called war on terror and the war in Iraq. Tenet did not disclose any of his corporate ties in his new book "At the Center of the Storm." Tenet sits on the board of directors of L-1 Identity Solutions, a major supplier of biometric identification software used by the U.S. to monitor terrorists and insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tenet is also a member of an advisory board for Analysis Corporation which is designing terrorist watch lists for the government. Tenet also serves on the boards of two other government contractors, Guidance Software and Kinetic.
(...) A new report from Amnesty International has revealed that Native American women are more than two and a half times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than women in the United States in general. Studies show that one in three Native American women will be raped during their lifetime. Amnesty said many rape cases are never prosecuted because there is confusion regarding tribal and county jurisdiction. It is estimated that 86 percent of rapes against Native women are committed by non-Native men, but tribal councils have no jurisdiction over non-Native offenders even if the crime takes place on tribal lands.

sharm el-sheikh conference:
This week, the foreign ministers of Iraq's neighbouring countries, along with Egypt and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and other members of the G8, are meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh to discuss ways of lending political support to the beleaguered Iraqi government as it struggles to establish a semblance of authority in a country largely beyond its control. The consultations precede the launching of the so-called "International Compact with Iraq" in a two- day conference to be held in the Red Sea resort, Thursday, through Friday with the expected participation of 40 delegations of concerned countries and organisations, similarly meant to help bolster Iraq's increasingly unpopular Shia-dominated government.
(...) Not all participants in this week's consultative meetings agree with this sentiment. Many privately believe the meetings are not so much about lending support to the Iraqi government as helping address the anxieties of the Bush administration, at a time when signs abound of its failure in Iraq. Many Arab and non-Arab diplomats who spoke to the Weekly said this week's event was essentially a photo opportunity for the American press.
(...) In the text of statements to be adopted tomorrow evening, the Iraqi government receives qualified recognition from participants for its efforts to induce a semblance of stability in Iraq. On the other hand, the text includes demands that the Iraqi government take clear steps towards revising many of the policies that until now have been a source of pride for the Shia-dominated ruling regime -- in particular the revision of its stance on de- Baathification.
(...) Meanwhile, no agreement seems in the offing on the controversial issue of the distribution of Iraq's oil revenues, which is a source of considerable inter-Iraqi conflict. Also, no agreement, spoken or unspoken, is forthcoming on the long-standing request of the Iraqi government that Arab diplomatic representation return to Baghdad. Silence also surrounded the so far inconclusive security plan adopted by the Iraqi government, as well as US plans to construct separation walls that many see as sectarian, in dozens of Baghdad neighbourhoods.
(...) Overall, despite commitments with regards to the cancelling of some Iraqi debts, not much was expected to come out of this week's meetings in terms of concrete action. In the words of one informed Arab diplomat, "there is not even firm evidence that whatever good intentions were reflected in the meetings, including from the Iraqi side, would be translated into executive policies."
(...) George W Bush and Congressional Democrats over the funding of the war in Iraq, in the wake of Bush vetoing a military spending bill that included a timetable for US withdrawal. The veto came exactly four years after Bush, speaking aboard a US aircraft carrier under a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner, declared "major combat operations" over in Iraq, following the US-led invasion of March 2003.