May 24, 2005, 8:38 PM
HOLLOMAN AFB, NM. -  Air Crews and support personnel from Holloman Air Force Base are leaving the area for South Korea. Tensions between North Korea and the US continue to escallate, as the North Korean government may be preparing for a nuclear test.

The Pentagon is re-positioning 15 F-117 Stealth Fighters and 250 Airmen from Southern New Mexico to the troubled Korean peninsula. The 49th Fighter Wing will probably leave their Alamogordo base later this week.


Read More

The Associated Press
Updated: 1:34 p.m. ET May 26, 2005

WASHINGTON - President Bush praised Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ steps toward peace and democracy on Thursday and predicted that Palestinians will reject candidates of the militant group Hamas in upcoming parliamentary elections.
Bush, with Abbas at his side in the Rose Garden, said it was his hope that “more and more people will reject the notion” of a “state based upon violence.”
Bush also announced that United States will direct $50 million for housing and other construction aid to the Palestinian Authority to help Palestinians in Gaza once Israelis leave this August.
You have made a new start on a difficult journey, requiring courage and leadership each day. And we will take that journey together,” Bush told Abbas in the first visit of the top Palestinian leader to the White House of Bush’s presidency.


Read More

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent

The Israel Defense Forces plans to call up close to 8,000 reservists during the implementation of the disengagement plan, from mid-August until approximately mid-September. But only a small number of officers and reservists will take an active part in the actual pullout.

This number is significantly lower than the estimates mentioned over the past months. By comparison, it amounts to merely one quarter of the number of reservists called up during Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank in April 2002.
The reason is that the period of disengagement has been shortened significantly, from eight weeks to four. During this period, the IDF will need more reservists to replace regular units engaged in the pullout but they will serve the regular time for reserve duty - 25 days (per year).

Read More

LOS ANGELES -- A state earthquake council has given a qualified endorsement to a prediction by a group of scientists who believe that a temblor of magnitude-6.4 or greater will occur in the Southern California desert sometime in the next five months.
The California Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council, a group of eight scientists selected by the state Office of Emergency Services, said it considers the new prediction by the scientists to be "a legitimate approach in earthquake prediction research."

Read More