Some of Iraq's public art returns to Baghdad streets

Shahryar has recovered his hand and Abu Nuwas will soon be clutching his wine goblet again. Statues damaged during the US-led invasion are being restored to their former glory across Baghdad.

Legendary king of Samarkand in "OneThousand and One Nights," Shahryar is back on his pedestal near a statue of storyteller Sheherazade overlooking the Tigris River, complete with a new hand to replace the one hacked away by vandals.

Abu Nuwas, the famed eighth-century poet who wrote about wine and the joys of drinking, will soon recover the bronze cup spirited away by thieves after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime following the March 2003 invasion.

Craftsmen and artists commissioned by Baghdad municipality are busy restoring the cup and other items that have vanished since US-led troops entered Baghdad more than five years ago.

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Ahmadinejad assures Assad Iran is taking nuclear talks seriously

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday told visiting Syrian President and staunch regional ally BasharAssad that Tehran was serious about finding a practical solution to the nuclear crisis.

"We are serious in talks and we want the talks to be based on the law so it will bear practical results. We hope that other sides are serious too," Ahmadinejad told Assad in remarks broadcast live on staterun television.

On Saturday evening Ahmadinejad was quoted as telling his Syrian counterpart that Tehran "will not give up an inch on its nuclear rights."

His comments coincide with this weekend's US deadline for Iran to respond to an international package of incentives for it to freeze its drive to enrich uranium amid warnings of new sanctions if it does not.

After meeting Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili on July 19 in Geneva, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana asked for a response in two weeks, but "if it's in 16 days instead of 14 it's not a problem. We are not obsessed with a date," an EU diplomat said earlier on condition of anonymity.

The Syrian leader's visit fol lows a trip to Paris a month ago during which French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Syria to "persuade Iran" to prove that it is not seeking nuclear weapons.

"When we were in France we told them about the Syrian position on Iran's nuclear issue but they asked us if we have details of the Iranian program," Assad said on Sunday in Arabic through a translator.

"On this trip we got details, so in the future if we are asked again we know Iran's position." Iran has so far been slapped by three sets of Security Council resolutions demanding that it halt uranium enrichment. This process to produce fuel for nu clear power plants can also be used to make the fissile core of an atomic bomb if refined to significantly higher levels.

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United States financial crisis causes stocks to tumble around the world

As financial market turmoil intensified on worries of a banking crisis, US President George W. Bush and Federal Reserve head Ben Bernanke sought Tuesday to calm jitters while warning of a bumpy road to economic recovery.

Bush expressed confidence the country would emerge "stronger than ever before" from its current malaise.

"We're going through a tough time, but our economy is growing, consumers are spending, exports continue increasing and American productivity remains strong," Bush said.

"We can have confidence in the long-term foundation of our economy, and I believe we will come through this challenge stronger than ever before," he added.

Bernanke meanwhile said the Federal Reserve lifted its outlook for the US economy in 2008 in a forecast that appears to show no recession. But he warned of numerous risks including a potentially troublesome rise in inflation and stressed financial markets.

The Fed chairman said a "top priority" of the central bank would be to keep financial markets functioning, and that the Fed was paying close attention to the troubles of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Delivering his semiannual forecast to Congress, Bernanke indicated that his outlook for better growth and cooling inflation remained subject to a "high degree of uncertainty."

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Food crisis pushes weak states toward brink of collapse - report

Weak states already close to collapse at the end of 2006 moved closer to the brink last year, even before the latest explosion of food and fuel prices that are certain to feed instability in vulnerable countries, according to the latest edition of the annual "Failed States Index" released here Monday by Foreign Policy magazine.

The Index, a collaborative effort of Foreign Policy and the Fund for Peace (FFP), found that Somalia replaced Sudan as the world's most unstable country in 2007 after US-backed Ethiopian troops routed Islamist forces which had given the strife-torn East African nation its first semblance of stability in more than 15 years.

Sudan, which had topped the list for the previous two years, fell into second place,while Zimbabwe, where a government sponsored campaign of violence forced the opposition candidate Sunday to withdraw from presidential elections scheduled for later this week, moved up to third from the fourth rank it held in the 2006 Index.

Sudan's western neighbor, Chad, was ranked fourth for 2007, just above US-occupied Iraq, which last year held the second-ranked position amid indications that sectarian violence was moving the country into a full-scale civil war.

The Index's compilers credited the US "surge" – the addition of some 30,000 US troops and the adoption of a more aggressive counter-insurgency strategy – in part for Baghdad's improvement over the course of the year, although it underlined, as have US commanders and officials, the fragility of the country's advance.

"Progress in Iraq last year was negligible at best and deeply susceptible to reversal should the country suffer the kind of shock – a food shortage, a high-level assassination, an attack that unleashes ethnic hatreds – that has exposed so many states' deep vulnerabilities in recent months," according to the Index analysis published in Foreign Policy.

The Index, which is based on a dozen social, economic and political indicators, each of which is assigned a numerical score, also found major improvements in 2007 in stability for Cote d'Ivoire, which ranked eighth this year, Haiti (14) and Liberia (34),among other countries, compared to 2006.

At the same time, several key countries became substantially more insecure in 2007, according to the Index, which cited in particular Bangladesh (12), where a state of emergency has lasted nearly two years, Pakistan (9), where former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination closed out the year

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Bush, Sarkozy pressure Syria over Lebanon

The United States and France on Saturday jointly called on Syria to establish "friendly" diplomatic ties with Lebanon.

A joint statement following talks in Paris between President George W. Bush and President Nicolas Sarkozy called on the two countries to "quickly establish full diplomatic relations" based on "respect, equality, security and sovereignty."

Syria, the former power broker in Lebanon, withdrew its troops in 2005 in the aftermath of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, ending a military presence of nearly three decades.

The absence of formal diplomatic relations between Lebanon and Syria is seen by some Lebanese as a sign of Syrian designs on their country.

The United States and France also called for "supporting the international investigation and creation of a special tribunal" to try the perpetrators of Hariri's assassination.

Syrian President Bashar alAssad earlier this month said Damascus was ready to open an embassy in Lebanon once a unity government is formed and develops good relations with Syria.

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Washington and Brussels warn Tehran again

US and European leaders warned Iran on Tuesday of new sanctions if Tehran refuses to halt a nuclear program the West suspects to be a covert atomic weapons drive.

"Iran with a nuclear weapon would be incredibly dangerous for world peace," US President George W. Bush said at a joint news conference after his final summit with EU leaders.

"Now's the time for all of us to work together to stop them."

The US president dismissed talk of divisions between hard line Washington and Europe, which plans a new package of diplomatic and economic incentives if Iran will verifiable halt uranium enrichment.

"We're on the same page," he declared.

He also expressed sympathy with Israeli threats of military action against the Islamic Republic if it refused to give in to Western demands.

"You'd be a little nervous too if a leader in your neighborhood announced that he'd like to destroy you," he said, a reference to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated predictions that the ruling Zionist regime in Israel was destined to disappear.

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