Agents to quiz Bush 'visit' pilot - BBC News

The married woman of a airplane pilot held after landing his airplane near United States President Saint George Bush's spread states her hubby is certain he did not travel into restricted airspace.

Kirstie Kirk, of St Donats, Valley of Glamorgan, said she hoped United States functionaries realised her "eccentric" hubby wanted to go forth a give thanks you observe at the ranch.

Maurice Kirk was held in a psychiatrical unit of measurement after sheriffs detained him proceedings after he landed in a field.

The 62-year-old is expected to be questioned by United States particular services.

He have been in detention since last Friday followers his unannounced landing in a McLennan County farmer's field some six statute miles from the president's Thomas Crawford ranch.

He was first accused of being intoxicated because his arthritis meant he could not walk a consecutive line.

He's somewhat bizarre and I don't cognize what the Americans would do of him

Kirstie Kirk, pilot's wife

Then he was taken away for psychiatrical assessment.

Mr Kirk, who names himself the "Flying Vet", although he was struck off six old age ago, is engaged in a solo round-the-world flight challenge.

In February he had to ditch his 65-year-old aircraft Autonomy Girl in the Atlantic Ocean ocean off the Black Friar Republic, when he was rescued by United States coastguards.

Mrs Kirk said her hubby wanted to give thanks Mister Shrub for his deliverance from the shark-inhabited Waters and said he was adamantine he did not isolated into the prohibited zone around the ranch.

She said: "He just loves flying. He would have got been flying on South [to South America] had he not lost the aircraft.

Kirstie Kirk states she trusts functionaries understand her 'eccentric' husband

"He's somewhat bizarre and I don't cognize what the Americans would do of him. I don't cognize they would understand our sense of temper and slightly different manner of doing things.

"The fact that he is suspected of being a menace to the president, when he was quite safely outside the prohibition zone, is quite worrying.

"He told me he was going to go forth a give thanks you observe on the gate, which I make believe. I don't believe even Maurice would believe he could set down on the president's lawn, not without repercussions.

"It's quite typical he'd make something that would be a gesture."

"He is a very good airplane pilot for that kind of aircraft. He is a purist's pilot. An aviator.

"The kind of flying that Maurice makes is landing in Fields and small grass airstrips. He utilizes a airplane the manner some people utilize a athletics car, to acquire to things. He just loves flying."

Mrs Kirk, 48, said the couple flew around Eire in the Autonomy Girl for their honeymoon 10 old age ago.

Iran president to visit Sri Lanka - BBC News

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in Sri Lanka on the 2nd leg of his circuit of South Asia.

Mr Ahmadinejad will see a refinery and hydro-electric and irrigation strategies that have got received Persian aid.

Iran is emerging as a major economical giver in Sri Lanka which is under pressure level on human rights issues as warfare have resumed with the Tamil Tigers.

Mr Ahmadinejad held negotiation in Islamic Republic Of Pakistan on Monday, and is also owed to see Republic Of India during his trip to the region.

Policy shift

Sri Lanka's authorities have hailed his visit as cementing dealings with Iran.

The working capital is festooned with flags, and measure boards proclaiming "Traditional Asiatic Solidarity".

The BBC's Roland Buerk in Capital Of Sri Lanka states the island state is slowly turning towards Asiatic states which offering more giver money than traditional Western allies as well as less unfavorable judgment over human rights.

Foreign Secretary Dr Palitha Kohona told the BBC: "Asians don't hector each other from public pulpits. They're more ready with aid and less ready with gratuitous advice."

Our letter writer states Sri Lanka have come up under pressure level from some states over its human rights record as warfare have resumed with Tamil Tiger Rebels fighting for independency in the island's North and east.

In March a United States state section study accused authorities military units and allied reserves of unlawful killing, torture, hostage-taking and extortion with impunity.

During his visit President Ahmadinejad will tour development undertakings which Islamic Republic Of Iran is helping to fund.

Iran have already agreed soft loans and grants of $1.9bn for a hydroelectric and irrigation strategy and to upgrade a refinery, as well as to purchase Persian oil.

China have also come up forward with money for a new port and other projects.

Bush's long-awaited call for curbing emissions falls flat abroad,

: At last, U.S. President Saint George W. Shrub have put a mark day of the month for reining in American pollution — and the command drop level in the international arena, where he have long lagged in tackling planetary warming.

"Losership instead of leadership," Germany's environment curate said Thursday of Bush's new strategy. A major disappointment, South Africa said. Too small and too late, a Chinese functionary added.

Bush's address Wednesday, in which he said the world's No. One defiler must halt the growing in its emanations of nursery gases by 2025, dominated international clime negotiation in City Of Light on Thursday among functionaries from the world's major economies.

Beyond the bombilation over Bush, negotiants in the closed-door talks pushed ways to spread out biofuels to beginnings beyond maize and other nutrient crops, the head Gallic delegate said. The growth usage of biofuels is blamed in portion for grain deficits and rising planetary nutrient terms that have got caused recent public violences in respective countries.

Bush's address hung like a shadow over all the discussions. Today in Europe

Since Shrub rejected the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, many states have got viewed him as an obstruction to the fighting against planetary warming. Shrub argued that the hazards of clime alteration weren't clear and that the pact's compulsory emanations cuts would ache the U.S. economy.

Over the past twelvemonth or so, Shrub have gradually acknowledged the dangers of planetary warming, amid increasingly alarming surveys about human-caused C emissions.

His White Person House computer address Wednesday marked the first clip he had put a specific mark day of the month for decreases in U.S. climate-hurting pollution.

Outside the United States, many viewed his address as out of sync with the remainder of the world.

Bush is "lagging hopelessly behind the jobs with his proposals," German Environment Curate Sigmar Gabriel said in a statement in Berlin.

"His address follows the motto: 'losership instead of leadership,'" Gabriel said. "We are glad that there are other voices in the USA."

In Paris, Chinese delegate Su Wei Dynasty said it was good news that Shrub was talking about emanations at all. But he joined critics saying the United States necessitates to cut emanations — not just restrict their growth.

"To take measurements to decelerate down the addition in emanations is not enough," he said.

"We believe the United States should already have got got cut emissions," he said, because that would have encouraged other states to follow the Pb of the world's greatest economy.

China's emanations are soaring, but it and other development states state they should not be penalized by binding cuts in emanations when their per capita emanations of C dioxide and other heat-trapping gases are far below those in developed countries.

France's head clime negotiator, Brice Lalonde, said, "The current American disposal is just beginning to aftermath up, a spot late," to the dangers of planetary warming.

Australia's Climate Change Curate Penny Wong welcomed Bush's proclamation as "a important step" but said the United States must make more.

South African Environment Curate Marthinus avant garde Schalkwyk said Bush's address "takes us backward," because it did not name for compulsory emanations cuts.

Delegates from the European Committee and the europium presidency, currently held by Slovenia, establish Bush's scheme "disappointing," said the head U.N. clime alteration official, Yvo Delaware Boer.

De Afrikaner was diplomatic about Bush's speech, saying, "I see it as an offering on the table."

Bush's head advisor on clime change, Jim Connaughton, defended the U.S. position.

"It was a computer address directed at domestic audiences," he said of the president's address. Bush's Pluto said it was aimed at heading off a "train wreck" of varying emanations statute law in the U.S. Congress.

Connaughton confirmed another watershed between the Americans and their negotiating partners: The U.S., helium said, is calculating its emanations ends based on the most modest U.N. scientific projections of overall planetary heating in the approaching decades. The European Union is basing its ends — reduction emanations by 50 percentage of 1990 degrees by 2050 — on more than desperate projections.

A U.N. clime panel of men of science released studies last twelvemonth warning of fast-rising seas, extended droughts and flooding, terrible heat energy moving ridges and other desperate personal effects from planetary warming. Its estimations ranged from a 2-degree Anders Anders Celsius (3.6-degree Fahrenheit) rise in planetary temperatures by 2100 to a 6-degree Celsius (11-degree Fahrenheit).

The U.S.-sponsored negotiation in City Of Light convey together functionaries from states that green goods about 80 percentage of the nursery gas emanations blamed for planetary warming, including the United States, People'S Republic Of China and India.

The City Of Light Sessions are the 3rd in a series of U.S.-sponsored negotiation after meetings in Capital Of Hawaii in January and New House Of York in September. 1 |

US president, first lady had $923,807 (€583,470) income, pay $221,635 (€139,980) federal taxes

: President Saint George W. Shrub and his wife, Laura, paid $221,635 (€139,980) in federal taxations on an adjusted gross income of $923,807 (€583,470) for 2007.

The income sum includes a $150,000 (€94,740) progress received by Laura Shrub for the children's book she co-authored with her daughter, Jenna.

Adjusted gross income is salary, dividends, involvement and other nonexempt income minus specified points that are exempt from federal taxation.

Last year, the president and Mrs. Shrub paid $186,378 (€117,715) in federal taxations on their income of $765,801 (€483,675).

Bush's wage as president is about $400,000 (€252,635). Today in Americas

Also Friday, the White Person House reported that Frailty President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, had an adjusted gross income of $3.04 million (€1.9 million) in 2007.

The Cheneys owed $602,651 (€380,630) in federal taxations on that income. They have got paid $466,165 (€294,425) through withholdings and estimated taxation payments, and will pay the remaining $136,486 (€86,205) upon filing their taxation return.

The Cheneys' income includes the frailty president's wage and a pension he acquires as a former manager of Union Pacific Ocean Corp. It also includes Lynne Cheney's book royalty income, a wage from her work at the American Enterprise Institute and a pension she acquires as a former manager of Reader's Digest.

The frailty president's wage is about $212,000 (€133,895).

Mrs. Shrub donated all nett return from her book progress to Teach for United States and The New Teacher Project, according to the White Person House.

The Bushes contributed $165,660 (€104,630) to Christian churches and charitable organizations, including the military volunteer fire section in Crawford, Texas, where they have a ranch. The Cheneys donated $166,547 (€105,190) to charity in 2007, the White Person House said.

Bush backs Iraq withdrawal freeze - BBC Bulgaria

US President Saint George Tungsten Shrub states he will set a freezing on the backdown of United States military personnel from Iraq, as requested by his top full general in the country.

In a statement the president said the "drawdown" would go on until July as planned, but then the military would necessitate clip to measure the adjacent step.

He said he had told his senior commanding officer General Saint David Petraeus "he'll have got all the clip he needs".

Mr Shrub also said a "major strategical shift" had occurred in Iraq.

He said the past 15 calendar months had seen military and political progress, and that "today we have got the initiative".

By July the United States presence should be reduced from 20 brigades to 15 - leaving about 140,000 military personnel in Iraq, about the same figure as were present before the United States "surge" began in early 2007.

Mr Shrub is portraying the backdown as a mark of the success for the surge, and is trying to do as much working capital from it as possible, states the BBC's Adam Brookes in Baghdad.

But by referring to a "major strategical shift" he have got used linguistic communication that Gen Petraeus and United States embassador to Republic Of Iraq Ryan Crocker have deliberately avoided, our letter writer adds.

Gen Petraeus said the state of affairs in Republic Of Republic Of Iraq was still unsatisfactory

Mr Shrub also said he was cutting circuits of duty in Iraq and Islamic State Of Afghanistan from 15 to 12 months, effectual from 1 August, and that service force would have got a twelvemonth at place for every twelvemonth served overseas.

The determination to hold backdowns intends the United States presence in Republic Of Iraq is likely to last well beyond January, when Mister Shrub will go forth business office and a new president will take over.

Iraq is one of the cardinal battlefields of the election campaign, with Republican Toilet McCain arguing for continued battle while Democratic challengers Edmund Hillary Bill Clinton and Barack Obama phone call for full withdrawal.

Progress

In testimony on Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee, Gen Petraeus said advancement had been made in Republic Of Iraq but many challenges remained.

He said the suspension of troop backdowns after July would let a time period of reassessment.

Gen Petraeus told the House panel he was improbable to name for another build-up of military personnel in Republic Of Iraq even if the security state of affairs deteriorated after some military personnel came home.

"That would be a pretty distant idea in my mind," he said.

He have said a planned "drawdown" of about 20,000 military personnel should go on to July, but afterwards there should be a 45-day "period of consolidation and evaluation" before any more than military personnel leave.

Gen Petraeus could not state how many United States military personnel would be in Republic Of Iraq at the end of the year. There are currently 160,000 in Iraq.