Put your feet up and take a breather! After all the big events and important transits of the month -- including a solar and lunar eclipse, and Mercury turning direct -- this week highlights one lovely aspect as Mercury and Venus come together in a gentle conjunction on February 26.

now, it took the weight of precedent to prevent me from injecting some of the darkest thoughts i've had in some time into this journal on the day of my birthday which stands as the worst one since my tenth birthday: and yes, i'm about to try to establish a pattern. i think i have bad birthdays the year after every ninth birthday. yes, i realize how crazy this sounds, but hear me out. my tenth birthday remains the most troubling and sad birthdays i've ever experienced bc i didn't receive any birthday presents and cried in the backseat of my car. be mindful, my sister had just come along and to soften the blow, my parents let me have a slumber party. they wanted to wait until the party for my gifts, but i thought that meant i wasn't getting anything. i don't even remember my nineteenth birthday. and now, i must say, that given the nyquil and the cookie cakes and the half-bulemia with chipotle and the inability to put together even the most simple plans set into stone this as my worst birthday. and unlike the many who interpret one's birthday as the beginning of a new year, i am using it as the last timestamp on a truly horrible year. i do think that my dinner in danni with jen last year really stood as the last true good time i've had. why do i say that? it's the last time life held promise without the financial clutter i've accumulated in the past twelve months. not only did i willingly take on a new job racked the pay instabilities someone -- with financial management issues -- like me should never really take with eyes open. after that, i spirited away thousands of dollars worth of bonus on the car, the trip to disney, and i don't know what. then the bonuses ran out and my weekly pay came into sharp relief as simply not enough. given the couple of months of relative prosperity mixed with some fairly expensive vacation and one major car fiasco and we have quite the reorganization of my day-to-day priorities and week-to-week pressures and month-to-month financial pressures. this all evidenced by myself. in st. petersburg. on my birthday. doing nothing. not out with my friends. not out with my family. not even fielding crazy drunken phone calls from some wonderfully fabulous vantage point as i can normally claim. just me. raw. so this allowed me to really deal with some thoughts i've long had but long avoided. it's about being the odd man out. now, one of the reasons i always feel i need to get away and always need to buy things others can't have is not just because of some sort of obsession with proving myself as the true class alien drescribed by matthew arnold, but because when i don't, i go crazy. it's a funny little spot i'm in. i tend to think i couldn't/wouldn't survive in one of our larger metropoles, but drive myself crazy by staying in one of our smaller ones. and i know it's nothing outside of frivolity to even speak about this at a time when we have kenyan upsets and turkey invading iraq and the serbians declaring independence and lebanon not having a government and pakistan living in unrest and china raising concerns about our satellite shoot down. and yeah, somehow, this made me focus on the career of lars nilsson because for as beautiful and masterful and accomplished as he seems in the world of fashion, he seems to always being bounced around and while this has absolutely nothing to do with anything, i find it quite interesting that perhaps, there exist others who haven't quite found their place in the world but who have situated themselves somewhere where they can be appreciated for who they are. i don't know. that's the best i can do on this birthday and much like the once ruined new years where i sat on the beach sopping in sadness over the exsomeone, i vow to never let this happen again.

Here is your single's love horoscope
for Monday, February 25:

Tread lightly for now -- the people around you might be particularly sensitive, and less willing to share than usual. So if your coworker seems reluctant to spill the details of the weekend's dates, don't push it.

Obama, Clinton battle over national security By Caren Bohan
2 hours, 26 minutes ago

Presidential candidate Barack Obama accused rival Democrat Hillary Clinton of using the politics of fear on Saturday after her campaign released an ad suggesting that Obama lacked enough security experience to keep America safe.

"There are those who are telling you not to believe. There are those who are trying to feed your fear and your cynicism and your doubts," the first-term Illinois senator told supporters in Providence, Rhode Island.

Obama is seeking to raise doubts about Clinton's judgment, especially around her 2002 Senate vote to authorize the war in Iraq, in response to the television ad. It suggested Obama would not be able to handle a national security crisis.

The jabs over national security come as the candidates race toward Tuesday's primary votes in Ohio and Texas, big states that are considered must-wins for Clinton.

"We've been talking about change from the start of this campaign," Obama said. "Real change isn't voting for George Bush's war in Iraq and then telling the American people it was actually a vote for more diplomacy."

The former first lady, speaking in Texas, argued she was the only Democrat who can go toe-to-toe with Republican front-runner John McCain, a former prisoner of war who has been a strong advocate of larger troop numbers in Iraq.

"My opponent is now saying that raising national security in this election is fear-mongering ... . This is a wartime election and it matters who we put into the White House," the New York senator said.

"If Senator Obama is unwilling to engage me over national security, how is he going to engage Senator McCain?" Clinton told reporters later in the day.

National security has taken on a central role between the Democratic rivals as Obama, who has beaten Clinton in 11 consecutive contests, seeks to seal the nomination in Tuesday's nominating contests.

Clinton, once the unambiguous front-runner for the Democratic nomination, has seen her lead vanish in Ohio and Texas in recent weeks.

A Reuters/C-SPAN/Houston Chronicle poll released on Saturday showed Obama with a slim lead in Texas, 45 percent to Clinton's 43 percent, within the margin of error.

But she has maintained an edge among Hispanics in Texas, who could make up a third or more of voters there, and will look for support among women and older voters.

In Ohio, the candidates were dead even at 45 percent.

WHO IS READY FOR CRISES?

The Clinton ad seized on Americans' security fears.

"It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone in the White House and it's ringing. Something's happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call," the ad's narrator says.

Obama's campaign responded with its own ad that questioned Clinton's vote in support of the Iraq invasion, arguing judgment was more important than experience.

"Senator Clinton is right when she says she's been tested on national security, but it's a test she has resoundingly failed," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

In Texas, Clinton dug into Obama's record.

"He chairs a subcommittee on NATO, which is a major ally in the war in Afghanistan. But he failed to hold a single substantive hearing on Afghanistan or anything else," she said in prepared remarks. "He talks about these issues, but then he goes missing in action."

With the U.S. economy faltering and resistance to international trade deals rising, the Iraq war has so far not played the same central role in the 2008 presidential race as it did in 2004. But it could well reemerge on center stage.

McCain, the Arizona senator who has a wide lead over rival Mike Huckabee, took the day off from campaigning.

McCain led the former Arkansas governor 58 percent to 23 percent in Ohio in Saturday's poll, and 54 percent to 31 percent in Texas.

(Reporting by Caren Bohan in Rhode Island, Ellen Wulfhorst in Texas and John Whitesides in Washington; Editing by Xavier Briand)

(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)

Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

###

Split widens over Kosovo
Independence backed by US; others snub it
By Peter Finn and Peter Baker, Washington Post | February 19, 2008

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo - The United States and the European Union's largest countries recognized the independence of Kosovo yesterday, a major boost for the fledgling state, which still faces intense opposition from Russia, Serbia, and even some Western European countries over its proclaimed status.

President Bush, traveling in Africa, hailed the new state's "special friendship" with the United States, promising to set up a US embassy there and inviting Kosovo to establish a diplomatic mission in Washington.

"On behalf of the American people, I hereby recognize Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state," Bush said in a letter to President Fatmir Sejdiu. "I congratulate you and Kosovo's citizens for having taken this important step in your democratic and national development."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who first announced the US decision, tried to placate the Serbs, and by extension their closest allies, the Russians. "We invite Serbia's leaders to work together with the United States and our partners to accomplish shared goals," she said in a statement.

In a widely expected move, Kosovo's independence from Serbia was declared Sunday by its parliament, which is dominated by ethnic Albanians. The decision has divided the European Union, which is supposed to supervise independence and replace a UN mission that has acted as the province's overseer since Serbian forces withdrew from Kosovo in 1999.

What will happen next is unclear. Russia and Serbia have called on the United Nations to overturn the independence declaration, and Russia appears likely to try to block any attempt to wind down the UN mission here and turn it over to the EU.

American and some EU diplomats say they believe that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon can order the transition without referring the issue to the Security Council, where Russia holds veto power. But a period of intense diplomatic wrangling is likely.

"We think that [Ban Ki-moon] should more clearly define his position," Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, an official in the Russian Foreign Ministry, told the news agency Interfax. He added that Moscow "expects the head of the UN Mission in Kosovo to invalidate the resolution of the Pristina parliament."

Members of Kosovo's Serb minority insist they will never recognize the declaration of independence. And the vast majority of them appear determined not to cooperate with EU oversight, even though it is intended to guarantee their rights in Kosovo, whose population is 90 percent ethnic Albanian.

Thousands of Serbs marched in this divided city yesterday chanting, "This is Serbia!" Much of northwestern Kosovo, beginning at the Ibar River, which divides Mitrovica, is almost entirely Serb.

"Serbia regards this as theft," Serbia's deputy minister for Kosovo, Vuko Antonijevic, said in an interview at the rally. "Serbia will try to keep Kosovo within our borders, and we will use all political and diplomatic means to achieve that."

In a worrying sign for the new Kosovo government, and the future EU mission, Serb policemen have begun to leave the multiethnic Kosovo police force created by the United Nations and are pledging loyalty instead to authorities in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, according to political leaders here.

The creation of separate governing and law enforcement bodies in Serb enclaves, particularly in northern Kosovo, which borders Serbia proper, could mark an attempt to partition Kosovo.

"If they can have their independence, then we can have ours," said Snezana Milenkovic, a 20-year-old dentistry student from Mitrovica who now lives in Belgrade but returned here for yesterday's protest. "If Kosovo cannot stay in Serbia, then we will look for partition."

Officially, at least, Serb leaders have avoided stating that they want to make any current divisions in Mitrovica permanent; it would lead not only to the abandonment of Kosovo but of isolated Serb communities south of Mitrovica.

Serb leaders said Kosovo will never become a truly independent state because Russia and Serbia will prevent it from joining international organizations, especially the United Nations.

"As long as there is Russia and Serbia, there will never be an independent Kosovo," said Marko Jaksic, a hard-line Kosovo Serb leader, speaking at yesterday's protest in Mitrovica, where portraits of Russian President Vladimir Putin adorn shop windows. "America is no longer the single world power."

The formal US statement on Kosovo came at the end of a long and confusing day. Bush appeared to recognize Kosovo's independence during an interview with NBC News, only to have the White House try to withdraw the recognition and then finally reconfirm it after Rice's statement was released. Serbia then withdrew its ambassador from Washington in protest.

In her statement, Rice also warned Russia that Kosovo should not be used "as a precedent" to support independence for pro-Moscow breakaway regions in the former Soviet Union.

Spain, which fears that Kosovo's independence could bolster separatist impulses among its own population, forcefully refused to recognize Kosovo statehood. Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia are also expected to decline to recognize Kosovo's independence.

The EU was able to agree on a supervisory mission because it was sanctioned before Kosovo declared independence, thus avoiding any de facto recognition of the country's new status by countries that are opposed to it.

Charles Grant, head of the Center for European Reform in London, said that from a public relations standpoint, the divisions "make the EU look a little bit silly as an organization, but in practical terms, the reality is it doesn't matter much because even the countries that don't really approve of independence are going along with the majority and not preventing things from happening."

© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

###

Revenge Killings Stoke a Violent Cycle in Kenya
Tribal Gangs Spread Deadly Confrontations Across Country's West

By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 29, 2008; A14

NAIROBI, Jan. 28 -- The toll from five days of fighting between rival tribal gangs across western Kenya rose to at least 85 Monday, as the post-election violence that has swept this East African nation began to take on a new character: revenge.

It began in the western city of Nakuru on Thursday, with gangs of young men from President Mwai Kibaki's tribe, the Kikuyu, roaming the streets with machetes and clubs. They hunted down and hacked to death people from opposition leader Raila Odinga's Luo tribe, residents said. It was payback time, it seemed, for past weeks in which hundreds of Kikuyus have been killed and tens of thousands driven from their homes.

The violence then moved to the tourist town of Naivasha, 50 miles northeast of Nairobi, and by Monday, about 2,000 young men squared off along a main road, taunting one another, with machetes, rocks and nail-studded clubs in hand.

Police officers, appearing nervous, fired bullets into the air to disperse the groups. But the tribal divisions that have characterized the violence since the disputed Dec. 27 presidential election were clearly drawn: Kikuyus on one side of the road, staring down mostly Luos on the other.

"This is Kikuyu land!" one side shouted, according to local reporters, with the other retorting "No Raila, no peace!"

The dead in Naivasha included 19 people, mostly Luos, who were chased through the streets Sunday by Kikuyu gangs, trapped inside a house and burned to death, according to Luka Katee, the Naivasha district commissioner.

That incident in particular appeared to be retribution for 17 Kikuyus who were burned to death this month in a church where they were hiding. The church burning, along with the torching of homes and villages across western Kenya in recent weeks, seems to have been committed by well-organized local militias loyal to Odinga. It is unclear, however, whether the Kikuyu involved in the latest violence were also well-organized, or ad-hoc mobs, or both.

Some reports indicated that young Kikuyu men had been bused into Naivasha to exact revenge on Luos. But Katee said that as far as he could tell, both the Kikuyu and Luo gangs in Naivasha were young, unemployed locals taking their own revenge.

"They are mobs," he said Monday. "They don't have a leader."

In the sort of vicious cycle that has leaders and diplomats here worried, the killings in Naivasha -- news of which was broadcast across the country -- prompted a violent reaction 125 miles to the west in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu.

There, thousands of Odinga's Luo supporters poured into the streets Monday, blocking roads with boulders, setting fire to five buses owned by a Kikuyu company and pulling apart a stretch of railway line that ships food from the fertile Rift Valley region into Nairobi.

In the afternoon, a drunken group stoned to death a man they presumed to be Kikuyu, who had been running for his life through one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. Although Kikuyus have been chased out of Kisumu, the incident appeared to be the first mob-style killing in that city.

By Monday evening, tempers across western Kenya seemed to have cooled, though tensions remained high.

Police and Kenyan soldiers patrolled streets of major cities and towns in the region. In some areas, military helicopters swirled over the rusted tin-roofed neighborhoods where violence has tended to burst forth. Local authorities said they had the situation under control.

But many Kenyans fear that the situation is spiraling beyond the control of Kenya's deadlocked political leaders, who have vaguely called for peace in one breath, but blamed one another for the violence in the next.

With former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan in Nairobi for mediation, Odinga and Kibaki's teams on Monday prepared ground rules for negotiations that are widely thought to be Kenya's best hope for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

More than 800 people have been killed and at least 250,000 displaced since Odinga accused Kibaki of stealing the election. It is the East African nation's worst crisis since independence from Britain in 1963.

"Civil war is not too strong a word for the fears people have," said Salim Lone, a spokesman for Odinga.

The violence has struck the poorest settlements of Nairobi but has mostly remained concentrated in western Kenya.

There, members of the local Kalenjin and Luo tribes, loyal to Odinga, are apparently using the occasion to address long-standing land disputes with Kikuyus, who settled there in large numbers with the help of a Kikuyu-dominated government in the years after independence. Tribes in Kenya break down largely along ethnic lines.

For weeks, busloads and trucks packed with Kikuyus and heaped high with bundles have been exiting the Rift Valley area, headed to points east or all the way back to their traditional home province in central Kenya.

The process of tribal segregation has continued in recent days, only this time with Luos hitting the road, running from the Kikuyu gangs. In general, they are headed to Luo-dominated areas to the west.

On Monday, Lone said opposition leaders think the past days of reprisals against Luos were also well-organized, with Kikuyu attackers being transported from the western Nakuru, where the violence began Thursday, to Naivasha, where it continued Monday.

"We believe quite strongly that these gangs are organized," he said. "We are even more concerned that the violence is slowly coming to our capital city. Really, unless there is some clear sign through this mediation process that gives people hope, it is bound to get worse."

Special correspondent Alan Okombo in Kisumu contributed to this report.

###

US moves to expand its role in Pakistan
Intelligence centers, aid package planned
By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | February 25, 2008

WASHINGTON - US officials are quietly planning to expand their presence in and around the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan by creating special coordination centers on the Afghan side of the border where US, Afghan, and Pakistani officials can share intelligence about Al Qaeda and Taliban militants, according to State Department and Pentagon officials.

The Bush administration is also seeking to expand its influence in the tribal areas through a new economic support initiative that would initially focus on school and road construction projects. Officials recently asked Congress for $453 million to launch the effort - a higher request for economic support funds than for any country except Afghanistan.

The expansion of US efforts in the tribal areas - made possible, in part, by rising Pakistani anger at a string of suicide attacks by militants from the region - also includes the deployment of about 30 US counterinsurgency trainers to teach an elite Pakistani force to fight Al Qaeda and indigenous extremists.

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan has long refused to allow US soldiers to operate openly in the semiautonomous tribal areas where Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding. But in recent months, as unrest in Pakistan grew and he became increasingly unpopular, Musharraf began quietly allowing more American "eyes and ears" into the region, Pakistani officials said in interviews.

US officials say they hope Musharraf's concessions will evolve into a greater role for US forces in the region over time.

"In order to get a window on what's happening on the ground, US forces need to be more present, whether they are physically there, or virtually there, monitoring," said Daniel Markey, a Pakistan specialist on the State Department's policy planning staff from 2003 until his retirement last year.

To get a better picture of the complex insurgency that has grown in the tribal areas over the past five years, US officials are constructing two new coordination centers on the Afghan side of a border at Torkham, near the Khyber Pass, and at a second position north of Torkham. Four more posts are under consideration, according to a senior Defense Department official who is not authorized to be quoted in the press.

According to the plans, the official said, about 15 Afghan, Pakistani, and American officials will meet daily at each center to share intelligence about militant activities on both sides of the porous, mountainous border, which extends about 1,560 miles between Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal areas.

"The purpose of the centers is to share intelligence, ensure that all [parties] have a common operational picture of the area, coordinate operations that might be occurring on both sides of the border at the same time, and [settle conflicts] when necessary," said the Defense Department official.

He said there is no intention at this time to use the centers to conduct joint operations in the tribal areas.

But a State Department official who has been briefed on the plans said the United States hopes the initiatives will spread to dozens of border posts and eventually evolve into a form of military cooperation.

"We'll start with intelligence sharing," said the State Department official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the press. "If we could turn that into joint operations, all the better, but we have to walk before we can fly."

The idea for the centers grew out of a commission made up of intelligence and military officers from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the United States who have held periodic meetings since 2003 in various locations in the three countries to discuss security and terrorism.

In the past those meetings, which took place every six weeks, were marked by tension and mistrust, as Afghan and US officials feared their Pakistani counterparts were giving safe haven to militants. But a rash of suicide attacks against government targets inside Pakistan last summer pushed military leaders in Islamabad to view the extremists in the tribal areas as their enemies, not just the enemies of Americans and Afghans, and put all three countries on the same side, US officials said.

In August, a special meeting between US officials, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, tribal leaders, and Musharraf paved the way for better cooperation.

The Bush administration has requested $826 million in funds for Pakistan for 2009, more than half of which would be spent on development assistance, mostly in the tribal areas. About $300 million would be spent on reimbursing Pakistan's military for the costs of its operations in the tribal areas.

Initially, the Bush administration proposed to provide the development aid on a "cash transfer" basis to the Pakistani government. But in December, it opted to funnel the money through projects, which will require USAID contractors to have greater access to the isolated area, where foreigners are usually prohibited from traveling without a Pakistani military escort.

The large request has raised eyebrows in Congress. Last week, Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who chairs a Senate subcommittee on foreign aid, raised questions in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the effectiveness of US aid in the tribal areas and on US activities there.

The Pentagon is also planning to send roughly 30 counterinsurgency trainers to centers in the Northwest Frontier Province and in Baluchistan, where they will work with the Special Services Group, an elite commando force inside the Pakistani Army that is similar to the US Army's Special Forces, according to the Defense Department official. News of the training was first reported by the Washington Post.

Across the border, in Afghanistan, such counterinsurgency training takes place in the field, with US and Afghan soldiers walking together side-by-side, often in enemy territory. Pakistani leaders have refused to agree to such overt exercises, fearing the backlash that it would provoke among the fiercely anti-American tribal population. But US officials hope their role will evolve over time.

"You could get to a place where the US could be operating side-by-side or in some sort of advisory capacity, on the ground," said Markey. "But this is a ways off. This is politically very, very unpalatable at this stage in Pakistan."

The CIA is also pushing to enhance its surveillance capabilities and intelligence cooperation with the Pakistani services at a covert location in the tribal areas, according to a Pakistani official in the tribal areas who asked not to be identified. For years, Pakistani newspapers have published accounts of "invisible American commandos" operating inside the tribal areas, but in recent months Pakistani officials have become more open about the CIA presence there.

US forces have long operated Predator drones capable of destroying terrorist targets inside Pakistan's tribal areas, but have complained that there are too few reliable, timely tips about the location of wanted targets.

"What the US would like is closer, on-the-ground intelligence coordination, US intelligence boots on the ground and more freedom of action in the tribal territories," said Robert Grenier, a former CIA station chief in Pakistan and director of the CIA's counterterrorism center.

Still, some in the US government have argued that it would be unwise to ramp up the overt US presence in the tribal areas too quickly. So for now, US officials said, they will concentrate on enhancing their influence in the tribal region in more subtle ways.

"There is a desire to do more on the US side, and there is a recognition that it has to be handled with a great deal of sensitivity," Markey said.

© Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

###

Turkey Bombs Villages In N. Iraq
Suspected Hideouts Of Kurdish Rebels Targeted in Strikes

By Amit R. Paley and Dlovan Brwari
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, February 5, 2008; A15

BAGHDAD, Feb. 4 -- Turkish warplanes bombed more than 70 targets in northern Iraq on Monday as part of the government's ongoing battle with a militant Kurdish group that uses the area as a base for attacks in Turkey.

Villagers said they were unable to flee the bombing, which took place at about 3 a.m., because heavy snow had closed many roads.

The severe weather also made it impossible for local officials to determine whether the strikes caused casualties, said Brig. Gen. Omar Sharif of the Iraqi border forces.

The Turkish military said it struck targets in 11 areas believed to be hideouts of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known by the initials PKK. The group, which seeks greater autonomy for Kurds in Turkey, is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and the United States.

"Turkish jet fighters bombed only the terrorist targets and great concern was displayed during operations not to affect civilian life in any way," Turkey's state-run Anatolian news agency quoted the military as saying in a statement.

Sharif said bombs hit the villages of Khou Kurki, Khunereh, Sheneeneh and Lolan in the Sidikan area of Irbil province. He said the bombing lasted at least three hours.

Also Monday, new details emerged about a U.S. airstrike Saturday that the U.S. military said killed nine civilians south of Baghdad, one of the deadliest such attacks on civilians in months.

Capt. Muthana Ahmad, a spokesman for the police in Babil province, said U.S.-backed Sunni fighters were battling the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq when they requested U.S. air support.

Ahmad said U.S. helicopters accidentally targeted a checkpoint manned by the U.S.-backed fighters, killing three of them and wounding five. He said two houses were destroyed, killing the families inside, though it was unclear how many were wounded or whether there were armed men hiding inside.

"We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in this incident, and we mourn the loss of innocent civilian life," Maj. Brad Leighton wrote in an e-mail.

In northern Iraq near Kirkuk, armed men in the town of al-Touz assassinated a Turkmen leader, Mahmoud Ali Nafotji, police said. The attack, and a defused roadside bomb that targeted his funeral march, sparked outrage from members of the minority Turkmen group, who have expressed concern that Kurds are trying to take control of Kirkuk.

"We are killed because we Turkmen oppose the Kurdish project and we demand our rights," said Ali Hashim Aghool.

Brwari reported from Mosul. Special correspondent Naseer Nouri in Baghdad contributed to this report.

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www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-somalia,0,2474539.story

chicagotribune.com
US Strikes at Terror Target in Somalia
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN

1:31 PM CST, March 3, 2008

MOGADISHU, Somalia

U.S. aircraft attacked a house in a southern Somali town before dawn Monday, targeting terrorism suspects as an Islamic group with links to al-Qaida appears to be gathering sway again in this lawless African nation.

Residents and police in Dobley said at least eight people, including four children, were seriously injured when the home was destroyed by the raid, which was confirmed by U.S. officials.

The U.S. military has staged several attacks on suspected extremists in Somalia over the past year amid fears the Horn of Africa country could become a haven for terrorists.

"As we have repeatedly said, we will continue to pursue terrorist activities and their operations wherever we may find them," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in Washington.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters that "the action was to go after al-Qaida and al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists," suggesting it may have been designed to hit more than one person. Like Whitman, Johndroe declined to provide any details.

One U.S. military official said the target was believed to have been staying in a building known to be used regularly by terrorist suspects. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the record.

A radical Islamic movement that ruled much of southern Somalia in 2006 took over Dobley last week, led by senior official Hassan Turki. Turki, who is rarely seen in public, is on U.S. and U.N. lists of suspected terrorists for alleged ties to al-Qaida. His fate after the strike was not known.

People in Dobley, a town about four miles from the Kenyan border, said the sound of explosions shook them awake before dawn Monday.

"When we came out we found our neighbor's house completely obliterated as if no house existed here," Fatuma Abdullahi told The Associated Press. "We are taking shelter under trees. Three planes were flying over our heads."

The Islamic movement, the Council of Islamic Courts, seized control of much of southern Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu, in 2006. But in early 2007, troops loyal to the U.N.-backed interim Somali government and the allied Ethiopian army defeated the Islamic group.

The Islamic council now appears to be re-emerging.

On Monday, fighters linked to the group overran Bur Haqaba, a hilltop town about 35 miles from the provincial capital of Baidoa in the south. The group released prisoners from jail and killed a police chief before retreating, witnesses said.

Last month, Islamic fighters briefly took over Dinsor in southern Somalia, killing nine soldiers, police said.

The United States has repeatedly accused the Islamic group of harboring international terrorists linked to al-Qaida and allegedly responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

America has been concerned Somalia could become a breeding ground for terrorist groups, particularly after the Islamic militants briefly gained control of the south and Osama bin Laden declared his support for them.

The U.S. sent a small number of special operations troops to help the Ethiopian force that drove the Islamic movement into hiding, and a Navy warship shelled suspected al-Qaida targets. U.S. warplanes staged at least two airstrikes in January 2007 in an attempt to kill suspected al-Qaida members, Pentagon officials have said.

The U.S. Navy still patrols Somalia's 1,880-mile coast, which is the longest in Africa. Somalia is near key shipping routes connecting the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean and piracy is rampant in the waters offshore.

The U.S. has avoided sustained military action in Somalia since it led a U.N. force that intervened in the early 1990s in an effort to fight famine. That mission led to clashes between U.N. forces and Somali warlords, including a battle in Mogadishu that killed 18 American soldiers.

Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on each other. The current government was formed with U.N. help in 2004, but it has struggled to assert any real control.

___

Associated Press writers Pauline Jelinek in Washington and Elizabeth A. Kennedy in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



runway review
BILL BLASS

NEW YORK, February 15, 2001 – Passing the torch in a venerable fashion house is a dangerous game. Expectations from clients, buyers and critics run high when legendary shoes are to be filled. When Bill Blass retired last year, Steven Slowik was handed the reigns and faced with a daunting Catch-22: Stay true to Blass’ consummately conservative roots but innovate enough to spark some precious fashion buzz. Slowik missed the target by a long shot in the single awkward and unflattering collection he designed at Blass, and was promptly shown the door.

So this January, with only a month before the Fall 2001 shows, Bill Blass Ltd. found itself flying without a pilot and pulled up one of its staff designers, the Swedish-born and Paris-trained Lars Nilsson, to put together a collection. And in a few short weeks, Nilsson pulled together a robust collection of unmistakably Bill Blass clothes: bold red cashmere coats, pinstripe suits and trim satin trenchcoats. The core of Nilsson’s style is conservative enough to fit the Bill Blass image, with plush fabrics and familiar shapes, but the Swedish designer keeps it all looking current with minimal embellishments and sleek tailoring.

– Nathan Cooper



NEW YORK, September 10, 2001 – Lars Nilsson, now in his second season at Bill Blass, hit a home run with a collection that is sure to put the venerable fashion house firmly back on the map.

How does a Swedish-born, Paris-trained designer interpret classic American style? By staying true to Blass’ legacy of simple sophistication. With witty references to masculine tailoring, Nilsson went for high-waisted trousers, immaculately cut striped blazers, and pale glen-plaid suits. The designer also demonstrated his acuity with color, via floral coats and skirts, a cravat-printed shirtdress, breezy jackets, and dresses stamped with a bold "vegetable tree" motif.

The evening statements, however, were the real newsmakers. Using humble, homespun fabrics like cotton piqué and linen, Nilsson whipped up extraordinary gowns and sweeping ball skirts. Erin O’Connor’s final ensemble neatly encapsulated the theme of understated chic: An unassuming pale-blue linen jacket, worn with a painstakingly embroidered sunflower skirt to the floor, looked like a million bucks.

– By Armand Limnander



runway review
BILL BLASS

NEW YORK, February 12, 2002 – With two well-received collections behind him, Bill Blass designer Lars Nilsson is still being scrutinized by the arbiters of style. After all, the fashion industry is full of one-season wonders. And Mr. Blass, although retired, is still very much a name that matters to his devoted clients (who eagerly await his biography, due out next month).

Part of the liveliness that Nilsson has injected into the Blass label comes from his delight in color and pattern. For Fall, he was inspired in large part by the traditional textiles and handcrafts of the Amish and his native Sweden, which he worked into the Blass tradition of well-tailored sportswear. Nilsson took a leaf pattern and turned it into a colorful, oversize print for silk satin, and showed a sweeping, fur-trimmed white coat with a ladder of black stripes. There were shapely wool suits, a luxuriously cozy embroidered cashmere anorak and, for evening, a series of lovely dresses, including a rainbow-hued, hand-tinted velvet number.

Though Nilsson leaned a little too heavily on his traditional sources this time around, he continues to bring a new spirit—and a new sense of buzz—to the hallowed house of Blass.

– By Janet Ozzard



runway review
BILL BLASS

NEW YORK, September 19, 2002 – In his fourth season as creative head at the house of Bill Blass, Lars Nilsson has established a few of his favorite things. The Swedish-born, Paris-trained designer loves folklore-inspired patterns, handcrafted details and—in an industry that consistently returns to black—vivid color. Part of the challenge for him at Blass is to incorporate these elements into the label’s tradition of sparely elegant sportswear.

There were moments when Nilsson achieved just the right balance: a bold chevron sweater, a creamy silk taffeta shirtdress, a simple white shirt paired with an A-line skirt embroidered in heavy silver bars. He used whispery silk seersucker to make pretty blouses and a pouf-sleeve shirtdress that will look great rippling in the spring breezes. But some of the looks he sent out, like a hip-length navy pinstripe blazer with emphatic shoulders, or elephant-leg trousers, seemed out of step in a season where pants are cut lean and jackets are generally short and swingy.

There’s no question, though, that Nilsson knows how to delight the eye: He closed his show with a torrent of tropical-toned evening wear, from flamingo pink to hibiscus red, that's sure to have all his customers yearning for their summer vacations

– Janet Ozzard



runway review
BILL BLASS

NEW YORK, February 11, 2003 – Lars Nilsson continues to put his imprint on the house of Bill Blass, merging his own intellectual and artistic impulses with the spirit of one of America’s most influential design names.

In the two years since Nilsson became the house’s creative director, he’s made it clear that he loves sophisticated color combinations and traditional handcrafts, using them to give new life to the elegant sportswear that Blass’s customer craves. For fall, he put some dazzling hues on the runway, starting with a group of piney-green separates that included a dyed sable coat. He sent out a scarlet satin shirt and wool skirt that radiated its own heat and a creamy ivory jacket cut like a duffel coat worn over honey-colored suede trousers. The handwork showed up on an inky blue coat, embroidered with silver and worn over a navy satin skirt and black cashmere sweater.

Nilsson showed a few looks that echoed the founder's delight in irreverent juxtapositions: a motorcycle jacket cut in black satin, for example, or a simple hip-length sweater worn with a chiffon and lamé skirt for an easy nighttime look. There were prime examples, too, of the American designer tradition that sees no shame in luxurious practicality; a black cotton twill parka with a black sable hood, for example, or a navy velvet jacket that works for daytime or as an evening piece.

– Janet Ozzard



runway review
NINA RICCI

PARIS, October 11, 2003 – "Lightness, color, femininity," said Lars Nilsson, summing up a sweet debut collection for Nina Ricci that focused on wispy, weightless daywear. But wasn't Nina Ricci the sophisticated tailor of her day? Didn't she dress ladies of a certain age in classic suits? Nilsson, who proved that he could cut a mean jacket and pants during his tenure at Bill Blass, abandoned tailoring altogether for his summer statement, save a single black wool gabardine jacket worn with knitted shorts. "I was after something more sensual," he explained.

Hence all the super-delicate lingerie slips and bra tops with spider-web lace or tulle inserts that came with Bermuda shorts, flippy skirts, and silk blousons. The colors—lemon, tangerine, almond, mint—were delicious, especially when they sparkled with Lurex thread or were embroidered with transparent beads. And the dresses, from chiffon confections sprinkled with bows to slender jersey tanks, were perfectly in tune with this season's passion for all things pretty.

The purposeful femininity was no doubt intended to stamp the Nina Ricci brand with a strong, and much needed, sense of identity. But the collection overall was too floaty, and more tailoring might have anchored it better. We’ll just have to wait until fall to see how Mr. Nilsson cuts his trousers.

– Rebecca Lowthorpe



runway review
NINA RICCI

PARIS, March 9, 2004 – The current spate of designer departures from European houses has taught the fashion world a very important lesson: Know thy customer. Tom Ford at Gucci knew exactly what kind of woman he was dressing and succeeded. Julien Macdonald at Givenchy clearly didn’t and failed. Does Lars Nilsson know who the Nina Ricci woman is? He certainly has the talent to rise to the occasion but he is also clearly still fine-tuning the answer to that question.

He isn’t helped in this elusive search by the label’s total lack of identity. Unlike those other moribund houses that have been given the kiss of life (with varying degrees of success), Nina Ricci, the fragrance aside, means absolutely nada. It had no defining moment in its past; it has no design icon that can be reworked for a modern audience; and, while it’s French, it doesn’t resonate with the kind of magical chic that some Parisian houses do.

These are not, of course, problems of Nilsson’s making but they add to the challenges he faces. Oddly, he seemed far surer of where to take the house last spring, when he showed a fine, focused color palette of brown, blue, yellow, and orange and a sophisticated mix of sharp suits, soft dresses, and sweet lingerie. This collection felt more muddled in its approach. Given Nilsson’s strengths with color and decoration, it was inevitable that he would be drawn to the vintagey, just-pulled-it-out-of-my-closet, highly personal feel that is driving the season. The ruffled tweed jacket and cropped pants that opened the show worked, as did the billowing silk blouses; the tulle-veiled dresses worn with sparkly shawls didn’t. And the cumbersome triangular shrugs were just odd from a designer who never normally does tricky. Perhaps next season will prove that old adage: Third time’s a charm.

– Mark Holgate



runway review
NINA RICCI

PARIS, October 9, 2004 – For Lars Nilsson at Nina Ricci, third time really was a charm. Nilsson's first collection for this French house, best known for its scents, concentrated on lace, lingerie, and ladylike suits. His second was an eclectic mix—tweed jackets, sequin capelets, tees under chiffon blouses—in which some of the best elements got lost. For spring 2005, the designer successfully merged these two worlds—and all in a beautiful color palette of orchid, pebble, and blush (Ricci-speak for pale mauve, light khaki, and rose pink).
Nilsson's vision of spring, then, included both a slim top-stitched taffeta skirtsuit and a more casual combination of purple cardigan, scarf-print silk blouse, and above-the-knee skirt, its hem injected with a touch of volume. The standouts were the jackets (cut close to the body, with narrow shoulders, high armholes, and cropped sleeves) and dresses—in particular, one that was draped, bloused, and belted, the other a sweet confection of cotton, beading, and eyelet embroidery.

This was a somewhat repetitive show that would have benefited from a stricter edit. But the handwork on display—the embroideries, the lace trims, the ribboned lace—was typical of the love and respect that young designers at established French houses are now showing for couturelike details and finishes. Long may it last.

– Mark Holgate



runway review
NINA RICCI

PARIS, March 5, 2005 – Chez Nina Ricci, Lars Nilsson was interested in melding the soft with the hard. He leavened the fragile dresses that he loves, light and airy as 1930's lingerie, with sturdy elements to protect them from the cold: a blond fur jacket with ballooning Renaissance sleeves caught with marmalade ribbons; lean, long-line tweedy coats; and sporty swing-back jackets. Nilsson seemed more comfortable, though, with soft pieces ("flou," in couture workroom parlance). Standouts included fragile blouses traced with insets of lace, pretty evening gowns, including one in blush-pink chiffon frosted with crystal, and a gray chiffon djellaba casting a shadow over the tree-of-life print on the under-dress beneath. These were so effortlessly constructed they seemed as though they had been blown by some zephyr onto the body.

But there was hardness even in the lingerie elements, courtesy of Nilsson's collaborator Mr. Pearl, the corset king. This season, the elaborate lingerie pieces he develops for the house included a spectacular wasp-waist, silvery satin strapless evening dress, with the seams and boning of a nineteenth century corset. (Not all Pearl's pieces are this demanding on the wearer; as those chiffon lingerie frocks spilled from shoulders, or a lacy mohair knit sweater plunged daringly low, the flash of a perfectly constructed satin brassiere revealed the subtler aspects of his work.)

For Nilsson, trees are as beautiful as the flowers that are emblematic of this house, and he delighted in prints that celebrated them—from that tree of life to a shadowy autumnal fall of leaves. These elements gently evoked the work of twenties Swedish artist and architect Josef Frank (whose textile prints are enjoying a renaissance) and revealed the designer's fondness for the folkloric aspect of his native country. They also tapped beautifully into the turn-of-the-century, fairy-tale spirit that is one of fall's more poetic trends.

– Hamish Bowles



runway review
NINA RICCI

PARIS, October 8, 2005 – When a label is sailing along as smoothly as Lars Nilsson's Nina Ricci, the temptation to stick with familiar formulas is hard to resist. But if the audience, which included the burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese, was expecting a reprise of the designer's lingerie-inspired frocks, it was in for a surprise. He instead sent out dresses in crisp men's shirting fabrics. These billowed rather than draped, and came with shoulder straps and Empire-waist bows and belts in thick satin ribbon.

On a similarly unexpected note, Nilsson proposed seersucker for evening, pairing blue-and-white-striped trousers with a silver sequined shell. What a snappy idea—one that he might have explored further. It would've been interesting to see him use seersucker for, say, a ball skirt, worn with an embellished tank or sweater, or even for a full-blown C.Z. Guest-style gown. Still, the new generation of socialites for whom Nilsson designs will find plenty to love in this collection, from a simple trench in cotton satin to standout suits with bell-shape skirts in cotton drill.

Of course, romance and the house of Ricci are nearly inseparable, as Nilsson well knows. Thanks to his beautiful color palette of berry red, gold beige, and boreal pink, this show was not without its feminine charms.

– Nicole Phelps



runway review
NINA RICCI

PARIS, March 4, 2006 – Lars Nilsson tried to pull off a curious mix chez Nina Ricci today. Perhaps emboldened by the success of his preppy spring line, he set out to inject a bit of the sportif into his delicate, feminine fare—but it didn't always stick. The show's first look—an organza mille-feuille dress topped with a bronze cord vest and jacket—came across as quite heavy, even if you ignored the riding hat that was shown with it. Nilsson seemed to get bogged down in the details of his sportswear. A pea coat with three-inch bands of beaver fur above its cuffs was undeniably chic, but it's harder to picture his uptown girls sporting the skinny, cropped-below-the-knee page-boy pants of a three-piece suit in mustard corduroy.

What his soigné fans love him for is his easy way with a dress. Several of the versions he showed today featured an artsy, swirling print, while the others came in those multicolored layers of organza, chiffon, or silk gauze. His facility with such concoctions makes spring a natural for Nilsson. His next challenge is figuring out how to translate the weightless drift that distinguished last season's Empire-line gowns to fabrics with a more substantial and sophisticated heft.

– Nicole Phelps



GIANFRANCO FERRE

January 13, 2008

After a solid 15-year career in fashion, during which he's worked for labels as diverse as Lacroix and Blass, Lars Nilsson has landed himself the big job of filling the big man's shoes at Gianfranco Ferré. Which means, for the first time, he's designing a proper menswear collection. Nilsson opted for the quieter option of a presentation rather than a full-scale show, but in the hands of master set decorator Michael Howells, the tableaux highlighting the clothes were anything but low-key. Howells re-created the atmosphere of the famous 1930s Maison de Verre in Paris—enormous photos by Grant Delin lining the walls evoked the limpid male glamour of Horst's portraits from the same period—which served to enhance the discreet luxury of Nilsson's proposals for fall.

Nilsson has always had his own clothes made by a tailor, so he was keen to incorporate that experience, working with a handful of the most classic masculine elements—camel, navy, chalk-stripe, gray flannel, glen plaid—and a couple of silhouettes (one softly fitted, the other with a broad shoulder and a flared pant leg). The emphasis was on lightness of construction, which felt like the right move for a house that, under Gianfranco himself, was famous for its architectural weightiness. But Nilsson is as obsessed with detailing as Ferré was, pointing out the working buttonholes on a jacket sleeve, or proudly pulling open a mac to show its properly fused seams. This first collection layered tones and textures—a glen plaid suit paired with a shirt and tie in the same gray—for a subtle richness. That's why a pair of poured-on leather pants struck a bum note—how did Steven Tyler get in here? As an honorable mention, the superb shoes, handmade in Naples, were one more reminder that men's footwear is having one hell of a moment.

— Tim Blanks

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runway review
GIANFRANCO FERRE

MILAN, February 18, 2008 – Lars Nilsson has come and gone at the house of Gianfranco Ferré since the Spring show in September. The Swedish designer, it seems, didn't see eye-to-eye with the design team put in place and trained by Ferré himself before he passed away last summer. It was that team who stepped in earlier this month, after Nilsson's Fall designs were scrapped, to, as the company put it, create a new collection using "the codes" established by Ferré over the course of his long career.

Much more than the Spring show had, this felt like a paean to the late designer, not least because his original sketches were projected onto the back of the runway. The girls wore a succession of familiar Ferré signatures, like demonstrative white shirts with sweeping collars, and dresses with architectural flourishes—geometric ruffles at the shoulder blades or a bodice pleated like a fan. Ferré's meticulous tailoring was literally turned inside out, so that the inner workings of a dress were exposed. Stylist Lori Goldstein, with whom Ferré once collaborated on advertising campaigns, was brought in to put it all together, but despite everyone's efforts, it never really jelled. Group projects of this kind rarely do. Until the house hires a new creative director, as it has said it intends to do, it won't move forward.

– Nicole Phelps

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NILSSON OUT AT FERRE

LARS NILSSON has not designed Gianfranco Ferré's autumn/winter 2008-9 womenswear collection, it was announced over the weekend - and, less than five months after being named as the creative director of the label, he will no longer be working for the brand, either. "Gianfranco Ferré Spa announces the end of its collaboration with Mr Lars Nilsson," an unexpected memo from the design house's press office announced. "The Gianfranco Ferré autumn/winter 2008-9 womenswear collection, which will be presented on Monday, February 18, has been designed by the excellent in-house creative team. This collection will be a tribute to Gianfranco Ferré’s creativity and to his vision of style as the distinctive value imprinting each aspect of the brand's strategic orientation." While further details about Nilsson's exit have not been announced, a "new structure relative to the company's creative direction" will be revealed after the upcoming show, the report added. Former Bill Blass designer Nilsson took the reins at Ferré in September, following the death of Gianfranco Ferré last June. His first - and apparently only - collection for the house, its autumn/winter 2008-9 menswear offering, received a warm reception from critics when it was unveiled in Milan last month. (February 11 2008, AM)

Leisa Barnett