Morning News Roundup (24 Mar)

• Dozens of the world’s cities, including London and New York, could be flooded by the end of the century, according to research which suggests that global warming will increase sea levels more rapidly than was previously thought.
  
  By the end of this century, Arctic readings could rise to levels not seen in 130,000 years _ when the oceans were several feet higher than now, according to new research appearing in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
  
  Experts believe many coastal regions would suffer long before sea levels rose significantly, because even a minor rise will make storm surges more devastating and increase the risk of flooding. A rise of one metre would in effect close the port of London as the Thames barrier would need to be raised for 300 days a year to protect the city, according to one scientist. [culled from articles in the London Times, Guardian, and WaPo]
  
  More on this later in the day (or the weekend).
  
  
• The EU and US are to impose sanctions against Belarus over an election that gave President Alexander Lukashenko a landslide victory and third term. Opponents have accused the government of vote rigging and international observers said the poll was unreliable.[BBC] Police stormed the opposition tent camp in the Belarusian capital Minsk early Friday morning, detaining hundreds of demonstrators who had spent a fourth night protesting Lukashenko's victory. [AP/Salon]
  
  
• Even as military planners look to withdraw significant numbers of U.S. troops from Iraq in the coming year, the Bush administration continues to request $348 million for large bases there, raising concerns over whether they are intended as permanent homes for U.S. forces. [LATimes]
  

  Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador to Baghdad, said on Iraqi television last week that the U.S. had "no goal of establishing permanent bases in Iraq." And Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Barry Venable said, "We're building permanent bases in Iraq for Iraqis."
  
  But the seemingly definitive administration statements mask a semantic distinction: Although officials say they are not building permanent U.S. bases, they decline to say whether they will seek a deal with the new Iraqi government to allow long-term troop deployments.

• At least 56 Iraqis died in violence on Thursday, including a car bombing that killed 25 people in the third major attack on a police lockup in three days. A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance to the Interior Ministry Major Crimes unit in Baghdad’s central Karradah district, killing 10 civilians and 15 policemen employed there. [Pakistan Daily Times; hat tip to Juan Cole]
  
  
• Paris is burning again, as student protests escalate with "burning cars seven blocks from the Eiffel Tower, shop windows smashed along one of the capital's toniest streets, and columns of helmeted riot police advancing across the greensward of a prominent tourist venue. Thursday's violence came at the end of a demonstration by tens of thousands of high school and college students protesting a new job law." [WaPo] This follows last fall's riots (previously posted here). Ahhh... I miss Paris...
  
  
• Chelsea and Liverpool just can't seem to get away from one another--they've been paired to meet in the English FA Cup semi-finals after having met in the Champions League twice over the last two seasons (and, of course, they meet twice a season in the Premier League).

Well, it seems we've run out of milk here at Cracks Centraal, so time to head to the Java Bean before getting down to another day of freelancer overdrive.