New housing infers sprouts on apartments displays the no-man's land that served for 12 years as a buffer between Hussein's Iraq and the three Kurdish provinces, Irbil, Dahuk and Sulaymaniya, that were protected by American and British air power. Soon, 5,000 overwhelmingly Kurdish Iraqi army troops will begin patrolling the countryside around Kirkuk, ostensibly to protect oil and electricity lines, but also to form a de facto barrier between the area and the rest of Iraq. The controversial patrols were approved by the Baghdad government. "Our problem is coming from the terrorists who are outside the city," said Police Chief Gen Jamal Taher, a Kurd. "What we want to do is to protect ourselves from the rest of the provinces where the terrorists are. "The proposal has outraged some of the city's Turkmen and Arab leaders, who see it as a ploy to extend Kurdish control. "This is a barrel of TNT," said Hassan Torhan, an ethnic Turkmen politician and a member of the Turkmen Front, which is backed by Turkey. "Saddam Hussein tried to Arabize Kirkuk, Now the two parties are trying to 'Kurdize' Kirkuk. "Torhan frequents Irbil's new international airport. He drives there through newly constructed tunnels and freshly asphalted streets and past shiny new hotels, restaurants, office buildings and apartment blocks. Kurds boast that not a single non-Iraqi has been killed in their semiautonomous region since April 9, 2003. They say they've drawn on decades of intelligence experience from their dealings with Western and Middle Eastern spy agencies to keep militants at bay. They've also incorporated into the political process many of the Kurdish Islamist groups that share the same extremist religious outlook as Al Qaeda. Around Irbil, they've strengthened a gigantic earthen berm to keep militants out. Ironically, the trench was dug by Hussein during the 1980s to keep the city out of the hands of Kurdish guerrillas now running much of the north. Meanwhile, in the 4 1/2 years since the invasion of Iraq, life inside Kirkuk has only become more dangerous Grinding poverty persists.
Insurgent bombings and gunfire daily target soldiers, police officers and civilians . Barbed wire and concrete blast barriers line the city's unkempt boulevards as Black Hawk helicopters hover above. Fifteen minutes into a day-long foray into the city, a visiting Western reporter was accosted by a burly man who drew a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun on him and taunted his driver apartments downtown . It was an off-duty police officer venting frustration over a minor traffic incident. Kirkuk officials believe Kurds can do a better job of providing security than either the Iraqi or U. S apartments for rent . security forces. "There will be bloodshed if the Americans leave," said Brig Gen Hamid Salar, head of Kirkuk's traffic police apparel . "But if the Kurdish authorities would be given responsibility, the terrorist activity would immediately drop 50%. "Looking at life without the Americans, some Arabs in Kirkuk whisper that at least the Kurds are mostly Sunni Muslims, whereas the Baghdad government is dominated by Shiite Muslims with close ties to Iran. The Kurds also generally have a much better record on human rights and treatment of minorities than does Baghdad, where security forces are full of Shiite militiamen and sectarian death squads have run rampant. But some worry as to how the Kurds might behave without U Ball State Cardinals Scheumann Stadium - wikipedia . S scrutiny. Recently, Arabs who fled to Kirkuk to escape sectarian killings elsewhere in Iraq have reported being rousted from their homes by Kurdish-dominated security forces and ordered to move again, lest they upset the city's ethnic balance ahead of the referendum Ball State Cardinals Scheumann Stadium . "We were informed that we have to leave our houses that we have rented for over a year and a half," said Radhi Mohammed, who fled Baghdad's Bayaa neighborhood for Kirkuk with 13 family members. "Police arrested one of my sons and told us to leave or they will detain my son until we do so. "--daragahiA special correspondent in Kirkuk contributed to this report. .
K-Swiss Inc. , an athletic and fashion footwear maker, said second-quarter profit rose 21% as the company tightened expenses to offset soft domestic sales. Earnings rose to $20. 3 million, or 58 cents a share, from $16. 8 million, or 47 cents, a year earlier . But revenue fell almost 2% to $124. 2 million. The per-share profit beat Wall Street's estimate of 46 cents, but the company missed revenue expectation of $130. 5 million, according to a Thomson Financial poll of analysts. K-Swiss issued guidance for the third quarter of $119 million to $129 million in sales and earnings of 40 cents to 50 cents a share arena . It expects 2006 revenue of $470 million to $480 million and earnings of about $1. 90 to $2 a share. Wall Street is looking for income of 39 cents a share on sales of $121. 2 million in the third quarter ball football Ball State Cardinals Scheumann Stadium - bsu . For 2006, analysts expect K-Swiss to earn $1. 71 a share on revenue of $479. 7 million. Shares of Westlake Village-based K-Swiss rose $3. 80 to $27. 74. ball state . Comcast Corp. said Thursday that its second-quarter profit rose 7% from a year earlier as revenue soared, highlighted by a leap in subscribers for its Internet telephone service. The nation's biggest cable company also raised its financial outlook for the year, with the number of new subscribers to Comcast Digital Voice expected to be 30% to 40% higher than previously forecast. Comcast shares rose $1. 50 to $34. 02. "It was a great quarter," said Brian L. Roberts, Comcast's chief executive, during a conference call with analysts.
"We really feel the phone business is coming into its own and will drive an era of growth we haven't seen in a long time. "The company expects to roll out a wireless service in the Portland, Ore. , and Boston areas as part of a joint venture with Sprint Nextel Corp . Comcast and Sprint will unveil a co-branded cellphone, initially offering Internet connection and limited video ball state cap . They plan to expand the services to include such features as programming a digital video recorder by cellphone. In the quarter, Philadelphia-based Comcast earned $460 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with $430 million, or 19 cents, a year earlier ball state cardinals . Revenue rose 11% to $6. 23 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected profit of 20 cents a share on revenue of $6. 13 billion. Comcast's operating cash flow rose 12% to $2. 43 billion, while operating income was up 17% to $1. 23 billion. Video revenue rose 7. 6% to $3. 74 billion . The company added 350,000 digital cable subscribers in the quarter versus 284,000 a year earlier. The average revenue per basic cable subscriber came to $57. 49 a month, up 8% year over year. Ball State Cardinals Scheumann Stadium tickets High-speed Internet revenue rose 22% to $1. 21 billion while its phone service -- digital and circuit-switched calls -- posted a 24% gain to $214 million. About 305,000 customers signed up for Comcast's high-speed Internet service in the quarter, up 1. 7% from last year's second quarter. The average revenue per subscriber was $43. 78 a month, up 1%. Its digital voice service added 306,000 customers, up 45% from the first quarter and substantially higher than the 15,000 gained in the same quarter last year . Comcast said it expected to post a 10%-to-11% increase in revenue for the year.
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