Praise Reports

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military turned over control of Iraq's Anbar province, once the country's most dangerous, to the Iraqi government Monday in a landmark step toward the withdrawal of more American troops. President Bush declared in a statement that al-Qaeda had been defeated in the western desert province, which was on the brink of collapse to the Islamic militant group two years ago. The approximately 25,000 U.S. Marines stationed in Anbar will remain for now, but they will run fewer patrols and function largely in a supporting role for Iraqi security forces. U.S. Marine Corps commandant James Conway said last week that improvements in Anbar would allow more Marines to be deployed instead to Afghanistan, where the United States faces a "stiffer fight" from Taliban insurgents.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — The Irish Republican Army is fading away in Northern Ireland and poses no security threat to the British territory, international experts concluded Wednesday in another landmark for peacemaking. The governments of Britain and Ireland heralded the findings of the Independent Monitoring Commission as the effective death of the IRA — and appealed to Protestant leaders to respond by deepening their cooperation with Catholics in the province's 16-month-old partnership government. It has failed to meet for the past three months amid rising tensions and warnings that the coalition could unravel. The report from the four fact-finders — including former directors of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Scotland Yard's anti-terror unit — has eliminated the IRA as a diplomatic barrier. "This report demonstrates not only that PIRA has gone away, but that it won't be coming back," said Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, using the outlawed group's full formal name of Provisional IRA.

NEW ORLEANS — A three-year effort to repair and strengthen New Orleans' levees — combined with some good luck — allowed the Big Easy to escape serious flooding from Hurricane Gustav, according to the government and outside experts. But the glancing blow from the Category 2 hurricane exposed the city's vulnerability, they say. Even as the storm weakened, its surge came within a foot of exceeding the walls on the city's Industrial Canal, one of the most vulnerable areas of the levee system. Despite some anxiety as wind-whipped waves crested over the top of one 12-foot high wall, the levees held fast.

Hurricane Gustav packed less of an economic punch than expected, leading analysts to estimate insured damage at between $2 billion and $10 billion. Even if insured losses from Gustav were to reach as high as $10 billion — the upper limits of projections from risk-modeling firms — that would amount to only a fraction of the $41 billion in devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Oil prices dipped to almost $108 a barrel Wednesday as the dollar continued to strengthen and attention shifted to concerns over slowing global demand for crude after Hurricane Gustav left oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico region largely undamaged. Virtually all oil and natural gas production remained shut down in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service. It was too soon to say when output might resume, though some oil companies were preparing to redeploy evacuated personnel as early as Wednesday. Without serious damage, oil and natural gas facilities should start up again in a day or two, while coastal refineries could take two to four days to resume production, depending on their size. In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita knocked out the region's offshore energy infrastructure for several weeks.