Freedom Fries Redux...Bird flu on the move...Arabs now own our ports

Good Morning....headed into a long weekend at last!

Do you like your Danish in the morning? Well, as it turns out, so do the Iranians. But in the wake of the Muslim Cartoon Controversy, they've decided to give them a new name.

TEHRAN -- Iranians love Danish pastries, but when they look for the flaky dessert at the bakery they now have to ask for ''Roses of the Prophet Mohammed."

Bakeries across the capital were covering up their ads for Danish pastries yesterday after the confectioners' union ordered the name change in retaliation for caricatures of the Muslim prophet published in a Danish newspaper.

''Given the insults by Danish newspapers against the prophet, as of now the name of Danish pastries will give way to 'Rose of Mohammed' pastries," the union said in its order.

''This is a punishment for those who started misusing freedom of expression to insult the sanctities of Islam," said Ahmad Mahmoudi, a cake shop owner in northern Tehran.

One of Tehran's most popular bakeries, ''Danish Pastries," covered up the word ''Danish" on its sign with a black banner emblazoned ''Oh Hussein," a reference to a martyred saint of Shi'ite Islam. The banner is a traditional sign of mourning. The shop owner declined to comment yesterday.

In Zartosht Street in central Tehran, cake shop owner Mahdi Pedari didn't cover up the word ''Danish pastries" on his menu, but put the new name next to it.

''I did so just to inform my customers that Rose of Mohammed is the new name for Danish pastries," he said.

Iran has cut all commercial ties with Denmark in retaliation for the prophet cartoons.

Meanwhile, the Bird Flu continues to move into Western Europe. After last week's reports from Italy and Greece, now there's word from Slovenia. It's not that far away...and the flu doesn't need a passport to cross international borders.

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia -- Slovenia became the latest European Union country to detect H5N1 bird flu and others awaited results yesterday as an EU medical specialist said the virus was likely to continue spreading.

The virus was first confirmed in the European Union on Saturday, when Greece and Italy said they had found it in wild swans. Austria and Germany reported cases on Tuesday.

''Of course we are worried and we have to get used to the fact that avian flu is now spreading within the European Union," Zsuzsanna Jakab, head of the EU's Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, told Reuters television.

''And I'm sure it will also spread to other countries beyond these five."

Hungary was awaiting results from a specialist laboratory in Britain to determine whether the H5 virus detected in three dead wild swans on Wednesday was in fact the H5N1 strain of H5. If confirmed, it would be the country's first case.

Sweden, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic carried out tests, but all results were negative.

Slovenia said a dead swan found near the Austrian border carried the deadly virus strain. Officials were testing for H5N1 in another three dead swans in which H5 had been found, while Germany discovered 10 more H5N1 cases. Greece detected an additional two cases and Austria also reported one more.

Lastly, there's this rather stunning story from Washington...it seems that the President has turned over control of the Ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami, and Philadelphia to an Arab-owned company. Congress is none too pleased, and you shouldn't be happy, either.

WASHINGTON -- The management of major US ports taken over by an Arab-owned company? What was the Bush administration thinking when it allowed such a thing?

That is the question being asked by members of Congress from both parties. Their indignation is aimed at the $6.8 billion purchase by Dubai Ports World, a state-owned company in the United Arab Emirates, a corporation that handles most operations at ports in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

At a news conference yesterday, a group of seven House and Senate members from both parties demanded that an interagency task force on foreign investments, which approved the transaction, examine it more closely.

The group asserted that although the United Arab Emirates may have a strongly pro-US government, some of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers allegedly used the country as a transit point, and that its banking system has been used by several groups allegedly affiliated with Al Qaeda.

''Our ports are major potential terrorist targets," said Senator Christopher Dodd, a Democrat of Connecticut. ''I strongly urge the administration to thoroughly investigate this acquisition."

Senator Tom Coburn, a Republican of Oklahoma, said, ''Handing the keys to US strategic ports to a regime that recognized the Taliban is not a sound next step in our war against terror."

Administration officials defended approval of the deal by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a panel with representatives from 12 US agencies that reviews foreign takeovers of US companies or possible risks to national security.

Do you feel safer?