California Mudslide Blouder
The Washington Post
'I Had to Run for My Life'
6 Bodies Found in California Town Hit by Mudslide; 13 People Missing
By Amy Argetsinger
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 12, 2005; Page A01
LA CONCHITA, Calif., Jan. 11 -- Brie Brazelton was dawdling at the neighborhood store near her home Monday when she heard the noise. It was a rumbling, "kind of like an earthquake," she said later.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2157-2005Jan11.html
Asbestos Talks Stalled on Fund, Mediator Says
Companies, Unions Differ Widely on Dollar Amount
By Albert B. Crenshaw
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 12, 2005; Page E04
Defendant companies and their insurers remain unable to agree with unions and trial lawyers on a funding level and a few other key issues in a proposed asbestos trust fund, so Congress may have to decide itself, a senior federal judge overseeing negotiations said yesterday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2359-2005Jan11.html
Search for Banned Arms In Iraq Ended Last Month
Critical September Report to Be Final Word
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 12, 2005; Page A01
The hunt for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq has come to an end nearly two years after President Bush ordered U.S. troops to disarm Saddam Hussein. The top CIA weapons hunter is home, and analysts are back at Langley.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2129-2005Jan11.html
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. McGeevey had an Israeli as a security chief and we all know how that turned out."
Nominee Criticized Over Post-9/11 Policies
By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 12, 2005; Page A10
Michael Chertoff, President Bush's nominee to be secretary of homeland security, is widely hailed for his intellectual heft and tireless work habits as a federal prosecutor and judge. But he also faces criticism as an architect of some of the most controversial elements of the Bush administration's domestic war on terrorism that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2102-2005Jan11.html
(MAS) Muslim American Society
Bush Nominates Federal Judge to Head Homeland Security
Date Posted: Tuesday, January 11, 2005
President Bush nominated U.S. Appeals Court Judge Michael Chertoff to head the Department of Homeland Security.
WASHINGTON, Jan 11 (MASNET & News Agencies) - President George W. Bush nominated U.S. Appeals Court Judge Michael Chertoff to head the huge agency tasked with preventing terrorist strikes on the United States.
http://www.masnet.org/news.asp?id=2059
BWXT gets $25 million for managing nuclear weapons plant
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. The Department of Energy has given a top rating and nearly 25 (M) million dollars in performance fees for 2004 to its managing contractor at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant.
B-W-X-T, a partnership of B-W-X Technologies and Bechtel National, was graded "excellent" in its management of the Y-12 complex.
The contractor was cited for improvements in security, safety, project management and environmental activities.
The plant produces parts for every warhead in the country's nuclear arsenal and is the nation's major storehouse for bomb-grade uranium.
http://www.whnt19.com/Global/story.asp?S=2770166
Halliburton Pays Dearly but Finally Escapes Cheney's Asbestos Mess
By Allan Sloan
Tuesday, January 11, 2005; Page E03
It's time for yet another Halliburton story -- but not the one you may be expecting. This isn't about the endlessly scrutinized Iraq contracting business of the big energy services company that Dick Cheney ran before he became vice president. And it's not about Halliburton's profit-boosting accounting change during Cheney's regime, or the scandals and problems currently affecting some of the firm's far-flung projects.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64535-2005Jan10.html
Privatizing the Public Good
01/11/2005 @ 11:39am
E-mail this Post
Honest economists will tell you that the financial solvency of Social Security can be guaranteed well into the next century. So why does the President insist on adding private retirement accounts into the reform mix? Because their purpose is not to save Social Security but, like a Trojan horse, to destroy it. Personal accounts are part and parcel of Bush's domestic policy agenda: an assault on the very concept of The Public--its goods, services and trust.
http://www.thenation.com/edcut/index.mhtml?bid=7&pid=2118
Washington, DC, preparing for Pres. Bush's 2nd inauguration
(Washington, DC-NBC) Jan. 11, 2005 - Inauguration day for President Bush is January 20th, and workers are busy at the Capitol and along the parade route getting everything ready.
This will be the first presidential inauguration since the attacks on September 11th, 2001, and security will be the tightest in history.
http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2793773
Qatar starts work on new airport
In January 2004, Qatar signed a contract with US engineering giant Bechtel for the first of three stages for the New Doha International Airport which would be completed by late 2008 at a cost of $2.5bn.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=101152&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=27298
Businesses to take over environmental cleanup in Piketon
Bechtel-Jacobs spokesman Jack Williams said his company expects to begin working on transition immediately, since its contract expires March 31.
http://www.chillicothegazette.com/news/stories/20050111/localnews/1853187.html
White House distributes Bush op-ed to newspapers around the world to showcase U-S tsunami relief effort
WHITE HOUSE President Bush is trumpeting U-S efforts to help South Asia tsunami victims.
Bush has written a newspaper opinion piece that has been offered worldwide. So far it has been published in Asia and Europe.
http://www.kwqc.com/Global/story.asp?S=2797174
Bush taps Chertoff for homeland security post
By Philip Dine
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
(KRT) - WASHINGTON - The face and even the functioning of the Homeland Security Department are likely to change as a result of President George W. Bush's choice Tuesday of Michael Chertoff to replace outgoing Secretary Tom Ridge.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/10621057.htm?1c
Bush names Allan Hubbard as top economic advisor:
[World News]: Washington, Jan 11 : US President George W Bush has named businessman and political fund-raiser Allan B Hubbard as his top economic advisor.
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=58919
What Would Martin Luther King Have Made of Condoleezza Rice?
BY Jonathan Tilove
c.2005 Newhouse News Service
In September 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the eulogy for three of the four girls killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. What King could not know was that, within earshot of the blast, just blocks away at her father's church, was another little black girl, a friend of the youngest victim, who 42 years later would be on the verge of becoming America's foremost diplomat.
http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/tilove011105.html
I don't want to hear how Iran is an Axis of Evil country when USA cronies of Bush are doing business with them.
Halliburton wins Iran gas contract
TEHRAN: Iran said that US oil giant Halliburton had won a major contract to drill for gas, despite US sanctions against foreign investment in the country's energy industry.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=101026&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=27297
Cheney's Focus May Change in 2nd Term
EILEEN PUTMAN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Like the man behind the curtain working the levers in the "Wizard of Oz," Dick Cheney has been called the real power in President Bush's administration, perhaps the strongest vice president in U.S. history.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/10607671.htm
Tasers pose potentially lethal danger to heart, doctor warns
By SABIN RUSSELL
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
When 50,000 volts of electricity from a Taser surge across the body, it can instantly incapacitate a person -- more safely than a blow from a police baton or a blast of pepper spray, its manufacturer contends.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/207168_tasers10.html
CNN
10 perish in Australian wildfires
By Journalist Emily Smith for CNN
Tuesday, January 11, 2005 Posted: 7:51 PM EST (0051 GMT)
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Ten people have been killed and more are feared dead after wildfires swept through the state of South Australia.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/11/australia.wildfires/
Bloomberg
Australia's Deadliest Wildfires in 21 Years Kill Eight People
Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Eight people are dead and seven more missing in Australia's deadliest wildfires in 21 years.
The fires, fanned by 41 degree Celsius (106 Fahrenheit) temperatures and 70-kilometer (44-mile) an hour winds, yesterday swept across the Eyre Peninsula, about 250 kilometers west of the state capital Adelaide, the Australian newspaper said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000081&sid=asDGzGiltFFk&refer=australia
The Australian
Southeast swelters
Brendan O'Keefe and Andrew Fraser
January 12, 2005
HOT northerly winds that brought fires, death and destruction to South Australia yesterday were felt across the southeast of the country.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11917211%5E2702,00.html
Firestorm destroys farm towns
Tom Richardson and Michelle Wiese Bockmann
January 12, 2005
AT least eight people were killed, dozens injured and seven reported missing as bushfires swept through South Australia yesterday, destroying properties and farmland across a large part of the lower Eyre Peninsula.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11917327%255E601,00.html
Three driven to their death under a blanket of smoke
Richard Sproull, Poonindie
January 12, 2005
AMID the embers and spot fires lining the Port Lincoln highway was a sign of the fire's furious path.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11917329%5E2702,00.html
'Save me' cry as inferno rips peninsula apart
Tom Richardson and Sophie Tedmanson
January 12, 2005
PORT Lincoln resident Felicity Johncock was caught in the middle of the Eyre Peninsula inferno and was one of the lucky ones to survive.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11917217%5E2702,00.html
Shark tees up Bush for charity
January 12, 2005
FORMER US presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton hope to join Australian golfer Greg Norman for a tsunami charity golf day in the US.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11923649%255E1702,00.html
'Grave concerns' figure drops to 18
January 12, 2005
THE number of Australians feared missing in the wake of the Asian tsunami has almost halved, with the Government saying grave fears are now held for 18 not 31 people.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11923516%255E1702,00.html
Storm-tossed trawler crew safe
From correspondents in London
January 12, 2005
A SPANISH fishing boat that went missing in a brutal storm off northwest Scotland has been located, and its crew of 19 appears to be safe.
The Cibeles, which sent out a satellite distress signal before midnight yesterday (1100 AEDT), was found by a rescue plane drifting in rough seas without power, Michael Mulford of RAF Kinross air base told BBC radio.
Three people were killed on land when a powerful storm packing gusts as high as 215km/h slammed Scotland, the north of England and Northern Ireland.
Thai jailed for fake tsunami claim
From correspondents in Bangkok
January 12, 2005
A THAI man has been sentenced to three months in jail for falsely claiming that he had suffered damages during the tsunami in a bid to win Government assistance.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11922103%255E1702,00.html
Pakistan sends troops to gasfield
From correspondents in Quetta
January 12, 2005
PAKISTAN has deployed paramilitary forces at the country's biggest gasfield and closed its main plant there after a series of rocket attacks by tribal rebels killed eight people.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11922025%255E1702,00.html
Three dead in fierce UK storms
From correspondents in London
January 12, 2005
A FIERCE storm packing winds of up to 201km/h has battered Scotland and Northern Ireland, killing three people and leaving tens of thousands without electricity, police and emergency services said today.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11921693%255E1702,00.html
Habib walks out of Guantanamo without charge
Martin Chulov and Trudy Harris
January 12, 2005
ACCUSED Australian terrorist Mamdouh Habib will be released from Guantanamo Bay detention centre within days and return to Australia a free man after being held for three years without being charged.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11917323%255E601,00.html
Smokers fuming as Italy kicks the habit
Natasha Bita in Florence
January 12, 2005
CINZIA Chiarusi was angry yesterday as Italy began to stub out smoking with some of the world's toughest cigarette sanctions.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11915340%255E2703,00.html
A boost to Aceh's stocks and spirits
Stephen Fitzpatrick, Banda Aceh
January 12, 2005
THE massive rebuilding effort already under way in Banda Aceh receives a significant boost tomorrow with the arrival of HMAS Kanimbla, carrying medical facilities, engineers, a huge amount of heavy plant and fuel, two landing boats and two Sea King helicopters.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11917024%255E2703,00.html
The Boston Globe
Kwan hopes to carve a historic figure-eight
By John Powers, Globe Staff January 12, 2005
PORTLAND, Ore. -- It didn't matter that she skipped the Grand Prix season again, that she has competed only in a couple of no-stress invitationals since last March. If it's January, Michelle Kwan will be lacing up at the US Figure Skating Championships and she'll be favored to win. That hasn't changed in a decade.
Preacher dies after saying 'And when I go to heaven...'
January 11, 2005
OVIEDO, Fla. (AP) A Presbyterian minister collapsed and died at the pulpit after saying ''And when I go to heaven...,'' his colleague said.
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2005/01/11/preacher_dies_after_saying_and_when_i_go_to_heaven/
Starting over in Indonesia
Amid rubble, help takes root in tent cities
By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff January 12, 2005
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -- This is a tale of two cities: the old city that was struck down and the new one that is rising in its place as fast as the tent stakes can be hammered into the ground.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2005/01/12/starting_over_in_indonesia/
UN seeks to ensure nations meet pledges
By Alexander G. Higgins, Associated Press January 12, 2005
GENEVA -- The record generosity toward tsunami victims -- now at more than $4 billion pledged -- should set the standard for caring for the world's most desperate people, the UN humanitarian chief said yesterday. But aid group Oxfam said it fears the money might simply be rerouted from existing funds for Africa.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2005/01/12/un_seeks_to_ensure_nations_meet_pledges/
N.E. pushes to find takers for flu shots
Remaining vaccine could go to waste
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff January 12, 2005
Three months after the emergence of an unprecedented national shortage of flu vaccine, public health departments across New England are struggling to find takers for remaining doses, raising the prospect that surplus shots will be thrown away at the end of the flu season.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2005/01/12/ne_pushes_to_find_takers_for_flu_shots/
'Desperate Housewives' star named worst dressed
By Arthur Spiegelman, Reuters January 11, 2005
LOS ANGELES -- "Desperate Housewives" star Nicolette Sheridan, known for short skirts, tight pants and a famously dropped towel in a television ad, was named the worst-dressed woman of 2004 Tuesday by fashion designer Mr. Blackwell.
http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2005/01/11/desperate_housewives_star_named_worst_dressed/
The Times - London
Worst storm for years kills three drivers
By Times Online and agencies
Winds of up to 124mph lashed parts of the country over the past 24 hours in one of the worst storms seen for years, killing three drivers and leaving thousands without power.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1436888,00.html
Floods and gales return to batter the North
By Steven Ramsey
FLOOD-STRICKEN areas of northern England and Scotland are likely to be hit again today by severe gales and driving rains.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1434749,00.html
Scientists predict just 70 more deaths from vCJD
By Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent
ONLY 70 more people are likely to die from the human form of mad cow disease from infected beef, according to the most comprehensive study of the condition to date.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1435630,00.html
The Sydney Morning Herald
Deadly flight from fire: toll now nine
January 12, 2005 - 8:41PM
Four children were among the nine people confirmed killed in South Australia's devastating Eyre Peninsula bushfire.
The children, aged between two and 13, and their relatives perished in cars as they tried to escape the deadly flames.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Bushfire-toll-rises-to-10/2005/01/12/1105423517028.html
NSW bushfire danger mounting, warns Carr
January 12, 2005 - 12:19PM
NSW fire and emergency services were on standby as the risk of bushfire increased across the state, NSW Premier Bob Carr said today.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/NSW-bushfire-danger-mounting-warns-Carr/2005/01/12/1105423529790.html
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